State governments continue to pursue a foolish “Covid-zero” policy – even as vaccination rates rapidly accelerate, and the lethality of the virus has markedly decreased. The Prime Minister, Scott Morrison is right – “This isn’t a sustainable solution.”
“The virus is not going anywhere. We cannot do this forever. Indeed, the longer we delay the inevitable, the greater the cost will be.
We are incurring unthinkable additional costs for fear of what we must face… lives, livelihoods, children, the economy and democracy are all straining under the burden of “Covid-zero.”
Fear is making us foolish.
Let’s take a glimpse at the state of our nation…
3,345 suicidal people called LifeLine on a single day this week – yet another record.
Our children simply won’t be able to pay back the debt levels.
Many small businesses are finished.
We are not living (or even leaving the house) for fear of dying.
We are giving up total authoritarian power to people who despise what we believe.
Compassion is dead, with callous disregard for those torn apart or mourning.
And yet our State Premiers are telling us all this and more will continue – despite decent levels of vaccination.
It seems we’re too afraid to accept the brutal reality that, with half-decent levels of vaccination, a tiny proportion of Delta cases will die. Moreover, we will spend anything to delay it.
Fearfulness and fearmongering are winning the day. This will change only when public opinion changes, and when Premiers stop getting the approval ratings they crave.”
Christians – that’s you and me – should lead the way. We do not fear death, Jesus has secured eternal life for us and He will ensure you live to complete the work He has assigned for you to do.
Contact your Premier and set him/her straight on the need to get people vaccinated but then to start living normal lives accepting the risks associated with Covid 19 as we do with any other virus, bacteria or other pathogen. Let Scott Morrison and your local member know what you are doing.
“Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death He might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery.” (Heb 2:14-15)
In a stunning rout, the Taliban seized nearly all of Afghanistan in just over a week, despite the billions of dollars spent by the U.S. and NATO over nearly two decades to build up Afghan security forces. Just days earlier, an American military assessment estimated it would be a month before the capital would come under insurgent pressure.
Taliban fighters take control of Afghan presidential palace in Kabul after President Ashraf Ghani fled the country, Aug. 15, 2021.
The fall of Kabul marks the final chapter of America’s longest war, which began after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks masterminded by al-Qaida’s Osama bin Laden, then harboured by the Taliban government. A U.S.-led invasion dislodged the Taliban and beat them back, though America lost focus on the conflict in the chaos of the Iraq War.
As the insurgents closed in Sunday, President Ashraf Ghani flew out of the country. Ghani later posted on Facebook that he had chosen to leave the country to avert bloodshed in the capital, without saying where he had gone.
The Taliban is a predominantly Pashtun, Islamic fundamentalist group that ruled Afghanistan from 1996 until 2001, when a U.S.-led invasion toppled the regime for providing refuge to al-Qaeda and Osama bin Laden. The Taliban regrouped across the border in Pakistan and has led an insurgency against the U.S.-backed government in Kabul for nearly twenty years.
There is little doubt that many Afghans who initially joined the movement were educated in madrassas (religious schools) in Pakistan. Pakistan was also one of only three countries, along with Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), which recognised the Taliban when they were in power in Afghanistan.
On Monday, August 23rd, Prime Minister Imran Khan praised Afghans for “breaking the shackles of slavery”. On social media, retired generals and other Taliban boosters hailed the triumph of Islam.
Exultant Pakistanis shared a video clip from 2014 featuring Hamid Gul, a former head of the army’s spy agency, Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI).
“When history is written, it will be stated that the ISI defeated the Soviet Union in Afghanistan with the help of America,” Gul says to a fawning TV studio audience. “Then there will be another sentence. The ISI, with the help of America, defeated America.”
It must be remembered that between 2002 and 2018, the US government gave Pakistan more than $33 billion in assistance, including about $14.6 billion in so-called Coalition Support Funds paid by the Pentagon to the Pakistani military. During the same period, Pakistan ensured the failure of America’s Afghanistan project by surreptitiously sheltering, arming and training the Taliban. One would think the Americans would have got the message when in 2011 US Navy SEALs killed Osama bin Laden in a safe house next to Pakistan’s premier military academy. But successive administrations — Republican and Democratic — refused to take measures that could have forced Pakistan to rethink its support for the Taliban.
At least for now, the Taliban’s victory fulfils the Pakistani army’s decades-old quest to gain “strategic depth” by controlling Afghanistan. But this will not sate the generals; it will whet their appetite.
The symbolic significance of an army of zealots humbling the world’s sole superpower is hard to exaggerate. In the Pakistani army it will strengthen the hand of those who view Afghanistan not merely in geopolitical terms, but as the fulfilment of a religious project rooted in an extreme interpretation of Islam that shuns all Western influence.
The same holds true in Pakistani society at large. If music-hating, anti-Western, anti-Shiite misogynists can seize power in Kabul, why can’t they do the same in Islamabad? At least one homegrown Pakistani jihadist group, the Tehreek-e-Taliban, is comprised of fighters already at odds with the Pakistani government.
In a phone interview from Islamabad, Afrasiab Khattak, a former Pakistani senator and Pashtun-rights activist, points out that Pakistan houses some 36,000 madrassas, or religious seminaries, some of which are militant. “The same places producing the Taliban are producing similar people in Pakistan,” he says. “They will contest for power in Pakistan too.”
In early 2009, when Afghan President Hamid Karzai pressed Vice President-elect Joe Biden to crack down on Taliban safe havens across the border, Mr Biden reportedly rebuffed him by pointing out that “Pakistan is 50 times more important than Afghanistan for the United States.” As president, Mr Biden may have ensured that Pakistan is 50 times more dangerous to the US and the world as well.
Watch as Bible prophecy plays out in the Middle East. The next big power play will come from Turkey (Sunni) in an effort to rebuild an Ottoman Empire. It will not tolerate Iran (Shiite) exerting its influence with proxies. Iran has built a network of proxies across the Middle East. At of beginning of 2020, Tehran had allies among more than a dozen major militias, some with their own political parties, that challenged local and neighbouring governments. Iran’s Revolutionary Guards and the elite Qods Force provided arms, training and financial support to militias and political movements in at least six countries: Bahrain, Iraq, Lebanon, the Palestinian Territories, Syria and Yemen.
“I saw the ram (Iran) charging westward and northward and southward. No beast could stand before him, and there was no one who could rescue from his power. He did as he pleased and became great.”Daniel 8:4
Turkey (Goat) in this next prophecy overcomes Iran (Ram) in its effort to re-establish its Ottoman Empire. It must be remembered that at least 80% of Pakistan’s Muslims are Sunni so it will support Turkey.
“As I was considering, behold, a male goat (Turkey) came from the west across the face of the whole earth, without touching the ground. And the goat had a conspicuous horn between his eyes. He came to the ram (Iran) with the two horns, which I had seen standing on the bank of the canal, and he ran at him in his powerful wrath. I saw him come close to the ram, and he was enraged against him and struck the ram and broke his two horns. And the ram had no power to stand before him, but he cast him down to the ground and trampled on him. And there was no one who could rescue the ram from his power.” Daniel 8:5-7
Bible prophecy then reveals that the re-established Ottoman Empire is short lived. It is broken up by the super powers into four and it is out of the four that the Little Horn (Antichrist) emerges.
“Then the goat became exceedingly great, but when he was strong, the great horn was broken, and instead of it there came up four conspicuous horns toward the four winds of heaven. Out of one of them came a little horn (Antichrist), which grew exceedingly great toward the south, toward the east, and toward the glorious land.” Daniel 8:8-9
In a recently posted video, U.S. Olympic gold medallist Sydney McLaughlin opened up about the “toxic” nature of fame and the pain she’s felt as those around her have rejected her because of her faith in Jesus. McLaughlin, 22, filmed the video after the Olympic Trials, which were held in Eugene, Oregon, in late June, but didn’t share it until this week.
Sydney McLaughlin says Fame Is ‘Such a Test of Faith’ as critics reject ‘Jesus Living in Me’
She said it “hurts” not knowing “when it’s going to be enough for a lot of people,” adding she’s “worked really hard, and been very cautious of how I carry myself, of the things that I post because I want to glorify God and I want to be a good example to people, but our world only accepts ignorance.”
“People reject truth,” the New Jersey native explained. “I know they’re not rejecting me. They’re rejecting Jesus living in me. That’s fine, but I’m just being honest, like, sometimes my flesh has a problem with that.”
In the caption for the video, McLaughlin said she feels the 10-minute clip carries “a deeper message than just my emotions that I think others may need to hear.”
“Even in success,” she wrote, “there can be pain. Even in triumph, there can be tribulations. But how you respond, and the lens in which you view those situations, provides an opportunity for growth and change.”
“I am beyond grateful for everything that has taken place this year,” the Olympian continued. “But the thing I am most grateful for is a renewed mind that has allowed for me to look at a video like this and see the changes Christ is doing in my life.”
“Let no one deceive you in any way. For that day (the coming of Jesus Christ) will not come, unless the falling away comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction, who opposes and exalts himself against every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, proclaiming himself to be God.” 2 Thessalonians 2:3-4
In the USA, the percentage of Christians in the 18–29 age group with a biblical worldview has been cut in half over the last decade,” says the Religious Views & Practices Survey which compared the 18–29 age groupfrom 2010 with the same age group 10 years later, now 30–39. “This result is a startling degradation in worldview beliefs of Christians over just 10 years.
More than 60% of so called “born again” Christians in America between the ages of 18 and 39 believe that Buddha, Muhammad and Jesus are all valid paths to salvation and over 30% say they either believe that Jesus sinned just like other people when He lived on Earth or aren’t sure, according to a new study.
There’s a “striking decline” in evangelical religious beliefs and practices over the last 10 years, as the number of self-proclaimed believers to hold these beliefs has increased by nearly 25%, says Probe Ministries in a statement announcing the results of its Religious Views & Practices Survey.
The study, which interviewed 3,100 Americans ages 18 to 55 in 2020 and looked at various other previous studies, saw a drop in “basic biblical worldview” — God’s attributes, the accuracy of the Bible, salvation and Jesus being sinless — from 47% in 2010 to 25% in 2020 among previously classified “born again” Christians.
The drop in the “expanded biblical worldview” — beliefs about Satan and morals being objective — went from 32% in 2010 to 16% in 2020. There’s an even greater drop off among the general population, the study found. For the basic biblical worldview, there’s a drop off from 13% to 6%. For the expanded biblical worldview, the decline is from 9% to just over 3%.
These disturbing trends are in part due to pastors not consistently teaching biblical inerrancy. But probably more to schools and universities teaching a godless origin for the Cosmos. Evolution is one of Satan’s greatest ploys to undermine belief in God and His Word, the Bible. Moreover, evolution has made its way into Bible Colleges where so called scholars have tried disastrously to fit evolution into the Bible’s history.
As well, Satan has provided an abundant source of distractions for the young, to keep them from the truth, with their phones, electronic media particularly social media, Facebook, Twitter etc.
Thank God, He has raised up ministries such as Creation Ministries, http://www.creation.com, that are doing a great job and producing wonderful resources to prove the inerrancy and authority of Scripture. Make sure you support them.
There are more prophecies about the events that precede Jesus second coming to earth than there were about His first coming and there were at least 300 of those that Jesus fulfilled, hence, we should not be taken by surprise at the coming tribulation and increased persecution of Christians. In fact, if we truly are following the leading of the Holy Spirit many opportunities will open up to witness to non believers and to disciple believers in the coming days of lawlessness ahead.
“And because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold. But the one who endures to the end will be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.”Matthew 24:12-14
Anything that is not birthed out of faith is fatally flawed by sin.
“For whatever does not proceed from faith is sin.” Romans 14:23
According to Isaiah without faith even our righteous deeds are “like a polluted garment”.
“We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment.” Isaiah 64:6
The reality is that anyone outside the saving faith of Christ are dead people, spiritually dead and therefore only capable of doing wretched, sinful things. From birth this is the reality for us all. We need to be clothed in His righteousness and this can only be done when we repent and put our faith in Jesus, the only one who can make us righteous, and that is by being clothed in His righteousness.
“None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.” Romans 3:10-12
The book of Job teaches us much about faith. Believing that God is good despite the apparent evidence to the contrary, Job rested in faith alone. In the depths of agony he could still proclaim, “I know that my Redeemer lives” (Job 9:25). In the end, God silenced all discussion with the truth that He alone is wise (chs. 38–41). Yet, He vindicated Job’s trust in Him (ch. 42), proving that genuine faith cannot be destroyed.
The gospel is the power of God for salvation for in it the righteousness of God is revealed but it is by faith that we live the Christian life.
“For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes… For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith (or beginning and ending in faith), as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.” Romans 1:16-17
Only new life in Christ equips believers to walk in the Spirit.Which do you walk in, the flesh or the Spirit? The difference on this earth is stark and even greater for eternity.
“For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other,” Galatians 5:17
“And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.” Galatians 5:24
WORKS OF THE FLESH
“Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.” Galatians 5:19-21
WORKS OF THE SPIRIT
“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there isno law.” Galatians 5:22-23
The fruit of the Spirit leads to true happiness in this life and of course it leads to eternal life in the Kingdom of God, first during the transitional Millennial Kingdom and then on the new earth and heaven after the White Throne judgement for eternity.
“They came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years. The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were ended. This is the first resurrection.” Rev.20:4-5
“Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away… Rev. 21:1-
This sermon was preached in 2015. It was an important wake up message to the church and it is still relevant for churches today. The message really challenged the congregation to be courageous and to live and share the Gospel, despite the consequences. wherever and with whomsoever they could.
It is now 2021and look what has happened in the world and in the church. We have to ask ourselves, how widely was this message delivered? Sadly, I would have to say very few churches heard this message. The world has got darker at an exponential rate. Much of the church has compromised with the world. We are in the prophesied last days.
You need to know that what is happening in the world is not taking God by surprise. He is still in control and Bible prophecy reveals that His plan for His world is right on track. Jesus said, in the last days before His return there would be a great falling away in the church. The world would become increasingly godless and as a consequence lawless. This we are seeing but I am sure James Robison is still doing his utmost to galvanise the church into action. We need to be doing the same wherever and with whomsoever.
Is the United States, in the wake of the Afghanistan crisis, in a “Chamberlain moment”?
In 2021, the question is this: Has Joe Biden’s image been damaged so severely through the events that have occurred in Afghanistan that he has the credibility and ability to lead a powerful nation midst the chaos of our times? Bearing in mind Joe Biden clearly has cognitive issues and has struggled to communicate lucidly on many occasions in the media.
The UK Parliament was faced with a Prime Minister that thought he could negotiate peace with Hitler, and then Hitler made Chamberlain look like a fool. Even as Chamberlain was proclaiming that he had tamed Hitler, Hitler’s armies were blitzing the Sudetenland. Just as the UK parliament had to grapple with the Chamberlain leadership issue, so must Congress now confront the Biden leadership issue. The fate of the United States and perhaps even global security in a nuclear age may be at stake.
Foreign news shows, using Biden as a source of jokes
Wallace Henley, exclusive columnist for the Christian Post was a junior aide in the Whitehouse at the time of Nixon and Watergate. He makes the point that Nixon revealed a compelling purpose in his resignation speech: “In all the decisions I have made in my public life, I have always tried to do what was best for the Nation … In the past few days, however, it has become evident to me that I no longer have a strong enough political base in the Congress to justify continuing that effort. As long as there was such a base, I felt strongly that it was necessary to see the constitutional process through to its conclusion, that to do otherwise would be unfaithful to the spirit of that deliberately difficult process and a dangerously destabilizing precedent for the future.”
Henley now asks a valid question: “Has Joe Biden’s image been damaged so severely through the events that have occurred in Afghanistan that he has the credibility and ability to lead a powerful nation midst the chaos of our times?”
God often uses suffering for His purposes, even Christians, to purge sin from our lives. The suffering causes us to stop and re-evaluate our lives. Holy Spirit conviction comes upon us and we realise we have grieved Him and quenched His work in our lives, This invariably leads to repentance and make us realise how dependent we are upon God’s grace. It will also lead to a lot of other good things in our lives, greater discernment, greater sensitivity to things of the Spirit, transformed minds, wisdom, expanded hope, increased desire to spend time in His Word and to know the truth, teach us to give thanks in all circumstances, increased faith, strengthened character. Hopefully, when we see God transforming our lives in these ways we will come to the conclusion that the suffering was worth it.
Quadriplegic painter Joni Eareckson Tada shares ‘life-changing’ words on anniversary of her diving accident
Not all of us have had to suffer like Joni Eareckson Tada but she wrote in he book When God Weeps: “Before my paralysis, my hands reached for a lot of wrong things, and my feet took me into a lot of bad places. After my paralysis, tempting choices were scaled down considerably. My particular affliction is divinely hand tailored expressly for me. Nobody has to suffer ‘transverse spinal lesion at the fourth-fifth cervical’ exactly as I did to be transformed to His image.”
How about Nick Vujicic born without arms and legs. He tried to take his own life at age eight in four inches of water. Thank God he was unsuccessful, hundreds of thousands maybe even more will be in God’s Kingdom because of the testimony of this man.
“When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the witness they had borne. They cried out with a loud voice, “O Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before you will judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?” Then they were each given a white robe and told to rest a little longer, until the number of their fellow servants and their brothers should be complete, who were to be killed as they themselves had been.” Revelation 6:9-11
These martyrs knew that God had not judged those that had killed them. They knew what was transpiring on earth. The martyrs remembered their life on earth even though they were murdered. The key to heavens joy is not ignorance to what transpired on earth but perspective.
“But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect.” Hebrews 12:22-23
This verse indicates there is continuity of this life to the next – “righteous men made perfect”. We are the same people just relocated.
“And behold, two men were talking with him, Moses and Elijah, who appeared in glory and spoke of his departure, which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem.” Luke 9:30-31
Jesus was talking to Moses and Elijah about what Jesus was soon to accomplish and about His departure from this earth. They fully knew what was happening on this earth. For this Transfiguration event both had visible bodies.
“Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.”Luke 15:7
“Just so, I tell you, there is joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents.” Luke 15:10
Who is rejoicing in heaven over the sinners who repent surely it is the Saints in heaven, because it is not the angels. Why? Because it is “before the angels“, they are just observers. The Saints will be particularly rejoicing when it is one of their own family that repents.
Remember, this is Jesus telling us this, to rejoice over conversions on earth they must be aware of what is transpiring on earth, specifically not generally.
“Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,” Hebrews 12:1
Here we are told the Saints are a great cloud of witnesses watching us surely good reason to “lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,“.
Earth is centre stage awaiting earths climatic event, Jesus return to this earth. Jesus is watching closely the events that are unfolding on earth and these Scriptures would lead us to believe so are His followers even though they have not received their glorified bodies as yet.
