DEALING WITH THE TIME OF CRISIS

(PART 3)

Some researchers think the flu virus of 1918 first migrated from birds to pigs before it spread to human beings - and thus we hear of the periodic desperate slaughter of chickens, ducks and geese in some Asian countries when a different flu strain jumps from these domesticated birds to people.

And while health officials rightly worry about the ongoing devastation wrought by HIV/AIDS (which still kills close to a million people annually) and occasional deadly outbreaks of Ebola or something similar, their real worry is another killer flu pandemic. This is why they have been so concerned about the COVID-19 pandemic.

For example, it’s too early to tell whether it will largely go dormant in the northern hemisphere’s warmer summer months, only to re-emerge with a vengeance in colder weather as did the 1918 variety, when it took even more lives than in its first wave.

Since widespread vaccine use is yet a ways off, there is still plenty of concern. The full impact of the reeling global economy is yet to be seen, and we have far to go before the world returns to some semblance of normality.

The media have been full of breathless reporting on this current pandemic, but something has been noticeably missing. That is any kind of biblical perspective on this pandemic and its effect on the world - not to mention its effect on you.

I encourage you to read similar articles so that you are able to discover what the Bible has to say about such epidemics and their effect on humanity - as well as the prophetic reality of far worse epidemics to come.

With much of the world shut down and people told to stay in their homes, this is a good time for us to think - to consider where we are spiritually, to consider what God wants and expects us to do, to make choices we may have put off far too long.

God’s Word indeed has much to say to us in times like this! But keep in mind that beyond the terrible times prophesied to come awaits the long-promised world of tomorrow.

You need this biblical perspective!

Make no mistake, or wrong assumption, the world will come out of these trying times of this pandemic. People will eventually return to work, kids and adolescents will go back to schools and universities and people will start again with familiar routines, although I believe in "new normal conditions" as the world speculates. Vaccination will probably be developed to counter the strain that this virus is causing. But this is not the end, by any means, of dangerous virus. (to be continued…)