Extremism:

Extremism:

The Government is protecting us from extremists but has become extremist itself.

By Digital Anvil.

Crisis or Peace- Relevancy of the Church: 

 

When the Russian armies were invading Ukraine in 2022, Vasyl Ostryi, a pastor near Kyiv, was asked if he might flee, but he assured his people he would stay with them, and then added, if the church is not relevant at a time of crisis, then it is not relevant in a time of peace.

Cited: No Reason to Hide. E.W. Lutzer

( from Digital Anvil )

Three Kinds of Churches.

Pastor Gary Hamrick says there are three kinds of churches. Some will be complicit, participating in the culture without standing against it; some will be complacent, disagreeing with the culture but not actively opposing it; then there are those that will be courageous, saying what needs to be said and doing what needs to be done, and accepting the consequences without self-pity or anger. Lets adopt the attitude of the Apostles,fasting and praying ( and reading the Bible.)

Cited: No Reason to Hide. E. W.Lutzer.

( from Digital Anvil )

Two Days:

Two Days:

The two most important days in your life are the day you were born and the next is the day you find out why ?

Mark Twain.

( from Digital Anvil )

Final Comment:

Plus the ultimate day when you enter Eternity.

Isaac Newton:

Isaac Newton

It is very interesting to look at the early scientists in Western Europe in the 17th and 18th Centuries. One of the greats was Isaac Newton: an English physicist, mathematician and committed Christian. It would seem that Newton's science did not get in the way of his faith.

In our series Jesus the Game Changer, we spoke with University of Queensland professor Peter Harrison. He made this comment in regard to Isaac Newton and his faith:

"Isaac Newton, who is perhaps the most famous scientist ever, wrote much more on theological topics than he did on scientific topics, and one historian has remarked that Newton was a 17th-Century theologian who wrote a few small works on science. You get the idea that there was, at the time, no concept of a conflict between fundamental religious beliefs and scientific beliefs. On the contrary, they were regarded as mutually supportive.

Share this daily - reading.

Thanks, Karl Faase.

(From Digital Anvil.)

 Church and State and Nation:

 

 

"We have all of us- the whole Church and the whole community-we've been thrown into the Tempter's sieve, and he is shaking and the wind is blowing and it must now become manifest whether we are wheat or chaff: Truly, a time of sifting has come upon us, and even the most indolent and peaceful person among us must see that the calm of a meditative Christianity is at an end....

It is now springtime for the hopeful and expectant Christian Church--it is testing time, and God is giving Satan a free hand, so he may shake us up and so that it may be seen what manner of men and women we are...

 

Satan swings his sieve and Christianity is thrown here and to and he who is not ready to suffer,he or she who has called him or herself a Christian only because he or she hoped to gain something for themselves and their nation is blown away like chaff by the wind of time."

Niemoller.

[ Speaking to his congregation under Nazi Germany.]

( from Digital Anvil )

100 of the Best Books for Men:

I'm very happy to receive an endorsement for 100 of the Best Books for Men from an icon in the field, and a personal hero of mine:

"David Maywald has earned our collective gratitude for this comprehensive collection of books about boys and men. In my mind, this book puts boys and men's literature on the map for both individual readers and post-modern culture as a whole. There has been a boys movement growing for decades and Maywald tracks it beautifully via his Stages model. I highly recommend this book." 

  

Michael Gurian, Bestselling Author of The Wonder of Boys and Saving Our Sons.

(From Digital Anvil.)

 

Driven1.2 [Pain of it]:

Driven by performance, numbed by addiction and broken by adverse experience, I encountered the supernatural at my lowest point yet later my highest.

From strident atheist to --- a theist. That encounter while on mind-altering chemicals producing nirvana, ecstatic vision and later a supernatural experience reshaped my life- journey.

 

Creating and evolving via elapsed time and transformed  by Love into the new person I am today. 

With my obvious and blind-to-me flaws, mixed attitudes, desperate beliefs and ordinary desires melded into a walking and talking Christian that I hope I am today.

Though, elapsed time, psychiatry and helpful parents, friends and work all provided support and relative calm. But all this while the floodgates of new experiences were opened, reality was being reshaped, renewed and revitalised almost weekly

 

[All methods are candles besides the searchlight that Christianity became.]

 

 As a University student, my mind and poorly formed character took existential blows that wrong beliefs, poor choices and wrong ideals produce.

Life had reached choke-point .

My point of existence was broken by performative living, harmful addictions and poorly-thought-out worldviews.

Although I remember where I came from, yet I have not arrived at the final destination.

Belonging,  meaning and purpose according to Os Guinness are the essential pillars of human life. But I suggest that there is a necessary spiritual component as well. Many of you will shut down in disbelief and click away having read that.

 

Although science and its sister, technology often lead the way in the world, science can not explain nor cure everything. Many reading this will shut down their interest and break away. Though neuroscience has reached sparkling heights, Scripture was there 2,000 years earlier. Oxytocin may be the hormone the brain releases during loving interaction, however it can not  fully explain all the dimensions of  Love.

The  much vaunted Enlightenment period  summed in one word is "reason"

  Life is much more than reason, so it can never be captured and explained by reason alone—crucial and valuable though reason is. Apply reason as carefully and systematically as you like, and there will always be things it cannot explain, things that simply will not fit into its categories, however hard you push, press and pull            Os Guinness 

    

    It was von Neumann who conceived the idea of programming that led to the computer—the notion that you can break down a problem into a series of simple steps that can be manipulated as numbers are manipulated. But what works for a machine does not work for a human being. If only we humans were more logical, or were only logical.            Os Guinness. 

 

 

Well, with the advent of BASIC, Ruby and other digital yet plainer English programming languages, computers released mankind from analog semi- mediocrity and evolved the Western World into a potentially Utopian Global Fiefdom. 

But human logic isn't enough, other elements predominate regally above Reason.

 

 Who hasn't felt an unmet need or experienced a broken heart? Or watched a beloved pet slowly die? How  can science comfort a perceived failure? Isn't there a dimension beyond the spacetime continuum? Is a Black Forest Birthday cake just ingredients or is there more to it ? What about a broke gambler whose debt is more than money? Or a girl whose dance dress is "unflattering" and a Mum who needs me time with two little boy toddlers in tow while husband is at work?

 

Knowing that the impossible just might be possible with a benevolent GOD hidden from view but involved, caring and readily supportive cracks open living hope and releases it from its earthly prison. Not just a caring GOD but with all supernatural resources to unleash.

 That's what i discovered with Christianity.

 

 Clear across the divide between earth and heaven is a mighty and lovely Being whose clear aim is to help the orphan, the harassed Mum, the homeless woman with a  young girl  living in a car and the team of Netball girls whose flagging spirits need another inspired goal to perhaps win the trophy.

Whether you believe or not, the supra -natural is a heartbeat closer than you dare think. Ask GOD humbly and you'll find that He will not deceive you.

Since the Universe is infinite, then heaven lies somewhere beyond and its not  a cosmic address of 42 universal.

By Digital Anvil

Boys and Girls Learn Differently:

 

Boys and Girls Learn Differently! [ A Guide for Teachers and Parents] by Michael Gurian 

First published in March 2001,it was years ahead of its time. In fact, it has taken Australia decades to catch up with this seminal work. My own copy from 2011 is the expanded 10th Anniversary Edition, and it remains one of the most practical, thoughtful and evidence-informed books available for anyone seeking to help children flourish.

Michael Gurian is the author of thirty books and founder of the Gurian Institute, combining neuroscience, developmental psychology, education and decades of classroom experience into a compelling argument: boys and girls share enormous potential, yet they often develop, learn and respond to teaching in measurably different ways. Rather than forcing every child into a one-size-fits-all model, he challenges educators and parents to recognise these differences and teach more effectively because of them...

What makes this book enduring is its balance. Gurian never argues that every boy or every girl is identical. Instead, he explains average developmental differences while encouraging teachers to see every child as an individual. His practical recommendations (covering classroom design, literacy, behaviour, motivation, movement, assessment and family engagement) remain remarkably relevant today.

The scientific foundations for Gurian's work have only strengthened during the last quarter century. Research from neuroscientists such as Richard Haier, developmental psychologists including Anne Campbell, educational researchers such as Leonard Sax, and large bodies of evidence in developmental neuroscience, endocrinology and psychology all point to meaningful average sex differences in brain development, maturation, hormonal influences, language acquisition, spatial processing, physical activity, risk-taking and learning trajectories. Major reviews from organisations including the U.S. National Academies, together with decades of developmental research, reinforce that these differences are real, measurable and educationally significant (even while individuals vary widely).

I had the privilege of attending the 28th Gurian Summer Training Institute in June 2026, where more than 200 educators, counsellors, administrators, teachers and parents gathered to learn from Michael Gurian and his colleagues. The experience reinforced what this book demonstrates so well: understanding sex differences isn't about limiting children, it's about giving every child the greatest opportunity to succeed...

Michael Gurian deserves enormous credit for bringing compassion, intellectual honesty and practical wisdom to a subject that is too often distorted by ideology. Boys and Girls Learn Differently! is an exceptional contribution to education, one that has helped countless teachers better engage their students, and countless parents better understand their children. It deserves to be regarded as a modern classic in educational psychology and child development.

 As any Eastern Father or Mother as well as Western Dad and Mum,you  you already know that girls are different from boys.

Unknown Contributor.

Many thanks.

( from Digital Anvil )

(From Digital Anvil )

A Re-Discovery 2.1 [ A Significant Threshold to Freedom ]

 

A Re-Discovery 2.1:

[ A Significant Threshold to Freedom ]

In recent decades, while many Western cultures are hostile to Christianity, there has been a remarkable but promising resurgence of Christianity.

 

Many in Western countries and some Middle Eastern countries enjoy a newfound freedom embracing Christianity vigorously from different strata and walks of life. 

 

While many return to their spiritual roots, finding solace and guidance in their faith, new Christians arising from a wide-spread 'dissatisfaction' with traditional Islam are relating vivid dreams/visions with a central figure robed in white apparel stating, " I am Jesus." Or " I am Eisa, Messiah."

Anecdotal evidence suggests that these visions/dreams are and have been occurring for decades and are significantly manifesting in numbers too many to ignore.

The underground church in Iran and China, though persecuted and at best vilified, continues to grow and throw off the chains of brutal iron- fisted dictatorship with nothing but belief in Love as the ultimate superpower.

Civil disobedience at best overthrows the excesses of democracy and Christianity overcomes the course of all alternatives to the bedrock of Judeo- Christian values and ethics with nothing but higher - order Love and the so - called Myths of democratic rule.

 
Christian ministries in the USA and other nations relate stories of receiving countless emails and personal contacts from some Middle Eastern persons having watched Satellite TV where death for the Christian convert lurks in the name of Allah. "Death to the Infidel" and death with cruel, war-sized terrorism amid cries of destruction to Israel and the USA  factoring in as well.

Where some alternative news services exist, there is opportunity for a different and truer viewpoint to transform persons long-held misbeliefs. This fact explains the almost universal prohibition or outlawing of Christianity  by totalitarian regimes. The overthrow of the family unit, the destruction of the norms of free speech, freedom of religion and freedom of democracy as occurs in virtually every communist and socialist society to date. Wouldbe dictators know this truth and implement secret programs, secret surveillance and twist rule of law to circumvent these truths, ways of natural justice and  socialisation of youth to prevent the rise of democracy, Christianity and the subsequent freeing of normal life.

 

People everywhere are reviewing their previously held conclusions and rejecting the legacy media false, often biased news.

This resurgence is not limited to any particular socio - economic class or demographic but is a widespread phenomenon bringing people together in a shared sense of spirituality.

 One of the key factors contributing to this resurgence is the freshly awakened search for verifiable truth, meaning and purpose. With a sharp sense of disillusionment in a flip-flopping good-doing and evil-doing world and its relativity, many are asking, "Is it true" and “is it valid for you a-n-d me?” Not my truth and your truth ever syncing.

Though Western societies remain mostly secular and materialistic, many, many individuals find that the altar of material possessions and worldly success are not enough to bring them true, lasting happiness and fulfillment. They are turning 180 degrees to the Christian faith as a source of stability, hope, and a renewed moral compass to navigate the many-times disturbing complexities of post-modern Western life.

 

While pornography rampages like a colossal monster coupled with a sharp decline in marriages since the so-called '60s and 70s sexual, political, social and cultural revolution, an insane rise in daily reliance on alcohol, designer drugs, recreational drugs is the environment for rapid resetting of belief.
The Covid pandemic,  increasingly uncertain politics, human gender dysphoria and human sex- affirming care, have twisted, semi-religious so-called values of tolerance, inclusivity and  exclusiveness-- all are mixed in a variable, troubled societal soup.

 Social injustice and rampant political opportunism are melded together with anti-semitism rising with geopolitical and geo-social upheaval with the recurring wars in the Middle East. Increasingly social unrest dogs most Western and now Eastern societies.
Illuminating present economic disparities in their respective cultures coupled with disparate empathsis placed on arriving populations, not on the natives.
With strong war-caused immigration occurring for more than two decades, the new social and cultural landscape fractures most European nations. A few countries have avoided such calamities.

The return of Christianity is a positive development that is bringing people closer to traditional spiritual roots and fostering a sense of unity and purpose.

Youth suicide is on the horrific rise, with a decades-long decline in familial values. Puzzling as this is, some posit that the loss of structured families with the loss of masculine role models, fathers and strong lack of positive views towards stay- at- home Mums.

Decades of Big - Media promoted  Atheism now no longer presenting a danger to traditional Judaeo-Christianity, which had helped undermine the very foundation of our Western society. However, with this resurgent model of developing Christianity following standard growth patterns, it could lead to a greater realised turning to Biblical Christianity. 

 

The Lighthouse is fulfilling its function!  Nations are being served! 

  

Fueling the resurgence of Christianity is the desire for a closer community and more genuine connection for youth in Gen Z and Millennials. Recent surveys in the UK and AU see 10,000s of Ks of citizens as attending churches for the very first time-Young a-n-d Old.

 Many people long for genuine face-to-face human interaction, instead of screen-mediated connections and weaving a real sense of intimate sharing and belonging in an increasingly digital and ever-alarmingly disconnected world.

While the Internet promised a growing democratisation of humankind, unlimited knowledge, economic opportunity for all, freedom for all, and universal connection are some of the benefits. But many express disillusionment with the skewed results.

 However, churches and para-religious communities are stepping up to provide a space where people can unite, support one another, and form meaningful relationships based on shared values and beliefs.

The resurgence of Christianity is a positive development that brings people closer to traditional spiritual roots and fosters a sense of unity and purpose.

 

A brightly flaring lighthouse in a darkly polarised world divided in too many aspects and overwhelmingly uncertain.

Perhaps this darkest hour is ending with the nearing dawn.

 

by Digital Anvil.

 

If you like or disagree, drop a comment, dissenting is welcome. 

Technology is Good - We Are Not.

Technology is Good - We Are Not - Stephen Driscoll

The technology of Artificial Intelligence is rapidly changing. AI is making a deep impact on how we function in modern societies. While Al is growing in its ability to think, from the start it has fundamentally been an excellent mimic.

Artificial intelligence has often reflected back to us a summary of who we are as humankind. As Stephen Driscoll says: “It’s a multibillion-dollar computational human mirror”.

This makes AI not really good or bad - but simply a reflection of the goodness or badness of the humans who created it.

Untrained AI seems to be quite debauched.

Trained AI is a people pleaser - less interested in truth and trained to keep you coming back for more. In fact, I heard recently an AI bot replying to a Christian user that it would be “praying for them”!

So what is a Christian response?

That is to understand the limitations of building something in our image and instead, rediscover ourselves as made in God’s image.

Share this daily-reading.

Thank you,Karl Faase.

(From Digital Anvil.)

 Empress Wu:

 China's Sole Female Emperor

 

Wu Zetian, also known as Empress Wu, holds the unique distinction of being the only woman in Chinese history to rule as emperor in her own right. Her reign during the Tang Dynasty marked a period of significant political reform, economic prosperity, and cultural flourishing.
 

 Rising from concubinage to the pinnacle of imperial power, Wu Zetian demonstrated remarkable intelligence, political shrewdness, and administrative capability, challenging traditional gender roles and leaving a lasting legacy on Chinese civilization.

 

From Digital Anvil 

 

Worldview Essay 2.4: 

 

Forgive my boldness; I would like to share something you probably know, the term: Worldview. 
This is a set of beliefs you and I live by. These ‘guides’ to life or ways of living are taught and learned through various means. Much of today’s dominating global -view has trickled down from the mountainside of the great intellectuals of the past 400 years in Western society.
A small group of thinkers like Darwin, Hobbes, Hume, Rousseau, Nietzsche, Freud, Marx, Sartre, Kafka, Camus, Jung, Hesse, Koestler, Huxley and  a few more have established the newer intellectual landscape for some centuries.

You may not have heard of all of them, but they certainly fuel some of your beliefs.

I have read a few of their famous books, devouring the publications eagerly and was deeply impacted by them. Some were great thinkers who liberated my mind and our contemporary society. They were unrivalled men whose contribution to Western thought is priceless. Some of their books caused me to stay up for hours overnight to complete reading those works of compelling genius.

 I studied deeply their ‘messages to the world’ in High School. I learned that these thinkers were skillful with words, causing 100s of 1000s like me to accept their cognitive engineering of contemporary Western society’s social and evolutionary progress.

There were key themes in books that we studied in High school. For example, the individual vs the society: Huxley’s vision of the near- future where people were divided into 3-4 classes and how a particular drug was given to ‘lower’ masses to stop them from knowing that they were living in an elitist governed Utopia and kept ‘happily’ unaware.  ( Brave New World )

My generation, the Baby Boomers, wanted to change the world! We did precisely that. For good or ill? You decide? As I aged, I grew up in a way that reflected what I had read for about the first three decades of early life. Yes! Ideas, you shall find, can have real-world consequences.

 Yet as I grew older, I began seeing some flaws with the loss of critical thinking and the indoctrination of the modern Western civilisation  in latter decades.

 I’ve read some contemporary philosophers and particularly, general technology books, which opened my mind to search, review and understand carefully.

It wasn’t the wisdom of another more extraordinary thinker that brought down the intellectual Everest for me. The then overall meaninglessness of my life, the emptiness and the void in my heart, tolled the death- bell of this long-cherished Worldview. 

Later on, I concluded that their writing was intelligently crafted, deceptively skillful fiction.  We could term this collective body of work as misleading, delusionally conceived and destructive information. The over-arching strategy of their books is an attempt to explain away God. To deny Him a place in our world and present Him as an ancient mythic- being. An improbable Wizard in the sky.

 It was my original acceptance of their spellbinding system of beliefs (the atheistic worldview) that brought me to that cave of despair and darkness in the first place. They taught that God is dead!

And that a person’s value is not inherent and that individuals must earn their way in life while valuing and obeying the Government elites above their own freedom. If this seems like a return to ancient Rome’s ideals, it is. Women and girls have been seduced by the darkness in idealising their roles as ‘empowered’ females in an age where unattached sex is easier to obtain than a pizza. Where the tragedy of 'Bonnie Blue' polarises Mums and Dads of yesteryear disapproving attitude and more than the likes of current social media platforms.

These achingly poor realised attitudes  are the deeper echoes of the 50s, 60s and 70s political, social, cultural, sexual and economic ‘revolution.’ The catch-cry’s then morph into the hook-ups of today with old slogans of...

‘If you want to, then do it, don't stop!’Nice single girls can too! ‘If It doesn’t hurt anyone, go ahead, do it!’ ‘That  We, not God, are the measure of everything.’  Anyway, God left us all alone, and He departed after creation.’ True? Or not? 'Pessimism seems true.'
It seemed to the following generations, that existence is meaninglessness; Face that kind of life with courage. Courage is meaningless. The gladiators motto or existentialists tagline became,' eat, drink and be merry. For tomorrow we die!'

But ...

Look up at the night sky and see the white points of trillions of galaxies in overwhelming blackness. Is the universe impersonal or is it the intentional craftsmanship of an intelligent Designer?
 

Ask yourself, when you are faced with a likely moral decision, do I invest this moment (e.g.,meeting girls by serendipity) in my life for short- term benefits or for long-term gains?
We ask ourselves how do we make sense of all the particulars we encounter in our lives? From Adam to Zoology, from a baby's cry to a Ferrari, from ideas to transcendence, from the cell to a prisoner. All is  phenomena in the world of our space and time. All things, we can see or sense, yet there are things that we cannot see, yet we know that they are true and real. We have asked, how does this all fit together? The question wrestled throughout human history. 

Who do we trust? Mortal man or immortal  God?

Because, like 100s of millions of others, we choose to trust some of those trickled down ideas from a few mortals who—I believe-- undermined the foundation of our Western society to fracture the granite-like base of our collective lives. Their ideas sound good until you see the downstream consequences. Compare Putin's Russia with Singapore ? Hong Kong under Britain vs Chinese Protectorate? China vs USA. Iran vs Israel.

Who is truly free and who has freedom chained?

The after -effects of some trickled down thoughts are found in the rise of relativistic ideals, radical gender theories, neo-atheism, neo-racism and the emergence of communism -Lite, political correctness and reality ensembles. One example is the popularity of reality TV. These people are rarely endowed with awarded talents, fine acting skills or other merits except that they are famous. For instance, the Kardashians' fame lies primarily in persistent self-promotion and clever marketing. Mega-numbers crave such celebrity, power, wealth and prestige. ‘Appearance is everything,’ a  myriad of voices cry out. Cosmetic surgeons do whole-body makeovers to chase the elusive ‘fountain of youth.’

Today, celebrities, whether athletes, rock bands, movie stars, billionaires, models... etc., project our inner desires. Our lives in the digital age reflect the core value of belonging: where do we fit in? We are composites of the persons we want to emulate.  We mirror other mirrors, other like-minded people; it is one reason for the massive popularity of social media.( Four Billion + members) Becoming more like what we desire. Is this good or ill? We consume and assume worth by buying acceptance and belonging to particular people- groups. From our data, the algorithmic marketing pitch, honed and shaped by our offline and online lives over the past decades, precisely targets our human need for worth. Despite our fiercely guarded independence, we comply, longing to belong.

 I know you believe we are all made free. I was duped, but now I see. I am free from near- global deception. More than a game changer, it is a Life- Transference! Transferred from the domain of man to the kingdom of God.

I am overwhelmed by gratitude. Who or what liberated me? All that happened was that somebody took me out of a deep cave into pure, radiant light. This new reality, which I have begun to live in, makes me want to rescue others trapped in the deep cave and release them. This is a gift I am unworthy to receive, yet I did! Originally a prisoner now rescued from falsehood,fiction,myth and delusion. 

Why should I be fortunate to experience this true enlightenment, this change of perspective, heart and mind?  Has Love found a way?

Transformed by new concepts and persons whose selflessness, devoted actions and committed friendships shared their light. There is abundant love, genuine acceptance, and a meaningful and purposeful life to be found.  Experiencing new and renewed relationships in the illumined world that reaches beyond barriers and toward healthier living with the fundamental dynamic Love from the ‘Book of Ages’: The Bible.

(Thank you for reading this letter.)

Recommended sources for further research:

Renewing Your Mind by R.C. Sproul.
Consequences of Ideas by R.C.Sproul.
Streams of Confusion by Brad Scott.
1984 by George Orwell.

The Intellectuals by Paul Johnson
Dekonstructing the Kardashians by M J Corey

and others
Academy of Ideas: YouTube Channel.

What do you think? drop a comment? Your nuggets, your thoughts are welcome? Drop by again.

Final Comment:

It came to my attention that I didn't name other contemporary thinkers. While its not an omission of agreement but of space and historical relevance, its still mine. Tonight I embark on reading a tome by Dostoevsky of whom Camus and Einstein said,that he is the real brilliant 19th century.Prophet, not Marx.

      

 By Digital Anvil.

 Return of the Princess:

 

 She's back!!!

This very evenin, she hugged and so did I.

Thank You,Father for her safe Return.

By Digital Anvil.

Final Comment:

Later,i asked her, what had she done to herself, because she looked " different?"

I was stunned  and puzzled because she looked so different ?  Her hair? Her clothes? 

 

She smiled with the air of satisfaction and replied, " make - up. "

Thank You, God,because to love is to be made whole.

 The Boy Crisis

 

 

 

Few books have done more to reframe the conversation about boys and young men than The Boy Crisis by Warren Farrell and John Gray, which was published eight years ago in March 2018. 

Compassionate, evidence-based and solutions-focused, it stands as one of the defining works on the challenges facing boys in the 21st century.

Farrell and Gray argue that the boy crisis isn't about boys losing power, but about too many boys growing up without the support, guidance and opportunities they need to flourish. They explore declining educational outcomes, father absence, mental health struggles, rising suicide, social isolation, addiction, disengagement from work and study, and the growing number of young men who feel disconnected from purpose and belonging.

What distinguishes this book is its refusal to blame. Instead, the authors draw on decades of research to understand why these problems have emerged and, more importantly, how they can be addressed... They highlight the importance of involved fathers, positive male role models, healthy masculinity, better schooling, practical learning pathways, relationship skills and policies that recognise boys' distinct developmental needs while benefiting families and society as a whole.

Warren Farrell has spent decades courageously challenging assumptions about gender, while John Gray brings deep psychological and relationship expertise. Together they demonstrate that caring about boys isn't a rejection of caring about girls; it's an essential part of building a healthier, fairer and more compassionate society...

The lasting impact of The Boy Crisis lies in its humanity. It helped shift public discussion from ideology to evidence, from blame to understanding, and from despair to practical solutions. For parents, educators, policymakers and anyone who wants the next generation of boys to thrive, this is an indispensable book. It deserves to be read widely, discussed seriously, and acted upon. The Boy Crisis is a landmark contribution to one of the most important social challenges of our time.

Unknown Contributor.

Many thanks.

( from Digital Anvil )

Our 'Job' 

 

We, Christians are to be His witnesses. Our 'job' is to be the invisible reign of Jesus visible. The world is shrouded in darkness. Nothing is visible in the dark. No wonder then we've are called to be the light of the world. Every single one has a mission. We have all been sent to bear witness to Light. That means simply that we are all missionaries.

My thanks to R.C. Sproul for this exhortation to act.

From Digital Anvil.

Pressure Of Too Much Money

A survey by the Private Wealth Network revealed that the vast majority of Australia’s wealthy want to conceal their true wealth from family and friends.

A spokesperson from one of the forty-four wealthy families surveyed commented:

“It makes it a hell of a lot harder to raise your kids with a decent attitude and to instill my child with a sense of purpose and mission.”

Most of us only dream of being crazy wealthy and think that would solve all our problems. Yet this survey shows that you simply migrate to a different set of challenges.

This is why Paul wrote to the Philippians that he had learned to be content in every circumstance, whether living in plenty or in need (Philippians 4:12).

Joy is beyond our financial resources.

Share this daily- reading.

I'm grateful to Karl Faase.

( from Digital Anvil )

 On Purpose:

 

 

Here is a linked article for connecting with an overall goal of God and of others, I thought you might be interested  in ...where can you and I find our purpose,our primary reason for being here on this planet? Especially in the tug and push of everyday life.

Click or tap on link below

link On Purpose.

(from Digital Anvil with respect to the website: Glorify.com.)

I recommend following the above link to determine more of that universally sought- after supra -power: Purpose.

As you are aware the 3 primary pillars of human life are belonging,meaning and purpose. 

Purpose is the shorter, slimmer but stronger sister  walking with her two sisters, Meaning and Belonging along a dusty, winding path. In fact the two elder but more robust sisters are being dragged by Purpose uphill toward their common  destination,  the mountain range of the familiar fillial peak: Gennema.

By Digital Anvil.

 The Heinous Ideology:

Nazi ideology held that a superior race was entitled to rule over and eliminate others, a claim so total it displaced God a-n-d decided whose life was worth living. 

This heinous ideology is duplicated  and has mutated in some countries today.  Merged and mutated--i believe--in others, but just as dangerous.

 

 

The Jewish concept of chosenness is the inversion of that idea: not entitlement, but obligation to live by the Ten Commandments and to model it for others. (Even when the practice of it fails and doesn't match the ideal )

Confusing the two cases is not a small error; it is the exact error the Holocaust comparison depends on. This is not about superiority but about responsibility, toward your own first and once they are secure, toward the rest of the world.

 Jews fleeing extermination in the 1930s and '40s found the world's doors closed. The 1938 Évian Conference stands as the enduring symbol of that abandonment, when dozens of nations met and almost none agreed to take in Jewish refugees. Palestinians today have the sustained backing of the UN, the Arab League, the OIC, and hundreds of millions of sympathisers worldwide.

 

A friendless minority marked for extermination is not the same thing as a national movement with global patronage, and conflating the two erases what made the Jewish catastrophe so singular.

Instead of gaslighting Israelis, let's ask ourselves: who urgently needs to learn the lessons of the Holocaust?

 

 My thanks to an Anonymous Contributor.

 

(editing and Final Form by Digital Anvil) 

 

 

When you and I realise that the GOD of the Bible loves the Jews a-n-d the rest of the World, then the domain becomes a true home for Man and Woman. 

 

 Fool's Talk ?

 

 

 In strong contrast to secularism, the Christian view is both this-worldly and other-worldly. It has a healthy appreciation of this world, but sees it always within an equally strong appreciation of another world that throws this present world into a different light, redeeming its worst features and confirming forever its highlights. And in strong contrast to the Eastern views, the Christian view has a solid appreciation of the created reality that we know and that we may trust—even though there is another world that is needed to make this world what it should be.

Os Guinness, Fool’s Talk:

 

 

(from Digital Anvil)

 The Paradox of Humanity:

 

 Almost all the world’s greatest philosophers and poets have faced up to the paradox and incongruities that confront us when we consider ourselves and our humanity.

 

 

" From Psalm 8 to Shakespeare’s great soliloquy in Hamlet, many of the world’s most beautiful and profound reflections have focused on the paradox of man and woman.

 As humanity, we humans are so small and so great, so strong and so weak. We rise so high and we sink so low. We are body and we are spirit. We are mortal and we are immortal. We have a grandeur and we have a pathos. Sometimes our little lives seem like a momentary fleck on the heaving ocean, yet we are all always the center of our own universe while we live, and together as humanity we are the most powerful and influential creatures in the whole kingdom.

 We can see things as they are; we also know the way things ought to be, and sometimes the difference makes us laugh and sometimes it makes us cry. 

 

What other beings in the universe are like us in these ways? What explains this paradox and these incongruities, and even more, how can we hope to reconcile them in a way that makes life meaningful?

Unquestionably, the current vogue in thinking is to duck the incongruity by stressing only one side—in the case of the new atheists, reducing reality to what can be handled by reason and science, and denying everything else that does not fit this reductionism.
 Not surprisingly, Dawkins and his naturalistic cohorts have put such a stress on the naturalness and smallness of humanity that they now routinely deny aspects of our humanity that were once considered part of human greatness—human dignity and freedom being the latest to be assigned to the dustbin as “illusions.”

Os Guinness, the Author of  Fool’s Talk:

 

 

(Edited and Final Form by Digital Anvil ) 

 

 Science vs Other Elements:

 

It should be noted that the assumption of science of being the source of the all -conquering advance of humanity is  called "scientism." While this belief has some truth,it relegates other belief systems to naught. 

That is manifestly false.

As always other systems are necessary and mindful of the spiritual, psychological,relational,economic and social aspects of  life from the individual up to the whole world.

Although science may analyse the composition of a birthday cake and technology aid in its duplication, it can not discern its meaning, and purpose.

The biblical account, however, goes further than science will allow, by claiming that while every living thing has God’s breath of life in it, humans alone bear his image and thus the special responsibility of representing God to everything else. This is the genesis of Shakespearian odes to humankind being the “paragon of animals” or, alternatively, claims of “species arrogance” that reserve for humanity alone unique perks and privileges.

On this point, science — as is said of God in biblical idiom — both gives and takes away. The evolutionary account of our origins grants us a peek into our own beginnings but it’s one that winds up demoting human life, if attributed solely to blind, natural forces. In that case, man and woman, made in God’s image, are no longer the pinnacle of creation, as in the biblical account. Instead, we’re unlikely, upright apes left to create our own meaning in a meaningless universe, left to wrestle with the difficulty of reconciling what we know to be true and all that we feel about that truth.

Man and Woman cannot live by science alone.

 

But by every human who loves, wisely acts and selflessly gives of themselves to other humans.

Thanks also to an unknown contributor.

( edited and re-worked by Digital Anvil. Final form by D. A.)

Sum- Up:

God always welcomes humble men who discovered that they had done wrong and are wrong in the sum- up of their lives.

 

 

By Digital Anvil. 

 

Before You get Married

“Can two people walk together without agreeing on the direction?” Amos 3:3 NLT

Here are three things you should be clear about before you commit to a lifetime relationship in marriage:

(1) Does your partner have a strong relationship with Christ? “Can two people walk together without agreeing on the direction?” (Amos 3:3 NLT). To stay together, you must walk in step and in the same direction. 

(2) Is your partner growing spiritually? “But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ” (2 Peter 3:18 NIV). If you are not growing together, you will eventually grow apart. Looks may bring you together, but a shared faith and values will keep you together for the long haul. 

(3) What kind of family background does your partner have? God can help us overcome our handicaps caused by family dysfunction. But you need to know what you are dealing with before you vow to love one another “For better or for worse.” Paul wrote: “Carry each other’s burdens…this way you will fulfill the law of Christ” (Galatians 6:2 NIV). But you need to know upfront what those burdens are before committing to a lifetime of helping to share them. Do you know about your partner’s past relationships? “If anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!” (2 Corinthians 5:17 NIV). But that doesn’t mean you can cover up the past or lie about it.

 Mutual transparency is the name of the game!

 When you know the whole truth about one another, the past loses its power to sabotage your present and your future. No spouse is perfect, but don’t settle for less than God’s best.

SoulFood: 1 Sam 27–31 Matt 24:15–25 Ps 102:12–17 Pro 17:7–10

My Thanks to Vision.org.au

( from Digital Anvil )

Resilience: Faith ? 

 

 We may be suffering a job loss, a health crisis, a public scandal, the death of a child or a close friend, or a Job-like combination of disasters. But however bad the immediate, the ultimate is always hopeful, and in the tension between the immediate and the ultimate lies the possibility of the resilience of faith.

Os Guinness: Fool’s Talk: 

 

(from Digital Anvil) 

 

Liam Out Loud: 

 

The social justice and neo-Marxist policies marketed as compassion have produced no tangible benefit.

In fact, many have had disastrous effects.

The policies built on so-called empathy have a record now, and the record is disastrous. 

Safe supply programs worsened addiction and homelessness. 

Lenient bail and sentencing reform arrived alongside a crime wave. 

Mass migration fragmented communities, drove up the cost of living, and suppressed wages. 

Billions of tax dollars administered on behalf of Indigenous communities have not improved material conditions on the reserves. 

Teens with gender dysphoria were given life-altering hormones on an evidence base that was never established in the first place.

So while the failure of each individual policy is now undeniable, the worldview that produced all of them remains in full effect. 

Until we strip the moral cover of empathy away from that worldview, it will keep conjuring new ways to destroy the status quo and marketing them as compassion.

From Liam Out Loud.

Original thinker:

(Many thanks from Digital Anvil.)

Big - Tech Censorship ?

 

Where have the viewers gone? 

While watching the on-line Babylon Bee speech at ARC 2026 in  London, i was quickly reminded of my situation about the apparent loss of my top three nations' viewerships for the 4th consecutive month. Without any other solid reason for the complete disappearance of their views  from the top 3 nations with not one view among them since.

 I remembered that recently a young, savvy Chinese woman commenting "there is only one explanation, "You've been banned." An explanation that initially, I did not  believe. Could that be the reason?

 Has Google shaped my

'pipeline' to exclude the normally highest ranking nations from my Blog/Website ? Can a left turn become a right? Could the right be left behind?

Enjoy the silent compliment, my loyal readers.

By Digital Anvil.

 When you Drop by...drop a comment.

 Puzzle:

 

  Here the famous puzzle posed by China’s Master Chuang in the fourth century B.C.,

 

 “If when I am asleep I am a man dreaming I am a butterfly, how do I know when I am awake that I am not a butterfly dreaming I am a man?”

from Digital Anvil.

 The Supreme Fool-Maker

  This point i am about to make leads us right to the third type of fool in the Bible—the fool maker.

  The fool maker is the person who (once again) is not a fool at all, but who is prepared to be seen and treated as a fool, so that from the position of derided folly, he or she may be able to bounce back and play the jester, addressing truth to power, pricking the balloons of the high and mighty, and telling the emperor that he has no clothes.

 This, says Paul,the great Apostle, is what God did on the cross. 

If Jesus was the supreme fool bearer, God is the supreme fool maker. He simultaneously shamed and subverted the vaunted wisdom, strength and superiority of the world through the cross—shaming and subverting the world’s wisdom through folly, the world’s strength through weakness and the world’s superiority through coming in disguise as a nonentity.

 by Os Guinness, Fool’s Talk:

 

Final Comment:

Its been my kind belief that GOD has a sense of humour. Even tho there are some instances of satire and sarcasm in the Bible. 
My best example of GOD's humour is found in the story of Balaam's Ass , when Balaam,the errant prophet was in a hurry to curse Israel,the nation, on behalf of a wicked King. 

His loyal donkey or mule stubbornly refused to move forward when confronted by an invisible Angel brandishing a glowing sword in the narrow mountain path. After being beaten several times by the annoyed prophet, the ass turned his head and spoke... 'who is being stubborn now,you or me ?' Balaam,the prophet, knew that he was doing disfavour to Israel, he knew that Israel was God's chosen nation, but money and fame turned his head to near infamy of stupidity.

( there are in modern life numerous examples of sense -of- humour moments like Babylon Bees headline: Prominent Muslim Leader resigns.
Another instance is that senior cleric reveals that in theocratic Iran they were forced to close 50K mosques due to lack- of- interest in a nation of 75K mosques.)

 

by Digital Anvil 

 

 HOLY FOOLS:

 

To follow Jesus is to pay the cost of discipleship, and then to die to ourselves, to our own interests, our own agendas and reputations. 

 

 For all its profundity and pathos, the role of the fool bearer would not seem to help us much with communication, and its main significance has always been for discipleship.

 To follow Jesus is to pay the cost of discipleship, and then to die to ourselves, to our own interests, our own agendas and reputations.

 It is to pick up our crosses and count the cost of losing all that contradicts his will and his way—including our reputations before the world, and our standing with the people and in the communities that we once held dear. It is to live before one audience, the audience of One, and therefore to die to all other conflicting opinions and assessments. There is no room here for such contemporary ideas as the looking-glass self, and no consideration here for trivial contemporary obsessions such as one’s legacy.

Os Guinness, Fool’s Talk 

 

 Final Comment:

Given that the role of " Fools for Christ " is the  appointed yet truly rich definition to wear in this timeframe, where our supposed lack of common sense, our non- self -aggrandised state and out- of- popularity standing,would deny our humble status. Remember that God's foolishness is (still) higher than our ways and our thoughts.

 

Any comments, drop by...and drop your thoughts below 

Respect:

Quote:

When it comes to relationships,everything begins with respect, with the attitude to place value on other people.

Unknown.

 Postmodernism:

 

 A Quote.

 Postmodernism has made our own age as crazily relativistic and as worldly today as at any age since just prior to the Reformation. The result is a severe crisis of authority that leaves the church in many Western countries sounding as either a mumbler, a mute, a hypocrite or someone speaking out of several sides of his mouth however loudly he tries to speak.

Os Guinness, 

  The Mocked King:

 

 Prison of the Heart and Mind vs Prison of the Physical.

 

"Conditions in most prisons in the world are rife with cruelty and degradation, and executions only heighten the dehumanization. The victim being processed for death is usually reduced to something less than a man long before the authorities cut off his life as a man. Warders, soldiers and assistants, those who elsewhere in life are normal fathers, neighbours and colleagues, feel nothing personal against the victim, but often they vent their suppressed emotions in the thick of the grisly business of processing a person for death."

"So the high priest’s servants played a sadistic version of blind man’s bluff, and then in a mean mockery of the reputation of Jesus, they twisted the game into “Let’s see who’s the prophet now.” They were probably as skeptical about the supernatural as their masters, the Sadducees. In which case, they saw prophecy as a complete fraud, but Jesus provided a handy butt for their derision. Having beaten him, they blindfolded him, struck him while helpless and asked him, “Prophesy! Who is it that struck you?”
Then when Jesus refused to play their game, remaining silent before their humiliation, he was handed over from Herod’s guards to the Roman soldiers, and finally to Pontius Pilate, the governor himself."

" The climax of the torture has been captured in countless paintings of Ecce Homo—Jesus standing before his tormentors, suffering but silent, the crown of thorns pressed down on his head, the purple robe draped around his shoulders, the reed scepter thrust into his hands, hailed with the mock acclamations—and then the final parody of the trilingual inscription above his head on the cross: 'Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews'.”

Os Guinness, Fool’s Talk:

 

How you and I think often reveals how we approach life. How we view knowledge of Jesus' mock trials and subsequent crucifixion reveals more about our inner life than it reveals the attitudes of the religious correct of that timeframe in ancient history.

 

( Its my solo belief that similar to the political correct of our timeframe is to the religious correct of theirs.) 

 

 By Digital Anvil.

 

Drop by and comment below. 

Bare Bones of Truth:

 . Life is much more than reason, so it can never be captured and explained by reason alone—crucial and valuable though reason is. Apply reason as carefully and systematically as you like, and there will always be things it cannot explain, things that simply will not fit into its categories, however hard you push, press and pull.

Os Guinness.

 

It was von Neumann who conceived the idea of programming that led to the computer—the notion that you can break down a problem into a series of simple steps that can be manipulated as numbers are manipulated. But what works for a machine does not work for a human being. If only we humans were more logical, or were only logical

Os Guinness.

The bare bones of truth ? Is that the reality,what do you think ? Drop by and comment below.

By Digital Anvil.

Early Retirement

Many people are desperately trying to retire early for an easy life. But as one article put it…

“Early retirement… too often it turns into a nightmare void with nothing to do, ­nowhere to be...”

The Japanese have a term for men with nothing in their lives; it's nure ochiba, or ‘wet fallen leaf syndrome’, where men follow their wives around "everywhere like a leaf stuck to a shoe.”

So why is retirement so difficult?

 

 Because life with nothing to do, nowhere to be and nothing to achieve is actually pointless. If you want a fulfilling later life, it’s not found in retirement. It’s found by using your time in some useful endeavour, serving others or committing to a cause, it’s how God created you. Colossians 3:23 “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord…”

Share this daily- reading:

Karl Faase,thanks.

( from Digital Anvil )

 Globalization:

 

 

"One of the effects of this level of globalization is plain. Active and interactive communication is the order of the day. From the shortest texts and tweets to the humblest website, to the angriest blog, to the most visited social networks, the daily communications of the wired world attest that everyone is now in the business of relentless self-promotion—presenting themselves, explaining themselves, defending themselves, selling themselves or sharing their inner thoughts and emotions as never before in human history."

 by Os Guinness.