It is a small wonder that anyone living in today’s world can keep his or her sanity. Look around you when you are on the street, or in a shopping mall, or restaurant and you will often see people, especially the younger generation walking about in jeans with tears and holes on the knee, thighs and even buttocks and one is tempted to take these poor creatures to the nearest store and buy them new pants. But no! That is today’s fashion. It is all in one’s mindset.

It’s all in how you look at things in today’s permissive society. What was once offensive is now the norm and acceptable. It’s all about freedom of expression and it is this freedom that is the cause of a lot of unrest in the world today.

A recent video made in America by a man born in Egypt about the Life of Mohammad has the whole Muslim world in an uproar. There has been and currently is, rioting in a large part of the Middle East and North Africa, and as of this writing more than fifty people have been killed, including a US Ambassador to Libya, along with three others. [Ed. Later determined video not responsible] All because someone said something that the others do not agree with. The violence is abhorrent and I for one do not condone it, but one thing does stand out in all this, and that is the fact that the Muslims are willing to fight for something that they hold dear and sacred. That is more than can be said for the Christian community.

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From Saskatchewan: Dear Editor, I have always been confused about Zechariah 13:9. Can you give me your thoughts about the third brought through the fire, as well as how this chapter fits chapter 14.

Reply by Bob Vermaat

Zechariah’s prophecy for the last days

“When looking at chapter 13 and 14 of Zechariah it is easy to see at first glance that there could be some confusion. For it seems that the prophet is jumping back and forth thereby adding to the confusion, but if one really pays attention, both chapters fall into place in the greater scheme of God’s marvelous plan.

In the first verse of chapter 13 we get a glimpse of the Messiah, this is corroborated by Verse 10 of chapter 12. And then the prophet Zechariah goes on to explain that through the entity of Christ, David’s greater Son in the Latter Days, all false prophets and false teachers will be exposed for what they are and eradicated.

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“Think not that I am come to send peace on the earth; I came not to send peace but a sword.” (Mat. 10:34).

How true are those words uttered by our Lord almost two thousand years ago. Even though the main thrust of His message was one of peace and comfort, in this discourse in Mat. 10 the Lord is definitely warning us of strife and division. All we have to do is look around us today and see what is going on in our world, there is mayhem and confusion, strife and military conflict everywhere. There is no peace on this earth. Yet, Jesus says in Jn. 14:27, “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you; not as the world giveth, give I unto you.”

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