THE MIDDLE EAST

In 2006 I wrote a message regarding the crisis in the Middle East. Here is a portion of what I wrote;

We must be reminded every moment of every day that God is in charge! Nothing that is taking place is taking God by surprise. I have no doubt, in fact I can guarantee that events in the Middle East will have growing and lasting effect on our economy and our conveniences. In other words, our comfort zones are going to be challenged more than they ever have been before. If we think that because we live over here we can’t be touched by all that is going on over there, then we’ve got our heads in the sand, folks. But in the midst of all of that God is still in charge.

Some of the events taking place have been orchestrated by God. Other events are those things that are the evil plans of men. But we can be assured that God uses them all in our lives for the purpose of conforming us into the Christians he wants us to be.

God’s got a plan and we are right in the middle of it. His plan is that as the world around us becomes more and more desperate, you and I become more and more available with the solution. We cannot isolate ourselves from what is going on in the world. These things are happening within the plan of Almighty God and our purpose is not just to remain people pursuing the American dream but as Christians who are missionaries to the rest of the world.

And today, seven years later, the players have changed but the situation is the same. And if we're not careful, we will get distracted from what is really happening. God is still in control, things are moving according to His time frame, and it will end exactly...exactly as we read in Scripture. And remember this--if we allow ourselves to view Islam as our enemy we will cease to view them as our mission field.

God help us to remain faithful to Him.