For the first time I realized that I was in the hands of a dreadful, malevolent spiritual power. The dread of this welled up inside of me and gripped my heart. I felt weak and powerless, a man alone, held captive by a vast, dark force. Andrew Brunson
Scripture
If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
Observation
Paul longs for the people of Israel be saved. They are zealous for God but don’t understand that Christ has accomplished all that the law was given for.
Moses writes that the law’s way of making a person right with God requires obedience to the commandments.
The message of God is this: if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
Believing makes us right with God and confessing Jesus as Lord saves us. Jews and Gentiles have the same means of salvation. Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.
Application
The gospel message is simple. God has provided the means of salvation through Christ’s death on the cross. As Paul writes it here, we have to confess a Jesus is Lord and believe that God raised him from the dead.
No complicated rituals and costly sacrifices. The Lord has provided a sacrifice beyond price.
This is God’s love in action. He did not want any person to perish, so He sent Christ into the world to pay the price for our sins.
Now, everybody who truly believes that Christ is alive and they confess aloud that Jesus is their Lord, they will be saved.
Promoted from the kingdom of darkness to the light of God’s glorious grace. Rescued from the destiny of eternal torment and put on the road to heaven and eternal joy.
Our God is a loving and gracious God.
Prayer
Thank you Lord for the good news of salvation. You have rescued me from the dominion of darkness. Hallelujah!
From Eternity
A winding-up order to dissolve Fred Nile’s Christian Democratic Party (CDP) has been issued by Justice Black of the NSW Supreme Court. The Party is not insolvent – the winding-up order that will cause the Party to no longer exist – because it cannot govern itself.
The Party has not had valid officeholders for several years, Justice Black finds. For example, Fred Nile is not the President of the Party, or Annie Wright the State Director – the Party failed to appoint them and previous officeholders properly.
This mess is due to the Party’s constitution, which is unworkable – a clause requiring officeholders to have a 75% approval vote from the Party’s State Council has been ignored for years.
Charles Robert Knox, a former party treasurer who started the litigation which has brought the Party down, has been vindicated in the court finding seeking Fred Nile and other officers do not hold their offices.
Justice Black notes that the Party’s receiver Schon Condon was appointed “for an improper purpose if it was directed to terminate the proceedings brought by Mr Knox in this court” but records “it is not necessary to determine that question”. That’s because his orders to wind up the Party quickly make it irrelevant.
In Black’s judgement, he is critical of the CDP using a receiver to attempt an election to resolve the Knox litigation. “The voluntary administration regime is directed to the position of an association that is insolvent or likely to become insolvent, and does not provide the means for controllers of an association to conduct annual meetings or elect new boards….”
A significant part of the dispute has revolved around which party branches are valid and which members can vote to elect branch delegates. Rather than a snap election, these disputes have dragged on since May 2021, with frequent, costly hearings before the NSW Supreme courts.
If the “Nile party” – the erstwhile party officials, Knox, and an intervenor in the dispute Graeme Collins – get their costs paid by the Party along with the receiver, the Party would have very little left. The receivership and litigation by the various factions will have used up all the Party’s resources.
Justice Black has concluded that the court can wind up the Party. But says he “will stay that order for a period to allow yet another opportunity for the parties to resolve their differences or at least agree on the basis on which a meeting of the association could be held to elect officers and resolve the ongoing dispute as to the identity of the electorate branches whose delegates could vote at an Annual State Council meeting.”
The judge makes it clear that “hostilities between the parties” and “a lack of apparent resolution of the internal disputes” support a winding-up order.
Eternity’s soundings concur with the judge’s assessments. The parties seem fixed in their view on which branches can vote – their disagreement persists.
The judge clarifies that unless they can agree on who can vote at a party meeting, there is no future for the Party.
The judge has stayed the winding-up order to March 29, at 4 pm. That’s the deadline to see if the CDP can survive.
The river of glory is a kingdom reality—the river flows from the throne, the place of sovereign rule. The currents of the river are quickened through worship, for worship establishes His throne and magnifies His majesty. The river flows inside of Us. Andrew White
Overcast and breezy this morning. Hard work on the bike!
As I am reminded of the glory of this high call, I pray that in every nation God raises up faithful and attentive “street shepherds”—ones who will carry the glory outside of the church into the darkest areas of society. Andrew White
A breezy, mild morning. Great to be out on the bike.
The truth is there is more power in the faith-filled song of a weak believer than there is in a billion missile explosions. Andrew White
A ride to Eulah Creek Road this morning. It’s overcast but most of the rain has moved on.
