In spite of the advertisement's brutal frankness as to what to expect, the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition office in Burlington Street was deluged with replies to the above ad. In speaking of it afterward Shackleton said that so overwhelming was the response to his appeal that it seemed as though all the men of Great Britain were determined to accompany him. Yet its total honesty was something each man would undoubtedly reflect on often, following their vessel Endurance being crushed by pack-ice and sinking to the bottom of the frozen Weddell sea at the outset, stranding them in an Antarctic wilderness over a thousand miles from civilisation of any kind. The epic journey that then followed tested their initial commitment to signing that initial contract in a way none of them could have foreseen. And so it is with us in God's Church ...

Passover

With just over a week to Passover (the evening of Sunday April 21st) all of us who have been baptised should once again be examining ourselves prior to taking part in this most solemn ordinance. Key to that examination is verifying our continued repentance – the genuine intent to unreservedly turn from our own way to God's Way, in every aspect of life now and then for eternity. In his sermon on Passover Examination 1982, Mr. Armstrong was wanting to get through to us just what repentance really means, by this graphic example:

Passover is very much a time of re-commitment for all of us – remembering our calling and the steps we took at our initial conversion, making sure that the repentance – the turning – was not just a one-off event, but has indeed continued to be a truly life-changing commitment. A "contract" with Almighty God that has grown ever more personal, profound and expansive as the years roll by. And those years have certainly rolled by! Here we are, 38 years after Mr Armstrong's death, still waiting for the return of Jesus Christ and our part in the establishment of God's Government via the Kingdom of God across this earth.

Commitment

But we are in good company. All those luminaries who went before us died in faith, not YET having received the promises. But they will, having seen them in their mind's eye, embraced them and fully believed in their ultimate inheritance (Hebrews 11:13). And so shall we – provided we, like them, remain committed to the goal that the Eternal initially set before us when first opening our minds:

To remind us of the process which will lead to this incredible inheritance, each year God has us celebrate the annual festivals which depict His Plan – starting with the Passover. And in these days leading up to the Passover it is a time to reflect on "the ad" we initially signed up to. On our baptism, it is highly unlikely we had the full picture of what we were committing ourselves to but we did count the cost as much as we were able at that time (Luke 14:28), and said we were willing to pay the price:

Unknown Future

By its very nature, the future remains unknown for all of us. But the men who had chosen to accompany Shackleton to Antarctica knew at the outset of the 79 days of darkness they would need to endure between 8 May and 26 July, frozen in the pack-ice and followed by the hardships and deprivations of the expedition itself. Had they wanted an easy life, they would never have responded to "the call", but would have chosen to sit by the fire at home instead, willing to forgo any future glory. But as Mr Armstrong articulated above, they deliberately "left behind the 'easy way' – the popular, broad road ... and turned off onto the narrow, rutty, bumpy, rocky and HARD and DIFFICULT road that very few people in this world ever are willing to enter".

But the fact is, we too did the same at the point of our baptism. True, we were largely drafted. The Father drew us and gave us to Christ for training through His word. But although selected, we did agree to co-operate – we were intrinsically involved in the process. And though we did not know the precise row we would have to hoe, we did know it was not going to be the easy way – the popular broad road (Matthew 7:13). So when examining ourself prior to Passover, it would do us well to take careful note of the frame of mind James encourages us to adopt, and regarding the unknown aspects of our day-to-day struggle, remember exactly Who is working with us, and why:

Hazardous Journey

"MEN WANTED for hazardous journey" began the ad placed in the Times. And those reading the ad would have recognised the name of Ernest Shackleton. By 1913, he was already a national hero, having accompanied Scott on the Discovery Expedition of 1901 and led his own Nimrod expedition in 1907 to within 97 miles of the South Pole – the closest of anyone thus far. But his was mere human leadership. The Logos who became Jesus Christ, who now sits at the right hand of the Father – with all power at His disposal and yet fully conversant with the trials and problems of this human frame – remains our ever present help and Spiritual Leader whatever hazardous journey we may face:

Unlike the explorers of old, who when tragedy struck found themselves thousands of miles from help and no means of communication of any kind, our link via prayer to our Heavenly Father is always available, as long as WE have the right "connection" – i.e. are on His wavelength;

To be Content

Knowing we have such a dynamic 24/7 access to this ever present help in time of need should lead to a peace, contentment and confidence second to none. But does it always? The very purpose of the trials God allows in our lives is often to motivate us to go to Him in prayer with each perplexing problem and difficulty we face. And then, seeing how God does indeed fight our battles for us encourages and stabilises us, developing a close relationship that is destined to last for eternity. Having counted the cost prior to baptism and having determined to surrender our lives unreservedly – being fully committed to this way of life – are we still allowing Him to fashion and mould us till His mind becomes OUR mind, His character OUR character? We can learn something from how Christ faced His biggest trial:

What is the joy that is set before US? We are promised an integral part in the universe-ruling Family of God, with a position of rulership that can bring an end to every type of suffering this world has ever known, and will continue to experience until the return of the Messiah, the Saviour. What more could we want?

A World of Darkness

"... bitter cold, long months of complete darkness, constant danger ..." promised the ad in the Times to that valiant band of potential explorers. We too find ourselves in an exceedingly dangerous world of spiritual darkness that is destined to become a great deal worse as we approach the end. But within the chaos – with men's hearts failing them fear and the powers of heaven being shaken we are told that, "when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draws nigh." (Luke 21:28)

Now might be a good time to be examining ourselves as to whether we are becoming more capable of lifting up our heads and being positive even now – in a world of darkness yes, but relatively calm so far.

If we are struggling now it's unlikely we'll be able to suddenly trust God as we see the prophetic Beast arise, persecution bite, food shortages, disease epidemics wiping out millions. It's not possible to "work up" enough faith suddenly ... for one thing, it has to be Christ's faith in us, and it's something that is built over time, as we see God's hand in our lives. We must nurture a close relationship with our God and exercise faith daily, as it can only be "the peace of God, which passes all understanding" that will keep our hearts and minds through the perilous days ahead.

No Turning Back

"... safe return doubtful ..." warned the ad. But in our case there is no "doubtful" about it! There can be absolutely no turning back as this is our day of salvation and it's very much a one-way ticket, with the Kingdom of God as its only positive destination. No going back to Egypt when the going gets rough! (Exodus 14):

This is what we agreed to prior to baptism, but is that still the case? Are we still 100% committed to this Way – come what may – or could we fall into any of the categories Christ mentions in the Parable of the Sower ... seed by the wayside, stony ground, among thorns etc? (Matthew 13) This too needs examining in the days prior to Passover – repenting where necessary so we can fall into the last category, the "good ground":

Seeking Honour

"... Honour and recognition in case of success ..." concluded the ad – and the respondents in their multiple thousands came to the conclusion that such honour and recognition was worth the danger and deprivations involved. And so did we – but do we still? The apostle Paul - himself no stranger to danger! - make such parallels very clear:

Each of us had slightly different journeys that led us to the point of baptism. But whatever the calling given, we all had to count the cost involved, recognising that the sacrifice of Jesus Christ had true purpose for each of us individually – to give us access to the Father and thereby to the impregnation of the Holy Spirit, offering us REAL life – an eternal future! And each of us must continue on, being LED by God's spirit or that sacrifice for us individually will be in vain. What is so vital to our lives is this one-on-one relationship with our Father, which will produce in us this "new man", – a dynamic, living flow of spiritual rejuvenation – daily!

And prior to Passover it is essential we verify that our desire for "daily renewal" is still uppermost in our minds. And whether there are 5, 10 or 20 years to go – or we die in the meantime – the eternal goal that has been set before us is so much more real than the "temporal" issues we all struggle with.

Trusting God to see us through

After the sinking of the Endurance, which was crushed by the surrounding ice as this restored black and white video footage shows, the crew escaped by camping on the drifting sea ice until it disintegrated. By dragging the three lifeboats, sledges and equipment – around a ton each – across pack ice to open water, they finally launched the lifeboats to reach a desolate rocky isle called Elephant Island. Here, twenty two of the crew hunkered down under two of the lifeboats, while Shackleton and a hand-picked half a dozen set off on "the greatest open boat journey in history", and as Shackleton noted, "the perils of the proposed journey were extreme." But after fourteen horrific days, they ultimately reached the inhabited island of South Georgia, a stormy ocean voyage of 720 nautical miles and Shackleton's most famous exploit. After 36 hours on foot, crossing glaciers and ravines, they made it to the whaling station. After two abortive attempts, and totally committed to the rescue of his men, he returned with help to Elephant island, four months after setting off for help, to find them all well ... kept alive by hope and the confidence they had in their leader.

In a similar way to Shackleton's determination to return and rescue his men, we can have that hope and total confidence in OUR leader's desire to return and rescue us, so we can confidently renew our commitment to the Way of God and the individual path set before each and every one of us. Passover, and the profound sacrifice it commemorates – which He so willingly gave on our behalf – is certainly a time for us to remember this. As He reassures us:

In like manner of Israel of old, we are standing on the cusp of entering into the REAL Promised Land. And as brought out in the biblical record, it was going to take courage and commitment in order to possess what God had promised them. Likewise for us! And knowing the scriptures are recorded for our encouragement, it is certainly worth noting what God had to say to Joshua – and therefore to us, millennia later:

Back in the 1960’s, pollution was a serious problem.

The world population had just reached 3 BILLION. Today, the world population has just passed the 8 BILLION mark!

The population has increased, and so has the pollution.

Over 60 years ago, Tom Lehrer wrote the following song for the satirical television show "That Was the Week That Was" where he was the resident songwriter. He began with a spoken introduction:

End Time Insanity

If mankind could just take a step back, and look at his continuing life on planet Earth, there are three main areas of need:

• Good Food
• Fresh Water
• Clean Air

ALL THE ABOVE ARE ESSENTIAL FOR LIFE.

Yet look at how we treat the air we breath.

A Huge Source Of Air Pollution:

Underground Coal Fires

A Huge Worldwide Under-Reported Problem

Air Pollution From Ships

Shipping’s dirty secret: how ‘scrubbers’ clean the air – while contaminating the sea.

TRUCKS

Air Pollution From Trucks

Cars

Pollution From Cars

Aircraft

China: The World’s Worst Polluter

“Nothing Should Interfere With The Nation’s Economic Growth”

The Pollution League Table

The Whole System Pollutes!

Power generation, travel, transporting goods, farming, the supply chain, almost every aspect of life in this world today pollutes! We have polluted and corrupted our food supply by producing ultra processed food and we have polluted our water supply by using our rivers as open sewers. Not content with that, we are even polluting the air we breath.

Then the problem worldwide is increased by more and more people moving into cities. Cities that must be supplied with food and water from the surrounding countryside. Because of their size, the air in many cities is dangerously polluted.

Today’s world just does not work! If we were to be visited by aliens from a far off world they would quickly come to the conclusion that mankind had a death wish, and was destroying their planet! And if that’s not enough, several nations also have weapons that can blast whole cities off the map!

This World’s Society Is Based On Greed

This world’s society is based on greed and that becomes obvious when we look at the situation regarding pollution. In almost every sphere, waste is simply dumped - into rivers, the sea or the atmosphere.

We live in a world that suffers from sickness and disease - caused by the way we live. In short, mankind is committing suicide in the name of greed!

The End IS Near

Read this end time warning in the book of Revelation:

The “Good News” Announcement

The message hasn’t changed!