Tuesday, August 9, 2011

Global Warming

The debate continues. Extremes are evident. Politicians are divided. The panic button is being pushed. Whom shall we believe? Is there not a middle ground somewhere? I am referring to the current debate on global warming. Books have been written on the subject. A movie has been made to warn people of the impending danger associated with global warming. A former vice-president of our nation has been awarded the Nobel Prize for his efforts to warn us of global warming if we continue to destroy the purity of the very air that we breathe. Yet, there are reputable scientists and meteorologists who strongly disagree with several of his arguments and conclusions. They explain that we are in a cycle of weather changes that has been going on for centuries. And here I sit as a novice and endeavoring to understand matters that are often too great for my finite mind.

This year the drought seems to be more widespread and severe than usual.  Our water supply has diminished significantly. Farmers have experienced serious crop failure. Cattlemen are having great difficulty in finding food for their stock because the pastures have burned up due to the lack of moisture. Could we not understand that such might be possible as we consider the reasons for changes in our weather? I know that as humans we do pollute our environment. We all have witnessed this fact. It is good that we are becoming more aware of this problem.

While not trying to diminish the need to clean up our polluted land, water and air, I want to mention another 'global warming' that the world in general has very little interest in. We go about our everyday activities without considering the fact that there is coming a time when this life will come to an end. We buy and sell and get gain without fully realizing that life is like a vapor that lasts only for a short time (James 4:13-17). Many scoffers reason that since there was a yesterday there will also be a tomorrow and things will continue as they have since the beginning of time. But read very carefully the words of the apostle Peter in 2 Peter 3:7: "The heavens and earth that now exist are stored up for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly." He continues by saying, "But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed. Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness, waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be set on fire and dissolved, and the heavenly bodies will melt as they burn" (2 Peter 3:10-12).

Sin is the pollution of the soul. And unless a person has this stain removed from his soul by the cleansing blood of the Lamb of God, our Savior Jesus Christ (Revelation 1:5), he will suffer the inevitable consequence of eternal condemnation. Now this is the 'global warming' that we should be prepared for by "renouncing ungodliness and worldly passions" and living "self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ" (Titus 2:12, 13).

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