James finally fell asleep and I ended up waking him to go pick up Joshua. That's the breaks.

I didn't write the following but I like it so much I have to post a part of it here. It was written by Michael Burkert and was taken from his article called THE ISLAMIC ENEMY OPENS A NEW FRONT

Revelation 17 reveals that during the Great Tribulation, the Beast power, or great dictator of the United States of Europe will gather together his 10 kings and their nations to do battle with the returning Jesus Christ.  Verse 14 reveals, "These shall make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them."  How do you suppose that the Lamb will overcome the great dictator and his war machine?  Will He do it by "giving peace a chance?"  Will He overcome the great dictator and his massive, powerful modern armies, navies and air forces by  "negotiating a peace deal?"  Will He wimp out and tell His followers to lay down THEIR arms in the name of PEACE?  Hardly!  Jesus said himself in Matthew 10:34, "Think not that I am come to send peace on earth.  I came not to send peace, but a sword."  This is not a statement that the "Sweet Jesus Crowd" wants to fess up to. 

When Jesus Christ returns to this Earth, He will lead the mightiest assemblage of ARMED FORCES the world has ever seen.  Jesus will be the Supreme Commander of all heavenly forces consisting of millions of angels, resurrected saints and those remnants of God's people extant at the time of the Second Coming who will be instantly converted to spirit beings at the sounding of the Last Trump.

The great dictator will know when Jesus and his assembled forces have returned to Earth.  Millions will "hear the call" of their great dictator, and will take up arms in defense of the Beast and the Great False Prophet.  The Great False Prophet will no doubt tell the masses that they are fighting invaders from outer space, and to fight the invaders, IN THE NAME OF JESUS!

Does Jesus have any pacifist tendencies?  Is He a "peace at any price" liberal, who "just wants to get along?"  Judge for yourself.  John saw a vision of the future, a vision of the returning King of kings, Lord of lords.  John wrote in Revelation 19:11, "And I saw Heaven opened and behold a white horse: and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness HE DOTH JUDGE AND MAKE WAR."

Revelation 19:19 says, "And I saw the beast and the kings of the earth and their armies gathered together to make war against him that sat on the horse, and against his army."  We are told clearly that the great dictator will have enough time to gather his armies with the intent of destroying the invading forces of the King of kings. 

The war that follows will be the most calamitous conflict in the history of mankind.  Battle deaths will run into the MILLIONS.  Destruction will be widespread. Yet the destruction will be limited to the people and equipment that actually fights against Jesus.  Jesus' gathered forces will practice the ultimate in surgical strikes.  Enemy forces, and the weapons and weapons systems employed in this great war will be utterly devastated by the supernatural forces of Jesus.  Buildings, bridges, homes, schools, hospitals and the like will be spared destruction.   

Although the great dictator and his assembled armed forces will command very advanced air forces, navies and superior ground forces, with the most modern weapons imaginable, they will not stand a chance against the forces commanded by Jesus Christ!  Enemy air forces will be capable of vicious attacks, yet it will do them no good whatsoever.  The great dictator's forces will attack again and again, until they simply run out of any means to continue the war against Jesus and His forces.  Every offensive action planned and executed by the great dictator and his war machine will meet the same fate.  They will be annihilated, to the last man.  Their advanced, modern weaponry will be rendered worthless and harmless.  Anyone human, who shall take up the sword against Jesus, shall perish by the sword.  This cataclysmic conflict, waged by the beast power will result in the complete destruction of his ability to wage war.  Only then can PEACE be achieved.  When peace is possible, it will be by the terms set forth by the King of kings, Jesus Christ himself.   Finally, the world will actually see the "war to end all wars."  It will do just that, it will end ALL WARS.  Jesus Christ will personally cast the great dictator and his grand religious cohort into the lake of fire. 

So how do you suppose Jesus would deal with Saddam Hussein?  Would He give Saddam a pass?  Would Jesus trust in the word of Saddam?  Would He wait until the Iraqis develop nuclear weapons?  Or, would He opt to deal with Saddam before the Iraqi despot has nukes at his disposal?

I know that Jesus would NOT back away from doing what has to be done.  I know that Jesus was never a pacifist, nor will He ever be one.  He was a strong, robust man, and obviously was very tough!  He had to be in order to survive the terrible beatings that he suffered BEFORE being nailed to the stake at Golgotha.  Many victims of Roman scourging died long before they received the final torture of crucifixion.  Even after He received horrible beatings, scourging, and torturous treatment, He was nailed to the stake.  He then spent many hours in agony before he finally expired.   No, Jesus Christ was no wimp! 

Wow, that was longer than I thought. Still, it needs to be said.