Steve Jobs:Dead

Steve Jobs was possibly one of, if not the most significant person to ever walk into the technology industry, and as I am sure most of you are aware,

Oslo Tragedy

Anders Behring Breivik a name  unknown to the world, just this weekend, became an global headline.

Anders is responsible for the deaths of  over 90 people after he bombed a central area of the Oslo CBD(killing 7), then proceded to gain access to an island where a summer youth camp was being held. Here he shot and killed at least 84 people.

This is truly a dark event, one that will not soon be forgotten (I will indeed be keeping all involved in my thoughts and prayers), but after this atrocity was perpetrated what was he

So… We are still here.

As most of you have likely noticed, we are still here… There was no rapture event last night as was predicted. Earth is still spinning as usual… For you and I at least that may be true… But guess what? Over 50,000 people were faced with their eternity overnight. For them it was a very real occurrence.

Though I firmly believe that Jesus will return to take his people home, we are clearly told in Matthew 24:36;

“But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, but My Father only.”

So if no one knows, I am going to take that to mean that “no one knows” that is why I take all these predictions with a grain of salt. In fact I am staunchly against them for several reasons.

Firstly, it directly contradicts the Bible.
Secondly, when these people are shown to be either crazy or liars it reflects badly upon all Christians and ultimately upon God himself.
Thirdly and finally, it has a tendency to remove our urgency of preparation.

What I mean by that is simply the fact we become complacent because we perceive Jesus’ return to be afar off, but our sense of urgency should not be tied to the second coming. There are two important points our urgency should be tied to…

The first is wrapped up in the first statistic I shared, over the last 8 hours, statistically, over 50,000 people have died. We will be looking at the same kind of numbers for the next 8 hours as well, and eventually you and I will be personally taking part in that statistic (lest of course we are translated). Far or near, our eternity is sealed at the time of death (or at the close of probation for those alive at the end of time) at that point there are no second chances, so one must be sure what their wagon is hooked to before we get there

The second is the fact that who we are is a composite of our past decisions if we reject the idea of accepting salvation, or even delay it, we form a synthetic, predisposition to unbelief, and if one persists in this, an individual may not even be capable of making such a decision the next time it is presented, thus the urgency we should feel.

CS Lewis, an amazing mind put it this way… “Taking your life as a whole, with all your innumerable choices, all your life long you are slowly turning this central thing either into a Heavenly creature or into a hellish creature” we should not delay to make changes we are convicted of, as we risk our own capability to change.

The second coming of Jesus is sure, and I cannot wait for it, but I welcome you all to join me in planning your life as if it were a decade away and prepare your soul as if it were tomorrow.

Spirit-Lead Humility

This Sabbath Just passed, I preached at my home church and God taught me a lesson in the process, so I thought I would share it…

In the lead up to this sermon, there was much study and prayer (certainly more than my previous sermons) in the past I have preached well and I have preached not-so-well, so this time I was determined to glorify God by diligent study and transmission of the word, as a matter of fact, having been thoroughly prepared, I practiced it all the way up to the Friday afternoon when I stood in my room and preached my heart out. I was satisfied that it was a convincing delivery which I could replicate in the morning.

All the way through the process I was praying that

The Last Deception

“The very last deception of Satan will be to make of none effect the testimony of the Spirit of God. ‘Where there is no vision, the people perish’ (Prov. 29:18). Satan will work ingeniously, in different ways and through different agencies, to unsettle the confidence of God’s remnant people in the true testimony.”–Letter 12, 1890 (1SM 48)

I found this to be quite a thought provoking passage especially since studying the Prophetic Gift, while contemplating it I also heard a great Message from Pr Skeet and then I began considering another post I made on the liberal or conservative issue, now with all these thoughts skipping through my neurons, I began to distill the ideas and draw some conclusions, eventually this might even be a sermon but for now I am just looking to crystallize my thoughts. (my apologies to both liberal and conservative believers, as I am likely to offend both camps).

The Experience of Salvation.

A couple of weeks ago I had the privelage of leading out in Midweek fellowship at  my church and the topic of the night was the experience of salvation, so i thought i would post the notes if any of you were interested… God bless.

Luke.

[note:these words are not all mine, it is a customization of the corresponding Baptismal study]

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In Infinite love and mercy God Made Christ, who knew no sin, to be sin for us, so that in him we might be made the righteousness of God, led by the Holy Spirit, we sense our need, acknowledge our sinfulness, repent of our transgressions, and exercise our faith in Jesus as Lord and Christ, as Substitute and example. This Faith which receives salvation comes through the divine power of the Word, and is the gift of God’s grace.

Through Christ we are justified, adopted as God’s sons and daughters, and delivered from the lordship of sin. Through the Spirit we are born again and sanctified; the Spirit renews our minds, writes God’s law of Love in our hearts, and we are given the power to live a holy life. Abiding in Him we become partakers of the divine nature and have the assurance of salvation now and in the judgement.

Welcome Pr Ted Wilson

Well as many of you will know the worldwide adventist church now has a new President (Pr Ted Wilson) one who is already drawing “Friendly fire” for his opening remarks, please decide for yourself…

Lake Monduran Camp

Last weekend, I was fortunate enough to attend the SDA youth Camp at Lake Monduran, and just wanted to quickly share with you what it was like…

(note: I am omitting many things this is just a super-quick overview)

Friday Night

Arrived and setup just before Sabbath but as the speakers

The UK is a Christian Nation… right?

A brother of mine forwarded this link to me yesterday, heralding another step back toward the dark ages as religious liberties are progressively removed from the people. Whatever happened to freedom of conscience in regard to religion?

We are approaching the end of time my friends and this is just another signpost…

Freedom

Many People reject the idea of Christianity, claiming they have intellectual objections to the faith, however this I have found this to be true only a small fraction of the time, usually this objection merely covers an emotional reason, maybe the Christians they have associated with hurt them, or were seen to be hypocritical etc, but I believe the chief objection which is cloaked in this way, is a perceived lack of freedom.

People have this idea that fully committing their lives to God equals the lack of freedom to