THE SITE

in the suburbs of

 

The City of Truth

IN DETAIL

 

1.WWWW Net News -

selections of interesting or arresting items nationally and internationally. As necessary, these are considered for spiritual impact and implications. It helps to keep you up to date with the roll of history according to God's word. See News 1 for the recent law-court creation controversy in Melbourne, and items on dramatic developments in Israel in particular. For the volume in this field: use WWWW Net News link visible above.

Will there always be an England ? Will Jerusalem be forced back to non-Jewish control ? What is the role of man and machine in chess, and more broadly ? Is Australia flirting with dismemberment of independence ? and if so, why ? What world are the young framing themselves to inhabit ? is this really so, and is it feasible ? Many questions arise as news is focussed, which help to put it in perspective.

2. Question and Answer-

an easy access for quick questions, or even slightly slower ones. This is a free service. Call here to sharpen your approach, find Biblical answers, wonder 'aloud', be informed in the field that concerns you. For Questions and Answers, The Word that Speaks, first published August 1997, see The Word That Speaks . This covers some significant and certainly pressing questions. For simple queries, use hyperlink in #3 below. On the topic of CREATION, use this hyperlink. For VALIDITY, alone found to inhere in the Bible in all religion and philosophic system: use the above. Without the Bible, logic dies: see why as you read this.See also CAUSATION, something used without cease within rationality.

3.  Also available freely is Christian Biblical counselling
at an individual level , re what the word of God says in relation to matters of concern to you personally, where He may be found and how to walk with Him. For email connection for this purpose, to seek how the word of God can help you personally, simply use:-
team@webwitness.org.au

An experienced pastor who has laboured in churches in the U.S.A., Canada, N.Z. and Australia is ready to help.

As in all other cases with this Witness, this is done in the name of the living and unchangeable Jesus Christ, whose power is for ever and for now; and whose life is in the beauty of holiness.

4.  Library.

This now containing 243 works of an estimated 25 million words and more than 60,000 pages, including various collections in thematic volumes.

A list of contents follows.  
 

• i) The approximately 890,000 word 3rd  Edition, 1996, of the 1992 trilogy,
  
  

• The Shadow of a Mighty Rock ( SMR):

a most extensive work on Christian Reason for the Faith,

• showing its inevitable and unique validity,

while formally demonstrating

• the reality of the eternal God and that

• the Bible is the only authorised, definitive written expression of Almighty God to mankind.

It shows equally what is to be done about it, and leads you in paths well known, long provided, lacking in novelty
but not in reliability, certainty or security.

 

That trilogy presents the proposition put up in public as a challenge, successfully, for some years at The University of Adelaide earlier this decade. (For topics of special interest there see for example, Validity, Creation, Nothing, Eyes, Rest, Meta-religion).

In these volumes, this proposition is first demonstrated and then verified most extensively over many fields.

ii) Some 240  other volumes, below noted as "The Rest", which came later, making with i) above, and the rest of the Web page, with an estimated more than 60,000 pages in which you can move to study, peruse, check, research, see the Lord glorified and His word magnified, reason for the faith given.

These volumes are itemised in #13 below, the 30th being the Index volume.

• Helpfully, this trilogy has an enormous topical and detailed index, a work with its own flavour in itself, available through the above hyperlink. This enables special interests to be pursued with some precision, without long excursions into other topics. Meanwhile topics are here intensively inter-linked. It may assist you now to have this index with the others available:

TOPICAL, Main Trilogy
BIBLICAL, Main Trilogy
TOPICAL, The Rest
BIBLICAL, The Rest

• Have you ever wanted simply to go from the beginning to the end, with careful reasoning,

• to find in all reality just what the end of the matter is,

• what the truth is about religion, about God, salvation,

• redemption, life, freedom, opportunities, meaning, purpose, reality,

• destiny ?

 

Pursue it then, and be a companion on these travels. They are far more necessary and rewarding than any world-travel could be.

As is demonstrated, God the designer-Creator has spoken to man, and the discovery, required expressly and with no deviation by logic, allows a discovery far more valuable than an earth full of gold.

This hyperlink gives you the bookmap for SMR - the coastline, outline of the work, with access to all parts except the Preface . For descriptive details on its scope and plan, and the Preface however, see SCOPE AND PLAN.

For an OVERVIEW of the WHOLE APOLOGETIC APPROACH ...

click here. This covers the whole range of the 243 books, with a broad view of procedure, and some historical background.

• The LIBRARY with its 243 volumes,  including index, stretches in topic from physics to charismatic issues, history to victory, the duty of obedient abiding to the beauty of holiness, with digest topics to concentrate information in the Potpourri, and many news volumes; and it is all demonstrating or applying, relishing or engineering with the unalterable and impervious word of God, which itself is confirmed continually by reason and events, the logical and the empirical.
   

• As to the word of God, it is sheer joy to observe its kingly competence, brilliant foresight and effortless grace, as also the panorama of reason and the rockets of penetration which demonstrate its truth. Being the word of God, it is not only infallible in utterance, but ineludible, indeed ineluctable in attestation.
   

  For AUTHOR, use these  

hyperlinks
 

• For access, click here:

LIBRARY.

_iii)  See also the index for Swift Witness from which items may be exported to the library from time to time. Currently as noted, this contains detailed access to That Magnificent Rock (1996, 3rd Edition, 1998), another work deeply probing into and exhibiting the astounding inadequacy even for serious competition logically, of any faith or philosophy not founded on the Biblical Lord Jesus Christ. If you want to issue a challenge, enquiry, active query, this is a site in which action may occur. Always remember that our concern is not to show the truth in any sense other than this, what the Bible declares and what Jesus Christ, the Lord, is. We show that this is the sole sustainable sense of truth, and the criterion of it, first in written form and then in Person.

5. Swift Witness - You want action! Direct answers and not tentative exchanges? It is a just expectation and available freely in the name of Jesus Christ. Check procedure at this hyperlink under Ground Rules.

If you would like to contest, attest or digest the Christian faith as displayed in the Bible, you are welcome, and may mail to us.  If you wish private interchange, please so mark. For helpful suggestions and good procedure (ground-rules), splendid if you have the truth as your aim, click here.
 

UNIVERSITIES

• The world has yet to offer any valid answer to the incomparable logical validity of the word of God, a point merely illustrated since 1994 in the never-met challenge at Adelaide University, publicly conducted for several years on the premises, widely advertised and open to all comers.

• Logically, just as vitally, any account or use of life that stands scrutiny, is simply not possible without Him. Since life is from God, this is scarcely surprising; but ...

It is edifying to note that the adversary cannot logically prevail over years of opportunity for meeting to this end, in Adelaide's oldest university! He cannot even establish the validity of his position, far less sustain it. He fled from challenge, to his own lairs.

• If you are from other universities or any tertiary institutions, remember this: Your life is at stake! You have only one, just as there is only one God! Sooner or later, you must deal with Him! And He ? GOOD, thoroughly, intensively, immensely!

BUT IT IS FOR ALL, FOR GOD MADE ALL: blindnesses vary, but sight is the same.

Education, confrontation, refutation, reasoned inter-change and Biblical counselling are elements of what we offer, and are prepared for: the word of God is more than some Desert Storm. It stands by a divine right that earthly kings never had, and all falls before it.

Is it surprising that God whose the world is, sounds like it, and His word acts like it! Surprising or not, you may test and see.

Truth IS exciting!

Demonstrable truth is inviting.

Living truth is necessary - the goal that explains the flitting gurus and sports manias in no small part.

Declared truth is a gift beyond all measure. The sure testimony of God, the Bible, the available word of God, the irrepressible power of its author, who fulfils it, and the wonderful blessedness of God the sent (Isaiah 48:16, Psalm 45), the Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ:
these meet like mighty waters at one blessed place.

Moreover, that same Jesus, the Christ, worshipped by us who believe in Him, also declared: "I am He who lives and was dead; and behold, I am alive for evermore." Indeed - "Before Abraham was," He states, "I am." His words, quite testable, reflect this. Just as He has supplied doctrine, so does He also give dynamic, perspective and counsel, and is well able to help His people. What He makes, He can meet, and what He saves, He keeps.

Now in addition to oral and written access for such purposes, long provided at Adelaide University, those who prefer have here their own Web access. You may act in private or seek multiple debate.

See Swift Witness hyperlink above for procedure; and for e-mail address, see #13 below. For many, it may help to visit here and frankly question, and you may prefer to do this informally, though keeping logical guidelines for efficiency.

Currently, we are adding various themes or topics to this section, including now one on translations of the New Testament. To this is added information more broadly on the New King James version of the Bible with a look at the Authorised and the whole question of ... Which Translation is  most helplful ?

6.Life is here! Awake!

a) It Happened - a series of contributions from followers of Jesus Christ, showing either the power of God in mercy and kindness, or in judgment in their own affairs, or for those they know. See also 6 d) and e) under Action Kit, near the start of this Home Page.

Your practical testimony of the work of God in your life is invited for consideration, to be added here.

b) Barbs, Arrows and Balms... Little things to shock, awake, stir or comfort: Aphorisms, stories, accounts, proverbs.

7. Teen-Talent- and Time for Twenties and Tertiary:
A specific feature for the young, secondary and tertiary, allowing interaction and adventure in a basis orderly and yet inviting. You are welcome, and invited to offer contributions.

Find out what it is like to walk by faith;

• to 'attend' an Evolutionary Religious Service;

• join in a little international critical thinking; to listen

• in a drama along the lines of Mark Anthony,

to a speech from a visiting professor, subverting subversion;

• to interact in matters of creation and to develop in understanding

so that your life will not be twisted or contorted, but something divinely blessed and truly worthwhile.

 

8. National concerns- the issues that are crucial for this land need attention from an abiding spiritual perspective, not a worm's eye view; and what is frequently assumed needs to be anatomised, so that its nature may be seen. This century has seen too much wild political presumption to allow inertia; and while the Christian knows that this world and the kingdom of heaven are radically different, prudence, discretion and responsibility are not to be disclaimed now. In fact, courage is required. Read Isaiah 59 as an apéritif.

Many goats have aspired to be gods, the word of God exposing the folly when God says,

"Will you still say before Him who slays you, 'I am a god' ?" (Ezekiel 28:9).

We start with the crucial issue of : national-international relations and law. This concerns many nations in parallel paths. Australia is accelerating with dash towards the airy cliff.

• Hot air more readily rises from dark or black surfaces, as sail-plane pilots know, and some cliffs are barren even of sea, beneath; and the analogy is instructive in politics as well.

The draughts of rising political air (that soon changes direction) now appear lofted a little, with a strange new uplift for the vacuous and sometimes vicious moralising of that
new Moses-without-miracle: and that? it is international Christ-free humanism! As it is liberated from logic, so too from wisdom.

• Built on sand and toppling before it rises, it provides an excellent mirage. Mirages may be pretty but you cannot live in them.

 

Despite this, it is now bidding to become law in the land. Back of this law is a very lordly lawyer; but he is not God.

 

For Australia, the issue of a republic  or  commonwealth, crown or president is far less important that WHO is behind any of it, or of them.

It is easier to remove "Almighty God" from our Constitution than from our lives or history. Arrogance is a futile manoeuvre and ignorance is no excuse after knowledge has been here for so long. See also Australia in the Index.
 

9. State Affairs that demand Christian attention, and that are applicable in principle in the world at large.

Here we must first concentrate on the authoritarian and blatant

educational catastrophe ,

at the level of truth and life, that has met this State like a pandemic, giving it a form of leadership for the world among democracies, which could make it the State of ruin. Can a catastrophe be man-induced ? Alas yes!

See also for another State, consideration of the question:

Would Jesus Christ be imprisoned in one Australian State ?

 

10. The Mind of Members: a Heart for Holiness and an Appetite for Truth.
 

This section provides a place for fellowship internationally: we encourage literary contributions, including topical ones.

Suitable work may also be presented from non-members. Notices, with other information for Members may be found under the hyperlink 'members' below.

This gives introduction, procedures and membership, and  provides for those who wish to participate more fully.

Notice that members relate to our Constitution.

Literary contributions are sought. We will note here the first; but they grow!

The first of these literary contributions deals,

in striking tabular form,

with the current and continuing curse on earth

(Genesis 3), in terms of the plagues of Egypt.
 

Then, taking that ancient, historic

and indeed epochal Egyptian crisis,

on Biblical grounds (including Micah 7:18ff.):

it provides

an instructive parallel with the current world crisis,
as likewise a dire warning of what is yet to come.

THAT in Egypt, it was a mere trailer compared with the universal version to come.

It shows the Biblical plight of the earth, often giddily ignored in a flurry of worry about the symptoms.

It presents the solution, based on recognition of the chronic cause of the plagues of old and of the present time. In both cases, there has been a divine direction for increase, aggravation of the problem, not least that people might seek the solution which, be the problem 'small' or 'great' is as indispensable as is air to the physical lungs.

• Now we have the privilege not only of hindsight, but of foresight, since the book of Revelation specifies in considerable detail, what is to come, is coming and in some elements,

• already has come to the world: that greater 'Egypt' with greater cause, reaching its own end.

Chronic diseases often require strong medicine. This case is not different!

Many more contributions follow. You have something good to share as a member? Perhaps this is the place.
 

11. Action and Allegory.

Allegories of interest and stimulus. See also News 17 for the Laughing Children Allegory (scene 3). For verse, see The Wonder and the Witch and more in Library at Variety.
 

12. The Site of the Silent Sermon. Want to wander, missed your sermon this week, like some topics ?

13. TIME: Starting in November 1996, we planned a test opening in stages until December 26, 1996. From there we have proceeded incrementally.

News has now an extensive Item 1 exposing the logical inadequacies of an attack - featured in The Advertiser - by a Melbourne University Professor, by report evidently confused on, as well as hostile to, the Biblical position. A Volume of The Other News has been published. Other items now include developments in Australia, the U.N., the U.S., the young, Russia, NATO, Canada, Europe, England and Israel.

By 2003 we have amassed some 300 news items over 7 years, sometimes useful for historical research as well as Christian Apologetic savour, and more have been added  by 2013, totalling 464. See News Items.

 

THE VOLUMES IN ORDER OF PUBLICATION

WITH HYPERLINK CONNECTION

that make up the theological set

IN PRAISE OF CHRIST JESUS
 

Meanwhile, noting the additions to the trilogy, The Shadow of a Mighty Rock, you now have from World Wide Web Witness Inc.  243 volumes, in which are incorporated some 25 million words. The publication dates, in whatever format, appear  below.

 Here we can take them by the year of publication:-

Initially, there are, 1992, 1997, the trilogy, The Shadow of a Mighty Rock.

1) our six 1997 Web publications/ revisions:

Predestination and Freewill (January 1997), with its extensive The Father of Freedom Supplement ISBN 0 9586992 7 5  This number 4.

The Other News (June 1997 - ISBN 09586992 9 3 - this is a thematic work, of its own genre; but for more recent News, proceed to this site). This is number 5.

The Kingdom of Heaven, The Love of God and The Spirit of Envy with Other Essays and News (July-October 1997 - ISBN 0958 7235 1 6). This is number 6.

That Magnificent Rock , The Sheer Magnificence of Jesus Christ, 1996 (1st Edition 0 9586992 4 0, 1996,  2nd Edition, August- December 1997 - ISBN 0958 7235 0 8). This is number 7.

Questions and Answers - The Word that Speaks (August-September 1997 - ISBN 0958 6992 5 9). This is mber 8.

Biblical Blessings, A Walk in Christ with the Wonder of the Blessings of the Bible October  (October 1997 -ISBN 0958 7235 3 2) ...  This is number 9.
 

2) five 1998 works published/revised:

A Question of Gifts, 1995, on Pentecostalism and charismatics, published in paper 1995, and on the Web 1996, was revised and enlarged in 1997, as also in January 1998, to become the 10th. in its present form, but appears to be  the fourth or fifth on the Web.
( ISBN 0 9586992 5 9)

The 11^th. Volume is ...

A Spiritual Potpourri (January-February 1998 - ISBN 0 9 258  7235 5 4 0).
That is more like a digest of challenging, fascinating and crucial issues.

The 12^th. Volume is ...

Barbs, Arrows and Balms, Alerts,  Warnings and Blessings (June 1998 - ISBN 0958 7235 5 9)
Alerts, Warnings, Blessings
In essence, the title tells it all.

The 13^th. Volume is ...

Repent or Perish (July 1998 - ISBN 0958 7235 6 7)
Looking at Things with an Eye to the End.

The 14^th. -

The Biblical Workman (October 1998 - ISBN 0958 7235 7 5),

some careful searching of the word of God,
especially the book of ROMANS

3) Six 1999 works published

The 15^th. -  Scoop of the Universe (March 1999 - ISBN 0 9577461 0 5).
News that seems to sizzle
fresh from recent history,
yet which parallels or often fulfils precisely what has been written
from a former Age from the all-knowing God, in the Bible:

News Items Collected, with Survey and expression of relationship to Scripture,
as time reveals what that has already disclosed.

The 16^th.  - Joyful Jottings
(Book 1, June 19, 1999, Book II and the whole, July 1999: ISBN 0 9577461 1 3)

News, Biblical Exposition and Contemporary Reviews in Christian Apologetics

INDEX VOLUME (published July 1999, ISBN 0 9577461 2 1, updated, is placed at No. 30 below). presenting in one, the four indexes for the set, one for the trilogy, for scripture references, and one for topics covered; and the parallel provision for the rest of the set.

The 17th. - Benevolent Brightness or Brothy Bane -
(September 1999, ISBN 0 9577461 3 )

Oriented to seeing the sharp declivity between courses available to man, with background to news as a theme

The 18th  - STEPPING OUT FOR CHRIST (published October 1999, ISBN 0 9577461 5 6),  may be found by this hyperlink, as also  through News and Library (see NEW near the first in Library, and see News near the commencement, before the other listings there).

The 19th - WAKE UP WORLD! YOUR CREATOR IS COMING ... (published November 1999, ISBN 0 9577461 7 2) deals with impending events, with composite stress on creation and consummation.
 

4) 2000 A.D.  9 books published ...

The 20th - SPIRITUAL REFRESHINGS FOR THE DIGITAL MILLENIUM ... (published  January 2000 - ISBN 0 9577461 9 9)

The wonder of the provisions of God is not only in their profusion, their adequacy, their power, but in their reliability, their refreshing, their entire aptitude for mankind, and as to that, it is not only in their prediction and promise, but in their mode of performance. To know God is far more important than your ABC, and not to know Him is far more illiterate in life, than this in mind.
 

The 21st is - LEAD US NOT INTO EDUCATIONAL TEMPTATION... An Exposé of Perilous Error in Education with an Exposition of Better Things

(Education, The State and the Christ, published January 2000, ISBN 0 9577461 8 0 ).

The topic here is education, State indoctrination, Governmental creation of religion and the perilous possibility, to be consummated in due time (II Thessalonians 2:4ff.), of exposing to something like force, in a tide of coercive circumstances, a humanistic, but by no means secular religion, where the facilities of God, are blindly groped for, in the abundance of darkness. It focusses the little less than amazing case of the State of Victoria, in its surveys and the Report tended to it. A better recommendation, more objective and less oppressive is given. This case is a classic, and has broad application to many parallel, or developing scenes of similar kind; and is therefore useful in other settings, as well as being an amazing testimony to the preliminaries prophecy bespeaks in their coming culmination.

The 22nd is - THE FRANTIC MILLENIUM AND THE PEACE OF FAITH (published March 2000, ISBN 0 9577461 6 4)

In this the writhing tumults of the age in its senescence is contrasted with the unspeakable peace in its endless juvenility of joy, which does not know how to grow old, since its source is eternal and its Author the Creator. See the hyperlink to the Introduction.

The 23rd  is - ACME, ALPHA AND OMEGA: JESUS CHRIST (published April 2000, ISBN
0 9578146 0 7 )

There is so much. There are so many ideologies of hate, lust and political pride, including the pride of internationalism, which is human race pride, as intense and thirsty for glory as ever any of the other have been. Amidst the vanity and emptiness of its overweening ambitions, there is one whose ambition was to die for sin, whose glory was to be given it from the One who sent Him, and preceded His lowliness by eternity. The study of His word, in this world, constantly unveils the splendour of His conceptions, the moral integrity of His passion and the capacity of His sovereignty to proceed without pulse or tremor, to the end.

The 24th is - TENDER TIMES FOR TIMELY TRUTHS,
Dwelling in the Secret Place of the Most High, and Walking with Christ
(published May 2000, ISBN 0 9578146 1 5)

There is a time to ponder, to dig deeply, to be encourage, to gain perspective, to remember keenly that the Lord is personal, dealing with persons, and to heed in receiving His goodness, wisdom and word tenderly, knowing that even in correction there is love, and in soundness there lies growth. Topical, devotional and verificatory, it seeks to bring help in contemporary affairs, from the word of God.

The 25th is ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS: DRAMA, DRAMATICS AND DELIGHT
(published July 2000, ISBN 0 9578816 0 6)

This volume consists in answers to questions actually asked. The first three meet vigorous attacks on the Bible, in the domains of morals, miracles and the trinity, almost precisely as posed on the Web, and there answered. It shows the dramatic realities of the Bible, the word of God, like David before any Goliath, sweeter and more substantial than anything which can be offered in the level of harassment, assault or the bombs of belittlement. It moves over these like a tank.

For this we praise God, who is alive, and who gave His word, which lives, and His Son, who was dead, and now lives for ever, routing death, bearing sin for His people, and coming to reign.

On that topic, we then proceed in the last Chapter, in some depth and detail, to answer the question posed in II Peter 3: Where is the promise of His coming!

In Ch. 4, we look at Christ's own question: Ought not Christ to have suffered and afterwards to have entered into His glory ? The answers to these questions, with their source in the word of God and their parallel in history,  can enliven the heart; for the answers lie in the Lord, who in none of these things is dormant, but dynamic and delightful.

Further chapters range widely.

The 26th - NEWS, FACTS AND FORECASTS  News in the area of facts, facts in the light of forecasts, forecasts in the light of the word of God

These range from music and meaning, myth - biological and philosophical - and symbol, to the wonderland of theology, and a recent invasion, and its story.

They move also to many arenas of action in this realm of news and fact with forecast in view, and these may all be inspected in detailed summary, chapter by chapter, in Bulletin 1.

This work was published in September 2000, with ISBN 0 9578816 1 4
 

The 27th. - Things Old and New ... Love with Mercy has Acted

Multiculturalism and sophistry, God's critics, sedition by sects and other aspects of old novelties in new clothes,
with no small touch of Australiana

THE EMPHASIS IS ON OLD THINGS, NEW FORMS, ONE UNALTERED TRUTH

Published October 2000 with ISBN 0 9578816 2 2

The 28th. - It Bubbles, It Howls ... He Calls

This volume was published in November, 2000
ISBN 0 9578146 6 6

The Middle East is in wrath and ruin
    The Midlands of Mankind are in turmoil
    The Mind of God is in writing for our purposes
    The Solution is Salvation in Christ
    the Lord
    whose are all lands,
    literal and metaphorical,
    rational and spiritual,
    and whose is all truth.

    Alternatives: ZERO
 
 

2001 A.D. 14 books have been published
and the Index updated

The 29th. - Divine Agenda

This volume was published in January 2001
ISBN 0 9578 146 9 0

Its special emphasis, as the vivid, the graphic, the vital realities of our developing history declare themselves, is the Divine Agenda, neither stealthy like the U2 in its day, nor shouting like the dictators of this world, but majestic, immovable, incorporating foreknowledge and departing not at all.

In God, all is taken up in love, dismissed if recalcitrant, as contemptible, with no place for mere freewill, nor for capricious sovereignty. God WOULD have all to be saved, DOES not have this, and it is HIS OWN purity and purpose which makes the difference. His ways are right, and nothing is superficial with Him, with whom we have to do. There is no error, none so caring, none so immutable, reliable, and none like Him, on whom to call in faith with repentance according to the New Covenant in Christ's blood, IS to become His own.

Unlike Predestination and Freewill, however, THIS is not a book on the WAY it is resolved, however, but on the WAY it is going, as resolved. It is a time to BE resolved, for the resolution of irresolution is, as in many things in life, a detestable phenomenon from which all should be repelled.

The 30th. INDEX VOLUME (published July 1999, ISBN 0 9577461 2 1, updated frequently).
This presents in one, the four indexes for the set, one for the trilogy, for scripture references, and one for topics covered; and the parallel provision for the rest of the set.
This is now compiled conveniently at SEARCH, with reference to  235 volumes.

The 31th. - Galloping Events - The End of the Race and the Face of the King

This volume was published in January 2001
ISBN 0 9578816 3 0

Here is witnessed the sheer exuberance, the gallop of predicted events, announced in news, discerned even in attacks, moving with all the relish of romance, and all the moan of doom as God predicates in history, what He has predestinated in counsel and predicted in His word. Much attention is given to Israel, and specific exegesis of this period of greatness in the annals of the earth.
 

The 32nd. -

Little Things -

WHEN GOD IS THE SOURCE, EVERY LITTLE THING COUNTS
The Texture of Quality and Test for Truth

Published in February 2001
ISBN 0 9578816 4 9

Such is the discernment and infinite understanding of Christ the Creator with the glory of the Trinity, Himself a member, for there is no other Creator but God, that seemingly little things can broadcast the fame of His name, His attention to detail, show the wisdom that invites, and attest the Lord who alone is Saviour.

The 33rd.

PALL OF SMOKE AND DIAMOND OF JOY

 Considerations of Contrasts, Complementarity and Beauty

Published in March, 2001

  ISBN O 9578816 5 7

The 34th.

WITH HEART AND SOUL, MIND AND STRENGTH

The Kind Commandment - but how Searching!

Published April 2001

ISBN 0 9578816 6 5

The 35th.

LICENCE FOR LIBERTY

The Parade of man and the Power of God

Published May 2001

ISBN 0 9578816 9 X

The 36th.

ANCIENT WORDS : MODERN DEEDS

Published June 2001

ISBN  0-9579003-0-9

Modern instruction from ancient words
which categorically mould modern events

The 37th.

BEAUTY OF HOLINESS

Glorious Light Amid Uncomprehending Darkness

Published July 2001

ISBN 0-9579003-2-5

The 38th.

THE PITTER-PATTER OF PROPHETIC FEET

       Prophecy: A Light in a Dark Place
        This World: A Dark Light in a Place

Published August 2001

ISBN 0-9579003-3-3

The 39th

 LIGHT OF DAWN

the gentle unfolding of light
untouched, untarnished and pure

Published September 2001

ISBN 0- 9579003 - 4 - 1
 
 

The 40th

 LORD OF LIFE

the Lord is the light of my life

unphased, unfazed and unfading
above time, beyond time, in time
always

Published October 1,  2001
 
 

ISBN 0 - 9579003 - 7 - 6
 

The 41st

Red Alert, in a Grey Day
with the Bright Light Coming

Published October 26, 2001

ISBN 0-9579003-9-2

This brings more, after Lord of Life, on recent events, ancient words, dramatic developments, their spiritual significance and the direction of world history, among spiritual excavations into meaning, with special reference to Romans 5, and assessment of excursions into the meaningless as an antidote for past ones: not to be desired, but being wrought anyway. Such is this world, pointed at disaster, and hurrying itself along.
 

The 42nd
More Marvels from the Majesty and Mind of the Almighty

 More on Malachi and Isaiah 66, on Joel, on the Errors of Islam and the divinely pre-published predicament and predicted outcome for Israel

Published November 26, 01

ISBN 0-9580154-0-6
 

In 2002:

By December,  15 works published.
 

The 43rd.

Deliverance from Disorientation

Putting Things in Perspective

Much on Daniel, which does not move,
and on the world, which does,
but only under divine surveillance, to that celestial conclusion
which is most apt, and clear

Published January, 2002

ISBN 0-9580154-2-2
 

The 44th.

Highway of Holiness, Path of Peace, Way of Truth

Published January 2002.

ISBN 0-9580154-3-0

Here we examine motivation, purity of heart, reward and reality; and then proceed to a compilation with some extension of the works on this site on the prophecy and prophet, Daniel. His impact is far vaster than many realise, his attestation of things divine bearing imprint of amazing conspectus and clarity, testable, verifiable, verified, inspiring, humble, hallowed, not hollowed, proceeding from God, for God and bringing with it, many hearts of joy on their way. The book in its entirety is now given a substantial survey, with much detail.

The 45th.

 Sparkling Life in Jesus Christ

 Published February 2002

ISBN 0-9580154-6-5

This is a volume of sharp clarity, dealing with issues from the Biblical Canon, to World Politics, from Cloning to the Millenium, Creation, Man as purposive, and the Clarity of the Bible. Its message is constantly this, that if you want more than mere effectuality, but certainly not less, if you want not a dim flicker but sparkling light, it is to be found in one place only, the word of God, living and written, on display and without rational competitor, or alternative testable revelation for man. It deals with man as he is, leaves nothing out, puts nothing in, and exposes him, vulnerable as he is, to the light which also has "healing in its wings", when it is received. That light is Christ, immutable, immiscible, unrelinquishable to those who know Him, irresistible to logic, the rock which crushes what rejects it, and needs it as all men do (Matthew 21:44), but is a secure ground for those who find in Him the truth.

The 46th.

 The Impregnable Tower

Published March 2002

ISBN 0-9580154-7-3

In this volume,  the words of Micah and Zechariah concerning the Tower of Strength, of the Flock, are pondered, and Zechariah, over some 60 pages,  is expounded under the thematic note, The Messiah in Zechariah. Historical phases, current and ancient, are considered as we progress through the swirls of contemporary events, fulfilments and fiascos, all in the light of the word of God, which nothing of these things in the least degree has snuffed, is capable of snuffing, or even makes to flicker.

Quite the contrary, the more the morals of man flicker, the less the word of God concedes; but the more man looks to the Lord, the greater the opportunity. It is not gone. It is now for man or nation, who looks where mercy and power is to be found, purity and truth, in the word of God, in the living word of God, in the power of the Holy Spirit.
 

The 47th.

 Cascade of Truth, Torrent of Mercy
Published April 2002
 ISBN 0-9580154-9-X

With much on the Middle East, Current News, Prophecy and Predestination in a personal sense as well as doctrinal, this gives you something like an aerial view, your airplane cruising not far above the tree tops as the end of the Age comes like a magnificent promontory to the gaze.

The 48th.

Red Heart, Dead Heart and Pure Heart

Published March-April 2002
ISBN 0-9580787-1-8

Conspicuous confusions, profusions of prolixity and cordons of righteousness: they do not agree, but all are present. The world is setting on its business of severance from God at prodigious pace, but the connection is ineradicable, indefeasible, ultimate and righteous; and thus the effort is not only not feasible, but delinquent, abasing to man who is seeking to exalt himself, and fatal. There is however a far better way, far more clearly delineated, more conspicous in its attestation, coherent in its affirmation, which alone stands, and standing acts.

It includes "Homage to Perfection" and the apologetic significance of Psalm 73. Haggai's "Desire of the Nations" is also surveyed. The current political confusion on Israel is also a major focus, in several chapters.

The 49th.

Regal Rays from Revelation

Major Matters in the Book of Revelation, and on the Impact  of Revelation

Published May 2002
ISBN 0-9580787-3-4 h
 

In this volume, the Book of Revelation is given focus, materials on this site being collected in order of Chapter, to give a series on this prophecy of John. More material is added, and the work commences with some scrutiny of the Middle East imbroglio. Various aspects of divine revelation cohere in this conspectus of considerations of the power, work and will of God, both in history and in writing.

The 50th.

Trust God, Mate! Forget about 'Fate' ...

published May-June 2002
ISBN 0-90580787-5-0

This work specialises on the decline from trust to 'fate', that fortuitous or banal concept which evacuates from the divine realities, and sadly faces the consequences, unaware that it is in fact a deviation from responsibility, a departure from God which induces the illusion of 'fate'. Nor is it entirely without background, when the Lord is mocked by such penury of logic, and projection of evil into inane philosophic concepts. Like chaff is the wicked blown (Psalm 1), whilst the Lord KNOWS the way of the righteous; and who IS righteous, but the one to whom the gift of God in Christ is applied, donating the truth, covering sin and clothing with a righteousness far from merely academic: it is brilliant with the dew of truth, happy with the life of God.

The 51st.

Secular Myths and Sacred Truth

published June, 2002

ISBN 0-9580787-8-5

Here, amid current news, is the evacuation of secular myths in favour of sacred truth. Naturalism and other fancies are replaced with reality, the hollowness of humanism with the holiness of deity, and the landscape changes. It looks and is far more wholesome not to say beautiful, without the pock marks of adventurous, dazzling meteorites, which leave holes and dirt. Its past, present and future meaning is then apparent in that far greater adventure, the history of man in the word and works of God Himself.

The 52nd.

Beauty for Ashes

published July, 2002

ISBN 0-9580787-9-3

By this stage, we are able to engage in more review, covering in scope many things fashioned earlier, to the applications desired. We move often with news of developments in the world that moves like some crooning singer, ever nearer to its audience, but in this case, its audience of judgment from God. Naturalism in some of its evocative intransigencies, especially in Britain where it is considered in terms of 'The New Vikings', child training in Australia, the movements to the international aggregations of political power, the journalistic depredations on Israel, the blind spot in the Middle East, yes the double one, the significance of artistic developments in Russia to the phenomenon of water in the Bible, and its spiritual implications: all these things are covered.

In all this, the key is the consequence of sin and the advent of the beauty of the Lord, in stark and solemn contrast, made available at Calvary, wrought by the Spirit of God to this moment, and brought into life by abiding in Him, who did not fail to abide His own mission of redemption, resurrection of His body and demonstration of His power, that to the simple, the Gospel might appear, and to the truth it might declare itself - yes Himself, saying THIS IS THE WAY.

The 53rd.

Earth Spasm, Conscience Chasm: and the Renewal of Life

Published August 2002

ISBN 0-9581449-1-5

This is a varied volume, in which the clashes of fiction with fact, delusion with faith, reality with pretence, virtue with vice figure; and it has its historical study, intensively in I and II Kings with special reference to Elijah and Elisha, their words and ministries. These are taken in a survey of scope in the mighty works of the Lord, their significance, their consummation and the perspective of divine intervention in natural affairs.

The concept of Nature is examined, and the supernatural is seen in terms of scientific method, in the actualities of creation, as in the Bible itself.

This is a volume of oversight and insight emphasis.

The 54th.

Christ Jesus: the Wisdom and the Power of God

Published September 2002

ISBN 0-95814493-3-1

The power and the wisdom of God is too much forgotten in the slime-covered chains of naturalism. Those who break free are at times in danger of forgetting the simple fact that GOD HAS POWER, that it is available for His mission and purposes, that it is not another way of seeking pleasure but of securing performance in His love for His mission, church and word, that men, women and children may find Him,  and in Him that resource, recourse, resourcefulness, wit and wonder that the waterfall merely suggests, the mountains intimate in their beautiful massiveness and space recalls in its majesty and grandeur. He has made these. It is vital to know Him, and hence time in this volume is given to history, focusing Kings and Chronicles as well as more recent times, to the testimony of Jesus Christ when on earth, and in the whole panoply of the divine revelation. 

55th.

Calibrating Myths, Machining Dreams and Keeping Faith

Published October 2002

ISBN 0-9581449-5-8

Man is bent on his own way; secular, transvestite man, is seeking to clothe himself not with merely male garments, but those divine, and this Age is awaiting the coming pseudo-apotheosis. In this, the Satan, that master change-imitator charlatan, leads a man to conceive of himself as God, with this difference, that he has POWER over men, to a limited but still spectacular extent (II Thess.2:4ff.).

This is no mini-explosion of human ingenuity awry, such as gas bombs, radioactive contamination, modified crops, genetically engineered, flowing about the earth with the wind, inadequately controlled or understood. No, it is categories apart from that; for here comes that finale of presumption, the acme of arrogance, that dim brilliance to which modern man for so long has been tending in his forsaken and misused systems of  psychiatries, sociologies, histories, biologies, undistinguished events in metaphysics (cf. SMR Chs. 3-4), where theory dictates to fact, and fact refusing to fit, makes the secular preachers all the more vociferous, as if their very loudness would abash.

Since, however, they deploy themselves in many but far from all academic posts, there are many who heed instead of thinking; and the marvels of nothing making all, the material inventing the mental, or the spiritual, or these thinks in succession, but first of all itself, though it shows no such capacities, and if it had them, could not have used them before it was: this is ‘cool’. Indeed,  this sort of delusion has become almost as simple as breathing to the artfully deluded and the spiritually concluded. The great mercy is that a new commencement can come to any of them by finding the Saviour,  and many of them do just that, thanking God for deliverance from such mesmeric obfuscation; but more do not!

The calibration of the dreams attending these delusions is one of the major comedies of all time, as if a bankrupt were spending years of time enquiring about the most sophisticated ways of storing his millions, when alas, he is broke. The machining of dreams leaves them small and fluttering little things, piled on the dump truck of history for reprocessing, in the manner normal in secular history, and philosophy. The measurement of the unknown is not a practical joke, but one of the major emphases of geology, for one (cf. TMR Ch. 7, Section E). The measure of man himself is always being vied for, never agreed upon, and never could be, without the truth, since God is not duplicable, and His image is from Himself.  No genome is available for Him, who makes, but is not made, who composes the things, necessarily in His status being eternal, self-sufficient and free (cf. SMR  Ch. 1,TMR Ch. 7, Section D). As Christ put it, “Before Abraham, I am.”

Considering some of the major misconceptions of our Age and observing their consequences is a grievous task of pathology; but since it may awaken some, and encourage others, to find or to advance in the faith of Christ, it is provided here.  

 

56^th. Gracious Goodness and This World in Disorder

 

Published November 2002

 

ISBN 0-9581449-7-4

Disorder is rampant, the call for discipline is reckless, riots are a way of life, death squads a form of existence, as Revelation 6 comes into full force; yet this is only a resultant. There is a cause of it all, and a compassion available.

It is prescribed, not negotiated. It is free, not meritorious; but its results are delightful and its dynamic is divine. Patterns in the muck are noticed, power over the resultants is discerned, provision continues, and the destinies speak volumes, indeed these are already written, like the rest of the scenario’s outline, in the word of God, who makes mockery of guru pretensions and fulfils ONLY His OWN word. No one else is God; no one else can do it. No one else is you, and no one else can answer for you: except you become Christ’s. Then He by His spirit is your governance, as in millennia past, and He by His resurrection is your way-shower and by His cross, your barrister, Himself the payment; for there is no death in Him.

Considerable exposition of biblical passages is to be found in this volume as we see the governance of the word of God.

 

57^th No Thanks for Angst!
  Truth’s Alive, Resurrected and Written

Published December, 2002

ISBN 0-9581449-9-0

Considerable exposition of biblical passages is to be found in this volume as we see the governance of the word of God. The whole modern phenomenon of angst, in strong accord with the astonishingly majestic, extraordinarily direct and wholly reliable predictions of the book of the Lord. How incisive His ways and how verified His word, which sits like the spiritual sun in its glory, shining and revealing, in light dazzling without the softening glory of the Son, leaving nothing to itself, exposing all things.

In this volume also, there is opportunity to trace the reply to a questing soul, and to ponder how elegantly sufficient is the work of God, how clear His word, how alive His salvation, like riding in a boat on the waves, with the fresh keen salt of reality and the wonder of the disappearing blue, which yet is there in the distance, after the droll indifference of this dreamy world.

 

In 2003:

15 books have been published this year.

 58^th  Dastardly Dynamics, Delirious Daubs, Wandering Woes, Bleary Theories
and Immovable Faith.

Published January 2003

ISBN 0-9750303-2-9

This nest of the topical, the current, the newsworthy, the blend of the ancient and the modern, the scriptural and the contemporary, and the application of the former in the domain of the latter, keeps you up to date as the Bible lives on in the history God has prepared, commenting before it comes, advising after it is here. It includes answers to questions, both provided to the author, and as old as the days of Paul.

 

59^th To Know God, the Power of Christ’s Resurrection and the Fellowship of His Sufferings

Published January 2003

ISBN 0-9750303-3-7

In this work, the title delineates the topic, always keeping Christ in focus, without whom is no good thing that lasts, for He who is equal with God and from eternity, alone can bring to it in peace. In this volume, Job is given substantial treatment with special emphasis on suffering - in 3 chapters, as is the unity of the faith over the ages. The book of Acts is also summoned to attest these things, within its first 12 chapters, whilst Daniel too comes to the bar; and the trilogy of knowing your God, receiving and using His power for His purposes and the value and victory of sufferings in His company is focussed constantly.

 

60^th Great Execrations, Great Enervations, Greater Grace

Published Feb 2003

ISBN 0-9750303-5-3

Diversity in the current contemporary period, intensity in scriptural applications, and investigation of the theme make of this a pathway to thought, challenge to faith to expand and appeal to those who do not yet know their Creator as the meaning of life, the purpose of destiny and the Lover of His people, to review their needless omission, lest it become reckless as well.

 

61^st  Marvels of Predestination and the Ways of Will

Published March 2003

ISBN 0-9750303-7-X

Second Edition July 2004 (much expanded)

ISBN 0 9752175 7 7

This compilation is rendered from various of the published works on this topic written earlier, with addition and development where this seems apt, allowing the reader to visit topic-wise, in different dimensions with comparative ease.

In yet greater scope, we see the ebullience of these concepts of predestination and will from the Bible, their integration in themselves and their application to reality so broad, so efficient, that the source of this biblical revelation is once again attested in the marvels of coverage which it provides, leaving nothing out, embracing everything, but not with clammy arms: rather with an integrity both personal and unchangeable.

 

62^nd Of the Earth, Earthy, or Celestial in Christ

Published March 2003

ISBN 0-9750303-9-6
 

I Corinthians 15 has some wonderful contrasts: the first man, Adam, the ultimate man, Christ the Lord. The first man is of the earth, earthy; the second man is the Lord from heaven.

 

Now we are finding the funding of nearly everything imaginable that is earthy, worldly, carnal, rapacious, insolent and demanding; and hearing nearly everything that is raucous, obtuse and insurgent, from bin Laden to Communism, from Islamic submission requirements of those subordinated to these false lords, to the arrant yabber, deemed funny for some reason, of cartoons which reduce man to a motivated, moulded relic of a meaning no longer to be found.

 

The celestial is abused, its name debased whether in the slaughter of people in shopping malls because somebody called ‘Allah’ allegedly wants it, to the devising of means of allowing what destroys to become the lord of what builds. And what sort of destruction would that be ? That is what the Bible has long called Apollyon, the devil, whose varied functions include accusing the brethren (normally falsely), contesting righteousness, inducing fear of death, alienating from God, inducing to love the means of life more than life (‘Mammon’), tempting and corrupting. He can come dressed in flowing white robes which do nothing for his heart, but much for those whom he dupes, surrounded with flowing verbiage, elevating himself or his false prophets to the heavens, while his ways are earthy.

 

These two courses, those of the bacteria and those of the body, those of the creation and those of the desecration, they continue parallel for a time, until the judgment. In biblical words, these are the wheat and the tares of Christ’s parable in Matthew13:24ff., which grow up together until the harvest, by which time … they are readily recognised.

 

In this work, contemporary events, biblical exposition and in all, application for Christian Apologetics abound.

 

63^rd The Heavens are Telling

The Beautiful Face of Biblical Predestination

 

Published May,  2003

ISBN  0-9750778-1-3
 

 

It is many years (now about 39) since this author first wrote the Master’s thesis on Predestination and Freewill. In March of this year,  a second Volume was composed, largely of works on this topic, and applications and developments, since the first work.

Now, a little later in 2003,  it seems necessary to present a third volume, to make a trilogy on predestination and the ways of will in the whole field of man, liberty, law, licence and responsibility. In this Preface and in the Introduction to Ch. 7 there is some new material, which may be of special interest for those familiar from times past, with these uncollected items. .

In this volume, there is emphasis on the nature of love, and further exposition on error which has deceived many in the church, for with excellent features from some, there has yet not seldom been conflict for many. Instead, as always, of such things,  the only solution, and from the point of view of Christian Apologetics, the DELIGHTFUL solution is to return to the Bible and  see the MINE from which sometimes the mimes have been taken, see the realities too often ground  down from their original setting to banal substitutes. In this volume, this is done.

It is ONLY THEN that the wonderful exposure of the force of the divine word on this topic can be appreciated. So far from being some strange or exotic kind of concept, predestination with its intimate and ultimate companion, divine foreknowledge (biblically defined) is utterly necessary, wholly harmonious:  and this ALONE has these features in the whole field of discussion about freedom and power, force and liberty, determinism and voluntarism. What would one expect ? that philosophy would open its mouth and infect the biblical doctrine with some SARS ? Alas, it has nothing to say to the point, and its morass in this field is one of its historic vulnerabilities. On the contrary, the Bible presents a definitive mass of truth which is coherent, and sound, rational and internally consistent,  as well as ample to cover the empirical world.

Not merely so: alone has it the ingredients to make POSSIBLE such a harmony. We have seen much of this in Volume Two of this predestinative trilogy, that is, Marvels of Predestination and the Ways of Will.

However in this volume, there is emphasis on the particular wonder of the divine love, which is the paradigm, the power and the precept, the personal reality without which man does not and cannot live. He constantly WARPS his ‘love’ into nepotism, or family limitations, or political or personal rampancies or passions of this sort or that, not allied to that kinship and kindred compassion and relationship which in absence, creates such a draught as to create a kind of terrestrial pneumonia, with high temperature, hot breath and pallid face. Such is the affliction of this earth, at war with God, in its basic premisses and many of its most illustrious premises.

The beautiful face of Biblical predestination however shows, in its setting in the jewellery of His word, a beaming loveliness which never fades, never shades, is perennially bright.

NB See below at volume 83, August 2004, where a fourth volume makes this a Quaternion on Predestination.

 

 64^th  The Christian Pilgrimage

From Grace Triumphant to Face Divine

Published May 2003

ISBN 0-9750778-3-X
 

Here you see aspects of the Christian pilgrimage, with special  attention to Timothy. Its beginnings precede time, its end is with Him who made time, and you may come to Him at any time in this Age of  Grace.

You may be defaced, outfaced, or prefaced in your actions by your way of facing things, your reputation, your character, speaking before you come. People tend to grow in the expressive result of their lives, stooped and sullen, sad and contrite, quiet and reflective, frustrated and patient, or whatever the mark might be.

For the Christian however, there is the pilgrimage. It is not, emphatically NOT, a matter of visiting some town famous for this or that, no not even Jerusalem. The cross of Christ was programmed in heaven, performed on earth, and its contribution of action is past; only its application continues into the future. It is the One who died there, whose face beckons, filled with character, essentially in repose, but lively in light and radiant with beauty, the beauty of holiness (cf. Psalm  110, Daniel 7).

 

	In this pilgrimage, the defaced residues of the image of God in man are replaced by the new surface and the new character which it exhibits.
	Outfaced is the past, distanced is sin in its regal clothes and costumes; the face that shines is the One who came and went and returns.
	This lends light to one's eye, firmness to one's countenance, balance to one's responses, passion to one's drive, delight to one's inner resources.
	No, it is not a physical journey, though truly one's body has much to endure in the pilgrimage; it is a spiritual journey, just as an aeroplane is indeed  physical, but the one who LIVES IN IT, the pilot, gives its endurance meaning and its character purpose.

It is known to God before the Ages began, or the world commenced, prepared in His grace, and it leads to His face divine (Revelation 22), where the beauty of holiness is like air, and the individuality of His saved ones is like perfume from flowers crushed, for there is no sin left, and the water of life is pure.

 

65th Victory
Heritage of Christians, Exile from this World

Published June, 2003

ISBN 0-9750778-5-6

How manifold are the victories of the Lord, and they need examination, itemisation and consideration, appreciation,  application.

 

In contrast the world has nothing to offer but defeat, more palpable as its own mismanagement of the creation which  it loves to disaver, inexorably proceeds. The stultifed human pseudo- 'creation' to come is a mess, but the Creator has a better way. The personal application of victory is examined, and a substantial allegory completes the volume, outlining the heritage of Christians, the victory which is nevertheless, that exile from this world.

 

It appears that the many allegories, apologues, acronyms, pictures in words, plays in scenes, animal speakers, dialogues and presentations for the imagination hitherto presented on this site,  might be put together in one book, allowing comparison and if desired, continual reading in one bloc, rather than through various labours,  to and fro with seekings in this and that chapter or work. Hence there is now presented this compendium, yes with some small additions, not entirely insignificant, but still in the very stream of the originals. Largely a selection from earlier works presented on this site, it is however set together with the initial conspectus provided in the Preface, to provide perspective. Moreover,  just as the groupings are significant, so the progression is deliberate, as item succeeds item.

 

Hosea 12:10 tells us that the Lord used many images, indeed that He multiplied imagery in speaking to Israel, and it may be that imaginative presentations may be helpful in this generation also. It is with the earnest, indeed ardent desire that this may prove to be so, that this volume of some 800 pages is presented.

 

67th

 

ISRAEL BLOWS THE TRUMPET THAT YET IT DOES NOT HEAR

Here is history under the Written Word of God, the Bible, and the Living Word, Jesus Christ as it Comes to the Light of Common Day, concentrating on contemporary events, with due historical background, in the fast moving world of today. Its focus, for this specialised selection, is Israel, blowing the evidential trumpet, fulfilling the word of God on the one hand, and in so doing, giving testimony that the return of Christ is near.

The News Items given, usually without change, are almost entirely as given from 1997-2003, on this site.

 

68th

Know the Lord,  Know the Bible,  Know His Will

Manual for Christian Growth

ISBN 0-9751254 2 7

August 2003

Manual for Young and Growing Christians
covering many topics and emphasising
the beauty, reasonableness and harmony
of God's word ...

for the work of a life-time

 

69th

THE DEFINING DRAMA

 

ISBN 0-9751254 3 5

 

September 2003

 

It is time to see the definition of things that now are, that have been and that are coming. Hence a variety of topics with this thrust is presented, including news items of real portent.

 

Christians are "looking and hastening for the coming of the day of God" ( II Peter 3:12), as students await their coming holidays, with eager anticipation (Hebrews 9:28), there being no substitute for the ultimate love of their hearts (John 21:5-19, Philippians 1:20-21, 3:20-21, Deuteronomy 6:5); but while they remain, their hearts glow (Isaiah 64:5, John 15:21-23, I Peter 1:4-8) and they act to reflect His light and its suffusing beauty, which the world now needs (Philippians 2:15), desperately, before in this light, He delivers judgment according to truth (Romans 2) on that which has wilfully refused it (John 3:19,36, 5:19-23, Acts 17:31).

 

Flashpoints of our time, collisions with the word of God, more thought on creation, and on the nature of enquiry and education for the mind of the seeker, together with reflections on the Robotic 'Snake' all appear  in Volume 69. It ends with consideration of the Irresolvable Mutiny and the Irresistible Truth, looking into the Middle East. As time moves, definitions sharpen for mankind; those of the word of God are wholly sharp already. Meet the scalpel!

70th.

JOY COMES IN THE MORNING

 

ISBN 0 9751254 6 X

October 2003

 

What is joy, that elemental joy which comes from association with the Prince of peace, the Creator of man, the King of eternity, the Crucified Lord of love: how is it marred ? What is that joy which comes in the morning, when His light shines at His return ? What is its pre-emption without purity, and where lies the place for the heart of man!

 

71st

HIS TIME IS NEAR

The Awesome Authority, Celestial Love and Impending Judgment

 

ISBN 0 9751254 7 8

November 2003
 

Near is the time for the return of the Lord Jesus Christ, great are the encompassments of prophecy with precision, to signify this. How near ? It is like pneumonia, while the breath rasps, the temperature soars and the breathing pants. It is time to look at the will  ? Well yes, since you are in it. Is it the will of the flesh,  written by yourself, or the wisdom of  God, to which you have abandoned yourself, as a sinking soul accepts rescue ? Undignified ? Of course. So is cancer. Realism repents. History does not: it proceeds, scurries, for the end is near. Near enough ? Nothing is near enough. Your name sketched in the book of life ? That is not near enough.  It is written or not. Be sure of its being written ? How ? Were you present at predestination ? Of course not; but God was. His willingness is the most beautiful thing! Seize salvation like breath in the hole of Calcutta.

 

Such is the atmosphere of this book, which however surveys multiplied scenes in science, politics, society, international movements and current news, making careful exposition of many related scriptures in the New and Old Testaments.

 

 

72nd

 

OVERFLIGHT IN CHRIST

 

Christian Wings

Christian Things

 

ISBN 09751254 9 4

December 2003

 

In Christ, in this volume, we make some overflights, scenic surveys, like the U 2 of old, and to see in Him the ways of peace, of truth and loveliness, even in the midst of a world committed increasingly to the ignoring of those ways, the imposition of useless ways, and the assertion of the human spirit, its words, its culturally imitative religions, its sacrifices and its sententious summits. Alas for man, made by God for God, he is making an ass of himself by braying with words not from God, and  moving with a heart not given to God.

 

What would you expect when you omit all the demonstrated handbook of the  Maker, and make up your own! Yet those words are now as from the first, available, and nothing avails without them. This is the way of truth, whether with 'Nature' or the nature of man.

 

2004

 

SO far twenty volumes have been published.

 

On January 1st., 2 books were published this year and two since have appeared.

 

73rd "Comfort Ye, My People!"

 

After the Night, the Day,
the Day of the Lord

 

ISBN 0 9751761-1-0

 

There is an inimitable comfort in the companionship ON DUTY in the teamwork which the Lord supplies and as we obey Him, His manifest co-operation and strengthening are not merely functional, but felicitous! Moreover, there are numerous facets of the jewel of life in Christ, of His word and of the attestation in history and life before our eyes, which make COMFORT like light in darkness, a beam of blessing shining to the perfect day. This is not only propositional, but personal; not only that but powerful, and not this alone, but practical. It has a beauty which is in strength, and a delight which is in a duty which alone is absorbing, since it reaches to the beginning, and does not end.

 

74th Hear the Word of God

 

Sermons and Addresses from the Bible, in the Lord

 

ISBN 0 9751761-3-7

 

A number of the sermons in this work have been given while the author was under persecution, whether in New Zealand or Canada, indeed from the USA. They have been presented where snow lies, where heat hazes, where joy rings, where battle rages. One well remembers in one pastorate, which one had to resign because of the direct failure to follow the scripture on the part of those supervising, and this without repentance, being told something quite fascinating about the next sermon. Preach THAT and you are out! seemed to be the general message. It was preached and that did indeed not long precede the departure. Some of these sermons have been published as chapters or sections in a book, most of them have not. Some are outlines, short and ready for overview; others are longer, a few are more lengthy.

 

Nothing is more important than the word of God, propositional and personal, in the Bible, and according to its word, in the heart of man, in terms of the eternal and death-breaching Jesus Christ, whose return is near (cf. Answers to Questions Ch. 5).

 

 

75th LET GOD BE GOD!

 

January  2004

ISBN 0 9751761 4 5

 

In field after field, the call here is to realise and recognise, to operate and act, alike, in the knowledge that there is no other God, that the One who has shown and declared His identity for millenia as nothing and no one else, needs to be returned to, received and indeed found, so that a morass of muddle should become once again, a marvel of hope, a dynamic of destiny and a pellucid pool of wonder in which loveliness is found, as befits those made in God's image: yet only when pardoned, so that despite demerit, they might enjoy and relish the wonder of the reality of the living God through the practical and powerful work of the Saviour, Jesus Christ, sent from eternity to bring man to eternal life.

 

 

76th  Delusive Drift or Divine Dynamic

 

February 2004

ISBN 0 9751761 6 1

 

Desire or Desideratum

The Infernally Lying or the Eternally Divine

In this volume, we follow the mixture of delusion and divine dynamic, as the Author of man and history, brings the final touches to the painting which, once a matter of gore and grace at Calvary, now becomes a mixture of human ferocities as man unbalanced and far from his Rock, works out his own damnation, with fear and trembling, with pride and arrogance, with hope misplaced and dreams that are deadly.

For the social dreamers and ecclesiastical play-goers, free of the divine truth, the drift, as in drift-wood approaching a whirl pool, increasingly experiences the forces soon not so dream-like, whilst the deliverance which awaits, must come from above; for the timber of truth must be swept out of the sea into a safer place for a better construction by the Maker of all, the Saviour of some, the Lord of glory, Jesus Christ the unchanged, death defying and defeating.

Man must  not only catch the drift of these things, but cease drifting ... on an individual basis. Neither experience nor association can alter it: it comes or it goes, drifts or is delivered.

 

77th  Worn-Out World and Coming King

A Call to Spiritual Arms

March 2004

ISBN 0 9751761 8 8

This wayward world, spouting its now great swelling words of vanity more and more speciously, in sonorous hollowness to match the emptied souls, is moving inexorably, dynamised with the desperation of despair, towards an end to this stress and invidious, indeed almost sacred solemnity for the self: the natural, the divorcee from the divine. It is this, or else it makes its own divinities, and then seeks to outlaw the God who created, the Saviour who has shown His face only to have it mashed in madness ...

There is a face to face, however, and its passion in love has in no way diminished its power in judgment.

Compassion does not annul truth, but makes an avenue for its children that is safe, spiritual and godly, with no charge for admission and no end to the life so commissioned.

 

78th Christ, the Cumulative and the Culmination

News in Contemporary Conditions

In the light of eternal realities

May 2004

 

ISBN 0 9752175 1 8

It is a matter of accumulation, the cumulative, culmination, the quintessential revealed as the end is no more concealed. It is a question of receiving the answers in red ink, as after an examination. It is near. It is approaching, and it is of interest, both for the sake of those who need yet to awake, and those who being awake, can rejoice, lifting up their hearts since their final bodily redemption, even the resurrection is near (Luke 21:28).

The constant testimony of the power and precision of God is needed where blindness is a fashion, deceit is a method, propaganda is a milieu and ignorance is counted bliss, so long as it is of the word of God, the Gospel and the grace and peace in divine mercy, where it is to be found, where it is attested, where God has invested His Son, and performed His ancient works, both for Israel and for all, that some might be His when the test is concluded, and the accumulation of debris is removed.

It is time to think both practically and constructively of the end of the matter, the weighing in of enormously rich variables as they develop to maturity, within the assured certainties of the divine directions and prescribed consummation. To this one moves, as a horse to home after a gallop, and His rest is glorious.

 

79th

Importunity, Opportunity and Purity of Heart

Suffering, Sanctions and Spiritual Sanctification

ISBN 0 9752175 2 6

June 2004

Work on Job and Daniel mingles with the topical theme: seeking God with all your heart, the exigencies of sincerity, the opportunities of grace and the delectable consequences in the presence of the Almighty by His own personally appointed Way.

80th

Three Anzas and One Answer

Extravaganzas, Stanzas, Bonanzas

A Humble Heart and

The Holy God

ISBN 0 9752175 3 4

July 2004

Man is adept at breaching beauty, lusting for non-truth, building sand-castles and
watching the tide come in, with a fatal fascination, an intrigued hypnosis, it would almost seem, to destroy them. One of the latest exemplars is found in Europe in the clamour on its Constitution, and its consequences; but they started with Eve. Thrust by the 'must' of necessity, pathologically triumphant in his fallen heart, he inherits the must of decay, the vitiation wrought by vainglory. There is, as there has always been, one answer, rather more obvious than this, that 2 plus 2 equals 4. As man dives for cover at the incoming waves, it does not seem to occur to him that it is time he built up on higher ground, with the upper air serene about him.

This is still available, and though the world follow its woes with passion,
it is well to leave it to its devices, rescuing whom one may, warning all,
awaiting the call of the Christ whose worth is infinite, whose day is eternal,
whose love is practical, whose passion wise.

 

81st

THE MOON SOON

A Novel of the Era when Time Moves in on Space

Restricted publication, available only on screen.

Publishers desiring paper copies may contact us:  Email us
 

ISBN  0 9752175 4 2

July - October  2004

Bible-based novel involving personality development, interaction and ideological interchange, where pathology mounts, drama develops, intrigue unrolls and lunacy earns its name on the moon, as some of the predicted events unfold in the imaginary setting provided as an introduction to the actual soon to come.

 

82nd

Outrageous Outages, Awesome Inputs and the Courage of Christ

Insight on Site and Oversight from the Lord

ISBN 09752175 6 9

July 2004

The contemporary scene is filled with absentees, with outages, with outrages, with the outrageous, with voided insights and intrusive oversights, lacking the light of truth which transforms thought within to knowledge from above, and rebellion from reason into the sweetest of harmonies of this instrument of enquiry with the full scope of revelation from God direct, so that the indirect and the direct are there to make for man a complete certainty and a glorious unity in which He rules and overrules, His word the truth.

In this volume, the awesome insights God offers, the outrageous outages in which man persists, the oversight from divinity which never swerves and the outline which He follows for His creation, never servile, but sovereign, never cruel but kind, never manipulable but inviting: these things concern us.

83rd

THE GLOW OF PREDESTINATIVE POWER

and the Show of

Autonomous Antics
Philosophic Prancing and
Renegade Romancing

August 2004

ISBN  0 9752175 8 5

The PQ - or the QUATERNION on PREDESTINATION

The predestination trilogy (see next item below) has now become a quaternion of volumes, a new quota on predestination, foreknowledge, on liberty and necessity, and in these environs, on responsibility, duty and creativity. How do you they all cohere ? Most readily, if and only if (IFF) you follow the biblical premises.

This is because you need a truth which is there, and able to be conceived within the model you use for understanding life, the universe, time and eternity, man and his place. Mercifully, this model is provided in the Bible. It is – as just one of the innumerable verifications of its truth and source in that Truth who makes truth for man about man possible – also the desideratum which mind must seek, and the solution at which it respires with delight, when it is found. It is like water, long envisaged, often conceived, but never either found or seen as to its composition. The need however is apparent. Thirst is not without harm, too long deferred in its quest. It can even lead to poisons, damaging to the system, and destructive of life.

When you find the truth, you can at last receive the payload of which it is the Father: from a world view which is coherent, rational, harmonious in its elements, uniquely valid, workable and self-verificatory. Since without truth, it is useless to talk of exhibitions of it in overview, we need what is from God without delay. It is not surprising that He has differentiated Himself from philosophic putations by His word, and that by its power, validity and regality. There is but one attestation of this. It needs not to change, since the Creator of time is not subordinate to it, and surrogates are worthless. It is needed from the first, and to the last. There is but one attestation of that also. The Bible as proposition, the Christ as Performer, these in holy alliance are astride history as a colossus over a harbour.

For the four volumes, you may use the hyperlink below.

 

PREDESTINATION Quaternion

The trilogy noted here earlier now been expanded with one more volume to become the Quaternion on Predestination (The PQ).

Its title:

              ON PREDESTINATION and FOREKNOWLEDGE,
LIBERTY and NECESSITY,
RESPONSIBILITY, DUTY and CREATIVITY

Within the 88 volume set, there came first on the topic of predestination, will and liberty:  

 I  PREDESTINATION AND FREEWILL (January, 1997, first written in the main, 1964), No. 4.

Then, published in March 2003,  followed

 II THE MARVELS OF PREDESTINATION AND THE WAYS OF WILL, No. 61.

It was published in its Second Edition in July 2004.

In May 2003, there came 

 III THE HEAVENS ARE TELLING, No. 63.

Now in August 2004, the fourth member of this set has appeared,  No. 83,

 IV  The GLOW OF PREDESTINATION  (above), so making up the foursome.

The four volume set provides well over half a million words on the topic, enabling close concern, and showing the glory of the God who speaks, in His word as it applies to this entire field with ag harmony, explicatory power and majesty which needs to be tasted, tested and found to triumph on all sides.

Update: This is now a Quintet by the addition of
The Love of Grace and the Grace of Love , Dec. 2004, and all may be found at Search.

Update: This set  is now (2013) a seven volume work, all seven in order to be found at Predestination Heptad.

 

84th THE GODS OF NATURALISM HAVE NO GO

          y, Begone!

August 2004

ISBN 0 9752 175 0 3

A universe into a universe goes once, but a universe from nothing does not go at all. Dynamising what shrieks its protests, moreover, at such manhandling, in order to make it achieve what it quite simply is NEVER seen to do, has NEVER shown itself to possess in power, method or principle, in equipment or in process, is simply presumption personified.

It is time that its starvation diet, feeding a stomach that is not there, were made more evident. To such an end, and the glory of the Creator Himself, this book is directed, with the aid in finding the Lord Himself whose word rules all to the last nucleated cell.

There is simply no argument that can begin to stand, all totter: the talk is all air, not even hot, being cold with the ludicrous downfall of the human mind into asininity beyond all belief, while 'science' is humiliated by this philosophic intrusion from arrogant erraticism, so that it is indeed 'science falsely so-called', as one component of the more adequate definition from Timothy 'knowledge falsely so-called'. Despite the clamour of some, whoever on earth imagined that science is not one form of knowledge, so that 'knowledge falsely so-called' would not include it!

As to 'science', it has from early Greek days been precisely that fatuous combination of observation (in part) and philosophy (in the main) which it now is in the establishment,  IN THESE METAPHYSICAL AREAS in the contemporary scene.

This error is of course not the pit of all scientists, or all Ph.D. recipients in this field, not by any means, since many realise the folly of OTHER scientists, and by their hundreds hold to biblical creation, and far more scientists of course, to creation itself. It is however that false and foolish abuse of scientific method which this philosophic outrage has perpetrated for some generations now, that constitutes the contribution of the main matrix of modern 'science' to the entire knowledge situation of which it forms one cultural segment, so that this and the rest of culturally domineering human 'knowledge', in delirious combination are giving just what Paul warned Timothy to avoid, which is 'science falsely so-called' as part of 'knowledge falsely so-called'.

To be sure, it is not ONLY what we now call the 'science' element that is in view; but equally surely, it is by no means exclusive of it. The abuse of scientific method, as now defined, is quite as bad as that of the Greek philosophers of their early history. That sodden contribution of the 'classic' times of Greece with its atomic theory and the rest, mixed with doses of philosophy of an arrogant indifference to truth, is precisely what has now come of age. To ignore or to seek to subvert the apostolic warning is no service to God! It is alas, however well-intentioned a work of confusion. It is the TYPE of knowledge of man which is warned against, WHATEVER its contemporary modes, that fusion of confusion with observation which inherits the cultural collapse of faith into fiction, with the pomp and ceremony of ludicrous aspiration towards learning.

There follows then, and for many reasons but above all for the glory of God and the testimony of truth, Jesus Christ,  a collection of different parts from among our (currently) 84 volume published library on Biblical Christian Apologetics and matters pertaining to this, which put together, increase the ease both for comparison and for development of understanding in this area. The writings concerned, in their published form,  have spanned a period of some 11 years.

 

 85th

HIS WOUNDS OPENED ETERNITY

August 2004

ISBN 0 9756840 0 0

In this volume, this focus on Jesus Christ will be on what it cost, what it gave and what was the divine plan; and it may from time to time consider other plans which the planning committee of pagan humanism, irrational religions and pragmatic desire may propound, so that they who open the eyes can avoid the pit and find the place of eternity.

For my own part, I intensely love eternity, and without it, would not much value life at all: it would be like being a seed that did not germinate (John 12:1ff.). A life ? could you call it that ? It would be a preliminary without its inheritance. HAVING an inheritance in eternity is far more precious than anything this phase of life can contribute, and the beauty of it is this, that it is not by violence and terrorism, of any kind or capacity, that it is found; but it is by the gift of God that it is made available. As for our part, those of us who as Christians receive Him and all His words, we delight to bring this gift to others by that same word, and in the power of His Spirit which He has given to all His own people (Romans 8:9). It was good of God to give, it is delightful to pass it on. It is fitting to reflect on the aspects in the essence of faith, reason for the faith and the wonder of the faith, and this we seek here in no small measure, to do!

 

86th

THE MEANING OF LIBERTY AND THE MESSAGE OF REMEDY

Remedy Is - and Victory goes with it

September 2004

ISBN  0 9756840 1 9

Remedy in the domain of man is for sin

selfishness, squalor, suffering,

seediness, silliness,

seduction, servitude,

slavery, subtlety in subversion,

spawn of violence, vileness and viciousness,

species of pride, vanity, degradation, depravity,

socialistic superficiality, splendiferous without spiritual link to the Author,

communistic contempt of truth, pragmatically pursuing unscientific squalor,

spiritual self-aggrandisement, delusion and death,

severity of judgment

certitude of hell

severance

of peace, meaning, mastery, manhood, womanhood and childhood
from virtue,

of joy that is inherent, of self-control, certainty,

from the race,

indeed from the entire domain of mankind.

 

The problem is human,

The solution is divine;

just as the creation was divine,

and the desecration was human.

 

Now that desecration is systematic

as is the restitution available in

the remedy.

 

The remedy is as old as man,

as new as AD, in the year of our Lord,

as contemporaneous as the presence of the Spirit of God

in each new child of God.

 

Man is personal
(cf. It Bubbles... Ch. 9, Little Things Ch. 5, Overflight in Christ   1),

and so is the remedy.

Man is made able to reason, the remedy is demonstrable

and here demonstrated.

 

Liberty can opt for slavery,

while love appointed the service that remedy is.

 

The liberty is human,

the love is divine.

 

87th

 LOVE IS PURER

THAN THE PEAK SNOW-CRESTED,

MORE VITAL THAN ITS DASHING STREAMS:

THE LOVE OF GOD ALONE

September, 2004

ISBN 0 9756840 3 5

The compilation from earlier works of this author, on the theme of the love of God tends to leave out concentration on the area of predestination as to focus, since  this is so abundantly covered in The PQ. (see above). Having there seen divine love's explicatory power for man, and its dominant entry into the resolution of his problems of thought, we now find need to give some compilation of what has been discovered from the word and the ways of God, manifest in flesh, living in life: concerning that ultimate and original of love, the Lord. No book and no man has ever loved like this; for no one is like the Lord; and what He says, goes, so that those who go with Him, find it so.

There is now in measure, relayed in sequence an emphasis on other features of the love of God; for what passes all bounds, releasing all the bonds of harassment and delivering free to the highway of holiness, while yet relating intimately to man, is of surpassing importance. It requires the most assiduous attention, just as it itself summons it. Without this, man is but a shell, hiding a complexity which is ultimately as sad and unpicturesque as an old car, dumped in a distant yard.

 

88th "WHAT IS THE CHAFF TO THE WHEAT!"

Published October 2004

ISBN 09756840 4 3

A constant contrast of the dire realities of vacuous virtuelessness, before God, and the grounded life in Christ, with all the reaches of divinity and sublimity, the diabolical and the devious seen in their space-station outlines from the perspective of the word of God, their credentials in accord with their names.

 

89th  THE BRIGHT LIGHT AND THE UNCOMPREHENDING DARKNESS ...

WILFULLY WITLESS, WOEFULLY DRIVEN,

IT MOANS BY THE REALM OF JOY

Published November 2004

ISBN 09756840 6 X

As we watch the world developing its final 'birth' pangs, as New Age might think, but its actual death signature on mortality, assigned to the paths written for the godless, it becomes clear on every side that drastically desired darkness, as in a womb which is long past its due date, is merely a cradle of death. If the actual rattle is delayed, the signals are tempestuous, continual and mounting.

The ease with which the bright light solves all things placed in its beam has its obverse. There is no light found shining out of human consciousness, a mere reciprocal of the reality of man's invisible spirit which laughs at law (sometimes in general, hence becoming lawless, with the due results of its misdeeds), construes as it will and wonders at its own baselessness while carefully turning its back on its base, like the wilfully blind, having shut their eyes,  marvelling that they cannot see. This light is equally not human knowledge, always baffled at its place since without its source it has none, settling for mere manipulation, nor yet human aspiration, which can be for doom or dictatorship, ease or indifference.

This bright light of which Isaiah spoke (Isaiah 8:22-9:7, Isaiah 42:6, 49:6), which would dispel the darkness of anguish, it is as he declared, the Messiah.

He who came on time (cf. Highway of Holiness Ch. 4), Paul's "due time" in Galatians 4, an intensely mathematical point in history, who did the trial course, not to see if He could but to show that He would, it is He who depicted the scenario to come before He would return in judgment, when  having confirmed the Gospel, indeed make it work by His Cross and resurrection, He is to terminate trials in triumph. It is this which Isaiah had shown, centuries before,  as had others (cf. Barbs, Arrows and Balms 17), centring around Him who revealed to man in visible form, the actual presence of God in incarnation once made for all time, who is as changeless as the tide of human error.

The difference ? His word works, and man's does not; His word is love, the world's is itself; His way is wisdom, the world's is folly. His is an opening in the clouds; the world's ? it is a descent to the pit.

In this volume, with special reference to news and developments, but with such references as become fitting, often from former work to aid brevity, we shall keep a finger on the pulse of our times, use the stethoscope of scripture to cover the condition of man's inhalations, exhalations and condition andand moreover see how our times compare with the predictive cardiograph of our Age (cf. SMR Ch. 8). It will not be pleasant in all things, but it holds always something beyond mere pleasure, power and prestige, performance and manipulative capacity in the instrumentation panel of this world's construction, which is in much available to man.  It will continue to expose the sheer wonder of the word of God at work in the world, astride it like a giant Colossus, providing for it like the Great Physician which the Lord in fact is.

It presents health, wholeness, truth and mercy, peace and joy, reality and that rest which comes from reality, since His is the heart that cherishes. If the Lord of glory whom man gashed, according to the divinely announced plan (Isaiah 50-55, Zechariah 12, Psalm 22 cf. Joyful Jottings 22-25) does not cherish the restless godlessness of the renegade, yet He cherishes the call to repent, and has cherished even to the point of a cursed death, the cost of restoration of people to Himself, as many as receive Him (John  1:12). Before all time, which is a mere invention of the deity, there is He whose constructive mantle is seen over all His words (cf. The Defining Drama Ch. 10), and there being no other God (cf. Ephesians 4:4, Isaiah 44-45), it is He who in the beginning was the Word and was God. It is He who has come from the eternities of blessedness to bring eternal life to the otherwise irremediable confines of corruption.

 

 

90th  Agony, Ecstasy and the Mastery of the Messiah

Published December 2004

ISBN 0 9756840 7 8

 

This world is filled increasingly with wild sprees, violent, libidinous, alcoholic, of speed, voyeurism, viciousness, uninspired religious guesswork with blood, of market snatching, house grabbing, and of grasping profit taking, as if this were the essence of living or the goal for humanity.

At the same time, and not only in obverse, it is invaded by anguish, millions visiting psychiatrists who study the body and the brain, and consider statistics and what is desired, and often with no knowledge of the human spirit, its origin or powers, but stuck in the muck of mental reductionism, prescribe drugs, now that the invasive techniques of Freud and the discursive bewilderment of Jung are no longer economically desirable, or perhaps even statistically effective (cf.  SMR p. 335, Ch. 4, Spiritual Refreshings Ch.  9, incl. End-note 1).

But effective for what ? For removing anguish ? Scarcely. For extirpating guilt ? Hopeless. It is useless to be told that you are in the grip of this or that, when many worse placed are not. It is mere assumption, and the conscience in those where it is not annulled, does not witness as the truth, to the concept that one really only does what one has to; for often enough man does precisely what he works out is to his advantage, in spree, fee or feeling, and then does it deliberately and deliberatively (cf. Predestination and Freewill Section I).

In the midst of this bloodshed, of writhing bodies and ruined lives, of hapless imaginings and ruthless wreckage, of reductionist cartoons and repulsive behaviour, touted as good and progressive, there remains what even a debased race can find as the unalterable, immutable and the beautiful, the beginning and the end for all creation, Jesus Christ. His lowly state is the very epitome of contrast to the direct or indirect self-praise of man; His total potency for good is the blessed opposite of the so much desired power of evil which afflicts the contemporary world; His precise prophetic position, making Him unmissable and immiscible alike, resembles His own predictions which arrive like stations on a suburban line, inexorably, naturally and continually (cf. SMR Ch. 8).

His salvation as Messiah, the one anointed to suffer, to die, to cover sin and remove its distressing guilt, to renew a race of individual believers and construct them into His Church, not by pieces of bread or illicit masters (Matthew 23:8-10, John 6:61-63), not by wild surmises using the Bible as a tooth brush to tickle the teeth rather than a covenant creator to purge the soul, but by grace and divine power, in love and divine wisdom: this remains. The mastery of his coverage of man's will, spirit and history, and His own procedures in doing so are in the last chapters, considered with the delight they evoke as the only rational answer to the nature of man.

 

91st

THE LOVE OF GRACE AND THE GRACE OF LOVE

 

Volume 5 in what is now The Predestination Quintet

 

Published December 2004

ISBN 0 9756840 9 4

 

 

In presenting the fifth volume of the Predestination Quintet (which aptly can still be called THE PQ), one is constrained by two considerations. Firstly, the volume which contained what are now chapters 4-8 below, had grown all but unwieldy in size. Secondly, new material has need of a place, and as the two phases, the old and the new seem suited partly by contrast, the one outlining the wonder of the other, as when a moon is seen sailing over dark clouds, this book has sprung into life.

One of the stimuli to the earlier chapters came from a lively letter to which they in part form the reply, and in part are beyond it; so that there is a more personal element.

The grace of love is one of the major considerations, so that when one looks to God, one is not seeing an eviscerated sovereign, any more than a callow controller; but one of a wisdom which is as beautiful as His love, who knowing all, loses none that love would reach, and reaching, brings in none whom guile works!

He is the God of truth, and loves in truth, but is in nothing moved from the truth; and it is wonderful than in all truth, His mercy is available, so that there is no reason to surrender to this world, when the Maker of it is ready to receive. If you say, But I am not sure of my reception, the beauty of it is this, IF you come, THEN you are WARRANTED the reception of your life, in both senses!

 

92nd

TRIALS, TESTS and TRIUMPHS in TEMPTATION

with JOB for FOCUS

ISBN 0 9756840 8 6

December 2004

So much is said so often about the evils of this world, and then about the alleged hardness of God, and then about unbelief in Him, or the construction of this or that silly little goddy thing, instead of Him, that it is time to be sober, rational, realistic and attentive to the realities that are in fact His, attested, verified, validated and secure (cf. SMR). This is not so customary!

In unpleasant fact, these goddy things, idolatrous inventions in biblical terminology, a very word for idol in Hebrew signifying vanity, nothings: they may be constructed for diverse reasons. It may be in order to make men prosperous, or vanquishing, or to be sensually replete, perhaps gastronomically, sexually, to secure for them prominence, not of teeth but of tongue, to have place in the purlieus of prestige, or if not, perhaps to be sensitive with a sort of spiritual pining, as if melancholy were the preferred mode, perhaps interspersed with a few wild sprees, morally or in bibulous or spiritual intoxication or the like, to atone. In view of the temper not to say tantrums of our Age,  it seems good to focus on a far different thing, the trials and triumph, by the grace of God alone, of Job. He is not precisely a hero; but he is certainly an example, and a very good one, a joy to consider and an education to ponder, as we study his case in the book of Job.

To this end, it has seemed good to collect some of the writings on Job, that have previously been published in the 91 volumes so far presented by this writer on the Web, at webwitness.org.au, and to make a collection in subject progression, of these, with additions to add depth and scope.

Job himself, in his case, eminently clear in scripture, is sometimes made into such a 'mystery' that it is a wonder how the world can continue so long with such misconstructions of a key player in the example department of the Bible. Certainly it is a profound thing, but scarcely difficult to understand if you follow the text, which does not appear the most common procedure.

In this context, the matter of trials and suffering is given focus. Much of the problem here is a determination to treat God as if man were His judge, and events were His unchaste desire. To forget sin is easy, like forgetting smoking when you have lung cancer; but it is equally useless and fantasising to do so. The world is in the grip of sin to the point that its very sanity as a system comes into some manner of question; its misuse of design in the performance and preference of desire is virtually a cult. God is then harangued, or not believed in - sometimes in a childish spirit as if to say, 'Very well then, I just won't believe in you, so there!' as if some statistical fear would operate on the Almighty as rebellion increases.

It is however far otherwise that truth is. When a world is under curse, there are only two options. One is to bear it and this is noble in a Roman sort of way, but futile. Another is to have it waived in your own case; and that is sound and sensible for does the Creator want you cursed ? It is all and only a question of justice. Impudence deserves caning but repentance is relevant to its omission. When however justice is essential, then only mercy can operate; and to do so, God has borne the 'caning' (literally in fact in something worse by far than the undesirable rattan) for those who appeal for mercy. You get those who think He bears it anyway, just because it is apt, appropriate and available to all and is provided on their behalf (I John 2:1-2); and those who do not like it at all, despite Isaiah 53, and Galatians 3 with Romans 3 and Hebrews 7-10.

It is always so, those against the government, in this case, that of the universe, of mankind. It does not alter anything, unless you overthrow the government, and to overthrow your Creator is just as silly piece of childish inanity, since you can be de-created in an instant, for that matter. Liberty however gives you scope, and scope is provided by love from the Creator, along with mercy and free pardon (Titus 3:3-7), and for that matter, with eternal life. While there are profound depths back of sin, there is profound love in God (cf. Colossians 1:19ff.), and in view of this, there is no slightest danger of any being lost who might be found. Pardon is free because its securing by Christ was costly. The knowledge of God removes one from the shape of things where wind blows the chaffing chaff; and if suffering occur, as it will, then the joy of service becomes the restoration of meaning in the presence of the God who acts for those who wait for Him.

 

2005

 

In December,  there had been 24 new volumes published.

 

In January, 6 volumes.

By August, 17 new volumes.

93rd   SWIFT WITNESS

ISBN 0 9757291 1 X

Originally, this volume was produced, step by step, as various challenges were issued to aspects of biblical truth, or otherwise found and met. They have been culled from the work of 8 years.

It now seems good to have these available as a volume for review by many who may have similar thoughts, ideas or difficulties, so that the unique beauty, harmony and validity of the Bible may be savoured, in this case, at times like a war-ship in action, at times like a vessel passing through narrow straits.

Here is the opportunity to see wind-tunnel tests, examine, probe,  and give one's mind to these things. Some of these have appeared in such volumes as THAT MAGNIFICENT ROCK.

Number 12 below is of special interest as it formed a three-pronged attack on the Bible, and some may wish to see how profoundly vigorous and stable is the Bible, like a rocky coast, under all attack, there.

As a compilation of numerous answers to challenges put, or found,  these items present an opportunity for many who may share the concerns or desires for enquiry which they attest. Their scope is wide, but the answers are on a consistent basis, the only one which is valid in all points and verified at all attempts to test it, that of the Bible. It is its amazing scope of providing light for any angle of interest, in a coherent, consistent fashion which is one of its most total verifications.

 

94th. and 95th.

Just published January 2005, The gods of naturalism have no go!

in a TRILOGY, to replace the former single volume,
which tends ... to grow. These, within the basic title as above,

have their own individual sub-titles, Namely: I    Naturally They Don't Go,

                                                                    II    Necessarily They Don't Go and

                                                                    III   Nothing Doesn't Go!

ISBNs for the three separate volumes:
0 9757291 2 8, 0 9757291 3 6 and 0 9757291 4 4 rather then one.

 

The original single volume was

No. 84.

 

96th.

THE GRATING GRANDEUR AND AGGRANDISEMENT OF MAN

AND THE MEEKNESS OF THE MAJESTIC MESSIAH

January 2005

ISBN 09757291 5 2

He is never done. Let him be bankrupt, like the USSR, and in need, let him have drove of foreign scientists help his perilously undisciplined stocks of nuclear weapons, and let world banking lend massive funds; it is still a matter of boasting of having new inter-continental rockets that will not be matched by the 'enemy' for a long time! Man is inveterate ... it is not just Putin, disputing the dynamics in the lost land that glorified man in Communism and abased mankind to the uttermost in dismal reductionism and defiant devilries, too well documented by one of its own people, Nobel laureate, Solzhenitsyn (cf. SMR pp. 971-972).

It is Europe. It too is a new emblem and has a new ensign to show its glory. In muted terms, they refer to their Christian background, basis or tradition (as on the DW TV documentary here screened on December 16, 2004), and in loud ones to the question whether Turkey can be taken cold turkey, or must be garnished a while. To be sure, it is wise to ensure that the social treatment of man is at least in some discernible way within the confines of some reasonable legal system, and not the resultant of religious dynamics which assume what does not stand, and work on what has fallen and failed these millenia since its foundation (cf. Divine Agenda Ch. 6, More  Marvels Ch. 4, SMR pp. 829ff.). Yet to what excellent glory is Turkey seeking entry ?

After all, what has Europe itself been doing ? Let us forget for the moment its two not so glorious world wars of the recent past (in such a perspective as this).

What are these traditions ? those of the Inquisition ? It has failed to affirm so far in its new Constitution all this glorious christianity, spelt here with a small 'c' because it is a small and diminutive edition of the real thing which is actually based on the meek but majestic Messiah, Jesus Christ, not on inquisitions* for centuries, grabbing riches for Rome and Romanism, and torturing bodies whose possessors do not believe in illicit magic and dreamed doctrines which are neither true not biblical (cf.  SMR pp. 1032-1088H). There is no glory in shame.

The ONLY GLORY is in the meek Majesty of the Messiah who DIED rather than murdered, who AROSE rather than slithered into ridiculous posturings of 'greatness' reduced constantly to ruin or the deliquescences of pride overruled and dripping into its dank spiritual slums. By contrast, what the Messiah claimed, He demonstrated; what He said He would do, He did, what He asserted, it stood and all the king's horses (such as those of Herod) and all the king's men (such as those of the High Priest), yes and all Rome's audacious imperial aura, reduced to folly indeed by Nero as time passed, could not smash the Holy One, though they tried as much as wit and work could muster.

                                                                                 *********

97th and 98th

REASON, REVELATION and the REDEEMER

Irresistible Reason for Certain Faith

in 2 volumes,

REASON LEADING TO REVELATION
and the REDEEMER

ISBN 0 9757291 7 9

and

REASON LEADING FROM FALSE REVELATION
and to Verification

ISBN 0 9757291 8 7

January 2005

There are a number of systematic points of basic kind in the nature of providing a reason for the Christian faith. It is unique in that nothing else provides demonstration or can do so, as is shown in these pages. To present these matters both in overview and in specialised coverage of major issues is the purpose of the current two volume work, specialising in the first section rather in the positive, to find the way, in the second, in the negative, to discard what is not.

Naturally, there is a nexus of impacts, but this is the trend.

The approach in method and the successive and accumulating confirmations is always as startling to mind,  as expected by faith. The living God and Father of Jesus Christ is not distant, except to sin, near to faith, near to reason, and all that is in man attests Him.

 

99th

DIZZY  DASHES    , HEADY CLASHES
AND THE BRILLIANT HARMONY OF INEVITABLE TRUTH

February 2005

 ISBN 0 9757291 9 5

Penetrating Peace

Dizziness is a state of mind and consciousness, of perception and appreciation which lacks solidity, soundness, reliability, so that what ought to be stable, whirs or blurs, and what ought to be clear is dimmed or whirling and thought without actually ceasing, is under arrest.

To walk in such a state renders one vulnerable; but to dash when under such constraints is foolish, and could well be deadly.

Dizzy dashes are one of the trade-marks of our times, where passions aroused, with ideologies like dark glasses obscuring vision for millions, if not billions, and lurching revenge and monetary, commercial and national hopes and lusts joining in the whirling throng, there is every opportunity for inane bloodshed, incredible torture, indescribable indignity and inveterate vice.

Power has grown, and idolatry with it. The devils are no better than ever they were, but their devotees now aim at atomic weapons, such as Iran is reputed to be near to having in her grasp, and North Korea, both absolutist States, where a few dominate the many, with or without any measure of acceptance.

To help in the disabuse of many, and the arrival of some to His kingdom, the kingdom of heaven, where the liberty of the Lord is at work, this volume is written: it is presented in the interests of that truth which, verified on every side, does not wait for permission to exist, but manifests itself in the patience of God as His  program comes to its peak, in the return of the Prince of peace. It is well to be ready (Matthew 24:1-10, 36-51).

 

100th

LITTLE ANGEL

February 2005

ISBN 0 9757385 1 8

Here is a work of allegory, showing the adventures of an angel not so sophisticated as some, but with a heart like a child, but a grown mind, seeking to minister to the heirs of salvation, and making to the Throne of Heaven, a surprising request.

 

101st

JOURNEY TO GOD

OR

FANTASY'S FLIGHT TO THE INFERNAL

The Dynamics of Disintegration and
the Delights of Restoration 

Sequel to LITTLE ANGEL

March 2005

ISBN 0 9757385 1 8

 

102nd

HISTORY, REVIEW AND OVERVIEW
HELPS, HINDRANCES AND HOLINESS

March 2005

ISBN 0 9757385 4 2

This volume is intended to expose some of the stories men invent, to present in contrast the history which makes no parade, but  happens, to provide helps from the eternal word of the everlasting God, to show hindrances in their undressed state, free of phrases that cover gross over-weight and inadequacy, and to expose the fact that  all of this human populace that do not know the Lord,  are speeding to corruption that need not occur. It is to show this in the light of  the holiness which God desires, His word declares, and He makes available for man.

It is like looking at a lake of serene splendour, set in the snows of refreshing altitudes, and then from this perspective, considering the dust of delusive dynamisms, below.

 

103rd

IMPOSSIBLE TO MEN, OPEN TO GOD

April 2005

ISBN   0 9757385 5 0

 

This volume is intended to bring the contrast, not between man's past and present achievements, a motley lot at best, but between man's power and that of  God, man's morals and the principles of deity, man's pride and the divine humility, puny problematics of creation posing as ultimate, and simple solutions found in the Creator, acting as He is.

It does not ameliorate man's position or condition; but it does show the divine way, attested and vindicated, that of salvation in Jesus Christ, which may be omitted as may breath from the nostrils, but with more cost. To omit the power, place and presence of God by attested covenant and promise in one's life, is simply to be partially unmade, unmanned and hence insalubrious in spirit, derelict in destiny, a potential unmet.

 

104th

ALLEGORIES, APOLOGUES AND ACRONYMS

Imagery with Verse for Christ the Lord

May 2005

Reset with additions,  from July 2003,
now in two volumes 

ISBN   for Vol. 1    0 9750778-7-2

            for Vol. 2    0 9757385-6-9

See Volume 66 above.

 

105th

CELESTIAL HARMONY FOR THE TERRESTRIAL HOST

Omitting the Evanescent Extremes
and Taking the Picture from the Book
Ministers Peace to His People, His Body, His Church

May 2005

ISBN      0 9757385-8-5

Hallowed be Thy name is frequently part of a prayer; hallowed be Thy word is parallel (cf. Isaiah 8:20), and one way to do this is to avoid evanescent extremes, pugnacities of flesh and actually be guided by what it says as to what it means! Names of man's parties in this setting are close to irrelevant, for the name of God is infinitely above all other, and if man does not like to have his name used for the words of other men, or his words used with the names of others, how vastly worse is it to plagiarise or impel one's own thoughts into those of God! When this is avoided and justice done to the word of God, how readily do contentions abate, winds of passion dispel; and valuable unity is ready. I Corinthians 3, Paul's stricture on parties with names, has been ignored by many as if it were the eleventh commandment to do just the opposite! Treasure is available when the word of God is given its place.

Ten areas are examined.

 

106th

THE TRUE GOD HAS GO, GIVES GROWTH AND GLORY

May 2005

ISBN   0 9757 385 9 3

 

The true God is known by what He does, and this is but one of the evidences of who He is. One of the things He does is give growth, a most fascinating reality, and when considered, an all but overwhelming tour de force and bastion of brilliance in itself. To this, attention must be paid, so that its reality is realised, and His action is pondered, as all truth must be for those who do not disdain wisdom.

Before growth of course, is existence, and since there is no mandate for magic, existence requires a source, basis and GO to put it there. Laws do not languish in clouds of vapour, or thought for that matter, but can operate only where a SYSTEM is ALREADY present, in which they have either cognitive or operational significance.

Glory too requires a source. There is in man a desire for it, whether in sport, in architecture, in painting, in politics, in nations and in the multiplicity of man’s aspirations; and although it is frequently, and perhaps most frequently associated with vain, futile, destructive and at times all but whimsical and sick selfishness, there is a positive side, and a healthy one to it.

Such seeking of glory, when healthy and not obsessed with self or its appointees,  can be the very essence of reality that is sought, not the pushing of some proud wheel-barrow, thrust by an idiot, seeking a goal of evanescence. When it is to the objectively indicated God of truth, the Lord of the Bible, it is the greatest topic and task, as well as the most fruitful. It can be the adornment of the race, in this, that it is residual from the GO that put man into being, and a seeking for the GOD and not the merely mouthed magic, who is required for his very existence.

When THAT is the glory sought, so that all other gloriousness is merely derivative to the glory of that glory-source, then it is well.

107th

BEYOND THE CRYPT: THE DIVINE SCRIPT AND THE FACE OF GOD
 

June  2005

ISBN  0 9757881 0 8

 

Information, Inflammation, Conflagration,
Consummation with Comfort, or Inextinguishable Ashes
 

It is comforting to know in the face and light of this that there is light for man that NOTHING can extinguish, alter, mutate or manipulate; for it is not to a Government House Garden Party but to the grace of the eternal God that each one is invited, and the actual Invitation is provided for you within, and it is found in the script, when you accept what is offered. It is not available for gate crashes really, no, not at all. It is here, in the Redeemer provided, Jesus Christ, and in HIM ALONE (Acts 4:11-12), that you find rest, reality and eternity in which your place comes as one of His own. The thing is sure, and past all surmise, concrete, evidenced and assured. Its perspectives, in the kingdom of heaven, are the most vital element hidden from the eye of wandering man.

 

108th

WALKING IN THE LIGHT AND KEEPING YOUR EYES OPEN

For Eyes Fast Closed, Truth is Opposed:

More Humble, less Stumble

July 2995

ISBN  0 9757881 2 4

It is not the swinging of some pendulum, but the truth which is needed, and it is needed NOW.

Sensationalistic Pentecostalism is just as far astray from actual scripture as is the weak-minded, knobbly-kneed tepidity of the crass humanism of Liberalism, which has driven many to seek something, somewhere, that is far better. Churches have depopulated statistically, through such liberal approaches to the Lord, who is made over by this method, as really as by Muhammad and the sects; and it is not at all surprising to find now an increasing indifference to the prohibition on spiritual fellowship with sects such as Islam or whatever else may have some prospect of 'success'.

Pentecostalism has been the recipient of many who have left straying denominations, just as in large swathes, it also by repeated exhibition of unscriptural emphasis, and de-emphasis of commands,  misleads: in its own way, ignoring to such an extent the very scriptures concerning gifts as did the Liberals other scriptures concerning Israel and the power of God.  False prophets do indeed abound, and whether it be denial of gifts or sensationalistic focus on them, it is all one: it is ANYTHING but the loving, gracious, believing, faithful reality from which both these extremes move as drift-wood, graying in the sun as they are baked on the river of life, which drives popular appeal. So they drift, moving to the sea and the swamps of meaningless humiliation.

In this volume, therefore, our attention to the bible will be on simply, what it says, where to go, how to go, what is happening and how to treat it, regard it, from a scriptural viewpoint, remembering that just as the 'Jerusalem' of yesterday was destroyed for its depravities, so the 'world' of today parades its pomp and hideous presumption,  awaiting a similar end.

KEEP YOUR EYES OPEN! or WATCH AND PRAY,  as Christ indicated in the latter part of Matthew 24, as well as in speaking to the disciples before the crucifixion. Such is the underlying message of this volume, which also specialises on Job, exhibiting that what is required is not mere speculative frenzies, focussed on man as if the water explained the heavens, but actual reality, duly confirmed and validated, as nothing else is.

This work also, however, is dealing with the other phase, WALKING IN THE SPIRIT as in Galatians 5, for keeping your eyes open is but half. If you do not know what to make of what you see, how are you advantaged,  except in some things; where as in all things you need due care!

If the Spirit of God is not in you, you are not a Christian, says Paul in Romans 8; and to walk in the Spirit means NOT to be

a formalistic substitute for a Christian, or

a sacramentalist version of the idolatrous (cf. Questions and Answers Ch. 2), or

indeed ANYTHING which is not the case required by the Lord.

And that ? It is where Christ is EVERYTHING to you, first and foremost, His life your love, His word your law, His royalty your rule, His deity your inspiration, His power your resource, His wisdom your benison and His grace your basis for reflection as you move with it, of it and in it (cf. I Corinthians 1:29-30).

109th

SCIENTIFIC METHOD,

SATANIC METHOD

AND THE MODEL OF SALVATION

ISBN 09757881 3 2

August 2005

Scientific method needs re-affirmation, clarification and application as the devices of delusion, with incredible effrontery, seek to add to their captives, even many in this arena.

 

110th

DANCERS, PRANCERS, LANCERS AND ANSWERS

LANCERS

 and ANSWERS

ISBN 09757881 4  0

August 2005

 

Psalm 2 gives the theme, modern history gives the dream, the past provides the depth and the future is frisky, on our doorstep as oblivion takes hold, a bad combination for prancing.

The age-old answer does not change; truth does not do that sort of thing.

111th

ON TRANSLATIONS OF THE BIBLE
WORDS ABOUT WORDS

Get out of the Way,
To Let the God of the Bible
Have His Say!

 September 2005

ISBN 09757881 5 9

Translating is a fascinating task, demanding integrity of thought, spirit and conscience, sensitivity and non-intrusive perceptiveness. While none is without sin, each who translates must seek the ultimate in fidelity to the original, and wonderful have been the works done.

Such matters are dwelt on, as are 53 texts in particular, where the Bible is given scope to express itself in its glorious liberty, so that the Lord may be honoured as is His due. This work has been in progress since 1999, and has gradually expanded to about 500 pages.

There is in the Bible, such a cohesive correlation of the topics, themes, spirit, order, organisation, penetration of one aspect with another,  of meanings, that it is like some living skyscraper, some organic whole, synchronised in splendour, moulded in majesty. Thus so far is it from needing 'help', which is very often a name for cultural invasion from baseless premisses, that when with the utmost care, one brings out what is there, in the text for one's own language: then there is a resonance with the rest of the scriptural structure, a clarity which compels, a virtuous verification like that of sunshine on flowers, bringing out the perfumes resident.

 

112th

October 2005

ISBN 09757881 7 5

 

DESERTS AND DESSERTS, DELICACIES AND DESICCATIONS

Spiritual News, Biblical Truths

As the name implies, this volume deals with the heights and depths, with the light and darkness,
with the beautiful and  the horrendous, with the godly and the ungodly, and covers no small amount of the books of Daniel and Revelation in its scope, to show the power and wonder, the grief and anguish, the grandeur and the majesty: the glory in God, and the national, international, personal and social disease, the disaster of sin.

This brings its predicted fruition, dying vines in the parched desert, for a rebellious race, and abundant vintage from the children of God in the meadows of His Majesty. Attachment to the vine brings forth delicacies, and it is not only emotional, devotional and delighted attachment; it is also a disciplined one, where fidelity flows from faith, and joy from the presence of the Lord in the heart of the redeemed sinner, who looks not back, but on to the glorious and ever nearer intimate reaches of the Highway of Holiness, paved by the Lord from of old, paid for at Calvary, alight with the sheer splendour of the resurrection - from One who paid, died and rose, for all who receive this payment in faith - shining on the way.

 

 

113th

Published November 2005

ISBN 09757881 8 3

The MAJESTIC MIGHT of the MERCIFUL MESSIAH: JESUS

In one sense it is as if the Lord had mobilised His resources, not just to set man free from the wall of Hitler’s Europe, or Stalin’s Iron Curtain, or prospectively from the horrors of Christian persecution behind the bamboo curtain, but from the shame and sequestration from blessedness achieved by sin in co-operation with the devil, a folly worldwide in scope, and  with the prospect of a just judgment. How then shall we escape, asks the scriptures of God, if we neglect so great a salvation! (Hebrews 2:1-3).

In this volume, therefore, as the time draws yet closer for the return of Christ as Judge (John 5:19ff.), it is needful for each person to contemplate, attest and reckon with His justice, His mercy, His Gospel, His historical control, His victorious provisions, triumphant truth and majestic oversight, with His wonderful kindness to the human race, when it reaches out for His creation in mankind.

This, as in Titus 3, finding Him where He is (Isaiah 55), may thus close in contract with the Gospel, and then live in and for Him. It is He who is to be found, who as Lord then lives by His Spirit according to His word, in the lives of those who so find Him, who has lived on earth to do His amazing work, and will return, the time being near. There is no other way, God or salvation, procedure or program, life, witness or way; for all falls but He, and nothing rises again, but He.

It is not some procedure to avoid hardship; it is one to find God, and with Him, the beauty of His holiness, the wonder of His new creation of life within, as He by His Spirit lives in and with His children, the privilege of serving Him, and the meaning of His manufacture of man, not for some questionable or querulous purpose, but for the glorious opportunity to become children of the living God.

 

114th

Published November 2005

ISBN 09757881 9 1

SEEN BY ANGELS: WORDS FROM THE WINGS

 

THE CONVERSATION OF ANGELS

AND THE ANGLES OF MEN

 

It is thought convenient to have one volume where the conversations of the angels which have been imagined, may be found together.

Sections 1 and 2 represent entire volumes which focus words from the wings,  as a major feature.

The last two Sections as at November 2005,  3 and 4, cover, feature and expose what appears to be a crusade against the God of creation, which is shown uncreative, unproductive and invalid.

Since overall, it has some 200 pages, it can readily form one volume, which is number 114 in the set, In Praise of Christ Jesus.

Since He is the Creator (Colossians 1:14ff.), and the Creator is ONE and GOD (Isaiah 44:24, 45:12,18), who is triune (Isaiah 48:16),  it is clear how He could say, "I and My Father are one," so inciting the disbelieving the Jews of His day, that they took up stones because, said they, you being man make yourself God (John 10:30-33).

In fact, of course, He being God, had made Himself man, an infinite difference, as in Philippians 2. It is He of whom it is said, "God was manifested in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen by angels, preached among the Gentiles, believed on in the world, receive up into glory" (I Timothy 3:16).

Hence, to the point of our present volume, there is an acute derogation of Jesus Christ in the assault on the Creator, which thing deserves attention from those who know Him, their Prince ? yes but also the Prince of Life,  to whom death has bowed not only in His own sacrificial death, but in such deaths as before this, He found it a fitting testimony to overcome with life. The theme 'resurrection' is available in both indexes, and merely a part of His activities for those who receive Him.

The overcoming of death, sickness, sentence on sin, frustration and pollution, poison of the heart and waywardness of the mind is His gift,  and salvation is so glorious that the impecunious impieties which seek to adjust Him, cardinally in the Cross but in other ways since, for there is no more life issue than that of your Creator, become like compulsive overdraft retainers.

 

 

Predestination Quintet - from Volume I thesis of 1964, to Volume 5 December 2004. See this hyperlink for its constituent volumes.

 

115th

Published November 2005

ISBN 0 9758436 0 5

 

PROCLAMATION FROM THE WORD OF GOD

 

Expository Sermons and Sermon Notes

 

These are largely sermon notes, not of the skeletal kind, but although formulated in the normal style one might associate with exposition and application, they are in general two, or three, sometimes four pages long, giving a background to the sermon preached. In all, there is something at least of the order of 200 pages of these.

 

In this way, one may contact many scriptures in both Testaments, and without hearing a long exposition, find the nature of the message and expand it at one's own leisure, once the fundamentals are established.

 

Some of the messages have an audio supplement, which is available on the Web at

http://webwitness.org.au/aduioprovision.html

 

As the pure word of God is ignored, so it must be preached; and as many fail to know its very form and impact, so this provides a speedy way of becoming familiar with many great passages in the word of God, and many of its great themes, by simple exposition, comparison with other scriptures, exposure of themes and thrust, and attention to detail where this is imposing in importance, even for a short summary of the message.

 

An earlier volume, Hear the Word of God! contains a number of full-length sermons and a variety, and this forms a partner to make a pair of these volumes. Both volumes show the coherence, consistency, harmony and depth of the biblical teaching, often exhibiting its prophecies, always fulfilled, never failing, and its fulfilment in tenor, in spirit, in principle and in practice. Its wisdom makes other options superfluous, and its verification comes both positively and negatively, the latter in the plight of the world in arrears in its debt of obedience to God, in fears in its depth of depravity from God, in tears in its traumas and a variety of gears for violation, vileness and villainy, political, personal, social and international. It is not for nothing that the UK and the US were so great when the Bible had a greater hold on them, apart from human traditions, even a notable and famous grip compared with the present; and the absence of salt is making the stew a study in tastelessness.

 

The sermons are not arranged in the order of their preaching, but in the order of the books of the Bible, to enable easy reference and selection as need arises.

 

Remember, also, that a large body of material is available from this link, where various scriptural verses are expounded or applied. Moreover, Bible study provision is made extensively in this site.

 

 

116th

Published December 2005

ISBN 0 9758436 2 1

THE DESIRE OF THE NATIONS
AND THE CRYSTALLINE FIRE OF THE FAITH

The vainglorious desires of man, the polluted fragments of a broken image, these obtrude like a wen.

They breed with

	ideas which  are a vanity, without ideals, and with ideals, a dream without vision in the absence of God,  and with
	vision, a mere name without God.

Indeed, 

	the name of God of little value to a man or woman or a child, unless it be called on;
	and the calling is of small repute unless it be by faith;
	and the faith achieves but little and is empty,
	unless it is in Him whom God sent as receptacle for the lost,        and Redeemer for the sinners.

Even seeking Him without repentance, this is absurd and obnoxious, since as He declared, He came to save sinners, not 'righteous' people; and His opinion of such a delusion is well expressed in one of the most incandescent condemnations of all time, in Matthew 23.

Hence the crystalline fires of the faith need attention, for they do not burn those who attentively watch them, in the Lord, as those who watch a furnace through glazed windows; and the Desire of the Nations cannot be too closely watched, who is the Shepherd whom this race despising, becomes the Judge of those who vomit their own mercy, in the gastronomic mess of unbelief. The faith, it must be held; it must be deployed; and the object of it, the Christ, if not taken, leaves merely a gap, like an untreated wound, awaiting the onset of this, or possibly that, infection.

 

2006

17 volumes January - December 2006

117th

Published January 2006

ISBN 0 9758436 3 X

THE WIT AND WISDOM OF THE WORD OF GOD,
THE BIBLE: TRUE TO TEST

 

Better awake to the Bible,

than bibulous or blind

 

 

WHERE NOW IS MAN ?

 

In his dominating cultural conditioning, he becomes as a witless word in a wandering world, departing from the wit and wisdom of the word of God, wanting to make all things new in some collision of East and West, Left and Right, explicit and implicit, conscious and unconscious, some clutter and clatter of synthetic syncretism, as if weed killer and weed were mixed with malted milk and roast beef and Yorkshire pudding, together with industrial waste, since it has to go somewhere: this becomes the new universal fashion, and it justly finds its way impassable. So the world worries, but it does not act on the Book of the Lord.

 

What would one expect ? Is it enough to take all the examination papers of all students and mix them up, finding now this way and now that of presenting truth and error, brilliance and the grotesque doltishness of inanimation, as if mixture were a fixture for faith, an answer to conundrums and a way in the wilderness,  which comes vainly when you are busy both straying and inventing a false dusk, because you shirk the light.

 

Of course men’s hearts are failing for fear, as Luke 21 predicted, from fear of atomic bombs in militant Islamic hands, in terrorist hands, of sudden devastation by dirty bombs, and any of a whole array of misguided power with guided missiles or even shoulder mounted rockets, of Iranian  devastations to give point to the talk of removing Israel from the map, as they pursue their urge. And what does Islamic tradition abundantly attest of many nations ? It is brutality to women as in some of Islam’s common procedures, inveterate desire to rule from a religion false to verification and a mere dream unsubstantiated in the face of the Bible, which in ALL things come to pass precisely as shown.

 

Instead, the new Fourth World War comes, seeking a place, using a religion self-contradictory, passing off biblical prophets as forerunners of its own false prophet, and then contradicting their whole sacrificial system of atonement which they propounded in the Bible, where grace gives the pardon, and mercy has feet (cf. More Marvels …  Ch. 4, SMR pp.  1080ff.), while inventing a false christ centuries after the true one, without even being consistent in the invention (cf.  Tender Times for Timely Truth Ch.  8,  *1  esp.,  SMR 986ff., 1088Dff.).

 

That as one of the tribe of false prophets to come, is just what Christ, His word the testable truth, proclaimed would come (Matthew 24:24). It is like spots in chicken-pox. Once you have the disease, they can be predicted; and here the disease is dismissal of the tried, true and tested word of God (cf. SMR), and pursuit of a review-modelling religion, founded where fruition lacks, verification fails and invention is not sustained (cf. SMR pp. 829ff., Divine Agenda ... Ch. 6).

 

 

Like epileptic attacks, man convulses first into Nazism, then Communism, then New Age convolutions of abstruse non-verifications and diffuse thought (cf.  SMR pp.  867ff.), then Islamic submission to what is not first submitted to test, then humanism comes to its dark pinnacle, in ever-new Earth Charters, c/- Russia (cf. It Bubbles... Ch. 11 as marked), the bankrupted relic, then pragmatism decides to profit from a China which rustles its silk purse to buy souls, imprisons saints, seeks to supervise Christianity, and having sold the soul in godless materialism which is not even possible (cf. Repent or Perish Ch. 7), then seeks to help others invest their properties in its prosperity, till it should have enough industrial might and God-forsaking commerce in its vest, to invest Taiwan. Thus appears the trend of things, and if it were not so, who could be happier than this author ? But evidence must be faced.

 

No in the shinty-towns of fallen faith, not in the slums of scientistic shibboleths, run from the citadels of cultural oppression, but where truth lies, where it is found, where it meets the facts, yes and surpasses them, not merely answering all the questions with sustained and verified answers, but doing so uniquely and with unique validity: this is where man finds meaning, and ceasing to be witless, gains from the wit and wisdom of his Maker, the path for his progress and the joy for his spirit. It is the joy which is founded in truth, not in its loudly declared absence, as if this could be true, it is this which remains; and it is the Jesus Christ whose written word, the Bible, has both the content and coverage, and the predictive power and the retrospective principles which are incapable of demolition, and remain unassailable to any test, thus completing near 3500 years of such revelation: it is He who remains.

 

 

118th

Published February 2006

ISBN 0 9758436 4 8

 

BON VOYAGE!

NOT around the world

but in Christ, Guided by God, Led by the Lord

 

 It used to be quite the thing! Bon voyage! Bon voyage!

There was the shop, a masterpiece of comfort and containment, fitted for the high seas, there was the voyage planned, there the oceanic vastness and there the opportunity. One was off, off to the maritime wilds and the splendour of seascapes, the bitings winds, the crested monsters in water and the flying fish in their day, all part of the way.

Streamers would bring colour to tears, and their eventual snapping would signalise and be symbol of the parting. What would await those left, and those who had just left! History would pulse and ebb, events would muster and men would fluster, but the path of destiny was awakening, as if from a momentary sleep, and what was to be would now unfold.

There is however a better voyage, which has a greater good, and a more exciting way which has vaster magnitudes, that with God. It is not found in ill-expected oddity, like the falling of a star, any more than that other voyage of which we have been considering the details; but like it,  is a purposeful expedition, with indeed a better purpose and a better result. This journey too has its objectives, its marvels and its life, and it leads where destiny unfolds and reads like a book.

When that voyage of life is in Christ, then the sadness is rather now the tears of repentance, and the streamers which must break, as they do, are those of attachment to this world and its ways, its cultural fibres and vainglorious adventures in the adventitious. Not now as the chaff which the wind blows is the VOYAGE which one undertakes, but as a discerned, directed, dynamic and at core, delightful thrust, as the Lord puts out His hand to stabilise, secure, send and accompany one in the midst of what may move from high drama and astounding confrontations with this world, its evils and its ballyhoo, to the call for enduring patience in the face of quiet continuation in tasks for the talents given, and projects for the pulsing heart to complete while it is still day, while one still can, while the Age still continues and the engines of predestination still churn towards the assured end.

 

119th

Published February 2006

ISBN 0 9758436 5 6

THE CHILD, THE YOUTH AND THE ETERNAL TRUTH

For an introduction to this volume, see the PREFACE from the above hyperlink.

 

120th

Published March 2006

ISBN 0 9758436 7 2

SCALING THE HEIGHTS, SCANNING THE DEPTHS, SPANNING THE BREADTH: JESUS CHRIST HAS THE ANSWER

Whether you soar, or plunge, however broadly you span in mind or by sight, there is harmony, validity and resource, irrefutable truth and empirical confirmation in one place only; and however high you aspire to reach, or in whatever depth, the result is always the same.

The airplane of discovery makes only one discovery: Jesus Christ is the Truth, the Life and the Way. Electron microscopes of the mind, find it so, unrestrained searches of the spirit find it so, the testimony of the eye and the ear, show it so. The result ? fear God and keep His commandments, yes but far more.

The sacred fear, the clean fear of God is the beauty of holiness which as in a clean house makes it savoury and fragrant, but the house is built for love and truth, peace and labours of love, and the love of God and His truth are wedded, inseparables, and though often assailed, intentionally or otherwise by confusion, it is this love which has constrained Him to send His only begotten Son that WHOSOEVER believes in Him should not perish, for He did not come to condemn the world but that the world should be saved. GOD IS LOVE!

It is only when you take the word of God as it is, that you find the elixir of life, the full flavour of the bread of heaven, the sovereignty and the grace, the mercy and the breadth of His scope of love, and there is the glorious consistency of His word in all things, a place of delight for the alienated, of scope for the harrowed, of adventure for the still, of relish for the abandoned and of truth for the seeker.

Come and fly! come and sink to the depths in a bathyscope: it is the same. Jesus Christ has it all, the word of God shows it, and the ways of this world reflect it; even though that mundane mirror is shattered, it cannot quite separate itself from the light, which nevertheless condemns it. This, it is not the offer, it is the result of its reckless refusal. The glorious fact is that the scope of the divine offer and grace and love is as broad as mankind (Titus 2-3, Colossians 1), though the foreknown results of grace are as narrow as the way of the Lord.

 

121st

Published April 2006

ISBN 0 9758436 8 0

The Pride of Life, the Prince of Life and the Destiny of Man

These intertwining topics leave a vast clarity to man, a challenge, a confrontation, an opportunity, leading to all that makes man valuable, or to judgment for declining to receive it.

 

122nd

The Spiritual Sagacity of Predestination in Love

Foreknowledge and the Christian Faith

Published April 2006

ISBN 0 9758436 9 9

This is the name for the sixth volume in what is now the Predestination Hexad,
a set of six volumes in this field. It has grown from being the Predestination Quintet!

 

In this volume, there is much attention given to the heights and wonders of a freedom that soars, yet is not autonomy, a foreknowledge which selects, but is not a 'horrible decree', to use Calvin's term, a predestination in love and the simple  fact that these biblical concepts are an apologetic triumph for biblical Christianity, for the lost who seek and for the insecure who long.

 

They are drawn from several chapters in other works, published since the fifth volume of the PQ or Predestination Quintet saw the light of day, with provision for further additions, one more being presented with this publication.

 

Now, therefore,  it is necessary to change that name PQ  to PH, as in chemistry, where it refers to hydrogen ion concentration, the most acidic as ph 1, and the more alkaline assembling itself after ph 7. Here however, since this is not chemistry, it is a matter of PREDESTINATION HEXAD, for the latter term can mean simply a group of six. It is no longer the PQ. That is the new name for what is now a six volume set on predestination, freewill, responsibility, love, justice, judgment and duty.

 

The HEXAD itself

 

ON PREDESTINATION and FOREKNOWLEDGE,
LIBERTY and NECESSITY,
RESPONSIBILITY, DUTY and CREATIVITY

 

has ISBN 0 9775556 0 7

 

123nd

Published May 2006

ISBN 0 9775556 1 5

CHRIST'S INEFFABLE PEACE AND GRACE
AMID THE SMOKING CANDLES,
FLAMING FLARES AND POLLUTED PRODUCTS OF MAN

 

Man in his own modes invites and sometimes even invokes blessing or cursing. His actions can appeal to nearly all the human race, as with Saddam Hussein, or Hitler, or Idi Amin, as being morally those to be despised, reprobate, ruinous, disjoined from humanity. What then is the humanity ? What is it that makes its discernments in any slight way, at least, valid ?

Similarly, the practical provision of aid to the afflicted often commends itself to the many, especially if through ignorance they suffer, or through a prize-fighting brutality of the oppressor. There is a sense of justice and equity which, however repressed or distorted into a shape convenient to lust or selfishness, still exists.

There can come the smouldering, smoking evidences of error, as with a smoking candle, the flaming flares of deserved evils, like darts descending on a spiritually slovenly people, or those who have swallowed some ideological potassium cyanide without even checking carefully the description on the bottle, or the site of the manufacturer. How often, afterwards, with a few millions of souls departed from their twisted bodies, or tortured corpses, they reflect on their errors!

Man's polluted products, whether in the appallingly horrible and grossly misnamed 'female circumcision', which appears an ultimate in masculinistic oppression and heartlessness, almost to the point of self-serving assault, if not indeed in some ways past it, or in chopping off hands for stealing, or killing for trifles, in mental mists of philosophical fog which obscures vision, till the next one replaces it, these seep in, and sometimes, as if preferring the maritime mode, roar in like giant breakers for which the surfers are unprepared.

Beyond all this, there is the alternative mode. Here a man does not rely on himself, or what others like him relay, on culture or on the current idiocies of thought which will be called so in a following generation, if one is allowed to come, but seeks his Maker. At that there are two ways: he may seek in a cultural vein, or a racist-self-realisation model for a working religion to get you places, or something to bring you advance without tears, choosing carefully as at an ideological super-market, or a pleasure tent; or he may seek God where He may be found. Here reason impels, sin lashes and truth drives. If a man seek the Lord with all his heart, says Jeremiah (29:13), he will find Him!

He is not far to find (Acts 17:22-31), and His word has penetrated all cultures, all ideologies, like light into darkness, being both verified, rationally inevitable and alone valid. All this has been shown often enough, but here we are seeing the applications among men, with special emphasis on the profundity of peace with truth, which God provides.

^"And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart."

Ch. 7 provides exposure of the rampant folly of the da Vinci Code ?

 

124th

Published June 2006

ISBN 09775556 2 3

WHAT GOD SAYS, GOES:
CREATION IS FINISHED, BUT GOD REMAINS

This is Volume 4  of the NOGO TETRAD,
THE GODS OF NATURALISM HAVE NO GO

The TETRAD itself has ISBN 09775556 3 1, as a set.

In this 4th Volume of the Tetrad, the work as assigned for the set is as before, in the Preface.

This last volume deals with matters of history both in the blowing of the soap bubbles of evolutionism, and in its entanglement with the partial destruction of the race, overview of developments and reasonings, practicalities and logical necessities, and is a book of review on the one hand, and application to society on the other.

 

125th

Published June-July 2006

ISBN 09775556 5 8

GRATITUDE FOR HIS GLORIOUS GRACE

The Signature Divine

Grace is a delightful thing; to be gracious is an attractive feature; grace with glory is to be found only in God, from whose heart it flows in brilliance unimpaired, in history unreceding, obscure to the obfuscationist, apparent to the purged - the lens of their heart made clear, the delight of His children, the hope of mankind and limit-free source of freedom, in that its love is to redeem what is lost, provide for what is fallen, seek out what is sunk and release what is bound.

It is not indiscriminate: nor is it discriminating in negative gear, but rather in liberality it is like the winds of time, the radiance of stars, coming not from an icy mass but from a spiritual fire in which no dross can remain, indestructible in it issuance, indefatigable in its realm, bringing in many sons and daughters to the family of God, with entry visas signed in blood, that of the Lord Jesus Christ: issued in pardon, conferred in love and confined to faith, in Him, whose image this same Jesus, God as man,  exhibited with illimitable fidelity, the criterion of infinity, the cure for infirmity and the ingenuity for kindly development, in the paths of duty and the ways of peace.

Gratitude for such a grace is often forgotten, when contention replaces conviction, aspiration evicts  reception and thankfulness disappears like a distant aeroplane on the merging horizons of time and space. It is the task of this volume to confirm on many grounds such gratitude, in the joys of such grace, and to commend the place of grace for salvation for the lost, join with the faithful in this response to Him who is divine and show that reason itself is as lost without such a response, as a tin soldier in a fog, heartless, little, misshapen in mischief, the dim core of what might have been a star.

 

Gratitude for the Grace in the Glory of the Lord

In this volume, in fact, there are three major stresses. The first is gratitude. To be grateful is sometimes hard for the proud; but in the kingdom of heaven there is no room for these, for blessed are the poor in spirit, and the fate of the proud, as in Isaiah 2:14ff., is not attractive.

HE DID IT: are we who are His not grateful. Is this not to be shown as gratitude is, in fealty and fondness, in joy and pride IN HIM! Is He not the One to be glorified, praised and forwarded, so that the salt is savoury and the light is radiant ?

The second aspect is GLORY. God is glorious, and the foolish efforts to achieve glory when it is not present, or divine glory when it is His, or to be glorified as man, when he is mere creation, is so inglorious as to be perhaps the most obvious noxious element in mankind, making him like a weed, a mere deception, acting like a plant, but invasive, infestive, meretricious and with a shocking smell. It is well to concentrate on the glory of God for it is inspiring, apt for His children to ponder, stirring to the depths and plants deeper depths even as we gaze upon Him (II Corinthians 3:18).

The third emphasis in this work is His grace, already given attention above.

It is not something achieved or deserved, not something grasped or deserved: it just is in His power and in His nature to dispense it, not to the noble or to the wise, not to the beautiful or to the most-performing artisans of devoted toil. It is given where it is received. HOW this comes to be has vexed the minds of many, but it need not. The scripture is perfectly explicit. GRACE is poured out, is effusive, for God WOULD HAVE ALL to be reconciled in heaven or on earth by the blood of the Cross and SAYS SO (Colossians 1:19ff.).

To be sure, man CANNOT grab it, by willing, for he is excluded by sin from perception UNTIL converted (I Corinthians 2:14). Nor is his will irrelevant, for this is the GROUND of exclusion in the face of the divine desire NOT to condemn (as in John 3:17). Indeed, it is the specially denoted REASON for exclusion (John 3:19), even in contrast to the stated divine desire for the world, on the part of Him who has given a propitiation even, not for us only who believe, but for the entire world (I John 2:2).

He does not PAY for all, for that would make payment ineffective and God a goose, and indeed those for whom  specifically He has been delivered up ALL go to heaven (Romans 8:32). He DOES however make a payment adequate for all, in sincerity offered to all, so that in HIS KNOWLEDGE (and indeed foreknowledge, not of our deeds or worth, but of the reception of His grace in His own discernment, before all time - Ephesians 1:4, Romans 9): it is given to the recipients only. Equally in His love, it is with desire, pressed on all (Isaiah 48:16ff., Matthew 23:37, Colossians 1:19ff., I Timothy 2, Luke 119:42ff., Jeremiah 48:30-33, 51:8-9,  Jeremiah 1-14 cf. Ch. 2).

Thus you CANNOT go to hell without this being deemed of your will,  by Him in HIS KNOWLEDGE (in the scriptural action and spiritual circuit,  as in Romans 8:29ff.): that you REFUSE or the equivalent, to receive Him, even the only Door to Deity, the Saviour Jesus Christ (John 10:9, 14:6, Isaiah 43:9-10).  To be sure it is He who performs the salvation on His own; but it is not wrought without respect to the grounds which HE knows, of the wayward preference, seen past history and time (Ephesians 1:4), psychology and human autonomy, known to God. Unlimited by sin in His sight, who bases it not at all on any human works, of will or other, it is no ground of merit, but an avenue of grace.

THIS grace is so pure, so lacking in limiting factors based on self or selfishness or mere plan or program, is so elemental, is so rich, is so vast in scope, rich in attainment in Calvary and all that went to prepare for that, that it is like teeming rain. Someone asks you, Is it raining ? has the drought broken. You reply: raining  ? why it is teeming, God be praised.

But HOW MUCH are you grateful for SUCH grace as this ? It is also elemental, as deep as life, as broad as mind, as high as holiness and as joyful as exuberance. It is like growth in Spring. You cannot contain it, for it is everywhere.

On such things does this volume dwell, and in such joy is it presented in the name of Him in whom one dwells, and who dwells Himself in one's heart (Colossians 1:27, John 14:20).

 

126th

Published July 2006

ISBN 09775556 6 6

DIG DEEPER, HIGHER SOAR. DIVINE GLORY DELIGHTS THE MORE

There have been vast passions roused to investigate the heights of the heavens, the depths of the earth and the sea, the geographical spread of the earth, the meaning of life and the place of man. Religions have spawned as if some great fish had nothing better to do than surround the maritime mysteries of the earth, with its variable but basically kindred ilk. 

We have in the preceding 125 volumes considered the realities of the truth, which is to be found in Christ Jesus,  and the need to avoid slimy much and slithery substitutes for spirituality, and the glory of God. 

In this volume, our task is to look deeper here, if depth may be found in this or that issue, and higher in the other place, if heights avail, and thus to show that the glory of God in these domains and lights is as delightful as ever, soaring with the heights, surpassing the depths, like a light in the oblivion, a guide in the obscure and a joy in the vales of misery which sin donates with the largesse of an emperor, and the perverted joy of a liberal misanthrope.

Here no less than in any other domain or clime available to man, the Lord in His blessed liberality provides wonder for those who seek Him, answers to address and grants to those who ask. His testimony is beyond the heavens, gives to the depths their very name, and removing the enchantments of dreams, provides the consistent reality of truth. His word is very strong, and nothing mars it; and though man marred Him when He came, this was by permission, indeed celestial edict, a predicted part of the divine passion to redeem man, now fulfilled in myriads of those to whom from the uttermost heights, this blessing to the very depths has come.

Nor did it come without pain, nor did it go without triumph; for the resurrection of Jesus Christ is merely one of His works, but it is the one which counts above all, since here is the future history for mankind, as many as receive Him.

In particular, three chapters deal with aspects of suffering and its revelatory rationale, the design for this; and another two cover the design for man, in which as individual or in group, he works as one designate, in rational relationship with the system of the lower creation, and spiritual access on God's own terms, with the deity Himself.

 

127th

Published August 2006

ISBN 0 9775556 7 4

DOWNFALL FROM DEFAMATION

DEGRADATION FOR THE HUMAN RACE
through DEFAMATION of DEITY, and
THE GODLY GRANT OF GLORY IN THE GOSPEL

 

Delinquency is not limited to adolescents. Adults can be quite good at it.

Nor is it limited to misuse of one's own life, or that of one's fellows. It can stretch to  malignity against God.

Delinquency against the divine is becoming an art form,  a propaganda thrust and an educational tool.

It is leading, slowly, quietly, but with more drama as the thing progresses, to the systematic downfall of the human race. This is not a lurking, surreptitious thing, but precisely as in the Bible, an open, a gay, a swaggering, a swashbuckling antic, with its own devious ways; and that there are outbreaks of inflammation and high temperatures, both literal and metaphorical, among mankind, this is merely a routine expression of the advancing nature of the disease.

It is to be expected, like boils in a system adapted to them at a given time; where they come  may be surprising, but that they come is not.  It is the same with a body infested with cancer: it may come in surprising places when it colonises, as it were, enjoying metastasis. If however the first line of abuse, as for example in excessive and careless sun-baking with a fair skin, is wrought, then the result may be taught. It has ways of its own ? yes, but not without ground.

When you misuse the fundamentals of life, it may bite back; it may in the manner of life, writhe and contort, like a carved up embryo, as may occur in that modern way of life which is abortion for convenience (it may sometimes actually be required for health reasons, or in rape and so on). The life being aborted is like the life being abused in one's own case: it may writhe and its various, magnificent controls being abused, like a steering wheel of a car caught in a rut, may themselves contribute to downfall. When you are not killing en embryo but your own like, slowly, there may be resemblances of note!

The defamation of deity which is one of these abuses not merely severs man from his source, but twists the truth, on which man's very existence as a spiritual and rational being depends, so that man is like a contorted embryo in these circumstances, wondering where next to wince.

In the face of such grandiose plans of wretched wrecking procedures, levelled ultimately against God but often deploying man's own equipment with a combination of vanity in the sense of empty folly, and that of proud self-reliance, on the part of this object, man,  neither free to determine birth nor death (except the latter in that way-out called suicide, the resignation of life, not its surmounting or joy): there is a case developing. There is a strident neo-image for man.

Its face is contorted. It readily runs amok, like the ways of Saddam Hussein in his torture camps, where allegedly people new to upper echelons might be brought in order to be taught immunity to compassion or revulsion  at the things done to the torture victims, and the quantity of death ensuing.  This procedure now being aggrandised and developed for man ? It is this.

It is defamation of deity by perversion, reversion, aspersion, distortion or contortion. This in the current volume will be one of the topics; but the glorious grant of the Gospel will be the way out, the way on, as it in fact is; and the way all this is to be brought together is a major feature.

Within this volume, these very things above will be rehearsed, DV, and the matter resolved as it must be, has been by God, and needs to be internally recognised by man.

 

128-129th

LIGHT DWELLS WITH THE LORD'S CHRIST
WHO ANSWERS RIDDLES AND WHERE HE IS, DARKNESS DEPARTS

Bible or Blight, Christ or Confusion:
The Comprehensive Written Resolution of Man's Intractable Problems
is Found Only in the Bible, the Word of God

Published September  2006

ISBN 0 9775556  6 6

Two Volumes: Bible or Blight ISBN 0 9775556  7 4

                            Christ or Confusion ISBN 0 9775556 8 2

This is a comprehensive compilation with some additions, exhibiting in substantial detail the fact that the resolution of philosophic riddles, demonstration of creation and exhibition of comprehensibility, meaning and scientific integrity rests without loss in the Biblical depiction, or model. It covers life, youth, design, history, philosophy, science, meaning, man in an integrity which the world neither finds elsewhere, nor can duplicate in validity or verification. To reject it is not 'by faith' death, but more: it is to a contemptibility which awaits what awakens to destitution through will misused, and life aborted not in the womb, but in the way.

It may seem hard to some that truth is invariable and life a grant to be washed with grace and restored to the Maker in faith and gratitude, through His chosen way; but then each path in the brain is a chosen way, and each bone, each blood vessel. Life is by gift and by grace; and it is not a horror to be belched at, that the way home is provided, this also, but a matter for marvel. It is best by far to come home, for this is where the God of creation and the Lord of salvation is to be found. What logic requires is what love inspires.

It covers some 2.2 million words or 5200 pages.

 

130th

CHRIST INCOMPARABLE, LORD INDOMITABLE

Published October  2006

ISBN 09775556 9 0

This world has its flags furled, for its spur and saliency is smitten. It lies broken amidst its fallen dreams, futile ravings and vile ravishings. Its leaders are flawed, its fashions cry for lordship and squabble interminably, its prides are like lions on spree, its follies like children run amok.

Christ Jesus is unravished, unfallen, smitten but this vicariously, risen and that in the power of God, declared the Son of God, corporeally unconquerable, spiritually in peace, triumphant in mission, incorruptible in mind, tender in heart, willing in spirit, great in understanding. He is incomparable and as Lord He is indomitable.

Sin seeks to ravage His people, but He rescues; jealousy seeks to abase His position, but He stands, the Celestial Trade Towers that cannot be lowered, and His trade is in the souls of men, of women, of children, and for these HE pays; and His profit is not gain for coffers, for commerce, to increase Himself, already infinite beyond time and all creation, indeed as a member of the trinity, creator of all (Colossians 1:15ff., John 1:3). It is in purchase of what is smitten, in redeeming what sin has ruined, what life has grieved for; and bringing it to His own kingdom, where life and love, peace and duty, responsibility and realism mount like eagles.

His kingdom is not of this world; but it will at last demonstrate to this fallen world what righteousness is, not only as now, in redeeming freely what is lost (Romans 3:23ff.), but in showing in the glowing testimony of truth, what life is when it is founded in God, and the globe is ruled by it; and this before this whole world, a travesty of truth, though His light be in it, because of sin, is removed as II Peter 3 tells us, and with its works, burnt up.

 

131st.

JESUS CHRIST, DEFACED,  UNFAZED:

BARRISTER OF BLISS

Published November  2006

ISBN 09802972 1 4

 

There is about the majesty of God - even when it is tabernacled in flesh, tented in an envelope of protoplasm for serviceable purposes, yes for salvation for that element of His creation called mankind, which increasingly becomes less manly and less kind - something which never loses its atmosphere, depth, brilliance and impact of utter reality.

This, it is scarcely surprising in view of who He is: the Creator of all. Yet it is always astounding to see it actually happen before one's eyes, as one reads of His entry into this world and performances, His attitudes and principles, sagacity and insight, oversight and power. It is staggering that a man could be so endued; but not so at all, when one finally grasps the whole point: this IS GOD!

It is not some elevation of human desire, essentialisation of human thought, concentration of human philosophy, arrangement of human power: it is wholly other, not in the Barthian sense, as if it did not belong, far removed as that is from Hebrews 2 with its emphasis on the brotherhood and the Lord's taking of kinship with those in His image. It is rather in the sense of utterly devoid of pride, proficient in dominion and efficient in serviceability, integumental in meekness and illimitable in holiness. This, yes: but as a man!

Again, this is the whole point. Nothing less could bear the brunt of the deaths of millions of sinners, in justice to truth; and nothing less could bear up to the infinite God the race, that special people, who are that section of this human race, which is redeemed (has been, and will be as well).

We are thus to meet EITHER the fancy dress ball of human invention, convention and comedy dressed in the drab robes of approaching doom, well deserved and pursued as relentlessly as recklessly, or God. To meet God, you come where He is available, just as you do to enter a house, using the door provided. You do not rant and rave as if it were an offence to your extended sensibilities to have to lower your important or yes, even imposing self to the designated entry point. You just go there and enter.

 

132nd.

THE FACE OF GOD, ILLIMITABLE, UNFUNDED, DEFINITIVE, DECISIVE

Published December  2006

ISBN 09802972 2 2

 

There is nothing more important than this, the divine face, the face of Deity, the expression, definitive, decisive, clear and assured of God Himself.

With men and women, yes and children too, there is a face, there is a heart, there is a spirit, there is honesty or dishonesty with it, and knowledge or confusion with that, and there is articulation or the lack or muddle of it alongside. We have some idea, perhaps of the face of each, the expression, the meaning, the priorities, the pre-requisites, the motivation, the purposes, the ethics and the life; but there are many barriers to certainty, unless God Himself shows the case (as He did, for example, to Samuel the prophet, concerning the choice of David, the young lad whom he anointed to become king - I Samuel 16).

The Lord, He asserted, KNOWS THE HEART. He looks upon it, and sees what lies there. It is not a matter of appearance at all, but of heart. It is the same in Jeremiah 17:9-10.

Who, Paul pursues our issue, knows the man except the spirit of the man, at the human level ? Let us realise with what we are dealing (I Corinthians 2:9ff.). Similarly, who knows the heart of God as does the Spirit of God. God in His Spirit KNOWS, as man in his spirit is directly aware. Man in his face expresses (if by that you mean his expressive medium of which face is the physical counterpart) what he is. God in His word expresses what He is, and in the face of Christ Jesus, has expressed Himself definitively. That incarnate, eternal Word of God has thus presented definitively who God is. His words as Messiah are declarative, His face shows it just as His Spirit knows it.

In this volume, the ways of man before God, the ways of His creation are considered in the light of His face, revealed in His word and displayed in Christ Jesus.

 

2007

 

9 volumes January - December 2007

 

133rd.

HOW GREAT IS THE GOD WE ADORE

THE WORSHIP OF JESUS CHRIST AS DEITY

Published February  2007

ISBN 09802972 3 0

The puny, pusillanimous, defective, de facto and not de jure, the premature, the immature, the merely quaint, the tittivating, the merely titled, these things may be; but they are not for adoration.

The novelties of imagination have their place, and great is the joy of creation; but when the innovative is the execrable, and when the focus is the foolish, then what does man become if not a gash in the cliff face, a vacuity instead of solidity, a ruin in the making to become a relic without joy.

Greatness is in the eye and heart of man, and it is often perverted to his own contemplation, or that of his family, society or mere ideology. People die for such things, vanity, association, respect. It may be of those who are themselves unrespectable, but their respect still enthralls.

Are you a GENUINE child-killing terrorist, who cares nothing for flesh ? Do you QUALIFY, do you have the QUALITY! Can you take the things needed to reach this social level of acceptance!

Such becomes a type of such human offerings to folly, misplaced adoration for what is contemptible, mesmeric motivations that gash into the heart of humanity, and collide with that of the Lord.

Saddam Hussein, we read, used to have close associates, or those intended for such honour, witness tortures unspeakable and death, in order to harden them and make them ready. But for what!

So does power and glory tempt man to become a horror, haunted by folly, of which Hussein was a symbol, for the sake of what ? Acceptance, with funds, paid perhaps as in one parallel case, for killing Jews, so much each, like buying deaths at a supermarket. How perverse are the adoration, the accolades and the abasement before what is base!

It is to God alone that such adoration is due, and since God has shown in only one verified way, where He is, it is to that way alone, that God-given wisdom turns. Who as Christ has been foretold, who as He has given all and had all to give, who but He and the prophets who foretold Him and the apostles who were His, has commanded history, and it turns at His word: His predictions in perfection, as was His life!

It is time to awaken to His perfection and to put to sleep in the psyche, the unruly menagerie of frivols that falsify truth and contribute emptiness; and to the study of such things we proceed.

 

134th.

THE OPEN DOOR, THE CLOSED MIND AND THE CALL OF CHRIST

Published March  2007

ISBN 09802972 4 9

 

When the only barrier is a closed mind, people are in great case. It is not as if tanks or artillery, plutonium capsules force-fed or human-bombs making craters as a sign of a fine religion, near cafés with children in them, were arrayed against one, when it comes to finding God.

It is the closed mind, more aggressive than a tank trap, more potent than an infantry division, more useless than an atomic bomb without radioactive content.

When, in addition, there is no closed door on the part of God, so that granted you do not need to penetrate horrific arms to gain access to it, you even find it open as you knock, then you marvel at the monstrous good fortune of mankind.

It is however only when you consider that the call of God is given to INVITE to this door, and to actually come in through it to His kingdom, and when you realise wisdom and information alike are provided to show the wonders of it and the naturalness of it, sin being the unnatural intruder, already in possession of the human shop, that you can ponder with amazed concern the fact that the carpet is not threadbare at the entrance.

The ready love of God, the ready gun of gurus or mantras of mullahs, the epics of misconstruction and the love of libel and delight in defamation are all assorted in this great affair; and it is thus well worth-while to examine and ponder, consider and become no neutral spectator of the plight of man in the face of this depraved demission of deliverance. It is necessary to be informed.

In this book, this is our aim, and our hope is continual: that some finding through these things, the way home, and experiencing the drawing of the Spirit of God as the truth of Christ is perceived and the grandeur of His mercy, will not short-circuit the opening of the door, by special electro-magnetic interference utensils, lest they should be saved.

 

135th.

GLORY, VAINGLORY AND GOODNESS

Published April  2007

ISBN 09802972 5 7

 

Glory is one of the main measures of man. It is not that he is glorious, but sensitive to it, susceptible to it, may feel sentenced (rightly or not) by it, and can seek it for himself, his clan, group, city, nation, professional body or political lord syndrome (or mentor, depending on the case).

It is FELT to be glory when in fact, however, it may be like soiled linen, wholly diverse in character from the pure and refreshed type. It has a relationship with it, certainly, but not a salubrious one. It has a kinship, as does a wreck with the thrusting vessel of aesthetic appeal, grandeur of outline and dynamic motion, manoevrability and architectural felicity.

There is a relationship; but it is alas far from one of identity.

When glory is misnamed, its work miscarried, its object misnamed, then it readily becomes vainglory. This may be a product of vanity, either in the sense of vacuousness or of pride; or it may be merely the current duping routine, by which misled man finds glory in misleading others, and becomes hostile to the point of mass murder, with those who resist. We have seen this in Mao, in Hitler, in Stalin, in Idi Amin, in Saddam Hussein, and in his own way increasing, in Robert Mugabe. In some cases, they may genuinely feel they are doing good: it is just that those who do not share their irrational dreams and inconsequential notions, need to be removed for the plan to succeed: which of course it does not.

That mankind continually looks for such things, is duped by them, has virtually a sequence to date, so that you get, like old movies or new, your particular version for consumption, is one of the major testimonies to the reality of God. Why ? It is for this reason:  to depart from Him is to make yourself so vulnerable to error, as if you foreswore EVER to say 2 plus 2 equals 4, while setting out in a career in mathematics, that the inanities of the race, which plague it like chasms in the midst of a vast highway, with the expected toll,  become virtually predictable. In kind, the Bible supplies the details; and despite this, man in the midst of the clear and multiple fulfillments of the predictions of the holy prophets, goes on as if hearing were out of fashion, and sight a menace. It is as Christ indicated, Ears they have, but do not hear, eyes but do not see.

It is a disease which Jew-baiters and haters now freely share, as if epidemic were their desire. In His own day, Christ said this of similarly blinded people,  citing from Isaiah:

“For this people’s heart is become gross, and heir ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed, lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them.”  

For all that, man is so made and created in such a grand outgoing exhibition of the grace and love of God, that goodness continually thrusts its head into the very realms of vainglory, and sanity into the domains held in restraint by insanity, rationality attacks irrationalism and virtue seeks the flower that vice loves to dissect.

In this volume, these three features will be given some emphasis, so that the contours of society, the retrenchments of realism and the vast and rapid advance to desolation which this earth is making, may be seen in a keener perspective, one not only found in the Bible, but seen in its fulfilment, one not only desirable, but necessary.

 

136th.

BAY OF RETRACTABLE ISLANDS

MISSION FOR THE MAINLAND

From Evanescent Extremes

Back to the Book of the Lord

 

Published May   2007

ISBN 09802972 6 5

A far more extensive presentation than an earlier work, CELESTIAL HARMONY FOR THE TERRESTRIAL HOST, this in principle irenic work, points out the marvels of unity which come when the word of God, the Bible, is given absolute sway in the realm of needless matters of dissension. It is the more apposite in an Age where increasingly the existential, or the spiritistic, the spiritual octopus of hedonism, entertainment, hysterics, psychic collations, ideological feastings, traditionalistic adaptions and composite adoptions teems, grabs in its submarine seductions, where the strangling is more than appears.

Sometimes an affliction calls attention to the central realities of life, and ministers comfort in the end. The 14 topics and the contrasting mainland itself,  concern form the basic outline. This volume is currently around 280,000 words in extent, being selections, amplifications, extensions and correlations in its field, from books earlier published, showing that extremes frequently mar the sober presentation of the Bible, making for warring parties, as if moving out to islands, from the mainland. It is better with the Bible to stay on that mainland, or if outside, to return.

 

Here is cause for pondering the wonder of finding  concerning the biblical exegesis of many areas, when desire and hypothesis are remote, and text and its exigencies are near, when liberties are excised except on the part of the Author of the Bible, is not only clear, but explains the thrusts this way and that, which some have made. We find that the extremes in multiplied instances, which have become traditional in much routine pugilistics concerning the Bible, become almost like 'wheelies'. That is, the undue thrust on one aspect tends to obscure the equally valid aspects often ignored, either in one direction or the other.

Multiplied stances and postures are resolved, but above all, biblical fidelity shows intense biblical inner conformity and wonderful attestation of its divine authority and origin.

When these trips to the outer seas are over, then the islands which they created can be retracted back to the mainland of what is written. The concept of the 'nuclear' meaning, which is not merely likely, but in essence demonstrable, is prominent in this presentation. Imagination and preference are not useless, for they may stimulate a basis for understanding, and thirst for exploration; but they do not count in teaching, in what may be bound, and  to stir ideas, some of which may be true, although this is not at the outset known.

In the teaching per se, which is to relay the word of God, they can have no place.

 

 

137th.

DIVINE MANIFESTO, THE BIBLE:

DEITY MANIFEST, JESUS CHRIST THE LORD

 

Published May   2007

ISBN 09802972 8 1

The Bible is the Divine Manifesto, antidote to confusion and master for rebellion; the Lord, who as there and in history shown, is the anti-dote to blind servitude and Maker of liberty, even restoring it to its place, this time, in a renewed personal environment, one expressly constructed as a site for the exhibition of truth. Indeed, this same Bible, applicable to man,  is verified in all major fields (cf. Light Dwells with the Lord's Christ).

Many delight to find the truth, after such a time, and its counterpart, peace, after so much tension and turmoil.

As David declares in Psalm 139, "I am fearfully and wonderfully made." This truth he dwells on.

The powers of corruption are correlative to those of construction; and meanwhile mini-midget man, a few feet in protoplasm at the visible level, at the invisible can comprehend and concur, mischievously run riot, defame, deflate, inflate ideas, people, soar in spectacular pride and stamp on greatness, or cast down, continue burrowing like a flea into truth, to infect it; or else, there he is, moving like an airship majestically, to survey the skies. This is not only wonderful in the scope and amplitude, the contrast and capacity which man has been given; it is fearful.

It evokes a sense of that presence required, so far beyond man in his operational powers, to make it felicitous so to operate in such realms, by providing the logic in the universe and in man, and making both answerable, each in its own way, to His summons or dismissal. All this,  relating to the reason of God, has not only mutual coherence, human interpretability, but is penetrable to man until he comes to the utmost power required to create all this in its integrality and liberty combined.

When he comes to God, he must stop and listen.

It is then that the fearful part comes in. What fear is evoked when you realise the wonder of the Maker: for if the made can achieve for good or ill, so much, how far much more can He!

What responsibility lies in man, for where much is given, much is required. Plans pre-made, as in Psalm 139 (Bible Translations Ch. 2 No. 10) show their force as the embryo develops, its multitudes of phases inseparable, an awesome agenda of immediately successive phases with no meaning or pay-load until complete, a deliberate design, a designated portfolio of man's construction agenda, through myriad conceptual turning points and assessment works.

 Past a multitude of events constitutive of coherence, it goes,  till the child born, it grows, and the end is pursued, at length appearing at the level of maturity,  as just one, one person: with inherent potentials correlative with those of the embryonic development,  after 20 years or so.

Then is the full-orbed splendour to be found, either to doom itself into deserved oblivion, or to live in the favour of its Creator, not striving, but sent on mission, with commission!

So man may come to comprehend the layers of meaning in the universe, of law and limit, and the skies of imagination and conceptualisation, the load of verification and validation, to know even God; and then to find the facilitation of function and the meaning of all phases stretched out before him. A mind to reason, a Divinely Prescribed Book to reveal and a life to live, all come to man: fearful fabricator of a place in hell, as if craftily copying the ticket to reach there, in the form of a visa, or in realistic weakness, worshipping his divine Benefactor, who made minds to find the truth, and truth to confront the minds, even putting it into words, to inspire the soul, compel the heart and arrest the spirit.

Some however plunge over the cliffs of fantasy instead, with fearful rigour pursuing the rigor mortis, the paralysis of such fragile wonder, into its deserved stale-mate, in which overcome, it abides in the shadows of darkness, self-illumined with a light which is not there.

To all this the Bible speaks, clearly, with vast coverage, with principle, precept, promise and exhortation, with revelation, information concerning the mind and heart of God, for and with which man has been so made that he can READ IT! To read the mind of God as self-portrayed! what a vast panorama of spiritual spectacle is stretched out before him, and lies written.

Man writhes to dispossess it of its truth, and falls, a liar; or else he struggles to express his delight in this one word which never fails, and intimates it from a thousand pulpits. Man can be illuminated with a light sourced in the Divine One, exposing truth as the sun the grass below, as he studies the word that has  smitten and blessed, arranged the fall of empires and attested things to come, millenia before their arrival^*3. Otherwise, he can smirk, shirk, strive, chide, not abide, and like a car unserviced, put out his oily smoke of discontent, disfaith or other spiritual disease.

The Bible, then, in its own domain of revelation from God,  is not only unique in verification and validity (Reason, Revelation and the Redeemer, Celestial Harmony for the Terrestrial Host), as often shown in detail in this site, but in itself, an ordered, organised, multi-dimensional, superbly structured, integrative and purposively presented whole which so speaks. In this, it reminds of the construction of man, of whom this Bible speaks.

Indeed,  the Book of the Lord abounds in regulatory rules,  order, rationality, inter-folding of principles and concepts, liberty, love and intensively in immensely personal manifestation of will and knowledge; and all of this is a supra-universe of its own. With man, however, it is an intra-universe, but one with allowance for attachment to that supra-universe, or detachment which has led, in the domain of dire rebellion and self-important strutting, to so much vapidity, invalidity and vacuity, that a perpetual cloud hangs over the sulphurous fumings of its exponents. So has it come, as many aspiring for glory, and missing the point, merely inhabit those clouds, which give solid support for nothing. Mistaking them for the earth, they merely fall.

As you examine this Bible with willing mind, however, it positively shouts the obvious, its internal structure giving multiple echoes, as of  voices in a huge and majestic structure; then it whispers, intimate, now demonstrates, now appeals. Humbug is summarily axed; weakness is graciously strengthened; confusion is relentlessly unmasked.

 

138th.

GRAND BIBLICAL PERSPECTIVES

 

Published June   2007

ISBN 09802972 9 X

There is in the Bible such an array of majesty, profundity, overview, oversight and magnificence of spectacle, such as the Canadian Rockies and lakes, or the New Zealand scope and marvel of wonderland exhibit, that not to dwell on it as such, would seem either a shame or an omission like that of ignoring the kiss of engagement, or the first day of a new enterprise.

While many have been the exhibits already on this site, this volume is given to seeing features, facets and wonders which claim attention and clamour for it, as it were in their own intrinsic fascination, brilliant points of light, massive modes of splendour, which demand awed observation.

In the main, specific texts, by no means limited to one verse, are taken; and in some cases, groups like alpine clusters of towering, parallel giants, are made a spectacle of joy as we behold their intrinsic beauty and wonder, the meaning and the matrix, the message and the profundity.

 

139th.

MASSIFS OF PURE SPLENDOUR

in the Celestial Alps of Christ Jesus

Published July   2007

ISBN pending

There are available for a spiritual trip, massifs the view from which is spectacular, showing the form and figure of many lesser but glorious mountains, their very loftiness a sublimity in itself, a close up bringing near to the very face of God.

These take the form of various declarations from God, set in such an altitudinous glory that in their context, they present marvels and wonders, which those who know the Lord can attest, much from their personal experience of His actions, attitudes and atmosphere, for He is a God of power and His righteousness is like the depths, His mercies like the heights and His wonder like the streams which leap from the snow, to convey health to the soul. Much more is from the testimony of truth in the minds, methods, spiritual, moral and aesthetic panoramas of man, in his history and the anguish, in the beauty and the peace, which comes now from sin, now from the Saviour, Jesus Christ. These decisive divine declarations give interpretive passages to the very heavens of divine majesty, meaning to man and wisdom for those who fear not man, but lie.

In Chapter 1,  these matters are explained in terms of both their significance and their relevance to Biblical Christian Apologetics.

 

 

140th.

DEITY AND DESIGN, DESIGNATION AND DESTINY

 

Published August   2007

ISBN 978-0-9804100-1-3

This work is partly composite and partly composition, being a work in which many earlier foci are brought together, listed in sections, with the total theme given sometimes large, sometimes smaller introduction.

Design is shown to be endemic in man and the universe, with the pock-marks of curse for sin, by no means incidental, but fundamental in significance, as with any misused design. Here however, in the case of the life of man, there is an inter-personal episode and outcome, which affects not merely the man himself, and the race, but the environment where his life is lived, and his death continues its condign affront to those who do not know God.

Confrontation always meets this affront, which starting with man, ricochets back to him, in terms of his very design, with conscience and consciousness, guilt and guile, grandeur and splendour, love and hatred, lust and charity, genius and obtuseness, thrust and dynamic, invasion and perversion, all having a place so tangled where truth is avoided, that the self-contradictory concept of a chaotic universe is employed, or deployed by some, only in its sheer irrationality, to be the very base from which the precise opposite may be demonstrated.

Pre-occupation with particles, in this context, is as useful as pre-occupation with one's seat-belt, when driving through a herd of cattle. It is ultimately the personal which is peremptory for man, since person he is, equipped with spirit which fires and misfires, seeks God and seeks autonomy, and flies about like a witless vulture, wondering what to assault, or a twittering canary, potentially beautiful, but ineffective in the hot gases of a wounded earth. It needs its place, near to the heart of God.

The demonstration of the sole validity, certain verification and vital and vitalising force of the Gospel of the grace of God and the final account from Him of man's fall, fault and features, his foci of mind, spirit and body, as appearing in the Bible as the written word of God, that of all writings, the one solely authorised by the Lord for mankind: this remains in every field and feature throughout the approximate 2.5 million word work.

The designations from the Lord to man -

relating

to the design of mankind on the one hand, and

to the spirit of man on the other:

 that volatility
which sweeps its sight from high to low,
and shames or stuns with its hopes, blindnesses and awakenings -

whether He makes these
 in the authoritative, operative principles of the Bible, or in the applied events of history,

whether in the sufferings of the martyrs or the aggressions of the persecutors,
seen in the setting
of the constant, passionate divine appeal with the Gospel,

in His knowledge, acumen and assiduity
in the eternal context of His revealed scriptural word and His saving works:

these shape destiny.

So do we find in this work.

True to His revelation, assigned as His word has required, His is a peace past all understanding; but His principles are readily understood. These are and remain as He has guaranteed and granted them in the Bible. He is not of two minds; His word stands and is fulfilled, more certainly than any merely physical law. Those, they relate to the stage: but this to the Director.

His word stands, as the word of God alone can, and alone does. Addition to it, as we see, annuls its simplicity and magnificent resolving power, but also moves as disastrously towards ruin as does subtraction: and in this, science is merely an illustration. Meddling with the facts of His creation or of His word is like taking water from atomic power plants: there is a melt-down, but the word of God is not changed, only those who seek to change it (cf. Revelation 22),  just as the laws of His creation do not move, only the minds of those who with a sophisticated blindness, ignore them.

As to the destiny for each of mankind, already known to the Lord, it is found out by man; and repulsion from the divine remedy is as effective a way of mutilating design as may be found anywhere.

In that mutilation, there is philosophy of speech, antinomy of thought with specious results, as of one who insists on having influenza, and cannot see because he will not move to the remedy. Such in major fields without variation of reality, do we find.

 

141st.

EVIDENCE AND REALITY, THE PRINCE AND THE PROOF,

CONSTANT CHRISTIAN FAITH AND THE FICKLE FRENZY OF FORCE

Published December   2007

ISBN 978-0-9804100-3-7

 

Proof ? but of course: read Romans 1, Luke 1. Evidence in the composition of the various logical corollaries leaves no room for doubt or deviousness. Reality is not an option, nor is Jesus Christ a possibility, design a shilly-shally situation. It is all as clear as the nose on your face, or your glasses, when you kiss and clash the latter, or avoid the former. You can leave it; but it will not leave you at your will. Reality is like that.

 

2008

14 volumes published to December

 

 

142nd.

A TIME TO PRAISE GOD

 

An Autobiographical Record of Contemporary Life

under the Eternal God 1928-2008

ISBN 978-0-9804100-4-4

Scotch College, Melbourne has an archivist, Dr Jim Mitchell, who in October asked me to consider writing my life story - space no object - for the school archives. The idea caught fire, and now the value of reciting the pilgrimage to and with Jesus Christ over 80 years begins to appear. Much may be learned from the incredible confrontations, the tatterdemalion assaults on the truth, and the Lord's deliverances from numerous conflagrations as now here, now there, the forces of disfaith, disbelief, but not dispassion, sought to fire their wares.

The Lord is a great fire-fighter, a great deliverer, and altogether wonderful, and to see His action in meeting the numerous assaults on the faith and on the person of His servant, however humble, yet called, brings many contemporary issues to light, and their resolution. It is amply provided with detailed references, reasonings and biblical expositions for those who seek these data.

(Incidentally, the use of the plural 'data' in a singular sense with a singular verb or adjective, this particular writer finds like extreme obesity, not appealing to the eye; but when it is deliberately done, it is far worse. 'Datum' is a readily available term if you want only one of them. The data that matter are spiritual first, then mental, then material, for the latter seen apart are scarcely material to any good thing. All in its place is the need of the human race, especially itself, before God. Such emphasis may be seen in this volume. With this is allied the delight in the exuberance of life which God provides, and the Lord Jesus Christ, the Saviour, consummates; and with this, the necessity to conserve, focus and use it without folly or inhibition from artificial forms of 'correctness'.)

 

 

 

143rd.

MAN, in Retrospect, in Prospect and in Bold Relief

ISBN 978-0-9804100-5-1

February 2008

In this volume, the scope and state, status and due aspiration and undue objectives of man are considered, his past with much promise, for glory, his present with much promise for ruin, and his future with both restoration and damnation for its parameters. Chapter one will trace this in more depth, as the completion of this introduction. Attention to covenant, Israel and Gentiles, now and then, what was and is to be comes in careful collation, seeking to provide biblical perspective to the fast running waters of time, in time, for eternity.

 

144th.

MESSAGE

OF THE WORDS OF GOD

TO MAN IN THE WORLD

The Saying to the Straying,
the Bible to the Braying and
the Truth for its Lovers
 

ISBN 978-0-9804100-6-8

March 2008

The fact is that God has been so munificent in design, so exquisite in declaration, so generous in extrication and so loving in ultimate extradition, with terms of eternal life and not doom available freely, that it is a delight and a duty to bring out these things in context from the beautiful words of coherence, demonstrable truth and masterful cohesion found in the Bible. Their portent concerning the creation are mirrored in it as it functions, both in wonder and curse, in maestro magnificence and in challenge to the chaotic misnomers of increasingly confused man, lacking the controls he sees, and misusing the liberties he has been given.

Thus in the volume, parts of the Bible will be located, visualised, considered, expressed and applied, in order that the magnificence is paraded, the meaning is instilled and the beauty is made manifest so that in this world of man, the management of the Master may come to light. The desing of His word, that is, its intent, and the nature of design in this world, that is, its contrivance, both are reviewed in mutuality.

As to the messages, where they rest on the word of God as planned,  it is not because they are elevated above the rest of the word of God, that these portions are used, but that they may become like arrows at this time, to bring different aspects of His truth, from His written word to His smitten world. That He has salvation for it as in John 3:15-19 is as clear as the fact that He has judgment according to truth where the remedy is eluded. Salvation, like the DNA of life, is long since written, and repentance is the bridge to the entry, which is, as the Bible has defined these nearly 3 and one half millenia, in the Messiah, who came on time as foretold, to act as foretold, not in DNA but in the Declarations of God, this same Bible (cf. Highway of Holiness Ch. 4, SMR
Ch. 9).

If man is lost, it is not because the remedy is not found! When he is found, it is not because he has achieved it, for the initial creation and that of salvation, when a person becomes a new creation (II Corinthians 5:17ff.), both are as freely the work of divine intelligence, desire and decree. It is exquisite that grace is sufficient and that at the same time that love that seeks did not express itself in Christ, eternal word of God, on this earth in order to condemn but that the world might be saved (cf. To Know God ... Ch. 1). That is what is written, and it applies in earth and in heaven alike (cf. Colossians 1:19ff.). Detachment from God is like an embryo detached from the uterus. It is sad and significant and leads to no good thing.

 

145th.

KEYS TO THE COMFORT OF THE KINGDOM OF CHRIST

ISBN 978-0-9804100-7-5

Published April 2008

There is scope in the salvation of Jesus Christ for comfort. The term sometimes so rendered from the Hebrew can signify strength as well, and in the Greek of the New Testament, what is translated 'Comforter', literally meaning one called alongside, one who pleads another's cause before a judge,  pleader, counsellor, advocate, helper, succourer. Such is the case in John 16:7, and the words of Christ proceed to indicate that He is also to be called "the Spirit of Truth." The fact is that it is ONLY in the truth that one can take the counsel, courage, strengthening and wisdom jointly which is the need of man. The truth is He who made man, and His Spirit is at work in His people.

Anything less or else runs the risk of being fatuous, foolish, inept, superficial and just plain wrong. In any system of thought or model as it is often called, which omits the absolute personal God there IS no truth, for all is at its height, modelled as reaction. What happens becomes the maximum, and even that is absolved from complicity with truth, since the latter then does not exist. Left only the ruptured mind of the one who invents such self-contradictory systems, in order to enunciate them, and then of course have them at once cancelled in validity.

On the positive side, however, when the Spirit of Truth comes to those FOR WHOM CHRIST PAID THE PENALTY, the ransomed, the redeemed, those reconciled to God, then there is a comfort BECAUSE of that fact. The fact is beautiful as well as practical; it brings healing as well as holiness, truth as well as peace, for God loves to bring peace, though not where war is in the heart, since truth is not double-tongued (cf. Micah 3:5, Revelation 19:19). In the Hebrew, as in Isaiah 40:1, the term used is seen as having a root relating to a deep breath, and hence often is used to relate to comfort, relief, like a huge sigh.

Relief is in redemption and comfort is in Christ, through the Holy Spirit whom He has sent as He foretold, until He comes to collect His own and receive them into His kingdom. Already the kingdom of heaven is in our midst, depending on which 'midst':  that is, it is to be found in the background of ambassadors for Christ - which is heaven, God's place - for which they are sent in Christ Jesus (as in Matthew 28:19ff.). Since He is in their hearts and loves His people, it is found in their midst also, operative without deceit, emulation or conceit, but where His rest paired with redemption, is realised by abiding in Him and His words abiding in those hearts no less.

 

 

146th.

JESUS CHRIST FOR THE PEOPLE,
BUT NOT FOR THIS WORLD

ISBN 978-0-9804100-8-2

Published May 2008

Australian has been greatly blessed, and in pursuit of its initial biblical principles in its foundation from Britain (ostensibly a Christian nation), it has in many things done well. Now for some years it has performed a desperate rearguard, to re-establish pagan follies, irrational modes and ethical amorality (cf. News 19). More and more rights are to be given to biblical wrongs. Sodom and Gomorrah might almost feel shame if they see what this land is promising to become, including some of the earlier churches, which become instruments of departure.

 

We remember amidst all this infelicity, feverish philosophical substitute for truth, passions for merely preferred paths and deferred morality, that THIS WORLD is NOT something for which Christ told us to pray.

 

	I PRAY NOT FOR THE WORLD (John 17), was His dictum.
	It is the people in it who are His concern.

 

This world is to be banished (Isaiah 51:6, II Peter 3, Matthew 24:35), its works burnt up with their evils. It is unfit to live. It has had a long innings of millenia, and although many times many in it, even nations have veered or even come to the point of honouring the God of creation and redemption, yet its contemporary move is to endless war, subtlety, programmings from corrupt philosophy, often corruptive men, people who like Mugabe, appear more interested in condemning those who did not please them, than pleasing with goodness,  those whom ostensibly they serve.

False gods flit in and out of the world like visitors from foreign lands, equipped with prestigious embassies, some with atomic bombs in the basement.

 

The world is going. It is not fit to provide life. People are coming, in millions, convicted, converted and cleansed, challenged, changed, redeemed, regenerated. The crisis is merely the end of the examination for this earth; and much is the harvest to be gained (cf. Matthew 2:12, 13:30, 24:31). The Gospel of the grace of God persists like lawn amid the weeds, in an aridity caused by constant lack of water, as the outpouring of the Spirit of God is undesired. It is not however without eternal effects, in the hearts, lives and destiny of many.

 

In this volume, the distinction of what GOD is providing, this WORLD is giving and getting and what is for PEOPLE who care for their Creator and seek His word, face, will and word, is crucial.

 

147th.

HAPLESS HITCHES AND HOLY HEALINGS,

GODLESS GLITCHES AND DIVINE DEALINGS

including Spiritual Sprigs and Biblical Gems

Spiritual Lapses and Restored Synapses

ISBN 978-0-9804100-9-9

Published June 2008

 

As one reads Sir Edward Creasy's work, The Fifteen Decisive Battles of the World, the time of writing being mid nineteenth century, there is a certain perspective which appears. Since it is not a recent publication, there is a certain help from distance in time, to seeing the motions of history.

From this book on great battles of the world, it is apparent that the human race often looks up and is cast down, tries to smile and lapses into frown, seeks sheen and finds blood, desires eminence and discovers the grave, scamps grace and saves face, only to be caught in its spiritual twistings and burned in its devious turnings.

In spiritual things, there is also a correlative pathology. Many, like Solomon, do wonderful things even in the name of the Lord, but then lapse, as he did in his old age, into the weakness already apparent when he was younger, but now clutching him like a dying man being rescued, as if to kill his rescuer by uncontrolled holds. Again and again, both in conduct and in doctrine, a person or a church will lapse, and in the cases of the children of God, the healing being available, will find solace and health in repentance and spirituality instead of undirected surges of spirit, and vying in misplaced industry.

The world meanwhile, without the Saviour, finds in its NECESSARY glitches, as it may conceive, them, mere evidence of being on the wrong path, and so beyond these, the passions lurch into wars without just cause, into venom without caution, error without remission, hatred without intermission and industry without point, which in the end beckons to judgment without end.

 

These things are on the one hand, sicknesses to be healed in the body of the Lord, and on the other, deadly amours with mortality, on the part of those who disdain or disregard the Saviour and hence His healing. His dealings with such are like those of a doctor whose patient does not often come, and when coming, does not often listen, and when listening, does not often do. The result is world history.

In examining elements of these themes, and instances, it is hoped that the biblical perspective in detail will help some to be revived and to look up to the Saviour and to find Him, and others, who already known Him, to abate divisions without grand, to embrace the Saviour with renewed fidelity and to adorn the Gospel without those little glitches which spoil programs so readily. In all things, there is one book, one Lord, on Spirit, one salvation, one Gospel, one grace, one peace, one love, one joy; and what is faithful to the book, in spirit and word, is faithful to the Lord.

TEST all things: it is with this book of the Lord, that Bible,  that you test, and when you try the spirits and try your ways, to see if there be any iniquity in them, as David sought the Lord should do with him, you use this His word, to challenge or solace you, and relying on what He has said, look to Him who said it, and does it! Praise His name for ever and ever.

With these things, this volume is also set to itemise various sprigs, spiritual issues or items which may edify, challenge, comfort or contort, depending on the receptor, and biblical gems, since these lie like untouched gold nuggets in the Bible, and need to be discovered or re-discovered or reviewed in awe from time to time, to give strength to the weary and joy to the godly, yes and warning or truth to the straying and hope to the helpless.

Meanwhile, the coherence, cohesion, the brilliant complementarity of all the biblical doctrines is its own apologetics: it fits like the fabrics and materiel of a house-building kit, and here, it is that for the household of faith, for its delectation, presentation and use. As the world whizzes on its predestined path, always imagining great things for itself, except when it is not too disgusted or exhausted for a while, even to think, the great day of His Second Coming, His glory which is to follow (Luke 24:26, Mark 14:62) moves nearer as history zealously is fulfilling the preliminaries required, like a housewife cleaning each room in the morning

 

148th.

HALLOWED BE THY NAME

ISBN 978-0-9805471-0-8

Published July 2008

Hideous be your templates, horrendous your ethics, blighted your morals, despicable your conceptions and cursed your creations!

That would be another approach to life.

You see this duo repeatedly in the Bible. Thus in Ezekiel 20, there is a veritable litany of error, of grossness, even to the point of putting children through fires in the interests of pagan conceptions of surrounding religions, culture king, calamity the result.

Man has always had a tendency to embrace the pagan, preferably with some admixture of derring do, as in the child burning piquancy to the delectations of the religions exposed to divine fury as seen in Ezekiel. He desire to exclude the supernatural from the natural is wholly parallel to mother cursing, as if one did not need a womb, or father defamation, as if no need was necessary.

But to HALLOW the name of God, rather than seek to blight it, to make light of it, not to sight it, this is something else.

It is the task of this book to make that exceedingly clear; for it is not enough to have goddish sorts of thoughts. With God, His name is to be hallowed.

 

149th.

ISBN

Published July 2008

GOING WITH GOD

THE CHRISTIAN ABIDING: THE LORD PRESIDING

 

The Brighter Way for the Declining Day

ISBN 978-0-9805471-3-9

The holy way in this declining day - for in the forecast arena in our Age, a day with the Lord is as a thousand years, and this makes two since Christ (II Peter 3:9): it is much assaulted. We are told that it is better now, though for murderous malice and spiteful confusion, for blighting on sight, for murdering in millions, for overthrowing good things and investing in lust there could have been few like it. Indeed for the power of man to destroy, it is unparalleled; and in this as for the desire, it has no equal. This is bringing our time into complete accord with the precise prediction to the point of Jesus Christ.

It is a spiritual fact of the utmost significance that when FACTS such as these are mentioned, the tendency to scoff at verified spiritual realities, so prominent in our day, seems to surge. Facts in this area as in that of the fraud of organic evolution, seem to be disparaged almost compulsively (cf. The gods of naturalism have no go!).

One thing does not change as the fiery embers of the setting sun make ready to appear, scorching broadly and not only in the Middle East as foretold, with Israel the victim proposed and the occasion for the catastrophe to be imposed on her assailants. The pre-occupation of this world with the place set by God for the nation once chosen to bring both the Word of God, in Old Testament writing, and the living Word of God, Jesus Christ, is great. Nor is this surprising; for if God sets a nation in a place, just try to displace it!  And if you fail, just start reflecting on what you are doing, and what He is doing, and consider before it is too late.

After all, Israel's former displacements for a time were foretold, as this deliverance is likewise (cf. It Bubbles ... Ch. 10, Israel Ch. 1, Red Alert ... Ch. 10, Outrageous Outages, Awesome Inputs and the Courage of Christ Ch. 11). How the prophets laboured to warn her of the assault by Assyria, a rod for the discipline of her faithless ways before God over centuries, and of the exile to come through Babylon: but she did not listen. However, with the warning came the hope, and Jeremiah in particular foretold her restoration after a 70 year exile, just as Isaiah foretold that Cyrus, by name, would be a national instrument in the restoration of the exiled nation to her land.

The culmination in the execution of the Christ, the greatest legal fumble of all time, also foretold and in those terms,  in Isaiah 53 and Micah 5:1-3, has led to a longer exile; but this too is now past, as the further predictions for her armed successes (noted in Zechariah 12) against wholly disproportionate enemies are now fulfilled (1948, 1966, 1973 with some reference to 1991).

Nor is it a case of a beautiful nation - though I personally greatly admire its frequent humanitarian actions, even towards her oppressors, at the medical level, and her restraint as squabbling nations continually seek her destruction, like dogs fighting for a bone, with cats squawling at the same time - for Israel has yet to repent, as predicted in Zechariah 12, and to acknowledge its error, in crucifying Christ, God as man.

To be sure, this was predicted also (in Psalm 2, 16, 22, Zechariah 12:10, in Isaiah 53, as a bunch with many other items, ranging from a millenium to half a millenium before it happened); but the repentance to come is now at issue, just as the Christ to come was the issue when the date for His death, predicted by Daniel some half a millenium before its occurrence, was coming up (cf. Highway of Holiness Ch. 4). It does not lessen the error of Rome plus Jerusalem in settling upon His death, repaying blight for might shown in healing, help, grace, compassion, words such as no man ever spoke, as He took His place within history.

There He has become the chief focus, and that for millenia;  and this is likewise the case in the book most sold since printing began, in Europe, almost 1500 years later. The Bible and the Christ, the Lord's Christ, these are the dominant focus of history to the point that the very dating system of Europe reflected it, at least in intention.

The way of Christ does not change. The world contests it; the Lord invests it.

The kindness and compassion, the pity and the power, the capacity to raise from the dead, this is needed as much now as then, when it was not appreciated by the ruling and contentious, the envious and the blind authorities in Jerusalem, ruler and ruled, at that time. Pilate and priest combined in their awe-ful parallel then,  to the coming time now,  when the first and the second beast are to unite to seek to eliminate Christianity from this earth. Already the efforts of the devil to this effect have come far to fulfilling the predictions along these lines. Hitler sought to remove the racial evidence, as does not a little of the militant Islamic movement now, making archeology difficult in the sacred sites; and it is not really racial at heart, since it is a matter of what GOD CHOSE to do a job, and what remains, as in Israel the nation, to show the world its failure.

You see this sort of thing, a hostile world rule against Christ and His will and way,  foretold at length in the book of Revelation. In Ch. 13, and the two evil dread noughts are there noted, the first and the second beast.

Beast ?  that is socio-economic, politico-cultural, militant militarist regime, with its rulers spending the time seeking to annex the world to their cult. The second beast is a religious specialist, seeking glorify the first. It is just like an expanded Hitler-Goebbels regime; but this time not national only, for by then that prototype is international. The devil in Revelation 12 is shown trying to swallow up and drown out the Christians, having sought first, as seen in the earlier part of that Chapter, to extinguish Christ at His birth.

There we find him trying to persecute the Jewish Christians to the death. In that Chapter likewise, we find he extends His desire to all the followers of Christ; but as always, in the ultimate result, he is thwarted. It is not surprising that he gets very angry and, as one with certified and advanced cancer, he knows his end is near (Revelation 12:12:12). The otherwise almost inconceivable wrath and folly is therefore not surprising! If there is one thing which tends to be extreme, it is the wrath shown and extremities imposed by frustrated tyrants, and while their little day lasts, they can exceed all boundaries, to the limit allowed.

The Roman Empire tried hard to pursue this job of extinguishing Christians;  but it was thwarted, and fell. The Holy Roman Empire, using Romanism as a dual-cultural club, tried to extinguish with the Inquisition, the Biblical Christian testimony (cf. SMR pp. 902 - 931, 911ff., 1032-1088H); but it likewise failed. It is apparent that there are today forces which would like to 'have another go'. Still there lingers the force of the last fall of the oppressor.

Indeed so far did it fail that the British Empire arose from the ashes of the fires of Smithfield in Britain, where the ashes of saints accumulated (cf. Ancient Words, Modern Deeds Ch. 14). This Protestant body ruled much of the world and became the most powerful grouping for many years, but in two World Wars exhausted itself, and now is willing to move if you will, through the Chunnel as a symbolic funnel to be under direction from Brussels, a growing summit for imposition of authority, in the continent where Hitler failed to make it Berlin.

Thus with the passing of the British Empire, together with the white-anting of Anglicanism increasingly and that of many large Protestant Churches (cf. SMR pp. 686-706, 857-876),  the stopper in the slaughter of millions of Christians is pulled out, and the race is on for the extinction program by the more modern exemplars of slaughter. This may be found not least in the Sudan, but are ably supported by all reports for decades, by China in its own way and the Laden exercise, laden with desire to re-assert the Islamic heresy (cf. More Marvels ... Ch. 4, SMR pp. 1080ff., Divine Agenda ... Ch. 6, Lord of Life,  Ch. 8, *1).

Accordingly,  these movements growingly fulfil both the blood lust theme found recorded in advance of history in the Book of Revelation (not only in Chs. 13, 17 but in Ch. 6 where death is shown in guise as an adventurer and almost ruler), and the false prophet multiplication as a phenomenon on this earth, before Christ returns to rule.

That is the back-drop. In the foreground however, there is the same Christ, the same Holy Spirit, the same Bible, the same word, truth, Gospel, program, in a setting now well advanced from simmer to boil.

In this volume, we seek to concentrate not least on the way of living in Jesus Christ: and this,  whether when the people of Jesus Christ are proposed for the slaughter mentally, physically or spiritually, or proceed in peace in the beauty of His holiness. That, it is in contrast to the ghoulish presence now becoming so popular within the confines of the vehement among the human race, while Europe rises to meet its appointed prophetic centrality.

 

150th.

THE BIBLE:

NOT THE DECLAMATIONS OR DISTILLATIONS

OF MAN,

BUT THE DOCTRINE OF DEITY

Published July 2008

ISBN 978-0-9805471-4-6

Back to the Bible! has come the cry for many years. The Bible! comes the carnal response, why ?

It has been one of the chief purposes of this site to show WHY!

In sum, it is because it is not dated like other works, by the misconceptions of ruling cultures, or fated by the feeble-minded estimates of truth or past or future of seductive seers, nor is it invalidated by models of thought which do not permit truth to exist, or if to exist, to be known, or if to be known, or if to be known by man, not to be communicated, or if communicated, not accurately so ... and so on. The litany of self-destruction for those who seek to tell us WHAT IT IS, is endless, and their models are futile. Here is found the mourning at the coffin of secular man, with the pall-bearers for the funeral, the mystique religions of evanescence and suffusion with the thoughts of man, with or without any tail-ends of truth from another source. But the Bible is not so. All this it avoids, because it is the doctrine of God.

It is because like truth, it describes events, those pulsating with normalcy, to give them perspective, just as it considers those erratic, with judgment on order or confusion found as its masterpiece, in their settings. For each, it gives grounds. It applies them. It gives precise enclosures of what is to be history and not merely grants numerous details, but the dynamic behind it and the reasons for its application. It makes personal the seemingly impersonal, wise what is witless and gives interpretation to the mass, or for some who misunderstand, the morass of events, like an expert reader of space photographs of things on the earth, pointing out now this and now that, so that it may be discerned, and being discerned, acted on for good.

It is because like man, it displays knowledge of hearts, their diseases, spirits and their seductions and force, but unlike man, does not underestimate the power of man or his puniness or fail to provide the grounds and reason why, and grounds for, what happens to him. It is most unlike man in this, that the knowledge of hearts is given not only by One who presents Himself as Creator, and so ABLE to have this wit and wisdom, and omniscient and so reliable. He also speaks as One who gives no congratulation to a perfection which is not here, or to a heart which is in rebellion, nor on the other hand, no rebuttal to a heart which seeks cleansing, and for that matter, no rejection to the plea for purification and the means for it.

It is because it is the charter, not of human rights, but of godly gifts, of the dimensions of our souls, the depths of our spirits, and their superficial claims are rejected just as categorically as their vast aspirations towards their Creator are blessed. It is because it itemises the spiritual sicknesses which lead to false gods, who did not make heaven and earth, and rejecting them, appeals to man to find wisdom where it is, in his Maker and in His Manual, the Bible, which alone has the verifications to endorse it, and of course, the Saviour to apply it, Jesus Christ. It alone has the date for His death (Highway of Holiness Ch. 4) and the prognosis, both for Israel and Gentile nations, all of which have been fulfilled to the letter, and in their own diverse ways.

It alone has provided specifications for salvation, not only in word, but in the person of the predicted Messiah, not awaited, though it was long awaited before He came, but come; not equipped with thought alone, but with power in deeds, in raising the dead, in being raised from the dead, in putting the two together in a short space of never-overthrown challenge, and always fulfilled words. In it alone is the testimony of the types of miracle He would perform (cf. Isaiah 29, 35), the type of death He would suffer,  and the salutary and indeed salvation-based reasons for it (cf. SMR Chs.  8  ,     9, Repent or Perish Ch. 2, Christ, the Wisdom of God ... Ch. 8), and the grounds for His resurrection with its potent meaning (cf. Going with God Ch. 5, With Heart and Soul ... Ch. 3), which His men proceeded at once to apply world-wide (Matthew 28:19-20).

 

151st

BEWILDERMENT, BEDAZZLEMENT, BEDEVILMENT

OR THE BEAUTY OF

CHRIST'S HOLINESS

Published August 2008

ISBN 978-0-9805471-6-0

Blood ? wars seem to arise like evil flowers, cape-weed which bedizens so many fields in blatant colourful contrast of black and yellow in Victoria, or sour-grass which in South Australia looks so 'pretty' in its almost delicate flowerings, as it carpets so much, as if the mere business of living were a bagatelle, a thing of nothing, its flowers finding paths and explorations that might daunt the mighty. But it is a weed.

War with the heady throb of blood is likewise a weed. In this century its talons are cruel, its heart is usually befouled with the grime of crime, political folly, egotism, false glory, inveterate hatred, incestuous spiritual relationships with the evils and the Evil one, as it drives dauntless, like sour grass, sour spirited sallies and gross hearted severances of peace, arms, legs, hands, futures, hopes, its specialty.

As often enough stated, this is not some 'religious bash': it is fact. It is time that the sadly tic-like movement to scratch the itch of conscience by derisively formulated disclaimers of 'doom' by a race given increasingly to wild frenzies and lifeless replies, should be replaced by repentance. Is it really imagined that the Creator of man's power to think, to surmise, to imagine, to investigate, of the fields to which he attends, of life, of death, as shown in recent volumes of this set, is immune to man's antics ?

Is it really thought that man has it all rolled up, wrapped up, parcelled and neat, his answer to the obvious and probing question as God beholds his conduct: WHY! Why are you, this race called mankind, WHY ARE YOU SO ACTING! Do you imagine, says God, or rather you thought that I was one just like you! In crime ? in folly ? Hardly does He whose is all grasp for more! Take care, He says, lest you be destroyed. But the drugged mind is all but past caring, that of mankind in the mass of its degraded movements, demolishing what is right, exploiting what is wrong, and singing with it the song of Man, Man, Man!

Psalm 50 has a caution!

"But to the wicked God says:
 

'What right have you to declare My statutes,

Or take My covenant in your mouth,

Seeing you hate instruction

And cast My words behind you?
 

'When you saw a thief, you consented with him,

And have been a partaker with adulterers.
 

'You give your mouth to evil,

And your tongue frames deceit.

You sit and speak against your brother;

You slander your own mother’s son.
 

'These things you have done, and I kept silent;

You thought that I was altogether like you;

But I will rebuke you,

And set them in order before your eyes.
 

'Now consider this, you who forget God,

Lest I tear you in pieces,

And there be none to deliver:

Whoever offers praise glorifies Me;

And to him who orders his conduct aright

                           I will show the salvation of God.. "

 

Yet so many want to ask God, WHY ? why do you permit such things ? as if He had not been so gracious and forbearing that it staggers the soul!

The answer is ever obvious in one's own heart. WE have power to choose, love has power to dispose itself, friendship has power to bestow itself, as does hatred and enmity and vying and lust of all kinds, not least the spiritual for autonomous self-will. WE do choose and the results are accordingly to be found. It is the divine brake, and not the accelerator, which amazingly slows down the rate and spate of crashes; but folly mounts, and its results accrue, first of all like the moraine of glaciers, then like the flooding of rivers, then like the rising of seas and the violence of storms.

What do you expect ? Endless folly to be given a grant for eternity! Not likely.

The fact that mercy is so vast and prodigious that this race is not yet exterminated, though it is seemingly doing its very best to achieve this by violation of individuals, races, nations, truth, care, concern, in the interests of having more, dashing into the derring-do extremities that lash the earth and assail its people and imposing this or that erratic or despotic will on others, should not be construed to mean that the RESULTS will simply forget about it. They are so disposable, as if for these too, it were merely a matter of finding a suitable rubbish bin and tossing them into it.

There is a folly in this earth, not least, new look politicians, who promise new things, new ways, change away from old things, and this has appeal to many because old things have been so tarnished in the travails of compromise and falling standards for so long that a new look seems charming to them.

But what is this new look ? more people power, less regard for what is left of standards of purity and truth and distinctiveness for the absolutes of the God who sent Jesus Christ, whose answers remain what they always were, NECESSARY for life! That appears its most popular direction.

Religions and a good dose of dialogue, in the current climate, and for a nation that once might have called itself Christian, this appears nothing more than another name for compromise and despatch somewhere else, of the biblical absolutes of Christ, leaving the memory dim, the standards misty and the new shores as welcome as tarry tarmacs, afflicted by the heat. As they settle on them, the vision goes from the nation, while the option of bottomless depth yaws, or yawns, for it has had many takers.

The way is falling since Britain fell, and it has, to be sure, a long way to go; but it is falling faster as every bulwark against popularist betrayal of divine truth becomes a commonplace, large organisations still illicitly called churches betraying Christ by blatant pushes for pre-eminence in themselves, or for autonomy of morals as if Christ had never been, or arrogance in doctrine, as though a Bible could be written and displayed with new teaching on any street corner at will.

It is as Paul describes such ventures into such areas,  into ventriloquism for the voice of God or plagiarism or remoulding relative to the Lord, a fitting work for the devil who loves a different Gospel, another Jesus or another spirit (II Corinthians 11). That proud spirit can specialise in transforming his appearance into that of a false, or falsetto angel of God! Following his leading has never been a good idea. It ruined this earth more than any merely environmental work of man could ever do!  It made it FIT for judgment! (cf. Romans 5:1-14, 8:17ff.).

There is payment to come. Let us leave that side.

There is also the beauty of holiness to find. It is in Christ now as it always was. It is not found in grabbing, getting and forgetting what is godly, but by discovery of the truth where it always was and will be, in Him whose it is, in the God of verifiable, validated revelation in Jesus Christ, the doctrinal deposit in the Bible. Abandon that, abandon Him, mould it to your will (in theory - in fact it will never change), use Him for pleasure, profit, a happiness-machine, an investment opportunity, USE Him for ANYTHING, rather than finding in Him life as HE gives it, and what follows ? It is this. You are then merely making HIM a means to your objectives, your life and your will. He is not so available. Christ did not call us to take up our crosses and follow Him, in order to suggest it would be easy, or self-gratifying. Who on earth could find it gratifying or pleasurable or fulfilling to heave on his shoulder a great, heavy, cruel, rough cross, an object on which he is to be crucified! (Galatians 2:20, Luke 14:27ff.).

Life is beautiful IN Christ, but ugly outside. It is not however supine saturation with pleasure but spiritual moulding with truth in mercy. Mere satiation of desire leaves unanswered the question of WHAT desire and WHY! To find God is to find love, truth, pity, beauty of holiness, peace and wonder. It is not for profane hands, which is why so few who name Him, have Him. FEW there are who enter this narrow way, said Christ (Matthew 7). Many are called, but few are chosen! He intimated.

Be like athletes competing for a prize, said Paul! This is not the work of leisurely laziness or pleasurable performances. This world has history and history has point, purpose and meaning, both exposing the weaknesses, giving experience of them and their correction, intimations of their purposes, overcoming of their deviations, exposition of the power of God in the weakness of man and the scintillations of scenarios unspeakable or spiritual, the glitter, the bedazzlement of what  blights, or the glory of what has fought and won, and conferred on His own, that victory.

Where is the honest, sincere response to the wonder that God is, with the wonder-reaching aspirations of spirit which finding life through regeneration (Titus 2-3), live anew in the active and dynamic presence of the living, loving God who gave many things ? Let it be in you.  To life, where it must be, in Him, He has given the openings of grace, and to this He invites (Matthew 11:29ff.); to mind its open door to truth (Ephesians 1, Psalm 119), and to heart its land of splendour, where sacrifice and conformity to truth are like brilliant alpine resorts, arduous and inspiring, delightful and awesome, to be treated with the utmost care (Philippians 2-3).

May God bless you as you put all your valuables in His spiritual basket, and placing it in His hands, with a will made clean by the blood of Christ, live entirely for Him. You will not find it easy, but it will test faith! However, His hands are sure, and the basketware is His (Ephesians 1:11, I Peter 1).

In this volume, which is not large, the intention is to use things small and large, minor and major, as in a store room. It is hoped you will find what edifies, trusted many will be blessed and recommended that you SEEK the Lord with ALL your heart, and finding Him by faith, eject encumbrances and run well.

The track ? It is called truth. The athletic style ? it is called love.

 

152nd

THY WORD IS WONDERFUL

Published September 2008

ISBN 978-0-9805471-7-7

It is often the case that someone with marred face or limp shows a spirit which not merely disguises the defect, but almost seems to make it a prominent thing, a desirable feature, so great is the spirit accompanying it - like a gnarled tree, in some feature of its trunk, which nevertheless sways magnificently in the soughing beauties of its life, and shades deeply in its recesses.

Christ is beyond all in this, since the defect of death was voluntary, the distortion of limbs was resolved on, and the direness of slow torture was willingly adopted. Moreover, it was not for display, important as this can be, of the patience of truth and the magnificence of divine mercy only, as if we should see a moving film. It was for practical action, in history, and by history, to make eternity available.

In this volume, DV, there is to be that simple attestation which reality brings without fanfare or flourish, like a fine rug. It has no profit-seeking rep to signify its wonder, but it is warm. It is like a smile: it has no announcement of its presence, but it warms; or like a fire in the grate, it has nothing but diminution, slow loss to show, but it provides great gain. Such was the Cross of Christ, not a spectacular Olympics to hide distress, but a spectacular distress to demonstrate reality, and bearing the shame of man's now inherent and devastating sin, to void the consequences even to death, by death, vicarious and undeserved, effectual for relief.

The word of God has brought millions over millenia to this same Christ, as the LIVING WORD of God. It is to this WORD as to the written word, alike that we now come, the expression of God Himself, whether in verbal symbol to feed the mind and establish the soul, or in what is written, to break the rock of pretence.

It is  who He has borne all to provide for all what only some will accept; but His word is wonderful, that Bible which to jot and tittle as in His own day, when only the Old Testament was there, would conquer history and come to pass. In the New Testament, bound to Him by His own power, of whom it IS the testimony, it is no different (cf. I Peter 1:25, Matthew 4:4, I Corinthians 14:37, 2:9ff., John 14:26). Just as He cannot be added to, nor yet suffer subtraction (though man sought to suck away His very life, the ultimate subtraction, it was in 3 days restored as foretold), neither can the word of His mouth, the thought of His heart, the Gospel of His grace (Galatians 1), no nor even varied.

In this word, we find that testimony in itself, as in the oak or the spirited one who overcomes all, and to witness and enjoy it is in itself, to be taught what is truth, as light teaches what is reality. It makes no sound; but it shows. So is the Bible, and such must be our open heartedness towards it, to appreciate what it is, the very word of God, conveyer of truth, worker of experience, arresting the spirit, deploying the thoughts, inspiring the heart and teaching the mind. We shall allow ourselves to be exposed to it and to sup on its strength, feed on its faithfulness and follow it to its pith, point and path, since this will never vary, nor will it alter at all; for though heaven and earth WILL pass away, His word will not do so! (Matthew 24:25). With  God, it is like that ... it is different!

 

153rd

The Holocaust of Morality and the Coming of Christ the King

Published October  2008

ISBN 978-0-9805471-8-4

Barbarism is never attractive. It is descent into insensitivity, decline into the bucolic, the aggressively self-parading or assertive, the loss of knowledge and the presence of the desires of flesh, making man manacled to nature, as if part of that over which IN GOD, he should bear responsible rule.

When however you have assertive decline, the very follies of a gospel of disgrace, the downward embraced as an illicit lover, mere partner in lust, when knowledge is distorted by artifice and morals become inventions of so-called culture, a mere name for what people are broadly doing and saying and thinking, be it good or bad, brilliant or immune to all reason, as now in many countries, whether from the Communist, the Islamic or innovative religious slant, dressed in philosophic rags or preening in cultural adornments, then what ? It is then that horror has its day, and folly its adornment.

On the other hand, the stability that is to be found in the unchanging Jesus Christ, long announced to come over millenia, coming at the date set in the prophets of Israel, to do the work assigned, whose Gospel enshrines what was foretold, and has done what was foretold; and when you have that well-grounded, rationally founded morality which bends to no refraction and is made diffuse by no diffraction, but is the correlative of man's design and the issuance of his Creator, then what is to be found ? Then there is the nobility of enterprise in the necessities of righteousness, the grace of God in the midst of provocation and the natural blessed by the supernatural, so that it is like a beautiful picture, serene as Constable, valiant like Drake at the Armada and with voice for its thoughts, given by God.

In service is there dignity, in obedience is strength and in vision of splendour there is understanding.

The current comparability with Sodom and Gomorrah, mounts; and to the former of these,  it appears there was only a matter of hours before the destruction came suddenly, following that extravagance of lust when some of the men sought carnal intercourse with an angel! (Genesis 19). Such things are in the line of challenge in II Peter and Jude, and form only a part of the dishonesty, aggression as a paranoid pre-occupation for wits and vainglory, at levels individual, national and international, which in this generation colludes with other vices to form clots in the drains of living, where men drink disease.

If there is no joy in the description of such things, or goodness in the fallacies and philosophies, pollutions and filibusters of endless bombast of propaganda which wants to make 'nature' lord and spiritual obesity the companion of moral famine, at least there is point. People have been known to repent, and whole international movements have occurred as one sees in the history of revival, in such works for example as Edwin Orr's "The Second Evangelical Awakening". To be sure, much fanfare has been fantasy and many awakenings have been little more than stirrings in the sleep, but far is this from being the universal rule. Awakenings have swept nations like winds in Autumn, the leaves.

Further there is reason to expose the bases of doubt and defeat, despair and illusion which makes of life a splendid or a dismal fancy, according to the phase of the pathology in view, so that by stability and contrast, reason and revelation, fruits and function,  the grounds of righteousness appear in their beauty and the blessedness and happiness of holiness is seen aright. Skewed or sedative works and articles, features, teachings, promptings, instructions, grounds for retaining a lecturing job and the like, despite known fallacy: these are as common as blow-flies in their season, but less productive than worms, which at least enrich the soil, and do not make it radioactive.

Indeed, pity has its place, for who in his right mind wants to see needlessly, the breach of loveliness that COULD be by the vice that MUST be, when the necessity is only apparent, and the gall of what breaks man has all the spiritual attractiveness of the devil ?

Thus we shall plan to awaken thought as we move with the Gospel of grace in such ways, in the intention that some may be saved from seduction, delivered from devilish dynamics and enlightened by the light of Christ, as they sink in the deep ocean channels amid the outgoing currents, where only fear and distress await, if not at once, then in due course.

 

154th.

The Secular, the Sacred and the Sublime

Published November  2008

ISBN 978-0-9805471-9-1

An idea of its contents, which are much in  creation-salvation-culmination,
is to be found below.

The secularity of the secular is just the worldliness of this world. The sacredness of what is sacred is the reflection of the Creator, and the sublimity of the sublime is the manifestation of His power, presence, personal nature, wisdom, brilliance, majesty, holiness, compassion and mercy, wonder and grand creativeness, the anterior to our own passion for it, the ground for it and for as many as receive Him who made them freely, who paid for their restoration and redeemed, the culmination of it.

HERE is the real creativity: GOD who created first man, has created the solution to the sin which is the necessary aptitude of liberty, and in so doing has sent His personal expression, His living word, the exact representation of His being, incarnate as His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, to bring the Eternal to the Present, the Everlasting to the Temporal and the Life Eternal to the recipients.

It is part of His creativity and holiness that it is free ... Certain additional emphases are found on this topic in this volume.

2) It also deals with education, that eliciting within creation, and with a broader teaching, even in Chapter 3
 

THE MESSIAH IN JEREMIAH,

WHICH IS EXEGETICAL, AND A GRAND TOPIC. It is not that Isaiah is given too much prominence (for HOW could that be!), but that often Jeremiah in THIS respect is given too little. Effort is made then to remedy this!

 

155th.

Mini-Messages with Maxi-Impact

Published December  2008

ISBN 978-0-9806138-0-3

Reviews of some wide-ranging basic topics of Christianity, with emphasis on pith
and application.

 

2009

16 Volumes Published October 2009

 

156th.

ISRAEL II

ISRAEL: ITS DAY FROM A LONG WAY AWAY

Consider Israel - If You Don't, You May Have to!

January 2009

ISBN 978-0-9806138-1-0

Compilation of many earlier presentations on the Bible, Israel, the Church, this world and the next, with additional material, updating or extending the earlier work on ISRAEL.

 

157th.

THE UNCOMPREHENDING DARKNESS
AND THE SELF-REVEALING LIGHT

The Duty of Holiness

ISBN 978-0-9806138-2-7

February 2009

 

Taking over... It is Satan's long-standing desire.

The light of truth, however, unlike the uncomprehending darkness in which it shines (cf. John 1:1ff.), is self-revealing. Darkness merely scarfs up, hides, occludes vision; but self-revealing light has something to show. Light is what exposes and what is truth exposes itself with relentless patience and continuous evidence (cf. Light Dwells with the Lord's Christ).

Suppression becomes the answer and oppression the result of the clamouring clangours of the din of darkness, which would sometimes reduce its call from that of blood in the ground to a flood over it, 'managing man'. Thus there is a phase of spiritually illiterate violence, whether by fines or imprisonment (such as occurred to Bunyan and may yet occur in Australia for those who tell what the Bible declares, Victoria having given a strong lead), or bombs or invasion, by raids as in Georgia, or by death camps as by Hitler, it is the way of force that does not favour truth, that answers a challenge ideological or spiritual, by a shower of power.

Where evidence mounts and will not be discounted, then petulant or aspiring force is used; where truth declares, mouths are to be closed. Nothing must betray the powers-that-be in their inordinate lust to take over from God, declaring a new gospel, that of betrayal of Christ, even in the case of  many, this in HIS NAME! (as II Peter 1 forecast, and the period from 1900 to the present abundantly fulfils as many of those bodies which were once churches, retain the name, and preach otherwise cf. News 121, 122).

The self-revealing light is not mere illumination, however; it has something within it to reveal. God dwells in light inaccessible, preferring to declare Himself by light, and suffering none to invade; and when His light shines, then the realities which suffer no darkness of confusion, or of incomprehension show themselves, the very nature of the divine Being and His plans, thus attested from antiquity without change, in the Bible, as it grew to total fulfilment in Jesus Christ. Here the propositional became the personal, and instead of servants of God preparing His way, He came in Person (cf. All This Rot about Not Believing).

Without the God who made him, man makes gods, whether of nothing, matter, ideas, power, rule, race, spiritual beings, spiritual powers, a pardoning virgin (cf. SMR pp. 927, 977ff., 1087ff., Jesus Christ , Defaced ... Ch. 5, esp. *2), a mother-earth, a natural force or anything else he happens to think of (cf. The gods of naturalism have no go!), whether ransacking the Bible to violate it in its own name, or being more adventurous, basing himself on himself, and so neither knowing nor able to know his basis. You will never find what made the car by worshipping it or its processes of composition.

In this volume then, the assaults of darkness, force, folly and the results, are on the one side and on the other, there is the wonder of a light that shines out from its own basis in God, cluttered by no nonsense, full of illimitable power, which can seem harsh to those who betray it when patience is finished and the case is done, but is gentle to those who use it, without seeking to fuse and confuse it with anything else. The conflict ? it is like having a team of kids opposing a Test side; and far more, the finite poking out its tongue at the infinite. When mercy is despised, what is left is reality, which shuns theft of truth and deals with it as with all estranged scorn: with justice and this ultimately ... means judgment.

God is most gracious and patient; but there was a beginning and there is an end to it all. The reaping is near now (Answers to Questions Ch. 5)and the weeping is already in progress. The Gospel of Jesus Christ was forecast in increasing detail for millenia (cf. Joyful Jottings 22-25), its crucial cost has been covered by on the Cross for more millenia, and the entirety of the divine program is now coming towards its end. Many have their love grow cold as Christ forecast (Matthew 24), because it is so tedious-seeming, and others because of multiple betrayals; but when one's trust and hope is placed in God, then only grace prevails with ineluctable truth, and forgiveness proceeds with an unyielding love which in mercy, shows it. If hope springs eternal (in our season), it is chiefly because the ground for it is still on offer!

Man is on test conditions; it is well not to follow the mob, nor the delinquents, but the only other focus, Jesus Christ while there is yet time (cf. Christ the Wisdom and the Power of God Ch. 8, Repent or Perish Ch. 2, The Magnificence of the Messiah). His is no blemish, all evidence, only validity (cf. Deity and Design ... esp.  Section 8). Indeed, in Chapter 11, the matter becomes luminous as Habakkuk asks his famous questions.

Meet Him; He is very pleasant to know. You will then find His word as a resource insuperable, His promises as a course indubitable, His presence a recourse inimitable and His mercy a forest of beauty with the streams of spiritual peace in its midst.

 

158th.

THE KINGDOMS OF THIS WORLD and

THE KINGDOM OF CHRIST

March 2009

ISBN 978-0-9806138-4-1

First of all, consider Him who is first - and last. There is no competition there for the primacy of position or the outlasting, enduring end of the matter.  He is BOTH. Nor is there any emulation within Him, for He delights to give His kingdom to His Christ, He who is the Father, and the Spirit of God is sent by the Son from the Father. Thus when in Revelation it declares the unutterably musical, majestic, simple, solemn sentence:

the kingdoms of this world have become
the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ,

there is no sense of striving together. That is the way of this world. Rather the One delights to give it and the other delights to receive it and both, one God, delight to send the Son so that many might be moved from the kingdoms of this world to His own.

There is nothing meretricious: for merit is total and pervasive. It does not need to be earned, for it is there; and its disclosure is not for assessment for it assesses and is wrought over all. What is, precedes what is done, as a car precedes its mileage; but this One, He is eternal. The alternative of nothing (which gives nothing, but we are something) or something inadequate (but by definition that CANNOT do it) leaves only one opening: what is eternally sufficient from the first for everything to the last. Nor is He composite, as if synthesised, nor contained, as if Another were over Him, for that is not God but a subject and what subjects is God.

Nor is He less than personal who makes persons, gives them that liberty which is the groundwork of responsibility and that law which is the basis of morality and that fervent function of spirit which is the underground work for creativity in our race, the results of which are nobility and disaster, wonder and woe, calamity and consummation, in a perfervid mess of mangling called the kingdoms of this world.

It is great to envisage their loss, as Shakespeare phrases it, we dote on their very absence and yearn for their decease; for it is then that these kingdoms become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ, that Messiah who being sent from eternity, the Word of God living and lively, who created all things (Colossians 1:15, John 1:3, I John 1:1-4) whose is eternal life and from whom it is obtained, that door for entry, that Lamb for atonement, that Destroyer of death and deployer of life that cannot finish, for He gives of His own.

In this volume, our concern is the movement from the one to the other, the quality of the one compared to the other, the politics of frustration and the power of reformation, the ending of an Age and the coming of the King whose kingdom is over all, whose trinitarian magnificence with His Father and the Spirit leaves an eternal light that nothing can obfuscate, a glory which nothing can penetrate and a life that nothing can end for the citizens of that realm (Philippians 3:20-21, Revelation 7, John 11).

 

159th.  CHRIST THE CITADEL

Christ the Citadel, The Hospital, The Acquittal,
The Creator, The Restorative,
The Celestial Regality:

Look! He Comes

March 2009

ISBN 978-0-9806138-5-8

 

Be ready! For some 2000 years, since the arrival of the Messiah, Jesus Christ,  on this globe, He has operated in spiritual hospices, hospitals, operations, missions, in His people throughout the world. He has continued His application of redemption (cf. Acts 1:1).

Millions have been acquitted; many wooed, regaining life, made gentle who were fierce, escaping the curse along with the total citizenry of the kingdom of heaven. The taut have been taught from within, impacted from the record of His incarnation and death, from outside, another spirit has been sent within them, kindness has displaced cruelty, healing injury, fellowship fury. Such has been the lot in the Lord for a few (cf. Matthew 7:15ff.).

The spuming floods of the spiritually spurious have been from the evil powers, driven with devious dynamic and power designed to envelop the followers of Christ, but the Lord has delivered them (cf. Revelation 12:15-16), though many have added their blood to the flood, faithful and fearless, smitten but not seduced.

The celestial citadel of Christ Jesus (cf. Psalm 18:1-6) has rendered them in spirit secure, in life meaningful, in heart directed, in mind founded on the objective reality of God Himself, translated into a visible life on this earth in the person of Jesus Christ the Saviour, who faithful through death has led to the other side (cf. John 14:1ff.); so that we who are His are secure.

Meanwhile, menace has sought to mesmerise this world, to seduce to compromising policy, as did blind peace-niks in the 1930s, ignoring the due and just warning of Winston Churchill, till the whole land was near to repossession by evil and lustful forces from Europe.

Generations earlier, a fascinating example of penetrating and biblical faith appeared in Archbishop Cranmer, who seeking peace for the Church and the kingdom, wavered, for a short time accepting the ultimatum which would have made blatant but popular idolatry acceptable, but then realising his confused submission, that all must be subordinated to the truth and honour of the Prince of peace, Jesus Christ, without whose rule no rule is righteous, in him grace prevailed. He drastically rejected the agreement, turned from it and entered the band of martyrs in high drama and magnificent testimony.

Denouncing the folly of the nation, in the very speech in which he was supposed to cringe, at the execution, he burnt first the hand in the fires prepared for him, as a testimony against compromise and an elegant if sacrificial signal: NEVER COMPROMISE WITH CHRIST, for any motive whatever. Thus grace assisted recovery and he with others who did not waver, stood. They fought, wrought and taught; and for a time, many listened to these and multitudes of others, murdered by the Romanist conspiracy^*1, which displacing Christ's command of non-violence in religion, used it to the uttermost (John 18:36).

These were examples of faith in grace, and it is not a litany of the lost which they enter, but one of those found who found it not acceptable to be found where faith is not!

A wall not of concrete but of fire has surrounded these and millions of others, so that in death, as epitomised from the Bible in Stephen (Acts 7 - a man of faith and wonderful works through it in the name of the Lord), the presence of the sublime Sovereign overshadowed all the disastrous and evil devilish competition with the spuming furies, which this world provided, courtesy of hell. These who stayed put in their place in the Lord, being kept by the power of God to salvation consummated in heaven, as given on earth (I Peter 1:1-8), loving Him who first loved them,  have secured their place by grace, through faith, and their spirits were not quelled.

When GOD keeps your spirit, hell is beaten before it begins; and indeed, as in Ephesians 1:11, those who by faith have been saved, have received already an inheritance, which history simply confirms, being predestined to the faith they have, before this world began (II Timothy 1:9ff.). And that ? It is by the God who IS love, who would have ALL to be reconciled to Himself by this self-same blood of Christ (Colossians 1:19ff.).

 

But this world, it is broken.

All things of the curse continue in this world, by nature now

·        in cursed condition (cf. Romans 5, 8:17ff.), and

·        impoverished, its sufferings and vanity a result of divine action,

so that the very surrounds, while keeping much of their original beauty, become a fit surrounding for those who strive to arrive, and do not receive the life of God as a gift, redemption as a necessity and the call as a mercy as water to replace the flames.

Brutalities in nature and in the nature of man continue in their unblessed measure of correlation, the one sin and the other its consequence, this the very mirror of sin, though something of this world's created loveliness, love and solicitude are seen remaining in faithfulness to death in many cases of parents for offspring and those who love, yes, even in the animal realm. Nevertheless, much brutality mocks man within created and cursed nature, though it does not reach to his refinements of devilishness, not being spiritual in kind. Yet such a condition exposes him to an insight by sight, and to a rebuttal of sin by display of its nature in the very lower creation, to which he relates as one given place as a race, now forfeited in pollution, reduced through rebellion and spoilt by sedition.

These things, therefore, mock the more as man increasingly seeks to ape the vanities of nature, taking it as a paradigm, as if to look at a car crash, and to use the crumpled result for a factory specifications for making cars. Education follows; folly mounts like tsunamis aplenty; and pain flows on as the waters of life first withdraw from the tribes in revolt on this earth, unkind to each other, uncontrite before God, and these self-same waters come crashing down to rebuke avarice, greed, faithless lying, ludicrous inventions of the mind and dreams of spirit (cf. Jeremiah 23, Ezekiel 14). Man creates the waves, calls for correction and slanders God as they return mounting, after their withdrawal, unwilling to repent, unable to remove reality.

Such is the way, as the evil one seeks to rifle the store, and is increasingly outraged at his impotence, for he can snatch only what is spurious.

Let us then not be bemused as man is confused, a result of unremitting sin and refusal for its remission (cf. Romans 3:25). Let us instead look up to reality, see the challenge and be down to earth about it, not living in a fallacious dream, but walking in the Spirit as students of heaven, so becoming rather exponents on earth, acting, teaching, preaching as able, dutiful members of that kingdom of heaven which now is, and then will be consummated, now is invisible but effective, then will be visible and perfected.

While this world is on its odious way, a partly anaesthetised and ever increasing horror, stanching its wounds with poisoned philosophy, its sleazy practices an engine of grief, man meddles with invented, unproven, unverified religions (cf. The Kingdoms of this World and the Kingdom of Christ) , dreams of the heart. So in seduced crowds he acts,  instead of eating the free bread of heaven, as much a gift as was life itself in the first place. Thus does he not receive the blessedness of new birth, the cordial result of such eating, such faith in Him, nor in such unbelief is found the creation of the spiritual and redeemed life, that regenerated life, that second birth which restores what was lost in the first place (John 6:47ff.,Colossians 3:10).

The world sinks; Christ has risen. Do not therefore bathe in its industrial waste, dead, morbid and mortal from the factories of sin.

Time is running out (cf. Answers to Questions Ch. 5); Christ is coming back. It is not a flood this time, a universal deluge (cf. News 1), but instead the very Judge in person,  who comes to reap and then to rule (cf. Acts 17:31).

What then ? Make peace through the blood of Christ, that expression of life given to death to deny judgment to sinners and to elevate life back to God, and responding to the Gospel, meet with the Resurrected Ruler whose grace has given so far 2000 years to our Age, a time in which to respond to the Gospel, in individual hearts, in tribes, races, families, nations, in this world as one whole! In all this time,  some have come; but the tread of the mundane feet of this earth is resounding with increasingly stultified rebellion, mighty in envy of the Lord, secure in its sedition, aligned for devilish dynamic soon to come, at which time it is soon to go, merely exhibiting its freakish finale before it is manifested with such a clarity that divine light strikes it down (II Thessalonians 1:6ff.).

Make peace while you may, with Him who IS

v        our peace (Ephesians 2:14-19),

v        peace-maker by proclamation,

v        sacrifice by crucifixion,

v        the end for sin's guilt by dynamic over death,
in the power of the resurrection, proclaimed in public,
attested afresh while He performs by His Spirit,
 as He has promised for two millenia.

Don't then mix with water to obtain the dilutions of the devil,

or deal

with his manifestations of duplicity,

his impudence of spurious serendipity or

his prescriptions of rebellion, on line in many a body called a church,

on show as they dive to hell for new morals,
and abandon the purity of the Maker,
for the insistence on which, in the love for His people, He has died.

Not for some other mortal race in the universe did He die, not for some other design, not for some other specifications, not for some other people. He died for this one which He made, and rose for this one, to which He has offered ablution, and remission. His word carved in this sphere is not lightly designated for some other world; and His face, though bashed plentifully while He was here, is simply not available for more post-mortem, post-resurrection slappings. The sting now is in the simple strength of sin, which, when past mercy by such devices, is raw like a whipped hide, and awaiting the blow-flies of corruption for its follies.

Developments of dither, withering, slithering in the midst of spiritual and logical slide and salubrious sainthood continue, and need to be watched; for His return is near.

 

160th.

GOD'S GIFT OF GRACE IN CHRIST JESUS

Published April, 2009

 

ISBN 978-0-9806138 6-5

There are many graces, places and faces which mankind makes and provides, in name at least, for his use and facility. Multi-cultural approaches abound, though in general they seem a substitute, at least in the Western world, for actual grace and truth which go together like two inseparable twins.

Consider it. If you show grace, it is a kindness undeserved, but coming from a willingness to give. That is a major part of the concept. If people come to your country and you give them opportunities and aid to which they have no right, this could be called a species of grace. If on the other hand, as seems in great danger of happening, grace is the idea, but treachery to truth is the fact, then this is a species philosophic putsch, a denial of the past principles of one's nation without ceding that this is the case.

Truth is the necessity before 'grace' becomes another name for capitulation, disgrace and moralless meanders, leading to national death. It is not for nothing that nations rise and fall; and there are reasons, grounds for this, to be found in the reality of the God who made us.

In this volume, number 160, we have planned with the help of God, to bring out some of the depths and realities of grace, so that it may be first of all relished, then applied, then realised for what it is and is not, and finally seen in the light of the face of Jesus Christ, who was "full of grace and truth" as seen in John 1:14. There is much that follows from this; and it is close to the heart of all human life, both now and forever.

Now this work is finished.

 

161st.

SPIRITUAL FOOD AND SPIRITUAL DRINK
THERE IS THE REAL MISSING LINK

May 2009

ISBN 978-0-9806138 7-2

 

Food that revives the spirit and drink that issues to and from the heart! that is the point here.

Take the words from  I Corinthians 10:

“I do not want you to be unaware, brothers,
    that our ancestors were all under the cloud and all passed through the sea,

and all of them were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea.

 

“All ate the same spiritual food,

 and all drank the same spiritual drink,

    for they drank from a spiritual rock that followed    
    them, and the rock was the Christ.

 

“Yet God was not pleased with most of them, for they were struck down in the desert.

These things happened as examples for us,
    so that we might not desire evil things, as they did.

 And do not become idolaters, as some of them did, as it is written,
    “The people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to revel.”

 

Here are a number of interesting aspects. The ROCK which followed the children of Israel throughout their desert experience was CHRIST. That accords with Isaiah 45 and Philippians 2, used concurrently; for thus we find that there is NONE but GOD ALMIGHTY to whom every knee is going to bow, and it is to CHRIST that every knee is to bow, so that Christ is God Almighty (as John 1 and 8:58 show),  He is God Expressive, the Eternal Word of the Living God, equal in status, one God.

It is not Peter, who at once suggested that the Cross idea be dropped (Matthew 16); no, that was no rock, but a stone (cf. SMR p. 99). The play on his name has been ludicrously parlayed to ignore the difference in petros and petra (transliterated) in the Greek. He is ALSO AN ELDER (I Peter 5), and does not violate Matthew 23:8-10, which forbids the erection of rocks in this manner, as if to vie with God! There is, as God says, NO OTHER ROCK (He does not know any – Isaiah 44:8 - do some then seek to know more than God Almighty! in the false glory of Rome … cf.  II Samuel 22:2,3, Psalm 62:1-2).

Alas,  Romanism’s plan has, for this reason,  been a gutting of the glory, were it possible, in this mock ascendancy. But this is not our topic here, but spiritual food and spiritual drink; for sometimes it is necessary as Professor E.J. Young noted, to show a meaning by indicating both what negates it and what confirms it, so narrowing the field for comprehension.

Spiritual food and spiritual drink is a name given through Paul for the divinely bestowed food (manna) and drink (water by command through a rod!) which sustained the people of the Lord in the desert environment. It was so, the context in I Corinthians 10 is indicating, by the power and presence of Christ (pre-incarnate) who is the Rock. The apostle proceeds to move to the topic of what is called Communion, the partaking of the Lord’s Supper.

In this, incidentally, in the last Supper, Christ did NOT commit suicide, being God incarnate, nor was it a sacrifice, which came later, nor was there shed blood without which there is no remission (Hebrews 9:22), nor was there suffering which is essential to the case (Hebrews 9), nor are these conditions met in the Romanist mass, which is therefore anti-biblical in its self-definition, blatantly askew from Hebrews as from reality. Thus, in format, He was real man like His brethren, but without sin (Romans 8, Hebrews 2); for He had one body, which could not be broken in two without cessation of its normative functions, in death. That could come only at Calvary, once made, once in the history of the world, and not often, for otherwise as Hebrews relates, He would have had to suffer often, but now: ONCE. The bread was bread, not body. The Lord's Supper has nothing to do with saving sacrificial action in process. It is statedly to be done in memory of HIM.

In what way then did Christ’s customary use of symbols with depth of meaning apply here ? The point is simple: when you partake of this Supper, you enter into an action by faith in which you are receiving revitalising realisation of His presence in you (Colossians 1:27), His action for you (I Peter 3:18, 2:22ff.), and His grace through you (cf. (II Corinthians 12).

It is not putting food in your stomach, for it is spiritual food which counter-designates any such idea (cf. John 6:63, in this precise ideational context). However, the mere presence of such symbols confers nothing; for unless there be faith, there is nothing. Hence Paul is used to warn the people not to play about with symbolism and imagination, but to have saving faith in the living God.

Just as the baptism that saves (I Peter 3:21) is NOT the washing of the body (cf. John 13, symbolically), but the witness of a clear conscience through faith in the resurrected Christ: so the point of the Lord’s Supper is not the eating of flesh, but the cleansing of the heart through the death of Christ in which the sin being focussed and forgiven, there is life anew and that, eternal. The work on the Cross, redemption, ONCE ONLY, leads on to the work of regeneration in the heart, ONCE ONLY (John 5:24). What did Christ say of this topic in John 6:63 ? The words that He speaks are spirit and they are life! What, He asks, if I go back to My Father in heaven! Where then the physical (cf. Acts 3:19ff.). Wilful abuse of His speech makes for woeful results. But wise use of it makes for life (cf. SMR pp. 1032-1088H and in particular, 1086ff.).

Thus in this volume we have a wide ambit. Spiritual food and drink is biblically a phrase capable of use concerning any sustaining work of the Lord Jesus Christ, our Rock and ONLY ROCK (II Samuel 22:32, Isaiah 44:8); and it is even capable of referring to Holy Communion; but from the immediate context of I Corinthians 10, it has the broader meaning in focus, which is here in this volume, our own.

As God is not to be confused with symbols, so is He not to be shunted into the magical trances of evolutionism, the rabbit of life out of the hat of nothing (ultimately) and bits of things (in passing). This too is brought out as the actualities of life and indeed eternal life are shown afresh.

For the rest, concerning the title of this volume: increasingly, realists are despairing of ever finding any ‘missing link’ between man and other creations, this having been a choice topic for 150 years or so, and a dead one, like the bones that do not come. More and more, it is being acknowledged that the very earliest cases of relics are not diverse in kind from those of modern man, and as Professor  Oxnard indicated, finds in this field are frequently sensationalised.

Thus, it is hard to find any new ‘find’ which is not set down as the missing part of the imaginary paradigm. The actual words of the Professor Oxnard were to the effect that a find is almost routinely turned into an epochal discovery, and in irony, he indicated the folly of such idle sensationalism. Indeed, the more it differs, the more it is the same; and the more dates are toyed with on philosophical assumptions, the more they return to short notation, On these topics, see for example:  News 81 and references therein, SMR Ch. 2, pp. 234ff., TMR Chs. 1, 8, and. 7,  of the last, esp.  Section D and Section E, The Defining Drama Ch.   3, Christ, the Cumulative and the Culmination Ch.   9, Cascade of Truth, Torrent of Mercy Ch.   6.

Where then is the real missing element ? It is not in the bones; they have been given more than a fair trial. It is in spirit. The linkage severed in silence, it is not to animals but to God: the one that matters. It is stricken wilfully, though it is in this case, abundantly present. the absence of this link is volitional, not objective. It is this which is missing just as surely as the inferior one is not there, bereft of light, both rational and empirical. Not wanting the spiritual link, many among mankind seem earnestly to yearn for the lower one, which after all, has fewer problems for control-minded mankind, whether to receive or to deceive. With God, there is truth, and truth can indeed hurt; but without it, man is unmanned. He becomes prey for beast not on four legs, but two.

 

For the full Preface, click on the link 161st. above.

 

162nd.

THE TRACK OF TRUTH

MEADOWS OF MERCY

AND PEACE OF PARDON

June  2009

ISBN 978-0-9806138 8-9

 

Rest, like work is a wonderful thing. They are partners in truth.

Relished labour in a chosen field for the glory of God is a summit experience; for to have God work WITH you is choice indeed, and to work FOR Him is privilege in pith and not just in passing; but to have rest from labour in the meadows of His mercy is like the quiet lowing of resting cattle in lush pastures (Isaiah 63:14) after milking, settling down in the growing shadows and quietness of early evening, amid the trees that glisten in the gloaming with the moistures that abound.

There are the tracks along which the cattle move, and there is the hay provided for supplement to maw and spirit; and while they need a quick response if they lose temper or become quarrelsome in the shed as they are milked, yet that is soon over and a mellowness can return and a peace without ill-will can resume. Cattle can be troublesome, but they can be very pleasant, and having often been on a dairy farm, one learns to like cows, and to feel for them.

They are kept, they are kept kempt, they are matters of concern, and due provision is made for them. Horses tend to be more bluntly affectionate and dogs yet more so, perhaps, or at least more readily. With these, a relationship can be brutal, exploitative, with hatred and snarling, or beautiful, accommodating, a matter of fellowship and mutual delight. So it is with man and his Creator.

In blind fulminating or dreamy licence, depending on the case and the day, man can sign off God as if He were an unpaid employe, in such a massive feat of folly as leaves astonishment a mere foothill of the psyche! He can deliver Him, in will, to oblivion or to others. He can crucify Christ afresh, denying His relevance and acting AS IF in love God had not given a more inevitably insistent and persistent account of His love than of anything else in all creation; for all else depends on the undependable, whereas His word depends on its testing and fulfilment, on its logical necessity^*1 as His own, and its magnitude of scope and perspective, avoiding invalidity as no other approach to life has ever done, or could do^*2.

If man denies Christ and the love of God, then in that very act He is implicitly accusing God of having less mercy, less provision, less concern for man than many a man and woman has or would like to show for mankind: an impossible feat for those created ^*3 by Him, as well as anti-evidential. This proposition, rejecting the love of God in Christ Jesus, as if it were not,  is not merely an illogical enormity, but refusing what cannot be refuted, places an unwritten slander squarely at the door of God, a spiritual missile, an implicit charge that would leave Him an inane goof without goodness, inactive before imperious calamity,  whereas He is the wise counsellor who making freedom, provides in passion for the goodness to flow to man in a channel, as water is so readily follows,  and even adds the massif by its side, which mercy produced to transfer pardon to any confessed sinner who receives it by faith in Him,  where man abandons abuse of truth, liberty, love and power, for its pure source.

That channel is the Cross of Christ, one arm receiving, as it were, the mercy from heaven vertically, and the other spreading it abroad as He cried, even to His tormentors, Father, forgive them, they do not know what they are doing!

Then by His Spirit, He applies this, that Spirit who does not speak on His own authority (John 16:13), but glorifies Him who sent Him (John 16:14, 115:26), as Christ glorified His Father who sent Him (John 17:1-5): for what was created through the Word of God (John 1:1-3, Colossians 1;15), found salvation provided through the personal presence of that Eternal Word (John 1:12-14), and its application by the impelling constraints and creative power of the Spirit of God (cf. Titus 2-3), that blessed link with the sacrificial Saviour, without whose redemption,  none can stand before God (Acts 4:11-12, Romans 5:12ff., Hebrews 9:25ff.).

But stand ? In Christ, His servants may also rest, and rejoice for life in Him is what it was meant to be, a work of restoration and animation which brings heart to all His race (Colossians 3:9-10, Ephesians 3:16), that spiritual race found in Him, on whose hearts are written His ways (Hebrews 8): for whom that Rock Jesus Christ (I Corinthians 10) bore the sin, and removed it both prospectively and retrospectively, once and for all, in one day (Zechariah 3:9). The application (of the salvation)  comes with application in His name, the reality with realism, the truth with repentance and faith in Him who died and bodily rose in a resurrection, prototype for His own people.

But what of the spirit shown in Jesus the Christ ? It is one thing to forgive those who harass and slander you, but another entirely to have your own body used, the travail of your soul appointed as the MEANS of mercy to those who slay you!

Such is the mercy and the mind of God. He has exposed it in prophecy, in history and in the soul of man in millions for millenia. Exposed it surely is, but not imposed; misused it often is, but its comfort in power and peace, in quietness and confidence, in productiveness and friendship with God for those who love Him, who are the called according to His purpose, is inestimable in beauty. In this way, duty becomes not a chore but a choice, and godliness not an imposition but an aspiration continual, like that of perpetual dawns always heralding the light which shines and makes its presence gloriously felt.

We, mankind, are not so lovely alas; but the potential is there, not to remake ourselves with weird political, social and psychic devices, but to be redeemed and restored, re-created by God to become blessed in the patterns pf peace and not sounding boards for the patter of impudence, impertinence, self-elevation and an abandonment into wilful ignorance

Anyone redeemed is what is marred in ugliness set on the road to spiritual beauty, dissidence restored to understanding and an absentee from the effectual class of truth made member of Truth's Tutorial (John 14:6).

In this volume, the purpose is to conceive and consider divergence from the diversity of error into the singularity of the composition of truth with peace and the mellow fruits of spiritual Autumn. It covers affairs both personal and national, ancient and contemporary, the love of freedom and its meaning, the love of God and its fruit.

 

163rd.

ISRAEL III

A Contemporary Inspection and Collection
in the Inextinguishable Light of the Bible

ISBN  978-0-9806 138 9-6

 

June 2009

Much has been happening in the Middle East in general, and in Israel in particular in the last few years. While in January of this year, some of the aspects and developments in Israel, and concerning it, have been compiled from earlier presentations, to enable a collection in this one field (ISRAEL II) , others were not included and much has been written since that time. The unfolding of the ultimate conflicts for Israel, closely linked to the return of the Lord as one sees both from Luke 21:24 and Romans 11, from Isaiah 59 and Micah 7, is thus of an intensified importance.

It is not just that there is no other nation which has had a history like that of Israel, for the very simple reason that no other particular nation has ever been so selected by deity for a commission to enlighten the world with the truth concerning God, has both wrought magnificently and foully in the process, and has been given its overall historical results in advance, and had this also, the fact that it would be foretold, itself foretold (as in Amos 3:7).

It has thus been a messenger to heed for the word of God from it, and to lament, for its own failures in the way; to admire for the courage of its faithful prophets, and its use in having the agents for this incisive product from God, the Old Testament, and to be desolated at its desolation, as a father might see one of great promise and commission, doing great things, and then dipping into the dismal and the lamentable.

As Netanyahu is now back, and Obama is now in, and their ways are in many regards like those of a flock of geese passing, and a tower in a city, for they are not close in kind, and as each tends to epitomise a philosophy; and as moreover, Netanyahu is quite sensitive to some of the prophetic facts about Israel, and to say no more, Obama seems relatively impervious in this dimension, with a new world in his eye and a  method which dares to outface principles of the utmost severity: there is a certain testing. We are growing nearer to the tensions foretold and the outcomes envisaged. It is not that the USA is likely to invade Israel by force; for that is far from the intention. It is by charm and a combination of incentives that it seeks to dislocate, in its current mode, Israel from its biblical heritage more and more. While this is perhaps not the intention, it is certainly the direction of the outcome in the plans envisaged, plans mutual for the Madrid Quartet.

Here, then, we are not speaking of an enemy, but of what in this world's divisions comes across in reputation as the greatest earthly, national friend for Israel! Hence the instability tends to mount, and greedy eyes rove, pondering the dishonour to God, the God of the Bible,  which an overthrow of Israel might constitute. Such a consideration would appeal to every devil-possessed heart; for on this, God has spoken (cf. Galloping Events Ch. 4), and foretold some of the final wrath and writhing to come, with Israel in view.

When man speaks the exact opposite to what God has said, there is sure to be more than tension and even than contention; for it draws near to the final outcomes of that vast parade called history, so incisively depicted in some of the parables of Jesus Christ, and given perspective through that magnificent intrusion, called the Gospel, where folly and faith arise like two contestants, and God is the judge. It is well for mankind that He has already judged sin, for those who receive His pardon, IN Jesus Christ, the vicarious victim to clear the slates, and already judged no less, that what rejects this,  His Gospel is due for wrath (John 3:15-19,36, Isaiah 49-55);  for there is mercy abundant, and there is NO OTHER MERCY: for God is judge Himself, and what despises His provisions, has no other.

Much has been written on Israel in recent events till June 2009, and it seems good at this time therefore to collect these items, together with some going back to 2007, and present them in one volume.

 

164th.

THE UNSEARCHABLE RICHES OF JESUS CHRIST,
AND THE AGGREGATING DEBT OF DISMISSAL

Published July 2009

 

ISBN  978-0-9806 750-0-9

 

I feel sorry for mankind.

God was sad enough for them to plan the death of His eternal Word, incarnate, to cover the cost of the case.

Are you so sorry that when they have spat both literally and metaphorically  in His face, and never repented, viewed with irrational disdain the realities that He is no nincompoop but author of wisdom and understanding and demonstrably sole ground of our own, and provides all its exhibits, that they have then recklessly absconded with their own potential for these blighting dreams.

Not so much, no, not too much then.

Manage away, then man! but know that for all this God will surely bring you into judgment (Ecclesiastes 11:9), and with every passing year, you are seeing more of it. That ? it is PRECISELY as predicted, the disease of sin and the syndrome of results being given and now seen before the eyes in agonising detail as a witless world astounds itself with its wisdom, and with a talkative self-help program,  puts deliverance to one side,  as if the very devil.

How long slumber ? How long legislate that it is light, while blind! Will words make it so ?

Not too much longer, fortunately. This is fortunate for the race, for as each successive generation comes only to go (here and there, as it is all appointed), the trail of vapour is lower till it becomes one of smoke, and the physical earth itself is nearer  to its own explosive protest.

His coming is near; the aggravating  debt of dismissal of the revealed, the biblical Jesus Christ is mounting, not to the skies, as much as towards the hot centre of the earth; but even there, it cannot be buried. Only God can bury sin (Micah 7:18-19), and He has provided the right pit for it, in the heart of Christ whom it smote like a hydrogen bomb, but whom it could not for all that, contain (Acts 2:23-24).

It is certainly time to seek the Lord, and to avoid the disaster which makes the current financial stress a mere symptom, like a rash, compared with the mortality which has its come-uppance when it refuses the eternal life for which it was built.

Far from folly, there is the valid testimony of a kingdom that is pure, a place of peace ineffable, of joy unspeakable (I Peter 1:5-8), of justice and truth, and its King has already given His life, a ransom from the price of sin which is sufficient for all, adapted to all. In principle, it is just as it was when there was the prelude to Christ's cross, that  animal sacrifice in Israel, on national offer. IF it was not received in heart by faith, and not all did that (Deuteronomy 29:18ff.), then these thus were receiving curse and not blessing, being like someone fainting instead of receiving a necessary operation.

Certainly there is no cover in absconding from the credit offered in Christ.

It is inoperative for those without faith, for without this you CANNOT please God (Hebrews 11:6). It does not apply where the hands of the heart are not placed on the Head of the Lamb, with confession, repentance and faith. It does not apply where the Lamb is not seen as God Himself in human form breaching death so that its very physical claws are blunt, and cannot tear, so in love granting in justice met upon Himself,  resurrection in Himself, and for all His people (Romans 10:9, 8:32ff., I Corinthians 15, Acts 2:23-24, Isaiah 26:19).

For whom then does it apply ? It DOES apply, and by the Spirit of God application is MADE for the one who so receives the King, whose goings are eternal, whose coming provides salvation, whose crucifixion bears the curse of sin and whose resurrection confirms as did His miracles before that, His power to forgive, paying for all whose hearts come and whose lives are surrendered to Him, their Maker and Redeemer. Leaders ? They cannot compete (Ezekiel 21:25ff., John 14:30). This world in autonomy ? it cannot go (James 4:4). It grows wilder and yet wilder.

Man without God is like a cow in the jungle. A fine thing ? undoubtedly, but in the wrong place. Jaguars, leopards, lions there mingle with its misplaced form, which is prey for them.

Man makes himself a prey continually, failing to pray and refusing to work in the kingdom of Christ, or actually seeking to make their own, with their own gods, facilities of the imagination, as empty as a long drought's sky. As Jeremiah puts it, the gods that have not made the heaven and the earth, will perish with it.

In this volume the aggregating debt, and the unsearchable, available riches alike form a core. It is time to apply for the latter, those spiritual riches without which the soul is too impoverished to live as man is made to do. It is time to have annulled the former, that aggregating debt, and this, not by man, but by God (Psalm 49:7,15, II Corinthians 6:1ff., 5:17ff.).

It is available, and it lasts for ever. That, it is just the right time; for what God makes to stand, it does not fall (Ephesians 1:11, John 5:24, I John 5:11-12, Acts 4:11-12).

In this field of our contemporary world, there are many applications. The bases of these things, their grounds and their results, all are given attention in this volume.

.

165th.

The gods of naturalism have no go!

Volume 5

The Bugle of Creation to the Belligerence of the World

Ranging in Reality -
a Good Change
from Corruption through Philosophy,
when it comes to Science and Reason alike

Published July 2009

With the publication of this volume in the set noted in the title, there is now a pentad on this topic. This brings up to date the compilation and review of aspects of creation, serene over its battalions of invidious detractors, insidious supplanters and acrid assailants, impregnable because of fact, sublime because of power, immovable because of what happened and its testimonies innumerable, categorical and immovable. The mountains may be moved; but not this.

ISBN  978-0-9806 750-2-3

 

166th.

ISRAEL4

'WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR ?
 

ISRAEL and The TWO-EDGED SWORD

FOR and AGAINST -

and the setting is

SIN or SALVATION

ISBN  978-0-9806 750-3-0

This is related to Waiting for Wonder, yet to be published, with additions both in introductions to some of the Chapters 1-9, and currently in Chapters 10 and 11,
these chapters not being found in Waiting for Wonder.

Israel IV is an absorption unit for Israel matters specifically, from other areas, sometimes with additions, variations and applications.

Published July 2009.

There are now 4 volumes which may be conceived as Israel I, II, III and IV.

Though they form a tetrad, they have not yet been published as such.

For the tetrad, see this link.

 

167th.

ONE ONLY BUT NOT ALONE

THE HOLY TRINITY

ISBN  978-0-9806 750-4-7

Published July 2009.

With all the treatments of the trinity that appear in these 167 volumes that comprise the theological set, In Praise of Christ Jesus, there has developed a composure, with various stresses here and there on different aspects of this glorious reality which is the nature of the God of creation and redemption. How wonderful that HE on whom all depends and from whom all has come, is never alone, for in the infinitude of His intimacies in His own Being, there is companionship such as you often see echoed in the biblical depiction (cf. Zechariah 13:6-7, 11:11ff., Psalm 2, 40, John 10:30, 5:19ff., 1:1ff., Habakkuk 3:13, John 5:29 ...)! In fact, that is just what Christ SAID (as in 8:29). The Father, said Christ, has not left Me alone", and "He who sent Me is with Me," this in perfect concourse with the trinitarian excursion shown in Isaiah 48:16.

It seems therefore good to collect, extend or adjust slightly perhaps here or there, or excise some parts in a treatment, some surrounds which are not necessary for our present purpose, add some small point or aspect to a treatment, and in general make the whole more of a composition.

It is this which is now presented, a convenient module for this magnificent topic, such because of the magnificent and only God to whom it refers.

The Holy Trinity is not anomaly, but both logically refreshing and penetrating, a joy to the heart and the basis of all. It  is source and centre of the whole of salvation issuing in Jesus Christ.

 

168th.

WAITING FOR WONDER

ISBN  978-0-9806 750-5-4

Published August 2009.

Wonder and work, witness and do not wander. For the preacher: Woe to me if I do not preach the Gospel; for the worker, Work for the Night is Coming in which No Man can Work! (John 9:4, I Corinthians 9:16).

In the meantime, what is the attitude of heart, the mind-set in the Christian ? One of the chief elements is this: WAIT. It is no use doing what one I know did recently, saying, 'I give up!' That was sad, like a flower saying, I will bloom no more! Patience ? as one other declared, God must do more. I cannot wait, or some such words.

Waiting simply is not an option.

It is a necessity.

You must wait for the grass to grow again after drought, for love to form and formulate itself, for truth to be grasped by the investigating mind. To rip up the grass to see if it is well established is nothing to the point. Wait for it.

In spiritual things, as a Christian, the word is WAIT, and in Psalm 27 you see this repeated in with emphasis:

"Wait on the LORD; be of good courage, and He shall strengthen your heart.

Wait, I say, on the LORD!"

In His time, He sanctifies in this, in that, reveals promontories to be extended, islands to coalesce, personality trends to be corrected, jutting points to the made smoother, weak inlets to be fortified with protective shoals, delicate formations to be junked for solid rock, principles to be formed and formulated in the heart, scriptures to be understood and applied, obedience to be wrought with self-discipline, and mistaken ideas to be dumped without decorum.

The Lord is WONDERFUL evoking WONDER. All His ways are righteousness and justice, truth and peace of heart, and all His paths are wise. As you know Him, Wonderful is His name (cf. Judges 13:18, Isaiah 9:6-7). Wonderful are His dealings. Just to give the tone of triumph, creation is the start for man; redemption is the consummation; eternal life is the dynamic and eternity is the outcome. In this volume, these things with some of the current movements as the last phases finish, occupy us; and with this, some of the lustrous passages in Isaiah 49:55, as the power surge leading to the end of the Age lets their light show up His splendour, with increasing urgency to a dulled generation.

Wonder is His way, and living with Him may involve discipline, correction, and it does, cleansing and purging, purification and courage, loss and sacrifice, endurance and patience, but as you WAIT ON THE LORD, you see and find wonders this world knows nothing of:  for its way does not merely diverge. It is entirely different. It is too damp to light, and no flame is in it, but that of destruction and passion, and when this dies down, a lingering twilight with a cousin, darkness to come.

In Him is no change, and they who wait upon Him will never be ashamed, for in His light they see light, and life in Him never ceases to provide wonder, to culminate in eternal companionship.

 

WAIT on the Lord, for this is the way. In spirit be patient under tribulation, giving nothing to the enemy to satisfy his least desire, countenancing no dishonour to the Lord, not reacting to provocation but responding to what is detrimental to the truth of Christ, not seeking convenience but in conviction seeking the glory of God, not exempting oneself from the commandments, like those wanting to be slim and gourmandising instead, regretting what they leave undone and do, alike. 

WAIT WITH EXPECTATION, for they will never be ashamed who wait upon Him (Romans 10:11), nor will need arise in a blather of talk, or a welter of action, to rush intemperately; for He gives more grace to the lowly (James 4:6). Grace is the way to His face; waiting is the way to heed from His heart; waiting with expectation is the way to finding, for faith is the culmination of call as it is the beginning of knowledge, and in His knowledge - that is, in simply knowing Him, there is the wonder that MUST come because He IS wonderful!

In this volume, the wonder of waiting, the waiting for wonder, the wonder you gain when you wait, this is part of the theme. The source of it is the Lord, the crux of it is His heart, so gracious and noble, so peaceable and faithful, so grand in vision and so apt in power; it is His wisdom, so unfolding in mercy and resolute in understanding; His plan, so acute in wit and so sure in fulfilment: yes Himself,  so loving in disposition, disposing of nothing that may be won, and winning all that may be found!

You don't have to invent wonder, though you may transmit something of His as He enables: it is there already. It is found, like gold in a mine, in Him (cf. Job 28).

Wait for it; wait for Him; for not only is His wonder within (Colossians 1:27, Luke 17:21), since the kingdom of heaven in in your midst, in your heart's relationship with Him whose way IS heavenly, a haven and a path for holiness (I Thessalonians 5:23), but it is also wrought in deeds. As Paul declares in I Corinthians 14:16: "For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost." Again, he declares in I Corinthians 4:20: "For the kingdom of God is not in word but in power."

Thus it is not a poetic exercise, though exuberant poetry flows from it; it is a work of power. Words are not empty, but portents of operational power. There is nothing asthenic, nothing spiritually anorexic nor is there any inanition here; for the empty is full, the lame is made strong and the word of healing of mind, spirit and body, has no inhibition. If He chooses to allow a disease for a time, then so be it.

There are those like Paul who find this is the very pathway of effective service (II Corinthians 12:6ff.), one of the most notable here, after due and persistent prayer,  being patient and even ardent acceptance of trial and challenge - "If I must boast, I will boast in the things which concern my infirmities," for nothing is lightly done by the Almighty.......  and with Paul, his infirmity was for a very specific and personal purpose.

Further, since HE was crucified to gain salvation, there are those who suffer to show it (Colossians 1:24, Philippians 1:29). Nevertheless, His word of power can and frequently does heal, with an abundance of ability, like that of an athlete showing minimal elements to Primary School children. When once the need arises, as at the Exodus, as at the return of Israel to its land, there is no limit. Indeed, what He says of it shows just such an approach, as you see in Micah 7:15 and Revelation 19. NOTHING is too hard for Him, and THEREFORE He is a constant source of wonder. He is also the God who alone does wonders, great wonders (Psalm 72:18, 136:4). He who trusts in Him through His eternal word, Jesus Christ, will not be moved (Psalm 62:1,6).

This, His power,  is not only in creation but in regeneration, adoption, propagation of His truth, fulfilment of His word, the provision of wit when one is under fire (Luke 21:15). It is found in the divine dynamic as He uses each member of His body, with glorious originality and total conformity to His word (Romans 12, I Corinthians 12, Ephesians 4); and as He supports those more lonely in testimony, as was Tyndale at times, as was Elijah (I Kings 19:1-18).

Fear Him, for He is fearsome like a vast fire on a glorious hearth in mid-Winter when one comes home from intense cold, from an expedition afar. It is good to fear God, for this fear is clean without alloy, a purifying delight in His awesome grandeur and splendid majesty, intense knowledge and divine perfection, immensity of love, with a joyful exuberance of delight in His spiritual security and strength (I Peter 1:1-8); not with craven uncertainty but elevating delight and self-abasing realism. He, the Rock, is entirely certain and so are those who wait on His faithfulness, knowing that what He says so often is just what He does, that He who has begun a good work in you will not cease with it half done (Philippians 1:6); for a work without faith is NOT EVEN BEGUN, and one with it, resulting in regeneration (I John 3:9, 5:11-12) will end only when the consummation of promise becomes the appearance before the eyes (I Corinthians 13:11-12).

This volume, while from it is taken much of  Israel IV, a specialised repository,  is by no means limited to a study of the Bible and Israel, though this becomes one major feature in it. Its first chapters deal with Stephen, a figure in the Book of Acts, and what follows from Chapter 4 to 8, moves in many biblical passages in a theme which includes the majesty, justice, retorts, rest, peace, discipline, watchful words and clear-cut testimonies on the character and nature of God, which whether in this or that aspect, forms in its glory, the object of this volume. It looks into the flow of Isaiah 49-55 and in the Appendix collates and inspects some of the thundering waterfalls of testimony to His truth.

 

 

169th.

RELIGION, RELIGIOSITY AND REALITY IN CHRIST

Published August, 2009

ISBN  978-0-9806 750-6-1

It has appeared to this author that the many religious perspective operations which have been presented on this site could well be modelled into a compilation, one of reasonable coverage, assisting those brain-washed into comparative religion approaches, synthetic insight scenarios and existential contentions to begin to breathe again.

So often it is assumed that the speaker, whoever it may be, without rational source, has the objective knowledge to enable a classification of all things, in the field of religion at the least, or the evaluation of all things, or to BE the basis, and this is made on the understanding that in discussing God, or gods, you first assume that there aren't any of these, that the class, category is null, vacant, or that you constitute the basis for all understanding, or your experience, gaspings or gapings. After all, if there were not any god or gods, you would have to be 'it', the centre and masterpiece to be able to dispose of all things by your knowledge, which would need not only to be absolute, but absolutely communicable.

There may be palliatives, analgesics, to the effect that people really thought this and that, or were driven to it by this and that, feeble rationales for irrationality, or were deluded;  but underlying is this godlike perspective commonly assumed by those who deny gods, while taking their place with an ease which would be admirable were it not ridiculous. You either become god in order to tell us all about what is not there, or you act as god in order to marshall all things: that is the manner of the modelling. In either case, it is unbecoming, as well as untrue. We are born and die. Without God, we know nothing rightly; but then, we are not without God, and by Him are able to understand all things from Him (Proverbs 8:8, Romans 17ff.).

What however of those who do not actually claim godhood or its functional powers and merely articulate the view that it is all comparative, relative to genes, past, present, developments or any other oddity chosen ? If, however,  all were comparative, where is the basis for evaluation of any ? Assumption ? Presumption ? arrogance of heart ? seizures of the head ?

If absolute truth were unavailable on a model of this kind, there being merely reactors, reactions and reagents, then in what manner is this disposition of things to be known! What is not there CANNOT be known. Since however, it is readily demonstrable both that it is and where it is (cf. SMR, TMR, and other major sets found in Search^*A), we escape - like a rocket propelled adequately to escape the tenacious gravity of the earth - from these conundrums. Pursuing logic remorselessly as in these volumes and their correlatives noted, we find a network of demonstration which moves to a finale in verification in the Bible, application of its data and confirmation; and this proceeds, while avoiding the anti-validation of a model antagonistic in the first place, to what it presumes to gain.

If reason were unreasonable, where would validity be in any knowledge ? It is however given as a gift, and like other gifts must be used to the uttermost, since it has been proven to be inestimable value in much. Declining to use it in any one field is mere arrogance and intemperance, allied to whimsical caprice or worse (cf. SMR pp. 150ff., 330ff.). It becomes a scientistic folly justly named "The Cult of the Forbidden." Contrary to scientific method, it is merely an export of an invalid philosophical assumption, simple begging of the question.

Using reason however as in any field without fear, and in this in particular, it becomes eloquent by results. Finding the necessity of God by it^*B, we find the testimony of God through it, like using a geiger counter to test for radiation. Having found what He has to say, and using reason to show it must have been said (cf. Psalm 50^*C), we verify by showing it has the calibre, or better the qualities which could in any case have come from no other source. When we also find that it resolves all questions of validity and truth in passing, while analysing and extraditing man as the source of his own pangs, pains and tragedies, declaring the prognosis of his diagnosed disease, and foretelling what is needed for understanding and convenience, the resolutions are complete.

Indeed, when further, we find the basis in the Bible for resolution of all psychic, social and political problems, and the call to come out of the problem-making kingdom into the kingdom of heaven, then the practicalities become as grand as the principles. When even more than this, we are told of the signals for the action of the Great Physician who is also the Judge, and that this is imminent, joy should know no limits (cf. I Peter 1).

There is an exception here. When this diagnosis-prognosis and resolution which applies on all sides is rejected by will, so that as Christ put it, light has come and darkness is preferred to it (John 3:19), then there is assuredly no cause for rejoicing. But this ? it is like a man who having a cancer which can be extirpated by operation, refuses it. If he is sad, that is his affair; he is merely being wilful. In this case, man is enabled not only to act as he will, but to will as he will, since in the providence and foreknowledge of God, he is in line to have a new nature which is aligned to God, and it is God who knows the truth and He is not dependent on pathological presumptions, as His love is applied (John 3:16, II Timothy 1:8ff., I Timothy 2:1ff., Colossians 1:19ff.).

With God, there are no limits such as unbelieving man weaves for himself, entangled like a foolish kitten, and in the Bible there are resolutions on all sides, and no wonder, since the return to reality as always, is the path to understanding.

As we survey the scene, then, from a biblical and logical standpoint (as seen in the above, these are correlatives, each requiring the other as we proceed in search of God and what are His wants), we find the lapses, errors, quaint oddities and vicious errors in this or that religion, and using the biblical explanation, find that all fits. In this, biblical instruction, principles and perspective become a course for instruction in religions and their ways. This is a particular focus of this present volume.

A major contribution is on Buddhism; while a number of  analyses and applications cover the chief logical points needed re Islam for this purpose, as occurs likewise for secularistic or atheistic naturalism, with its oddities of exasperation and continual innovation, as can happen when sailors try to save any sinking ship, but failing, add their own squalls to those of the ocean^*D. This is seen in its nakedness, while the basic character of pseudo-Christian sects is similarly exhibited; and it is seen that these join with some major religions in a wider view of sects. Judaism, defined for this purpose as the Old Testament religion  without the New, as inspired from God, but allowing some latitude on the nature of the commitment to the Old Testament within the definition, is given its own analysis, and with it Romanism which has some points in common with it.

The standpoint is not a mere investigation, but one governed by logical analysis and what this leads to in terms of perspective. The Bible being rationally required, it is used in this overview. In this way, all fits into place with eminent simplicity, and the oft-roted myth that religion is a mere contentious error for myths and word-smiths, is not only rebutted, but miserably dismissed (cf. Secular Myths and Sacred Truth).

Its exponents are shown to be not only in an unconscionable logical muddle, but to be met by an imperturbable logical clarity on the basis that life did not just breeze in, that highest power of mentality and conceptual mechanics known in the things visible on this earth, that matter did not simply decide to arise, and space-time did not protrude from nothingness with allowance made by something as some concession based likewise on nothing (cf. The gods of naturalism have no go!).

God has spoken into being, our DNA written codes and the Bible, both most evident and each practically testable, over the millenia. Nothing approaches in brilliance in the one language, or in testability and verifiability and validity in the field, the other. With God, it is not a question of whether or who He is; but of what man does about it.

 

170th.

Published in September 2009

ASPECTS OF THE GLORY OF THE GOD OF ALL GRACE

found in the Unsearchable Riches of Christ Jesus

ISBN  978-0-9806 750-7-8

t has appeared to this author that the many religious perspective operations which have been presented on this site could well be modelled into a compilation, one of reasonable coverage, assisting those brain-washed into comparative religion approaches, synthetic insight scenarios and existential contentions to begin to breathe again.

So often it is assumed that the speaker, whoever it may be, without rational source, has the objective knowledge to enable a classification of all things, in the field of religion at the least, or the evaluation of all things, or to BE the basis, and this is made on the understanding that in discussing God, or gods, you first assume that there aren't any of these, that the class, category is null, vacant, or that you constitute the basis for all understanding, or your experience, gaspings or gapings. After all, if there were not any god or gods, you would have to be 'it', the centre and masterpiece to be able to dispose of all things by your knowledge, which would need not only to be absolute, but absolutely communicable.

There may be palliatives, analgesics, to the effect that people really thought this and that, or were driven to it by this and that, feeble rationales for irrationality, or were deluded;  but underlying is this godlike perspective commonly assumed by those who deny gods, while taking their place with an ease which would be admirable were it not ridiculous. You either become god in order to tell us all about what is not there, or you act as god in order to marshall all things: that is the manner of the modelling. In either case, it is unbecoming, as well as untrue. We are born and die. Without God, we know nothing rightly; but then, we are not without God, and by Him are able to understand all things from Him (Proverbs 8:8, Romans 17ff.).

What however of those who do not actually claim godhood or its functional powers and merely articulate the view that it is all comparative, relative to genes, past, present, developments or any other oddity chosen ? If, however,  all were comparative, where is the basis for evaluation of any ? Assumption ? Presumption ? arrogance of heart ? seizures of the head ?

If absolute truth were unavailable on a model of this kind, there being merely reactors, reactions and reagents, then in what manner is this disposition of things to be known! What is not there CANNOT be known. Since however, it is readily demonstrable both that it is and where it is (cf. SMR, TMR, and other major sets found in Search^*A), we escape - like a rocket propelled adequately to escape the tenacious gravity of the earth - from these conundrums. Pursuing logic remorselessly as in these volumes and their correlatives noted, we find a network of demonstration which moves to a finale in verification in the Bible, application of its data and confirmation; and this proceeds, while avoiding the anti-validation of a model antagonistic in the first place, to what it presumes to gain.

If reason were unreasonable, where would validity be in any knowledge ? It is however given as a gift, and like other gifts must be used to the uttermost, since it has been proven to be inestimable value in much. Declining to use it in any one field is mere arrogance and intemperance, allied to whimsical caprice or worse (cf. SMR pp. 150ff., 330ff.). It becomes a scientistic folly justly named "The Cult of the Forbidden." Contrary to scientific method, it is merely an export of an invalid philosophical assumption, simple begging of the question.

Using reason however as in any field without fear, and in this in particular, it becomes eloquent by results. Finding the necessity of God by it^*B, we find the testimony of God through it, like using a geiger counter to test for radiation. Having found what He has to say, and using reason to show it must have been said (cf. Psalm 50^*C), we verify by showing it has the calibre, or better the qualities which could in any case have come from no other source. When we also find that it resolves all questions of validity and truth in passing, while analysing and extraditing man as the source of his own pangs, pains and tragedies, declaring the prognosis of his diagnosed disease, and foretelling what is needed for understanding and convenience, the resolutions are complete.

Indeed, when further, we find the basis in the Bible for resolution of all psychic, social and political problems, and the call to come out of the problem-making kingdom into the kingdom of heaven, then the practicalities become as grand as the principles. When even more than this, we are told of the signals for the action of the Great Physician who is also the Judge, and that this is imminent, joy should know no limits (cf. I Peter 1).

	There are SEVEN sections:
	BASICS,
	NEGATION - What Lusts for God, Settles with No  Clear View,
	IMPLICIT, INHERENT AND RESIDUAL RELIGION,
	DERIVATIVE RELIGION,
	CONSPIRACIES TO RULE,
	SYNTHETIC RELIGION and
	REALITY IN CHRIST.

As many Chapters have been compiled, some with additions, and more work again added, this becomes a matter of several millions of words. For the notes figuring in the above text, use this hyperlink.

 

171st.

LIVELY LESSONS IN SPIRITUAL SERVICE

Friendship, Fervent and not Farcical, with Christ

Published October, 2009

ISBN  978-0-9806 750-8-5

 

This is NOT a book about how marvellous this or that person is, has been or is likely to be, except incidentally perhaps with regard to future generics or passing actions on this earth. It IS about ACTUALITIES, chiefly as found in the Bible, about what is and is not spiritual service, what is the rot for the heart and the life for it, what is savoury and unsavoury, difficult yet worthwhile and where treacherous shoals lie. 

Above all, since service is a result of friendship with Christ on HIS terms, since after all He is God who became man that man might become a friend of no less a Being that God Himself, it is about His ways and ours, and the fruitfulness that results from love, not mere performance, with grace, not mere trumpeting, efficacy, not mere effort, abiding and obedience, not divergence from the precision of the word of God, to displace, dispel or to compromise it, as is the custom of many. Predicted as found, and found as predicted, such developments are to be taken as might be disease syndrome and the arrival of late symptoms. How is that ? Treat the patient carefully, with premeditated procedures and strong doses of truth, liquid refreshment of mercy and an apt dose of realisation.

We do not face merely something wrong, but the very devil's song, an  animated dirge, and digressive surge. The foundations in Christ and His word must therefore be acutely pursued, resolutely applied and by His Spirit, found in their strength.

 

 

172nd.

SERENITY NOT SERENDIPITY

CALLED TO BE SAINTS, NOT RECONSTRUCTED TO BE ROBOTS

Published December, 2009

ISBN  978-0-9806 750-9-2

 

ISBN  978-0-9806 750-9-2

 

Man in the image of God is becoming all but anything through contortions and distortions:

·         psychic passion mover, religious surrealist, social dictator, determinist dragooned,
 

·         liberationist enchained, liberty lover on a controlled cruise,
 

·         dreamer fiddling with atomic power, distraught dynamic dim in wit,
 

·         genius worker estranged and alienating from the source of his own mind,
 

·         spiritual loft maker, dismal in performance:

these all figure in the work of the playwrights, not this time of literary cast, but human kaleidoscope, as man is formed, forged, deformed, deluded.

It is not so difficult really. Robots under the regality of shallow minds, this is increasingly a specialty for all the determinist delusionists^*1, whether their thought is simply private, socially governing or politically enforced. Serendipitists, alert for wonders without source, pleasure seekers in philosophic hiding, these too are not a few, and are of diverse kinds.

As man seeks to control the thought, society and even vocabulary of man (in Australia a ludicrous law was even passed to exclude certain WORDS from political literature), and others of his human race seek to exclude such controls, only to  implement others, given various salubrious sounding names, there is need to realise that liberty is not a poetic name for licence, but a provision for law-abiding living, when the law is the law of God. This, like laws of the road, gives vast liberty; but its violation removes it altogether, first in scope, then in kind.

The splendour of the regality of God, the marvel of His individuality-preserving Spirit, the elixir of His presence, the reality of His grace, these are quite simply things without which man becomes, sooner or later, trash. Hell supplies a route end for that desecration. The desecration itself however is the grief of griefs, that  man  sails straight at the rocks, while disdaining those who point out the unwisdom of such folly! More and more, vessels are being made bigger, to take more billions on board, for the experience of a death-time,  collision with Christ. It is done by seedy captains, in sleazy spiritual quarters, where intoxication rules, even that of spirit (cf. Ephesians 4:17-19).

The Rock, Jesus Christ, is the foundation on which to stand,  and by no means the fixture to face in confrontation. Truth is like that,  and He is it. Collision with that merely eviscerates your stupidity, and the worse that is, the more serious is that operation.

An interesting term with many ramifications is discussed in Ch.  1 to come,  and a stimulating article on it is currently found at this URL:

http://www.boston.com/news/globe/ideas/articles/2004/02/01/a_scholars_serendipity/

It is not serendipity but spirituality which is needed; and that not vague self-made ideas about things spiritual, divorced from God and torn from His word in strips, and impregnated with erratic philosophy, as is the custom with mankind, but God's own provisions, pronouncements and good pleasure. Then it is avast to truth and avaunt to dimness, such as we find in Isaiah 8,  as it moves on into Isaiah 9, dimness of anguish.

This world is whirling into greater darkness BECAUSE it has greater sin in greater and more universal efforts to ditch Christ, the only demonstrable basis for truth, and hitch up its soul onto the nearest post, sitting hapless in the moving ground. It is good to reflect (sometimes as one dentist of my acquaintance declared) on these things; just as it is well to find land before building, and rock as a basis. It is wise to reflect early, long and with fearless fervour, and to find Him who when sought with all the heart, and mind, and soul, is surely found. He is not distant from any one of us; but divorce has sour relationships, and not knowing your Maker is a very vulnerable and even vicious type divorce. It is better, far, to be reconciled (II Corinthians 5:17ff.).

On these things, see for example Barbs 6   -7, Repent or Perish  Chs.  2 and   7 and Deity and Design, Designation and Destiny.

 

*1

See Repent or Perish    7 , Christ Incomparable ... Ch. 2, and Indexes.

 

173rd

SUMS, SUMMITS AND IN SUMl

Adding Things Up and Getting Things Down

 

Published January 2010

 ISBN 978-0-9807675-0-6

 

 

 

There comes a time when one must simply look at the facts, see them in contour, note their construction, watch for their constrictions, abide by their constraints, and act as the case requires.

 

There is a time for imagination and the seeking of wisdom, of vision; and there is a time when one must rest in quest, with what is found.

 

There is a time to discover, and a time to abide by the discovery.

 

There is a time to  seek God and to know the meaning, in sum, of what He has made, and a time to abide in the summit from which the perspective which stands and does not vary, is obtained.

 

There is a time to seek, and a time to find. There is a time to work and a time to rest.

 

There is a time to ascend, and a time to be abased. When one is abased, there is a time to find the summit from which one has come, and a time to be restored to it, in one's own proper place,  as a subject of the sovereign of life, not a muddled profusion of confusion, but the very light by which one has looked, searched and found.

 

On the other hand, there is a time when many stop seeking, because they will not find. Their guilty guile removes from them the summit, and their pride or pretension removes the abasement necessary before the divine escalator restores.

There is a time to thirst, and a time to have thirst quenched. There is a time when it is timely to drink of the water which in mercy Jesus Christ, the divine Saviour gives, and there is a time when it is too late.

 

Let us then, at THIS time, look at the sums, the totallings,  the summits, the provisions of the Lord, and see things in sum.

 

174th.

REFLECTIONS
 

Impoverishment,  Empowerment

and Life in the Light of the Lord

  

Published February 2010

 ISBN 978-0-9807675-2-0

 

There is a time to reflect. There are many things which may be seen in systems of thought, understood in perspectives, but which for all that have an individuality, an integrity, a savour, feel and disposition of their own. In this volume, one hopes to be able to point to some of these, that we may the better appreciate some of the aspects of the word of God and His teaching who is the author of us all.
 

Of necessity, on entering the kingdom of God, one loses much; for it is like having your old house demolished by a flood; and you have to learn to live in the new one. On the other side, as in the days of Ezra and Nehemiah, rebuilding a nation, so for the individual new Christian, there is a rebuilding of the centre and outposts of one's life. The work of the Holy Spirit is vast in such undertakings, as He illuminates, comforts, strengthens, reinforces, draws, convicts, convinces and equips. Yet it is the Lord Himself, who through the Spirit first inspired His words for man (I Peter 1:10ff., II Peter 1:19ff.), who is the final disposer of one's new household, from whom comes the inheritance which is made sure (Ephesians 1:11), as one is sealed by the Spirit (Ephesians 1:13-14).
 

In this, one is empowered (Ephesians 1:19, 3:14-21) and given some scope for co-operation (Ephesians 2:19-22). One loses what would not last, and gains what will; and it is surely like a flood that overwhelms, but no less like a Spring of building, wrought in ways sublime and majestic, competent and beautiful, so that one may grow; until the mildew comes, and then this must be dismissed under heavy pain, if one so slips (I Peter 4:12-19, 1:6-7); and if one is persecuted, this must be borne with patience;  and then there is the bloom and the fruit. The way of life in the Lord is in one sense like another childhood, when this time one's father is not to live for some years, but for ever.

 

The voyage of life is considered, and the grace, power and propulsion of the Holy Spirit, in three Chapters, and matters for reflection in the revelation of God in truth and practice are a continual focus.

 

 

175th.

Let's Be Reasonable, for God Is!

 

Published March  2010

 ISBN 978-0-9807675-3-7

 

Why not ? After all, you don't normally, with any appearance of wisdom at least, say,  Let's be Unreasonable, For I am NOT!
 

Being reasonable is normally taken to be a good idea; though why it should be thought so on naturalistic grounds is entirely a mystery. If the universe were unreasonable, and this were the nature of reality, the last thing you would want, would be to go against what you and it both are, and be the opposite. It would involve endless clash, and toying with what is there, by adversative confrontation. Since you would in that case owe your life to it in some clandestine and odd way, you would not be well-advised to owe your death to its frown, or whatever else the non-personal creator of persons and logic might be thought to have in mind, if it had one.

Let us then be reasonable. It can only lead to the author of reason, to its dispenser, to its master and edict maker,  to the originator of its impact on earth, stars and mathematics, on government (in theory) and the capacity to think at all.
 

Let's talk and walk straight, and forgetting fanciful fairy-tales, and personal disliking of the moral equivalent of logic for the mind, and the humbling experience of acknowledging someone who owns our environment and history, and finding out what He wants, look at the results of being reasonable. Man CAN be MOST reasonable, but normally isn't. Subterfuge, preference, self-importance, envy, rashness, impatience, pride, hostilities, unforgiveness, slander, ease of life, all these things can take man by the nose, as if it were a bridle. He becomes unbecoming, whatever he chooses to imagine he is, and certainly does not become in any way, anything better, even if, given time, like any student in any examination or just test, he is able to express himself and investigate questions some more.
 

IF you are to be reasonable, you will not expect figs from thistles, something from nothing, or disorder from the necessary source of order, righteousness from wrong reasons and desires, owisdom from ignorance, to be fit for life in abusing it, ignoring what it is, or merely seizing it like a prize, and throwing it about as if it were a lottery gain, just for spending as one wills. You will expect,  as if first going to school or university, to find out what is there and to investigate this with care. If you do not like it, you have to consider whether this is the nature of life, or the nature of your life, or of human life generally, and if so, whether this is its nature, or from its nurture, from its bill or from its will; and if the latter, what to do about it.
 

Let's be reasonable. For nearly 60 years, from science and philosophy to theology and Christ, from theory to practice, from questing to digesting, from trial to triumph, from the Bible to all options, before me, I have found there is only one way to be reasonable, or to find reason at all.  It is only fair to note, now that I am 82, that the result is persistent, consistent and challenging, not in this, that it is true, but in the fact that living it is worthy of what it is, that it causes loss, whether of funds or reputation or opportunity, the way of ease, but that it causes a result with the splendour of truth, the power of God and the progress of obedience in love. It is good to love, for it lifts, gives leverage over weakness, point and purpose; but it is better still  to love what is true, love's source, for its own pure and unmixed reasons, so that what it is and what you are for, are wedded.

 

 

 

176th.

ALPHA and OMEGA:

DISCOUNT THAT

AND YOU'VE GOT A MUDDLE IN THE MIDDLE

If You Don't Grasp That,

Muddled, Befuddled,
You'll be Grasped by the Wrong Party

Published April  2010

 ISBN 978-0-9807675-4-4

This is a little work in intention, designed to bring to an abrupt halt, the continuity confusion, and to both assign and apply the reality of things: that entities and constrained systems may be postulated as the first and the last, the beginning and the end, but only if you abandon logic, and causation, which is implicit by means of definability, so that properties and procedures are correlative, and bases are exposed in consequences. In other words, you may try to start with things, not with the personal, govern your thought by ignoring the point, beg the questions, assume anything, be all and end all,  as it were. 

Yet if you return to rationality, for a moment,  perhaps as if on an excursion,  a change, a holiday from assumptions, presumptions and veiled thought, or even thought ignored, or carefully uncultivated, then you end with the personal, One who is not only imaginative, but the eternally extant Being,  making laws and forms and all  else, One controlled by nothing and creating in the role of Creator; or again, hunted home  again, you return to the ignoring of  reason, use an imagination that ignores the arising of form,  law,  characterisability and categorical  diversity, mind matter and spirit, as frolics without reason, and laughs at causality, and its logical requirements,  while at the same time using its techniques to defend the position adopted: a simple self-contradiction.

The outcomes of such folly in various dimensions is considered,  and the unbased income for such ideas. The outcome from what reason demands and revelation confirms and exposes indeed, is likewise pondered, realised and released to contrary views,  that the means and ends, and the end of the means may be paralleled. If the one is unhappy, the other fulfils more than heart could wish, or mind desire.

 

 

177th.

FREEDOM, THE NATION, THE INTERNET AND THE NEXT GENERATION

Published April  2010

 ISBN 978-0-9807675-5-1

 

It seems useful to have a citation in one place of the things needed for awareness of the situation facing Australia, chiefly to be sure, concerning the Internet, but with at least some application to education, population mutation, induced as well as produced, and destiny.

The issue of freedom, which follows naturally from the last volume, Number 176, is crucial, as is that of responsibility; for what is happening to families, youth and freedom, principles and human production, ideas and ideals threatens to be irreversible, and doubtless the shame of it and the wastage of it, not to say the horror of its debilitation and degradation is so, unless the Lord intervene in a revival the like of which this nation has rarely, if ever seen.

 

For a broader perspective on what is presented in this volume, see the Updated Prelude to Ch. 1..

 

178th.

THE LIGHTS AND PERFECTIONS IN THE LORD

 ISBN 978-0-9807675-6-8

In ancient Israel, the temple spoke of Christ, Himself not only the ultimate priest, symbolised by the High Priest, but the ultimate sacrifice, so that as priest He offered ... Himself! Moreover it was He of whom the whole temple stood as temple, provision for worship in His own name.

The High Priest had a special series of garments to wear in his official capacity, and one of these was called a breastplate. You see Paul using the terms in a symbolic depiction of the Christian soldier in Ephesians 6.

The lights and perfections, or Urim and Thummim were attributed symbolically to the breastplate via the ephod or garment which was worn together with it, with its precious stones on which the names of the tribes of Israel were inscribed. There were four rows of three precious stones each, varied, beautiful, in total a treasure of loveliness and a symbol of purity where light glisters and the whole, in the ephod or garment attached to the breast-plate, spoke of solicitude with the divine light at work in the very purity of God, as with love and mercy He beheld His people.

David once used it when seeking wisdom from the Lord when the force of the nation with a misled king was seeking to destroy him, whom the Lord had anointed. It was a symbol of God's entire care and availability, not to circumvent His law, but to fulfil His will within His own word, when disruption of dishevelment, indeed when anxiety and troubles proved great, and thus it was part of His attestation of available power and wisdom to cover anything that life might bring (cf. Ephesians 3:20).

Lights from the light, perfections in the glory of God, these are the things symbolised, and these are the things which one hopes to attest in this volume, starting with the sheer wonder of the glory of God in solving so much so simply, which without His own presence and nature COULD NOT BE SOLVED, and never has been. It is because God is as He is (I AM THAT I AM), that man is as he is, and that problems from sin are as they are, and that solutions are as they are; and this fact continually confirms the reality of God to the sinful, straying and yet seeking heart of man. Starting where man started, by the creative act of God, according to the creative further act of His word, the Bible, NOTHING cannot be resolved concerning the nature of man and his world, destiny, way and situation, indeed concerning the very creation of God and His power over it.

When you START with God and then attend to what has happened IN VIEW of that, and with His word beside you, then you proceed to solution. It is failure to do this which creates the insoluble seeming problems of man; and with these, because their solutions are not taken, the woeful tragedies of man are expanded as if by an atomic bomb, dropping its waste as it goes.

The need is to seek the Lord with all the heart, study His word with relish, and apply it; and applying it, and following on to know the Lord, to enjoy and rejoice in it as Psalm 119 in such an exemplary fashion shows us. This involves seeking concerning its advices, commands and exhortations, to follow them, in action.

How many are His perfections, and how numerous His lights which He sheds, like columns or arrows of light in a sunset, from the one source, in beauty upon man.

Let us then consider some of these divine gifts to us that are to be found in the Lord, as one looks toward Him in faith, and be thankful and worship and praise the Maker of man, the provider of salvation, and the Redeemer who did it, that we MIGHT know God and SO find these wonders in His word and will, and His divine amplitude of blessings above all we could ask or think (Ephesians 3).

 

179th.

POSSESS YOUR POSSESSIONS

 

Studies in the Bible

 

Published May 2010

 

 ISBN 978-0-9807675-7-5

Obadiah refers to this as something to happen in Israel when once more they will realise the value of what matters most, when  there will be found  two things in Israel: HOLINESS and DELIVERANCE.

As the Old Testament is the bud of the bloom which is the New, this is an emphasis to be regarded. In Psalm 119, the writer is given to proclaim his preference for the word and wisdom of the word of God beyond any assignable prize or treasure. He is filled with longing for those prescribed judgments, assignments,  declaration, testimonies of the Lord (119:20). In fact,  he states this: "my soul breaks with longing for your judgments for all times." Again, in 119:40, he records this: "Behold, I long for Your precepts; revive me in Your righteousness." He desires accordingly and asks for this: "Establish Your word to Your servant who is devoted to Your fear," and asks the Lord,  "Turn away my eyes from beholding worthless things." His plea is this: "Revive me according to Your lovingkindness so that I may keep the testimony of Your mouth."

Human love from one  to another can be laterally absorbing; but this is love for the very foundations of life, its wisdom, its Maker's thought concerning it,  mankind, his history, his destiny, the reasons for it, the divine desire and the ways of righteousness before God who alone COULD make it so.

Since He has done so, and with it appointed the way back to the homestead of holiness from the fields of folly, including those of stolen pastures,  forbidden landscapes and poisonous minerals, and left in the process not a visiting card, but a Cross in which He permitted men to assail Him,  present in human  form, so that their sins might not be able to do  so (cf. Micah 7:19ff.), it is wise and delightful,  a plateau for life to  study,  ruminate in and digest His word. It does not  alter. The only experiment it makes is this, that WE study it and FIND its truth beyond anything else in the whole realm of testable literature in scope and majesty, truth and wisdom, knowledge and reliability. How will this be done ? by knowing it, for which you must study it.

This book is not just to KNOW MORE about the Bible, but to examine choice passages in which depth and height and practical blessing are to be found to an  eminent degree, so that ready assimilation may occur.

This is not to say that it will  all be easy; for it is only after  some hard  exercises that the mind sometimes becomes both supple and informed enough to realise what IS precious. However it wil,  DV, have various levels and so may feed many,  as the good Lord enables. Further, it will show - because it is there - the tenderness, love, grace,  pity, power, provisions, predictions, depths and heights that make of the Bible, the very word of God, such a treasure that the student with ready heart and apt mind finds this: "Your testimonies are my delight, and my counsellors."

There is such sweet accord, and at times,  such challenging stimulus that tests as does a penetrating teacher, the very superficiality so readily coming into confident composure in the loose heart, there is so majestic a security and such a consistent confidence that needs no trumpet, for it speaks as one with authority, and with every part compared, it gives such an outline, as if one were circumnavigating with Cook, but not a continent but rather the content of the divine divulgements to man that the not merely are the needs of the heart overflowed; they are flooded. Moreover,  since it is the word of Go, none other than the Spirit of the living God moves as if explaining,  applying, and the experience then to faith becomes not only an imbuement with beauty, but a perspective of truth and a pagent of peace.  Blessed are those who find it so!

 

180th.

POSSESS YOUR POSSESSIONS Vol II

 

Studies in the Bible

 

Published June 2010

 

 ISBN 978-0-9807675-8-2

 

 

 

 

181st.

POSSESS YOUR POSSESSIONS  Vol III

 

Studies in the Bible

 

Published July 2010

 

 ISBN 978-0-9807675-9-9

 

 

182nd.

POSSESS YOUR POSSESSIONS  Vol IV

 

Studies in the Bible

 

Published July 2010

 

 

 ISBN 978-0-9808498-1-3

As we have been progressing over the past few weeks from Volume I to the present, there have appeared more and more of the treasures of Christ and His word to supply, as if one had found a Pacific Island (not yet sunk), and on it a mass of wonderful items, now being shipped to the mainland. We therefore proceed with these exhibits, and their application to our contemporary world, which is intense, and indeed, there is no vitamin deficiency anywhere near so fatal as the present one in terms of the startlingly careless ignorance of the word of God, of the way to go and the ingredients in it.

To this, then, we continue to turn, showing its relevance, rationality and reasonableness on the one hand, and its necessity for life on the other.

 

183rd.

POSSESS YOUR POSSESSIONS  Vol V

 

Studies in the Bible

 

Published August  2010
 

 ISBN 978-0-9808498-2-0

 

 

184th.

POSSESS YOUR POSSESSIONS  Vol VI

 

Studies in the Bible

 

Published September 2010

 

 ISBN 979-0-9808498-3-7

 

 

 

185th.

PREDESTINATION REVIEW

Published in October 2010

 

ISBN 978-0-9808498-4-4

This is the seventh volume of what is now the Predestination Heptad

(full title, ON PREDESTINATION and FOREKNOWLEDGE,
LIBERTY and NECESSITY,
RESPONSIBILITY, DUTY and CREATIVITY),
 

the first volume of which
was the first of our volumes published on the web, in January 1997.

 

186th.

POSSESS YOUR POSSESSIONS  Vol VII

 

Studies in the Bible

 

Published September 2010

 

 ISBN 979-0-9808498-5-1

 

There have been so many marvels of insight, truth, wisdom, impact, so many jewels of sparkling wonder in the Bible that as one shows, in a context of Christian Apologetics, something of this richness,  not only is all of this relevant to the QUALITY and power, penetration and consistency, constancy and abiding strength of what has been demonstrated to be the word of God, and hence with  place in terms of verification.

In addition, it nestles in the mind, brings sweetness to the soul, for all is explained by the Lord, in the deepest and to the highest, and while many things will be even clearer when the time comes, now is the epoch for glorifying in what has been given us in the Word of God, both in the stature of the Sovereign Saviour and in the quality of His effectual word.

This volume has much from the Bible, expounded and applied in our special field, both personal and apologetic, on beauty, creation, the love of God, the nature of its application in predestination and foreknowledge, the harmony in all things of the word of God with itself and the profundity of its coverage of all things, resolving doubts, overcoming difficulties in a unique manner, leaving all pursuit behind.

Further, in reviewing cardinal aspects of orientation to Christianity, it deals with godly approaches to politics, and makes some application to the Australian 2010 election, in their terms.

 

187th.

POSSESS YOUR POSSESSIONS Vol. VIII

 

Studies in the Bible

 

Published October 2010

 

 ISBN 979-0-9808498-6-8

Preface to Volume VIII

In the light of the Lord, the splendour of His countenance, expressed in the definitive and decisive form of His written word, there are major shafts of glory, minor matters of illumination (as in times past, some portion of the text might be illuminated with colours and contrivances of an exquisite and artistic character, markers of beauty rather than of great immediate impact) and historical expressions that give a practical orientation to the principles, procedures, purposes and plans of the Almighty.

These are graciously made available to man.

Such has been the slaughter of the saints, the invasion of the Church, the secularisation of the spiritual in the minds of many, the effrontery of the unfaithful masquerading as the faithful, rather as in the days of Antiochus Epiphanes in the sometimes gruesome history of Israel, when valour was called for, that it is necessary to seek to help those who are arrested or even diverted in their spiritual development, by assiduous attention to what is written, irrespective of cultural, social, political and imperial ambitions of many, whether these be dressed expressly in spiritual terms as in Islam, or not, as in the European Union and the United Nations. Moreover there are many who love these things, and to meditate on them.

Accordingly, this eighth volume of Possess Your Possessions is presented, and in it some of the sparkling wonders of the word of God one seeks to present,  as if to draw to the attention of another passenger in a car on a journey, the wonders of the land through which we pass; except in this case, the 'land' is the word of God, written for all to see over some one and one half millenia, and now blazoned for all to heed, for two more millenia. Like God, it does not change; for it is His word. Its impact however needs also  to be found in the milieu of events, and savoured, realised,  applied and appreciated.

It is as if in the journey, a car had come to a sudden halt three inches from the brow of a precipice, a sea cliff,  with some undercutting from the weather, and the passengers were considering, or some of them, getting out for a stroll while looking afar across the sea, and delighting in the thought as they step out, if not with abandon, then at least with joie de vivre.

There are times when it is better to  speak.

 

188th

THE DIVINE INITIATIVE

POSSESS YOUR POSSESSIONS Vol. IX

 

Studies in the Bible

 

Published November 2010

 

 ISBN 979-0-9808498-7-5

 

Job and Jeremiah figure amongst a large panel of review and exposition

in biblical themes, and Christian Apologetic quarrying. Since God is back of it,

very much comes forth!

 

 

189th.

 

 

POSSESS YOUR POSSESSIONS Vol. X

 

Studies in the Bible

 

THE PERSONAL HOPE,

THE PERSONAL FAITH,

THE PERSONAL  GOD

 

NOT REJUVENATION
BUT REGENERATION
 

NOT KNOWING IT ALL,
BUT KNOWING GOD

 

 

Published December  2010
 

 ISBN 979-0-9808498-8-2

 

When you know a friend, you do not need to know his habits when a two-year old, his ways with the bottle when a toddler, nor his genome. Exhaustive knowledge is for God, and our aspirations, hopes, prudence all would like to know all about whatever it is, for safety and understanding, clarity and competence. Yet it is neither necessary nor possible for us in this world.

 

It WOULD be eminently desirable were it not that we can KNOW the ONE who DOES have it all. His is able and competent to make us have a logical basis for trust, which surpasses all other grounds for all other knowledge, is sure and reliable; and as in all things, not only is this basis significant, the results of its identification are also. Thus 1od has shown Himself so zealous about His word, saying that He has magnified it above all His name (Psalm 138:2), that it becomes a crucial and substantial confirmation as seen in

SMR,  TMR,

Deity and Design..., and

LIGHT DWELLS WITH THE LORD'S CHRIST,
WHO ANSWERS RIDDLES,
AND WHERE HE IS, DARKNESS DEPARTS,
Bible or Blight, Christ or Confusion:
The Comprehensive Resolution of Man's Intractable Problems
is Found Only in the Bible, the Word of God

Thus there is a unique and logically impelling basis for belief, but it is not in itself compelling, despite its logical constraint, for one reason only: its  acceptance per se has little to  do with reason, but with will it has everything to do. There are none so blind as those who will not see, and whether it be pride, or fear, or  apprehension of inner secrets being revealed to  ANYONE, even to God (who knows them anyway), or other misguided, misconceived or mischievous drives, conscious or unconscious, there are thresholds to cross. God is able to conquer all these things, and in eternity before this world was, knew His characters better than anyone knows those in a novel; but HIS characters are NOT INVADED.

 

They are subjectible trials and tests, but their outcomes are known, not as deeds to come merely, but far beyond those variable lightnings of action, with His own infinite discernment. HE KNOWS whom He has called His own and would like it to be for all, but does not intrude. When we meet history and it hits us, God still knows His own, and infallibly finds them. Since we are in His image, it is a matter of restoration (Colossians 3:10), and since we are sinners, of redemption (Hebrews 9:12), and since spiritually we are without Him, helpless, of free salvation, and since sin blinds, it is by such application of the Spirit that we are  convicted, convinced,  constrained. Yet it is all true, as before sin arrived, and nothing remotely like manipulation, since it is according to truth. Often in conversion the reality of the heart is felt as God probes and acting, reveals, and revealing makes a place for His throne in the lives that are His; and this is not contrary to the reality, but its historical application.

 

Hence in becoming a Christian, you do not embark on a spiritual fitness course (though there is that  element in it), for this is rather what is becoming for one, WHEN he is regenerated and THEREFORE a Christian at all. You are remade like a write-off, the cost far greater than that for bringing on a new car, never touched! That, it is love. Love is like that. God is its source (I John 4:7ff.), and when this love arises, then this is seen and valued, indeed, to be applied.

 

Then what was logically adequate to show who God is, and that the Bible is His only authorised written word to mankind, becomes empirically attested, and one finds in life, what is attested by reason; and then one can grow. When you know God, you know enough, and when you walk with Him, you have company enough. In the end, we who are His shall know as we are known; in the interim, now, the knowledge is secure and stable based on His word,  attested in life; then, it will be instant and immediate,  as when  one  sees a  station  approaching in rather a dim light, but as one comes nearer, the lights are turned on and it is immediately apparent and only more come and this, when it is the celestial station, with a joy divinely ennobled.

 

190th.

 

THE RELISH, THE REASON, THE RESOLUTION
 

FOUND IN THE WORD OF GOD,

ITS MESSIAH AND ITS MESSAGE
 

POSSESS YOUR POSSESSIONS Vol. XI

 

Studies in the Bible

 

In this volume, we move further on from the thematic topic:

 

THE PERSONAL HOPE,

THE PERSONAL FAITH,

THE PERSONAL  GOD

 

as applicable for Volume X, to that noted in the above title.  Relish, with reason, resolution with revelation, it is all one most glorious set of possessions made available to mankind, and we plan to publish this abroad, to arrest the wandering, strengthen the suffering, rejoice the saddened and glorify the God of all glory. However small the contribution, the results are sought as one seeks fruit on the tree; and in this case, the fruit can even rejoice.

 

 

Published December  2010

 

 ISBN 979-0-9808498-9-9

 

So far, in November 2011, 14 volumes have been published this year.
 

 

191st

 

CONSIDER CHRIST, DO NOT DITHER

 

POSSESS YOUR POSSESSIONS Vol. XII

 

Studies in the Bible

 

Published January 2011

ISBN

979-0-98708896-0-4

 

Following on from  Possess Your Possessions Volume 11, in this volume XII, the emphasis  moves to the more personal. Thus Ch. 9 of the last volume was concentrated on resolution of problems and relish to be found in Christ, King of Truth and Saviour in eternity; and now there is  another  application of the material presented there, in the direction of NOT DITHERING. That is found in Ch. 1 in this work.  This leads to a different application so that a news item just to hand, may be seen in this setting. In this case, it is not so much individual dither as national that is in view, and the outcome is as tragic as the doom of a great war, when the soldiers lose heart and the homeland neglects its famous fires, to keep them burning. Some want no-god, and some wish no-atheism, and some parade their power and delete deity where they may, and some are subverted by this audacity, while others speak, and make testimony for the truth as is necessary in all conscience and reason. The nation wonders what to do with the Almighty God as in the Pre-amble to the Constitution, but while many dither, or are deluded, or merely militant, wanting to sever from the Saviour outstandingly, and make havoc with religion, others do not find wisdom in such empty surrealism.

It is not only a matter of the past, but of the present, and especially of the huge contrast between two eras, one gradually  becoming somewhat more faint in its attitude to God, but still clearly discernible in terms of ITS past; and the present, aggressively nonchalant, impressively evacuative of commitment, bordering on ruin, with loud words and dithering deeds as if waiting for the storm, and occasionally shouting defiance, but more often, conniving in corruption.

There is only one answer: it is to return not to a multicultural madness, 

	as if ashamed of the wonders wrought by faith in the Lord in this land, in the Lord's Christ Jesus,
	as if inviting friends home and then trying to find how they live in order to change home in a fit of depreciatory madness,

but to a gracious wisdom which finds what has made the nation so attractive, its laws, its justice and equity emphasis, its care and its concern, its love of freedom and of personal responsibility. It is this which Christianity has nurtured, on the very basis of its non-dictatorial approach to mankind:  since indeed the Bible ridicules force in the region of faith. You cannot make second-hand things without the first newness, or fruits, to continue without roots; nor can you successfully imitate good features when the foundations are gone.

While the nation continually is caressing ANYTHINGNESS, it is really wheeler-dealing its ways into a more and more direct confrontationalism with Christ, with anything in the field of education or life which presupposes even liberty! and it is moving in what may soon become irrevocably as the end of the Age approaches, toward a negative agnosticism/atheism, IN PRACTICE. That is, whatever the private religion may be, the move is to make everything public an outcome of disfaith, that junking of anything concerning the Bible and creation and Jesus Christ, so that an avid materialism rules in unhappy disharmony with noble aspirations as empty as a drum, and as noisy.

What then ? By all means consider a continuation of a thankless irrationality, as we have shown; but at least become aware that so much improvisation of evil, diminution of past national acknowledgements (the Preamble to the Constitution is in specific view for one more 'accommodation' without God, instead providing assumptions about the importance of recognising not the foundation of the land, but people who lived there earlier than we did, as if this was a self-produced universe, the main point).

First things first however is not a tribal tribute, but a gratitude to deity, such as the Preamble was careful to attest! If this is removed, then the nation is throwing away that engagement ring, and showing its gratitude in degradation by shrugging the shoulders and following the dire directives of unreason, toying with things, ignoring their necessary foundations.

It is not naturalistic emphasis that is needed, nor unproductive and destructive obeisance to the gods of this or that religion or former religion, or quasi-religion, or surreptitious, irrational religion, but a non-molesting readiness to avoid the transfer of faith from God to gods, some impersonal and pretentious. Indeed, naturalistic powers that have the capacities of gods, ideas that are used instead of divine power and shatter the people, these things attract like the smoking habit, a misty or smoky substitute for making the most of life and not ignoring its necessary basis.

Nationally this people is running down the walls of a precipice, where near the top there is a slight margin before the drop. It throws away money on absurdities, ill-thought out, it hastens in fits and starts with theories that ignore basic necessities, like wisdom, it excuses itself in terms of international agnosticisms, and seeks to conform to delirious dicta from the UN or elsewhere, so long as a free world results, where you are at liberty to do whatever you are told, and never to do whatever you are forbidden (cf. Mystery of Iniquity, It Bubbles ... He Calls  Ch. 11).

Individually, people need to awaken to their fall,  as generation after generation is now molested mentally, as readily seduced in spirit as the atmosphere polluted with particles. But why ? It is because of intensive folly, impacted with figments of fiction taught amid increasing abhorrence of reasoned and scientifically sober method:  a thing that soars like a rocket when it comes to God and His creation of the minds that do this, and assume their own validity, while removing all grounds for such an assumption.

While however the nations drown, as predicted, into that sea of prejudicial horror, it is more and more closely beginning to merge with the state of  affairs  which you see in Revelation 13, where both a political-industrial-financial beast or tyrant syndrome rules, AND a religious one. This latter one is a concoction and a command that has the people worship the first beast, the all-commanding State. It is predicted to be, in effect,  as if the worst of the recent follies of Russia, China and incendiary militant, religious warriors seeking blood, were conjoined into one inglorious spiritual idiocy (as in Hosea 9:7), a mind-defying dominance,  a multi-race assault, a taint to civilisation, and a suicide squad for spirituality.

Do not then dither in the face of these empty innovations, but become decisive; do not wallow in this unwisdom, but seek the Lord who made the powers of thought, and gave them validity that man might KNOW the truth and follow it where it is self-attested, and not founder in endless self-contradictions (cf. Deity and Design ...   8). It is necessary where reason rules and evidence is hallowed, to return to the Bible and the Christ whom God sent to give personal interview, intervention, invitation and answer to man, not in a flash moment of capitulation to new forces as in this land and in many another now, but in fulfilment with precision of the menu for man. It was this which gave detail over millenia so that when the Son of God arrived, it would be simple to see what it was, who He was, what was authentic and what a mere mischief.

 

 

 

 

192nd

REDEMPTION OR REVOLT

  Dilettante or  Disciple

  Nothing  New under the Sun, or All Things New

 

Published January 2011

ISBN

979-0-98708896-2-8

Recently, a radio announcer speaking of floods or rains or some natural disaster, said that it seemed that Someone up there, had a grudge against us.

Little could be more monumentally mistaken. It is rather saying that the butterfly shows that the Lord has no sense of the minute! or that an elephant shows that He is limited to little works.

In fact, there is love and compassion, showered upon creation, discipline and directness, pre-announced for the fruits of seductive autonomy as in Genesis 3, and a judgment settling on the earth the way the fog does on the open seas, its fingers probing the nearby valleys, and its hidings making ships like forlorn sea monsters. In rebelling against His working instructions (manualled in the Bible), how to use the glorious gift of being created a member of the human race, man is like a dissident student who, being told that to be found smoking would require 'six from the lawyer'  (as one Headmaster put it), then complained when showing his pipe freely and openly to a supervising teacher! It would  vex the imagination even to consider how such a vaporous verbal glitch could be made as to call this a grudge!  In fact, this student did not complain; but the point remains. What, in any case, came to the student  ? He was expelled. The Headmaster was determined that the lung abuse would not mar the school. 

A trudge certainly (though the student concerned left in a taxi), is implied, but justice for man from the Lord, as announced, so far from being grudge, even when apparently profound (though the recent Australian case of massive inundations is not near the flood, which had a long prelude - Genesis 6), is the precise opposite. This cavalier criticism ignores

	the Creator's knowledge for the way to treat His creation, man, singly and jointly, duly imparted in the Bible.
	His action to provide free redemption and the soaring cost to Him of doing so.
	the goodwill incorporated in this pinnacle of sacrifice and the continuing provocation in a world often moving back to the hideous sins of self-will, even when as in this land, superabundantly blessed in the time of at least some measure of worship of the living God, giving glory to His name for His redemption in Christ Jesus; and
	the maintenance of the offer of free redemption despite  all, to each one, including any who falsely suggest grudge, in the very midst of mercy, that the race can continue at all amidst such condign disloyalty, unthankfulness and spiritual inertia.

While it is possible to  err in attributing any one disaster to one specially chosen cause, yet some steady aggravation of cause may precipitate a decisive result:  as in the destruction of Sennacherib's  army (an immediate cause was the pompous pretension of the monarch, seeking to compare the living God to the idols of the nations, and to exalt himself as if a god) as seen in Isaiah 36ff..

God is not offering wisdom for general living, at the crux, but how to BE ALIVE. It is no mere phrasing, for the alternative is eternal condemnation (II Thessalonians 1). He is not suggesting more sanctification but demanding justification, so that the STATUS of the SOUL may be one that is acceptable to God, since it is only His OWN righteousness which can be satisfactory, and man's sins know almost no depth control, the pit being likewise bottomless. This we find in Romans 5:1-21 the reconditioning required, yes far more, the regeneration wrought on the basis of faith in the salvation of Jesus Christ, long prepared and on its due date, granted (cf. Christ the Citadel ... Ch. 2).

Comparative religions are comparative revolt; and all are utterly in revolt, since NONE but the offering of Christ get ANYWHERE with God (Acts 4:11-12), since none other is appointed (Acts 13:26-46,17:31, John 14:6) and His saving work  was done ONCE (Hebrews 9) and for all!  Since He redeems, pays for what is repentant, purified and purged, rescued and covered in cost for the restitution to the status of a child of God: therefore it is simple. It is one. It is clear. It is revolt or it is redemption.

Such is the status of our race. Such is the fate of the furious, the spurious, the seduced and the seductive, except they repent. Such is the provision. God is no octopus: He hands down His one solution for our one problem, taking its heart and core as one and its cure and consequence as one, and making in one act, in one Person, for one motivation, that of love, the necessary provision (Hebrews 8-10).

This simplicity moves like an express train throughout so many so sophisticatedly spectacular problems, and so many subtly deep ones, so that, to get on board the express, and relax the contentious cavils and anxious swivels, is delight: view from the window is both varied and comprehensible. On the other side, away from this survey, this transformation from treading to triumph: there is only confusion. Whatever the number and placement of the worms in an apple, the core is the place of depth for it all.

 

193rd

In February 2011, an addition was made to the subset,
The gods of naturalism have no go! making it now a Hexad
the Nogo Hexad,
Its title:

Moving from the Riddle of Unrealism
to the Reality of Creation

For its preface, follow this link.

 ISBN 978-0-9870886-1-1

 

194th

 

The Vitality, the Perspicuity and the Wisdom
of the God of Creation and  Redemption

 ISBN 978-0-9870886-4-2

It is no mean feat that those who love to detract from the deity of our configuration, the God of our creation, the Lord of our redemption, bypass entirely that one Being whose wisdom is both

	multiple  and profound,
	inexorable and patient,
	outwitting all the old contemptibles that infest the flesh of man, enabling deliverance from all his weaknesses, when wisdom like lightning purges his soul and anoints his heart. It is a testimony to the scope of this divine creation that in talking in the field of their Creator, in masses, they so frequently ignore what they are talking about, and instead talk about their own thoughts, as if these and not God were their progenitor, basis and meaning, rather than the instituted looking glass. It is one so made that it can in validity look both at itself and its Maker, when it has a mind so  to do, and when like so many of man's own creations, it is enabled. Like them, it is potent but has to be handled aright.

What a prodigy is this so contemptuously and contemptibly distortive, sportive spirit of man, dismissive or derogatory of things spiritual while using them every moment of the day, even while impugning God with arrogance, assailing Him with impudence or seeking to leach Him out by an artful indifference!

Thus in creation, while the artifices of concept and command, conjoined so that they may even be exhumed from the DNA and the material universe alike, so that they might be stated and stipulated even by the very mind of man, are a profound communicative feat in a double dimension. Firstly, it is so in the One who spoke us into existence, by using communication power to execute His will, and left the material part in DNA as testimony and continuing and programmatic command alike. Yet there is more. Yes, more even than this stares us in the face.

There is, secondly,  the vitality of life, the practicality of wisdom for man, the intensive reconstruction for his spirit, called regeneration, the prodigious realism that faces the worst and provides the best, together with the cost of it, called redemption, and the divine perspicuity which knows all, sees all and confused at nothing, produces as if from a divine palette, the whole exuberance of creation. Misled, this bedevils man, for so profound is  the image of God in man, that it allows both the riotous imagination of people as if gods in their delusion, who are but men, and scope for the repentance which knocks with faith on the doors of reality, aspiring only to be numbered amongst the redeemed. Thus you have ambassadors for Christ, the crux of all content and contentment, in this world before it goes, and ambassadors for evil, seeking to prolong the mess as masses writhe in their defiled leadership and incalculable defiance.

Such blessed heights, depths and dimensions require attention and here we give it.

 

 

195th

The Lie has a Limited Shelf-Life,
 Truth Lasts Forever

Published March 2011

 ISBN 978-0-9870886-5-9

Truth might not last if God were not there to make it do so. But if God were not there, there could be no truth, for then all would be merely doing what it is good at, until whatever it was became whatever it was going to be, and no one could get outside of it, to survey or to understand. Truth does last because from God it gets its only sustainable name, and the Lie will not last because it is by definition, at the ultimate, enemy of Truth, and so excluded from that domain.

Ignorance blushes because it is incompetent, faced with knowledge, unknowledgeable. Truth attains because what is, is understood so that it might be there, so that it might be true; and with this wisdom comes susceptibility for action and sound performance. It does not blush. It is wonderful that where truth lies, power joins and where creation comes, competence precedes. Otherwise we would not be here, for the incompetent does not attain; whereas truth does.

Mere pretence if not pretension is the lisping of this world about itself: it is ONLY because  its laws and forms and formats and language of creation in the DNA, and its language for continuation in the Bible, come from God, that there is any way for it to go, any being for it to inhabit, any structure for it to secure, any stricture to  become duty and responsibility. As it goes down, however, as it deteriorates, and in nothing more than in spirit, man in his nations is becoming a mockery of the mastery of his internal environment. Just as,  in EVERY nucleated cell, there is set in language readable, cognisable, characterisable, potent, functional, so in the Bible is set the law of God for man, the means of His mercy, the method of His salvation, before the day of judgment comes up for divorce. It is wise to be ready.

In this book the simplicities are in view, the applications, the sheer wonder of reality in contrast with the sheer blatancy of horror, which the lie, never satisfied with truth, deplores. If nature 'abhors a vacuum' has some relevance, much more is this: God abhors sin. Yet He loves righteousness, even to the point that He is willing to provide it free.

The Gospel is delicious. It is life again, eternal. The shelf-life of the lie, like an unplayable lie in golf, a temporary thing to be dismantled, is limited. Living without limits limits living. The final limit is judgment, mortality for mortals, instead of eternal life for the children of God. Tough guys may find it hard to become as children again, but it is not children in MIND but in MALICE which is the biblical prescription! (I Corinthians 14:20:

"Brethren, do not be children in understanding;
however in malice be babes, but in understanding be mature."

Understanding is intended as a chief motif in this volume, and DV it will help to resolve difficulties and show the wonder of Him who is both Judge and Creator, Redeemer and Upholder, who insists that we be steadfast in the faith, just as we are made steadfast in our design, so magnificently set in commands of thought, conceptually investigable, practically a marvel, to which is added the far more magnificent feature, far from the power of any man to make, that SPIRIT which is the maestro placement in man. This is equipped, no less, with mind able to look, even to God.

LOOK then to Him, and be saved! for so He commands, no less than His commands are manifest in the very construction through DNA of our bodies (Isaiah 45:22-23). Let not the body be mocked by an arrant spirit in the mind! Let us be conformed to truth, which is broader than the heavens in its AMPLITUDE, and narrower than a crevice in unfalsifiability; for though our thought is athletic, it does not change its own basis, or truth; and even our imagination does not alter what is its source, though it soar to the heavens in pure joy of discovery!

 

196th

The Divine Sublimity of the Ardour of Christ's Salvation
 
ISBN 978-0-9870886-6-6

Published April 2011

This volume is intended to recapture what is missing, revisit what is disdained, recover to sight what is subjected to slippery spiritual slander, help awaken to the wonder of God, His ardour, His loveliness and majesty, so that the disservice of passivity, indifference, misdirection, arrogance, self-absorption, hypnotic submission to natural things may be contrasted with the truth.

Man has become increasingly noxious to his fellows, proud of his achievements, illiterate in the truth, prodded by pollutants, weary of well-doing, recidivist to reality, gunning against the Gospel. Nothing new ? There is a new  pandemic of these things. There are the sour cynical, spiritually dyspeptic wrangles and tangles with the illicit fires, the dramatic nothings which many dare to spew forth without divine sanction, so that just as it was to be, as in Jeremiah 23:16-20, so it is;  and as it  was foretold by Paul (II Timothy 3-4, I Timothy 4, Acts 29), Peter (II Peter 2)and by Christ (Matthew 24:22,24, John 14:30), so the day draws near to the night in which no man  can work, as Christ showed would come (John 12:35-36, 9:4).

Close comparison of undivine dreams and divine declaration from the God of creation through His verified and validated word, the Bible, is made, and review is given from many angles. The more the work is done, the less there is even in view for meaningful  comparison, as you see the glory of the Lord, sustained, the gory pseudo-glamour of human confrontation without rationality, lot in its mirage.

 

197th

DIAMONDS OF DIVINE DIVULGEMENT  IN THE BIBLE

 

 ISBN 978-0-9870886-7-3

Published May 2011

In  any romance, there are likely to be moments of revelation, understanding, intense empathy, that rise like the rocky cliffs by the shore, filled with significance. Like dawn and sunset, they tie together much lustre, together with light.

 

The Lord loves His people, and would have all come to reconciliation with Himself. Despite numerous faulty statements by some theologians over time, this is the case. How does one know ? It is because it is so written in the Bible, so clearly that no one has ever provided a rebuttal, in  Colossians 1:19ff.. It PLEASED the Father, having made peace through the blood of the cross, to reconcile ALL THINGS, yes whether in heaven or on earth, to Himself. It not some secondary reconciliation; it is not some segment in heaven or on earth, but all of both.

 

This is the statement. Who daring to use the name of theologian can dare contravert what God says about His own heart! Indeed,  even if it were possible here, which is assuredly not the case, there are a large number of similar statements such as I Timothy 2, Ezekiel 33:11, Luke 19:42ff., and tender  appeals which would scarcely be real if for inscrutable reasons God did not really WANT all to be reconciled to Himself with an ardour and intensity, using such terms as "AS I LIVE," as He put it in Ezekiel, and exhibiting such lamentations at what did NOT occur earlier in Israel, as found in Isaiah 48:16ff., which swells like an ocean wave that surmounts all resistance: but a godly and a blessed one, constructive and not destructive.

 

He is sovereign, but AS sovereign He is an inimitable lover, and the scope even to the summum bonum of salvation, is set for one as for all; though the attainment is indeed limited, and the way is too narrow for many a foot (Matthew 7:15ff.).

 

HENCE there is something of which human romance is merely an expression, based on the same love, however much at certain times it may be distorted by human sin. ONE and one party alone is the effectual cause, at the ultimate in the foreknowledge of God and hence in reality, for exclusion from God and that is each person involved in such negation (John 3:19). THAT is the criterion God gives in accounting for loss in the presence of such ardent love as He exhibits in John 3:16, a love which came with the scope that the world be saved, and not judged.

 

With God there is no distortion, but great restraint, for the purity of love is not the seizure of force, and those who love learn! Yet the divine love  is there, inimitable, inerodable, indomitable, but unwilling to ruin its own reality by mere surreptitious grabbing.

 

The tenderness is true, not affected, though it be God who loves. Man loves to see such undimmed, unpolluted love, and what reminds of it. Thus, when a prince seems to be truly loved by a princess, and to find in her a special feature that braves the fainting heart, reinforces the glimmers of hope, wanders like a perfume into the nostrils and grasps the heart as hand does hand in greeting, and loves in return, then many are truly glad. Why ? It is a joy to see a love that transforms in action, without the frequent subsidies from sin which mar love into desire of various alien types, and merely uses romance as an empty form.

 

There is nothing empty about the love of God

(cf. Love is Purer Than the Peak Snow-Crested, More Vital than its Dashing Streams: The Love of God alone).

 

It is both articulate and ardent, realistic and redemptive, since there is NO ONE ever born to our race, who was excluded from its appraising desire, for lack of it in scope or intensity; and there is none who has any but his or her own self to blame, for exclusion from it and its fruits (YOU WERE NOT WILLING, is the refrain, in whatever format, Proverbs 1, or Matthew 23, or Luke 19, or Isaiah 48:16). In Isaiah, we find that GOD longed for a different outcome than that obtained.

 

In Christ, He sighs, laments, in Isaiah exhibits a heart all but desolated at the rejection which sets in; but HE WILL NOT accept accolades from empty hearts (Isaiah 1), manipulative devisers, such as often on this earth show false hearts  amongst our race. IF there is a rejection, known to Him  from eternity (Ephesians 1:4), then in the end, there is an identification of the one in that case with what ? It is with what is evil,  dark and devious, wrong-headed and empty-hearted, so that the thing becomes hateful; but this is the result, always the result.

 

The cause from the start is as God states, and the result as God states it, and one of the results is predestination which logically follows from what God knew from the first, before man or space or time as we have it so much as lifted the blankets on life, and opened an eye to behold what was here! before creation. That is the sequence in Romans 8:30, and in reality. Predestination  merely ties up what is the case, as foreknown to God. It is a divine insurance, securing of what is precious,  so that the truth being known, is made certain. None of His will ever be lost, and He KNOWS them (II Timothy 2:19).

 

Let us consider this in the light of the title of this volume.

 

In this love, and indeed in all the integrity of the Divine Being, there are then moments, times, statements, revelations which are intense with meaning,  evocative with a fulness which overflows the eyes to the heart, and this to the very spirit of man,  and grips what is receptive with its passion, wonder, admirable grace, in its divine expression. Since with God this is always linked at length to action, it is more than a verbal melody, but rather a deep magnificence, word and deed wedded never to part.

 

Such items in the Bible, whether obvious at first or not, which show the divine name to be hallowed in intensity or depth or with special appeal or illumination, it is these which are in mind here.

 

 

 

198th

 

THE CHRISTIAN PRESCRIPTION

ISBN 978-0-9870886-8-0

Published June 2011

 

What does Christ prescribe ?  Often a doctor will prescribe a medicine based on diagnosis, historical development and design underlying in the body, with effort to restore to normal working mode. So a politician might prescribe for a situation, for a nation, given its ideas and ideals (or his own!). An engineer might do much the same, as in measures for  flood control, with contingency measures.

 

God has prescribed the design of man, and life, and made it such that Dr Denton in his Evolution: A Theory in Crisis, he states that the life data  might be held in their minaturised form, in a teaspoon. Here is brilliance beyond measure, and life encapsulated in its physical format with something way beyond genius. At best man finds what God put there, and does not invent the laws of space and logic, mathematics and thought, of time and of life; he mere uncovers what logic and order, organisation and contrivance, wit and wisdom put there. Wit is not self-made. Like  all other things, not eternal and self-sufficient entirely, it needs to act to exhibit what it is. In us, the action is manifest. In our plight, the need of more of it is equally manifest, and in the Bible, the reason for our being here, for our plight and the prescription for its cure are all told, and that most clearly.

In this volume, the Christian Prescription as given by  God in the Bible is the theme, and  its  application is our concern.

 

 

199th.

 

The Lord of  Longsuffering,

Prince of  Peace,

Christ of Command

 

ISBN 978-0-9870886-9-7

Published June 2011

In this volume, we see the Christ who is the Lord of Longsuffering, not merely patient, but filled with a beautiful compassion as in Isaiah 42, where He does not break the bruised reed, yet also the Christ of Command, for He does not abdicate in order to be compassionate, or populate heaven with hell, in order to be accommodating. What would be the good of that ?  for if hell came to heaven, its dissident ingredients would merely belch in the face of beauty,  contrive in the face of kindness, precisely as you see it in the end of the millenium in Revelation 19-20, where  in the midst of such peace, plenty, compassion, such a law and presence of God, of Him who died  that we might live, despite our infirmities and complexities and evil calamities, there is a new  revolt. It is as in Isaiah 26:10. "Let grace to be shown to the wicked, yet he will not learn righteousness; in the land of uprightness, he will deal unjustly."

If in repentance he finds the Lord, well; but without this and repentance, regeneration,  so it has become. Patching the perishing tyre does nothing good.

Present in man is the idea of man the commander, the leader and the witness. It is found for example in Ezekiel 28:9. You see it especially  clearly at the  academic level in Ch. 2 in the case of  Professor Leowontin,  and his philosophic prescriptions to limit science to his religious philosophy. Science in tow ? This has long, in this area, been the fact for the majority of scientists, scrubbed and brushed, painted and clothed in the robes of unruly intrusion of personal ideas into empirical science,  till the fraudulent character of the scientistic substitute for science has become as  apparent as Leowontin attests so  solemnly! He put it well.

Nor is this all. The entirety of value-oriented, creation-oriented,  society-oriented, psychiatry-oriented is so infected with blind, reality-exclusive fatuity, that its manifest failure in practice is like the long  replaying of an old-time tune, with modern jazz-time elements added, that failed long  ago  to  attract any but heady zealots,  and has been dead  for decades. It just goes on, regular in its theme, odd in its concepts, incurable in its cacophony.

In this fabrication function of man in the 21st century, desiring a dream with all the intensity so well known to Israel as in Jeremiah 23, where they could hardly step over each other in the blather and lather of false prophets, unreal, incorrect, predicting peace when war was at hand, filled with  their own thoughts when God was  at hand, that the  prophet trumpeted this word from the Lord in that day, so  like our own:

"For who has  stood in the counsel of the LORD, and has perceived and heard His word  ? Who has marked His word and heard it ?

"Behold, a whirlwind of the LORD has gone forth in fury -
a violent whirlwind! It will fall upon the head of the wicked.
The anger of the  LORD  will not turn back
until He has executed  and performed the thoughts of His heart.
In the latter days you will understand it perfectly."

In these latter days, towards the end of our epoch (Answers  to Questions Ch. 5), we do indeed consider its perfection, for the earth is crammed with precisely this, discordant deviationism  from the Lord. It continues ...

" I have not sent these prophets, but they ran.

"I have not spoken  to them, yet  they prophesied.
But if thy had stood in My counsel,
and had caused My people to hear My words,
then they would have turned them from their evil way
and from the evil of their doings."

However, though some turn,  as with Jeremiah in Israel, so with many in this present world, they are told, but they do not turn; and multitudes are they who in defiance of reason and  revelation  alike,  trumpet but their own nasalised nihilistic,  unrealistic programs, implacable, irreconcilable, alien to truth, impervious to the empirical.

It is precisely as foretold in II Timothy 3-4, Romans 1 at its end for THE end of the Age, when the symptoms of  alienation from God become most malignant.

In this volume, in view of that,  we continually present the view of Christ the Saviour, the Lord of Longsuffering but the Christ of Command, whose purity does not allow incompetence, or foster folly, but whose longsuffering does foster the blowing gently on the sparks, in case any may yet come before it is too late, and the last spiritual rasping of the dying breath of this misled Age, comes in its absurd pretensions to  meet face  to f ace with reality, the most blasting blow of all.

 

200th

 

The Bountiful, The Accountable and the Surmountable

 

Published July  2011

ISBN   978-0-9871661-0-4

 

 

Chapter One of this Volume sets out at some length, our topical field.

Suffice here to note that it is

 

	God who is bountiful,
	man who is accountable and his situation, including both inner and outer ingredients,
	and his plight which is surmountable.

 

Though we are now perfectly accustomed to seeing what is hard at least to differentiate from dither whether in currency-troubled, indebted Europe, or in debt-ridden USA or in castigatory wars or recklessly inhuman actions in the Middle East, and more Eastern lands:

yet this is not all.

 

Whether in some of those lands, or in Asiatic eruptions of power angrily pursuing idealists without much evident restraint, or in Russia, where nationalistic surges and urges seem to leave individual significance somewhat at a loss, in that land of the oil take-over amid outrage, the case is becoming increasingly plain.

 

Man is moving without the admirable in such situations, as if dragged by forces he neither knows nor can understand, and this the more so, when he thinks that he does.

 

In particular, it appears customary, or near it, for atrocious acts to be performed in Islamic countries in the Middle East, for the sake of the continuance of their rulers or their rules, often made extemporaneously by those who seized power illicitly in the first place, or have abused it as if conscience were out of date, in the second place. Here as in Iran, liberation as in their earlier revolution, makes the former regal power seem small compared with the total dictation to people through religious force and terrorist rumblings and exported ramblings, such as now appear.

Man is trying to manage man with countless false prophets, false ideologies, founded on nothing and accomplishing worse than that. It is like an adolescent without roots, but with heavy boots, as a dance party.

 

The solution is found in the bountiful provisions of God,
 

	not only in making man as a synthetic marvel of mind, body and spirit, with staggering powers of thought, self-control and understanding, subject like most powers to radical abuse,
	but in provision of remedy, redemption, realisation of what man is made for.

If like a stray dog, man wants to rove the prairies for rats, then that is his choice.

If nations want to pillory, plunder, torture or slay their citizens,
 

	as has seemed for example rather popular in Syria, Egypt, Afghanistan, Sudan
	and in the past in Germany, large sections of Europe
	and now in Asia, when the mood stirs, or
	as in China and that not only in its Red Revolution,
	or in Vietnam or Cambodia, sometimes with the killing a few million before calming down from the latest illicit and irrational obsession:

then this is their testimony.
 

It is all accountable. God does not forget. He MADE our memory in his DNA directions of His commands, so verified (cf.  The Lord of Longsuffering ... Ch. 1 ).
 

It is only in His mercy that help is available (Micah 7:19ff., Isaiah 55, John 3, Psalm 103); but that is like saying that it is only in 1000,000,000 dollars that help can be found to cover a house mortgage. It is vastly beyond the need, but even this becomes the site for greed as endless seeming false prophets, secular or religious, seek to dragoon man without evidence, wit or reason, even distorting the clear word of God as Christ predicted (Matthew 24:24), into some new campus of thought, to encompass himself anew with intrigue or presumption.
 

The word of God, the Bible, subject of ready demonstration as such^*1, is the testimony man needs. It has not suddenly arisen, nor is it without the personal confirmation of Jesus Christ and history since, according to His and its word. If, like a man wrongly separated from his wife, this is the last thing many want to hear, this in no way reduces its applicability.
 

Man is accountable. Jesus confirmed that fact in John 3:15-19,36 for example. God has rendered account either in the death which is the due reward of sin (Romans 6:23) or in His Son's death, tht of His Eternal Word sent as  man,  incarnate as Jesus Christ. Each way is available. In the one due judgment is applicable; in the other, dearly bought mercy is free, and it involves regeneration of life itself, back to the form and norm, under divine care.
 

Neglecting the unchanging way of God makes the accountability far greater, just as its provision shows the bountifulness of God more amply; and again, it is here that the surmountable becomes actual for each and any involved.  It is like cross-hairs, but these are fashioned from  wood, at Calvary. There is nothing else. Nothing else is needed, for here is the way to the resurrection, the power of God and the peace past all understanding.

Chapter 2 turns to the Singular Stereotype, above all, for all, received by some, transformational for anyone ON HIS TERMS, while Bible study in Christian orientation appears in following Chapters for Isaiah 34, Acts 13 and Paul's orientation lesson, perspectives after Sodom and Gomorrah, followed by such orientive work in predictive Psalms: 22, the greatest graphic of all time, 37, 40-46 inclusive, 49-50, 72 and 17.
 

For false perspective by contrast, we turn to Islam with its new-look, old deception placards for Adelaide, and then at the last, to evolutionary fables with their antique presentations in modern dress, in a contrast to reality. Here is found the abundant brilliance of creative logical fabric in our bodies, of its  function in our minds, and its scope on display in our universe, which all fits into one creation volume, with highly diverse parts, and warnings from the invasion detection unit, based in the Bible, alerting us to the cost of folly, made more manifest by the ignored payment of Christ, free for faith, ultimate in grace. Its cost to Him is the measure of the account for us, if anyone should will autonomy instead.

 

 

201st

The Word and the Wisdom of God and the Ways of Man

Published by World Wide Web Witness Inc.

August 2011

ISBN 978-0-9871661-2-8

In this work, it is intended  that  various applications of the word of God and of His enshrined wisdom in it be made amid the manners, modes and ways of man, in order that some might find their way out of the puzzle resulting from darkness where the light is turned off, and obscurity where clarity is not commissioned.

It is  also sought that some may find in the Lord, that magnificence which is His, instead of living on the borders of darkness,  staring watchfully at the pit and calling it history, or necessity or some other name beside that appointed and divinely apportioned,  however pointed may be the results of error. By its very nature, this provides scope for those reviews which can promote perspective and understanding whether on a large or a smaller scale.

 

202nd

September 2011

ISBN   978-0-9871661-3-5

More recent news, including fascinating changes in both Libya and Turkey for biblical prophecy, make it sound to change the title of the first four News Sections in News 1, News 2, News 3 and News 4,

from

ISRAEL BLOWS THE TRUMPET BUT YET IT DOES NOT HEAR!

to what is applicable in parallel:

GOD BLOWS THE TRUMPET BUT WHO IS LISTENING!

The poignancy in the title for the four sections of news, is that even though Israel is the one to be delivered, the one assaulted, victimised, hated (by those often far less impressive as nations in thought, scholarship, understanding, level of research and development), and is a major people in the mind of God to extricate and defend, YET she does not hear. That is, she does not hear, as a nation. It is like someone, in a way, with a vast estate made available by a will, who is in great difficulties, but who never collects it. Certainly, this being a basically spiritual relationship, it can be collected only by faith, but what is that ?

Do not people have mischievous or well-directed faith in vast numbers ? Is it difficult to conceive believing in what is in any case demonstrable (cf. SMR, TMR, Light Dwells with the Lord's Christ, Who Answers Riddles and Where He is, Darkness Departs!). Yet Israel, with the wolves baying about her little cottage on the sea shore, seeking her capital as more bones, in part or to internationalise it, she does not hear.

Of course she will (Zechariah 12:10 pursues her case after she is once more re-established in her land, and moving on to 13:1 shows what is to be when Christ comes into the land by His Spirit once more, in marvellous power and presence). She will listen. She will heed. The time is near. In the MEANTIME, how she suffers. This is a portend for those who molest her, even if with honeyed words. Their time is likewise foretold to come. Currently, however, many grasp for the opportunity to level their presumptuous thoughts against both God and man, and HANDLE this Israel.

Now therefore the point is being made, in this News Section with both Iran and Turkey taking to baying vociferously, and the Madrid Quartet still putting on their surgical gloves for the further dismemberment of the tiny residue from the spoils of Palestine, largely given to Jordan with more offered back by Israel earlier, that it is hard to find ANYONE listening. To what ?

Where are the nations listening to the word of God, of truth, of equity ? It is not only individuals alas, but nations which can grow so voracious in appetite, impetuous in lust (whether for peace at any price or oil, or prestige or survival or significance, or their world view or their place in the nations, or their strategic overview), that justice appears a mere relic, dropping like saliva from the dripping lips (as it is shown in the late developments sketched before the Messiah comes to rule, in Isaiah 59:6-20). It may not APPEAR  so  to those who act as if to appease the oil rich with another kind of oil, and clamour for acceptance by Islam, despite its utter assault on Jesus Christ, on the Bible, fllaming without rational basis (cf. More Marvels ... Ch. 4, SMR pp.1080 and indexes).

It may SEEM that peace is the real objective as they assist the molesting but rebuffed Moslem nations which have repeatedly assaulted the relic of land called Israel, that abortion which is all that is left of the far larger scope of the League of Nations and British offer to Israel toward and at the end of the First World War. The case however is not factually sustainable. Peace is not obtained by helping people to smother a smaller person, or to manacle a nation beyond all hope of release by any human means, not only harassing what now belongs to the land, but in many cases, helping those who seek to reduce it and the people, or even destroy them, as in the case of Iran now and Nasser earlier, along with such as Hitler. Why revolt at fact ?

If Israel seeks to defend herself from further ravishment by invaders, is this warlike then ? If she grows at times weary of being bombarded, youth and age, yes and children due fodder for the jaws of the nations, and counter-attacks, is this amazing ? If she then withdraws and seeks peace, THAT is amazing, and commendable. If some in the assaults on her have been incommoded, is this surprising ? Were not the Jews in countries other than Israel when the UN failed to defend Israel in the 1948 genocide attempt, also incommoded! Did they not also have to leave!

Is it to become a new rule that when Japan seeks to invade, anything she suffers must be remade if she does not win ? or Germany ? or Russia with Poland, or anyone with a victim ? Is it to pay ?

Is the assassin really the victim, then, and are those nations making war to be recompensed so that they may make it again; and are invading nations to be given scope by international treaties, to thrust more of their people into their erstwhile prey, so that they can vote a people out of its own land!

Is reason a hostage to lust, and truth to desire ?

God however has for some thousands of years foretold this type of thing for Israel, and the coming assault, just as He correctly foretold the nature of the 1948 war and the division of Jerusalem as in the line of events leading to Christ's coming to rule, in Zechariah 12. He foretold what they would do to Christ and what the nations would do to them,  right  down to the death date of the Messiah (Christ the Citadel... Ch. 2), and their dispersion,  and their return.

However, if man wants  to try God, as Pharaoh did, then the case is not unknown. It is for the foolish nations interfering precisely in the way against which they were warned in Zechariah 12, that one has pity, as they pit their wits against the Almighty! This is no figure of speech. It has been fearfully sad for Israel and it will be grievously sad for them. But man loves to parade his gifts to the moon (or now to Mars), while abusing them (Psalm 115), and ignoring the word of God. Since we are even manufactured by it (in the DNA, as written in commands), this is a gravely misled action, so that those involved are even forsaking not only their own mercy, but dividing themselves against the word of Him whose word even gives them and all of us, our being!

Hence it is well to continue giving eye to developments. It is better to bring it to heart, and best of all to seek the Lord, whether Jew or not, for in the end, all things will be gathered up not in Judaism or Islam or any other thing that stops short of the Lord, but in Jesus Christ the Lord (Ephesians 1:10). Trying to force it all to add up in the UN or in the Quartet or in the interests of prosperity in oil, or non-violence from terrorists, partial things positive or negative, it is like trying to force a fat foot into a narrow shoe.

GOD HAS MADE IT NARROW. The way IS narrow (Matthew 7:15), and the word of God has specifications. Those who put their foot in it, in the narrow shoe, whilst it is swollen with the thrust of pride, merely  embarrass themselves, even as they harass Israel or ANY OTHER FEATURE on which God has spoken, whether it be false religion or pride or swanky self-assurance of a withering lack of humility and a vacancy where a humble and a contrite heart should be.

The signals are many, the progress is great  towards that glorious day of the Lord's return, to act after the conflict with that grace that is Christ's (cf. Psalm 72); and the events pile up like road signs! (cf. Answers to Questions Ch. 5). There is no necessity, but only the shame and the sham of sin, which prevents the return to the Lord, to His word, witness and ways, in repentance, reconciliation and faith, to regeneration and adoption as His own children (Ephesians 1, Acts 2). There are no further options, just as there are none to acquire a new body before the resurrection. If one insists on ruining what is given, be it body or directions, then that is like flying into a volcano. You do not HAVE to do so! It is far better not.

It is not just that this is hot, and devastating when at last you manage to get  there; for your flying machine is made by the Master  craftsman, and it has specifications  apt for it. ONE of these is to  keep in touch with both the manufacturer and the airport, the service manager and the Saviour from disrepair and disruption. Appointments are readily available (Isaiah 55), and results are as required (Titus 3:3-7). Mercifully, the cost is in coming, to pride and self-sufficiency, to sin and lure alike, but the kindness is found continual when relationships are restored, redemption is paid and the case is covered in the way the Bible has  specified for many generations and several millenia.

It is considered that  this collection of news items, taken in chronological order, may give  some sense of progress in regression, that is the development of misled national, international, racial or anti-Semitic movements in the past 8 years. These news items all have  appeared, here  and there, scattered in the NEWS listings on this site. For development, we start at the  oldest item and progress to the latest, a movement in 17 Chapters. This then follows on from the four sections of News Items in Volume 1.

It moves to the more recent, then, starting in this Volume, at 2003.

 

203rd

October 2011

THE GREAT DIVIDE

ISBN   978-0-9871661-4-2

 

The Great Dividing Range starts North East of Melbourne
and proceeds on to New South Wales, a vast chain,
disclosing from its height, the disjoined spaces on either side of it.

 

A "DIVIDE", Webster's DIctionary tells us, is a ridge separating lower-lying lands.

 

There is a Great Spiritual Divide which is high, lofty to the clouds, and which separates, down to the lowest depths, what is on either side, and the ridge is the Cross of Jesus Christ, the clouds are the divine intelligence which instituted it in the formation of the spiritual lines for man, and the depths are jagged beyond the uttermost this earth has to offer, on the side where the spiritual sun never reaches, whereas where one may come to the height, there is glory in the foothills, and a cascade at the summit approach, so that every pilgrim which reaches it, is washed, and ennobled, indeed, there is a regenerative surge which changes even to the heart.

 

Beyond it is mere decline to dark depths, for the fatuous and the infatuated; but it is in the approach that the problem lies. If there is sunshine on the way to it, there are ravines, each provided with its own shute to the lower regions; and ferocious beasts, which use the sunlight to devour the more readily (Acts 20:29, I Peter 5:9), and there are merchants who seek to help you on your way, though it is to their own back doors, where they first strip you of funds, and then assault and dump you in their own private chutes the ready ravine.

 

But there is a way and it never misses, straight as the rail which stretches to the sublimity of distance in the desert, glowing with light. It has stations. There is the station of Repentance, though there is no train. You have to walk to it, and find it for yourself; though the light makes it very evident to those who travel it. Next comes that of faith, which is very hard to find, though its access is easy, as simple as trust. But no one ever indeed finds it till lifting the eyes to the top of the Ridge of the Divide, they see the Cross; for most take an alternative route, which is very well supplied, going downwards, for they reason, if God supplies it, it has got to be easy.

 

Many admire the Cross and deciding that experience is all, leave the way and set about their own lives as one's who have visited Venice or some such place. They have made the effort so what more remains ?

Others however find that in this heart's journey, you have to discern its meaning, and when it comes into their line of sight, and they are near enough to see it clearly, the ponder it,  amid repentance, directing their trust to the Just One (Acts 3), who once was crucified upon it, and some find then that faith descends like the lovely mist of a giant waterfall, and their eyes being cleansed, they see the format of salvation, the Just for the unjust, to bring us to God, and laying hold by faith on this same Christ, they find suddenly that the entire mountain which had seemed so insuperable, flames with a setting sun fire, and the skies become glorious, and they are moved to faith in this crucified Saviour, appointed Saviour of all sinners, but especially of those who believe, for in them only does the result come; for faith conveys things near from those afar, and sin is moved to Him who died and righteousness from Him, like a vast torrent.

 

In its turbulence, the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Spirit (Titus 3), comes life, and in its transformative assault comes peace, pardon and the principles of life, the law of the Spirit (Romans 8:2), and then suddenly, the whole landscape changes, and what had seemed fit only for athletes, becomes in the light of the cross of Christ, the very way of life, and one finds a service badge is affixed to one's pilgrim's clothes, so that one may call at any time on the resurrected Christ Jesus for resolution of problems, power for service and understanding for heart.

 

In this volume, THE GREAT DIVIDE, you will find some relationship to the Ch. 6 of  the volume  Dizzy Dashes, Heady Clashes and the Brilliant Harmony of Inevitable Truth, and much to this world on the one hand, and especially the incline to the cross of Christ, through which (Galatians 6:14), one becomes crucified to this world and this world to oneself, and in this acceptance, one may sit in heavenly places, as birds which can soar, and find the spiritual perspectives necessary for life with the Lord, and in His service.

 

As to the other side, some reach it sooner, evacuating from the sunny incline, while other ply their spiritual trades of deception, on this side, charging freight for the shutes to the nether regions, though they have little enough attraction when you arrive.

 

Indeed, many never begin the ascent, because they are born as are we all, on the other side, and it is only when light penetrates, like that through a tunnel, that any even look up to see a way to the base itself, through a narrow tunnel, which is open only from one side, so that they so much as see that there is something to be seen, and a place where reality begins and dreams are exposed.

 

 

204th.

November 2011

CHRIST NOT CULTURE, THE LORD NOT MAN,

TRUTH NOT MERE INTRACTABILITY

The Way to Glory, Majesty and Goodness

ISBN   978-0-9871661-5-9

As the end of human passions masquerading with aplomb, human will endlessly congratulating itself, human sovereignties constantly glorifying themselves, draws near, it is well to reflect.

There is much to consider and cover,  as there arise with force, many particular issues which illustrate the direction, direness and devastation which comes with this stain on human glory, its love of being by itself,  for itself, with additives to taste. To forget your basis while adding salt and pepper is as inane as eating a steak that is not there, but not forgetting the condiments.

With this, then,  we seek  to warn, to help, to encourage hope and to bring those who seek, to faith in the living God, leading to the inherent joy of truth amid the recklessness, fecklessness and heedless gallop off course, into the meaningless distance, of the human spirit.

In this, we move through issues from freedom of speech, the dumb priest in Luke, the nature of the Lord on earth and His deeds, to the imprecatory Psalms on the one hand,  and the lessons of biblical history especially in the two great reforming Kings, Hezekiah and Josiah. Appendices include the multicultural machination, needing careful oversight.

 

205th.

December 2011 

The Splendour of the Biblical Coverage of the Meaning and Matrix of Man

ISBN   978-0-9871661-6-6

 

What is the MATRIX of man ?  It is all that most deeply and essentially is his lot, post, position, being, scope and meaning. What is so splendid about the scope of the splendour of the divine coverage of these things in the Bible ? It is manifold, and this book has this as topic; but manifestly at the very outset, it has a vast array of subjects, surveyed in depth, covered categorically, endued with meaning, provided with method, and since freedom is one of these - not autonomy - there is a depth in the coverage.

As to this, it is sublime, but only because the One who made this freedom did it so  very well. It is not the freedom of gods, who imagine they are total beings at large, and find they are not; nor is it yet the freedom of serfs, allowed to do what they are told in return for a dubious protection or a specious provision. It is the freedom of a being created in the image of the One whose freedom is autonomous, but not in the bad sense that this term evokes when applied to man's mental mischiefs for himself. When the One IS the creator and maintainer and sovereign and Lord, then being autonomous is merely an objective description of who He is.

If it were not for His love, the freedom would not,  for my part at least, amount to much. Some might find it better; but what is the value of being free to choose, unless choice includes what is worth having ? And what is the value, even at that, if the word of the offeror, here deity, is not reliable. A wonderful flight over the Pacific on promise, is one thing; but if it is neither wonderful nor over the Pacific, deceit merely makes mockery of offer, and hence of liberty.

Why is love so important  ? It is for these reasons,  amid many more. First, if you are not loved, what are you at ? Do you want to strive with incalculable forces all your life, in order to show what a fine macho figure you cut, or what a devious entrepreneur of life, you have become ? What is the good of that ? What good is survival in itself ? let alone in order to satiate pride! You say, I have got much! So be it, but of what ? of a life which ends amid pain and weakness, of a respect which worms consume, of a daring profile which passes with the sweeping of the dust on the desolate lands of your interment ? and if not literally, then figuratively. Gladly does one leave that to those who choose such sudden, intrusive, incursive thrust to cut down the poppies, and sever the flowers. Besides that, what ARE the flowers, which parade their power,  seek their respectability and pride themselves on the good reason others have for conferring it, or on their own prowess whether in deceit, pretence or pretension, obscure cunning or manipulative success ? These are no flowers but parasites for psychic self-aggrandisement or social accretions!

Loveless, you are merely a parade. If however you HAVE love, that is, see clearly the need to be willing to sacrifice yourself for whatever is your duty or responsibility, then it has a cause and a basis. Everything does, except the false models which deny it, though at that,  their domain is mere imagination.

Love, like loveliness, has a basis. It is incalculable, ultimate, and seen throughout nature in multitudes of parental provisions for their young, care, concern and quest. It is found in many martyrs, and above all in Jesus Christ, whose whole mission of self-revelation of God, not merely in words, but in deeds practical and perfect, prompted by this very love, displayed the sovereign's character who has created us all, and with us, the environment of terms, whether protoplasmic, purposive, positive or negative, mental, psychic, moral, spiritual, in which we work, whether to affirm or deny, to distort or discern. Nothing comes from nothing, and what comes does so for a reason.

Love makes life wonderful. There is a depth beyond mere living which is its base, a meaning which is its point, a willingness which is its attestation of the concern of the Creator, on the one side, as there is likewise a discipline and a disorder which is the attestation of things awry, whether this be so personally or nationally, or generically for mankind. Moreover, there is wisdom far surpassing our own which has limits so obvious when you compare DNA and our best achievements, and limping efforts to copy some for of the exquisite technical feats with which nature is festooned in its creation by a power as unseen by us as is for each his or her own mind, and as immaterial as are our perspectives and deliberations.

Love makes liberty meaningful, valuable,  enticing if not entrancing, deep and challenging, hopeful and reasonable. Liberty makes the field personal, with a virtually infinite variety of uses for it. Together these supply a world of vast scope, and it is this scope which the Bible provides in a measure so powerful, broad and yet acutely pointed, which makes one part of its splendour. Time and space are its domain, and the architect behind their architecture, fashioning the fashionable after making it, and granting the psyche of man its reflective and purposive part amid the rest, even the power to reason on demand, to relish and evaluate, and to seek values where they may not be found, as is most usual, or where they are, which does not change, this being but one of the aspects of the Creator-Redeemer, who having made time, for Himself, like those who find His redemption, is everlasting.

Love does not stifle truth, but rejoices in it; for without truth, horror has no hiatus. Sleeping where waking is required is as sensible spiritually as it is to do so when watching on a merchant ship, for danger from torpedoes. Faith is not another name for inaction, but for what gears action; but it rests in the Lord, and does not seek to take over because of fear. Yet the fear of the Lord remains clear forever, a wholesome fear, not terror, for in Him only is there the immovable Rock which does not falter, the indelible doctrine which does not alter and the unswerving reliability in which one rests as a bird in its nest; and no wind can shake this one!

 

 

206th

February 2012

TEDIOUS TORTURERS, TEPID TRIFLERS OR

THE TRIUMPH OF TRUTH

 

 

ISBN   978-0-9871661-7-3

 

This volume is broad in coverage of this theme, from liberty to creation to resurrection,
to Canberra's strife and Constitutional change.

 

Truth will surely triumph. It is not because such is man's inherent goodness that it could not do anything less in such a harbour of felicity. Far from it; for if there ever were any discordant diligence to found a lie, establish an illusion, declare a deceit, trifle with reality, assert by passion what pride invents, in mankind's history it is diligently represented!   it carries examples and proliferations that abound like mice in a mouse plague.

 

It is because it is all made, the world and man. Nothing is no sound foundation for anything and it is the only honest option to something, always there, always adequate, for inadequacy by definition can never secure the outcome in view. Eternal deity is the only reason why truth will surely triumph, and as denial of it is denial of His actions or speech or both, those guilty of this cannot prevail, being dependent on Him for Being, on Him who made time and before whom the end is clear from the beginning.

 

Further, only  He COULD even know the truth, as the genuine source of cognition and creation, absolute and not confined to relativistic interactions, and what He declares is in need of no further validation, though as truth, He invites comparison  and demands testing (Isaiah 41, 43, 48, I Thessalonians 5:21). There is nothing empirically or logically approaching His level.

 

As shown in SMR, logically the self-declaring God of the Bible has no competitors, while the lie, denial of what He has done, said or knows,  would be merely to deny Himself as the proponent of all things, (as in Barbs ... 6   -7, Sparkling Life ... Ch. 4), or to create an obstruction to that truth which He constitutes. Indeed, His actions constitute truth and He is not in a limiting environment, since He is the identified eternal adequacy, absolute and not relative, the spiritual sufficiency for the matrix and motives of man and creation, so that what He says and does is unmolestable truth and concordant so that any competitive source of reality contrary to His word and deed, if from Him, would be self-confrontation in the Almighty merely showing such a one would NOT BE almighty. If that were possible for such as He, the divergencies would be mutually devastating - though really that would be another being than God since any limits deny Him.

 

Fulfilling the verifying and validating requirements of reason (REASON, REVELATION and the REDEEMER), His word stands, and He mocks at invasion and overthrow as in Psalm 2. We however have a task, to show in this volume something of the tepid trifling, exposing it, which rises up to deny Him, things which lead on readily enough to tedious torturing, as truth is twisted into grotesque shapes and cultures into weird residues, like cups of cold coffee dregs, with discarded straws left in them.

 

 

207th

February 2012

ISBN   978-0-9871661-8-0

THE TIME IS COMING AND THE OPPORTUNITY IS GOING

Time can be extraordinarily kind, or manifestly impactive. It is not for man to dictate the conditions. It is for him to respond.

You can never regret not taking an opportunity that is not there. You may regret indeed not discerning it, or seeking it out, or being too pre-occupied with things of minimal importance, to look up and on, and find your place. You may have a career for which you live, but ignore the career you have beyond this or beyond that series of works which you perform. You may be pre-occupied with what you do and ignore what you are, except in the interests of pride or satisfaction.

As in other works, and ways, it is not entirely in your own hands. You have principles which you may adopt, ways of accounting, methods of hiring personnel or regarding potential employers. These give a certain quality to your work, and type to your actions. When however the question is not how you relate to what you do, but how you relate as a being before God, where motive, method, mind, the imaginations of your heart and the character of your spirit ARE the whole topic, then it is unwise to ignore this.

That would be like being pre-occupied with tyre-pressure and state, in a car, and ignoring the steering relative to the environment. The final environment of man is God, just as the first creation of man is from God and the final destiny is with or without Him, as friend, Father and Shepherd.

Opportunities are not found in the Classified section of newspapers. That is for time. What however of eternity ? Here they are found in the word of God, not of man, in the work of God, not of man, in the wisdom of God, not of man. There is the perpetual opportunity, till the due date arrives for judgment. As to that, the time is coming; as to deliverance from blindness and wilful ignorance on that topic, the opportunity is going.

In this volume, this is the theme, and its impacts and results, causes and conditions are in view.

 

208th

March 2012

ISBN   978-0-9871661-9-7

NOT ONLY IS GOD GREAT BUT GLORIOUS

CHRIST JESUS, DEFINITIVE EXPRESSION AND SALVATION OF GOD

Often you hear of crowds of excited people shouting that God is great. He is.

Less often do you find on the news depictions of people shouting, God is not only great, but glorious.

The one is common Islamic talk; the other is basic Christian doctrine.

God is not only great and powerful and final, author and judge, but He is far more than that. He has a being  in character so glorious, so kind, compassionate, pardoning and yet just and true, that not only is He available to be known by man, rather than existing in some isolate seeming position, He came to man and showed Himself to man in Jesus Christ. He gave Himself for us, saved those who believe and will do so till judgment come, and would have ALL come to Him. Such is His glorious wonder that since nothing is too hard for the Lord, there is no mere assorting of good and evil, for with God evil has NO place, and there is no fail for a 49% life, regrettably not quite making the grade, but a pass for each and any who puts faith in the atoning sacrifice of Christ, His incarnate Person, His triumph physically over death and His power to control all things on this earth. Yet it is not without freedom, and HENCE, without responsibility.

There is no question of being unsure what God will do, and just hoping (John 5:11-12). God HAS acted, and works do not pile up while the disposition is secret anyway,  a frustrating combination. Rather works are an outward expression of an inward faith by which God's grace, gift of eternal life (Romans 6:23, 5:15), indeed of His OWN righteousness is made. One can therefore REST in Him in the knowledge of His eternal redemption (Hebrews 9:12), as one of His sheep, of which HE is the indefatigable Shepherd (John 10:9,27-28).

In pursuit of this gloriousness of God, this signature of His own holiness, we see with relish and realism that Jesus Christ, the final word (Hebrews 1), as the first (John 1), the first and the last (Isaiah 44:6, Revelation 2:8-9), the Author and finisher of faith, and rejoice that more could not be given, less would not be sufficient, that He is the Saviour of all men, especially of those who believe, in whom salvation is consummate, just as the Saviour consummated it in Himself (Hebrews 10:10-14).

Divorcing inferior or inadequate positions from the truth of God is important. It is as if someone joined BHP and asked where he did his work,  replied, in a great company. But there are many great companies. It is unclear. It could involve  torture and sedition, subversion, or brilliance and benevolence.  Greatness is nothing without characterisability. What SORT of greatness did you have in mind  ? Great crusades to crush and to kill, and to rule ? The earth as your universal throne, all subject to you ? Or is it God as your worship, His love and grace as your rule, His judgment as the reality to be avoided, helping others to do the same, His salvation to be freely found, without duress of any kind, but through information on our part, and the action of God as He will.

Here is life without intemperance, truth without terror. If there be terror, it is something from which to deliver, not to impose (II Corinthians 5:9-11). Here lies grace, not diplomatic deviousness, and here is not a desire to triumph over all, but that sin triumph over none. Yet if it must be so, and many prefer darkness to the light of the Lord, they answer to God, not to us. The world is not sought for conflagration by clever outwitting of others, but for deliverance as a site, for many, freely sought, where salvation is freely wrought, by the power of God who, knowing all and each one, misses none. Faith need not fidget, though thousands of Christians are reported  slain each year for their faith; it serves God, not only great, but glorious. It serves Christ, not only Commander, but Saviour. It moves with Him, not only the truth, but the power of God and the wisdom of God, the life beyond life and its author, breacher of death, donor of immortality.

This work is intended differentially to feature the special features of God,  amid many false prophets and dead on arrival denizens of culture without hope, life without vitality, self-sufficiency without ground. The deceptiveness of  Satan and the generic position of humanity without Christ mean that those subverted cannot rationally be held in contempt, but in pity; the contempt is for the errors that seize them, as biblically shown so often and so strongly. What doctor would not deplore disease, and be confused with having contempt for the patient because adverse to, contrary against and seeking to overcome the infection and hence the disease infiltration!

 

209th

April 2012

ISBN  978-0-9873360-0-2

PROSPECT, RETROSPECT AND  REALITY

The world has been a round a long time, even to thousands of years, as many criteria attest (cf. TMR Ch.  7).  In its whorls and whirls of history, it has spawned various civilisations, and now a multitude of nations.  Some of these seem disposed to give a legal licence to kill with seemingly unwitting flair for blood, some for revenge, some for aspiration, some for conquest, some for order, some for  wealth, some for inveterate, cold, calculating hegemony, leadership, intimidation of others.

Australia has its own niche, and some elements of concern are considered in this volume; but far from a dissertation on this land, it is, rather on a spiritual spread of what is now inclined to COME, or predicted to come, with much in alliance in these two fields, as we look as what has ALREADY come, more with the eyes of wonder, so that retrospect and prospect are paired; but this pair, with all its tones and undertones, is assessable in reality only when this is available. Mercifully as shown in SMR and elsewhere, it is, and not only so, the deity who is the demonstrable source of creation, of which each reader is a part, other than the Lord Himself, has not only been willing to speak to the nations made up from DNA at the physical level, in divinely directed speech (cf. Not only is God Great, but Glorious ... Ch. 5,  Epilogue), but to do this free from  all hiding, having spoken, declared, itemised and exhibited His ways,  nature,  requirements for peace, love, majesty, purpose with man, and remedy for man in ways most manifest, terms manifold and criteria specific.

This being so, we are enabled, in a rather specialised manner, to apply in the midst of the retrospection and prospects, the realities of the case, the word of God, and seeing this perspective, as  from the ultimate of all professors, and beyond that to infinity, revel in more than the passing parades and interfaces, relationships and relativities that abound on this earth: in  fact, to delight in the actualities and find both peace and empowerment for wise living from this source, OUR source,  whether we like it or not.

God is like that. He spoke and it was done (that is why godless evolution is so much argued - it is never found,  nor  even is information's categorical creation without intelligence (cf. Ch. 5 above). But why is it argued if it is never found, nor its evidence equal to that  for  creation, then ? It is because of the retrospect:  man  was made by the One with whom he increasingly has little to do. He does not want reminder. The human  mind can be tilted against truth very easily,  as many trial difficulties at law exhibit.

Prospects are normally argued against, when prejudice with propulsion  is involved,  so that all these negative things can in this way, from the word of God, be  seen not just in the foistings of culture, or the hopes of surrealism, of which we are currently receiving quite a significant dose in Australian politics, from the clayey aspects of the past and the far more contravening present as the future surges ashore in the earth. They can be reviewed also in terms of what has never been contravened in its truth: the word of God, the Bible.

This is like having an afternoon sun, near dinner time, shining in sudden  strength and lighting up in yellow and red overtones, the reflective surfaces of the garden or the city. It is refreshing, invigorating,  vitalising and pleasant. It is pleasant indeed to know the truth, and great to have been told. It is however, always necessary to read it, digest it, apply it, and with the blessing of the Almighty, try it out! He has nothing to fear over the tempestuous millenia. He is beyond time, and invented it with us in it, and surveys it all past its portals, as one sees a map, a  sight from  a  high air-craft. Time is a mere  page in the book; and knowledge has no barriers with Him.

It is good to do such things as the world is failing to insulate itself from catastrophe, and its ways are shown clearly in the Bible, as a compulsion as the Age comes near its crisping up time in the oven of history. Things can become both exciting and calamitous. It is well to be prepared, not only for this and that, but in heart and spirit and mind, as is an athlete for his races, or a solider for his battles. Even the scouts can tell you that: BE PREPARED. Moreover,  don't let events like shock waves, envelop you; but know the Lord of history, before our Age itself is past history. God has prepared this good thing also, His word, and this wonder, His salvation, the incarnate,  crucified, bodily resurrected  Saviour, irruption into time, corrector of corruption, author of creation, grant of eternal life: its reception is far more important than a good education, career, salary, name or honour.

Dereliction may be desired; but it is not so good when it ... happens.

 

210th

May  2012

AGITATION, COGITATION, ASPIRATION AND CONCLUSION

 

ISBN 978-0-9873360-2-6

Agitation is  another name for the phenomenon of "men's hearts failing them  for fear" (Luke 21:26), and the  allied  processes of frustration, bitterness,  belligerence, bucolic violence, which are  now  almost as closely associated with much of this present world as are drunkenness, drunks, indulgence and a hopelessness towards happenstance, found in the remnants of drug use, whatever the style of  drug  in mind. It also covers the seeking for meaning, the confrontation with evidence, the acid-washed  hearts that are bare in parts only,  and tending to be thread-bare, together with the solemn seeking which is intent on being sincere, through many perils.

Cogitation is the power to reason, doing pitched battle with mere prejudice and  convenience,  seeking truth without care for the results, if only it be found, and the results of this as in  SMR,  TMR and Light Dwells with the  Lord's Christ, for example. Aspiration deals with the genuine desire,  as exemplified in the early section of The Heavenly Man, with Brother Yun, that will not be satisfied without the word of the God who made us with His own words, and has exhibited these not only in our very construction, but testably and reliably in the Bible.

Conclusion  deals with the  fact that there is no room for doubt, though plenty for pout; and though the 'natural man', man without God who made him, spouts spirited calls to deviationism, these do nothing to reduce the finality of the conclusion. This in turn  enables inclusion; or not. It is a magnificent spectacle, God with ample and to spare,  man with resistance seeking freedom  from  ANYTHING except what binds him  to  irrational thought, capacity for capers, and a remedy-less recklessness which has  appeal to very many. As however in the case of the Titanic, being bound to an imperious  mob, or  master, with a hard-driving Captain,  does not reduce the poignancy of the togetherness as this ship goes down.

The Titanic illustrated what the titans of this Age activate: in the  end, it  all sinks. You need  not something man  makes, as if it were unsinkable: you need the God who made the oceans - and you.  Mercifully, He has made  a way of access,  not over the rocks, but to one Rock,  refuge,  redeemer and deliverer.  It is enough. There is no bifurcation. God knows and says exactly what He means,  whether speaking the DNA or the doctrine, which includes the reality of remedy. God does not dither: it is one,  as He is, Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today, forever.

So vast is the alienation (as  seen in  Ephesians 2, 4:17-19, Romans 1:17ff., 5:1-12), that many images and  angles of access to these things help,  as in the day of Hosea (Hosea 12:10); but that  to which the help points is just the same (Galatians 6:14, Hosea 13:14): one God  with one resolution, one word for rejection or ingestion, one truth, one command to all  to repent (Luke 13:1-3, Acts 17:30), one crucifixion for sin, one resurrection of the self-same body (I Corinthians 15), in its new heightened state, so that it would not rot, as foretold (Psalm 16),  one singular sending of the Holy Spirit (Luke 24), often bringing breezes of revival as forecast in Acts 3:19ff., and sending prongs of peace to those whom He finds,  one Saviour who once paid the cost for our loss (Hebrews 9-10), one liberty in the God of our creation (II Corinthians 3:17), through the action of His redemption (Matthew 20:28), one peace, one joy, manifold in mood, vital in spirit, dispensed to His saved ones, and irremovable by man! (John 16:22).

Pondering such things in the milieu of rebellion and turmoil, the cauldron of outreach and deliverance, is a contribution,  for billions are lost,  and many have  somewhat different initial needs and appetites. May the Lord bless those who seek, and help to find Him,  those who seek  with all their hearts (Jeremiah 29:13).

 

211th

July  2012

THE ORIGINAL  AND EVENTUAL MAGNIFICENCE

 

ISBN 978-0-9873360-2-2

God is not going anywhere; He is. His word is not going anywhere,  except into total fulfilment.
His morals are not about to change their address to another suburb of human aspiration; they are His own. His works do not falter; they continue according to promise, and each promise is a premiss  to the  Christian, just as the  laws of physics are  to the physicist.

The promises, however, excel those laws: for these change as did Newton's in being qualified at certain limits; but there is never any qualification to the laws of God. They continue more fixed than the stars, certain than the directions of the  magnetic compass, for these though useful, can  change somewhat,  but the laws of the Lord do no about face, bear no qualification, have both their own quality and qualifications.

When  He  withdraws the current address of the cosmos, and the current establishment of the universe as in Matthew 24:35, II Peter 3, Isaiah 51:6, He will not change (Psalm 102:25-28). What does it say ?

"Of old you laid the foundation of the earth,
And the heavens are the work of Your hands.
They will perish, but You will  endure;

Yes, they will all grow old like a garment;
Like a cloak You will change them,
And they will be  changed.

But You are  the same, And your years will have no end.

The children of Your servants  will continue,
And their  descendants  will be  established before You."

He is subject to nothing, not in the sense that a thing called  nothing rules Him, the assumed  dither of the naturalists, which is so pregnant though it has no womb, or else it underlies their errant thoughts: but in the reality that knows no bounds. For Him, there is neither force, nor mass, nor energy, nor space, nor time, nor lofty thought not abased terrorism nor financial limitation nor actualities under review by higher authority over Him. There IS  no higher authority. Without His eternal power,  energy, capacities and Being, nothing delimited or contained, qualified or arranged can  exist; before anything you have to have  capacity or  else nothing will  always be the case.

His is the magnificence before time, that made time,  that planted space, that arranged laws,  that set the limits of variation about kind,  which we now find enmeshed in the innovative splendour of the thousands upon thousands of DNA commands,  set in  at least three layers, interactive, with supervisory capacities automated into the matrix, not as in a car, so that it can go merely, but so that this one can, to  follow the image, organise new cars, without intervention anew from the factory. He has made what is in itself a factory,  making actions  possible, a functional mind,  making  thoughts possible, an innovative spirit, making decisions possible; and within that  factory He has set up the power to procreate more, making of one a potential relative to more of the same, as if your most recent TVs were products of former ones extending back for thousands of years. 

His is the magnificent  splendour and the inherent majesty (Psalm 145:12), after the time of this world and creation expires (Matthew 24:35), and His is the artistry unlimited (Psalm 145:3), with none to demean it forever, so that a new creation is the term used of those who receive His salvation from sin (II Cor. 5:17), a new heavens and earth the destination of His planning (Revelation 20:11, 21:1, II Peter 3:13), and a new heart and  mind is the restitution He has for those whom,  though  their bodies  continue to age, He has prepared  for  place as His children.

Even now, it is  so in spirit;  then in the vitality of new bodies, with the power of the resurrection of Christ (Ephesians 1:19, II Corinthians 5:1ff., Romans 8:`8-23),  and the unlimited authority of a Father

who loves for His adopted  children,  One

dependent on no government,

the only ultimate and worthy Governor, by grace.

It is  He  who is   a  Father  ready for the outcast, the failed and the  befuddled, the furious and the disorderly in dynamic on their repentance and reception of  redemption in Him, by faith, so that it is WHAT HE HAS  DONE and not at all what we do, might do or have done  which is the criterion (Romans 3:23ff., Ephesians 2:1-12, Romans 10).  It is as with any unqualified gift (Romans 6:23, Titus 2 -3), not a thing you labour to produce, but rather humble yourself to receive. It is GIVEN, not  earned. It  comes by grace as  does faith itself (Ephesians 2:5-8), fitting from eternity, seeking out the recipients who take Him, known before time (Ephesians 1:4). What the is this gift ? If it WERE earned what perfection  could create it as it will be and must be, but that of God,  that the lowering of earth might not infest, infect and cause defection even in heaven!

But it is not so: His is the Original and Eventual Magnificence. It  does not change.

With this in mind,  it is  good to relish and ponder  His ways and works, taking a fresh look at things deemed obvious,  needless disquiet, needling and confused challenges, and  to see the grandeur of our location amid the depravity of its treatment by man. It is good  to see  the light that over-shines the darkness, and its eternity (John 1:1-3),  that has entered this shameful world to suffer shame that many might find a fresh innocence, courtesy of Christ Jesus, and live abundantly in the very presence of  God. His is the divine, energy and indeed almighty power, He its source into eternity, His,  the mind and the perception, the grace and the loveliness.

Such and more, beyond  all horizons of limits imposed or imposable, is the manifest, eternal and replete, of the living God. It may not appear  so,  any more than antiseptic appears admirable to germs; but  look beyond the floors and the flaws of sin to what is better than  any Hospital: namely the source of  vitality and life and redemption and  recovery, seeking in love for mankind, one by one. Look there, unblinkered, against that  day when the agenda of test is over, the schedule of operations is  complete, the fruits of freedom misused are smelt and  found  rotten,  and the beauty of liberty in love, under the laws and grace of God  may be savoured to the uttermost.

So we  will seek to  do.

 

212th

AFTERBURNER,  AFTERGLOW,  AFTERWARDS

August  2012

ISBN 978-0-9873360-4-0

There comes a time when one must in flight use the after-burners, when opportunity or resolve demand no superficial concentration or means. Again, when the long trial is over, there comes a period when the glow becomes after-glow, the nectar savoured, the survey charged with more of the quietness of evening, though the recollections may be even more dramatic or  vivid in some cases, than the originals! There is  for the wedding, the afterwards, for the fixture the breakfast.

In this  volume, topics may be considered in such ways as these, and the first is that of consciousness which, though given earlier attention, seems in the current milieu, to require more overall action in development and review; and this is here given. That Chapter is long, but more comprehensive, with things old and new.

Of  what are we conscious ? and how do we enter into our own  consciousness, to what does it point, and with what may it be adorned, or from  what denuded ? Chapters 2 and 3 take  two major fields here, the one in aspiration, inspiration and conviction, the latter in simplicity of outline and depth of  divine challenge,  before life,  like a  sparrow, flits away from those w ho have not valued it,  and its  portent. It is time to reflect.

In this volume, we move to spiritual growth and inspiration, of which the Christian is conscious, even if purified as time goes on, picked up when tripped, but inured with truth as a brother, yes as a master, for Christ IS the truth. We move thus in Philippians and soaring, into the Psalms with their depth,  into the purity of obedience and its disciplines, and level and depth of evil wrought when the slippery slopes of  spiritual sloth or  confusion allow those bearing the name of Christ to bundle it together with plain rebellion, as if it did not count. Indeed, so vast is this fallen phenomenon of ill-conducted and calamitous cohesion with what is plainly at war with the mastery of the Messiah and the commandments of Christ, that some of the consequences are considered.

Far more enlivening and to be desired, is the vivid, vital and passionate love of God, of  which human passion is but  in much a pale shadow, His love not of but to this world and His reliability for those who seek Him,  and in Christ find Him, a glory. In Him lies the conservation of the saved and the preservation  of those who have made peace (John 10:9,27-28), in a personal wonder which makes the pretensions of  godless politics, or idolatrous self-sufficient ones, the more horrid by contrast, as we consider it in the Epilogue.

Rejoice and be thankful, then, for if for a little while, the world is being grabbed for, by evil  forces that know no bounds to their audacity or cruelty, knowing no god but their own inner darkness,  whether or not it be inhabited by identifiable idols, yet for ever is the eternal life given by the Lamb of God (John 1:29, 5:24). Thus when the trials are over, the  spiritual Olympics are past, all is tried and tested, then the Creator and Redeemer, who has shown not only His hand but His back to the strikers, Jesus Christ, has the issuance of all things (Colossians 1:12-17, 3:11, Revelation 5, Philippians 2:5-11, Ephesians 3:8-21). The tender are tended, the afflicted are soothed and at rest, the scope of salvation is revealed and what was seen dimly as in a glass, becomes that very prodigy of wonder of which the creation is but a foretaste (Romans 8:17ff.).

The after-glow touches us now, at times, in its refined and soon to be  realised significance; and we rejoice in Him even in this life, as did Simeon (Luke 2:29-32). Then when the time is up,  it will be as in Revelation 7:14ff. in its entry, with 7:11-17,   and those preferring darkness stay just where they are (7:11), and the people of God who know and love His word, find there the consummations of Revelation 22:1-5. In Him and for Him we pardon all, long for the good of all and on Him we wait, recipients of pardon, citizens of the kingdom of heaven (Philippians 3:20-21), our very bodies, each one,  to

 "be conformed to His  glorious body".

this

"according to that working through which He is able to subdue all things to Himself."

Blessed be God who makes the trials, is the truth and presents the peace freely, having obtained all (Hebrews 9:12, 10:10-14), done all and in His call, conferred all where His people come to Him (I Thessalonians 5:9-10), who desires all, saves some and has put His own gift before the giftless, His own grace before the graceless, His own pardon before pollution, and His own power to keep even the smoking flax, so that it flames.

 

 

213th

PILGRIMS AND STRANGERS, BUT NOT TO GOD

October  2012

ISBN 978-0-9873360-5-1

Pilgrims search for what is beyond culture, survival, nationalism, parochialism, sensationalism, experientialism, and secularism, finding this world is not enough, is an offshoot of something else, is not self-sufficient but self-deficient, a conglomerate of sores and wars, beauty and bestiality, nobility and scurrility, superficiality and false depth soundings in shimmering puddles, characterised as oceans, but unfit even for the bathing of mice. Such is the sense used here.

They do not find this world their home, and look for what is. They do not find the wonder self-creating, for it never creates, not the glory self-making, for it fails to come; and yet it beckons, and it speaks from the things  that are, and yet are deformed, defaced. Many war to find something, but it is in the end merely their own power,  as in China and in the former USSR, long bankrupt in spirit before  in  more material ways.

When a pilgrim finds the answer to the institution of what is wonderful and the feckless flack which arises to destroy, ignore, despise or devote it to destruction if possible, by cunning deceits, often by self-deception  as the prelude,  the creation and the desecration,  then the purpose of life, the provision of life, the  meaning of life and the intent for life becomes  apparent.  As in mathematics, when you SEE the answer, it is all so simple, the complex becomes clear, the intriguing becomes expounded and the  mysterious becomes  apparent. That is because what is necessary has been located, what is essential has been found past essentialisation, in reality and in truth.

Once you have found the truth, lies becomes even more ugly, fraud more a fiasco and false gleams of mere pretext and pretension, the worse in their gluttonous consumption of human lives,  like an aspiring maw, wanting to gobble up, lest you find God.

Pilgrims can be  misguided, but the ultimate target being sought, the finding is keeping.

Both Hebrews 11:13 and I Peter 2:11 tell us we are pilgrims and transients, We look  for a city which has foundations, for a kingdom which has the king of  glory, not of the gory,  of splendour, not of subterfuge, of clarity not confusion, of power and inherent majesty, not force.

He is not far from any one of us. We are made for and by Him, but the entry is no mere surge of desire, far less ooze of casual self-comfort. It is by authorised access. Many things are; with God it is most splendidly so. Why splendid ? It is because we who are born without are permission, and may cease on this earth in a second, without being prepared by preceding events, find the source of such a combination of staggering vulnerability and enormous powers, insights, understandings, capacities, freedom to exercise will in many things, freedom to pursue understanding yes, and to gain it, may gain access to the reason why this is so, the reality which having all things sufficient, is able to make it so, and has so created, and have ready access.

As  for pilgrims, it is nothing superficial. Nor is it impossible. It is not impossible because our Source knows us, and knows how to find us. Many do not want to be found; some are found nevertheless. We are dealing with One who knows how to deal with us. We are given a free entry into His kingdom, which is nevertheless so searching that many slither at the gate, some bolt back, others are pierced with arrows, more overcome with lethargy or dreams of the joys of being excitingly meaningless,  as if the end did not count. The searching part is this: we have to remember that not only are we pilgrims, but transients, that is those who have no fixed address in this world, because they have one  elsewhere.

This does not mean mere geographical address, but bondage to a psychic site, a cultural chain, a partisan participation in what holds to this earth as if it and its world system were all. We come to pass, we pass to leave a result, we rejoice in the Lord the Creator-Redeemer, and live now here, now there, in this realm or phase, but never bound to it because we are bound to our Sender, our Saviour and our Lord. Eternity is our security, and ambassadorship is our theme: we are here for a purpose, and this world is not our home. Because our base has meaning, eternity, omniscience, omnipotence and gives eternal life to those who find Him,  therefore we are the stability of eternity, the security of the glory of God, expressed in the One who came so that we might go where our pilgrimage has its consummation.

We seek a better world, a better city,  a better atmosphere, a higher life, a liberty from the merely temporal so that IN the temporal we may be spiritual, IN the mess we may be clean, and IN the confusion we, being made clear, may project reflected light, that others may escape the ascending maelstrom, the listless spiritual horror that makes world a mockery and a malady,  like a combination criminal haunt and comedy corner, where good and bad, blindness and passion, rollicking and frolicking, extermination kits and kittens are mixed in inextricable confusion, the great made low, and the low made mighty, as the storm surges.

The Christian has found security and strength, meaning and mastery, that of Christ, government of spirit and of life, understanding and mission, true purpose and fidelity where it belongs, both to gain it from God and to give it back to Him with joy.

In such a world as this, then we are pilgrims and strangers, we have here no settled position, and while this world increasingly becomes intolerant of truth and God and Christ Jesus and the only logically valid escape route,  and personal deliverance road, as it declines into multiple subversions, till the road is lower than the sea-level and ready for ultimate immersion, we live in what it lacks, for what it refuses and by Him whom it confuses with its own ways, rioting in rejection, immune to correction, except by the ruin of the deceased, the agonies of the oppressed and the taunting vaunting of the oppressors.

It will be over soon, when the eternal basis of the temporary, the  everlasting reality which made anything possible and actual for nothing has nothing to provide, the All-Sufficient basis to the insufficient and the copying stone to the arch of preparation, appears  in  glory as He  earlier appeared in the salvation which nothing can either alter or remove, though millions lay slain over the millenia, because they would not budge from beauty,  or move from  duty, or ditch their Maker or retreat from their Redeemer. It is a test. Why fail it!

While therefore a blind world will never understand Christ, for shut eyes  cannot see (Matthews 13:15, 15:13), the condition is not irreparable, the closure is not without remedy; in fact opening the eyes is the most obvious thing that you can do with them. Then although as far as this disturbed planet is concerned, you are not bound to it, or founded by or in it, yet the very pilgrimage is an express and purposeful journey from God, for God, not without salvation and with eternal life flowing up like a fountain, its source to be met in its time, on His return in regality, to be seen in splendour, as last time in power and wonder, crucified as the world sought its own guillotine, and has found it most competently.

Therefore let us be clear: though this world cannot understand Christians who are indeed born of God, brought up in His education, not that of this world, covered with His atoning blood, fitted out for His destiny as His children, and we are as oddments, puzzles or worse, yet we have to be pilgrims through the bewildered morass, since we do not belong to it in spirit or in life, pointing rather to its source and purification plant. Every tree that is not planted by God, Christ has told us, will be pulled up (Mathew 15:13). What is the good of being planted where your destiny is to be pulled up  ? Better to be planted in a heavenly  soil, where heavenly growth in grace and knowledge of the Maker, becomes a prelude to eternity, not a clumsy prelude to judgment.

Not known to this world, the Christian is thus indeed known to God, and from that source, basis and in that salvation  freely provided, to enable a change of  state and status, indeed reconciliation with Him who made us, we proceed filled with meaning, but empty of attachment to  a globe that has an end in fire as  long foretold (Isaiah 51:6, II Peter 3), when the permanency of the Creator makes a new realm, no more this testing and temporary stage, where the restless writhe or connive; for here is no rest. Not in restlessness, therefore, but in realisation and entry to a  rest in reality always there, readily available and graciously provided without force or coercion, we who are volunteers enable to come by grace, show a far better way and far better rest, vocation because of truth, like little moons reflecting the glorious light of the sun. OUR sun arises with "healing in His wings," tender now, triumphant always, the ultimate and only mercy, shown in the Bible, demonstrated in Christ, attested as His words are fulfilled. Here is a spiritual real estate which is freely available, an eternal investment, that carries heart.

As these themes are worked out, we find many phases and explanations, orientations amid our pilgrimage orienteering, always supplied with the Bible as basic, the Lord as dynamic and wisdom and the way for travel, the highway of holiness. It is there; but to find it, it is necessary to open the eyes, and to have them healed, which for so long have been sealed.

Christ as the light of the world is there; eyes as the means of access are there. The results of opening them teem, and in this volume, Lord willing,  we shall follow some of the exposures.

 

 

214th

November 2012

THINGS IDLY LOST,

DIVINELY FOUND,

RESCUED FROM THE CONTRABAND

ISBN 978-0-9873360-6-4

To be clueless is never to be desired. Clues abound. They cluster. They insist. They get up and speak, even shout, concerning the Lord and His Christ, Jesus. Logic acclaims; history verifies; man writhes and God provides, and the two, far from normally, may meet, resulting in peace.

The things amiss may be small or large, and the indications of truth come to some through one obvious channel or another,  as the Spirit of God enables the heart,  sometimes sulking in blindness, sometimes blazing in desire. The phases of our history in which men dabble, as they look for inspiration or sight or understanding, are many, some of these fraught with delusions like army divisions, raiding the countryside of the life of man, some with outstanding occurrences which are normally in the end, not heeded, so making history.

It is not that man is  bad at mathematics or ungifted in engineering, but in seeing the truth about himself, he has a sin problem, profound, and potentially fatal. Indeed, it would be so now if it were not for the mercy of God.

Idly lost is the divine provision, magnificent in magnitude,  splendid in heart, but not abating for the sake of convenience... Divinely found are many from the maelstrom; and in this field, where many like lost lambs, bleat helplessly or in pure frustration at their lostness, and others like rams line up with something to smash into, the unspeakably OLD word of God continues, present from the first (cf. Barbs ... 17). Itself never wandering nor distorted to the last, it has the message the same, from the heart of the same God who made man, who has made himself contraband by cleavage. The content of this gracious message has grown in grandeur, the scope of this word in detail, but it has not altered in theme. It has made wonderful provisions, but with the same principles. It has dealt with many departures,  as of run-away children, but it has the one recovery, alike, for great and small, and it shows in things great and small likewise.

Where light is sought, it is readily found; and God is that light, and Christ the light of this world, without whom, there are various more or less gross forms of darkness, unimportable as such,  into the kingdom of heaven. It is necessary to look up to where it is, to enter (Isaiah 45:22-24, John 3), to be saved by grace, and to be guided by it, from God, for God, to God, through His appointed Saviour, who brings to man the amazing fact that the One who made us WITH words, has words for our souls too!

But then, He is liberal in grace and plain goodness: He is like that.

 

2013

So far, October 2013, 9 volumes have been published this year.

215th

January  2013

NOW THE HIGHWAY, THEN THE HEIGHTS

ISBN 978-0-9873360-7-1

This earth has very much to offer; but it is challenging. With brilliance is stupidity, with love is hate, with self-control is spurious, furious dare-devil dash, with faithfulness is repudiating, reckless avoidance, with multiplied abundance, are constraints that are ruinous, as man smashes man, imaginations make drunkenness almost look sober, and slaughter look as if much of the earth had been turned into a huge abattoirs, where animals are replaced by members of our own race.

The Christian understands these things, their cause and the consequence; for it is all neatly formulated in the Bible, the inception of what mars man shown, and the reception still available with our Creator, presented like a portrait gallery, and a power station combined.

Chief portrait is the Lord Jesus Christ, God who became man that man might have free restoration to God, involving not only reconciliation, by clearing of the barrage of sin near the door, but repentance to consent to the clearance in one's own case, and regeneration, to re-enable communion with God on a stable and sure basis (cf. II Corinthians 5:17ff.). As to the power station aspect, that has been done in the most publicised work of all time, in terms of length of time given to the announcement, scope of impact, constantly epitomised the coming of the Messiah to crush the seducer to sin, and pay for the mess resultant,  as well as provide for the redemption involved. It has been applied in the power of the Holy Spirit, to Jew and to Gentile alike. This announcement started as early as Genesis 3, in what is called the protoevangelium (Genesis 3:15). That is easy to remember because it is culminated in John 3:16, just one up from 3:15!

The resurrection of Christ is as important as anything that ever happened, bound in one season and session of marvel, to His sacrificial crucifixion (Galatians 6:14). In that resurrection and the One who supplied it, is the power the Christian finds (Ephesians 1:19); but since we are by no means perfect, we too need, not expulsion, but discipline, child-training, and it is a wonder the patience the Chief Shepherd has. It is very delightful to behold, though He is not lax, which is well! yet He is gentle, which is very well (Isaiah 42:3-4).

As we proceed however, we are promised, and indeed there is premissed for us, what is called a highway, indeed The Highway of Holiness (Isaiah 35). The really promising thing about this is its security. On this there are no fatal smashes. Though the traveller be a fool, he will not go astray (Isaiah 35:8). In other words, you may have a season of incompetence, confusion, confrontation and the like; and foolishness may be all that you feel is left to you, as you take impact after impact (cf. II Corinthians 1 and 4). But as you travel on this highway, that of reconciliation with God in Christ, redemption, dependence by faith, reliance with resolve, then it simply does not matter what the case is. You may be imprisoned, flayed, in "journeyings often" like Paul, but you will not go astray. Even if you lose in a battle of spirit on an occasion, there is the pick-up (Proverbs 24:15, Psalm 18:16, II Cor. 1, II Timothy 4:18, 1:8-12).

There is a highway, so high indeed that at times you view the most magnificent alpine scenery, in the realm of the Lord and things spiritual (cf. Ephesians 1:17-18), though at others you walk through the shadow of death. There is a spiritual observation post (Ephesians 2:6), and best of all, for the Christian, there is the Captain of your salvation, bringing many souls to glory (Hebrews 2). In this, you find many failings, triumphs and contours, many attempts to invade, but total power to sustain you; for you see both on the highway, and from it,  the paths of this earth, made by man for man as man pleases. It is all beheld however in the light of His glory (John 8:12, 12:36,45), seen in spiritual perspective, and from this, if you be a Christian, you are kept by spiritual power..

When this, our present time, glorious test as it is, with grand triumph available and assured in Christ (John 10:9,27-28, John 5:24), is past, and it is by no means without suffering, both to attest and to be purified from time to time (as a ship's hull is scraped clean of cluttering mess that does not belong to it): then what ? Then the next step comes. It is THE HEIGHTS.

Now we see through a glass dimly (compared with the absolute definition of sheer light); then face to face. Then ?Then  the designation of design, not for a human body merely, or mind, or spirit, but for the mode of life due to adoption into the family of God, past test, invested in the secure establishment of heaven, in the fit body for it (II Corinthians 4:17 - 5:9), this comes like Spring. This may seem, as Spring does,  almost incredible in Wintry blasts, but then, it is perfectly natural in the season when it comes, just as immortality and deliverance from corruption is part of the provision of God.

Yet this is NOT for those who disavow both Him and it, His method and His Gospel, and glory in their confusions. If such as these were included, how insulting to their pride, how gross for their independence, how crushing to their intransigence. No, that would not do; and it is not done.

Amid this message in this volume, there is concentration on many an item, including  incarnation of deity,  and in developing terms, political intrusion into spiritual life in Australia.

So there is the Highway of Holiness, and there are the heights. There is the present and there is the outcome to faith in Him as its object, in His gospel as its commencement and in His word as His divulgement. There is the challenge, and there is the provision. There is the present tense, and there the future; and there is no need to be tense about the future, when in the present tense, the intents of the Lord are found in His beloved mercy, for in this He delights (Micah 7:18-19). Why not then delight with Him!

 

216th

March  2013

THE KING'S COUNSEL

ISBN 978-0-9873360-7-7

Nowadays there are so many committees and councils and bodies of judicial power to review and untenable non-truths trotted out as if there were some contest to see how many superficial nostrums and godless laws could be contrived at once (amid others of a different kind, to be sure), that it is well to consider the KING'S COUNSEL.

As we see in Psalm 33:9-12, there is a counsel of the Lord  which He maintains, and there is a counsel of the nations which is brought to nothing. That nothing reminds one of a Chemistry class at one's old College, in which the teacher who had unusual poise and diction, would announce the marks achieved by each student, starting with the least. "Smith, nought!" he might proclaim (whether or not that was the actual name involved at that time).

In parallel language, God brings the plans of the nations to NOUGHT, that is the ungodly nations, those who do NOT,  repeat NOT, both receive and act on His word, as at least their underlying and overseeing mandate or desire. They do not desire it, think that they need it, and indeed come to despite it, often reversing abruptly, as is the current trend in Australia, from any such association!

That, in part or in whole, is now all but universal. Two world wars and yes a third, have changed things. The looming danger of a fourth changes them more.

Manias are now as common as the atom bombs which they threaten to use. Almost any nation and many millions of persons  seem to have some brouhaha religion or nostrum or idea or ideology, based on  self or seduction, dream or pretence, which brings nothing in foundation and comes to nothing. But these things, idolatries because replacing God with man's ideas, submissions or worships of whatever, are even  CALLED vanities or nothings, breath, uselessness in the Bible (as in Acts 14:15, Jeremiah 14:22), and God brings them, He declares in Psalm 33, to nothing. Despite their initial fizz, they are but air, coming to what they began to be, just nothing. Futility is their name, and void is their domain.

The way to nothing, as many an inheritor of a fortune learns, can be long, moving by successive steps from heights of purchasing power to ... more or less none. The spiritual capital of a person or nation, if something near to Christian in the first place, but not quite settled, can fall likewise, till nothing, even an identity crisis, is the result. Europe has come to such an identity crisis. What IS IT! Is is the result of Greece and Rome of old ? Well ... not exactly. Could it be as a Cardinal desired, an adjunct of Rome in some sense ? Well, not really. No agreement was to be found on any such premiss or notion.  What then ? After all the city of Rome is clearly indicated in Revelation 17ff., and its hegemony in misleading and unchristian doctrine is noted with intense vehemence (cf.  SMR pp. 946ff., 1032-1088H). It is quite prophetic that it now falls and fails to captivate a New Europe ... Europe looking for a soul.

It is a body looking for a COMMON DESTINY, we learn from its Constitution being made. Whatever it is, it is to become one, to be melded or welded or wedded in some sort of style (which is now a major topic because of problems in  not really being one, while trying to have finances very much of ONE kind). The nature of that one to come is sketched out most clearly in the Bible in such sites as Revelation 13, 17, with Daniel 2, 7; and it is not a good one.

What are you doing, John ? one might have asked in the old days of responsibility and respect.

The reply might be this, "Oh, nothing..."

That "nothing" might hide a multitude of sins, or indeed, of virtues.

So is it with developing Europe, yet to find its new force, as it fumbles into life. Do not mistake: it has as the EU already done much, but a certain slackness needs and is getting correction. Joint life is NOT EASY LIFE. That financial lesson is now being imbibed. The results will be seen.

Amid all this, it is quite vital  to find and contrast, for one indeed as  for all, for every and any nation and every individual, two things.  One is the counsel of the Lord, personally presented in Jesus Christ, and in singular propositions, in the Bible; the other is not this (as found in moving from the exuberant love of John 3:16-18, to 3:19 and then 3:36)!

The King's Counsel is seen and heard in Jesus Christ,  called among other great names, Counsellor; and in His book of which Christ declared neither a jot nor so much as a tittle would fail in fulfilment! Like a knife, this cuts the meat: there are but two slices, though each contains much. One is truth; the other is not. This is a fundamental fact, whether you want to call it fundamentalism or not (preferring this or some other fundamental idea, such as man as matrix, State as sovereign, nothing as basis, or whatever other nimble notion is put up from the nothing category). The actual fundamental is God, and what He has to say. There is no use but abuse in acting as if some men hold this to be fundamental, while others hold that, as if this is relevant. It is what God, who IS fundamental to our very beings, has to say which bears in His words, that actuality. Throwing it at man is merely abuse^*1.

When the dust settles, the counsel of the Lord will stand; and HE BRINGS the emptiness of vacuously aspiring human thought, to nothing. The laboratory of history is very fascinating, and it shows the  task, cost and wonder of divine truth*2.

In this work, there are intended many contrasts, seen in notion, in motion and in commotion, as the end draws so near that the hiss of the serpent is becoming now almost discernible as background noise.

For endnotes, follow this link.

 

217th

April  2013

THE WAY OF TRUTH AND THE WAY OF ERROR

ISBN 978-0-9873360-9-5

It is a time to think, to pray, to consider and to seek deliverance for this nation.

While in Australia, two new approaches to a mandate for manacles on expression, both for individuals and the Press have been made, it is time to have some specifically religious response (and that includes the assessment through reason, which itself points unrelenting to the revelation in the Bible and in Jesus Christ the Lord). The report that congratulations on these bold governmental moves to muzzle have come from FIJI concerning our movement toward a State-run Press, are furnished with no small irony, in view of Australia's earlier inhibitions about Fiji's alleged approaches to absolutism in press control 

This review as now presented in this volume, includes rebuttal, analysis and exhibition of the treason not only to freedom which is involved, but the unconstitutional character of the endeavour. Our major concern is the Roxon's Discrimination Consolidation Bill 2012, still  at Bill stage; but the Press liberty from socially synthesised morals and inhibition, which makes the norm, if it could ever be found in the dynamics of life, in effect to become the social god of morals and the censor of speech, is reeking with  blatant humanism and authoritarian contrivance, truth apart. This private sector intolerance with the significant Press control are in parallel, successive assaults, and have similarities not a few. If you want to rule absoiutely, sooner or later, such things have to be done. God who invented freedom, has better ways, as this country also has shown when its foundations were better regarded.

Concerning the newspaper silencer, and result for such legislation, if becoming actual law,  Kim Williams, CEO of News Limited, as reported in The Advertiser, Tuesday March 19, 2013  indicated that if the 'unconstitutional' laws were passed, he would appeal to the High Court "immediately."

News Media (Self Regulation) Bill 2013 has aroused justifiable extreme concern. The ABC News for March 19,  2013, declares this in short form concerning it.

Proposed media reforms

·         The appointment of a Public Interest Media Advocate (PIMA) to oversee self-regulatory bodies such as the Press Council.

·         The PIMA, who will be appointed by the Minister, will decree whether a media complaints handling body is "authorised". Only media organisations that are members of an authorised body are able to maintain their exemptions to privacy laws.

·         The PIMA will also

·         use a new public interest test to allow or prevent nationally significant media mergers.

·         An extension of the Government's commercial television licence fee rebate - saving free-to-air television networks an estimated $134 million this financial year.

·         A removal of the 75 per cent audience reach rule that prevents metropolitan television stations from owning partners in regional areas.

·         An update to the charters governing the ethics and behaviour of the ABC and SBS to reflect online and digital activities.

With this emphasis in mind, there are presented in this volume, as one part of it, a number of facets, aspects, grounds for criticism, concern, confrontation, that exist before the liberties so sacrificially gained in this land, are compromised by a virtual social analysis, or flair or intuition, which becomes an authoritarian proclamation or application, as the case may be. In this way, we are gifted with the blasting basis for the morals, rules, inhibitions, exhibition programs, websites of a certain size, speech. In this way, Humanistic Idolatry appears as the new look in place of reliance on Almighty God as in the Pre-amble to the Australian Constitution. The latter was not forced, but gave a wonderful option, being like a foundation garment; the new look is in the hands of the law with its penalties and petty pretensions, without any logical basis, while acting as if knowing it all,  to the point of penalty!

As things are moving in the double assault, the Media Regulation and the Anti-Discrimination drafts, joint attack forces on liberty, things change absolutely, and this is the more obvious as efforts are made through government representation, to make it seem quite ordinary. In other words, if you already accept what is desired by the Government in this freedom field, to date, then what is in it ? It is then just more of the same, is it not ? So goes the lurk. In fact it is much more than just more; but even more of the same would be repugnant in terms of control, with an already ineffective attempt for some of these elements, unsuccessfully made earlier.

Reliance on Canberra's new religious construct for the life and words of man, a new religion, supersedes all others, which like dogs on leashes, have to conform and be contained as permitted, as the Constitution is put into recess, and culture becomes King. This new religion is in manifest conflict with Section 116 of the Australian Constitution, which excludes such authoritative adventurism on the part of the Commonwealth.

This is only one of the themes in this volume, the first part being a collection of presentations in the general area, with a major on in general terms of perspective and meaning beyond the mere ripples becoming waves, in the local lake.

With what then are we here concerned ? It is with whatever concerns the way of truth and the way of error, as designated in the Bible, from the enforced fable of organic evolution which lacks anything observable or demonstrable whatever, as something exclusively REQUIRED in science education, forming a tax on the minds of children, to the current assault on parents, proceeding now, on society, even on our history, on our beliefs one and al. Effectively, these if the bills became law, would be regulated and given leave here or there as it should please the Government, as it tallies vague statistics on public interest, and makes man become whatever it is they deem him to be tending to become anyway.

What pedantry is this, which makes psychic guesses, confounds leading edges with basic foundations, has touch-and-go computations based on underlying principles of the utmost variety, in the assessors, whether this be recognised or not. On this fulid basis, the very aim indicates complete self-possession and self-congratulation of the status quo. What vision is that! even if it could be seen in practice, in terms of sensitivity, relativity and the schema of the minds of ... one ? perhaps with some help.

How flimsy is the pride and pretension in this self-elevation. From such great heights, unfounded, the fall is both sharp and terrible. Our distance from others, as a nation,  is no longer an adequate defence, if it ever were. You need grounds for defence, way past plans to have weaponry in a decade or two, which could possibly help to the point.

But what of this pre-occupation with culture, with ourselves, based on nothing rational ? (cf. SMR Chs.  3  -  4).  Here is passion in fashion at its ultimate.

Instead of "follow the fashions" being a craze of the superficial, it becomes a mandate, rule, law and invasion from the Government; and instead its referring to clothes, it is to mankind and what he is permitted to be and to say, since the two are inextricably related.

Our concern thus moves also to the invasion with the concept of limitless will with mini-constraints in many modes of conduct, and maxi-restraints where the religion of culture itself is in question. It leads to disastrous confusion. As evolution's morality becomes a helpless moral muddle in various synthetic religious abstracts now moving many, yes the base of the desire for drugs and violence, to which this society increasingly panders, so contradictions accumulate. Cruel violence which sin has brought, which is illicitly made a base for all that we are, becomes a major thrust for life, a give-away instead of God. Meanwhile, bending to every deception, within the fashion, without careful investigation and consideration of all phases of such things, there comes the sudden lurch to the opposite. This proceeds amid opposing ideas, till the contradictions so teem that it begets a flood, not least of unauthorised immigrants and muddled moral considerations concerning them, leading to a virtual paralysis in action.

In any building, when you leave your foundations, you are bound to wobble around. This is what is occurring in our nation, and if we continue to presume in our radicalism based on precisely nothing, self-will apotheosis, then the payments due start to grow, as does our interest Bill in terms of debt payment.

The effects on the individual are important to assess, as the many movements in such directions reach their culmination. Rome, as in Gibbon's famed work, The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, is not the only one to invite shame. We would prefer a better place in history for Australia and its people.

Re-orientation is less difficult for those who have already - until slanted history courses incite to more narrowing as in recent times - known something that works whether in reason* or in heart. SMR and TMR in particular have shown this, amidst the forces of declension. History now shows the latter with some recent supplements!

The coffee of culture may relieve a little, for a while, while it rules as King - it is just national self-worship robed in various vestments; but the requirement is new life, as from the dead, as it has been from the earliest days, and will be till Christ returns, fulfilling to the end the long list of His predictions, never failing. Unlike the atheistic and naturalistic theories which never work, He always works; and unlike their sad testings and results, His are effectual, point by point. It is time to reflect before this and other nations come to the situation of the Titanic passengers who were singing, in part, Nearer my God to  Thee, as the ship prepared to sink. As things progress, any sinking to come would not be likely to have any national parallel, even to that.

 

218th

May  2013

LOGOS UNCREATED, INCORRUPTIBLE, INESTIMABLE

ISBN 978-0-9875948-0-8

In Ch. 1 in this volume, one major emphasis of this work is to be found.

God is not some startling, alien mystery, but the Maker of mysteries for resolution by man, and the giver of knowledge, for the delight of man, concerning Himself and His works, of which man is just one. He is the light and it is available to man (Deuteronomy 32, John 8:12, 9:4-5).

In the beginning, there was a certain fresh delight in seeing, seizing, naming things, and finding exquisite joy in the apprehension of the massive realities of creation (Genesis 3). As youth often sours into manhood, some now just waiting if we are to believe reports and sights, to kill, expand empires, overcome others in vile violences too odious to dwell on, so this race is now the more souring into a manhood which so far from being a post-adolescent strength of young adulthood, is more a pragmatic set of variable purposes, set with whatever it takes to get whatever is wanted.

It is in short without the LOGOS, to a catastrophic degree. Smiling at God, while defiling the bodies, minds and spirits He has given, with inane fairy-tales, naturalistic legends, evacuees from reason, branded on young minds in desperate efforts to  avoid creation, these deluded and delusive, come like a dust storm (Jeremiah 23, II Thessalonians 2:4-10). They gather in the polluted skies, worse than those of Shanghai or now Peking, in spiritual suffocation. Toying with trifles, they have an ultimate basis in nothing, or question begging, or a combination, as in Ch. 1 and its references. They go like a tyre-less car, minus engine, with logic abandoned into myths as predicted (II Timothy 4:4), where his Lord is concerned Increasingly, as the Judgment Day comes near, man has found a certain camaraderie of contention (cf. II Timothy 3, Romans 1:21-32), as he blasts his way into this or that folly, each of increasing magnitude. As he goes,  he assembles mass devastation devices, and remembers to thumb the nose to his Designer, by ignoring the sexual differences given as plain method of continuation of the race (cf. I Timothy 1:8-11). With propaganda push and putsch, he is inventing new designs, without a designer, and contrary to exquisite reality, as if through thought alone, they themselves were nevertheless that very one, whose word made what is, barring sdin, what it is.

So man, in philosophy as in physiology becomes a creative creator of variables not visible in the reality which they bear, and starkly contrary to it (cf.  SMR Chs. 3 ,  4 and 4 Extension). So they the more with time go on biblically cursed expeditions, till their designs on the Designer merely become more discernible in this way, as in war and pride, thrust and toss, they play the bull in this little yard of creation. You CAN stamp and fume and toss; you CAN try to intimate, deceive and gain some dream (Jeremiah 23 specialises in this phase, and on God's assessment of it); but stamping does not create, except ruin and in the end, a sore foot.

The good things in man, his creativity when nobly harnessed with care of construction in view, and concern in responsibility at hand, the love of parent or wife or friend, the reliability in co-operation, the sacrifice for those being serviced, the desire for truth and for peace, these have not come from nothing, any more than has the order of the atom, the DNA or the logic of the human mind. It is by this that it may investigate meaningfully the rest of creation, which has the same LOGOS back of it as appears in the construction of man and expressly in his mind, so that the mind of man and the mind of the Creator, the LOGOS, match fruitfully. On the one hand, this may be done  by virtue of the facilities of its construction enabling it logically to enquire, on the other by its capacities for being enquired into, by this self-same logical method; and back of both hands, there is the body of truth, the non-invented and eternal God, always there, always adequate, dependent on none, who made, synthesised, activated and produced it all by the speech which governs, by the word of command, which makes laws both moral and physical, both chemical and astronomical..

The uncreated Creator expresses Himself in His eternal Word, and this became man as the best means of introduction to God, who had long shown His will, way and love in His word and former deeds, using Israel as a nation to display His mind, way and will (though it fell and so itself came to the point of inordinate need of that same LOGOS), and the Bible as the continuing text. The eternal Word becoming man, It is He on whom all responsibility and integrity and love and wisdom and power depends for man (I Corinthians 1:30). In Him, as source, inestimable in magnificence and depth is ground for devotion, just as He has been so devoted to the human race (as in Titus 2-3), that He became for a season, part of it.

It is well for a man to have been a child. What richness of depth and sensitivity is thus personally conveyed to maturity, as it deals with children. It is becoming that Christ became flesh, starting as an infant, for then, not only in mind, but in living in events, He has BEEN there already. As to suffering, the same, He has felt this already, and AS man He has felt it, and this amidst depravity, injustice, infamy and appalling neglect, when He had for man something far better in salvation for the life, than  E=-MC² could ever be for the mind, distilled from the logical creation of God  as that information is. This gift of life made available, eternal as God is, though for man this has to start, requires repentance for its adoption. Since other ways, invented by man with the liberty given to him, were unsublime and did not match reality (Ecclesiastes 7:29), this is not only the right way (cf. Ch. 7 below), but it also enables rescue, for drifting spirits, and the necessary redemption for sinners, with salvation for the lost.

Lost sinners is man's status quo; redeemed sinners is his opportunity; denial is his option (Acts 7:51, John 3:36).

Man IS lost and that is why he so looks like it, his inimical crusades and fatuous philosophies (cf. SMR Chs. 3, 5, 10), being a sure testimony. He now increasingly CANNOT handle the various issues arising, because in terms of the absurd naturalistic basis, or spiritistic lunging, there is no rest, and that ? It is because there is no reality reached. Now the sure enormity of having one madman able to kill millions and ruin much of the earth with casual radioactive contamination merely illustrates the growing madness which this race more and more follows (cf. Hose 9:7). It finds out more about the works of God and tries to take them over for itself, but finds to its alarm, that this presents an impossible situation, through wicked hands, a little able to ruin a lot, indeed most things, rather easily.

The end of a road tends to look like that, when you try to travel further, on  and on, where in reality there is no track!

Thus we look at the true source, and rejoice that despite the wildness of contemporary mankind in so many and in so much and in so many nations, philosophies and talk fests, there is still the same LOGOS and He, having both known and spoken of these last times, remains what He always is, faithful and true, and as such will, at His own time, end the turmoil in truth and in reality (cf. Revelation 19-20). Certainly this will involve judgment; but what could you expect! The time provided for a significant measure of trying anything else and the power for it has been prodigious (cf. II Peter 3:9). God does not proceed by halves. The same however is true of judgment. The marvel is that it applies also in salvation. Of this, the time will come to speak.

 

219th

June  2013

PROGRESS, REGRESS, EMPHASIS AND PERFECTION

ISBN 978-0-9875948-2-2

Progress used, in the 1930s, to be a catchcry. We, the human race, so very scientific, clever, prospering in a new understanding, looking forward to a concertina type of new destiny, amazing in potential, increasingly robust in strength, clever, savvy, learning from past errors, would promote ourselves into glory. Science would astonish; knowledge would amend; power would not corrupt. Man would become so civilised that one would wonder, and the past would be mere shadow as the present prospered and the future beckoned.

Whether in art, philosophy or literature, there has been a repining from those dreams, a sourness becomes as with old milk, very unsavoury to the perceptions, and a misery becomes headline news, as nation and tribe and group and body and race, and civilisation and culture and aspirations and computations and computer fraud and invasion, and ill-will grow into an interminable seeming brew. Indeed, it becomes so manifestly hostile and infantile, in a sort of compulsive brooding in sibling aggressiveness among the nations, that lying appears more and more, a mere preliminary to conflict, and words become but emblems of savvy sophisticated silencing of criticism, while power or pollution or philosophy or race or nation is sought to be pre-eminent, exalted, admired or feared.

Progress did not prosper.

Regress has done exceedingly well, and if it were a share registration, as of a Public Company, named say Downward Dynamics, it would be high among the best achievers. Debt and over-spending on the one hand, and belligerent massing of new weapons on the other, these new waves are being introduced like compulsory vaccination with some type of AIDS virus.

Emphasis continues on human glory, even if amid the gory, which is supposedly for many, a necessary cost for progress, even though it manifestly does not work. Strife begets strife. Force begets force. Folly begets folly. The midwifery departments in the hospitals of men, the philosophic hospitals, are full and overflowing. Man is learning NOTHING, because he is departing from his commencement, ignoring his creation,  desecrating its functions, ignoring its realities, breaking minds, slaying millions, seeking revenges, striking new notes of pomposity, new depths of the malapropos, as if the very use of ugliness in dress or feature or cartoon or literature is the new ideal; as if ideals were to be based in the base, and no vision were to be allowed, on pain of fine or imprisonment. This already is the case, for selected ancient visions, in many countries, if death and torture are not used instead.

Emphasis on survival joins hand with ignorance of both destiny and its deserts, till the very air, as in Peking, becomes a sort of souvenir of pollution, a reminder of deeper pollutions, not only to lung, but to heart and mind as well. It is not alone.

Perfection was a major issue when Denton wrote his Evolution: A Theory in Crisis. In much, it appeared to fascinate him. There is a good supply of it in the mathematical, miniaturised marvels he uncovers in much detail in micro-biology and other facets of his work. It is even more prominent in the yearning of the heart of man, for much cynicism is little more than a wail for the failure to find where it is sought, what is perfect, at the pain of it, the frustration from it and the sense of censure because it is so often and so needlessly and so obviously is averted, as if it were a plague (cf. SMR Chs.  3,  4, and   4 Extension).

It remains a desire of the heart, when not submerged or immersed in self-pity, man-loathing or sin-seduction. It is to be found instead of cynicism, where it belongs. That like creation, repentance and reality is the point. It is useless to dream in inconsolable grief, or vapid imagination. You need vision, vision of truth, the truth back of vision, in fact the Lord who being Creator has taken love as the motive, man as the format, salvation as the offer, resurrection as the new ban available on mortality and its horrors, and has offered grace.

In how much and how often are such things to be seen! In Christ is to be found the solution to sin, both in its sovereignty and guilt, deception and its guile, to the desire for goodness and its beauty, majesty in its reality, humility without hypocrisy. Here is perfection so that progress can only be towards it, both drawn to it and appreciating it as coming (Philippians 3:12-21), seeking more and more conformity to His ways, now before His perfection is paramount before the very eyes (Revelation 21-22),  becoming visible in the heights of salvation in its complete exhibition in heaven. Even now, regress can measure its gap, in that it is discernible in distance from Him who made us; and emphasis can seek brakes, when it compares the plight of mankind with the object from whom it flees, and emphasis can be where light is available, rather than on the precise configurations of deeds in the dark.

 

220th

ON BIBLICAL TRANSLATION II

ISBN 978-0-9875948-1-5

This is a partly compiled, often revised, significantly extended, sometimes shortened edition of the work, On Translations of the Bible. As a base, the overall coverage of Ch. 1 of the first edition is provided, and then selections and revisions.

While there are multiplied translations and paraphrases of the Bible or parts of it, much is trivialising the text handed down in the vast majority of texts (and there are hundreds), based on unconfirmed hypotheses and tilted twistings of truth as pre-conceptions, till in the ordinary pastorate, more is lost than gained in the proliferation.

For reasons shown in the first Chapter, based on the integrity of the power and authority of the God of creation, and the results of His promises matched by statistics, the Authorised and the New King James Versions have a certain inbuilt reliability because of the text or text type in view, and a basic tendency not to be venturesome, in creating brilliant renderings that do not show much respect for the text, a sort of spiritual voyeurism. Real though their faults are, for those without Hebrew and Greek, they allow more scope for the sober to seek inspiration WITHIN what is written, without having it pre-chewed by theologians masquerading as translators. This is always the aim; it is easy enough to SUPPLEMENT translation by other things; but often fatal to confuse the two.

It is found that the AV has a very good record for accuracy, the NKJV rather less, but often it has far more clarity, and that as a rule of thumb, these features may be taken in order for a swift and nearly always reliable result. However, there are blemishes which because of the date of the AV or the comparatively less seeming perception in the NKJV, can occur. This present volume is intended to cover such cases, as well as those which come because of the invasion of hostile cultures into the very translations, or equally readily, into the understanding of them.

With these things in mind, some 61 cases of one variety or the other are listed, with translations given at the outset, for speed of reference. The 300 or so pages supplied with these provide reasons for these 61 translations/expositions. In the Web version, it is hoped the different kinds of hyperlinks made available make the task easier, and by these to relay not only to the translations provided in each case, but to relate to the often larger presentations in the First Edition, or allied expository, explanatory or alerting material.

 

221st

MESSIAH,

JESUS CHRIST

AUTHOR AND JUDGE OF HISTORY,

AGELESS TERMINATOR OF THIS PRESENT AGE

AND LORD OF GLORY

August 2013

ISBN 978-0-9875948-3-9

 

There is a beginning to what is manifestly running down from more available to less available energy, from a start the fact of which is enshrined in the Law of Conservation of Mass and Energy (for it is just THERE, on application), as a thing found to be given, and a continuation in the Second Law of Thermodynamics which shows the run down on its depreciation. The resource fades; the dynamic loses its base; the panics and antics grow; the options grow smaller.

It started. It falls: this not failing to be apparent even in the genome of man, whose physical platform for being is wasting away. Put there, the functional universe continues; staying there, it declines. Its source however is in no decline, while its angle of declination from Him, on the part of man, increases in a way which if physical, would long since have been deadly. The word from its Resource never alters. It does not need to; for where man is, there is learning; but where the Creator is, time is merely an invention for His creation, and all is known (Colossians 2:9, Isaiah 46:9-10).

Over time, He speaks, has spoken and His assessment awaits (Romans 8:29-39), while His provision knows no limits but truth (Colossians 1:19ff.).

There is then a beginning.

There is also an end. When you begin as a babe and turn into boy or girl active and envisaging, there seems no end; but it comes. When as juvenile you make decisions, it seems eternal, but it is temporal; it is the results which are eternal. When as mature, you find your place and place life in its place in your mind, you seem directive, but without your source, you are misdirected. When in old age, you rove your way to a conclusion of your body, you contemplate where you are going, or to take an option, insist on not contemplating it, like one who knowing full well that taxes come, evasively sets his whole mind to ignore them. But the results are not shrunk by your wilfulness. It comes, death to the body and assessment to the soul, all in its time and in its place.

Reality does not go away; and truth, it continues sublime, even amid multitudes of alienated minds (Ephesians 4:17-19). The author of history is also its judge. The creator of liberty is also its assessor. The donor of the power to love is also the giver of salvation for misuse of life; but His offer does not change. This present Age has manifestly aged markedly in the last few years, its incompetence so massive that even a donkey would bray, if it knew. It is so because it is perfectly competent to ignore its Maker, mock His mercy, depart from His ways, blast His designs, as if to place a screw-driver in an engagement ring box, and insist that no-one marvel at such renegacy. Yet it WILL do so.

It has history to teach it, but puts it out of a job, concentrating increasingly on minor sagas, and the passion of twisting truth, till it becomes a luxury for many, almost unheard of in the cover up called culture.

The concept of a Terminator, Omega, calling the game over, seems foreign to many who are well aware of the significance of sirens.

As great as is the wonder of the Lord of glory,

	the Messiah who came on time for all time (Galatians 4:4, cf.  The Christian Prescription Ch. 2), and is indeed
	to come again, but in a new capacity, AS JUDGE, when He has first removed His own Church of actual believers from the earth, nation and individual alike subject to His rulings and rule:

He yet does not dictate.

Mercy is not a forced thing, nor love contrived. Where darkness is loved, its very nature is a fiasco, so that those who love this, have their fill, nothing gained but loss.

The Author is the Judge; history lavishes itself in misused liberties; love is truncated in abusive substitutes, truth is harassed, sincerity becomes to many a fiction, guile gushes like a burst dam; but the End, the Judge and the Result pad do not evaporate because of the anguish of fraud, facing light (Revelation 20:11-15). Merely disdaining or distancing oneself from truth is its rejection.

Rejoice therefore that the Messiah has come; He is not to be found in varying literary works in the wide open field of religion, inventions without test or authority but that of force, threat or policy (cf. Lively Lessons in Spiritual Service Ch. 6).  He is found where test has shown, prediction has inscribed, and history has long since meekly followed. You may foul up an engine, but not destroy the factory; the Alpha who having made, also knows, has shown and terminates not the truth, but the abuse of it.

This volume, number 221 in the set, In Praise of Jesus Christ, DV,  is to look at perspective amid events, the end in view, the endings in sight, as night thickens and the smell of new tar is sniffed, like a new highway to hell, making room for more motorists. In this, the perfume of perfection in Jesus the Christ, the other way, challenging certainly, but true and proven, shown and lovely, remains. It seems invidious to the insidious; but its domain is realism, and its way is regeneration, the only escape for vigorously astray man (Titus 2-3).

John 3 shows concerning one man what is applicable in essence to all persons outside Jesus Christ. They are embodied on this earth, awaiting the termination in truth, of what is temporal, and the institution of the wonder of the End, where tests passed, triumph is attributed where it belongs, to the Messiah and His own people (John 10:9,27-28). Had the evil powers known, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory (I Cor. 2:7-8); but their wits are shorn by their wilfulness; and by their contrivances like very dark glasses, they outwit themselves.

Nothing outwits God; but in His wisdom, He reigns eternal, to create, to uplift, and to judge; to bless and to curse, loving but living, insusceptible to deceit, keen on the cry of what He has made, where the audio-line is used, which is Jesus, the Messiah who has come, and will, when the time is over for the testing phase, make of the end that lapses, a consummation that elapses active to eternity.

authority of the God of creation, and the results of His promises matched by statistics, the Authorised and the New King James Versions have a certain inbuilt reliability because of the text or text type in view, and a basic tendency not to be venturesome, in creating brilliant renderings that do not show much respect for the text, a sort of spiritual voyeurism. Real though their faults are, for those without Hebrew and Greek, they allow more scope for the sober to seek inspiration WITHIN what is written, without having it pre-chewed by theologians masquerading as translators. This is always the aim; it is easy enough to SUPPLEMENT translation by other things; but often fatal to confuse the two.

It is found that the AV has a very good record for accuracy, the NKJV rather less, but often it has far more clarity, and that as a rule of thumb, these features may be taken in order for a swift and nearly always reliable result. However, there are blemishes which because of the date of the AV or the comparatively less seeming perception in the NKJV, can occur. This present volume is intended to cover such cases, as well as those which come because of the invasion of hostile cultures into the very translations, or equally readily, into the understanding of them.

With these things in mind, some 61 cases of one variety or the other are listed, with translations given at the outset, for speed of reference. The 300 or so pages supplied with these provide reasons for these 61 translations/expositions. In the Web version, it is hoped the different kinds of hyperlinks made available make the task easier, and by these to relay not only to the translations provided in each case, but to relate to the often larger presentations in the First Edition, or allied expository, explanatory or alerting material.

 

222nd

WHY NOT BELIEVE THE LORD'S CHRIST!

It is faith or fiddle-sticks.

CREATION STARTING IN POWER, MOVING IN POLLUTION

Salvation, arising in need,

Spanning the Age

September 2013

ISBN 978-0-9875948-4-6

Australia is in touring mode. It started with a solid foundation in principles of driving,  outlining some features of the road, in the name of Him who made it and said why. It went on with bounding triumphs through difficult days, involving much patriotism, many grounded in fundamentals of the Christian faith, the moorings to which, in its setting,  are implied in the Constitution. Then the pathological promptings of liberalism (dabbling in doubt and giving naturalistic fancies some clout) worked their insistent way through the clouded concepts of many theologians into the midst of betrayed churches, while many evanescent philosophies strove for success in capturing churches for their abattoirs.

A few have revisited the biblical faith; many have sought to negate, transform, adjust or subjugate it to this or that preferred alliance, often merely a voluntary submission, some combining it with its opposites in barefaced audacity, that makes blasphemy almost a side-issue, since this is not only renovation but transformation - imagine it! transforming what transforms, like a beautician becoming a major surgeon with predictable results.

Now allegedly Christian sources want to turn decriminalisation of homosexual behaviour from a starting post to a gallop, to make it equal with any other sort; and ignoring design components of the most exquisite complexity and practicality, they appear to behave rather like a son of a rich house, who thinking all his dad has is his own, takes as a right, the sports car to smash it up: and yet is bewildered when rebuked, if not by the cost or the injury.

But where is the rebuke now! Marriage is now sought to be the term for what is in itself, unable to produce children, not merely because of some defect, but by using pepper for salt,  salt for pepper, or a fork for a spoon. It is not however demeaning to be specific.  Being something of a given character is not unbearable, unless you either want to be God or to usurp His powers, by which alone as one of mankind, you stand, the visible design paragon and paradigm indeed, on this whole earth - if results relate to causes^*1, and terms to definitions!

Certainly Sodom may have been worse than what now beckons Australia in this area; but it may likewise have been better. It is in that specified territory biblically as you note in Jude 7, the generic being mentioned in II Peter 2:19 and 10, where despising (divine) authority becomes a sort of mandate. It is liberty ? yes, but it is unlicensed licence. It is man's word against God's work, and since God HAS worked it as He decided, so man's decision to rework it becomes a muddle from legislating members of a race, indeed what may be a parliamentary majority, who without having the power to produce such beings as man, reduce the products to the work of their limited knowledge, on a basis by comparison twiddled, with insecure foundations.

That is merely typical, where truth becomes servant to pragmatism, equity to desire, words wait upon statistics, leadership ponders programs, love in many directions is swapped for lust, increasingly, and this abused power becomes common in politics as in business, in love of power as in means of oversight, till Isaiah 59 comes to look more and more, as though it were levelled not only at ancient Israel at one phase, but as a cover for the present! Biblically, lawlessness where law abounds, is lust (Jude 15-19, II Peter 2:9-16, 3:1-5,  James 4:1-8).

Just as freedom is good,  enabling God-given powers to be exercised without abortion through seizure by aliens, so its misuse is horrid, making an inward maladjustment the basis of ruin. This does not warrant its removal, for without it, love is impossible and truth becomes almost meaningless. What bound, in will, in mind, can even appreciate truth ? Indeed, it is for that reason that God, who knows the soul of man past the pathology of a sin-run government of the soul (as in Ephesians 4:17-19 and seen in John Bunyan's Holy War), having foreknown all, and discerned all things, has made sure of those who before all sin, even creation, were apparent as His own (Ephesians 1:4, Romans 8:29ff.), where love lives and truth is unsuppressed.

Fiddle-sticks, things lying on top of each other in the game by that name, and readily dislodged so that the whole structure may easily fall in a shambles of no attractiveness,  a mere  desolation of order: that is an apt name for the current state of the art of making man in the image of ... his own will. In fact,  as you forsake the God of creation, design, love, truth, faith and destiny, as in Romans 1:17ff., and substitute paradigms of imagination without power, as is now the case (and HOW the mighty have fallen in Europe and the USA, and how the littler body of Australia is poised a little above an abyss of rashly obtained international, not to say State and personal debt), then it becomes like a yacht leaving anchor in a stormy sea, with billowing waves way atop its mast, and chasms of depth laughing at life.

You cannot mock God and get away with it (cf. Hosea 8:7, Proverbs 26:2). Much of history is simply an illustration of that fact. IF you like mockery, then in this case it assuredly rebounds, in the psyche, the wallet, the bondage of heart, the sourness of soul, the dimming of mind or the isolation of spirit that fits.

In this volume, then, the ways of righteousness and the will of God, the wisdom of creation and the point of the word of God as it is written, are prominent. In this present world, they need to be so, continually. The fact that faith in the founder,  saviour, wisdom, power, personal nature of God, through His confirmed channel, the incarnate Messiah Jesus Christ, is necessary for any resolution (there is no other effective, reliable, authorised or realistic surgeon of the soul) is necessary, is here designedly kept unclouded.

This also needs to be. Why not ? Assuredly reason insists on it (cf.  SMR, TMR for example); order demands it, its negation in the world of history, reads rather like a lab test; love offers it, mercy insists on it. Repentance toward God, salvation through HIS actions and willingness, the gift of eternal life by His magnificent advance on ordinary life, even for sinners, this continues irreparable, detestable to slanted desire, but undeterrable in impact, like a cancer operation for a dying man.

Wilfulness hates it. It is a costly program, as little children used to find, to their benefit. Better one sparing smack^*2 than a fairy story of 'human rights' in which our responsibilities to the God who made us are turned on their heads, and made void by things lovely to the ear, and horrible to the heart. Such is found as we look  at the rights offered by the now gone USSR, and often asserted in the most horrible of dictatorships, as if words could replace deeds.

There is no right to be wrong. The contrary assertion is merely self-righteousness, which is like the type of folly in which a firm acting as its own auditor, to impress the world, might indulge.

Mercy is the divine mandate, but turn it into rights and it is mere hollow wind, emanating from desire, impotent for realisation and frequently found to founder in interpretations, abuses and misuses that meander off into a land of make-believe, where someone or something makes a fatuous claim for THIS right (his) over yours (written), to the detriment of the latter, and so you founder in his foundry, remade by his legalities, a serf,  subject to his precocious whim and distortive desire.

Back to reality, this is the way. Back to righteousness, to the God who matters, made matter (cf. The gods of naturalism have no go!) and life and the rules for both, made liberty and its penalties of misuse, is merciful and knows how to show it, is not corruptible and does not forsake judgment; has predicted the course of the world with all but innumerable confirmations through prophecy over millenia, and has it now on a set course to the Judgment to come, preceded by the return of the Regality, Jesus Christ, "the Lord's Christ" (Luke 2:26), in His second role, that of King and Judge (Acts 1:7ff., 17:31), both roles as predicted, as seen in the last volume (Opus 221).

 

223rd

DEPARTMENT OF BIBLE AND SPIRITUAL AFFAIRS

October 2013

ISBN 978-0-9875948-6-0

This volume is entitled - Department of Bible and Spiritual Affairs.

Declarations and Dealings of Deity

from His Word and to the World

Thus a government Department may attend to sundries, or great things, and it is all in its compass as defined. So in Bible affairs, those of a particularity called the work of the Lord in terms of the word of the Lord, its meaning, message, demands, offers and applications, its teachings and its truth which, though overall and projecting over all and indeed protecting much, is still so often so rejected by so many, that it is made almost to appear like a segment: there are matters arising which need attention.

 

In this volume, the content is not so much a project, as a repository for things arising for the saving action, teaching and blessed work of the Lord, and for His kingdom biblically defined. And how is it defined ? this is in terms of the Lord Jesus Christ who is its Head, and only entry, its Lord and not its icon but its saviour, for whom and by whose work it has come to be freely available to repentance and the reception of His gift of redemption through His death, and empowerment through His death-vanquishing life. These matters may vary from literally world-shattering items, to the smallest of widow's mites.

 

In the constitution of this Department, you find words such as those of Romans 10:9, I Corinthians 15:42ff., 57ff., Philippians 2:7-11, Ephesians 1:19-23, 2:1-16, 3:14-21, Colossians 1:16-19, Hebrews 1:1-3, 2:1-3, 9:12-28, 11:1-3, I Timothy 4:1-6, Acts 4:11-12, 20:25-32, Matthew 28:19-20.

 

As in any Department, the topics in view are many and manifold, varying from faith in James, Hebrews and Paul, to the Westminster Confession in a changing Church, the predictions of Isaiah 9, the Darwin-Hitler tie-up, a Letter to a  Grandchild, and on to the teaching of Habakkuk and the nature of suffering and a simple approach to  Christian Apologetics. 

 

224th

DEPARTMENT OF BIBLE AND SPIRITUAL AFFAIRS

Volume 2

November 2013

ISBN 978-0-9875948-7-7

This wide-ranging, large volume includes

substantial overviews in

Israel, Millenium,

Naturalism - Gould, Darwin

in the face of logic,  and others,

Creation and the Ultimate Entrepreneur,

Faith,

Education, Spiritual Drugs and

Christian Apologetics

With this, there is a study in Isaiah in its flow and themes.

 

2014

So far, October 2014, 7 volumes have been published.

 

225th

DEPARTMENT OF BIBLE AND SPIRITUAL AFFAIRS

Volume 3

January 2014

ISBN 978-0-9875948-8-4

Declarations and Dealings of Deity

from His Word and to the World

Including various matters of Spiritual Digest

It has  topics such as why have history ? musicians, symbols, performance and  creation, spiritual epics and epochs and religions of irrationality, with a broad spectrum. It also deals with the question, Why have history ? As February begins, Volume 4 of this present series appears complete, and may soon be published as Volume 226.

As with the first two volumes, the intention does not vary in this one.

In this volume, the content is not so much a project, as a repository for things arising for the saving action, teaching and blessed work of the Lord, and for His kingdom biblically defined. And how is it defined ? this is in terms of the Lord Jesus Christ who is its Head, and only entry, its Lord and not its icon but its saviour, for whom and by whose work His salvation has come to be freely available to repentance and the reception of His gift of redemption, through His death, and empowerment through His death-vanquishing life. Attention to these matters may vary from literally world-shattering items, to the smallest of widow's mites.

In the constitution of this Department, you find words such as those of Romans 10:9, I Corinthians 15:42ff., 57ff., Philippians 2:7-11, Ephesians 1:19-23, 2:1-16, 3:14-21, Colossians 1:16-19, Hebrews 1:1-3, 2:1-3, 9:12-28, 11:1-3, I Timothy 4:1-6, Acts 4:11-12, 20:25-32, Matthew 28:19-20.

However, Volume Three is more than an extension. In common with the others are its episodic and varied features in its field; but different is this, that the intention is to seek to cover rather more in shorter form, more like a Digest, so that advantage may be taken briefly of earlier extended  expositions,  allowing pith to be presented more often.

While this is by no means the exclusive or inclusive feature of this volume (cf. Ch. 2 which is an extension of an earlier Chapter with a slightly different mode of approach), it is one which it is hoped will proved both useful and a diversity for the mind.

 

NOTES

*1

See Causes, SMR Ch. 5, and Ch. 3, Predestination and Freewill Section 4.

Causality is implicit in characterisation, definition, explanation, and without its functioning, argument is automatically invalid, irrelevant and unbased or self-contradictory.

*2

A remarkably sound article appeared in The Australian, August 5, 2013, from Adam Shand. The heading: Parents under pressure over challenge to the right to smack. Such words as there appeared bring hope that Australia has not yet been totally educated by the imperium of naturalism, to bring liberty into shame, and folly into a burning ascendency, till all restraint gone, there are mere embers left in the social scene.

 

226th

DEPARTMENT OF BIBLE AND SPIRITUAL AFFAIRS

Volume 4

Febuary 2014

ISBN 978-0-9875948-9-1

 

While this is a continuation of the digest-analysis, exposition-application work of the previous volume, it includes at Ch. 2, a coverage in unison of many elements of biblical Christian Apologetics, which may prove a useful condensate. As this world rockets, recoils, spoils, toils and troubles itself to the maximum, so we need to keep awake to its developments as the time for the impact of something more beneficial than an asteroid assuredly comes, that of terminus for igniting follies, not by rain but by reign, that of the only suitable, sufficient and indeed only God, who came to save and returns to rule. This volume has three chapters dealing with aspects of information and its mischievous mishandling, and deals with both predictive prophecy in the Bible and the spread of irrationality in major religions.

 

227th

DIVINE INFORMATION AND HUMAN MISINFORMATION

Febuary 2014

The topic of information is becoming one of the pillars of this Age. However as in the days of the Tower of Babel, man becoming self-informed and ignorantly deformed, faces a broken pillar. He has built on the sandy beaches of illusion.

Rejecting divine information with inept passion, continually, just like those linked to evil and promiscuity of various kinds before the flood (Genesis 6), he approaches the end of that information; for as it describes the beginning of man, so it displays the end for his kind. God has been remarkably kind, in not frying man in wrath, deleting his bundle to the dust, but having made so much so well, and having made man personal, God has viewed the cumulative and culminating sin as not irremediable, but ready for redemption.

This moreover was planned, foretold and then accomplished by His own paying of a ransom to cover justice, in the Person of His only begotten Son. In this way, He has provided that debts may be cleared, guilt removed, pardon granted with peace, while man might be restored to working condition, rest of heart, and the delights of working with the Lord. Indeed, He commands men everywhere to repent, pointing out that there is no other name given under heaven to man, by which he MUST be saved (Acts 4:11-12, 17:30-31). Slighting your Maker and Sovereign may seem cosy to the corrupt; but it is fatal because in the end, the gift of grace, ignored, is no more available. The strenuous labours of salvation and its beautiful intent, are then lost.

God, so very capable, has provided for none to be lost through mere mischance, and so has foreknown His people, and predestinated them to Himself (Romans 8:30ff.); not as if a tyrant, but in terms of His desire to save all, through grace (Colossians 1:19ff.), but to dictate to none in this field.

Being in His image, your preference is known to Him, as before our type of time, before human sin and guilt made a difference (Ephesians 1:4, John 3:19, Colossians 1:19ff.), and this positive fact  provides incentive to  seek Him.  None is ever lost except by this preference; and violation of that could indeed for some trusting in themselves, make heaven seem like hell.

The love of God is not like that. That, it is part of the information. The Gospel is literally a God-send, and departure is despite His love, not through any defect in it; and what more is there than to cover the cost, give eternal life freely and with pardon bring peace, position and a glorious opportunity to work with the Lord Himself, in fellowship sublime.

In the Bible, divine information is provided on all sides,  analytical, historical, personal, moral spiritual, in terms of judgment and of destiny. Quibbling as with so much, man tries to escape this information,  is like those who affect never to have heard of a speed limit. But it  applies, and dimly departing from the divine information, the Gospel of grace and the way to gain understanding, is as ineffective manoeuvre as any other squirming, writhing or manipulation. God cannot be manipulated, and information cannot be quenched, as fire may be. It is good to know what information is, divine information in particular, and of what you are informed.  It is otherwise to avoid it in reckless, feckless, heedless psychic pranks, spiritual anaesthesia or rank displacements.

 

228th.

DEPARTMENT OF BIBLE AND SPIRITUAL AFFAIRS

Volume 5

April 2014

 

229

DEPARTMENT OF BIBLE AND SPIRITUAL AFFAIRS

Volume 6

June 2014

The sixth book in this set of volumes on Department of Bible and Spiritual Affairs has one thing in common with the other four. It is presenting matters of biblical moment, and these are all spiritual affairs.

Indeed, it proceeds in the midst of mutabilities in this world, from the perspective of the immutable, the beautiful word of God, that Bible which cleanses, instructs, exhorts, imbues and by His Spirit opens eyes before pits and precipices, with the wonder of His wisdom and love. .

One Chapter concerns Australia, and its debate about freedom of speech, with strong words on both sides, even though without freedom to speak thoughts, ideas, concepts, questings, reproofs, it is hard to see how a human being can remain in that order, rather than a cultural drawf, like an astronomical black dwarf, with nothing freely left to show, as if to yearn to become a black whole, with nothing able to get out; although some things authorised by some human beings may be permitted to peep out.

Another item deals with the latter part of Psalm 22, which may be lost sight of in our intense empathy with the first part. Yet it is one deserving great attention, as is the whole matter of answered prayer, on which Psalm 22 gives no small lead and exemplar!

Now our times move like a group of horses careering into the straight, and the galloping is becoming thunderous, it even being reported that some notification went out from a not clearly demarcated authority, that all Jews in a segment of the Ukraine were to report for registration! Memories ...

Racism and superficial and even often unnoticed religion present final values without prior grounds, and being based only on subjective conviction and  loud-mouthed passion are like savage dogs, wailing to be released, unleashed, so that they can climb all over their victims. Culture likes to hide the name (religion of the moment) and so secure liberty to harass, and become instant religion as the hounds wail.

Amos, Nahum and Isaiah are given  attention in terms of both their unique input and current  application, and matters of Apologetic Impact come as the volume ends.

 

Man without God is like an unstable chemical compound, ready to change with just a little action; and his changes have this last century meant scores of millions of deaths in ideational wars, aspirant wars, self-defining wars, regional wars, wars of antipathy, wars where argument is made with guns and torture, where reason is imprisoned, truth becomes hostage and only at times, does it receive liberty to expose. To expose what ? to show some of the worst of the lunging hostilities that move the human heart so readily when leaving the reliabilities of its Maker, when it roams ready for this or that,  as the moment, the philosophy, the desire, the urge, the surge may demand.

As these things, set in the predicted successive empires of Daniel, and the debasements shown in Romans 1, proceed to their destined end, it is good to have liberty before the night closes (cf. John 9:4). As Christ said, many nations had to rise and fall (Matthew 24, Luke 21) before His return, following the times of test (Answers to Questions Ch. 5); but the time would come, as it does, when this draws near. Thus now is the time to WORK, for His servants, following His own declaration in His own day on this earth,  "I must work the works of Him who sent Me, for the night is coming when no man can work."

He did His eternal  work of redemption, and we who are His need to  complete, each his or her own, the works accorded, while it is yet day.