GOD IS RAISING UP THE MARTYN ISLES OF THIS WORLD FOR SUCH A TIME AS THIS

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If you do not know who Martyn Isles is then I suggest you check out YouTube for his videos, The series “The Truth of It” and “Mystery Babylon” are good starting points. I am certain that God has led Ken Ham and the team he leads at Answers in Genesis to appoint Martyn Exec. CEO to initially work alongside Ken to impact this fallen world for God.

FROM MARTYN ISLES OF ANSWERS IN GENESIS,

As you know, an important focus at Answers in Genesis is on raising up a new generation of Daniels, who will stand firm for God in an increasingly uncertain and anti-God era. “The writing is on the wall.” It’s a phrase that has gone down in history in the Western world. It means that the end of something is guaranteed, although it hasn’t happened yet. This phrase conveys wisdom for us as we discern where we should focus our energies and our funds.

I have just finished writing an article for Answers magazine in which I point out that many of the ideologies that are rising in the West could be described as “lifting ourselves up” against God.

These are the things championed by governments, intellectuals, pop culture, and activists. Things like queer sexuality, transgenderism, race politics, abortion, climate doom-ism, same-sex marriage, and so on. They are all things that take what God has defined in his authority as Creator and redefined them according to our own authority. They all lift up mere humans to the status of gods.

As human beings, made from the dust of the ground, we were never meant to have the authority to define marriage, gender, sex, life, race, or when the planet will end. This is pure arrogance.

We may read Daniel 5 and gasp at Belshazzar’s arrogance, taking God’s vessels and using them to praise false gods. But it’s the same today: we’ve taken God’s good things in creation and used them to serve our own idols. The main idol in our day is identity, the idol of self.

That very night, Belshazzar the king was killed, and the mighty empire of Babylon the Great fell.

A line had been crossed, and it was all over.

It is impossible not to reflect on the sobering lessons for our day. I marvel at God’s grace in withholding his hand of judgment on us for so long. He truly is longsuffering, “not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance” (2 Peter 3:9).

While this day of grace persists, we must continue to take the gospel to a rebellious world. Is there anything more urgent?

How long can we resist God’s grace? How long can we raise ourselves up against God?

GOOD NEWS STORY – ON FIRE FOR GOD

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‘On fire for God’: Over 11,000 students attend worship event to pray, celebrate the Lord

Amid ongoing concerns about the younger generation’s religious dedication, thousands of students attended a worship event aimed at equipping youth with the knowledge of Jesus.

The latest Motion Student Conference, which concluded on July 29 at the Legacy Arena in Birmingham, Alabama, hosted over 11,000 students representing 230 churches from 31 states and six countries. In addition, 2,000 volunteers assisted with organizing the event.

Motion is organized by the Church of the Highlands, a congregation with multiple locations throughout Alabama and Georgia. Attendees ranged in age from middle school to college and participated with their youth leaders.

Mark Pettus, president of Highlands College and associate pastor at Church of the Highlands, told The Christian Post in an emailed statement that Motion exists to empower a generation to live out Ephesians 2:10, which states:

“For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”

“It provides an environment where students discover their identity in Christ and set their faith in motion to do the good things He planned for them,” Pettus stated. 

During the conference, students had an opportunity to attend sessions featuring speakers and worship band members before breaking into community groups to “unpack” what they learned, Pettus added. 

“Motion is more than a conference and more than bands and speakers,” Pettus continued. “It’s about a generation of young people empowered by Jesus, equipped to make a difference, and living out their faith.”

This good news story follows my recent post which reported that about half of Gen Z respondents in the American Bible Society’s State of the Bible USA 2023 study agreed with the statement that “the message of the Bible has transformed my life.” Among Gen Z adults between the ages of 18 and 21, 49% agreed that the Bible had a transformative effect on their lives. That number rose to 52% among Gen Z respondents between the ages of 22 and 26.

As we move towards the last seven years prior to Jesus’ return, Biblical prophecy tells us that persecution of Christians will increase. Tribulation, even great tribulation is ahead when the Antichrist declares himself to be God in the new temple yet to be erected in Jerusalem. I do hope that Highlands College know where we are in Biblical history and therefore end times prophecies so that they prepared these young people for the escalating tribulation that is coming.

CHRISTIAN GROWTH IS MEASURED BY LOVE

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“And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.” Philippians 1:9-11

Christian growth is built upon the foundation of God’s love. This love is the sacrificial love that God showed when He gave His Son. It is the same love Jesus showed when He went to the cross. It is the same love that God tells husbands to show to their wives. It is not sexual love, it is not emotional love. It is sacrificial and giving love. Christians can only grow by demonstrating love. These marks of maturity are ways that a Christian exhibits the love that God called us to share with others.

This is a prayer for maturity, and Paul begins with love. After all, if our Christian love is what it ought to be, everything else will follow. He prays that they might experience abounding love and discerning love. Christian love is not blind! The heart and mind work together so that we have discerning love and loving discernment. Paul wants his friends to grow in discernment, in being able to “distinguish the things that are important.”

Christian love must be rooted in wisdom from God’s Word if we are to love both God and man in greater ways.

Paul is praying for the Philippians to have spiritual eyes to see with spiritual insight into the lives of people around them regarding how they were to apply God’s love. Knowledge and discernment must be kept in balance. Both are equally important. Grow in too much knowledge without discerning the Holy Spirits leading and a Christian’s love becomes too hard, unteachable, and legalistic. When a Christian learns from both the head and the heart, the Word and the Spirit, then the Christian has balanced growth.

I pray that in these last days as persecution of Christians increases we may be able to show the love of God to those that the Holy Spirit leads us. Jesus told us that the harvest is ripe but the workers few. I pray that you and I will be among the workers called. It will be a difficult but rewarding task as we will know the Holy Spirit’s leading. We will know we are in the centre of His will for us and nothing else will matter.

LEADING THE WAY TRUSTING GOD

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Two Ministries that I promote on this website are Joel’s Trumpet (Joel Richardson) and Frontiers Alliance International (Dalton Thomas). Both Joel and Dalton understand where we are in terms of Biblical history and more importantly are actively engaged in reaching out to Muslims in the midst of catastrophes. Consequently they are very aware of what God is doing in these last days.

Over the last seven years, the Frontiers Alliance International family has been “laying foundations where there are none” (Romans 15:20) in some of the most difficult places on earth. THE FRONTIER video is an intimate look at the lives of these pioneers and a gripping exploration of the privilege and the cost of labouring out on the front line. FAI STUDIO’s seventh film will take you from the battlefields in Iraq and Syria, to conflicted tribal territories in central Asia, from hubs of human trafficking in the Mediterranean Basin, to the remains of foxholes in European forests—where young men wrote history in their blood—and from the peaks of the Himalayas to the heart of it all: Jerusalem, the City of our Great King (Psalm 48:2; Matthew 5:35). THE FRONTIER also brings to life the incredible story of Hudson Taylor and the China Inland Mission in relation to its impact on the Frontier Alliance International family. Apart from Scripture, no single individual has played a more influential role in the formation of the vision and values of FAI than Taylor and the CIM. FAI STUDIOS and PILGRIM invite you into the heart of China to encounter one of the greatest visionary pioneers in history.

THE ONLY TREASURE OF THE LIFE THAT COUNTS IS JESUS

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A great sermon from David Platt – “to be a Christ follower, we discover that Jesus Christ is a treasure chest of Holy Joy and we take everything else and write above it LOSS.”

Don’t miss the gravity of the message given by Paul in Philippians 3:4-9. Everything else in life must pale into nothing in comparison to the surpassing greatness of knowing Jesus.

“For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain. ” Philippians 1:21