The Present Crisis

Posted Aug 27, 2020 by Adrian Ebens in Last Day Events

The Present Crisis

Transcript - Steamed live on 19 August 2020

Love that hymn (511 - I Know Whom I Have Believed).  Well we may not know when my Lord may come but we do know that the signs all around us are telling us that it is even at the doors, very close and we want to talk about some of these things tonight as we are gathering together.

It's nice to be back on deck.  My wife and I and my son had a wonderful break and took time to walk in the mountains and on the beach and to renew our energies ready for more service and it was just a wonderful time.  A wonderful time of reflection and I must admit that having just come to the end of writing the book, As You Judge, I had time for much thanks and praise to God for the things that we've been sharing.  Today we have finally finished the final draft of As You Judge and I'd like to read to you what Danny Brown, our Chief Editor, said in his final review of the book.  He says something very interesting and I wanted to share this with you.  This is in our Father of Love group and this is what Danny said:

I had the honour of just finishing the final edits on Pastor Adrian's book 'As You Judge'. For me this book is very special, because it gets to the heart of the problem of sin in man, and why we consistently misunderstand God. It is easy to say we are sinners in need of a new heart; it is much harder to say what the ROOT of our sin problem is and what exactly is the NEW HEART that God is trying to give us. Specifics are necessary because salvation is a science; it doesn't happen by magic!

All the explanations for the difficult/violent stories in the Bible are important to understand, but we may feel that as we study we are lacking a unifying thread that causes us to not be steady in seeing our God as truly everlastingly merciful. This book gets at the core of the issue, offering the framework in which all the stories of Agape fit. I believe if we can understand this, we will be ready for the Time of Trouble. Therefore it is hugely hugely important.

Thank you, Danny and I'll keep reading because I agree with him 100%.

As I look around, I don't see a people who are ready for the time of trouble (including myself). What I do see is a world where hate and condemnation is rising, ready to explode just like the time of the Jews against the Romans (or French Revolution). I think it is because this problem of judgment and condemnation and hate has not been dealt with, because it has not been properly diagnosed and the cure made clear.

This book is profound and yet has a simplistic elegance to its graceful laying out of the plan of salvation. If you have come this far on the journey, and struggled through so much to get here (whether doctrinally or experientially), please don't cut yourself short and ignore this book when the treasure has finally emerged! The pearl of great price is so bright in these pages that I believe it will stay with you no matter what happens in the future.

I rejoice and I have to agree with him and I must say at this point that this book is the culmination of years of collaborative study with a whole group of us that have been reflecting and thinking upon these subjects.  Many of you have sent statements to me, suggested material to me and I have reflected on all of these things and in our positive creative fellowship together, this book has come out of that experience.  It's a victory for all of us.  To be able to bring together everything on scripture, to look the investigative judgment doctrine square in the face and say “this is truth in an 1888 context” and be able to present it.  For those of us that have been in the Adventist movement for decades will understand the significance of this work, in connecting it to the 1888 message and presenting the judgment as a mirror of human nature.  It's a complete reverse of what we thought in terms of God's character and explaining that God doesn't kill people, really fall short unless we can show that He doesn't condemn people because condemning people and killing people are one-two-step process.  It's just that one goes with the other if you are the source of life and you condemn someone, they're dead, they're going to die and you are the cause of their death because you condemned them to death.  So we had to get to the source of this issue and I’m really, really happy.

I have to testify that in trying to bring all of these themes together in relationship to the close of probation, the investigative judgment, the seal of God and all of the things in Adventist eschatology that we have studied, I’m trying to put these together and I’ve got five or six chapters into the book and it's all swirling around in my head and I’m thinking, “Oh Lord, You know I’m a bit lost.  I don't know where to go” and then we had Pentecost and the Spirit was poured out and the next day I wrote five chapters and the day after that I wrote six chapters in one day.  I knew that God was leading because He just opened up, I got the clarity and out it came.  And there's Danny bearing witness to the clarity, the elegance, the simplicity because I was stuck and I couldn't do it.  I felt like I was chewing on sand and I was just like, no, it's not sweet anymore, it's just a bit hard.  So I want to thank God for this book that will help bring together the whole concept of God does not destroy, into what the investigative judgment is all about, and for a number of you have expressed to me, that this is really changing your character.

When we know that God does not judge, does not condemn, He does not judge in a condemning way.  He does judge and what is His judgment?  To give mercy, to visit the fatherless and the widows, to uphold and that's His judgment.  His judgment is healing, His judgment is redemptive, His judgment is never condemning and that's something that's very, very important.

So with that context in mind, I would like to kneel and pray and lead into our topic tonight which I’ve entitled, The Present Crisis and the Lord I pray will lead us.

Father in heaven, I thank You that we can come to You.  We worship You as our wonderful Father we thank You, Lord Jesus, that You intercede on our behalf to give us Your Spirit.  You have shown us the character of Your Father and we have fallen in love with Him so wonderfully because of You and we thank You Father for sending Your Son on Your behalf to reveal Your character to us through Him.  We believe that You will complete the work that You have started in us and that You will prepare us for this final crisis.  We know that the time of Jacob's trouble is not far hence and in ourselves, as we look at our characters, we are tempted to tremble for what is just before us.  But though we walk through the valley of the shadow of death, we need not fear any evil for You are with us and Your rod and Your staff, they comfort us and we pray that, in this new moon season, we will be encouraged, comforted, lifted up and prepared for the events just before us.  I thank You in Jesus name.

Amen.

I would like to read to you a little bit of a statement from Councils to the Church.  It's also partly in Testimonies Volume 5 and just want to read a few things in regard to the things that are about to unfold upon us and I would like to just mention a few, give us a little bit of context.

I think most of us are up to speed with the context but, in Australia at least, we have one million people that are out of work.  We have, as I’ve watched some economic reports that at least a few weeks ago, 55 percent of people that were paying off their houses were using temporary forms of payment to pay their house off.  We are all sleep walking.  Well not necessarily sleepwalking, but we are walking into a massive disaster.  The payments that the government is offering are going to be reduced next month and the squeeze is going to be on.  We have an economic crisis looming and this is going to create tremendous hardship.  It's already creating tremendous hardship.  The mental toll on people that have been stretched because of the lifestyles that many aspired to before this thing took place, many are in great debt and now they can't pay off that debt and the suicide rate is going up.  The instability is increasing and that's just in Australia let alone all of the other countries.  We have vastly conflicting evidence being presented to us in regard to COVID-19.  The experts are not agreed but the governments of the world seem to be all agreed in regard to the treatment that they want to use.

Having just written the book, As You Judge, I am asking Jesus with all of my strength to not comment on this issue to the negative but simply to say that, we see that there are forces from beneath that are at work.  This is evident and that there are powers at play that are seeking to bring about a new world order.  That much is evident.  We are going to have to make decisions about how we approach these things and we are in a position that the characters that we have been forming will soon be revealed.

Today we received the news here in Australia that Australia will be mandating the vaccine and for free.  That's what the headline of the article said.  What the Prime Minister actually said was that we will want to make this as mandatory as possible which is not what the headline said but that's what he actually said and that he wants that to be 95 percent.  Now 95 percent of the population leaves out 1.25 million people which is a fair amount of people that won't be included in that necessarily so in any case many questions are raised.  Many, many temptations come to us as to how we respond.  How do we relate to the dignitaries of our country, the leaders of our country?  How do we relate to them in this kind of a context?  This is a test of character for us as to how we relate to these things.

I want to read you from Councils to the Church (CCh), pages 335 and 336.  Point two says,

God has revealed what is to take place in the last days, that His people may be prepared to stand against the tempest of opposition and wrath.  Those who have been warned of the events before them are not to sit in calm expectation of the coming storm, comforting themselves that the Lord will shelter his faithful ones in the day of trouble.  We are to be as men waiting for their Lord, not in idle expectancy, but in earnest work, with unwavering faith.  It is no time now to allow our minds to be engrossed with things of minor importance.

Oh but how do we define those words minor importance?  What is of minor importance? They're the issues that we want to discuss tonight.

While men are sleeping,

How many are sleeping according to the parable of the ten virgins?

While men are sleeping, Satan is actively arranging matters so that the Lord's people may not have mercy or justice.

It's an interesting statement, isn't it? He's arranging things now that God's people will not have mercy or justice, theologically and practically.

The Sunday movement is now making its way in darkness.  

Isn't it?  Climate change is the vehicle through which the Sunday movement now makes its way.

The leaders are concealing the true issue,

Aren't they and you think she has written that today.

and many who unite in the movement do not themselves see whether the undercurrent is tending.

So we can't rail against people that are involved in this movement because many of them don't realize what's actually driving it.

Its professions are mild and apparently Christian, but when it shall speak it will reveal the spirit of the dragon.  “The wrath of man shall praise Thee,” says the psalmist; “the remainder of wrath shalt Thou restrain.”

That's interesting.

God means that testing truth shall be brought to the front and become a subject of examination and discussion, even if it is through the contempt placed upon it.

For those of us that have been studying the beauties of the 1888 message and the character of our God in a non-violent context, we realize that the majority of the world is not interested in the subject.  In fact the majority of the world want a God that kills people.  That's what they want.  And the majority of the remnant church want this also.  So how does this message come before the people?  God will allow an agitation to take place.  He will allow conflict to arise that will bring this message before the people.  This is what I read in this statement.

The minds of the people must be agitated.  Every controversy, every reproach, every slander, will be God's means of provoking inquiry and awakening minds that otherwise would slumber.

What does that tell you?  That we need to be able to handle reproach and slander and this is how God's going to bring it before the people.  Then she says this:

We as a people have not accomplished the work which God has committed to us.

Is that true?  We got derailed in 1888 and many of us were handed a gospel that could not save.  But thank God, He is helping us and bringing us to the point so that we can.  But from where we stand now, as God's scattered flock around the world, it seems that the task is overwhelming and that's just as God would have it as I will read to you.  That's what Gideon …  Exactly my brother, that's why we've been operating what I’ve called the Gideon 300 strategy.  It's all we need, we don't need anything else.

We are not ready for the issue to which the enforcement of the Sunday law will bring us.

I agree we're not ready for this yet.

It is our duty, as we see the signs of approaching peril, to arouse to action.  Let none sit in calm expectation of the evil, comforting themselves with the belief that this work must go on because prophecy has foretold it, and that the Lord will shelter His people.  We are not doing the will of God if we sit in quietude, doing nothing to preserve liberty of conscience.

That's an interesting statement, isn't it?  Preserving liberty of conscience.  I did have the thought today, that it's interesting that the secular humanist movement advocates very strongly that a woman should have complete control over her own body as to whether she can have an abortion at full term or not.  But when it comes to the issue of vaccination that's not the case.  My body is not my choice.  I have no say over what happens to my body.  It's an interesting dichotomy that's occurring there.  That's what it would appear to be.

Fervent, effectual prayer should be ascending to heaven that this calamity may be deferred until we can accomplish the work which has so long been neglected.

And it's on this point that I want to raise some points for context for us.  In the hour that we are at this present time.  I watched a presentation a few days ago in reference to the date or the year 2025 and I wondered why these dates had not been presented to me before but I did a little bit of research on Alice Bailey and the new age movement and she had mentioned the date 2025 at least eight or nine times and I wondered why I had not seen or heard this information before, 2025, as a time when the hierarchy will be manifested it will be externalized in 2025.

I did some reading and I’m not going to go down that path tonight but 2025, there's also been some conjecture about a particular website called Deagle where it's basically saying that by 2025 America's population is going to be reduced by over 200 million people and that population is not going to travel to Canada nor to Mexico nor to South America because their numbers don't shift dramatically in the upward direction.  So the only conclusion to be drawn from this website, Deagle, is that America is going to lose 200 million people through death or are destroyed, not that they draw that conclusion but they leave you to draw that conclusion.

Now who are these people and how do they come to these figures?  Well that's a matter of conjecture and why is it even significant.  Some people believe it is significant and I want to tell you tonight why I believe that that information is false, it's not true, not yet because all these people are missing one vital ingredient and that relates to Revelation Chapter 7.

Revelation Chapter 7, if you look at it, what does it say?  Revelation 7:1-3:

And after these things I saw four angels standing on the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the earth, that the wind should not blow on the earth, nor on the sea, nor on any tree.

And I saw another angel ascending from the east, having the seal of the living God:  and he cried with a loud voice to the four angels, to whom it was given to hurt the earth and the sea,

Saying, hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees, till we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads.

I believe we are at that point right now.  We have received the sealing message.  Have we not?  We know the Father's name, we know His character, we know the vehicle by which this name is going to be imprinted upon His people - through His Sabbath and His appointments.  We know these things but we are not sealed and we are not ready and so Revelation Chapter 7 is now fulfilling that there needs to be a holding.

Now Brother Colin will have to remind me of the quote.  I thought that at one point we would have to pray this prayer “Hold, hold, hold”  but Spirit of Prophecy is saying we are not to pray that prayer “Hold, hold, hold” which sort of stunned me for a bit.  We are not to impede the work, it is Christ who decides these things.  We are to go forward with all speed as best as God opens the way for us.  But it does say here as we said “fervent, effectual prayer should be ascending to heaven that this calamity may be deferred until we can accomplish the work which is so long been neglected”, so there is in essence, in which we are to pray that the calamity will be deferred until we can complete our work.  Now how that lines up with her saying we should not pray “Hold, hold, hold” I’m still trying to harmonize those things but we are to pray that the calamity will be deferred.

We were in a position this year to greatly upscale the message.  We were put in a position where we could have been able to support many more workers, print many more books in many countries and then this thing struck and it would appear that our ability to advance this has been curtailed but I believe that our Saviour is going to say “Hold, hold, hold”.

Now I want to read a little bit more and then I'll make some more comments on this.

Let there be more earnest prayer, and then let us work in harmony with our prayers.  It may appear that Satan is triumphant and that the truth is overborn …

Did you pick that, “it may appear that Satan is triumphant and the truth is overborn “

with falsehood and error;

We are making our way through difficulty at the present time.  It's difficult to awaken people's interest on a wide scale.  We are making inroads with ones and twos and fives and

small groups of people.  Here we are making small inroads into people but at the rate that we're going now, we're not going to be finished for a very, very long time.  But the whole earth is going to be lightened with the glory of the Lord which is His character which means a great change is going to take place.

the people over whom God has spread his shield,

Sorry, come back, Satan appears triumphant and that the truth is overborn with falsehood and error, the people over whom God has spread his shield.

and the country which has been an asylum for the conscience oppressed servants of God and defenders of His truth, may be placed in jeopardy.  But God would have us recall His dealings with His people in the past to save them from their enemies.  He has always chosen extremities, when there seems no possible chance for deliverance from Satan's workings, for the manifestation of His power.

I’m asking you to remember that statement.  When there appears no possibility for a way through for us then we know that God is going to work.  It's just that there's going to be a gap between what appears to be an overwhelming temptation and Him delivering us to see whether I know that my Redeemer liveth, I know that He will deliver us.  That's the test that we're all going to face.  The disciples went through that too in a way.  Through the death of Christ they went through a very short period and then, of course, the resurrection and then they had to wait for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.  So there was a short period where they thought it was all over.  They thought they were done.  Over.  Finished.  It says:

He has always chosen extremities when there seemed no possible chance of deliverance from Satan's workings for the manifestation of His power. Man's necessity is God's opportunity.

Then she says this:

My brethren, do you realize that your own salvation, as well as the destiny of other souls, depends upon the preparation you now make for the trials before us?

It's a solemn thought, isn't it?  Your own salvation as well as the destiny of other souls depends upon the preparation that you now make for the trials before us.

Have you that intensity of zeal, that piety and devotion, which will enable you to stand when opposition shall be brought against you?

In the gospel that I was taught before, when you're told statements like that, do you have that intensity?  What do you do?  You work it up.  You muster it.  You grit your teeth.  You make it happen.  But those of us that have been on the road for a few decades know that that doesn't work.  You can't sustain yourself on that kind of zeal.  It doesn't work.  May work for 24 hours or even a year or two, but you can't sustain that kind of intensity with gritting your teeth.

You can only ask for God to give you His Spirit and to fill you with that sense of urgency mixed with peace and calmness.  We do not want to become more agitated, more distressed, more fearful.  We want to become more calm, more peaceful, more joyful, more happy, more faithful, then that's the only way we're going to get through this crisis.  Because it's going to take a little while this period.  That's the intensity that I’m talking about.  An intensity of love.  An intensity of joy.  The beauty of our God.  That type of intensity and confidence in God's leading, that He will care for us and look after us.

As I was thinking about tonight, I have an autistic son.  What do I do if I’m faced with mandatory vaccination?  What do I do in that situation?  I turn to my Father in heaven and say, “Father, I know that you will look after me.  I don't have to defy and rebel and rail against the government.  I don't have to do these things”.

I can say, “Father, it's all in Your hands, You'll take care of it, You will supply all our needs.  I will do all I can to prevent that from happening but if it happens, I trust that You're in control and that You will overrule all things for Your glory and Your majesty and I do not need to act in an unchristian manner at any time.”  Just trust it all into my Father's hands.  That's what I have to do whenever these things come up.  “Father, I trust it into Your hands.  I trust it into Your hands.  I would like to maintain control over my own body but that's in Your hands, it's in Your hands.”

It takes away the spirit of striving and trying to protect yourself.  We do what we can to a point but then when you realize it's beyond that point, there's nothing you can do and you just say “Father, I’m in Your hands.  I know You look after me.  I know that You will care for me.  I trust You.”

That's the faith that we have to develop so that we can remain calm and not pick up this spirit of resistance and retaliation and alarmism.  Satan wants people to react this way because he can pick them off with that spirit of defiance and rebellion and antagonism towards the government.

We will not and Daniel the prophet shows us how to respond to an overbearing, tyrannical power that takes you over.  His spirit is the spirit that we need.  His spirit is the Spirit of Jesus.  Then she says this:

If God has ever spoken by me, the time will come when you will be brought before councils, and every position of truth which you hold will be severely criticized.

“If God has ever spoken by me, … every position we hold will be brought before councils”.  But isn't this what we want?  Isn't this what we want?  A chance to bear witness to the truth?  Oh but Lord who am I?  What if I should fail?  What if I should not remember the texts?  This is what faith is about.  You promised Lord.

You think of the hours that Martin Luther spent praying before he had to appear before the Deity.  Prayed for hours that God would give him the words to speak.  But we have to do our preparation.  God can only draw out of us that which He has put into us.  If He hasn't had the chance to put it into us by us allowing Him to help us feed on the Word of God and to study it, if it's not there He can't pull it out of us.  So we must study.  We must know our positions and believe that God will help us.

The time that so many are now allowing to go to waste should be devoted to the charge that God has given us of preparing for the approaching crisis.

And so we are in a very interesting period and I would like to call upon all of God's people, that in the appointments that are coming with the Feast of Trumpets, the Day of Atonement and the Feast of Tabernacles, that we need to be praying leading up to this time that God will strengthen us and help us and to show us what to do.  Because I believe by the end of the year, that a lot of the wheels of our current system are going to fall off.

By the end of this year, the economy is going to hit the wall, house prices are going to plummet, food shortages may begin, there may be oil shortages as well which would really complicate things.  It depends how much the angels begin to release the winds and how much it's to say “Hold”.  But with the things that are about to happen, it's a test.  It's a test for us at this present time as to whether we are in the present truth or not and the decisions that we make now.  Now for those who are operating within the context of Seventh-Day Adventism, their understanding of the gospel mandates that there is nothing more to be said and therefore the only thing to be done in the present crisis is to flee and save yourself physically because it's all been done.  The gospel has been preached.  The gospel has been shared with the world.

So if you're listening to me, material that is coming from a Seventh-Day Adventist context, the primary focus of this material will be that the end is now.  Won't it?  But the end cannot be now, it cannot be now.  Why cannot it be now?  This gospel of the Kingdom, which gospel of the Kingdom?  This gospel of the Kingdom that proclaims Jesus, the Only Begotten Son of the Father, His agape love for us and His non-violent, non-judgmental character.  That's the gospel, that is the gospel.  I want to share a few things, a little bit more on that a little bit later.

But what I would suggest to you that is in regard to the date 2025, it is not in our loving heavenly Father's mind that I can see that He would allow 200 million Americans to die without having the opportunity to hear the fourth angel's message.  That's not going to happen.  A loss of people that large has never happened in human history and let alone the 50 million that are slated for Germany, the 30 million for other countries.  There's at least a billion people this website is claiming is going to be taken from this planet. 

That cannot happen, it cannot happen until the world has heard the fourth angel of our Father's character, the means by which we receive the seal of the living God through the Sabbath or the Sabbaths and the world then has either chosen to receive it or reject it.  Once the world has rejected, then all those things which are being foretold now, then they will take place.  Millions will die and go down into the grave but not yet.  It cannot be yet.  This is a test for God's people when they are saying that big things are going to happen in 2025 and that Christ is going to come by 2027 or 2030 or 2031.  It's possible, but for those who know what the gospel is in terms of who Jesus is and what His character is like, we know that this message has not even begun.  It's only just beginning to emerge and this now is giving me understanding as to why Revelation 7 is written in the Bible.

We are in that position right now, where Jesus had to say “Hold, hold, hold” and this is another convincing point for all of us to know.  That the only reason that any one of us are going to be saved is because Jesus was willing to endure his daily cross for another 15-20 years to hold the winds just a little bit longer, just a little bit longer, to give us enough time to be sealed and to take this message to the world.  If He did not do this for us, we would all die and be lost.  All of us, wouldn't we?  And so it's all to God's glory and it's not to man's glory.

So I believe we are in this time where Jesus is saying “Hold, hold, hold” and we are to pray that the calamity will not come until we have had the opportunity to preach this gospel of the kingdom.  This gospel of the kingdom.  And so the immediate threat that is coming upon us.  How do we prepare?  There are challenges that are going to come upon us but the way to prepare, I want to emphasize this point, the way to prepare is to behold Jesus as He is and to be so deeply in love with Him and so confident in His leading, so trusting in His providence that your heart will not fail you for fear of the things that are coming upon this earth.  That's how you prepare.

Understanding the machinations of Rome, the protestant churches, Freemasonry, having an intimate knowledge of these things will not prepare you to meet them.  They won't.  Now we have been told in the Great Controversy that these powers that work, we know the general outline of what they're engaged in and the things that they are doing, but speculating as to when those things become a fulfillment of what we know is in the book of Revelation, takes a lot of effort and is often being proved to be wrong.

We need to watch, we need to be aware but what comes out of our mouth is our love for Jesus, our love for the truth, the joy, the confidence that we have in Him, the assurance that we know that He will lead us through step by step and as Job said, not that we understand it in the way he would say it, “though He slay me (even if it would appear that I would be lost) yet will I trust Him.” (Job 13: 15)  It's not God that slays us but, even if it would appear that He allowed us to perish, yet will I trust Him.  Easy to say, hard to do.

So I want to, in terms of preparation for these events that are coming upon us, Robert Weiland was once asked in 1984, “What is the 1888 message?” and Robert Weiland went straight to the opening paragraph of Christ and His Righteousness by EJ Waggoner and he quoted it and this is what he said:

In the first verse of the third chapter of Hebrews we have an exhortation which comprehends all the injunctions given to the Christian.  It is this:  “Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our profession, Christ Jesus.”  To do this as the bible enjoins, to consider Christ continually and intelligently, just as He is, will transform one into a perfect Christian for “by beholding we become changed.”

This is how we prepare for the crisis before us.  To behold Christ continually, intelligently, just as He is.  This is our preparation for the coming crisis.  And what is Christ?  Christ is, let me read to you a little further in this book Christ and His Righteousness, bottom of page 11 beginning of page 12.  Who is Christ?  We find that God the Father is speaking and this is he's quoting Hebrews 1:1-8.

Thy throne, oh God, is forever and ever; … We find that God the Father is the speaker, and that he is addressing the Son, calling him God.  See Hebrews 1: 1-8.

This name was not given to Christ in consequence of some great achievement, but it is His by right of inheritance.  Speaking of the power and the greatness of Christ, the writer of Hebrews says that He is made so much better than the angels, because “He hath by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they.”  A son always rightfully takes the name of the father; and Christ as “the only begotten Son of God,” has rightfully the same name.  A son, also, is, to a greater or lesser degree, a reproduction of the father; he has, to some extent, the features and personal characteristics of his father; not perfectly, because there is no perfect reproduction among mankind.  But there is no imperfection in God, or in any of His works; and so Christ is the “express image” of the Father's person.  As the Son of the self-existent God, He has by nature all the attributes of Deity.

This is who Christ is.  He is, by inheritance, fully divine.  He inherited it from His Father.  You need to know this to meditate on Christ, just as He is.  This is the 1888 message.  This is the message that will lighten the earth with its glory and it is with great sadness that this paragraph had been lost to the majority of the 1888 Study Committee.  They did not look at this paragraph and take it into full consideration which is a warning to all of us.  But, I pray that they will yet come.  It's so clearly laid out.

The second point about who Christ is, Christ on earth is the full and complete revelation of the Father.  “If you've seen Me you have seen the Father.”  John 17 4, “I have glorified you on earth”.  He never harmed any person.  This is who we are to behold.  Christ does not condemn anyone, John 8: 15.  This is who Christ is.  We need to meditate on this so that when you are tempted to condemn, if you're thinking continually about who Christ is when you condemn, you will know, “no I can't do that, I can't, I cannot speak words against”.

This is the greatest test that all of us are facing, I believe at this present time.  To cease to speak words of condemnation of others and of ourselves when we fail.

But this is who Christ is.  He does not condemn.  Christ did not remove anything from the Torah but He kept the whole law.  I did not come to destroy the law or the prophets (Matt 5:17).  So this is who Christ is.  We are called to remember the statutes and the judgments and to walk in all of them and as Jesus says, “man shall not live by bread alone but by every word of God” (Luke 4: 4), we are to live by every word of God.

Take no thought for tomorrow, be anxious for nothing.  This is what we're told, this is what we are to reach into the Word of God and to be blessed.  So this is how I believe we will prepare.  We need to focus more on the person of Christ and His character and make this our most essential study and this will prepare us for the crisis that is to come upon us, so that when we are in crisis, we will turn to Him as naturally as a flower turns to the sun.  It won’t be, “oh what do I do” and we have these lengthy periods of utter distress and chaos in our minds because we have not learnt to depend upon the Father when we fall into difficulty.  This is a test that all of us still need improvement upon.

The second point why I believe that 2025 is not the end is because of what happened in 1888.  In 1888, what was the context of the 1888 message?  What was happening in America around the time of 1888?  The Blair Bill introducing Sunday legislation for Sunday rest in 1888.  So I’m reading here, this is a biography of Waggoner by Woodrow Wyden.  I find these books interesting because they contain interesting history and this is one of the comments that he made and he talked about the Sunday law crisis in 1888:

In such a crisis, it did not appear to be a wise movement to be making adjustments to long-standing interpretations that appeared to be essential to a correct understanding of the immanency of the impending crisis.  Thus one can appreciate the intensity of the next two background issues that made the 1888 General Conference session so sensitive and suspicious of the initiatives of Jones and Waggoner.

And that related to the law in Galatians and the ten horns in Daniel 7.  So we find we're coming to the point where this beautiful message that we have received is coming to a culmination, and right when this is coming to that point, we have a crisis that is enveloping us and many of our brethren may be saying to us, “it's over”.  We need to be studying what all the world is doing and focusing on that and running to the hills and preparing for the final events.  This is a decoy.  This is a distraction from the work that we are meant to be doing and that is to be studying the righteousness of Christ, studying the 1888 message, studying the character of God.  This is what we need to be doing.

Satan wants to distract God's people so that our efforts to reach them and share with them this truth is that, “look it's over, it's all going to be done in a couple of years and you're trying to completely, what, this is the time you choose to completely reframe the investigative judgment that we have preached for over 150 years and now you're going to reframe the whole thing right when we're going into crisis?  Are you crazy?

We've been here before.  This is what happened in 1888.  There was an attempt to shut down this discussion because it would create disunity and we needed a united front to meet the opposition and so we haven't got time to study this stuff.  We've been there before.  It will happen again, won't it?  That's what I believe is happening now.  I believe we are only just now coming to the beginnings of the understanding of what the fourth angel really is about and so we need to keep pressing above all things in that direction.

From the audience - Brother, I just got a beautiful message to say preach it, their heart is relieved from what you're saying.  After being in conflict all week with a loved one who's preaching opposite doom and fear, people are their hearts are failing for fear.

Yeah, for this fear that is coming upon the world.  Now it is true we are we are in the face of a looming crisis and we are going to see our civil liberties taken away in some capacity, in some way, but Jesus will hold these powers.  But what we do within the next few months will determine how we meet that crisis and whether we are prepared then to meet the next crisis that will come after that.  But I can say with certainty, that the end is not yet.  It cannot be yet because God will not allow billions of His children to go to the grave without ever having the opportunity to hear the fourth angel's message.  Not to be obliterated and wiped off the face of the earth.

That means that the angels would have had to have released the four winds which means that Michael would have had to have stood up which means that probation would have closed and, contrary to what Adventism teaches, it is not God who closes human probation, it is man who closes human probation.  It is the decisions that we make that God ratifies.  That which you bind on earth will be bound in heaven.  Humanity will face the fourth angel.  They will make their decision and then probation will close but the world has not heard this message and that's why I repeat this, not yet, not yet.

But we have to be tested and get through this test.  Satan wants people to make rash decisions at this point, to do rash things and to make decisions in a hasty and a rash manner thinking that the end is now and then find themselves in a very difficult position because they've moved in a way that they were thinking that things were going to happen and everything was going to wrap up and then they find, oh we're still here, we're still here.

Disillusionment like “you told me” and “you said” and “you had charts” and “you had everything laid out” and “you had it all worked out”, “you had Master Chronos on my tail and convincing me that God was going to manipulate me by using time to force me …”.

No. No.  Time no longer.  Time no longer.  That goes for 2025 too.  We are not focused on a date, we are focused on a character.  That's what we're focused on, and that everything will happen in rapid succession when God's people are sealed.  Everything is going to happen so fast that all time predictions are going to vanish.  We have to give up this desire to soothsay the future.  That's why Paul said that prophecies will fail.  Yes, prophecies will fail because Jesus says that, when you see it come to pass, that you might believe.  Prophecy affirms our faith for things that have happened in the past and they guarantee our assurance their belief of the word of God.

But prophecies will fail and many of them have failed and so, as much as Satan wants to bring about his hierarchy in 2025, tidings out of the east will trouble him.  There's going to be “What, who are these group of people, where do they come from?”  There will be a great consternation by the powers that be.  Rome will stagger back.  How could these small insignificant groups?  We thought we had the measure of them?

So we see that we need to beware.  I just want to say this again.  Ellen White is very clear.  God has not revealed to any human lips when the close of probation is.  She is very clear on this.  He's not given to any man to utter when the close of probation shall be.  Judge not because that's a judgment isn't it, you're passing judgment.  We can't discern the heart we don't know what spark is still alive.  Our job is just to keep fanning and fanning.

I just want to reiterate this again, you know if the end comes in 2025, how many people in Asia have heard the fourth angel, how many people in Africa, how many people in Russia?  Have they been told?  Who's going to tell them, “oh too late”.  No, that's not how our Father operates.  Everyone gets the opportunity to know this message.  No one is going to be unaware of this message.  It's going everywhere.

I want to share with you some thoughts related to how my understanding of the gospel and how this fits in with where we are as a framework for what's happening, what's going to happen over the next few years I believe.

Romans 5: 20 is at the centre.  It was a pivotal sermon by Jones in 1893.  Sermon 17 and he really presented Romans 5: 20, “Moreover the law entered, that the offence might abound.  But where sin abounds, grace does much more abound:”.  We've talked about the ministration of death, we've talked about how God reveals things in our character and we are learning, and I am beginning to understand the science of salvation in terms of how, just before an appointment will take place, God will use those opportunities to reveal things in my character that need to change.  He causes sin to abound, not to condemn me, but to offer me a solution, because we are wretched, miserable, poor, blind and naked, we need to have brought to our attention our defects of character, in order that they may be healed.  And this is the ministration of death.

The letter killeth, praise God, and the Spirit giveth life, praise God.  That's the two-step process that we are involved in and as we are heading into the beginning of the new moon and, I have permission to share this story.  My wife and I were having a discussion last night and as we were talking last night, elements of my past and my character faults bumped heads with her character faults and weaknesses and they were revealed to both of us.  Did I say that right? [Laughing]  I became aware and this, we were having a discussion and I said something that was part of my way of living and operating, and when I saw her reaction, I actually had to think about what I'd actually just said and then ponder like, “oh, why did I say it that way”.  And I realized that there was the way I had expressed what I'd said was not the way that it should be said.  It was expressed inappropriately and then my dear wife had to deal with the fallout of that and, finding it challenging and difficult not to, what can you say, extract her pound of flesh to respond to something that was said inappropriately.  So in the past, you know when you get, and you can feel, that irritation in your spirit, then Satan is breathing hard down your throat saying, “Ha, you’re a Christian, are you?  Really?  Really?”  But in the context of the gospel, in the context of how I understand it, I thought “well thank You Father for revealing this character flaw that I wasn't fully aware that it was in my speech, that it was still there.  I didn't realize the impact of it and because we're right on the edge of the New Moon you've revealed this to us now, in order that in this New Moon Season, I believe you're going to heal this from my character.”

That's a good thing isn't it?  But because of my performance-based gospel of the past, to have my faults exposed to me, I was much more inclined to justify my behaviour and to give reasons as to why I did the things I did.  I think you are all understanding me pretty well.

So this process of allowing God's people to go through events in their life where their character is revealed but it's so tremendously beautiful.  When I realized that, my immediate thought was “Father, thank You that You don't condemn me.”  That is so healing.  You're not condemning me.  You have graciously led me into this situation with my beloved wife and we were able to talk it through.  Took a little while for the we both got pinged in the flesh and it just had to work it through and then, but because we believed that God does not condemn us, we were able to overcome and I was able to say, “look I’m sorry.  I’m sorry for what I said” and she was able to graciously accept it and apologize for her reaction and we were able to move on graciously.  [Laughter]

It sounds so easy.  Well it doesn't feel easy at the time, and we're talking about a half an hour where this is taking place and you're feeling the bristles going up.  It's like the flesh is coming up and we know we shouldn't feel like this and, well, you know.

But because of the gospel, when you feel condemned by what you do, your temptation to dig your heels in and defend yourself increase because, if you accept guilt, then you have to be condemned.  How wonderful to accept guilt without having to feel condemned.  The sooner we believe in a God that doesn't condemn, the sooner we're going to stop condemning ourselves, and the sooner we're going to be able to look our filthy natures in the eye and say, “yep, that's evil and I repent.  I’m sorry Lord.  Forgive me” and then we're going to get somewhere.  Aren't we?  We're going to go somewhere.

From the audience - Adrian, to accept guilt without knowing condemnation or expecting condemnation is such an unusual thing.  (Isn't that freedom?)  Yeah but how many it would be really hard for many, many, many people to get there for someone to actually put that theory into practice and think well it's real.  (I had every opportunity last night.)  Well done.  (So did my wife.)

So when the appointments come, don't be shocked when stuff happens just before Sabbath.  I mean, as Adventists, we all know that's what happens, don't we?  We know that.  And all of our lives, God was allowing these things to happen, not to condemn us but to give us His Spirit in double measure in the Sabbath.  That's what He wanted to do.  But we were so foul about what had happened that we stomped our ways with the Sabbath and brooded for the next few days and then gritted our teeth ready to be smacked the next Friday.

For those of you who haven't been Adventists for very long, yeah, you I’m sorry but some of us have been on this road a little while and we know what the Friday wave is all about.  So all the time we're feeling condemnation.  Here we are supposed to be all loving and lovable on a Friday afternoon and we're all jangled.  [Laughter]  So we're all pinged in the flesh.  So that's why we tell people to ping off because we're not happy.  Anyway, we have to laugh so we don't cry.  That's what we're doing in life.  If you're not laughing, you're crying so it’s better that we laugh.  We still get tears.

So the reason I’m bringing this point up is because there are elements in our characters that still need to come out.  Now I want to suggest something to you and this is just something that's been interesting in my own journey.

It was the year 2001 when the Identity Wars message first came to me in terms of “You are my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased” and the implications of that have been going on ever since.  But through that period, up until about 2008, I had a period of a massive expansion of understanding and my whole understanding of Adventism began to shift and change based on the events that took place in 2001, and which was based off my reading of AT Jones and Empires of the Bible, which is an interesting place to get it from, but that's where it came from and there was a tremendous burst of light over this period.

But right towards the end of this period, I began another period of extreme hardship from 2007 through to 2013.  Really difficult - lost my job, lost my career, lost many of my friends, lost my health, lost my house, lost my car, lost just about everything.  Sometimes even my sanity.  So all the principles that I had been taught, that I had been preaching this for quite some time in this period that your value does not depend on your power, your position, your performance.  It was due this period that I felt the Lord say, “well let's test this.  Let's take away your power, your position, and your performance.  To go from preaching to people in the congregation of being a minister of congregation to lying in a bed and not having any ministry, just being there alone or with at least with my wife.  Thank God for that.  Not being able to minister, not being able to give, not being able to do anything.  It was all cut off.  That tests you.  So when I got to the end of 2010, I said, “God, I want to die.  I’m finished.  I don't want this anymore.  I’m done.  2010.

But when Satan suggested to me, “well curse God and die”, I said I know that voice.  I know where that comes from and I said, “no, I’m not going to do that.  I’m going to choose to believe in my Father and trust in His providence, that He will lead me, that He will guide me, and so truths embraced are sealed into our character through pressure, aren't they?

You have to make decisions under pressure and face consequences for those decisions to be sealed into your character.  There's no other way to do this.  So what I would suggest to you, is that from 2014 until 2021, in this period we have had a tremendous burst of light.  Those of you that have been on the journey with us, we know this.  Tremendous burst of light and are systematically putting together the Divine Pattern, Channel of Blessing, Identity Wars, Principles, Character of God.  Putting it all together into a systematic framework.

Seven years of feasting.  Does that remind you of something in the Bible.  A lean time is coming, a famine for the Word of God.  However, they did they did put away enough to supply them for the whole seven years, that would that was those that had prepared.

Have we prepared?  Have we studied?  Have we put it away?  I’m in communication with our team at Talking Rock about what we can do to get as much stuff into print as possible before the whole system goes down.  That's what we're looking at at the present time because digital is not guaranteed is it, not guaranteed.  So I think, if we believe and we need to do more study on this.

If we believe and you study Genesis 41, you look at the life of Joseph, you'll see that there were seven years of plenty and the things that I have learned in this, and we're almost coming to the end of six years, the things I have learned in the last six years are phenomenal.  My whole comprehension, my understanding of the gospel has completely been the burst of light has been utterly phenomenal and the cherry on the top, is God does not judge in a condemning way.  And how do we seal this into our character?  We have to get tested on it.  And how do we get tested on it?  We go through hardship, we go through difficulty where every point that we hold will be criticized and attacked.

So I believe that we will have seven years, 2022 onwards, of great difficulty and there will be a famine for the Word of God.  And why is this famine important?  God has given to us a storehouse, He's given us grain.  We've been putting this grain into the books.  The grain is there.  We have it.  We possess it.  Why do we need a famine?  Because then the world will come and buy this grain otherwise they wouldn't come.  It makes people hungry.  We have the grain, we have the gospel, we have the message but unless there is a famine for the Word of God, they won't come to buy it.  So this is one of the applications of this story that I believe is relevant to us because it certainly did feel like I got sold by my brothers but it was all for God's glory wasn't it.

I never would have learnt the things that I learnt, in the time frame that I learnt them, if I had of remained where I was.  So Joseph saved his brothers and in the end he is able to provide for them and to look after them through this time of difficulty.

I believe that many of our brethren in the Seventh-Day Adventist church will join us.  They will come to receive.  The Nicodemuses will come out and join us because of the conflict and because they see a group of people that still have joy, still have peace, still have confidence when everything seems impossible.  This is not going to be easy.  This is going to be difficult.  So, as I’ve experienced between 2001 to 2008 and 2008 to 2014, I think I’m seeing a repeat where we have a great learning period and then that gets sealed into you.  You embrace it, you live it if you are going to survive and go through it and that's the only way it can become part of you is through a period of difficulty.

Then after that period I believe there will be a period where the earth will be lightened with His glory and if we look at the 1888 message, it went for approximately seven years 1888-1895, was approximately a seven year period, that it went and that the whole earth will be lightened with the glory in that period and then the end will come.

I hope it doesn't have to go that long but these are only generalizations based on principles.  They're not prophecies.  It's not a prophecy.  Let me make that clear.  It's not a prediction because if the message had been accepted in 1895, Christ would have come back quite quickly.  So if the message goes, it can still happen in the cycle.  The reason I say these cycles exist is because the Spirit between 2021 and 2022, there is a greater outpouring.  There's a whole year where there is a land Sabbath where the land rests and major shifts take place and that's why, in order for things to be sealed and completed, they have to go through a seven year cycle.  That's why I’m saying seven years for something to be completed and established to get back to the land Sabbath for a completion to take place.

That's why I believe that the story of Joseph is applicable to what we're talking about now.  It also fits the administration of death that will lead to the sealing and the completion where we see our great necessity and our great difficulty so God can do all things.  But with the message that we have at this present time, I believe it's going to be somewhere in the 2030s where the culmination of all things will take place.  I don't believe it'll be before that.

From the audience - Revelation 12: 11 “overcame him by the blood of the Lamb”.  2014 to 2020, we're understanding the concept of the blood, and the word of their testimony, that's the next phase.  So it's theory, digestion, assimilation, fasting is all good for the system. I mean I speak that in theory of course but I know what's coming.  You know we are getting our mind around things and now we're learning how to practice those things and experience those things.

This is just a very broad template that I’m presenting here.  Look, I would love for Jesus to come in 2025 but I have to accept that that's a very selfish thought for most of the world has not heard the gospel.  I want the world to hear the gospel and then the end to come and I know that can't happen by 2025.  It can't if we're socially distant.  Well, unless God makes it happen.  Yes, God makes it happen but study history, study how He works through human movements.

From the audience.  And another thought, the world is in a state of unbelief.  They don't know what to believe anymore and like we see until they feel hungry for truth, we have to wait.  But like the disciples, there was a doubting Thomas and the world is waiting to see, not to hear.  They don't want to hear what I have to say, they've heard it from everybody.  They want to see agape, they want to see you have peace internal, they want to see you demonstrating this unconditional love, they want to see you go through adversities.  Unfortunately we are His spectacles and that can be a tremendous pressure but it can be a tremendous honour to know that we can.  He will give us the tools, He will give us everything that we need.  I have to cling to that or I'll go fold, you know.

I actually see it as God's getting the earth ready for the message because He's starting to with all the depression and the opposition and everything that's going on at the moment.  People are now starting to look, they're starting to look, they know something's going on, they can smell something bad.  They're starting to go things aren't right in the camp.

So we'll be able to feed them. We’ll have the message but we'll also have adversity and of course Satan will be seeking to shut that down.  So the seven good years are going to be replaced by seven difficult years but I believe that that's where we will learn to have more faith and trust in God and work on His economy.  This is what I said.  I mentioned this in a presentation just a few weeks back about the tithing system and operating on the second tithe and coming into all the principles that God has for us.

The other thing that I would say is, of course, a lot of people are talking about country living and moving into the country.  I believe that those that have the way open for them, that they should do this.  They should move out.  Definitely should we not be living in the middle of a large city.  Some of us are on the edge of cities but, if all of God's people were to leave the larger towns and cities right now, Satan has much greater access to destroy those cities and so it's a fine edge between.

Obviously when it comes to the point where the gospel has been preached and everyone has had an opportunity and they've rejected it, you need to leave.  You need to get out and not be there.  Obviously it's in our interest to try and base our operations outside of large cities.  That's clearly what we want to do, what we want to aim to do.  But we don't want to

make hasty, unnecessary moves based on fear and self-preservation only because we still want to reach people, we still want to reach out to people.  The only reason that they put the people on the ship with Paul when he was going to Rome and they got blown to pieces, they only survived because he was on the ship so God was able to preserve them and to protect them.

I don't think it should go unnoticed, and I want to talk more about this, but I don't think it should go unnoticed that there is a marked difference between what's happening in Queensland and what's happening in other States south of us.  Obviously in South Australia and Northern Territory they're much less populated areas, but the three main States were experiencing something very different here.  I believe, as Moses said to Pharaoh, if we do not keep this feast there will be sword and pestilence and that the keeping of the festivals have a direct correlation to this situation.  We're going to get to test this a lot more as the days come along.

So I think I’ve taken enough of your time.  I think I’ve covered all the points that I wanted to look at and I did say this, that in regard to the issue of vaccination, there are plenty of issues that we could advocate or we could make noises about when it comes to these types of questions.  I talk to people privately, I don't agitate these issues in a public way because I want my public voice to be one of the gospel and the preaching of the fourth angel's message.  That's my prominent voice that I want to give to that.  But when people ask me privately what I think, I share with them, I present to them, my thoughts, my concerns about that without trying to be aggressive towards the government.

I think that it's very interesting.  There's a guy that was raised an Adventist, Dr Tom Borody, who treated me and our family 10 years ago.  Excellent doctor.  He has developed a cure for COVID-19.  Very simple cure.  But the government is looking at it.  They're not taking it seriously.  Sky news has looked at it and some other news agencies have picked it up but it just shows you that there is some interesting power plays that are taking place.  I don't want to accuse or attack.

There are many reasons why and I would say this, that we should pray for the governments of the world that God will open their eyes and help them to see.  I don't believe that all men are intentionally trying to kill and destroy and wipe out populations.  I don't believe that.  I believe they want to serve their people and they want to help their people.  It's just that they're blinded to what's possible because Satan is blinding them and it's our duty to pray for them that God will help them to make the right decisions and the best decisions.  The reason why they're making bad decisions now is because, well, we screwed up in 1888.  It didn't have to be like this but anyway that's another story.

So we must pray for those that God will open the eyes to see whom they're listening to.  So we need to pray for Dan Andrews, he's under a lot of pressure, tremendous pressure.  Whatever we think about the decisions that he's making or whatever, it's not for us to judge, is it.  I believe he's acting in the best interest from his perspective even if we disagree

with him, even if we think that it's nonsense.  Just let's pray for him, let's pray that God will bless him, same for Scott Morrison.  I don't support the mandatory vaccination idea but I understand him.

I mean, we have even a bigger problem in America that the man beside Donald Trump is a Seventh-Day Adventist and he's determined to get mandatory vaccination through so that's a really scary situation isn't it.  He's very, very forceful on mandatory vaccination so that's a problem isn't it?  That is a problem.

So we need to pray for these men as well and say, “brothers, you know, like, I hope God gives you enlightenment on these things” and without judging them, condemning them.  I used to do a lot of those type things and you know, “this is wrong”, “this is bad”, and all that kind of stuff so navigating this vaccine issue, there's a lot of issues that a lot of us are going to face and decisions we're going to have to make and how we deal with that.  I would just appeal to you not to rail against the government, not to be hostile, not to get aggressive, not to use it as a platform.  We are called to preach the gospel, to preach the good news, to be calm and trust God and to find every possible way to be gentle and to present our case as best as possible and trust that God will look after us.

That's what I’m asking God's people to do at the present time and not to undermine authority and be angry and aggressive and all of these types of things.

So I thank you for listening.  It's now nine o'clock.  I’ve taken a lot of your time but I hope that it's been beneficial to you and it will encourage you.  I hope that you've been blessed by these words and again, I just want to reiterate, we want to be prayerful about leading up to the seventh month feasts and praying for what the Lord wants us to do.  Our focus, as many of us as possible need to find a way to be spending more and more time sharing with more people and asking the Lord to open that way for us.

I will say this, that I do believe that, and I will be doing more studies on this in the coming weeks, I do believe that most of the paper currencies of the world are going to evaporate.  So if you have if you have wealth stored up in paper currency, it's going to disappear fairly soon.  But God will take care of us.  God will look after us and He'll supply our needs and I just pray for wisdom to know what to do, how to approach those situations.  I have some thoughts on this but I don't want to take on the role of financial advisor.

So let's kneel together and let's pray.

“Father in heaven, I thank You for Your great love towards us.  I thank You Lord Jesus that You are interceding for us and saying hold, hold till we have sealed the servants of God in their foreheads.  Father, we thank You that You don't condemn us.  Many of us have lived lives of condemnation for decades and it's hard for us to change.  But we believe that with God all things are possible.  Many of us are feeling despondent because we still feel frustration and irritation about our faults and the things that those around us inflict on us and we inflict on them but You are going to change us.  Many have reported to me that they feel the changes, they can sense the changes.  As we behold the true God and his only begotten Son, the truth is changing us and You are giving us of your Spirit.  Give us this spirit that ceases to condemn, ceases to judge, seeks to uplift and to bless and to encourage others.  I pray that You would open the way for more and more to come more fully.  We need people to distribute books and literature and tracts and we still have much work to do even though the way is going to get harder.  And I believe Father that you will prepare us as we pray each day, morning and evening, Sabbath, New Moon and Feast days, that You will help us.  For the new moon that is now coming Lord in the spirit, stir up our minds, enlighten us, we pray for our families, our children, our siblings, parents and grandchildren.  Father, draw them by Your Spirit.  Sometimes we feel so helpless to know what to say to them but may they see in us that peace, that calm assurance, that assurance that You will lead us through to the end and You will watch over us and care for us and I thank You in Jesus name.  Amen