perilous times

discernment, glory, perilous times, prophecy, self-worship

Ultimate selfie: man edits himself into one-man orchestra playing every instrument (and conducting)

Posted on May 17, 2015May 9, 2016 by elizabethprata

A man played each part in a 70-piece orchestra and cut it into a one-man show

A man from Hull in the UK has taken the concept of the one-man band and run with it. Ben Morfitt, 24, spent a month creating a video of himself playing the parts of a 70-piece orchestra in his bedroom and posted the bizarre result to YouTube. He filmed an empty concert hall in the city’s Abermarle Music Centre as the basis for the clip, before then taping himself playing each instrument in front of a green screen and slowly building the orchestra, the Hull Daily Mail reports. It took a full month to film,” Morfitt said. “I used about three-and-a-half hours’ [worth of] footage for the final piece, and there’s about ten times that in outtakes.” He had to edit out his cat every time it wandered into the shot. The whole thing ends with 70 versions of himself turning to the camera to give it the finger.

Because…why? Why waste that much time? Energy? Talent? After reading 6 articles about Mr Morfitt, the only clue I could glean regarding his employment is that he makes a living from composing work. He actually did play each of the nine instruments depicted. He is talented and creative…but to spend that much time on one’s self, seems to me to be just ridiculously inward. And flipping the bird at the end, that’s over the top crass.

The Bible says,

For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy,(2 Timothy 3:2)

The Strong’s Lexicon explains the word ‘lover of self’ in the Greek. it is only used once, here in 2 Timothy 3:2,

phílautos (an adjective, derived from 5384 /phílos, “lover” and 846 /autós, “of self”) – properly, a lover of self, describing someone preoccupied with their own selfish desires (self-interests).

Preoccupied with self and one’s own desires. The young man who took such an inordinate amount of time to film himself in every orchestra position, then gave the finger to the audience at the end of the piece, seems to fill this scripture perfectly.

It takes a selfish desire and a heavy preoccupation with one’s self to do this. It is a gross idolatry. Matthew Henry says of the 2 Timothy verse:

Even in gospel times there would be perilous times; on account of persecution from without, still more on account of corruptions within. Men love to gratify their own lusts, more than to please God and do their duty. When every man is eager for what he can get, and anxious to keep what he has, this makes men dangerous to one another. When men do not fear God, they will not regard man.

Man’s Chief End is to Glorify God, preached Puritan Thomas Watson. He wrote,

Here are two ends of life specified. 1. The glorifying of God. 2. The enjoying of God.

First. The glorifying of God, 1 Pet. 4:11. “That God in all things may be glorified.” The glory of God is a silver thread which must run through all our actions. l Cor. 10:31. “Whether therefore ye eat or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.” Everything works to some end in things natural and artificial; now, man being a rational creature, must propose some end to himself, and that should be, that he may lift up God in the world. He had better lose his life than the end of his living. The great truth asserted is that the end of every man’s living should be to glorify God. Glorifying God has respect to all the persons in the Trinity; it respects God the Father who gave us life; God the Son, who lost his life for us; and God the Holy Ghost, who produces a new life in us; we must bring glory to the whole Trinity.

When we speak of God’s glory, the question will be moved, What are to understand by God’s glory?

Answer. There is a twofold glory: 1. The glory that God has in himself, his intrinsic glory. Glory is essential to the Godhead, as light is to the sun: he is called the “God of glory.” Acts 7:2. Glory is the sparkling of the Deity; it is so co-natural to the Godhead, that God cannot be God without it. The creature’s honour is not essential to his being. A king is a man without his regal ornaments, when his crown and royal robes are taken away; but God’s glory is such an essential part of his being, that he cannot be God without it. God’s very life lies in his glory. This glory can receive no addition, because it is infinite; it is that which God is most tender of, and which he will not part with. Isa. 48:11, “My glory I will not give to another.” God will give temporal blessings to his children, such as wisdom, riches, honour; he will give them spiritual blessings, he will give them grace, he will give them his love, he will give them heaven; but his essential glory he will not give to another. King Pharaoh parted with a ring off his finger to Joseph, and a gold chain, but he would not part with his throne. Gen. 41:40. “Only in the throne will I be greater than thou.” So God will do much for his people; he will give them the inheritance; he will put some of Christ’s glory, as mediator upon them; but his essential glory he will not part with; “in the throne he will be greater.”

2. The glory which is ascribed to God, or which his creatures labour to bring to him. 1 Chron. 16:29, “Give unto the Lord the glory due unto his name.” And, 1 Cor. 6:20, “Glorify God in your body, and in your spirit.” The glory we give God is nothing else but our lifting up his name in the world, and magnifying him in the eyes of others. Phil. 1:20, “Christ shall be magnified in my body.”

Please click on the link to learn more of what it means to glorify God.

There are only two occupations for man, to glorify God, or to glorify self. This viral video which the social media proclaims is so clever is an object warning for myself. As I approach the end of school and begin to look forward to 8 weeks of staying at home, I can easily slip into the same kind of mind-set as Mr Morfitt- navel gazing, indulging selfish desires, and being preoccupied with my own glory and not the Great God whom I serve.

I must remember to submit to the Holy Spirit in yielding up my old man, and focus on the new man. I want to use my time well and glorify God in what I do. I can use the time to study, minister, pray, read the Bible more, disciple, and grow. Lord, help me this summer remain diligent in seeking YOUR glory, and avoid resting in any false laurels I build up in myself. I desire to redeem the time. Summer is glorious for me because of the time off, yet the lure of the leisure life can easily descend into too much personal work, introspection, and just plain silliness (like Mr Morfitt)… and leave no room for the purpose of my life: the glorification of God

EPrata photo

Prayer

At times I feel I could bear any suffering, but how can I dishonour this glorious God? What shall I do to glorify and worship this best of beings? O that I could consecrate my soul and body to His service, without restraint, for ever! O that I could give myself up to Him, so as never more to attempt to be my own! or have any will or affections that are not perfectly conformed to His will and His love! But, alas, I cannot live and not sin. ~Valley of Vision

last days, perilous times, prophecy

Is the "Day of the Lord" the same thing as "The Last Days"? part 2

Posted on May 15, 2013 by elizabethprata

In two parts, I’m examining a last days prophecy Paul delivered to Timothy. Paul’s warning to Timothy is in 2 Timothy 3, 1-9, and it concerns “perilous times”, or “Godlessness in the last days.” Paul warned Timothy that in the last days perilous times would come, and Paul went on to describe the characteristics of people’s behavior in those last days. Paul begins his warning to Timothy by saying that the prophesied times of difficulty will come in the “last days.” In part 1, I looked at what the “last days” are, and how they are different from the Day of the Lord. In this part 2, I will look at the passage closely and show that how it is commonly interpreted may need a second look.

Here is the passage- It is in the ESV.

Godlessness in the Last Days
1But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. 2For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, 4treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, 5having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people. 6For among them are those who creep into households and capture weak women, burdened with sins and led astray by various passions, 7always learning and never able to arrive at a knowledge of the truth. 8Just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so these men also oppose the truth, men corrupted in mind and disqualified regarding the faith. 9But they will not get very far, for their folly will be plain to all, as was that of those two men. (2 Timothy 3:1-9)

People usually interpret this passage as pertaining to the world. As when “in the last days, perilous times in the world will come.” That, perilous times from the world will come. That when sin in the world heightens to monstrous levels, it will be a sign of the perilous times Paul spoke of.

I used to think this way also, and in a way it is still true. Sin gets worse and worse. Jesus said in Matthew 24:12 that “Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold,” and that shows us that sin gets worse and because of it, people’s love gets colder and colder (that is the meaning of grow cold, ‘to breathe, blow, to make cool’). Later in this same chapter of Timothy I’m looking at today, 2 Timothy 3:13, it says “while evil people and impostors will go on from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived.” They go from bad to worse. Sin always gets worse.

But though sin in the world will get worse and worse, the passage specifically isn’t talking of the world here. It is speaking of people in the church. People in the body of Christ. How do we know this? There are several clues.

If you read 1 Corinthians 2:14 in it surrounding context, the passage there is saying in essence, don’t be angry with unbelievers when they act like unbelievers. The world has always been brutal. The world has always presented difficulty to the church.

When Paul wrote his second letter to Timothy, it was around 67 AD and shortly before Paul was martyred. It was no surprise to Timothy that people in the world were brutal, Christian martyrdoms had been going on since Stephen, our faith’s first martyr. Stephen was killed for the name of Jesus barely a year after Jesus rose to heaven. Killings had been ongoing ever since. Nero’s wave of particularly vicious killings began in 64AD. Why would Paul need to warn Timothy that the world will treat us brutally? Jesus even said so (Matthew 10:22).

The surprise is that the people claiming to be Christian who dwell inside the body of believers will act in the ways Paul outlined. We need to guard ourselves from people on the inside.

The second clue is that Paul warned such folks will have adopted an “appearance of Godliness.” Pagans who hate Christians and treat them brutally do not stop to pretend they are Godly. They just hate.

A third clue that this passage relates to how people inside the church will act is that they are “lovers of self.” Those in the world, pagans, already love themselves. This is not news to Christians and certainly would not have been necessary to warn Timothy about people such as those.

No, I’m afraid this passage sadly tells us to watch out for those who are brutal, false, hating, greedy, treacherous, conceited, etc and will be people who sit alongside you in the pew. Or preach to you from the pulpit. Or teach you in Sunday School class. Now that is a warning worthy of taking heed of!

In case you have difficulty interpreting that the passage from verse 1-9 relates to the church, think on this. First:

Some say that the current evil in the world surely matches the passage and must be a harbinger of Jesus’s soon appearing. Well, the evil in the world is surely awful. They cite the present escalation of evil and say that the events of today are frequent as opposed to evil event that used to be rare and isolated. But are they so rare? They cite the Gosnell baby abortion murders, or the kindergarten massacre at Sandy Hook school. But haven’t people always sacrificed children to Molech? (Leviticus 18:21). Children have always been at risk as society’s most vulnerable targets. Or they cite the New Orleans Mother’s Day Parade shooting, or the Boston Marathon terrorist bombing. Yet enemies have always come by stealth or deceit to kill (Joshua 9). They say that the Benghazi terror attack and coverup, and the current government abuse against citizens with IRS spying or tapping phones, is surely evidence of the world’s descent into evil. But look no farther than today’s North Korea and Eritrea as most oppressive regimes full of abuse and hate against their own citizens, or Egypt and its treatment of millions of Jews in Pharoah’s day. Or they say that today’s shock video of victorious Syrians eating the dead hearts of their enemies is definitely evidence of how far the world has fallen. But the ancient Aztecs and the ancient Chinese of the Tang Dynasty ate the hearts of their enemies.

Eve and Adam rebelled against God, Cain killed Abel, and not long after, Nimrod was the first world dictator. The world IS brutal. Always has been since the fall.

The evidence of the evil in the world is how far it has crept into the church. Jesus said there would be tares sown in with the wheat and that He wanted it kept so until the harvest. (Matthew 13:24-30). Tares (darnel) and wheat look the same until just before harvest when it only then becomes possible to tell one from another. The field of the church is filled with those who are just as Paul warned Timothy about. They infiltrated then (Simon the Magician) and they infiltrate now, but since the last days have progressed so long, the progression of the behaviors Paul warned Timothy against have grown too and now the church is overgrown with infiltrators.

We have our greedy ones, pitching Jesus at you to make money for themselves so they can fly around on their private jets to one of their many homes. We have the unholy, heartless false pastors spiritually abusing their people and tossing them under the bus. We have the slanderous and unappeasable litigating against their own family members over their television station ownership. And boy, the name it and claim it crowd sure do love themselves. The way they preach by inserting themselves into every passage surely is disgusting.

No, the warnings about those to look out for is a warning to us in the last days to look out for infiltrators (traitors to Jesus) who have an appearance of Godliness but deny the power thereof.

The glorious part is that those who are in Jesus have the Holy Spirit in them to help spot these who would make a shipwreck of their faith (1 Timothy 1:19). He cares for His sheep, and cares for His church. After all, didn’t he warn us that these things would happen?

Recently I noted that our pastor was asked to resign because the sermons he was giving for the last many years were word for word someone else’s. He was a plagiarizer. It is a heartbreaking thing to discover you have been worshiping through a veil of untruth. But I was truly grateful to the Lord also, not only because by the Spirit He had revealed this to us, giving us the opportunity to address it in a God-honoring way, but also because He already told us these things would happen. Therefore was I shocked? Yes. Was I surprised? No. Through the pain we were feeling, I praised Him because of His many warnings about false prophets and false teachers and disqualifying behavior throughout the Old Testament and the New. Even right at the end of verse 8 in the passage we are studying today, did the Spirit not inspire Paul to write, “men corrupted in mind and disqualified regarding the faith” ?? It made me love the Lord all the more for His care in showing us these things, and for giving us His comfort when when they do happen to us.

If you are in a church worshiping body and are reeling because you’ve experienced deception or brutality by one of the kind of people mentioned in the passage, take heart. The Lord warned us because He loves us! And if you have not been affected by the behavior of any of the church-fakers mentioned in the passage, take heart, because you will! (2 Timothy 3:12). Take heart because He will use your experience for the good to those who love Him, and you will be polished as a jewel of faith in His trophy case. He is equipping you for every good work. (2 Timothy 3:17).

In my opinion, that is our highest calling- service to a holy Lord who loves His own.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Is the “Day of the Lord” the same thing as “The Last Days”? part 1

Costa Concordia: Paul’s prediction of perilous times due to behavior finds an exemplar in the cruise liner tragedy

Posted on January 18, 2012 by elizabethprata

Paul advised Timothy that in the last days men would be exhibiting all sorts of negative behaviors. The plethora of these would be an indicator of the last days, making them very perilous.

“But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come: For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away!”

You may be thinking, ‘It doesn’t matter to me what the guy down the street is doing. So what if he’s boasting. I’m not affected.” Yes you are. You most certainly are affected. Look what happened this weekend:

The captain of the world’s longest passenger vessel, a multi million dollar ship, decided to make a “bravura” move and sail close to shore and show off.

The ship crashed, and people died. The ship is foundered and thousands are traumatized. That’s what verses 1-5 in 2 Timothy look like!

Here is the story:
“The ship foundered after striking a rock as dinner was being served on Friday night. The owners say the captain swung inshore to “make a bow” to the islanders, who included a retired Italian admiral. Investigators say it was within 150 meters of shore.” Some reports say the Costa Concordia was taking a “bow” specifically to the house of the ship’s chief steward, the lone member of the crew to hail from the island of Giglio. “Captain Francesco Schettino has been allowed to leave jail but is under house arrest, blamed by his employer for risking thousands of lives and half a billion dollars of ship in a reckless display of bravado.”

WHAT?? Using a multi-million dollar vessel containing thousands of precious souls to make a show of bravado? How selfish is that? What a display of lack of self-control. Other reports coming out show that allegedly the captain displayed the height of cowardice. He was among the first to leave the ship.

The Costa Concordia tragedy was just that, a tragedy. The world is riveted, saddened at the apparently unnecessary loss of life. That this is all happened allegedly due to the captain’s inexplicable error makes it an even worse tragedy. Now, comes reports of his cowardice.

Italian cruise captain committed ‘mortal sin’ by disembarking early, American Maritime Officers Union official says
“The captain of a capsized cruise ship made repeated excuses as an Italian coast guard official repeatedly ordered him to get back on the vessel potentially still packed with thousands of frightened passengers and crew, a recording released Tuesday reveals.”

“Italian coastguards pleaded angrily with the captain of a stricken super-liner to return to his ship, according to recordings released on Tuesday as divers found five more bodies in the half-submerged wreck of the Costa Concordia. … Captain Francesco Schettino has been allowed to leave jail but is under house arrest, blamed by his employer for risking thousands of lives and half a billion dollars of ship in a reckless display of bravado. … Schettino is accused of multiple manslaughter, causing a shipwreck by sailing too close to shore and abandoning ship before all his passengers and crew scrambled off.”

“GO BACK ON BOARD!”
“Listen Schettino, perhaps you have saved yourself from the sea, but I will make you look very bad. I will make you pay for this. Dammit, go back on board!” one coastguard says. Speaking by radio from a lifeboat, Schettino pleads: “Do you realize that it is dark and we can’t see anything?” The coastguard shouts back: “So, what do you want to do, to go home, Schettino?! It’s dark and you want to go home? Go to the bow of the ship where the ladder is and tell me what needs to be done, how many people there are, and what they need! Now!”

How far we have descended since the Titanic’s ‘women and children first’ policy. “Women and children first” is a saying that asserts that the lives of women and children are to be saved first if the lives of a group of people are at stake. The saying is most famously associated with the sinking of RMS Titanic in 1912. The practice arose from the chivalrous actions of soldiers during sinking of HMS Birkenhead in 1852, though the phrase was not coined until 1860. Although never part of international maritime law, the phrase was popularised by its usage on the RMS Titanic, where, as a consequence of this practice, 74% of the women on board were saved and 52% of the children, but only 20% of the men.” (Source)

Yet in the Costa Concordia disaster, “Retired British cop tells how men pushed past women and children to reach lifeboats“.

Men showing off by swinging a multi-million dollar boat toward a rocky shore just because they feel like it, captain who violates the oldest moral law of the seas: captain stays with the ship. Bill Fowler, Maritime historian at Mystic Seaport, observed in another case, not the Costa Concordia, that “it’s very, very unusual for the captain to leave his vessel in a moment of crisis. He has to set the example of courage and moral standing.” Source: A Captain’s Duty on a sinking ship, Law at Washington University, By Craig Allen, Coast Guard Attorney, who concludes, “A captain must remain in command at all times and do his best to ensure the safety of any passengers and crew are evacuated and accounted for.”

Selfish behavior, brutish pushing women and children aside, putting others in danger because of a whimsical decision by the captain on a lark, all point to the beginnings of the worst kind of behavior Paul said is going to be evident on a wider scale from then to now on until and through in the Tribulation.
Tweet http://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js http://www.facebook.com/widgets/like.php?href=http://the-end-time.blogspot.com/2012/01/costa-concordia-pauls-prediction-of.html

http://s7.addthis.com/js/250/addthis_widget.js#pubid=xa-4df8df7d18b59150

evil, first responders, perilous times

First responders on the front lines in perilous times

Posted on January 5, 2012 by elizabethprata

I know that we all read headlines these days and just shake our heads in shame and agony, seeing the tragedies of the world deepen and become worse daily.

–Police kill armed 8th grader dead in TX school…
–Texas Family Killed by Relative Dressed as Santa

Those are just two headlines, but I don’t need a slew of them to make my point. I want to focus on the heartache of the First Responders. We automatically feel bad for the families and relatives of those who experience such incomprehensible tragedies. But in these days of worsening horror of man leveled against man, First Responders choose to wade in, restore peace, protect us, and carry the bodies away. I can’t imagine what emotions the policeman is feeling who had to shoot the armed 8th grader. He will have to live with that the rest of his life. I can’t imagine the scene the first responders had to deal with when entering the home of the slain Santa family, those images will be burned in their hearts for the rest of their lives. I can’t imagine the terror of a wife of a cop who sees her husband put on his uniform and head out for the day, knowing that the smallest incident could erupt into unimaginable horror or death. I read of the 53 arson fires over four days in Los Angeles and know that many firefighters worked themselves to the bone in protecting life and property. These days are so precarious.

It hit home to me as I read the political news last week of Iran in the Strait of Hormuz doing their naval war exercises. The Fifth Fleet is stationed at nearby Bahrain, and several US ships were mentioned in the news by US media and alluded to in Iranian media. One of those was the ship USS John C. Stennis. I began to think about the men and women on the ship, out there, protecting us and protecting & supporting our deployed troops in Afghanistan. That global spot was tense and could erupt into violence and war at any moment. And yet there were thousands of US navy troops in that very spot. I needed to make these people seem more real to me, and not just be part of a cold, factual news article I read and then move on. These are our people.

My family served in the US Military, my dad and uncle were in the Navy, my other uncle served many years in the US Coast Guard. But the men in my family had served before I was born or while I was very little. All I remember of my uncle’s Coast Guard service were the shiny belt buckles lined up in his drawer that he let me look at sometimes. I feel distant from those who serve and protect us, both at home and in the military. But I feel close to them in heart, especially as the days become more dangerous. What can I do?

Then I saw on Facebook that the USS Stennis has a page. I joined it. I look at the photos of the navy men and women on board, I watch the video they put up about the daily lives of the ship’s crew. On one of the first days after I’d joined the Stennis facebook page, there was a poll, ‘What drew you to ‘like’ the Stennis page?’ Answer choices were something like ‘serving on the ship, had served on the ship, family member serves on the ship, patriotic fan.’

I clicked “patriotic fan”. It is a very small thing I can do, but at least when I see the photos and comments and articles the Stennis officers put up, I can take part vicariously in their life, supporting them invisibly but fervently, from afar. At least I can leave a comment or two now and then thanking them for their service. Most importantly, I can put some faces in my mind as I pray for them.

Please remember as the days worsen that those on the front lines and who wade in to unutterable violence and horror do so out of duty so that we are protected, so that we have a place to turn to when or if we are harassed or attacked or threatened. All too sadly harassment and attacks are happening in the most benign of places these days. In our own rural county there was an attempted child snatching right from a backyard. I can’t imagine the terror in the hearts of the police who responded, chasing after the man who thankfully ended up leaving the child behind as he fled. Other police blotter news from our little county that is downright startling recently shows that an AK-47 gun was stolen from a bedroom. Great. So now they have that to worry about.

There was a good article in the NY Times yesterday that was also put up on the Facebook Stennis page today, “Work as Usual for U.S. Warship After Warning by Iran“
“ABOARD U.S.S. JOHN C. STENNIS, in the North Arabian Sea — If Iran’s warning on Tuesday to this American aircraft carrier was intended to disrupt the ship’s routine or provoke a high-seas reaction, nothing of the sort was evident on Wednesday.The American aircraft carrier John C. Stennis, in the North Arabian Sea, is carrying out its normal operations after Iran warned the ship not to re-enter the Persian Gulf.Steaming in international waters over the horizon from the Iranian fleet, the John C. Stennis spent the day and the early hours of the night launching and recovering aircraft for its latest mission — supporting ground troops in Afghanistan. All visible indications were that the carrier’s crew was keeping to its scheduled work, regardless of any political or diplomatic fallout from Iran’s warnings.”

It was comforting and reassuring to read this. I firmly believe that our military are saturated with earnest, hardworking and diligent men and women. I feel the same about first responders, EMTs, police, ambulance, emergency room doctors and staff, etc. Is there a way that you and I can show demonstrable support to these people? I know that it’s pretty lame to click on a Facebook page to ‘like’ and to make a comment. But at least now I have some names and some faces, I have a picture in my head of their lives aboard, and their challenges and triumphs. I can pray specifically.

Please be sensitive about our first responders. They see evil doings that are worsening each day (2 Timothy 3:1-5) and soon as the tribulation begins will be worse than man has ever seen or done. (Matthew 24:8, 21). They carry the people’s hurts and wounds and harms with them in their mind and their heart. They do it because they have heart to protect and to serve. They run in where we run out, and they look where we turn our eyes. Love them, and pray for them. It is a harsh world, and they are on the front lines of an evil rising that “has not been since the beginning of the world until this time, no, nor ever shall be.” (Mt 24:21b)
Tweet http://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js http://www.facebook.com/widgets/like.php?href=http://the-end-time.blogspot.com/2012/01/first-responders-on-front-lines-in.html

http://s7.addthis.com/js/250/addthis_widget.js#pubid=xa-4df8df7d18b59150

end time, end time. prophecy, perilous times, shooting

It’s open season on humans

Posted on February 13, 2010May 9, 2016 by elizabethprata

Forget deer season, the moose lottery, and duck hunting. There’s a new season, and it’s humans who are now the hunted.

Shootings are increasing and their randomness, lack of motive, or trivial motives are growing more shocking daily. We have:

Professors shooting colleagues
According to a faculty member, the professor had applied for tenure, been turned down, and appealed the decision. She learned on Friday that she had been denied once again. Officials said the dead were all biology professors, G. K. Podila, the department’s chairman; Maria Ragland Davis; and Adriel D. Johnson Sr. Two other biology professors, Luis Rogelio Cruz-Vera and Joseph G. Leahy, as well as a professor’s assistant, Stephanie Monticciolo, are at Huntsville Hospital in conditions ranging from stable to critical. The shooting came just a week after a middle school student near Huntsville shot and killed a classmate.

Elementary Teachers shooting Administrators
A fourth grade teacher at Inskip Elementary School (TN) is charged Wednesday with the shootings of the principal and assistant principal at the school. Foster entered the office at Inskip Elementary School and lured the victims, Elisa Luna and Amy Brace, into the principal’s office,” the police complaint states. “(Foster) then shot victim Elisa luna multiple times at close range…and shot victim Amy Brace multiple times at close range…”

Restaurant-goers shooting patrons
Police say a man opened fire inside a Gresham (OR) restaurant, killing one person and wounding two other before killing himself.

Children shooting parents
A 12–year old Iowa boy is charged with killing his stepfather and injuring his half sister. Neighbor and good family friend, Candy Burmeister, describes the Peek family as, “salt of the earth.” She says the parents raised their children with strong morals and kindness. Police are trying to piece together what led to the shooting.

Teens shooting children
Richmond (CA) police have arrested a 17-year-old boy on suspicion of shooting a toddler riding in a car with her father. Sgt. Bisa French says the shooter did not know the girl or her father when he shot into the moving car while on foot.

Clients attacking their hairdresser
An Athens (GA) woman attacked another woman Tuesday morning because she was upset over how the victim styled her hair, Athens-Clarke police said. … The victim tried to call police, but Fleming ripped a cell phone from a rope around the victim’s neck and drove away, police said.

Paul wrote in no uncertain terms to Timothy about the state of affairs in the last days. He said they would be “perilous.” (KJV) “For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away.” (2 Timothy 3:2-5)

When I read these verses I think of national peril, such as America is in now being an ever-growing economic and military target, but I also think of individual peril. It’s perilous for individuals to simply go about their daily business. It’s perilous to drive an ice cream truck, go to a restaurant, have a faculty meeting, teach in a school. It’s perilous to cut hair, to dwell in your home, to ride in a car with your baby.

Making the days even more perilous than the shootings’ penetration into daily lives are the reasons for the shootings. Being denied tenure? Not liking your haircut? Not responding quickly enough during an armed robbery? Trivial reasons, as if any reason could ever justify a shooting. Selfish and ungodly. As moral people we seek answers and reasons. Though we do not condone a shooting we can understand self-defense in extreme situations, or simply the heartbreak of true psychological madness. But in the shootings highlighted above, the reasons make the times perilous, because they are trivial and selfish, just as Paul said men would be. Worse, are the many shootings that have no motive. People simply show up somewhere and begin shooting randomly. Note that the list of shootings are not scraped together over a period of years, they all occurred in the last week. Tragically, it was easy to find examples simply by googling the search term “shooting” under the news search and thousands of results popped up.

Notice the ages of the shooters. More and more often they are teens. In one of the news stories above, a 12-year-old boy killed his step-father. Children shooting parents is simply unthinkable. Paul mentions disobedience to parents in the verses above and there is no greater disobedience to parents than killing them or their siblings.

Satan is the god of this age and surely he hates humans as much as he hates God. Attacking us through our minds is his primary way he subverts any incipient Godliness and bring to the fore the appearance of godliness as described by Paul in the verses above. Since this is only a form of godliness it is false and easily crumbles when the sinful thoughts are not taken captive. James 1:14-15 says, “Each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed. Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin.”

It is not only perilous times because of bodily danger, but perilous because of our sinful natures to begin with, and satan’s war against humanity is increasing. Failure to take captive all sinful thoughts immediately lends a person vulnerable to satan’s wiles. People with corrupt motives creep in and for the people who are outside of Christ, I cannot even imagine how difficult it is to withstand the onslaught of deception and corruption. It is open season and every human is at risk. If you have not asked Jesus to forgive your sins, do so and do not delay. If you are truly sorry for the bad things you have done, thought, or said, ask Jesus to forgive them. Make Him the Lord and Savior of your life. If you are saved, you are not immune to being hunted either. Satan hates the Godly even more than the godless, and it is incumbent upon every Christian to persevere daily in the diligence of seeking His face. Doing so brightens His light inside us, and in these perilous times, what better antidote than being the Light of Jesus shining into the eyes of those who dwell in dark places? It is a gift to be bright for Him, because the unsaved are “the people living in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death a light has dawned.” (MAT 4:16)