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Shifting, sinking sands of political expediency!
I am anxious at this time of deliberate confusion generated by duplicitous craft, to get out as much of the truth as I can.
I freely acknowledge that I must rely on the guidance and information of those well versed in the intricacies of the situation that has overtaken us all and I have quoted their observations in this article.
I can only thank the providence of God that there are today voices raised in opposition to the treachery that is at work in our poor blighted province.
I hope you find this article helpful.
THE SHIFTING, SINKING SANDS OF POLITICAL EXPEDIENCY!
“ . . . your lips have spoken lies, your tongue hath muttered perverseness. None calleth for justice, nor any pleadeth for truth: they trust in vanity, and speak lies; they conceive mischief, and bring forth iniquity,” Isaiah 59:3-4.
I recall, back in the mid-1980s, when I was a DUP member of the then Stormont Assembly, telling my congregation one Sabbath evening, how good it was to be back in the pulpit!
I told them that in Stormont, promises were made and strategies agreed on a Monday and by Wednesday, few could remember anything of the details of the promises and agreements, for political advantages had altered and the profitabilities of the recent arrangements had been overtaken and a ‘somersault’ was required in order to seize bigger and better gains. A resetting of the party sails had to take place in order to take advantage of the new winds that were blowing!
Press secretaries and glib-tongued party spokesmen swiftly would explain how that there was no deceit, no change of heart, no compromise — it’s just that what appears as an ‘about turn’ was really what had been announced on the Monday was not properly explained and set out for the public to rightly understand. But now that was being rectified. What had appeared as black was in fact white and any misunderstanding of the party position was now being more clearly explained on the Wednesday!
Such is the world of make-believe and deceit that is foisted upon the public! Click to read more…
Posted on 2024-01-30 a 9:53 pm
The Book of Esther - Part 1
On this morning, as Ulster awakens to a further chapter in the betrayal of the Protestant people, it is fitting that we turn our eyes heavenward and, through the lens of God’s Word, view what it is God has planned.
Unlike unfaithful man, God keeps His promises aye, to the very last letter!
“The LORD of hosts hath sworn, saying, Surely as I have thought, so shall it come to pass; and as I have purposed, so shall it stand,” Isaiah 14:24.
I trust this first part of a simple two-part study of the eschatology of the book of Esther will serve to settle our hearts and minds this morning.
THE BOOK OF ESTHER . . . . Part 1.
A picture book of the final deliverance of God’s Jewish remnant in the last days!
As I began reading the book of Esther in my daily Bible readings on January 24th, it come home to me with fresh power that the book is a narrative that is truly suggestive of the events the Jewish people will encounter at the close of this age just prior to the Lord’s return to deliver the Jewish remnant that will have escaped the Antichrist’s attempt to destroy them. The Lord will also return to slay the latter-day ‘Haman’, a very clear likeness in his murderous hatred of the ancient people of God to the coming Antichrist.
Let us first of all note that:
I. THERE IS NO MENTION OF THE NAME OF GOD IN THE BOOK OF ESTHER
It is the ONLY book in the Bible where this is the case! It occurred to me that a possible reason for this is the fact that it prophetically pictures for us the period in this world’s history when the knowledge of God will have all but disappeared. There is a time coming to this world and particularly to that region within the boundaries of the old Roman Empire for that will be Antichrist’s dominion, where he will lead people in rebellion against God.. Within this territory there will be a deepening darkness which will eventually see the name and knowledge of God ‘outlawed’ on the pain of death for any who violate this decree. Click to read more…
Posted on 2024-01-30 a 9:20 pm
The Roman Catholic children's home - a place with a dark history!
Historical abuse: Children’s home ‘robbed our dad of his life’
Our family moved to Belfast just seventy years ago this month. It soon became a custom for the family on a Sabbath afternoon to walk from our home in Rugby Avenue, up the Ormeau Road toward its junction with the Saintfield Road. There was a graveyard there where some relatives on my father’s side were buried, and the grave often visited.
On our way up the Ormeau Road, just before its junction with the Ravenhill Road, there was an imposing and ‘brooding’ high stone wall surrounding that which few had ever seen, certainly not the pedestrians walking past!
I can recall vividly my mother indicating to us that it was a part of the Roman Catholic institution and the reports regarding it were very frightening!
That she should know that, indicated that such knowledge was common!
Before anyone says that my mother was merely displaying her Protestant bigotry and prejudice, and seeking to pass it on to me, please read the BBC report I have linked above!
Whatever rumours my mother had heard were VERY TRUE!
The BBC report tells of the misery and suffering a young Roman Catholic boy, John McGuinness, was put through by nuns in the Nazareth Lodge on the Ravenhill Road. It was a part of that Roman Catholic establishment on the adjacent Ormeau Road, surrounded by that ‘brooding high stone wall’ aforementioned. This abuse took place when the boy was seven years old until he was nine, from 1967-69. Mr McGuinness died in 2020, aged 59.
His abuse would have would have taken place over a decade AFTER my mother’s warnings to me!
Mr John McGuinness said “a number of nuns assaulted him and alleged a handyman who worked at the home subjected him to regular sexual assaults in the toilets.” The BBC report states that when they contacted, the Sisters of Nazareth said it had no comment!
Roman Catholicism has a most wicked and depraved reputation arising, from amongst other things, the abuse of children in homes run by it.
Consider these headlines!
Nazareth Lodge resident who says he was abused by nun gets payout
This abuse involved a boy in the years 1989 to 1996, a long time after my mother’s truthful report of the reputation that Rome children’s homes had! Click to read more…
Posted on 2024-01-27 a 6:43 pm
The spirit of Esau alive and flourishing in Ulster today!
“Then Jacob gave Esau bread and pottage of lentiles; and he did eat and drink, and rose up, and went his way: thus Esau despised his birthright,” Genesis 25:34.
This is a very familiar passage especially for those who can recall the late Dr Ian Paisley’s ministry in the old church on the lower Ravenhill Road, Belfast.
In his earnest contending against the beginnings of the sell-out of Ulster’s godly heritage by ecumenical preachers and the unionist politicians they influenced and misled, Dr Paisley often referred to the utterly reprehensible actions of Esau.
The beginnings of the betrayal back in the early 1960s, has developed, sadly, through continual and increasing compromise with the philosophy of the pro-unity with Rome ‘false prophets’, back-peddling in the face of terrorism, embracing a shameful power-sharing arrangement with Sinn Fein/IRA, which brought that terrorist-supporting group in ‘out of the cold’ into the fold of public acceptance and approval.
This downward slide has reached its latest depths with the Democratic Unionist Party on the verge of endorsing the treacherous exclusion of Northern Ireland from being a truly integral part of the United Kingdom under the terms of the The ‘Windsor Framework’, an arrangement reached by the UK and EU at the behest of the Irish Republic, which has long illegally laid claim to the six counties of Northern. Ireland and which has aided and abetted republican terrorism in an effort to bring that about!
The following headline in yesterday’s ‘Belfast Telegraph’ must alarm every true Unionist!
Hopes rising that DUP will return to Stormont as party officers could back deal
The report says that “Optimism is increasing across the political divide that Sir Jeffrey Donaldson will lead his party back into the Stormont Executive within the next fortnight.”
The DUP leadership will use every base trick and deceit to fool the Unionist people regarding the true character of any arrangement they come to with the Westminster Government, but it is but the ripening of the fruit of the betrayal that was planted back in the 1960s and of which Dr Paisley repeatedly warned. Sadly and tragically, he also became a party to the betrayal in 2007, when he led the DUP into the power-sharing Executive in union with former IRA commander, the now dead, Martin McGuinness!
Whatever emerges from this conspiratorial arrangement between the DUP and Westminster, it cannot be denied that the DUP have yet again broken their ‘firm undertakings’ to their electorate!
The whole shameful process is but history repeating itself. Man by nature is ‘Esau-like’ in his outlook and behaviour.
I. ESAU, LIKE TODAY’S POLITICIANS, PLACED NO VALUE ON THE BLESSING OF GOD!
1. Esau despised his birthright. The birthright of Esau was a matter of very great importance, of that there can be no room for doubt.
The birthright then had wonderful privileges. This is seen in the blessing Isaac bestowed upon Jacob, deceived by him into thinking he was blessing his first born, Esau. Click to read more…
Posted on 2024-01-25 a 8:32 pm
A wonderful foreshadowing of Christ’s return to Jerusalem
A wonderful foreshadowing of Christ’s return to Jerusalem in triumph at His second advent
“And Jesus went into the temple of God, and cast out all them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the moneychangers, and the seats of them that sold doves, and said unto them, It is written, My house shall be called the house of prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves. And the blind and the lame came to him in the temple; and he healed them,” Matthew 21:12-14.
I read this chapter yesterday as part of my scheduled Bible reading on that day. When I came to the verses 12 – 14, I noted the words, “the temple of God”. I was made to think of that term used by Paul in 2 Thessalonians 2, where he writes of the Antichrist.“Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God. Remember ye not, that, when I was yet with you, I told you these things?”2 Thessalonians 2:3-5. Those who take literally what the Bible says of Christ’s second advent in both the Old and New Testament prophecies and do not try to spiritualise the setting forth of the wonderful events that will accompany that great occasion, take Paul’s reference to “the temple of God” as a reference to a temple as real and literal as the one to which Matthew is referring in our text.
Yes, the temple of Matthew chapter 21 is long gone, destroyed by the Roman armies in AD 70. Yet the clear implication of Paul’s reference to “the temple of God” is that in the latter days the Jews will rebuild a temple, even though they will still be in rejection of the New Testament revelation of the Lord Jesus being their true Messiah.
The Bible reveals a return by Israel, scattered back in the first century AD, in unbelief. Here is a sample of that event set forth in Holy Scripture.
“For I will take you from among the heathen, and gather you out of all countries, and will bring you into your own land. Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you. A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them,” Ezekiel 36:24-27. Click to read more…
Posted on 2024-01-22 a 5:03 pm
“Old things pass away!”
“Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new,” 2 Corinthians 5:17.
I was reminded of my age and the sombre truth that “we must needs die, and are as water spilt on the ground, which cannot be gathered up again,” 2 Samuel 14:14, by this picture which appeared in the ‘Belfast Newsletter’ on Thursday morning past.
It shows the demolition of what was known as Havelock House, situated on the lower Ormeau Road. It was the old headquarters of Ulster Television. I entered that building as an employee, just short of my sixteenth birthday, the youngest member of staff at that time, on the 21st September 1959, some five weeks before Ulster Television began broadcasting.
About eighteen months later, I began to work in the ‘Film Department’, where feature films were prepared for transmission and where advertising commercials were assembled on large reels for transmission each day.
I can recall working at a bench and looking out of the window, top left in this picture, as I helped assemble the 35 mm commercial adverts and various feature films that were broadcast. I also learned about feature film editing for sometimes the broadcasting schedule required a feature film to be shortened by a few minutes. I also was involved in editing news film reports for local news broadcasts, a knowledge which stood me in good stead in later years, when editing audio files for radio broadcasts was required..
Everything changed for me on 5th April 1964, for the Lord in mercy awakened me to my lost condition, granted me faith and repentance and I trusted Christ as my Saviour in obedience to the gospel. At the end of November of that year, just seven months later, I left Ulster Television and at the beginning of January 1965, I began as a student for the gospel ministry in the Free Presbyterian Church Theological Hall.
The above picture brought this all before me in a moment! Click to read more…
Posted on 2024-01-19 a 5:10 pm
Two news headlines which disclose the depraved thinking of men
I draw your attention to two news headlines which disclose the depraved thinking of men, including some ‘professing Christians’ in America today.
“God looked down on his planned paradise and said, ‘I need a caretaker,'” a voiceover intones over a minimalist piano track. “So God gave us Trump.”
“Donald Trump named in latest Epstein documents: Sarah Ransome said he had sex with ‘many girls’ in email where she also claimed pedophile had tapes of the ex-president, Richard Branson, Prince Andrew, Bill Clinton”
It must be stressed in opposition to this blasphemous rubbish that God’s Saviour is “holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and made higher than the heavens,” Hebrews 7:26.
Donald Trump is as far removed from such a description as Heaven is from Hell. For ‘professing Christians’ to speak of him as do some in the USA is an indication of how ‘Antichrist’ will be seen in the near future as a ‘deliverer’ by deceived men and women!!
(See my article – “THE ANTICHRIST – What will he be like?”)
Sincerely in Christ’s name,
Ivan Foster
Posted on 2024-01-16 a 7:00 pm
THE ANTICHRIST - What will he be like?
“And the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion: and the dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority,” Revelation 13:2.
This is but one of the many ‘pictures’ given to us of the man who will rise at the end of this age and lead the nations in the region of the old Roman Earth or the ‘Prophetic Earth’ as it is known. His damnation will come directly at the hands of the Lord Jesus on the glorious day of His return.
“And I saw the beast, and the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to make war against him that sat on the horse, and against his army. And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast, and them that worshipped his image. These both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone. And the remnant were slain with the sword of him that sat upon the horse, which sword proceeded out of his mouth: and all the fowls were filled with their flesh,” Revelation 19:19-21.
So will end in ignominy the wicked and proud attempt by the devil’s man to frustrate the purpose of God and usurp His throne!
To seek to learn what is revealed to us about the “man of sin and son of perdition” we must diligently search through God’s ‘photo album’, the inspired Holy Scriptures and humbly receive by faith the information God has given us there of the end times and ‘that wicked one’ whose activities will dominate the world stage and the thoughts, aye, and the admiration of sinful men!
I would like to gather what information I can from Holy Scripture of the person about whom God would clearly have us to be well informed. It is obvious from the record given us by Jude that since the earliest days of men, the subject of the final apostasy and the overthrow of those involved in that apostasy by the Saviour upon His return in power, has been under consideration.
“And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints, To execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him,” Jude 1:14-15.
That Enoch, back at the dawn of time was PROPHESYING of the return of Christ and His overthrow of Antichristianity, clearly shows that it has ever been the purpose of God to have His people made aware of the end-time events!
Thus He has given us many indications of the one who will be central in the devil’s latter day rebellion.
This is a lengthy article and even then I have only scratched the surface of what the Scriptures reveal of the Antichrist. May I suggest, if you find it too long to read at one sitting, that you read it point by point, for each point is a little article in itself.
I. THE BIBLE MAKES CLEAR THAT THE ANTICHRIST WILL APPEAR ATTRACTIVE TO THE EYES OF MEN.
1. Many of the titles given him do not denote ‘attractiveness’! He is called ‘the beast’, Revelation 13:2 — the Greek word denotes a wild, savage beast. He is called the ‘man of sin, the son of perdition’, 2 Thessalonians 2:3. He is called ‘that wicked’ (that lawless transgressor), 2 Thessalonians 2:8. He is likened unto a ‘horn’ in Daniel 7:8, 8:9. A horn is a destructive weapon on many animals by which they put forth their power to inflict injury on their opponents! He is called a ‘vile person’, Daniel 11:21. The Hebrew word means ‘contemptible’. Click to read more…
Posted on 2024-01-15 a 6:46 pm
A 4000 year-old declaration by the Great Judge disputed and rejected still!
“And the LORD appeared unto Abram, and said, Unto thy seed will I give this land,” Genesis 12:7.
These words were spoken in 1921BC, according to Ussher’s esteemed ‘Chronology’. They are the first recorded words of the Lord to Abraham upon his reaching of Canaan, having left Ur of the Chaldees at the Lord’s command, verse 1.
The eternal intent of these words is denied by many believers. As far as they are concerned, God has no further use for the Jewish race, they have been abandoned by Him. Of course, the enemies of Israel, in the past and at the present time, reject utterly Israel’s claim upon that land God has bestowed upon them.
That is NOT what the Bible teaches!
In these words : —
I. WE HAVE THE LORD’S PRONOUNCEMENT WHICH SETTLES FOREVER THE OWNERSHIP OF THE LAND OF ISRAEL.
“Unto thy seed will I give this land.”
1. This wonderful promise was to be reiterated on many occasions. Here is one of God’s confirmations of His promise to Abraham. “And the LORD said unto Abram, after that Lot was separated from him, Lift up now thine eyes, and look from the place where thou art northward, and southward, and eastward, and westward: for all the land which thou seest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed for ever,” Genesis 13:14-15.
The promise was repeated to Isaac. “And the LORD appeared unto him, and said, Go not down into Egypt; dwell in the land which I shall tell thee of: sojourn in this land, and I will be with thee, and will bless thee; for unto thee, and unto thy seed, I will give all these countries, and I will perform the oath which I sware unto Abraham thy father;” Genesis 26:2-3.
Promises made to our fathers need to be repeated to us for them to be effectual comforts. How many comfort themselves in what their fathers had received from the Lord without ever seeking for themselves that same comfort and assurance from the lips of the Lord! Click to read more…
Posted on 2024-01-13 a 8:00 am
Parents facing seven years in JAIL -- for opposing 'gender change'!
Such headlines as that below or others of that genre, have become common place. So much so, that the significance of such announcements have been virtually lost on society generally! The jail that is threatened will be chiefly for Christians since it is they who will be foremost in opposing such a wickedness!
Sadly, it is as if we have become immune to such developments and pay little or heed to them.
That gradual, almost unnoticed inroad of evil has ever been the tactic of the devil when seeking to impose his deceits and depravities amongst men. He is the ‘deceiver’ of nations as we are told in Revelation 20:1-3. “And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years, And cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled: and after that he must be loosed a little season.”
That binding of the devil has not yet happened and will not until the Saviour returns. Therefore the devil is presently going about deceiving the nations.
This news article deals with the devil’s subtle attack on Scotland. It is an attack which he is mounting against the nations of the whole world.
The wickedness of ‘transgenderism’ is embraced by many. The man and woman in the street and the so-called ‘intelligentsia’, those found in the universities and places of learning who have gained a reputation for wisdom but who are in fact the devil’s dupes, have amongst them those dupes who believe this absolute ludicrousness! Our parliament too is blighted with such who use its influential platform to spread their iniquitous notions.
All who embrace it, support it or merely tolerate it are guilty before God of this vile, immoral, unnatural plague!
‘Transgenderism’ is a preposterous perversion, which like all such deviancies, is in utter contradiction of God’s order. “This is the book of the generations of Adam. In the day that God created man, in the likeness of God made he him; Male and female created he them; and blessed them, and called their name Adam (Hebrew – ‘red’ or ‘earth’ out of which man was created), in the day when they were created,” Genesis 5:1-2.
Apostasy from God has ever seen an attempt to destroy this order.
“Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen. For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature: and likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet. And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient,” Romans 1:25-28.
CHRISTIAN, PLEASE NOTE THIS AND UNDERSTAND THE SIGNIFICANCE OF SUCH TRENDS!! Click to read more…
Posted on 2024-01-11 a 10:13 pm
Please sign this petition!
Reader,
Please click this link to sign the petition
“Repeal Relationships and Sexuality Education (Northern Ireland) Regulations 2023”
Thank you,
The Editor
Posted on 2024-01-09 a 10:02 pm
Seven days' notice of coming judgment!
The return of Christ to this earth, that event spoken of by Haggai the prophet, will be the glorious conclusion of this age and the beginning of the Millennial Age. “For thus saith the LORD of hosts; Yet once, it is a little while, and I will shake the heavens, and the earth, and the sea, and the dry land; And I will shake all nations, and the desire of all nations shall come: and I will fill this house with glory, saith the LORD of hosts,” Haggai 2:6-7.
It is an event looked forward to by the redeemed since the days of Adam. A little verse tucked away in the epistle of Jude shows this to be so. “And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints, to execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him,” Jude 1:14-15.
It is quite possible that Adam was alive when Enoch thus prophesied, indeed he may have heard him!
The fact that it is such a central truth is emphasised by the many references to it, both in plain words and in a figurative manner, in the Old Testament.
I could not help but see a reference to the great event in one chapter of my Bible readings yesterday. Here are a few thoughts that arose out of my mediations.
SEVEN DAYS’ NOTICE OF COMING JUDGMENT!
“For yet seven days, and I will cause it to rain upon the earth forty days and forty nights; and every living substance that I have made will I destroy from off the face of the earth,” Genesis 7:4.
I read Genesis chapter 7 on the Lord’s Day past and in the light of what the Saviour said, as recorded in Luke 17:26: “As it was in the days of Noe, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man”, I looked for instruction regarding the days near to the return of the Saviour in power and great glory to gather His redeemed people to Himself.
As I considered the above verse, I thought how that:
I. THE LORD WILL KEEP HIS FAITHFUL ONES INFORMED OF THE APPROACH OF THE COMING JUDGMENT.
This was a wonderfully precise warning of the terrible judgment that was to befall the wicked earth. Mankind had turned its back upon the Lord, aye, and had defied Him most wickedly. Genesis 6:5 states this fact most emphatically. “And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” I have emboldened the three words which indicate the utterly depraved nature of the generation in Noah’s day. Click to read more…
Posted on 2024-01-08 a 5:29 pm
Strong opposition to Heaton-Harris’s evil RSE plan
Strong opposition to Heaton-Harris’s evil RSE plan
Despite support from Sinn Fein, Alliance and Ulster Unionist party members
Here is a most welcome report in today’s ‘Belfast Newsletter’ of the response to a public consultation on the Secretary of State’s plan to introduce compulsory abortion education in the schools of Northern Ireland.
Chris Heaton-Harris’s plan will be taught without reference to the Law of God or what the Bible has to say about the crime of the murder of the unborn, which is what abortion is!
Welcome as this response is, in the light of government actions in the past, it is unlikely it will have any substantial impact upon men who hold high office and who are godless in thoughts and action! This is especially so since many of the questions asked in the consultation process where deliberately ambiguous and ambivalent.
The Government’s Relationships and Sexual Education (RSE) is born of the spirit of apostasy which has been rampant in the United Kingdom now for many decades. It was born in the seminaries and pulpits of the main churches and quickly took root in the pews of those denominations. In many instances, Christians failed in their duty to obey God’s command to ‘come out from among’ those who thus rejected His Word.
That failure alone greatly aided the growth of the rebellion against God and His truth until we have reached the position where the next generation is thus targeted.
The great majority of Christian parents, whose children are sent to the ungodly ‘state school’ system of education, thus continue in the path of failure and compromise. Click to read more…
Posted on 2024-01-06 a 8:20 pm
Matthew 4:12
Today I read the verse: “Now when Jesus had heard that John was cast into prison, he departed into Galilee,” Matthew 4:12, as part of my daily Bible reading and it brought to mind an incident back in July 1966.
Dr Paisley, Rev John Wylie and I had just begun our three month prison sentence. It was the second morning of us being together, Dr Paisley being arrested on the Wednesday as he went to his prayer meeting and John and I the next day Thursday, 21st July. I had spent a night in a police cell because I was arrested too late in the evening to be admitted to Crumlin Road prison. Early on the Friday morning, I was taken to prison and duly processed and finally met up with my two companions.
On Saturday morning, John disclosed, as we met for a short time of prayer in his cell, that the evening before, just before the light in his cell was put out, he read from his Bible and the above verse was part of his reading. He excitedly disclosed this wonderful providence how that the Lord indicated to him that He knew all about his imprisonment even as He knew about the cruel incarceration of John the Baptist!
As John related his account of his reading of the verse and the encouragement it was to him, it occurred to me (I always had an interest in the meaning of names) that ‘Ian’ and ‘Ivan’, were the Scottish Gaelic and the Russian forms of ‘John’. That set us all to rejoicing at this significant and merciful word from the Lord!
The name ‘John’ is of Hebrew origin and carries the meaning of ‘Jehovah is gracious’!
As I look back over the 58 years since that incident, I see nothing but God’s graciousness to me!
I’m rejoicing night and day
As I walk the narrow way,
For the hand of God in all my life I see;
And the reason of my bliss,
Yes, the secret all is this:
That the Comforter abides with me.
He abides, He abides;
Hallelujah, He abides with me!
I’m rejoicing night and day
As I walk the narrow way,
For the Comforter abides with me.
Sincerely in Christ’s name,
Ivan Foster
Posted on 2024-01-04 a 6:17 pm
Cruel China's crusade against Christianity -- a warning!
“Ye shall be hated of all nations for my name’s sake,” Matthew 24:9.
Many millions of Chinese people have, in times past, been won to Christ under the gospel. No greater example of this can be found than in the ministry of Hudson Taylor (1832-1905). It was said of him: “No other missionary in the nineteen centuries since the Apostle Paul has had a wider vision and has carried out a more systematised plan of evangelising a broad geographical area than Hudson Taylor.”
Under his and his associates’ labours, many thousands of Chinese were converted to Christ and mission stations and schools founded. He spent fifty-four years in China and it is calculated that he was responsible for bringing over 800 missionaries to the country, starting 125 schools and the establishment of more than 300 stations of work with more than 499 local helpers in all 18 provinces. A devout Baptist, he was the founder of the China Inland Mission.
However, that harvest field came under great and increasing persecution due to the rise and eventual victory of Communism over all its opponents some seventy five years ago. On October 1, 1949, Chinese Communist leader Mao Zedong declared the creation of the People’s Republic of China (PRC). The announcement ended the costly full-scale civil war between the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the Nationalist Party, or Kuomintang (KMT). The creation of the People’s Republic of China also completed the long process of governmental upheaval in China begun by the Chinese Revolution of 1911. The 1911 ‘Revolution’ brought to an end the long succession of ‘dynasties’, a form of ‘feudalism.’
The story of Hudson Taylor’s labours is a great read for any young Christian. He was, to a large degree, the epitome of the Christian missionary!
Today, the suffering of God’s people in China is increasing as Communism continues its callous and cruel crusade against that which is defines as a myth and a delusion! That Bible Christianity is no mere ‘myth’ may be seen in that the orchestrated barbarity of the powerful Communist Party in China cannot eradicate it. Rather, despite all that the Christians are called upon to endure, a remnant patiently and peacefully remains faithful to Christ and His cause and continues to see souls saved. Click to read more…
Posted on 2024-01-03 a 5:06 pm
God’s Purpose for Gaza
This message was preached at the monthly meeting of the Sovereign Grace Advent Testimony in the Bible Presbyterian Church hall, Kilburn, London on 25th May 2012.
Upon reading it I was struck at how some of the statements in particular correlate very much with events in today’s Gaza over the last three months.
The text of the message has just been published in the SGAT magazine, ‘Watching and Waiting’, January — March 2024 and we have received kind permission to reprint that article here on ‘The Burning Bush’.
I trust this proves helpful and informative.
Ivan Foster
God’s Purpose for Gaza
(Jeremiah 47)
By Ivan Foster
(This is a summary of a message preached at a meeting of the Sovereign Grace Advent Testimony on 25th May, 2012).
I have enjoyed studying this subject in God’s Word and am confident that I have benefitted from the study. God has a purpose even for such a small entity as Gaza and it is the privilege of Christians to know the purpose of God. God has revealed in very minute detail what He is going to do in the future regarding obscure nations, even nations about which we may not know much. I believe that it is vital for us to give attention to anything that God has revealed; our neglect of whatever God has said in His Word will lead to ignorance, which inevitably will be to our cost. Click to read more…
Posted on 2024-01-02 a 11:27 pm
A Very Happy 2024 to all our readers
From Rev Ivan & Mrs Ann Foster
This colourful male Great Spotted Woodpecker visited our garden in the Spring of ’23.
We are hoping to see more of him in the new year.
May you see and experience in 2024 much of God’s rich mercy, the CREATOR of this beautiful creature.
“But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint,” Isaiah 40:31.
Posted on 2024-01-01 a 1:01 am
A good start to a new year . . .
If we can find men like Mahath, Joel and Kish etc!
“Hezekiah began to reign when he was five and twenty years old, and he reigned nine and twenty years in Jerusalem. And his mother’s name was Abijah, the daughter of Zechariah. And he did that which was right in the sight of the LORD, according to all that David his father had done. He in the first year of his reign, in the first month, opened the doors of the house of the LORD, and repaired them. And he brought in the priests and the Levites, and gathered them together into the east street, and said unto them, Hear me, ye Levites, sanctify now yourselves, and sanctify the house of the LORD God of your fathers, and carry forth the filthiness out of the holy place,” 2 Chronicles 29:1-5.
I read this chapter on the morning of December 24th. As I read it I thought that the way Hezekiah started his reign provides us with a wonderful example of how we should start 2024!
Of course, what King Hezekiah desired would never have been accomplished were it not for the faithful labours of the Levites who are named by the Lord in the verses 12-14. Surely the listing of their names and those of their fathers is a wonderful example of how God honours those who serve Him and the fathers responsible for the instilling of a spirit of concern for the testimony of God and the purity of His House in their sons!
I. THE LEVITES WHO TOOK ON THE TASK OF CLEANSING THE HOUSE OF THE LORD ACTED IN RESPONSE TO THE CALL OF THE KING.
“He in the first year of his reign, in the first month, opened the doors of the house of the LORD, and repaired them. And he brought in the priests and the Levites, and gathered them together into the east street, And said unto them, Hear me, ye Levites, sanctify now yourselves, and sanctify the house of the LORD God of your fathers, and carry forth the filthiness out of the holy place,” 2 Chronicles 29:3-5.
The state of God’s house and the conducting of the services within it are of great concern to our King, even the Lord Jesus Christ. We surely recall how it was He started and concluded His three year earthly ministry. Click to read more…
Posted on 2024-01-01 a 12:01 am
Such a report as this, copied from the BBC, Northern Ireland news website, we have seen all too often in recent years.
This is our final study in response to a request from one of our readers to set down the Bible’s teaching on HOLINESS.
“When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory,” Colossians 3:4.
“Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and shew my people their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sins,” Isaiah 58:1.
By Rev Ivan Foster (Rtd)
Here is yet another ‘unsigned’ example of the ‘Christianity’ of one who sees no sin in the breaking of an oath made to the Lord and who unhesitatingly hurls abuse at one who dares to expose such a sin.
“Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird,” Revelation 18:2.
