The last year has been a depressing time for many British people. Then we had disastrous floods that again exposed the greed, incompetence and stupidity of those who should have been able to foresee and prevent them. The fiasco of the millennium dome likewise. Railway accidents that revealed years of neglect of safety - money is more important than people in our value system. Righteousness exalts a nation.
Sin is a reproach to any people.
Surely our nation, our world, should wake up to the fact that the 'natural disasters' we witness are not unrelated to our sin and disregard of the Creator's will. His meddling in politics in Russia, Poland and the Balkans have hardly produced peace and neither has his involvement in the Middle East. Thank God we know that He is in control of the world's history and destiny and that though He uses human rulers they are mere pawns in His hands. By contrast with the proclamations of prelates, the message of the bible could not be clearer. Man's selfishness and sin will increase with time and so commensurately will the ills of the world.