Category: Ramblings

Opinion and viewpoint

Posted on

Dividing the Land

by Richard

I am always on the lookout for news items that I think are prophetically significant. Yesterday I came across the following insight by Nicholas Sheppard on the Sky News Australia site.

This article reminded me of what the prophet Daniel wrote:

Daniel 11:39
“Thus he shall act against the strongest fortresses with a foreign god, which he shall acknowledge, and advance its glory; and he shall cause them to rule over many, and divide the land for gain.

It was an eye opener to read that the dividing of the land that the Lord God Almighty gave to the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob/Israel has been centralised into the hands of a single politician.

The time is getting very late indeed.

[Read Article]

Note: If the link above no longer works, please go to the All Israel News website (https://skynews.com.au/) and search for “Next US Democrat President” into their search engine.

Posted on

How The Rejection Of Bible Prophecy Paved The Way For Paula White’s Disturbing Rise To Power

In the book of Proverbs we read about seeking wisdom. Three of the many verses are:

Prov 3:5-6
Trust in the LORD with all your heart, And lean not on your own understanding; 6 In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He shall direct your paths.

Prov 11:14
Where there is no counsel, the people fall; But in the multitude of counsellors there is safety.

Prov 12:15
The way of a fool is right in his own eyes, But he who heeds counsel is wise.

With these verses in mind, I was heartened when I read about the President of the United States, Donald Trump, establishing the “White House Faith Office” [Fact Sheet]1. I was also encouraged by the stance he took with Israel as a whole and, in particular, the 7 October 2023 war Israel was forced to wage. With respect to Israel, all seemed to finally be going right for a change.

While seeking wisdom from others is commendable, care needs to be taken to not listen to false teachers. The Bible speaks about this in several places. Two such verses are:

2 Tim 4:3-4
For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; 4 and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables.

2 Pet 3:3-4
knowing this first: that scoffers will come in the last days, walking according to their own lusts, 4 and saying, “Where is the promise of His coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation.”

If I had done a little more research I would have found out that the person that President trump picked to head the White House Faith Office is a Ms Paula White [Wikipedia Entry]2, an American televangelist. I should have visited Ms White’s “Beliefs” page on her personal website [Link here]3 to determine what sort of leadership she would provide.

Just a little surfing on the web would have prepared me for a Harbinger Daily article, titled “How The Rejection Of Bible Prophecy Paved The Way For Paula White’s Disturbing Rise To Power” [Read Article here]4.

We must not stop praying for Israel nor those who call themselves Israel’s friends, especially those who hold positions of power in our world. More than ever we all need to seek out wise council that comes from the Lord God Almighty alone.

[1] If this link no longer works, please go to the White House website (https://www.whitehouse.gov/) and type “faith office fact sheet” into their search engine.
[2] If this link no longer works, please go to the Wikipedia website (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page) and type “Paula Michelle White-Cain” into their search engine.
[3] If this link no longer works, please go to the Paula White Ministries website (https://paulawhite.org/) then navigate to her “Beliefs” page located under the “About” tab.
[4] If this link no longer works, please go to the Harbinger’s Daily website (https://harbingersdaily.com/) and insert the title of this article into their search engine.

Posted on

Egyptian woman just ended Palestine FOREVER!

by June

(Hosted on YouTube channel: OtherBarak )

Egyptian Gazan, Nonie Darwish speaks on the truth about Palestine.

Nonie Darwish is an Egyptian-American author, writer, founder of the Arabs for Israel movement, and director of Former Muslims United. Darwish is an outspoken critic of Islam. The Southern Poverty Law Centre has described her as an anti-Arab and anti-Muslim activist.

Nonie Darwish is the daughter of a founding member of Hamas, the militant group based in Gaza. After her father was killed, Nonie and her family left Gaza and eventually relocated to America. She has watched in dismay as America and other Western nations permit pro-Hamas protests and allow misinformation about Israel and the Jewish community to spread. She speaks out in hope that people like her have the strength to push back.

June writes: “I found this video very insightful. Western and Middle-Eastern cultures are very different. Western media does not really understand what is behind Islam and its conflict with everything that isn’t Islam; but it’s through their eyes that we, in the West, get our news about the Middle-East. After watching this video, you will have a much more informed perspective.
In addition to this video, there are many others on YouTube featuring Nonie … just search on her name”.

Disclaimer: The views, information, or opinions expressed in the following video are solely those of the individuals involved and do not necessarily represent those of Awake To Israel. ATI is not responsible and does not verify for accuracy any of the information contained in the following video.

[Watch video]

Note: If the link above no longer works, please go to YouTube’s webpage (https://www.youtube.com/) and insert the title of this article into their search engine.

Posted on

Taking Over Gaza

by Richard

In the first week of February 2025, the headlines around the world were all focused on the President of the United States plan to “take over Gaza”. A typical news item at that time can be found [here].

The reaction to this proposal was just about unanimous. The proposal was not receiving a warm (or even ”considered’ response) from world bodies, the leaders of many nations, or even the various aid agencies that are on the ground in Gaza. Typical of those responses can be read [here], [here] or [here]. A report from Emissary (located here) said that the president’s plan had “sparked rare unity in the Middle East” in their united opposition against the proposal.

A headline from an article on the German Marshall Fund site located [here] is “Don’t Like Trump’s Gaza Plan? Offer another”. Which was rather prophetic as there has been a deluge of opinions that put forward various options. One I found  was unique as it suggested that the northern African nation of Lybia was the ‘best option’. You can read it [here]. World leaders continue to scramble in finding an alternate solution to the problem of Gaza.

I found an article, dated 26 Feb 2025, that suggests a reason why resettling the population of Gaza is a huge problem for any nation, particularly Egypt, Lebanon and Jordan. The title of the article is “What country would accept relocated Gazans?” It can be found [here].

Posted on

Grieving for Shiri Bibas

By Heather

For over 500 days we have been haunted by the images of Shiri Bibas and her precious children, Ariel and Kfir, taken from their home in NirOz, into Gaza.

We have prayed they would be treated with sympathy and for their soon return.

Yet we also heard the stories of what happened to other women and babies on the 7th October, 2023, and feared the worst. Also on that dreadful day – Shiri’s husband, Yarden was taken captive. He had left his family in the “safe room” and gone to help protect his community. He didn’t know the fate of his loved-ones until he was released after 484 days in dark, airless tunnels (Gaza does not have bomb shelters).

Shiri’s own parents were murdered in the October 7 massacre.

Now, in February 2025, we know that our worst fears became a reality about a month after their kidnapping. Ariel and Kfir were brutally murdered in captivity. Then their murderers spread rumours, which blamed the would-be rescuers for the children’s death!

In further evidence of their disregard for human life and sanctity of the dead – coffins were paraded as some sick “Spoils of War”.

One coffin was said to hold the remains of Ariel and Kfir’s mother Shiri – but no, she was not there. So Shiri is now separated from her children in death. (It is unlikely that Shiri is alive – though her family holds onto hope until they have official confirmation).

To add insult to injury, these heartless murderers sent the body of a different woman to Israel, in Shiri’s coffin. They didn’t even show a single morsel of respect to one of their own.

How does Yarden Bibas go on? How do the surviving grandparents, aunts and uncles, bury two babies, without their mother beside them? My tears are nothing compared to the grief the Bibas family is experiencing.

To the murderers of these innocent children I say this:

Luke 17:2 (NKJV)
It would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck, and he were thrown into the sea, than that he should offend one of these little ones.

Posted on

The name “I Am”

By Richard

In my devotion this morning on Exodus chapter 3, I was struck by the conversation Moses had with the Lord God. Part of that conversation reads as the following:

Exod 3:14-15 (NKJV)
And God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM.” And He said, “Thus you shall say to the children of Israel, ‘I AM has sent me to you.’ ” 15Moreover God said to Moses, “Thus you shall say to the children of Israel: ‘The LORD God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you. This is My name forever, and this is My memorial to all generations.’

Here we read that God’s eternal name is “I AM”. This is God’s name forever. Names at that time were a statement about the person’s character. In a sense it reads as if God stopped half way through that sentence. He effectively said “I AM ….” with a blank that needs to be filled in. We can see the ‘blank’ partly filled in throughout the Bible, we see it partly filled in throughout the glory of all creation, and we also see it partly filled in throughout our individual lives. The bible, the creation and our lives help complete that sentence. And yet all of our efforts to complete the sentence are not worthy of providing even a beginning to completing that sentence.

When I consider this name of God, I am drawn to the seven times in the Gospel of John, the Lord Jesus wrote who He is into God’s name:

John 6:35 (NKJV)
And Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst.

John 8:12 (NKJV)
Then Jesus spoke to them again, saying, “I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life.”

John 10:9 (NKJV)
“I am the door. If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture.

John 10:11 (NKJV)
“I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives His life for the sheep.

John 11:25 (NKJV)
Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live.

John 14:6 (NKJV)
Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.

John 15:1 (NKJV)
“I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser.

Scripture taken from the New King James Version (NKJV). Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Nashville.

Posted on

A Tale of Two Covenants

By Richard

As I was doing some research for a sermon recently about God’s covenants with Israel, I came across an article that made reference to “The Covenant of the Islamic Resistance Movement” that was published on the 18th August 1988. An online copy of this covenant can be found here [1]. The Islamic Resistance Movement is also known by the name Hamas.

In the second paragraph of the preamble is the statement “Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it, just as it obliterated others before it” [emphasis added].

According to the Macquarie Dictionary [2], the word obliterate is defined as “to remove all traces of; do away with; destroy. To blot out or render undecipherable; to cancel or efface”.

One of the everlasting covenants the Lord God Almighty made with Abraham, the forefather of Israel is this:

Gen 15:18 (NKJV [3])
On the same day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying: “To your descendants I have given this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the River Euphrates–

Another everlasting covenant the Lord God made is the one He made with King David:

2Sam 7:16 (NKJV)
“And your house and your kingdom shall be established forever before you. Your throne shall be established forever.” ’ ”

If the Islamic Resistance Movement is intent on obliterating the the nation of Israel then they should be aware of the following promises the Lord God Almighty has made to the nation of Israel.

Jer 31:37 (NKJV)
Thus says the LORD: “If heaven above can be measured, And the foundations of the earth searched out beneath, I will also cast off all the seed of Israel For all that they have done, says the LORD.

Jer 33:20-21 (NKJV)
20 “Thus says the LORD: ‘If you can break My covenant with the day and My covenant with the night, so that there will not be day and night in their season, 21 ‘then My covenant may also be broken with David My servant, so that he shall not have a son to reign on his throne, and with the Levites, the priests, My ministers.

[1] © 2008 Lillian Goldman Law Library New Haven, CT 06511, accessed 8 Feb 2025.
[2] Macquarie encyclopedic Dictionary, 1998, Macquarie Dictionary Publishers, an imprint of Pan Macmillan Australia Pty Ltd
[3] Scripture taken from the New King James Version (NKJV). Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Nashville.

Posted on

Fishermen and Hunters

By Richard

As I have been watching the news, the vandalism in the Eastern suburbs of Sydney and the fire-bombing of a Synagogue in Melbourne, I was reminded of what I read in “Are we Really in the Last Days?”[1] by Dr Roger Liebi. He wrote:
“In 600 BC it was prophesied in Jeremiah 16:14-16 that the return of the Jews would be characterised by two great phases:

First, there will be “a time of many fishermen”, and afterwards “a time of many hunters”. The end-Time return of the Jews would firstly undergo a preliminary stage, which could be termed an enticement-phase”. In this phase there will be “fishermen” who move the Jews to return to the Holy Land.

In the next phase, “hunters” will drive the Jews with violence to return home.

Jer 16:14-16 (NKJV)[2]
14“Therefore behold, the days are coming,” says the LORD, “that it shall no more be said, ‘The LORD lives who brought up the children of Israel from the land of Egypt,’ 15“but, ‘The LORD lives who brought up the children of Israel from the land of the north and from all the lands where He had driven them.’ For I will bring them back into their land which I gave to their fathers. 16“Behold, I will send for many fishermen,” says the LORD, “and they shall fish them; and afterward I will send for many hunters, and they shall hunt them from every mountain and every hill, and out of the holes of the rocks.” [emphasis added]

I cannot stop thinking that, for the Jewish people living in Australia, the ‘time of fishing’ has come to an end and has now been replaced by the ‘time of hunters’. I never thought that Australia would come to this sad state in its relationship with God’s chosen people. We need to pray for the Peace of Jerusalem.

[1] LIEBI, R. (2012) Are We Really Living In The Last Days? Christlicher Medienvertrieb Hagedorn, Dusseldorf, p 41.

[2] Scripture taken from the New King James Version (NKJV). Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Nashville.