I am presently in the Sierra Nevada mountains of California, in a cove surrounded by rocky, chaparral-clothed ridges, situated on a plateau forested by oaks and buckeyes, punctuated by boulders and arroyos. I am normally at profound peace in this place. I can breathe; I can rest; I am free from migraines; I am home.

I sat outside this morning enjoying a cup of coffee, listening to the sounds of deer, wild turkeys and blue jays, woodpeckers and titmice (after feeding them all), and hawks and ravens. The ever-present sound of the Kaweah River provides a welcome pink noise against which the soloes of the many creatures around me scintillate.

But even here, I can feel the ending of the age, a crushing sensation. The feeling of this age, the zeitgeist, the unstoppable demolition of everything on which the world has depended creeps over these mountains like a poisoned fog and invades every formerly-safe space. Everything here feels it, even the ground squirrels and the rocks in which they dwell. But people feel it the most, and those of us who “watch and pray” quake, travail and mourn even as we rejoice for the nearness of our Blessed Hope. This dynamic produces a tension within every believer, though, and that tension is both a blessing and a burden unique to our times. Sometimes it utterly breaks me.

Yesterday I reached a point where I had to completely detach from my studies of Bible prophecy, watching world events fulfilling it, and trying to manage the stress that all of these things inevitably produce in my mind and body. It simply became too much. I must admit to despair.

When I awoke early this morning, I turned that despair over to the Lord. There was simply no proceeding beyond that point without surrendering all of it to Him. I think that’s where He wanted me all along.

Several verses immediately came to mind:

2 Timothy 1:7: “For God did not give us a spirit of timidity or cowardice or fear, but [He has given us a spirit] of power and of love and of sound judgment and personal discipline [abilities that result in a calm, well-balanced mind and self-control].”

And:

Romans 8:15: “For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading again to fear [of God’s judgment], but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons [the Spirit producing sonship] by which we [joyfully] cry, ‘Abba! Father!'”

Charles Spurgeon’s teaching on these passages ^[1] is wonderful: A certain bondage that brings us to Christ is a gift, but once we come to faith in Christ, there need be no fear; we can approach the Father with the boldness of favored sons and daughters.

Spurgeon calls us “the twice-born, the true aristocracy of God.” As we cry “Daddy!” from the depths of eternity that God has placed in our spirits, His power, love and composure flow anew, the fountains of living water that the Savior promised to those who believe. The Holy Spirit, the One Who keeps the spirit of antichrist in check through us, imparts only the power of God, the love of God, and a calm, balanced and controlled mind.

Boyd Dennis, a dear friend of mine and tireless minister of the Gospel in Nairobi, Kenya, once said, “When you come to the end of yourself, you find the beginning of Christ.” I’m coming to the end of myself more and more as time passes.

If the end of your “rope” has gone from the last yard to the last foot to the last inch and the last millimeter… God remains faithful, and our deliverance is at hand. Let go if you have to. God has got you firmly in His grip.

I will close this with some final words from Spurgeon:

Dear friend, dost thou believe in the Lord Jesus Christ? If so, all the privileges of an heir of God are thine…. If thou hast believed, thou art a child of God, and the Spirit of God sets his seal to thy adoption. Go in peace, and rejoice in the Lord for ever.

Nor fret, nor doubt, nor suffer slavish fear:

Thy spirit is released, thy path is clear.

Let praise fill up thy day, and evermore

Live thou to love, to copy, and adore.

Jeffrey Ady, PhD

Email: KaweahKid@protonmail.com

———————

Dr. Jeffrey Ady is a retired university professor and served as an ordained minister for 20 years.

[1] https://www.spurgeon.org/resource-library/sermons/the-spirit-of-bondage-and-of-adoption/#flipbook/10

 

 

I hope those in the United States won’t dismiss this — because it will come to your nation.

In this article, the ALP is the Australian Labor Party, our equivalent to the Democrats but hard-line like Bernie Sanders’ thinking.

The Jews clamored for a king even though they had One over them. The LORD was their King, but by demanding an earthly king, they were setting God aside and establishing a man-run show. The reason why they wanted this earthly ruler is clearly expressed in 1Samuel 8:19-20; “Nevertheless, the people refused to listen to the voice of Samuel, and they said, ‘No, but there shall be a king over us, that we also may be like all the nations, that our king may judge us and go out before us and fight our battles.'”

It was all about conformity and falling in line with the international order. When one pursues that track, God is discounted.

A few of you might know Australia had a Federal election one day ago. The result was as I expected. Let us be honest and practical about this. The Lord has said, in the last days, wicked men will proceed from bad to worse. That happened in the USA. It has happened in Australia. If the Lord tarries in the Rapture, then I would expect the next Government to be even worse unless the nation repents, and believe me, that is so foreign to Australia, it won’t happen. Is faith in the USA rising or on the decline? Are churches increasing in spirituality or declining? The answer is obvious.

Australia has elected the Australian Labor Party as the next Government. The ALP, as it is known, had and has its roots in the left-wing communist unions. Anthony Albanese is now the new Prime Minister of Australia. He has come from that very Union movement. I don’t want to beat up the new Government, but it is made up of very anti-Christian people and increasingly very anti-Jewish people.

It is very hard socialist, the sort of thing Bernie Sanders would be happy with. They are economic morons and will lead the nation further into debt as they pursue the climate change religion and the socialist agenda.

Here are a few observations.

1. Three prominent women in the ALP hounded a decent woman to her death. They will now be rewarded with high positions. The women are hard-line radicals.
2. In Australia, there are one million Chinese living in this country because of indiscriminate immigration laws. Over recent times, numbers of these Chinese have taken to the streets to protest against the Australian way of life and waving the Chinese flag, calling for the overthrow of our Australia while supporting the wicked Xi. These, of course, voted for the socialist and harder-line Parties. I don’t think the USA would tolerate such anti-American behavior on its soil.
3. One man, Robert Homes à Court, one of the richest of men, funded candidates to stand in every seat held by the conservative members. He used lies and money to influence votes so that they won 7 seats from the conservatives on a radical hard-line Green climate change agenda. It is vile. Most of those sponsored are educated women, including doctors.
4. Those women ran as Independents, but they were not independent in any shape or form.

They are hard-line climate fanatics under Homes à Court. There used to be a Green Party that ran as The Greens, and they still operate with increasing numbers. But cleverly, they also run as independents and under other Party names, though they are all the same. The hard Labor (cousins to Democrats) use every dirty trick they can.

5. These Greens/Environmentalists aim to bring Australia to its knees. The Greens are the neo-communists, and communism best thrives when the people are deprived and poor and ignorant. Their policies are to stop all coal mining (Australia has the biggest reserves of coal in the world of the best quality); to stop the export of coal; to stop all other mining such as base metals, etc., and to lock up uranium (one of the biggest reserves of uranium in the world). They want to stop as much open farming as they can – destroy the sheep and cattle industries. 60 years ago, Australia had 160 million sheep and nearly 30 million cattle. Now that is reduced to only a fraction of what it was. They want to stop the export of meat from Australia and live sheep and cattle export.

The Green movement blames farmers for pollution and methane and won’t be happy until they eliminate the industry completely. They blame farmers for carbon dioxide and methane from cattle. Farmers are having such a hard time. Meat prices are through the roof, and they want to turn us into vegans and vegetarians.

They blame farmers for killing the Great Barrier Reef, which has never been healthier. Their claims are a lie, but who can oppose them? Almost the whole media here is left-wing. The truth is not reported. Lies are promoted.

The Greens want a carbon tax applied to all industries and people. Taxation is getting worse. Our petrol (US gasoline) is now around $11 or more a gallon (we use liters, but that is the equivalent. Almost half that price is tax that goes into government coffers.

Australia is heading for very hard times because the nation has no vision, no decent politicians who make decisions, hardly any honesty now in high places, and agendas that are very anti-God and anti-Christian. In this election, more homosexuals were elected, and they are currently militant against Christians and in the Federal Court, trying to get the Bible banned as an offensive book. These things are very serious.

The new foreign minister will be Penny Wong, a Chinese who is aligned, I think, as much with China as to Australia. The Deputy Prime Minister (from the ALP, of course) is a communist sympathizer, a great friend of China.

When the ALP was in power last time, their border protection was so pathetic that thousands of “asylum seeker” boats came to Australian waters, leaving mainly from Indonesia. These so-called refugees were from Sri Lanka and Moslem countries. Australia was flooded with them. Almost all these arrivals were not refugees at all but opportunists who paid huge money to people smugglers to get them on boats. With the prospect of the ALP regaining office, which it has, the boats are starting up again, and one arrived a couple of days ago. This is like when Trump stopped the wave from the south and Biden opened it up again.

HOW DID WE GET HERE?

There is a saying that a nation gets the government it deserves. I don’t like that. I prefer to say, “A nation gets the government that best reflects itself.” Today in Australia, and for a couple of decades, the children at school are being taught a socialist and green agenda, and now all the WOKE stuff. It is the destruction of human beings. You all know what the schools’ program is – you have the same in the USA, I think, though not as bad. Most of the under 30s voted for the communist Greens and socialist Parties, and some for the ALP. Hardly any vote for the Conservative Party (called The Liberal/National Party). This is only going to get worse.

People these days are voting for their own destruction, though they don’t realize it. I believe chaos is coming to our nations that will make them almost ungovernable. In the totalitarian world, they govern by guns and murder and fear. In the western world that is supposed to have a democratic system, we see decent rule breaking down, and it will lead to riots and difficult times. 2 Timothy 3 is certainly correct. The cost of living is rising rapidly. People are struggling. Interest rates are rising. People will suffer. Food items are becoming scarcer. The poor on pensions in Australia are very badly off. Hospital waiting lists, even for chronic conditions, are up to 2 years. Australia has suffered by having the ALP governing in Australian States for many, many years. Now we have one Federally.

The western world is degenerating faster than we could have imagined. This morning I read this: Jeremiah 6:13-14, “For from the least of them even to the greatest of them, everyone is greedy for gain, and from the prophet even to the priest, everyone deals falsely. They have healed the brokenness of My people superficially, saying, ‘Peace, peace,’ but there is no peace.”

Jeremiah 5:30-31, “An appalling and horrible thing has happened in the land: The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests rule on their own authority, and My people love it so, but what will you do at the end of it?”

What was true for Judah in Jeremiah’s time is true for all our nations. How we desire for the Lord to come for His Church! Of course, the world is heading for judgment, and maybe the Lord will spare us from some of the horrors man has brought on himself before the Rapture. But after the Lord takes the Church, there will be such mayhem and wrath on this world that it has never known before.

If you do not know Jesus Christ as your personal Saviour, then repent and hand your life over to the Lord Jesus.

ronaldf@aapt.net.au