How quickly London’s Olympic tears of triumph were turned into tears of mourning through terrorism.

Years ago my wife and I were rejoicing in having two lovely daughters then suddenly one was killed through an accident. We were greatly helped by kind letters and cards one of which said, “Sorrows are our education.” These words reminded us to pray that God would teach us lessons through this terrible experience. Being committed Christians we found great comfort in the following Bible text, “We know that all things work together for good to those that love God.” [ Romans 8:28 ] We did love God and trusted completely in the death and resurrection of Jesus for pardon and for power to live for His glory.

We would like to say to everyone that we have indeed seen God working all things together for good. He does allow us to go through fiery trials but He is not an arsonist trying to destroy us but a refiner whose aim is to purify our faith so that we love and trust Him through gloomy days as well as sunny ones.

Turning briefly from personal grief to global events the Bible prophesied that the closing days of history before Christ’s second coming will be very perilous with a great escalation of evil. This description of our 21st Century is in Paul’s letter to Timothy dated about 67AD! [ See 2 Timothy chapter 3 ] Forecasting other signs prior to His second coming, Jesus spoke about the sea and the waves roaring. A recent BBC Horizon programme depicted Trafalgar Square flooded! The London Underground would be lost forever and many of the world’s cities would suffer a similar fate as mountains of Arctic snow produce roaring waves as they crash into the sea and raise its level. [ Luke 21:25 ]