Rumors of War

In this screen capture, we have Taiwanese fishing boats along with Japanese and Taiwanese Coast Guard ships. Click on the graphic and you can read one of the stories about why the ships of several countries have an interest in what is happening in the China Sea. We can be grateful it’s only water they are shooting at each other, but consider the delicate maneuvering required to keep from creating an international incident that will escalate tensions.

Emotions run deep and memories long. Both are exacerbated when new slights or hurts are perceived. Talk Middle East and thousand-year-old crusades become part of the topic, or two-thousand-year gone nations.

Humans carry a lot of baggage into their future.

And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. (Matthew 24:6 KJV)

That verse is a comfort. These rumors of war, and actual wars, have never ceased, so we need not be concerned as they occur. We have other things to think about.

For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places. (Matthew 24:7 KJV)

Of course, the more we learn about earthquakes, the more we realize how much there is to learn.  Read here about one that barely made news headlines, but was different from what we’ve known before. No tsunami, no loss of life, but things changed. Our knowledge banks changed about earthquakes in diverse places.

All these are the beginning of sorrows. (Matthew 24:8 KJV)

I’m skipping a couple of verses to get to the center of what I’m seeing in our religious culture:

And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold. (Matthew 24:12 KJV)

Do you find that to be true, too?  That it seems as though what we consider wickedness prevails and good things fail. When what we hold as absolute truth is defined as irrelevant in today’s society. In spite of that we care about such verses as:

Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter! (Isaiah 5:20 KJV)

And, we strive to remain on the path God has laid before us.

I have refrained my feet from every evil way, that I might keep thy word. I have not departed from thy judgments: for thou hast taught me. How sweet are thy words unto my taste! yea, sweeter than honey to my mouth! (Psalms 119:101-103 KJV)

Because of this and many other verses, we look to the future knowing much of the past will be repeated, and there remains work to be done:

But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come. (Matthew 24:13-14 KJV)

Not yet the end, still work to be done.