Unfortunately we are often hard-pressed nowadays to tell friend from foe by external appearances. While God looks on the heart, and we cannot, our Christian religion should affect our standards of dress and behaviour.  Scripture and history tell us this is so. Our women have often lost the concepts of modesty, submission and discretion in their behaviour. Our young folk pierce and tattoo their bodies as the pagans do, in the name of being all things to all men (at least that’s often the excuse). And most importantly we men embrace a feminised view of masculinity, promulgated by our pagan educators and abandon our patriarchal roles as heads of households; defenders, leaders and servants of our families.

I write this sitting in a car parked on the side of the road in the mountains of New Zealand above the Canterbury plains.  It’s raining and misty; visibility is low. Climbing these mountains in this weather would be unpleasant, hard and demoralising. There are many valleys that disorientate and could lead you in wrong directions. Mount Zion is also high and the climb is hard. Our climbing must be done as individuals but also as institutions; families, churches and nations. It must be done multi-generationally, raising our children to start where we left off, with each generation seeing further and with greater clarity.