News Flash

Our homepage on the computer is CNN (dot) com, so whenever it loads, I get a quick glance at the headlines, and often I'm sucked in to read a couple stories. Like last week when it announced that Garth Brooks was coming out of retirement to rake in a few billion more dol... I mean, when he was coming out of retirement.....

But today, the headlines turned my stomach. I won't regurgitate them - maybe you were fortunate enough not to know about the despicable acts that humans perpetuate on one another here in the United States, or maybe you missed numbers that were added to the tally of our soldiers dying abroad - or terrorist acts perpetuated on innocents. Each time I read accounts of such vile and utterly base goings-on, inevitably it brings tears to my eyes, and, the proper response of "Why, Lord? When are you coming back to take us away from this?" But generally, I have no quick answer, except to pray for those affected and quickly navigate elsewhere.

Tonight, though, I have been immersed in a book suggested by a friend: What in the World is Going On? Ten Prophetic Clues You Cannot Afford to Ignore by Dr. David Jeremiah. I wasn't necessarily thinking about the distressing headlines, and instead was, through this text, examining a different horror: that of how "radical" Islam is perpetuating itself and growing stronger mainly in Europe, but also in our own country, the Land of the Free.

Like the title suggests, the book examines current events using the Bible as a yardstick to illustrate the prophecies found there that foretell these, the final days of Earth's history.

As He often does, though, God spoke to the immediate need I had in reference to what I had viewed on CNN earlier. In the chapter, "Vanished Without a Trace" Dr. Jeremiah writes about the Rapture, the event that will happen when Christians and those who are dead in Christ will rise up. Dr. Jeremiah writes that this event will likely be the immediate precursor to the seven years of upheaval before Armageddon. He also writes:


"According to Jesus, Christians are the salt and light of the world (Matthew 5:13,14). When all the Christians in the entire world are removed from the earth in one day, all the salt and all the light will suddenly be gone. The result is predictable. you may think the world today is degenerating into rampant greed and immorality, and indeed it is. But as bad as things are becoming, we can hardly overstate the horror that will occur when society loses the tempering influence of Christians."


Thanks, I needed that.

Because it will be getting worse.

And if you are alive and have not believed that Jesus Christ is who he says he is and have not accepted him as your Lord and Savior, you will be reading headlines much more horrific than those that were online today - except you will be reading them EVERY DAY. If you die before you acknowledge Him as the Son of God, you will experience unspeakable horror for eternity.

But if you have accepted Christ as your Lord and Savior, you are spared from the ravages to come. The Bible tells us in 1 Thessalonians 5:9 that "For God did not appoint us to suffer wrath but to receive salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ." So there is comfort to be had....and the promise of spending eternity in paradise.

I've already made my choice.