ARE YOU OCCUPIED?

WE LIKE TO SING the Chorus - 'He's got the whole world in His hands..' honouring God and witnessing to His Power. But the chorus is, of course, able to be turned round depending on what we are thinking about. The DEVIL may also be said to have the whole world in HIS hands since He is still the prince, the titular head under God, of this world. And again YOU and I might at some time think that WE have the whole world in OUR hands, seeking to manipulate and make merchandise of it for our own gain and pleasure. Did not Jesus Himself find Himself being offered the whole 'world' by Satan, if He would only fall down and worship HIM? And was it not this SAME Jesus that spoke and said -

Luke 9v25 - 'What is man advantaged, if he gain the whole world, and lose himself, or be cast away?HE answered Satan's temptation and said - 'Go away Satan, for it is written, Thou shalt worship the LORD thy God, and Him only shalt thou serve. God MADE the world, and He entrusted it to Lucifer as a gift. But Lucifer turned against God and miss-used the Created World in pride and arrogance. God went on to Create Man and put him into this World to bring back order to it, but Satan immediately set about the task of turning MAN against God also. He willfully misled him with reason and logic, and additionally used everything he could find or invent from the world's resources to attract Man AWAY from serving God to serving himself and his own lustful desires for self pleasure. SATAN has yet again twisted the world to his own purposes against God, until it is itself sick and spoilt - a terrible parody of what God intended.

THUS the one who loves ( prefers) the world and the things that are in it, becomes an enemy of God, separated from Him - 1John 2v15-17(Amplified Bible) 'DO NOT love or cherish the world or the things that are in the world - the lust of the flesh (craving for sensual gratification) and the lust of the eyes (greedy longings of the mind) and the pride of life (assurance in one's own resources or in the stability of earthly things) - these do not come from the Father, but are from the world itself.' (AND of the devil, by implication!)

And the world (will pass away and disappear) and with it the forbidden cravings (the passionate desires, the lust) of it; but he who does the will of God and carries out His purposes in is life abides (remains) for ever.'

BUT JESUS has also said that in the last days of this planet's life, 'the love of the great body of people will grow cold because of lawlessness and iniquity.' Matthew 24v12 Perhaps that is what we are seeing today - but are we watching? Are we alert and aware?

I have had DEMAS on my mind for about eighteen months. Not a great deal written about him in the New Testament of the Bible - just three scripture references by Paul the Apostle. Two of them find him mentioned as amongst Paul's companions (Colossi ans 4v14 & Philemon v24). The third reference is found in 2. Timothy 4v10 where it is written 'Demas has forsaken me, having loved this present world..' Paul was actually 'forsaken' by many others in his life and ministry just as Jesus Himself was......I wonder why Demas was especially named out of the many? Perhaps he was one that Paul had put more hope in than others.....perhaps he had a preference and was therefor more personally affected....... YET in a way it may have been even MORE because it was the WORLD that had taken him away. The World - what part of it ? - the lusts of the flesh, materialism, selfish ambition of some kind? We are not told. But the obvious disappointment and personal loss hangs heavily upon the words. OUR commission is to witness and share what we personally have discovered about God's Love. To tell how He found a way to redeem not only MY soul, but everyone's soul who would believe it. It is SO special when we are permitted to see someone who has HEARD Gospel, the Holy Spirit catching their attention and bringing them OUT of the world to GOD! It is the hardest thing to see one such later turn back. As Paul again says in Hebrews 10v38 concerning such a person - 'Now the just that live by faith (in Christ), but if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him.' NO, it is abject misery to watch a loved one blindly pursue a path to self afflicted pain and hurt brought on by forsaking God's love and salvation. Much the worse when it is a member of ones own family, or special circle of friends.

BUT, in fact NONE of us should be of those that actually turn back, and to have done so in all likelihood means that we took our eyes away from God for a moment, just as David took his eyes away to Bathsheba bathing in her garden, and was carried off by his own lusts. How desperately we need to keep our thoughts upon the Lord, upon the Word of God. As long as GOD is with us we shall have Power to endure with Him, and in fact with all those who are on the journey with us
This young couple to the left have yet endured to remain together to become the older couple on the right! Not without the suffering of each other's foibles, failings, and differences. How has it come to be? BECAUSE as I have often witnessed to - JESUS lives in each of our lives, and gave us the strength and reason to be FAITHFUL, first to HIM, and then to each other. Oh JOY! No one and nothing down here on earth is perfect, but God by His Spirit can make it possible for everyone and everything to be endured for His Sake, and for His Honour. In this I WITNESS TO THE SAVING POWER OF CHRIST. Let HIM reign in your heart and you will have POWER to live, and you will also be PART of the power that keeps the worst of the evils from coming upon this world - at least until Jesus comes and takes us to be with him collectively - together with the Holy Spirit Who enables us, and Who in us keeps the worst at bey!

There IS a force that keeps the worst at bey; that keeps Satan from bringing 'the tide of iniquity from coming fully in'. There IS a force that hampers that Man of Sin, who shall come to sweep everything of God away with all deceivableness and lying wonders, from actually showing his hand and from being revealed. That force is the Holy Spirit of God, inhabiting the lives of the First Born, the true ALIVE Church of Christ. Read 2.Thessalonians 2v1-12 As long as the Holy Spirit remains in the world IN the Believers who ARE the Church of the First Born, the WORST cannot come. But they are not many. The greater number have become cool towards God, and that number is growing. YET even THEY are able in the Spirit of God, to hold back the Evil, even SATAN himself. SOON the trumpet WILL sound, and even that small company, the remnant of the Ages, will be called up and away. All restraint will be taken away and the Lawless One will sweep in with his tide of Iniquity to cover and blot out all godliness.

ARE you AWAKE to this? Are you alert?

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AND WHAT OF TESTIMONY?

We are all here! We who know and love the Lord are standing ready; ready to do great exploits for Him before the Trumpet Sounds! We are on Guard against that day, with our sword in our hand as we go about our work and business; as we minister to the children about us, and as we witness to those with whom we must trade and do our work. You ask, But are ALL standing? Perhaps not ALL, but those that ARE keep themselves occupied and ready. Especially our general and domestic staff are a mixed bag - and even some of the School's teachers

Times are HARD in Kenya. Hard also all around us where we are. The year has proceeded month by month with spasmodic showers of rain, teasingly unhelpful, whilst the earth has dried out, and set concretely around the roots of crops, crushing, strangling, and killing them. Many have died together with their livestock from starvation. The skies are cloudy, often grey, but they do not carry rain - the rivers remain dry, the lakes shrinking, the water tables sinking ever deeper below the roots of trees whose branches themselves like hardened arteries bring less and less life above the ground. The great Mahogany Tree outside Green Cottage, once so dense with luxuriant foliage is now looking starved, its branches bare and drooping, its leaves sparse, limp, and failing. All our trees begin to look the same. The lawns are green, but all above them seems prematurely aged, deprived of life. For us in Eldoret we still have some water supply from local underground sources, but none can tell how long they will hold up. We are like a desert being born. But our weather men say it will RAIN heavily in October - a Tsunami of Rain they say, an EL NINO of rain, that will drench and flood, and maybe of itself also take more lives! The crops have failed, money is short nationally, and in the months ahead we are told shops may become empty, - and thus our stomachs also. For the moment all remains relatively normal in Eldoret Town and environs, but we cannot say this will continue unless God intervenes. Not a good prospect for us, for Kenya, Africa, and the World. Prices are obviously continuing to climb. We are unable to buy what we once did. Tighter and tighter draws the communal belt around us all. The Lean years are upon us. Life goes on.

HERE IS A PHOTO OF EMILY AND STEVE with their little son, at home in Drakeley Cottage.

Yesterday Emily had gone to Nakuru to attend a Court Case against one of her younger brothers who is accused of Manslaughter against another teenager. On leaving the Court in the late afternoon Emily took a Matatutu, a local minibus taxi to come home the 160 kilometers. The taxi was packed with about 14 people, and as they all neared Eldoret, about 10 kilometres distant, and about 9p.m. at night, the driver lost control and the taxi ran off the road and rolled a number of times into a gully. Emily was thrown violently about with all the others, though fortunately perhaps a bit jammed together in the taxi. Her mouth and chin was cut about, and she had bruises, but fortunately no breakages. She was in a state of shock by the time she got to Eldoret finally, and to Hospital for a check up. Very frightening for her, and also of course for Steve who was anxious not knowing why she was so late getting home. We Thank the Lord for protecting her and sparing her life.

Today is Saturday, 19th September. Everyone has eaten lunch, and will eat supper. Most of our bills have been paid, but we have not yet seen funds for Monday onwards, or for salaries of our workers. It is a strange situation to be in. One that has recurred again and again in the year behind us. YET we live! And TRULY, ' NOW, may Israel (the people of God) say, if had not been for the Lord we would have been destroyed.' Pray for us even today as you read this. I am confident in knowing that BEFORE we called, and before we have shared the LORD has attended to our needs, and that help is on the way - help that cannot be anything else that miraculous proof of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ in Whose Name we forever pray to the Father in Heaven.

We pray always for you all. May He forever be close to you, to comfort, encourage and sustain you till He comes or Calls.

In His Love and Grace

John and Esther

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