This one Scripture says it all: Jesus is God’s son, He is heir of all things, He is the creator of all things, He reveals the Father to us as Jesus is the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person. He upholds all things by the word of His power. He is the one who has purged our sins, salvation is only through Jesus. Jesus sits at the right hand of our Heavenly Father in heaven.
‘God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers, by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds; who being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He hadby Himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high.’ Hebrews 1:1-3
What about Romans 8:14-17, it tells us what Jesus has accomplished for us: we have become children of God to whom we cry out ‘Abba, Father,’ and that as such we are now joint heirs with Christ. Joint heirs with exceedingly great and precious promises, through which we have become partakers of the divine nature and inheritors of the everlasting kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ. (1 Peter 1:1-11, 2 Peter 1:4).
This gem from Dr Paul Cedar of Love to Pray is appropriate here: “Prayer to our Heavenly Father should be our greatest joy, it is our highest privilege and our greatest venture.”
For over twenty five years, from 1930 to 1956, the people of Sydney woke up each day to a one-word sermon—”Eternity”—handwritten in white chalk or yellow crayon (when raining) on footpaths, train station platforms, and perimeter walls lining the city’s many walkways and streets. Each day a fresh batch of graffiti rendered in beautiful copperplate lettering style would appear at places where there weren’t any the previous night. Somehow, for twenty five years, a mysterious figure had managed to sneak into the city every night and leave his presence on the city’s walls and sidewalks. It attracted the ire of Sydney City Council at first, but as the weeks become months, and the months became years, the “Eternity” graffiti became an iconic symbol of the city. Pedestrians stepped around and over the words, and street sweepers and cleaners left the elegant writings untouched. This is some way explains why the “Eternity” graffiti illuminated on the Sydney Harbour Bridge as part of new year’s eve celebration in 2000. The real explanation, God orchestrated it so that many worldwide would be impacted by the “Eternity” message. Arthur Stace was illiterate so it was obvious, certainly to Arthur, that God had initiated it. “I couldn’t understand it, and I still can’t,” Arthur later told in an interview.. But Arthur did know that God had asked him to do it. Arthur was obedient to go out on the streets of Sydney everyday, rain or shine, until the day before he died.
The “Eternity” graffiti illuminated on the Sydney Harbour Bridge as part of new year’s eve celebration in 2000. Photo credit: National Geographic
The mysterious figure behind the phenomenon, who was to become the most famous graffiti artist in Australia’s history, managed to keep his identity a secret until one morning in June 1956, when he was caught in the act. That morning, Reverend Lisle M. Thompson, who preached at the Burton Street Baptist Church, saw a church cleaner sneak out a piece of chalk from his pocket and write the word on the footpath.
Rev. Thompson approached the cleaner and asked, “Are you Mr. Eternity?”, to which the cleaner replied, “Guilty, your honour.” Soon after that encounter, the Sunday Telegraph published an interview with the artist and the mystery that had baffled Sydney for over 25 years was finally revealed. The cleaner’s name was Arthur Malcolm Stace.
A rare photo of Arthur Stace – “Mr. Eternity”.
Born in 1885 in Redfern, Stace’s childhood and much of his adulthood was marked by abject poverty. His parents were alcoholics, and his sisters ran a brothel. In order to survive, he resorted to stealing bread and milk and searching for scraps of food in bins. At the age of 12, Stace became a ward of the state and worked briefly in a coal mine. As a teenager, he became an alcoholic and was subsequently sent to jail at 15 for drunkenness. His twenties were spent running liquor between pubs and brothels, and working as a lookout for gambling dens. During the First World War, Stace found work as a laborer with the Australian Imperial Force, but his recurring bouts of bronchitis and pleurisy led him to be discharged.
Stace finally found his calling in November 1932, when he went to listen to a Baptist preacher named John Ridley give a sermon. In a homily titled “Echoes of Eternity“, Ridley declared: “Eternity, Eternity, I wish that I could sound or shout that word to everyone in the streets of Sydney. You’ve got to meet it, where will you spend Eternity?“. The words so captivated Stace that at that very moment, Stace pulled a piece of chalk he had in his pocket, bent down and wrote the word “Eternity” on the church floor.
Even though he was illiterate and could hardly write his own name legibly, the word ‘Eternity‘ came out smoothly, in a beautiful copperplate script. Arthur had to ask the person next to him what he had written.
God has a calling for each one of us, what is yours? Don’t know, then get into prayer until you do. Also, will you be obedient as Arthur was to carry it out regardless of the cost?
Many Democrats are calling for Trump’s impeachment and removal from office through Congress, or the Cabinet’s invocation of the 25th amendment. For them, it’s not enough that Trump lost… They want him punished for his transgressions and his supporters humiliated.
If this attitude continues – and it almost certainly will – there will be no national reconciliation. The healing that President-elect Biden claims to bring will emerge as a short-lived fiction and even if he wishes to pursue a moderate course, the radical Left will push him on divisive policies.
Democrats already seem on the brink of a full-scale purge of prominent conservatives from public life. They are pushing to have them kicked off social media, fired from their jobs, and canceled in every possible way. Trump has been banned from Facebook and Instagram at least until the transition of power to Biden on January 20.
“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
The irony is that this scorched-earth approach from the political winners of 2020 will only bring together and energize a badly dejected conservative base.
Nothing unifies people like a common foe, and the expected abuses and vindictiveness of the newly empowered Democrats will spur the GOP to circle the wagons. It will just be a matter of time… we should prepare for things to get even more tense, ugly, and bitter in 2021 which will provide us with opportunities to present the good news of Jesus Christ who alone can put things right and His Word tells us that He will in the not too distant future.
“Conservative Christians and their churches and institutions are seen as an obstacle to progress. If you stand against LGBT rights for example, if you stand against abortion rights, if you stand against critical race theory you are a problem,” said Rod Dreher, Senior Editor of The American Conservatives. Alienated and stressed over COVID-19 restrictions, American youth are readily taking to the streets to demand social change. A radical doctrine called critical race theory is inflaming their frustrations.
American youth are readily taking to the streets to demand social change.
Dreher said, “All Christians ought to be against racism. We are, but Critical Race Theory is something very different. It draws a line between good and evil between the races and alienates the races and turns us against each other when we ought to be standing together.” And instead of resorting to harsh tactics to control people, Dreher sees this future US government taking a softer, less violent approach. “We are going to see something develop in this country like the Chinese have today, the social credits system where they monitor everything the Chinese citizens do, they get all the data from their computers, from the internet and so forth and they assign them a rating,” he explained. “The more socially positive you are, from a communist point of view, the higher your rating, the more your privileges.”
Attending church would lower your social credit score and a lower rating means fewer privileges like sending your child to college. Dreher feels it doesn’t matter who is elected president because neither Biden nor Trump will be able to reverse the course. He believes we are living through the birth pangs of a cultural revolution. “This sort of thing is marching through all the institutions, it’s marching through churches, it’s marching through universities, seminaries, corporations, and we Christians have got to be prepared for it by building networks among churches to endure persecution. Hope for the best, but we also have to remember ours is a religion of martyrdom. Those who suffered and even died for the faith, they received a crown of glory,” Dreher explained. “That may well be our calling and we need to accept that as believers.”
American Christians, who desire to live godly, conservative, biblically-oriented lives, need to prepare themselves and their families for suffering. The writing has been on the wall for some time, decades even, yet the church has done little to stop it. Instead, like a row of dominoes, she has fallen over on issue after issue. The church has watched while influential institutions and religious leaders denied the miracles of Jesus, rejected the inerrancy of scripture and its history of the Cosmos particularly Noah’s worldwide flood. The time when God judged the world destroying all mankind save eight people. Lawlessness brought on God’s judgement back then and lawlessness will bring it on again. The world is rejecting God’s laws with legalized abortion, gay marriage, adopting transgenderism and even embracing critical race theory. Additionally, we are witnessing apostasy in the church as it conforms to the new world’s standards. Also, we have witnessed many “celebrity pastors”, priests and pastors in denominational churches commit moral failures through affairs and sexual abuse.
Whatever circumstances befall the church in the coming years, we must keep in mind that we have a Saviour who was the perfect propitiation of God’s wrath. In Him, we are predestinated, called, justified, and glorified (Romans 8:30). His blood has covered our sins and set us free from the slavery of sin and death. Regardless of where the world goes and what horrors the church may face, we can rest in these truths, knowing that our greatest and deepest needs have been met in Christ. No amount of emotional, mental, and physical suffering can dislodge us from our Savior’s embrace. As sure as the sun comes up tomorrow, the gospel will remain the power of God for salvation – your salvation. To thrive in a world that hates Jesus (and duly us), we must cling to Christ and His gospel. Before any worldly allegiances, we are Christians. We are “a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light” (1 Peter 2:9). Should the world burn down around us, we can joyfully sing because we are eternally secure. There is no greater news than this.
Extract from article in Patheos: Persecution: The New Reality for Biblical Christianity in America by Jack lee
2020 has proven to be a challenging year for Christians. But I believe God is using Covid to get His church to move back to church as He had planned it as described in the Book of Acts, largely house churches. Good examples of how God has used catastrophe to refine His church are China and even more recently nations such as Iran. Persecution has refined His church to get it to be totally dependent upon Him, even for survival.
Christians must meet in person for corporate worship. On line communication is a dreadful replacement for real community. Come pandemic or martyrdom, we must find a way to meet in person. Isolated we are prone to wonder from the faith, tempted by the world’s allure, and even more prone to depression.
We were never promised safety in Christ. The opposite is true; we are promised persecution (2 Timothy 3:12). A time is approaching when going to church will be dangerous (and I do not mean because of a virus). Now is the time to prepare and reinforce healthy habits. Instill in your children the need and benefit of attending church weekly. Go and be fed the gospel. Even if your church is not perfect (none are), be present and love others.
On the importance of attending church, it is helpful to look at Mosaic Law. While Christians are no longer slaves to the law. The law reflects the character of God. The law is good, valuable, and worthy of our delight. We can learn much about God’s holiness and desires in the law. Consider the absolute seriousness by which God treats the Sabbath, the day of worship, and rest: Exodus 31:12-17.
God cares deeply about the Sabbath. He cares about how He is worshiped. At one point in time, failure to honor the Sabbath as God intended was a crime punishable by death! Friends, corporate, in-person worship is non-negotiable for Christians. Go to church and do not stop.
If Christians are to spiritually flourish in a nation that hates them, they must dedicate time to understanding the significance of worldview, how it is formed, and how it can rightly engage our culture. The following summary of a Biblical world view is the only one that presents an accurate history of the cosmos:- 1. Creation by God of a perfect cosmos 6000 years ago. 2. Entrance of sin and death by man’s rebellion against God. 3. God’s judgement of the World with the worldwide flood of Noah’s day. 4. Confusion of languages at the Tower of Babel that established the nations. 5. God establishes his nation Israel that would birth the Redeemer, Jesus, God’s Son, born of a virgin. 6. Birth of the church at Pentecost. 7. 2000 year history of the church which is soon coming to its prophesied end with Jesus return, first to rescue the Saints at which time His wrath will be poured out on an unbelieving world. Then Jesus returns to earth with the Saints to rescue His nation Israel at the battle of Armageddon. 8.We then have the Millennium. Jesus will rule the nations with the glorified Saints with a rod of iron for 1000 years.
Part an extract from the article in Patheos: Persecution: The New Reality for Biblical Christianity in America by Jack lee
Over 42.6M abortions conducted in 2020, surpassing world’s leading causes of death. The number of pregnancies terminated worldwide in 2020 is greater than the total number of people that succumbed to all other leading causes of death listed.
This is according to data compiled by the Worldometer, a reference website that monitors statistics on health, the global population, the use of resources and deaths in real-time.
The website tabulates statistics on abortion made available from the World Health Organization. The last available snapshot of the Worldometer as it appeared on New Year’s Eve, captured by the internet archive tool The Wayback Machine, reveals that more than 42.6 million abortions were performed worldwide in 2020.
By comparison, communicable diseases killed more than 13 million people worldwide in 2020. About 8.2 million people worldwide lost their lives to cancer while nearly 5.1 million people and 2.5 million people succumbed to death as a result of smoking and alcohol, respectively. According to John Hopkins University, more than 1.8 million people worldwide died of coronavirus in 2020. Other leading causes of death in 2020 included road traffic accident fatalities, of which there were nearly 1.4 million. Additionally, suicides are responsible for nearly 1.1 million deaths across the globe.
These statistics are ample evidence we live in a world that has largely rejected the God of the Bible. The creator God who loves them so much, He sent His Son Jesus to earth to pay the price for their sin of rebellion – Jesus death on a Cross. They are totally oblivious to the fact Jesus will return to earth exactly as prophesied to rescue believers but also to pour out His wrath on a rebellious world.
And Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” Luke 23:34The only good news, more people participated in the 2020 March for Life rally in Washington, D.C. than in 2019
An urgent message for 2021 from Jonathan Cahn. As my followers know I met Jonathan Cahn in Jerusalem many years ago now. We were both staying at the Leonardo Hotel. I was there for The Gathering, 3000 Christians gathering in Jerusalem to pray for and support Israel. There were no speakers just praise and worship and people spoke as God spoke to them. All realised that prayer is a wonderful privilege and that God hears and answers prayer. We were there to show our support for Israel to hear from God about the way forward.
It was at breakfast that I met Jonathan. I was ordering an omelette and a voice behind me said, I will have one of those too. I looked around and was surprised to see Jonathan Cahn. I recognised him, as I had read his best selling book, The Harbinger and had watched some YouTube videos of him being interviewed on well known Christian TV shows. I said, Jonathan Cahn and he said, Yes that’s right. I said, Are you here for a conference and he said no, I am on vacation with my family. In fact, I have been ill and am recuperating. I went back to my seat, and I immediately asked God what was the reason why I had met Jonathan in that way. I have had enough God ordained meetings to realise that it was unlikely this was a coincidence. The Holy Spirit responded just as quickly that I should go and share with Jonathan about The Gathering that was taking place in the main Convention Centre in Jerusalem opposite the Knesset (Israel’s House of Parliament). Initially, I resisted as Jonathan was with his family and I thought it would be rude to interrupt them. However, I knew I would be disobeying God if I did not so I went over to his table and apologised for interrupting them but I said I believed the Holy Spirit wanted me to give Jonathan a message. I then asked Jonathan if he knew of The Gathering of Christians that was taking place in the Convention Centre. He said, no he did not and was surprised when I told him there were 3000 Christians at the gathering so many they could not all fit into the main Convention Center and they had to use two additional rooms to take the overflow. He was startled that there were no speakers at the conference but the real bombshell for him was that over half the Christians attending The Gathering were Chinese. No way, was Jonathan’s initial response. He had no idea that so many Chinese Christians would want to support Israel in this way. Moreover, Jonathan would have been more surprised if he had attended the meeting to see these Chinese Christians in worship, either on their feet with hands raised or on the floor weeping. Jonathan and I exchanged cards and I went back to finish my breakfast.
Jonathan is God’s messenger for the USA and this message is timely as America moves further away from God with the election of Joe Biden as President, it is now beyond redemption and faces escalating judgement by God.
Living eternal now is only possible through prayer. Do you realise “prayer is life’s greatest joy, highest privilege and most powerful venture.” Nothing can compare to it. This gem was extracted from the “Love to Pray” course by Dr Paul Cedar.
God wants to use you to do great things but it is only possible through prayer.
“You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.” Psalms 16:11
David understood the truth, go to the Psalms for abundant wisdom.
“I bless the LORD who gives me counsel; in the night also my heart instructs me. I have set the LORD always before me; because he is at my right hand, I shall not be shaken. Therefore my heart is glad, and my whole being rejoices; my flesh also dwells secure.” Psalms 16:7-9
We were created to be in fellowship with God and we get a glimpse of that with Adam and Eve walking with God in the Garden of Eden before The Fall. Jesus sacrifice for us made it possible for the Father to send the Holy Spirit (third person of the Trinity) to indwell all believers and thus renew our fellowship with God the Father. We need to acknowledge the fact Jesus made it possible for us to pray to our Heavenly Father and we do so by saying “in Jesus name we pray.”
Hopefully, you will come as David did to realise that prayer is the talking part of a love relationship with God. Sadly, many see it as a spiritual discipline, something I need to do to get right with God.
What does God do for those who relate to Him in love? David said it well when he said, “in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.”
I hope you do not mind me giving a plug for my book here:
Contents: Chapter 1: Why, Living Eternal Now – Ready for Jesus Return, Chapter 2: Existence of God, Chapter 3: Evidence for Creation & Genesis as History, Chapter 4: Evidence for an Inerrant Bible, Chapter 5: Testimonies of PhD Scientists, Chapter 6: Powerful Testimonies of People (from all walks of life) Living Eternal Now, Chapter 7: Holy Spirit’s Role in Living Eternal Now, Chapter 8: Role of Prayer in Living Eternal Now, Chapter 9: Discerning the Times.
One of the good things about the book is you can choose any chapter/topic of interest and start there. Each chapter is independent from the rest of the book.
Available as an eBook on Amazon. Also available as a trade paperback book by donating AUS$10. Click the Donations icon on the Home Page to do so. You will also need to email the delivery address to ron@bakb.com.au. The donation will cover delivery to anywhere in the world.
David Reagan lines up America’s future with Biblical prophecy. He believes that America is in full scale rebellion against God and has past the point of redemption. God’s judgement is underway and His wrath will follow. This video reveals the truth. The facts David Reagan state are irrefutable. One statement made by a Harvard professor is powerful. “You take away religion and you cannot hire enough police.”
America’s future looks very dim as the forces advocating moral depravity and contempt for God’s Word prepare to take over the White House and Congress.
