RPG Adults
SIGNS OF HIS COMING: FAMINES, PESTILENCES
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 22
1 Kings 8:37-40
Luke 21:8-11
The Lord is on my side;
I will not be afraid.
SIGNS OF HIS COMING: FAMINES, PESTILENCES
a) Famines
Despite advances in modern agriculture and increased food production in the major agricultural countries, masses of Third World people are starving or actually dying from under-nutrition. Ethiopia and parts of Africa bordering the Sahara Desert are in the famine zone. It is said that “every night a quarter of the world goes to bed hungry.” The world’s food reserves will last slightly over one month. Famine may be experienced in only a few countries, but climatic changes and natural disasters can cause global crop failures very quickly and precipitate widespread famine. When that happens, remember our Lord’s words in Luke 21:11. Famine also reminds us that “man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the LORD…” (Deut 8:3).
b) Pestilences
With WHO’s world health programme controlling most communicable diseases, the general state of health everywhere is getting better. But our Lord foretells of the outbreak of pestilences or deadly epidemic diseases as a sign of His coming. In recent years two health problems seem to fit in with this definition. The first is DRUG ABUSE. There has been a worldwide explosion in the use of “psychotropic drugs.” Millions of mindless youths have been hooked by habit-forming and addictive drugs (cocaine, heroin, cannabis, amphetamines, LSD, ecstasy pills, etc). The second is AIDS (Acquired Immunity Deficiency Syndrome), a mysterious scourge linked with homosexuality and sexual promiscuity. The AIDS virus destroys the body’s immune defence system, rendering the victim helpless against invading organisms and malignant processes. The disease is estimated to have infected hundreds of millions persons around the world, and there is no prospect of cure. Mankind just has no answer to these two pestilences.
THOUGHT: THE LORD MUST RETURN! GOD MUST INTERVENE!
PRAYER: Open my eyes to the signs of Thy Return, O Father, that I may redouble my efforts in serving Thee.