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Sent 18 November 2025
Steps to Life November Newsletter
The Journey of Life.
Once, when we set off on a journey that was to a destination some distance away, on a road we hadn't travelled previously, we usually made preparation by studying a road map, before we left, in the safety of our home. If we didn't study the map in the home we got our directions from the map while sitting in the front seat of our car, before our journey was underway. It was dangerous to be reading the road map, whether as a large fold out sheet of paper or in a much more manageable book form, like Melways, as we drove.
If we had an adult passenger with us they would often read the map on our behalf as we drove. They told us the street names to look for, what left and right hand turns to take and how far it was to the next turn. Our navigator pointed out features along the way that helped us identify where we were up to on our journey and from this we could anticipate how far we were from our destination.
Then, overnight paper road maps, like the big fold out ones, and even Melways, became obsolete. GPS's (Global Positioning Systems) in various forms became mountable or installed in view of the driver in the car. They directed us by sight and voice instructions to where we wanted to travel taking us along the shortest route, the safest route and fastest route, helping us to avoid heavy traffic and road accidents en route.
These features, plus more are built into the new cars we buy now. The cars beep at us if we are about to drift over a white lane line. When we are trying to park they beep at us if we are getting too close to the cars near us. If we allow it, some cars will do the parking for us. Robotic controls make self steering vehicles a reality.
As Christians, travelling on the journey of our lives, God has given us His GPS. It's called 'God's Powerful Scripture!' It's guaranteed to get us to the destination the journey of our lives is taking us to - an eternal home in a perfect universe!
Our journey to heaven can be a dangerous journey because the roaring lion is seeking who he can devour. 1 Peter 5: 8 tells us - Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:.....
Satan's roarings take many different forms. All powerful and planned to cause us spiritual crashes which will lead to eternal death.
There are the roarings in the natural world. When these roarings take place, we see and sometimes have to live through '..... accidents and calamities by sea and by land, in great conflagrations, in fierce tornadoes and terrific hail-storms, in tempests, floods, cyclones, tidal waves, and earthquakes, in every place and in a thousand forms, Satan is exercising his power. He sweeps away the ripening harvest, and famine and distress follow. He imparts to the air a deadly taint, and thousands perish by the pestilence. These visitations are to become more and more frequent and disastrous.' (Great Controversy, p. 589).
We see this happening on a weekly basis but become so familiar with the roarings in our natural world that it's easy to miss them as signs telling us we are living in the last days of earth's history. Check outthe following website that does a continual update of the natural disastershappening and counts the millions of peoplekilled injured and living still but otherwise ruined by these so-called natural disasters.. https://ahacentre.org/weekly-disaster-update/weekly-disaster-update-20-26-october-2025/ Hurricane Melissa in and around the Caribbean in late October has been labelled as The Storm of the Century. The Philippines and Vietnam have been ravaged by tempests and floods in recent weeks.
There are the roarings in the political world. In the last scenes of this earth's history war will rage. (Last Day Events, p. 24). Any daily news bulletin talks about the wars and rumours of wars (Matthew 24: 6.) that devastate many countries and their peoples. There is growing prediction of a World War 3 to the point where the following countries are being suggested as possible safe havens from it. They includeAntarctica, Iceland, and South Africa, due to their isolation, neutrality, or self-sufficiency. Other nations like Fiji, Chile, Argentina, New Zealand, and Switzerland are also viewed as potential refuges.
Right now the conservative estimate of conflicts that fit the definition of being major wars include 35 in Africa, 21 in Asia, 7 in Europe and 6 in Latin America - 69 major conflicts. (Source: Geneva Academy of International Law). This is said to be the highest number of major simultaneous conflicts since World War 2. Then there are the so-called minor conflicts - not so minor if you are immersed in them!
In the world of female/male relationships and the God created roles for women and men, Satan's roarings are both deafening and subtle, to the point where the majority of people see the moral decay in our world as progressive normality. There is a silent epidemic of abortion and amongst Christians in the USA and Australia would not be much different. The poll, which was conducted by the Cultural Research Center (CRC) at Arizona Christian University in partnership with the Family Research Council, reports that the abortion industry's reach extends far beyond secular culture right into the membership of Christian churches in the USA. Eighteen percent of the Christian survey group indicated involvement in an abortion by way of having one, paying for one or encouraging someone to have an abortion. An additional fifteen percent stating they had considered having an abortion. The most common justification for having the abortion given was that the respondents personal circumstances made it necessary. George Barna, the director of the CRC, who conducted the survey, said that the survey results revealed a stunning lack of biblical world view of those who claim faith in Christ. (Reported recently in the Christian Post.)
Social chaos is an outworking of Satan's roarings - theft, fraud, street stabbings, the abuse of children and in home violence fill the daily news broadcasts. Young teenagers, both boys and girls think nothing of breaking into homes,stealing and smashing cars, wielding and using knives or otherwise assaulting whoever they see as stopping them getting what they want.
Social chaos also comes about because Satan's roarings are heard as the Serpents wisper, undermining the Christian values once underpinning Christian society.
Fifty years back children were gentle with their parents. Today parents have to be gentle with their children. Fifty years ago children respected their parents. Now parents have to respect their children. Fifty years back marriage was the norm and divorce was much more difficult. Today marriage is not seen as being that important and divorce is an easy choice. Fifty years ago only one person worked to support the whole family. Now all have to work to support one child. Fifty years back people loved to study and read books. Now people love to update their status on social media.
Writing under inspiration and describing the age we live in Ellen White said - The unbelieving world will soon have something to think of besides their dress and appearance; and as their minds are torn from these things by distress and perplexity, they will have nothing to turn to ' They have not made God their refuge, and He will not be their consolation. (Testimonies, Vol. 1, p. 268).
The concentration of mega wealth by those who exploit those who work for them and the financial collapses of huge conglomerate corporations which have gambled with the savings of trusting ordinary people, are all different notes of the sound of Satan's end time roaring.
For those who resist Satan, the roaring digital enforcement mechanisms are being put in place to give the lion the teeth it needs to enforce what he wants to bring about.
The Aligned Council of Australia recently published a description of how this is taking place right here in Australia. They called it Boiling the Frog! It reads - Every week, more Australians are waking up to the sneaky and deliberate rollout of the Digital ID system ' and many of you are seeing it first hand. Last week, one of our readers ' an accountant' wrote to us saying: 'I was forced to 'consent' to Digital ID to access the ATO Tax Agent Portal. They said it was just a new name ' from MyGovID to MyID ' but now it links everything together. I can't do my job without it. They can turn on or off what I can access. It's all happening in plain sight.' That's exactly how it works ' small steps, quiet updates, gentle nudges. Until suddenly, we realise we're sitting in a pot of warm water that's been heating slowly for years. This isn't science fiction. It's the boiling frog effect. And it's happening now, right here in Australia............ Piece by piece, a control network is being built where everything you do ' from your pension to your tax return ' is tied to one centralised ID. Once that happens, opting out won't be possible.
Couple that with the coming introduction of digital currency, and we will have a nation where people can't buy, sell or work, if what they want to do does not comply with what the government wants them to do. If keeping Sunday instead of Sabbath as a day of rest is what church and state says is for the common good, then our digital identities and the use of digital currency provide the roaring lion with a very powerful bite.
In describing our age Jesus told His listeners And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold. (Matthew 24:12.)
The apostle Peter's advise and encouragement to the Christian Church of his day, as it resisted the roaring of Satan the lion, is just as relevant to us today at the end of 2025.
He wrote - Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time: Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you. (1 Peter 5: 6 and 7.)
In 1886, Franklin Belden, a prolific writer of hymn tunes and gospel songs in the early years of the Seventh-day Adventist Church wrote a hymn called Look for the Waymarks. It's chorus sums up the hymn's message. It's most applicable advice for us in 2025 right now.
Look for the waymarks, the great prophetic waymarks,
Down through the ages, past the kingdom's four.
Look for the waymarks, the great prophetic waymaks;
The journey's almost o'er.
Kind regards and blessings from Cherryl and the Steps to Life Team
Brian Way
Programs Coordinator.
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