23 Feb 2010
This weekend Evening Church from St Matthias went away to the Northern Beaches together on a weekend entitled “Division Not Peace”, examining Jesus’ teachings from Luke’s account of his life.
The teachings of Jesus were clearly divisive in the Gospels and continue to be so today. Light illuminates darkness. Christ reveals sin.
He also pays for it. And is worth following. The unsweetened reality of the end of Luke 9 is at once immensely painful and wholly true.
Our speaker, David Ould, faithfully preached Jesus’ words without coating them in false comfort or apologising for their truth and goodness. The hard truth of the gospel is such that, though we find great joy in the King who pays sin’s great price, we wept and prayed for those who do not yet acknowledge Him.
We fail as much as any fallen, sinful people do. Pray for us that we would love like Jesus, which rightly includes declaring the reality of division as sin is exposed by the gospel.
19 Jan 2010
In a retrospective piece in the SMH concerning a new publication out of the University of Melbourne dealing with how media workers responded to and processed last year’s Black Saturday fires, Mallesons IP partner Natalie Hickey writes (among other things) that “It is worth reflecting that a healthy democracy does not need free speech at all costs. Words can wound and information can cause pain.”
What a realisation!
So often in our tabloid, syndicated-to-the-hilt, visually oriented, and, of course, commercially driven media the objective of “the public’s right to know” is utilised as an overriding justification for publication of content that, simply, is unnecessary for the public and unhelpful for those it concerns.
In the Bible, a king called David writes, “You love all words that devour, O deceitful tongue.” Words can wound, and information can cause pain – and so often our media will “love evil more than good, and lying more than speaking what is right.” (Also David, Psalm 52) The defense that it rates well is inadequate, yet it is enthralling to discover a genuine discussion of journalistic ethics that reflects biblical truth about speech.
God teaches that Christian people are to speak the truth in love, and that, whatever other abilities we may have been given by Him, if we don’t exercise those with love, we have nothing. Oh, that our press would operate on this basis — to do so would serve the “public interest” well!
02 Dec 2009
This video goes some way to dispelling that myth. Some of the statistics appear hyperbolic or dubiously verified, and as with much content on YouTube it avoids any form of rigorous referencing, but enough of it is true that it stands regardless.
19 Oct 2009
We signed up for a PayPal account ages ago and never got around to using to process payments (we’ve got a merchant facility with CommBank so there was no great urgency to the situation) – and since setting it up the person responsible has moved on.
Our unverified account has never processed a single payment, and yet with the amount of ID they require for something as simple as a contact name change you could get a passport in some countries.
Business Contact Name Change
To process your name change request, you need to fax in additional information. Please provide a current photo identification and one of the other following documents:
- A copy of a valid photo identification showing your new name.
- Acceptable forms of photo identification are a driver’s license, passport or any other state or government issued photo identification.
- A copy of a recent utility bill showing your new name and address exactly as they appear on your PayPal account.
- A copy of a recent bank statement for the bank account listed on your PayPal account (if applicable).
Please include a letter on company stationery indicating the primary email address, current name, address and telephone number on the PayPal account, the reason for the name change, and the new business contact name.
So that we can process your request efficiently, please ensure that your documents are valid and legible. As always, any personal identification information that you submit to PayPal will remain secure and will never be transmitted to any third party.
PayPal have never had a rep as a particularly customer friendly organisation, but this isn’t even beneficial to them! With no transactions in the past and less documentation than this required for establishing a NEW account it doesn’t pose any credible threat so far as hijacked accounts/money laundering/whatever goes, and they need to spend time reviewing documents sent in a thoroughly nonstandard way. The bank account verification process is pretty good in terms of automation (albeit risky – you’re essentially giving PayPal license to do whatever with all funds in that account) – this is most certainly not.
Anyone have any good, low % fee or cost/transaction way of hooking into CBA’s Evolve system? The application doesn’t warrant us spending heaps setting it up just yet, and PayPal are good at making things way too risky and difficult. Grumble.
12 Oct 2009
From Tori
Tonight while driving me home, Josh and I stopped at Maccas and bought a chocolate sundae. He asked me whether there are McFlurries in China and I said yes. He was glad, and joked that this isn’t something he’d be willing to give up for Jesus. We laughed, because this isn’t true. We both would give up much more than McDonald’s icecreams for Jesus. I love this boy.