MIDEAST VIOLENCE

So we've had several days to listen to the varying reports regarding the spontaneity vs. premeditation of the events of last week in Libya. I've heard some say that it is because of a movie trailer that insults Mohammed and others that the youtube post was just a pretext for violence. Someone claimed today that one of the rioters was heard to say, "we got him" referring to our ambassador. Others have questioned who it is that just happens to have an RPG with them when violence breaks out. I'm torn and concerned. What do others think? How do you feel about the response of the Obama administration vs. the Romney response? More for another day ...

WARS & RUMORS OF WAR

This is a scene outside of either our embassy in Cairo or our consulate that was attacked in Bengazi yesterday. When I see things like this going on around the world, I can't help but look to Scripture for answers and the only sense that I can make out of the events in our world today is that Jesus said that there would be such times prior to His return. You may say that this has been going on for millenia and I would certainly have to agree with you but then I would also have to agree with His warning that we don't know the time so we have to be ready whenever it arrives. Are you ready?

I talked with a younger brother this morning (actually, they're all younger) to discuss where and when he and I and our wives can get together before he and his depart for Florida for the winter. It crossed my mind that our plans COULD  be very important since with both of us being of retirement age - although neither is retired yet - it is possible that we may not have another opportunity this side of heaven to get together. Perhaps that sounds gruesome but I think it is just reality.

Switch gears: I'm so concerned about our country. I went and saw the movie 2016 OBAMA'S AMERICA Monday night. Please see it and diligently apply yourselves to making wise decisions at the polls on November 6.

RANDOM THOUGHTS

I was thinking about our last vacation earlier this evening which prompted me to go into my photo album where I've recorded much of it. I ran across this picture taken of me in Key West at the southernmost point in the country. My mind is wandering in two (now three) different directions. 1. I pray for the people of Key West and all of the people in Florida and the Gulf Coast as Hurricane Isaac performs his stormy destruction. Be safe, my friends. 2. I feel like the future of my country may be like this position in Key West - at its southernmost or lowest point in her history. I beg EVERY qualified voter to educate yourselves on the candidates and the issues that our country has to deal with. 3. Two members of my congregations (one from each church) are undergoing major - life changing - surgeries this week. My prayers go out for Ruth and Glen and I ask you to join yours with mine. God is good!

WHAT TIME IS IT?

A pastor friend of mine shared this with his congregation and with me. He said that I could post it here:

1Chronicles 12-32:

“Also of the sons of Issachar men of understanding, that knew all times to order what Israel should do, two hundred principal men: and all the rest of the tribe followed ...”

This has always been an intriguing scripture to me, probably never more than today. So much has been written about the times. Bob Dylan’s “the times are a changin’” seems to echo through the corridors of the past. In June Michelle and I took a short vacation to southern Indiana. We camped on the way in our tent…weather was great! One of the places we camped at was a state park that contained two great examples of the changing times. 

One was a museum near the park’s entrance that housed astronaut “Gus” Grissom’s memorabilia including one of the capsules he flew in.  A half mile from Grissom’s Memorial was a village from the early to mid-1800’s with a working gristmill. It was powered by a giant overshot waterwheel that looked like a wet dripping Ferris Wheel without lights, and a water flume built on stone pillars. The houses were built of logs hewed square with axes and neatly made dovetailed corners. (As we walked through the buildings it suddenly dawned on me that three of my grandparents were born and raised in cabins much like these!)

The contrast between the two was amazing! In less than a century technology went from water and steam power to atom splitting and the space age. My grandparents witnessed both of these worlds! But time is moving on….we never can go back, not permanently, perhaps for a “visit” like at the park, but only a brief visit. 

The times have changed, some things for the betterment of man and some for the worse. 

My point to ponder is what are the times we are in? Issachar’s sons were wise spiritual men, so much so that their example has been recorded for centuries. As we look about and talk with people it seems that very few understand the times we live in. We see the negative changes in society and we lament, “Can’t we go back to how it was?!” The answer is no. Walt Disney and Bonanza will never be back on primetime Sunday evening TV!  

Today’s America is far from yesterday’s. Today good is being called evil and evil good, as the scripture predicts. Those who stand up or speak up for righteousness or speak against immorality are being targeted and accused of being intolerant, guilty of a hate crime or having a phobia. God bless Chick-fil-a. We are also becoming a fatherless nation and the ramification of that is staggering. The government of our nation is being greatly threatened as judges and politicians are making and interpreting laws beyond precedent and the framework of our U.S. Constitution. Many politicians and the news media fuel the culture war using the paradigm of their ideology and terrorism is unleashed abroad and at home like never before.  It seems that everything is being shaken and it is all landing upside down!

Take heart brother and sister for we may be surprised by all of this, but God is not, Jesus warned us of these times! They are perilous times, the world in turmoil and wars and rumors of wars. It is not a time to live for our own pleasures and self-interest in an ephemeral (living for one day only) state. No, but a time to devote our lives for His Kingdom. It is a time to re-evaluate our priorities and to cultivate our love for Jesus Christ, one another and the community at large. Being a part of Christ’s Body, the Church we are to be under His leadership and we can make a difference in today and tomorrow and the next day.

Let me encourage you with the words of our Lord Jesus;

 “But whenever these things begin to happen, take heart and lift up your heads, because your salvation draws near.” Luke 21:28

The times are short, let us be diligent and make the most of them! Amen. 

December 23, 1776 Thomas Paine

“THESE are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands by it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph.”

Pastor Gary A. Smith

New Life Christian Fellowship,

Alpena, Mi.