WHAT IS THE FUTURE?

COULD BE BANGLADESH!  But no, it is Somerset, England.   The huge onslaught of what is being referred to as ' Extreme Weather ' has left me feeling stunned.     I lived many years of my life in the South-west, and the enduring memory has been one of unchanging peacefulness and quietness.     THIS overwhelming surge of Wind, Rain, and Sea has suddenly rendered that serenity without security, indeed it is almost such a scene of uncertainty that one wonders if life will ever be the same.
The very coastal outline is being changed as cliffs crumble into raging seas, and the wind and waves rip up railways and homes that have been a never questioned part of the permanent scene for generations.     And WHEN have we seen such floods.     Of course other parts of the Country have been challenged as well.     The South-west has just been the recipient of the most recent  and, perhaps, the greatest attack upon the 'green and pleasant land' of England.      Most of all, to me, this has sounded an 'alarm' within my spirit; an alarm that perhaps events are overtaking us all.     Events that speak of global disaster.      Apart from any 'christian' believes and predictions, it may be WE have all unknowingly been part of our worlds soon to come demise.       Certainly we should be warned, and maybe most of us will find it hard to trust in a calm and easy future.

TO ALL our friends, and indeed to EVERYONE, suffering because of these recent

and continuing awful events that have taken lives, deprived so many of home and security,

and turned well known and loved areas into quagmires, we send our deepest sympathy

and sorrow for all you may be going through.

AND OF COURSE,  we know that the SAME, if at times different, weather has also attacked and confronted those living in the United States.     We do not forget you.     Indeed it has only woken us up to the terrible conditions and annual privations suffered all over the world - so far away from us that we have been previously oblivious of it all.    NOW it it seems we are to feel the 'lash' as well, and perhaps increase our pity for others - probably not if the 'Press' is to be believed.     Indeed we seem to care less for others, resenting the help and aid others receive, the more WE find ourselves in need and made uncomfortable.      Well we are all in the same boat you know - at least all on the same Planet!

Things are changing - for all of us, and all of us are going to experience all that such change will bring.

Not encouraging.      Our politicians have nothing to say or do about it.     Our scientists all in disarray and for the most part also in disagreement as to how to control the events confronting us, or even how to explain them.     We are all therefore forgiven if we should feel apprehensive about the future - even without nuclear weapons.       FAMINE is going to WIDEN its applications.    We ARE on a downward slide, and even the earth we stand upon is no longer as reliable as it used to be - it opens up beneath our roads and homes...... This to me is all, taken by and large, increasingly MORE than 'Wars and rumours of wars, and famines and earthquakes in place after place'  -  Mathew 24.   This is further on that the BEGINNING......... I begin to FEEL that we are getting close to what are today, lightly referred to as 'The Last Days'.    Things could be folding up.         Daryl said to me just this week -

'May be I have become Director

to supervise the end of Testimony Faith Homes'

What made him say this?   The sun is shining HERE, the weather has been good to us, we enjoy warmth, without discomfort, our crops are growing!   The children in our Homes all look well and happy as they daily attend school, play in the Pool, and in the fields, looking excitedly to the future.

And, of course people are marrying and being given in marriage........all, to some extent, without realising that at any second there may be 'time no longer'.       And the 'signs' are with US.  We have been forced to ask if we might have to close down as we no longer seem able pay our way.  OUR time is short.........Daryl has felt this, in just a week of taking up the reigns.      There is a TIME for everything, and may be our time has, or is coming, to an end here.      God will stand with us still of course - even at the end and even through it.     When the END comes for Planet Earth, GOD will still BE, and still be with those who TRUST in HIM.   He has promised never to leave or forsake us.

REVELATION is the END of the Bible, and it tells of the LAST DAYS, and the END.

In chapter 6v4 talks of a time when 'peace will be taken from the earth, so that men slaughter each other'

Do you think that time has come already.    We live in such a day.   Two World wars, and countless little ones everywhere.     That Day we have to recognise.

In chapter 6v5-6 speaks about a time when world economy will be in the balance.   food will be scarce and costly to purchase...............a time when OIL and WINE will determine many things.   Has this day come.     YES,  I believe it has.    We need to recognise it.

In chapter 6v7-- we hear when FAMINE and PLAGUE will take the lives of millions.    Has this day also come?    Yes I do believe it has.   We are in the midst of it.

In chapter 6v9-10 ...we hear of a host of souls whose lives had been taken from them because they had stood for the TRUTH.    No other reason.   For their TESTIMONY in Jesus.     TODAY we see that there is a drift of secular feeling against religion.    In the West we have and are still seeing opinion shift against and away from Christian Doctrine, and lifestyle.      It may not be too long before the Christian will be seen as an Enemy of the State - ....!!!!     I have seen this coming for many decades, but it is more real now than ever before.    ARE YOU AWAKE, or are you drifting.   WATCH and PRAY.     I have exhorted the Family now for more than forty years to DO this.     I say it now again, and never more needfully.      Rouse from all hope of comfort and indolence, and WATCH - and PRAY.     The END is coming - perhaps has COME!     Make sure you are ready, make sure the OIL of Gladness, the very LIFE blood of GOD is IN YOU, and that you keep AWAKE ..............

There I go again.    Can't help it.    It just comes over me, wells up and out............

I saw in the U.K.s Daily Mail that scientists in the U.S. have announced that Homosexuals are so, due to their DNA.     In a way they are saying (guardedly) that a Homosexual is so from birth, and that he/ she has inherited their sexual orientation.     Of course those who indulge in this type of sexual behaviour are always trying to comfort themselves by saying it is not their fault that they are different from the norm.    They were born, created, made like it.     If this actually exonerates them I doubt very much, or else they would not be using it as a defence;   basically they acknowledge their way is not the RIGHT way.       One of Britain's own respected Geneticists, Professor R.J. Barry, has written 'GENES do not cause homosexuality'.    BUT even if EVERY facet of our nature and personality could be traced to a Gene, does  that mean that we should just accept it, when it affects our life and our society for the worse.     Do we accept the behaviour of an habitual thief, murderer, drunkard, paeodophile to be right in what he does?

AND THE BIBLE insists that GOD does not accept homo-sexuality; it is an abomination, an abnormal, unplanned, and unmeant aberration of a man's reasoning.     It will bring destruction in society, in humanity, in the world.       AND again JESUS reminded us that as in the days of Sodom and Gomorrah so will the days just before the END.      Do you see this?     The world is being 'conditioned' and taken over by a minority which in itself maintains a life style and ethic which is ungodly and AGAINST world society.   And it is toward our children and grandchildren that these acceptabilities are being aimed.   Via the internet, electronic games, films, video and books,  attitudes to violence, sex, and even colour are being changed.

In recent years we have seen this more and more clearly until even the 'Christian' is beginning to believe that two men and two women is acceptable, healthy, and appropriate;  until we are barely horrified by voilent crime     I personally have always said that one should maintain a loving attitude to the sinner.   We should not hate the sinner with the SIN.

BUT TODAY I must say more clearly that where sin is discovered it should be REVEALED.

Sin, all sin, can be forgiven when it is seen and repented of,  but it may not be covered up BEFORE it IS repented of.     Jesus did not condemn the woman taken in adultery when she was brought to Him for judgement - but He STILL told her not to continue in that sin, and in telling her this He tacitly judged her lifestyle as being WRONG!  We must DECLARE the wrong and proclaim the Right fearlessly else we may not legally and properly claim that we are LIGHT and SALT in our society.       AND REMEMBER NOW

the words of Jesus, who is the LORD of every TRUE Christian -  He said in John 15v19 -

'IF you belonged to the world, the world would treat you with affection

and would love you as its own.

But because you are not of the world (no longer one with it),

but I have chosen (selected) you out of the world,

the world hates (detests) you.'  (Amplifed Bible Translation)

It is a long time since BUNYAN who wrote Pilgrim's Progress' and was imprisoned for his testimony of Christ, and the Christian may have got used to an easy going life without cost.    TIME to WAKE up and COUNT the COST of BEING a Child of God.

AND YES,   I did take Esther out on Valentine's Day - for lunch - just the two of us.  Wonderful!
And YES I am still very much a human being, and I try not to be a religious fanatic.   I know many who do indulge in unhealthy lifestyles.     I love them well enough, but I do not hide from them my fears for their life and soul.       Regretfully not many of them take any notice - some have walked away out of my life and sight, others have made changes in their lives, and we pray on for them.

Take care dear brothers and sisters - do not be conformed to the world.    Take a Stand.    Take a stand for God, and for God's WAY!      The pressure is building up against the Christian, to first of all lose his Faith, then his Courage, and finally his Hope.      We are praying for YOU ALL as WE go through our own time of Testing.     I do believe we can and will ALL come through and find power to ENDURE whatever may come, to the END.      And HE is with us ,,,,,,,

John and Esther