In Troubled Times, Words of Comfort and Hope

Over the weekend, after 60 hours, terrorist attacks in Mumbai, India ended a the Taj Mahal hotel and the Jewish center in Mumbai, India. 195 were dead, and as many as 300 were feared to be dead. Reports indicated the plan was to kill 5,000 people. In Bangkok, Thailand, about 100,000 travelers were stranded as anti-government protesters shut down the airport. As many as eleven ships were believed to be held by pirates off the coast of Somalia. On the home front, police are using video tape to determine who trampled to death a Wal-mart worker in Valley Stream, on Long Island, New York. And several earthquakes had rattled central Arkansas.

Where are we to turn in tumultuous times? We are to run straight into the arms of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. We are to put our trust in the Word of God.

The apostle Paul wrote to Thessalonian believers at a time when hey were facing a number of problems. He wrote to them about living pure lives, loving each other and working with their hands. Paul did not want his brothers and sisters to sorrow over their loved one who had died with their faith in the Lord secure. Others, who had no hope, sorrowed.

Paul has given us specific words to use in comforting one another. "For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. For 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. For 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 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. Wherefore comfort one another with these words." (1 Thes. 14-17)