Closer then you think

Oil prices hit $125.00 today. Imagine what that is going to do at the gas pumps. A tornado touched down in N.C. today and tornado's ripped through Virginia Thursday night and Friday morning. There are over 100 thousand people dead in Myanmar and still at least 100 thousand missing. There are 34 children dead in China from the Hand, foot and mouth disease an outbreak that has 27,499 sick. A lethal variant on an ancient disease affecting wheat has spread from its base in Africa to Iran and now threatens vast fields in South Asia, the Middle East and Europe at a time of global food shortages, agricultural specialists warn.
Let's take a look at what has happened just this past week. Weather wise, tornado's, earthquakes, cyclones, volcano's. Weather experts are saying 2008 is the deadliest tornado season yet. Ash from the Chilean volcano, which started erupting 10 days ago for the first time in thousands of years, has spoiled lakes, rivers and lagoons, plants and habitat for animals. An earthquake of 7.8 hit China today, their second earthquake this year of that magnitude. The cyclone in Myanmar claimed thousands of life's.
What about sicknesses. Let's see, this past week alone the Hand, foot and mouth disease has affected some 28 thousand children. Let's not forget the Bird-Flu. The virus remains hard for people to catch, but scientists worry it could mutate into a form that spreads more easily between humans, with the potential to kill millions worldwide. Worldwide, at least 241 people have died from bird flu since 2003, according to the World Health Organization. Most human cases have been linked to contact with infected poultry.
Famine: There have been riots in Morocco, Senegal and Cameroon. Rice is now worth $600 a ton. Millions of people in India face starvation after a plague of rats overruns a region. Violent food protests are breaking out in parts of the world. A lot of this is because the food is being used as Bio fuel. Natural disasters are another problem, as are diseased grain and birds. The decline in the dollar and rising fuel costs add to the problem. The following is a link to a great article on worldwide famine. http://actionsbyt.wordpress.com/2008/04/02/famine-world-wide/
What about the wars? America is still in Iraq. Hezbollah is fighting in Lebanon. Fighting continues in Kashmir. Israel is still surrounded with fighting. It seems there is a war going on just about everywhere. Let's not forget the Iranian threat.
The European Union is putting together a Mediterranean Union which will consist of the Mideastern nations. This is the brain storm of France's President Nicolas Sarkozy. Sarkozy will take over the Presidency of the EU in July. France is inviting all the countries around the Mediterranean rim, including Libya, Syria and Israel, to a European Union summit in Paris on July 13. Sarkozy believes that this will bring peace to the region.
Matthew 24:4-8
4And Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you.
5For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many.
6And 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.
7For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places.
8All these are the beginning of sorrows.
In the above verses Jesus said we would see these things taking place. He said it was the beginning of sorrows, or the beginning of birth pains. I believe what we are experiencing right now are labor pains. As time moves on so shall the pains increase and the frequency of them become worse.
I believe Jesus is coming soon. Before long we will hear that trumpet sound and that voice from the clouds call us "up" to be with Jesus forever.
1 Thess. 4:13-18; 13But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope.
14For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him.
15For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep.
16For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first:
17Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.
18Wherefore comfort one another with these words.