Pope Francis has lately made the statement that there are many ways to relate to God. He told a group of youth that their religious diversity is a “gift from God.”
There are many religious leaders who try to sell this idea. It is nice to be tolerant and welcoming of all people, but the Pope’s first duty is to promulgate christian doctrine as understood within the Catholic communion. Christian doctrine says there is only one way to God the Father and that is through the person of Jesus Christ.
In John 14:6, we have the words of Jesus: “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me.”
It is possible that you could believe other religions or philosophies to be true and hold them together, but you cannot do that with christianity. Either Jesus is the only way to the Father or He is mistaken at this point. If He is mistaken on this, then He can be mistaken on other things as well.
You cannot be a christian and believe that there are many ways to the Father. Jesus holds an exclusive claim at this point.
If you have never asked Jesus to take control of your life, than you should do that now. Tell Him you awe sorry for your sins and ask Him to forgive you and to show you how to live for Him.
Necessity, the old adage goes, is the mother of invention.
Justin Walker, pastor of Salt and Light Baptist Church just outside Louisville, Kentucky, experienced that proverb firsthand — and it birthed a vision for a tuition-free, church-sponsored grade school, First Principles Academy.
The Origin
For years, Walker told CBN News, he led a small but stable congregation alongside his wife Sarah, with whom he shared six children. But then tragedy struck: in the summer of 2020, when the congregation — like many across the country — was struggling to find its footing amid a pandemic, the pastor’s wife received a devastating diagnosis.
She had stage 4 cancer. After months of battling the brutal disease, Sarah passed away in March 2021.
Overnight, Walker became a single father of six — five of whom live at home and were homeschooled — as well as a bi-vocational pastor working full-time for a family fabric business. It was in that season of struggle, when he was stretched and struck by grief more than ever before, that Walker saw a need.
“I didn’t realize it at first, but it really stemmed from my wife passing,” the pastor said, reflecting on the origin of his vision to launch a tuition-free school for kids in kindergarten through sixth grade. “I used to say that ‘we homeschool,’ and then my wife passed, and I realized, ‘Oh, my wife homeschooled.’”
That was now Walker’s job. As he began taking on those tasks, the grieving father brought one of his daughters to a local public library to find something for her to read.
“It was the first of June, and they were pushing all of these LGBTQ books on my daughter in the public library, and I was so upset,” he said. “And I just made this personal post on Facebook. I took a picture of the books they were [trying to give my 11-year-old daughter] … and I was so upset at that. … I took a picture of [the books] and I posted them on Facebook and I said, ‘Shame on you, public library, for pushing these books on my daughter. We won’t be back.’”
Listen to them on the latest episode of “Quick Start” 👇
That post, Walker recalled, sparked “a huge firestorm” on social media and it made clear to him there was “a great need” in his community for a better educational alternative.
“The more I started looking, the more I realized there’s a mission field in our own backyard that the average church is not involved in, and that mission field is 50 million American children that are going to public schools every day where things like what just happened to my daughter in the library are happening all day long. And here I am, the pastor of a church, supposed to be a community leader, and what are we doing about this? No one’s even talking about it.”
The Opportunity
As Walker was going through this season of pain and realization, of reckoning and navigating, a group of people in his church approached him with the opportunity to start a school.
The Kentucky-based minister — in addition to taking on the responsibilities left by the death of his wife — soon realized he couldn’t work full-time, serve as a pastor, and homeschool his children; he was stretched too thin. But he couldn’t pay the cost to put five kids in private school, either.
It’s important for the church, Walker said, to minister to people where they’re at — including financially. From his own experience, and the experiences of those around him, Walker was convinced First Principles Academy needed to be tuition-free.
“We want this to be a ministry,” he said, urging those concerned about the cost that God will provide what is needed for the outreach opportunity to thrive. “This is what the church has done through its whole history. We don’t charge ticket prices for people to come in on Sunday. Freely we receive and freely we give. I’ve just encouraged everyone to take the word ‘tuition’ and replace it with ‘donation.’”
While there is no set tuition, the school takes donations to pay its teachers and administrators, as well as the cost of running the campus inside an old horse auction facility, the home of Salt and Light Baptist Church.
And it’s “not just a pipe dream,” Walker said. “We’ve done it. We’ve successfully launched.”
The Objective
On the Wednesday after Labor Day, the school — accessible to the public and not limited to just Salt and Light congregants — opened with 65 students and several staff members with classes from kindergarten through sixth grade with the goal of adding a full middle and high school in the future.
To enroll, parents — and students who are old enough — are required to sign an agreement stating they understand First Principles Academy is a ministry and, as such, will be teaching students from a Christian worldview.
“We believe that the huge problem in our country and what we’re seeing with depression and anxiety and many of the social problems that we’re seeing stem from [a] lack of Christ at the center of our education,” Walker said. “So we have a goal of putting Christ at the center of our education. So there is a part of this that goes a little deeper. There is a community need, yes, but there’s a need to bring Christ into our education. … We want that first and foremost and we want mom and dad to know and we want students to know that this is what we will be teaching.”
The “grand goal,” he continued, is for the Gospel to go forth from the classroom to the community. Walker said he hopes to see unbelieving students hear the Gospel in math class — or any other class — come to faith in Jesus, and take the life-saving message home to their families.
That objective is at the heart of the decision to open the school to the public, not just churchgoers. While the school is “an evangelistic outreach,” Walker noted, it is committed to looking different from public schools and will remain committed to its core values and statement of faith.
“You’re coming and joining what we’re doing,” he said. “There is enrollment. We have a right to say, ‘No, you’re not going to do that here.’”
In addition to providing a much-needed resource to his community in Kentucky, Walker said he’s hoping his church’s school will be “a beacon of light … so that other churches can do the same thing.”
“We want to see the church, at large, rallied around this and say, ‘Oh, this is possible; we can do this,’” the pastor said. “I have this crazy vision: I would love to see, in 20 years, that it would be the strange thing if you went into a church and they didn’t have a school. … [We want to see] churches across America saying, ‘We can open a school.’”
To learn more about First Principles Academy, to consider enrolling your children, or to donate to the ministry effort, click here.
Like many people, I find that having something to listen to helps me to keep going with my exercise. I often listen to podcasts when I ride, so that my mind isn’t thinking so much about how my legs hurt. It is also an opportunity to listen to different speakers and learn new things.
The traditional method using earphones pipes the sound into your ears using a bluetooth connection to the phone. The problem is that it is then harder to hear what is going on around you. You become isolated from the environment. Not only is this inconvenient in the sense that you can’t hear bird noises and other sounds of nature, but it can be dangerous when riding on the road.
A few weeks ago, I treated myself to an overdue birthday present of bone conduction earphones, which are awesome. Instead of fitting little speakers in your ear, you have a couple of small vibrating pads that sit on the bones in front of the ear. The vibrations go through the cheek bones directly to the inner ear. It sounds weird but provides excellent quality, and you can hear what is happening around you.
Many people are tuned in to what is happening around them in the physical realms but are totally unaware of the spiritual realm. They think that living a “good life” defined by having a good job, nice things, maybe a good family is all there is. These things are good, but they are only half the story.
God has created each one of us to have a living and dynamic relationship with Him. Our self-centredness and rebellion against God have left us blind and deaf to God. We are like somebody with headphones playing very loud music that make sit impossible to hear God.
To get the full life that God wants you to have, you need to tune into His Spirit. Ask Jesus to remove the blockages that stop you from relating to Him, and make that decision to let God rule your life.
When you do that, it is like entering a whole new dimension of living.
In ancient times, the pagan god Moloch required child sacrifices. These so called “gods” were actually demons, which begs the question: Has the worship of Moloch returned, this time in an operating room? Those who celebrate abortion, the destruction of the most vulnerable, are doing the bidding of the devil. You don’t have to convince Dr. Catherine Wheeler, who in the early 1990s occasionally committed abortions. But that all changed one day when God got her attention.
“I was about to begin an abortion procedure on a teenager, when the room darkened, and time seemed to slow down. There was an unmistakable presence of evil, and I was the only one who seemed to notice it. What scared me most was my awareness of pure evil in the operating room, related to the abortion I was performing,” explained Dr. Wheeler.
It was a pivotal moment in the doctor’s life, where God revealed the horror and destruction of abortion. This set in motion a new path for the doctor, who never committed another abortion. “I thought I was helping women. The life and value of the preborn were lost in the abortion conversation. I bought the feminist’s lie that women needed to have access to an abortion in order to pursue their dreams and be fulfilled,” continued Dr. Wheeler.
But that isn’t the end of the story. This conversion didn’t happen all at once for Dr. Wheeler, who described the process, “God gently nudged me over time to fully realize the humanity and value of human life.”
Wheeler related how her realization about the sanctity of life “paralleled my journey” back to Christianity and “to walk with Christ.”
“Jesus wasn’t put on this earth to crush people. He came to save people. His death on the cross was to redeem our sins. The gentle hand of God has tenderly guided me along,” she said.
It wasn’t until 2020 when Dr. Wheeler decided to go public and speak out as a pro-life advocate after deeply thinking about how our society became so coarse about human life. “It started when society devalued marriage and promoted intimacy without consequences. You can’t have a sexual revolution, unhindered sexuality, without contraception and abortion,” she noted.
“Sexuality has become almost like a transaction and physical only. If you don’t love the person you’re being intimate with, and that relationship is disposable, why would you love a child who was a result of that?”
“I think the larger issue is that women have been convinced that their value is tied to pursuing a big dream and big life goal and defining that as the most important thing about them. Society has convinced women that children get in the way of what matters most, rather than being one of the most important parts of our lives,” Wheeler said.
Thus, as traditional values became less important, people viewed human life as having less meaning, which resulted in a broader acceptance of abortion. Wheeler also puts some of the blame on Christian churches: “The biblical view of sexuality and intimacy within marriage as God’s good plan to protect children and women (as well as men), occurring within the sanctity of marriage are not being discussed in the pulpit. Most pastors are scared to discuss it. It’s a huge lost opportunity to prepare our young people with reality before the culture pushes a destructive narrative on them.”
Pregnancy can complicate your life, and the abortion lobby tells young women that abortion is necessary to maintain your own happiness or career goals. In fact, the modern culture encourages women to celebrate their abortion. This is how abortion is rationalized and is the narrative that Dr. Wheeler now fights against. “I want to put a pebble in their shoe, make them just a little uncomfortable so they’ll think deeper about the value of human life.”
Dr. Catherine Wheeler is featured in a new book by John DiGirolamo, It’s Not About the dEvil, which is a dramatized non-fiction account of three compelling individuals. You can read more about Dr. Wheeler’s life-changing moment that prompted a Christ-centered transformation to become a pro-life advocate. The plot is not a straight line, as there are twists and turns, some unexpected moments that are emotional, inspiring, and always captivating. The story also subtly shows how the culture and the decline of traditional values have impacted abortion in this country. Books can be purchased on Amazon and Barnes & Noble and more information about the author can be found at https://itisnotabout.com.
An unprecedented number of Muslims are choosing to follow Christ, especially in Iran as people search for a better life.
Iranians are growing tired of the ayatollahs and a nation led by the empty promises of their Islamic theocracy. An anonymous internal poll found that 80% now prefer a democratic government, and many are leaving Islam.
“You have a country with one of the highest drug addiction rates in the world. You have a country where corruption runs rampant. You have a country where more than half the people live below the poverty line,” explained Todd Nettleton of The Voice of the Martyrs (VOM).
“And the people of Iran are looking at this and they are saying, ‘Wait a minute. If this is what Islam has brought us in the last 45 years, we’re not interested. We want to know what the other options are.’”
According to Nettleton, Vice President of Messaging at VOM, the faith option many are choosing is Jesus with at least a million Muslims reportedly leaving Islam for Christianity.
So, how is the regime reacting to this with a reported 50,000 of 75,000 mosques now closed?
“This is not something that is making the regime happy. And, really, in many ways, they are seeking to solidify their power and to crush any kind of dissent,” Nettleton said. “We have heard multiple stories this year of Bible study, a home church being raided. Everyone there is photographed, everyone there is questioned. But then the leader of the meeting is held on to. They are arrested. They are detained, they’re put in prison.”
Bob the Builder became Christian because of a Muslim
Bob takes on the Muslim Metaphysician (who is in red cap)
By Michael Ashcraft—
A 16-year-old tried to convert 13-year-old Bob to Islam. Instead, Bob, who came from working class parents in Northern England, converted to Christianity. Today, he’s a mainstay debater at Speaker’s Corner exposing Islam.
“I grew up in an area where there are lots of Muslims,” Bob says on a Critical Witness YouTube interview. “ I went to school with lots of Muslims. It was because some Muslims tried to convert me that I became a Christian.”
Bob, who doesn’t use his last name because he evangelizes convicted terrorists, didn’t know anything about Christianity. So when the Muslim boy asked him if he was a monotheist or trinitarian, Bob didn’t know what these were.
Bob the Builder vs. Mohammed Hijab
“I was so ignorant,” he says. “ But the guy was more interested in winning arguments than winning people’s hearts.”
He proceeded through a very typical Muslim script for winning converts: The Bible is corrupted, the Trinity makes no sense, Mohammed was prophesied in the Bible.
So Bob did what most Christians do not do. He researched. He went to the library and read piles of books about Islam and Christianity.
Bob of Speaker’s Corner invited to preach at Oxford Bible Church.
Inevitably, some Muslim would come up to him and, observing what he was reading, try to convert him. Bob was full of the fact and wound up converting some of those Muslims. Ultimately, the librarian kicked him out for evangelizing, but he said it wasn’t his purpose to win over Muslims originally.
An eminent debater was born. He usually goes for two hours, taking all comers, not just Muslims. He’s faced down the Muslim heavy hitters: Mohammed Hijab, Ali Dawah, the Muslim Metaphysician, among others.
Now that stalwarts such as Dr. Jay Smith and Hatun Tash have largely retired from open air debates, a new generation of crack debaters has arisen, and Bob on YouTube channels SOCO Films and Revelations 22:13 is one of the fearless and respected proponents of Christianity.
Bob the Builder building the kingdom of God
The regulars nickname each other with funny monikers. He became Bob the Builder.
“I’m called Bob the Builder,” he says on an Oxford Bible Church YouTube video. “The reason for that is I evangelize actual terrorists who have been to jail for terrorism. It’s not a wise thing to let your name be known when you’re dealing with such people. It wasn’t by my choice to be called a cartoon character. I’m trying to get off the nickname.”
He prefers simply Bob of Speaker’s Corner. But he is building the kingdom of God.
To learn more about a personal relationship with Jesus, click here.
As I write this, we are in the middle of a house renovation. About half of our house is being remodelled to make the house more livable and more contemporary.
The first thing that happened was that, after we moved all our possessions out of that part of the house, the workers got in, cut off the power and then proceeded to knock down walls that were no longer needed, pull down the ceilings, and lift up the worn out floor coverings.
They then installed new beams into the roof cavity to make sure that the removal of structural walls would not cause the roof to fall in. New internal walls had to be constructed, the electrical system rewired and an air conditioner put into the roof. The walls and ceilings have been re-sheeted, and door trims replaced. In coming weeks the power supply will be upgraded, a new kitchen will be installed, and everything will be painted.
The workers have made a big mess, but in a few weeks we will effectively have a new house. The cost will be enormous, but we have enough money put aside to cover it all.
When you ask Jesus to take control of your life, He starts by transforming your heart. The old stuff has to be taken out, because it is harmful to you. Attitudes, addictions and wrong behaviour patterns have to change, hurts need to be healed and consequences for our actions recognised.
In the Bible, God promises to give us a new heart. “And I will give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit in you. I will take out your stony, stubborn heart and give you a tender, responsive heart.”
Christianity is not a collection of rules in which our behaviour is modified from the outside. No, our relationship with God leads to Him cleaning out our old heart and giving us a new heart.
It is messy at times and it seems to take forever while you are going through it. You don’t have to worry about the price because it has already been paid for.
Why don’t you ask Jesus to come and give you a heart renovation?
Last week I travelled to Batemans Bay to visit my parents. The occasion was my mother’s 90th birthday, which is quite a milestone.
Just a couple of generations ago, 65 years was an achievement to celebrate. Most people were not expected to last too many years after retirement. Now, 25 or 30 years of post retirement living is common.
Although I sailed past 65 a little while ago, I find that I am still full of energy, and my brain is still firing on all cylinders. No chance and no desire to put my feet up any time soon.
Regardless of all of this, the day will come for all of us when our bodies stop functioning. While we all look forward to a long life, some people die prematurely in accidents and other causes.
While death and taxes are the two unavoidable facts of life, most people these days give little thought to death, even if they manage to avoid taxes.
The Bible teaches us that after our bodies die, our souls continue to live. We will all stand before God to give an account of our lives. Jesus used the analogies of sheep being sorted from goats and weeds being separated from wheat. Those who have lived perfect lives go to a place of unimaginable joy called Heaven. Those who have not lived perfect lives go to a place of suffering called Hell.
But none of us is perfect. We have all sinned and fallen short of God’s standard.
So how can anyone be saved from the awful destiny?
Jesus died to pay for the sins of everyone. He can take away your failures, crimes and mistakes.
Financial advisers are constantly urging us to prepare for retirement.
Spiritual advisers want you to prepare for what comes after that. You don’t need a huge super fund, or any fund at all.
Say a prayer and sincerely ask Jesus to forgive you. Resolve to live for him as many days or years that you have left. Go to a church where you will find help and support in following through on that decision.
El Salvador went from the murder capital of the world to one of the safest nations
Even though El Salvador was the murder capital of the world a decade ago, with a murder rate of 103 per 100,000 inhabitants, it is now much safer there than it is in the U.S. The U.S. murder rate in 2023 was 13 per 100,000, while the murder rate in El Salvador was 2.4 per 100,000.
So how was this done? They accomplished this in 3 years and took 70,000 gang members off the streets.
Nayib Bukele is the 43rd President of El Salvador. He was re-elected in February 2024 with 85% of the vote. He shares the story in an interview with Tucker Carlson.
He relates that his entire cabinet was in prayer and took authority over the satanic MS-13 gang, winning the battle in the spiritual realm first, and then it was possible to win it in the natural realm. He states that it was easier to win the war over the gang BECAUSE they are (literally) satanic. (Human sacrifices to satan are part of the gang culture.) That was an incredible encouragement to me as I see the spiritual forces behind the evil attempting to take over our nation. Because it is a SPIRITUAL battle, we KNOW we are on the winning side! We just need to obey the instructions of our Commander and not give up!
Here are a couple of powerful free video clips of the Tucker Carlson interview:
You want to listen to this interview. It will inspire faith in your heart as well as knowledge. For example, I was completely unaware that this transformation has happened in the last few years in El Salvador. This is likely one of the greatest victories over satan and murderers in world history, and it happened right next door in just the last few years. I had not even heard about it until today!
If I ever wondered if the news media was reporting the important stuff, this should drive the nail in the coffin for good.
You will need to sign up with Tucker Carlson to watch the full interview, but I highly recommend doing so. True news of true miracles taking place is worth the small price you will pay, and right now, if we don’t access this type of news, we could easily succumb to despondency and depression rather than hearing and seeing that God IS moving today and we need to be excited about this and pray for a revival of righteousness to sweep all nations of the world.
New Life Narrabri 
