Living with Confidence in a Chaotic World

Thomas Nelson

Contents

Acknowledgments.....................................ixIntroduction: Knowing the Signs.....................xiONE Stay Calm.......................................1TWO Stay Compassionate..............................21THREE Stay Constructive.............................43FOUR Stay Challenged................................67FIVE Stay Connected.................................91SIX Stay Centered...................................115SEVEN Stay Confident................................137EIGHT Stay Consistent...............................161NINE Stay Committed.................................185TEN Stay Convinced..................................209Afterword: One More Thing...........................231Notes...............................................237

Chapter One

FUNNY HOW IT NEVER RAINS IN BEIJING WHEN AMERICAN presidents arrive for high-profile visits. It's no coincidence. Military meteorologists in China seed the clouds and empty them of their moisture in advance. The weather is tailor-made for the occasion. That's why the skies were picture-perfect for the opening ceremonies of Beijing summer Olympics in 2008. Using an arsenal of rockets, artillery, and aircraft, Chinese scientists blasted the clouds right out of the sky. "We can turn a cloudy day into a dry and sunny one," boasted Miam Donglian of the Beijing weather bureau.

That's nothing to what's coming. Weather modification is a rapidly developing technology, spurred on by billion-dollar investments in climate change and global warming. It's the new science, and its ramifications aren't lost on military planners. Secret laboratories in military installations around the globe are developing what may be the most underreported arms race on earth: weather warfare.

Many military and environmental scientists believe we can learn to use powerful chemicals and electromagnetic scalar waves to manipulate and control short-term weather patterns in ways that can alter the world's balance of power. According to some reports, the US Air Force is determined to "own the weather" by 2025; but other nations and terrorist states have timetables of their own.

Former Secretary of Defense William Cohen warned that military manipulation of the biosphere is a frightening threat, saying that some countries are engaging "in an eco-type terrorism whereby they can alter the climate, set off earthquakes and volcanoes remotely through the use of electromagnetic waves." He said, "There are plenty of ingenious minds out there that are at work finding ways in which they can wreak terror upon other nations. It's real ..."

I don't know if it's real or not; but if some doomsdayers are right, technology is being developed that could trigger earthquakes by well-placed underground nuclear explosions, or by earth-penetrating electromagnetic waves, or by injecting superfluids into major fault zones. Blizzards could be pulled down. Volcanoes could be cooked up. Typhoons and tsunamis could be triggered and aimed against unfriendly coasts. Communications could be disrupted by heated plumes of supercharged particles altering the atmosphere.

Writing in The Ecologist, Michel Chossudovsky of the University of Ottawa warned that "the world's weather can now be modified as part of a new generation of sophisticated electromagnet weapons. Both the US and Russia have developed capabilities to manipulate the climate for military use ... Weather manipulation is the pre-emptive weapon par excellence. It can be directed against enemy countries or 'friendly nations' without their knowledge, used to destabilize economies, ecosystems and agriculture. It can also trigger havoc in financial and commodity markets."

When we read what's coming, we feel like we're either hurtling into the age of science fiction or stepping into the pages of the book of Revelation. The last book of the Bible indicates that catastrophic disruptions in earth's meteorological patterns will wreak havoc on the world during the Great Tribulation.

But here's what I want you to know: as we await the Lord's return, the atmospherics of your heart and mine should be calm. The Bible says we have a God who calms the storm and a Savior who rebukes the wind and waves so they are calm (Psalm 107:29; Luke 8:24). The writer of Psalm 131 said, "Surely I have calmed and quieted my soul." Proverbs 17:27 tells us that a person of understanding has a calm spirit; and in Isaiah 7:4 (NIV), the Lord tells us, "Be careful, keep calm, and don't be afraid. Do not lose heart."

Calm is an interesting word that is known more for what it is not: agitation, fear, or turbulence. But "calm" does require some kind of storm or we would never notice it. The weather world gave us the word in the first place. It means wind that is moving one mile per hour or less. The Beaufort Scale has "Calm" at one end and "Hurricane" at the other-extreme opposites.

Take a moment and evaluate your own life. As you attempt to move through these chaotic days, where would the Beaufort Scale register the winds of your soul?

A September 2008 American Psychological Association poll indicated that 80 percent of us were under significant stress because of the economic mess. That figure represented a rise of fourteen percentage points in only five months. And we don't even have the numbers for early 2009, when the unemployment epidemic really cut a swathe through the American workplace. If you haven't lost your job, your home, or your savings, you're probably worried that it could happen, and you're concerned for those of your friends who have been so devastated.

One industry is actually doing very well: pharmaceutical medicines for anxiety. I've read claims that fifteen million Americans suffer from enough anxiety to need medication. While this may represent a wise option in cases of clinical stress, there are deeper causes for panic attacks and anxiety that medication will never penetrate.

Perhaps this is a good time to remember why I wrote this book and why you have chosen to read it. We are trying to determine what on earth we should be doing in these stressful times. And we have discovered that God has given us solid answers to our questions in the very passages that tell us of His Son's return to earth.

In this chapter, and in every chapter that follows it, I have identified instruction for living life while we are looking for the Savior. I can find no better resource for our troubled days. Jesus, for example, spoke to His disciples about His purposes after leaving earth. Here is how He began: "Let not your heart be troubled" (John 14:1). He would not have said these calming words unless His followers needed them. Their hearts were troubled; He knows that ours are too. Each one of us has a different "anxiety quotient."

Some people believe that when they accept Christ, they will receive a Get Out of Stress Free card and live a life of uninterrupted bliss. To be honest, when I became a believer, I picked up a few new problems I hadn't had before. Jesus never offered a false promise. At every point, He warned us that troubles would follow our path and that obedience to Him would actually increase our persecution. But He is also the one who said, "These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but...