Assemble yourselves and come; draw near together, you survivors of the nations! They have no knowledge who carry about their wooden idols, and keep on praying to a god that cannot save.

The Prophet Isaiah 45:20 ESV

Neither of these photos is the one photo I was searching for in an earlier post with regard to the recent typhoon in Burma.

The nations worship that which is not the One True Living God Who is to be found within Christianity and His Son the Lord Jesus Christ.

Repentance toward God and His Christ is the only answer for this old world that is hurtling towards eternity without the Life of God.  The message of the Gospel is as important today as it ever was.

Repent and be saved, why will you die?

A hyper Calvinist might quote some Scripture..

No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day.

The Gospel of John 6:44 ESV

Very well, but let me quote some more Scripture…

For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing his riches on all who call on him. For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!”

Pauls letter to the Romans 10:12-15 ESV

Some words from the Welsh preacher John Elias, who himself was considered a high Calvinist.

O the wretchedness of the condition of those men who are without Christ! No tongue can ever tell, and no finite mind can ever fathom to eternity, the thousandth part of the misery of men without Christ!

Bare, without a robe!

Ill, with no physician!

Hungry, having not the bread of life!

Filthy, with no fountain!

Guilty, with no righteousness!

Lost with no Saviour!

Damned, with no atonement!

The world and everything in it is passing away, yes and that includes those people in it.  If you are not born again then when you die you will not be a partaker of the Life of God, but will be accursed and seperated from Him for ever suffering His wrath.

Oh the wonder of the Grace of God.  How precious beyond thought.

Lord have mercy.

This is the day that the LORD has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.

Psalms 118:24 ESV

Just a personal post, we are having some super weather here in the Midi Pyrénées at the moment. Here is a view from my terrace.

Must be about 30°C I would think today.

I prefer a day with a few clouds in it. BBQ tonight I think.

I was out in the mountains yesterday, not far from where I live. I don’t have a camcorder, my camera has a video utility, it’s not bad.

My dog Dodi, he is a Labri, a regional sheep dog breed. He’s one of my best friends.

One of the local peaks.

Still Pharaoh’s heart was hardened, and he would not listen to them, as the LORD had said.

Exodus 7:3 ESV

And…

So Pharaoh said to Joseph, “I hereby put you in charge of the whole land of Egypt.” Then Pharaoh took his signet ring from his finger and put it on Joseph’s finger. He dressed him in robes of fine linen and put a gold chain around his neck . He had him ride in a chariot as his second-in-command, and men shouted before him, “Make way!” Thus he put him in charge of the whole land of Egypt.

Genesis 41:41 – 43 ESV

Food for thought, don’t you think!

Ah, sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, offspring of evildoers, children who deal corruptly! They have forsaken the LORD, they have despised the Holy One of Israel, they are utterly estranged. Why will you still be struck down? Why will you continue to rebel? The whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint.

Isaiah 1:4-5 ESV

They have forsaken the LORD,
they have despised the Holy One of Israel.

That is the root cause of all that has befallen us. But it is that which we will not acknowledge. Historians will yet write their acute analysis of the causes of two world wars, they will trace the interplay of forces, national, political, economic, which finally lead to strife, they may name the agents who were the head and front of the tragedy; but who will dare, as Isaiah did, to placard before men their corporate moral responsibility for the sin of war?

The world has resounded with recriminations and accusations against men and nations. Every combatant has proclaimed the justice of his cause and laid claim to the divine reinforcement of his arms.

The guilt has invariably been ascribed to another; only a handful of believers among enemies and allies alike have had the honesty or the moral sensitiveness to cry ‘Mea culpa’. It is not less than blasphemy so to read history as to plead the inevitability of war, or to suggest, if not to claim, that by slaughter and destruction the will of God is done.

Repentance is the invariable condition of salvation. But instead of repentance, nations that have been reprieved from death redoubles its researches in methods of slaughter and puts its faith in a nuclear or an atomic bomb, or even in that last device of evil, biological warfare.

To such a people the word is spoken again:

Why will you still be struck down?
Why will you continue to rebel?

And struck down the world will be, if men continue to desert the Lord God, scorn the Holy One, and from his pleading and his warning turn away like strangers. When the philosophers, statesmen, or economists have spoken their minds on the world situation, the prophet has still to be heard; and his first word must, by the compulsion of God, be a judgment on sin.

G. G. D. Kilpatrick
The Interpreters Bible

There are so many other images I would like to add to this post but some I decided were too strong to show for various reasons.

There was also one image in particular that I could not find that I would have included, it was a photo taken after the typhoon that hit Burma recently. A large golden idol of budhha standing proud amongst the destruction all about it. The nations sin standing out like a fort royal against the LORD GOD ALMIGHTY.

There is but One God and it is certainly not budhha or allah or any other false god.

For not only has the word of the Lord sounded forth from you in Macedonia and Achaia, but your faith in God has gone forth everywhere, so that we need not say anything. For they themselves report concerning us the kind of reception we had among you, and how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come.

Thessalonians 1:8-10 ESV

Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. This man came to Jesus by night and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.”

Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” Nicodemus said to him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?”

Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”

Nicodemus said to him, “How can these things be?”

John 3:1-9 ESV

And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.

But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ–by grace you have been saved.

Ephesians 2:1-5 ESV

Some tunes from 2nd Chapter of Acts

Jesus knows which way the wind blows.

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Hear the bells ringing, they’re singing that you can be born again.

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And some were convinced by what he said, but others disbelieved.
And disagreeing among themselves, they departed after Paul had made one statement: “The Holy Spirit was right in saying to your fathers through Isaiah the prophet:

‘Go to this people, and say,
You will indeed hear but never understand,
and you will indeed see but never perceive.

For this people’s heart has grown dull,
and with their ears they can barely hear,
and their eyes they have closed;
lest they should see with their eyes
and hear with their ears
and understand with their heart
and turn, and I would heal them.’

Therefore let it be known to you that this salvation of God has been sent to the Gentiles; they will listen.”

Acts 28:24-28 ESV

Orthodox Jews examine a piece of fruit for blemishes. Unfortunately they have lost the plot so to speak.

Click below to listen to an Israelite who embraced his messiah.

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Marty Froom was raised in a Jewish home in a very anti-Semitic neighborhood in the Bronx, NY, where as a child he was regularly mocked and beaten for being a Jew.

Growing up to hate the name of Jesus Christ even in adulthood because of the false perception he had of what “Christianity” was and who “Christians” were.

Marty eventually came to love with the One he once hated after joining his wife at a weekly Bible study led by a Jewish believer in Christ, and embraced Him as his Messiah.