On December 13, 2015 Sunny Dong shared her personal salvation testimony at the Church at Moonta (South Australia). This was part of several testimonies at the event entitled “The Wonderful Works of God” (Acts 2:11). Her testimony tells us of the amazing power of God to transform lives. God is not limited by language or geographical boundaries. He works His wonderful works everywhere.
by John Calvin (abridged)1,2
1. What Christ has received from His Father is nothing to us, till we are united to Him. Though it is true that we obtain this by faith, we see that the communication of Christ, offered in the Gospel, is not embraced by all. This leads us to inquire into the secret energy of the Holy Spirit, by which we are introduced to the enjoyment of Christ and all His benefits.
In 1 John 5:6,
This is He that came by water and blood, even Jesus Christ; not by water only, but by water and blood. And it is the Spirit that bears witness, because the Spirit is truth. (KJVER)
it is declared that Christ came by water and blood that the Spirit may testify concerning Him. It is the Spirit that seals the ablution [cleansing] and sacrifice of Christ. For which reason Peter also says, that believers are “elect . . . through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 1:2). This passage suggests to us, that our souls are purified by the secret ablution of the Spirit, that the effusion of that sacred blood may not be in vain. For the same reason also Paul, when speaking of purification and justification, says, we enjoy both “in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God” (1 Corinthians 6:11). The sum of all is this—that the Holy Spirit is the bond by which Christ efficaciously unites us to Himself.
In recent years I have read and studied the eschatological beliefs of the Reformers and of Sir Isaac Newton (1643 – 1727) as well as Henry Grattan Guinness (1835 – 1910). As a result I have changed my view of Bible prophecy from the futurist view to that of a historical view, where I now see that a lot of prophecy has already been fulfilled.1
A lot of Matthew chapter 24 has been fulfilled but one very important aspect–the Return of Christ in final judgment–still remains unfulfilled. (All bold are my emphases added. Square brackets [ ] indicate meanings of words. King James Version Easy-Reading Bible (KJVER)2 used.)
Matthew 24:1,2 And Jesus went out, and departed from the temple: and His disciples came to Him for to show him the buildings of the temple. 2 And Jesus said to them, See you not all these things? verily I say to you, There shall not be left here one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down. (All bold are emphases added)
Here Christ predicts the destruction of the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem, around which all Jewish life revolved. This was fulfilled exactly in 70 A.D., which is 40 years after His death on the Cross and is within what we could call the generation of those He was speaking to—His disciples.
Late in 1973 I finished my B.Sc. honours degree in physics at the University of Western Australia. After that I was not so sure what I should do. However, that summer (Nov-Dec 1973) I visited my Catholic girlfriend out in the country (which Australians call the Outback) on an aboriginal mission where she was working. I think she could not fully comprehend what was going on in my mind, though she was happy I was no longer an atheist but had become a Catholic. (We were engaged to be married when her service ended.) I grew to understand later that her service to God was some religious duty instilled in her by Catholic parents and the Roman Catholic Church, and not as a result of a new heart from a ‘rebirth in Christ’.
At that time, while working out there, I met a Christian guy who told me about David Wilkerson and his work amongst the New York gangs and drug addicts, where many were miraculously delivered from drug addiction and violence through Christ. David Wilkerson was (now gone on to be with the Lord) a born-again Christian pastor who trusted God for miracles to change the lives of many young people on drugs through the miraculous power of the Holy Spirit.
