"There will be Famines…"

As we talked about in the previous post, when Jesus' disciples asked him what would be the signs of his coming back to earth and the end of the age, he gave a list of events that would take place on the earth. We talked about wars and rumors of wars in the last post. The next thing Jesus listed was famines:

There will be famines and earthquakes in various places (Matthew 24:7b, NIV),

(Tweet that!) 

Do we see famines on the earth today? We often hear of starvation in lands far-away from the United States, like Africa. I suppose there have been famines in various parts of the earth since time began. But what about current times? Could a famine even come here to America?

Tell me, did you hear about these news stories?

Close to 100,000 cattle die in freak blizzard in South Dakota October 4, 2013 (Tweet that!)

Silvia Christen, executive director of the South Dakota Stockgrowers:  "These cows feed a lot of this country."

• "South Dakota ranchers reel after 'catastrophic' storm leaves up to 100,000 cattle dead"  (FOX News, October 13, 2013) 

• "Why Did South Dakota Snowstorm Kill So Many Cattle?" (National Geographic, October 22, 2013) 

Pork disease raising prices. (Tweet that!)  

"This is the toughest disease we've ever gone through," said Mike Brandhem, a general manager with Hitch Pork Producers, a Guymon, Okla., livestock producer that lost 30,000 piglets in six weeks in a 2013 outbreak. (FOX News, January 11, 2014) 

• "Widespread pig virus threatens to bump pork prices" (FOX News, January 11, 2014) 

• "Exclusive: Deadly pig virus re-infects U.S. farm, fuels supply fears"  (Reuters, May 29, 2014) 

Crops?

Not to mention crops wiped out by rain or hail storms, tornadoes, and drought. A quick Google search on "crops wiped out by storms" yielded such a bumper crop of articles I didn't know where to start.

Genetically-modified Food

How do you think GMO is affecting, or will affect, our food supply? Genetically modified organism (GMO) is defined by Wikipedia like this: 

A genetically modified organism is an organism whose genetic material has been altered using genetic engineering techniques.

Wikipedia's article on "Genetically modified organism" continues with this information: 

Although labeling of genetically modified organism (GMO) products in the marketplace is required in 64 countries, it is not required in the United States and no distinction between marketed GMO and non-GMO foods is recognized by the US FDA.

Frankly, I thought GMO wheat, corn, and soybean products were already in use in the United States, however according to this article only corn and soybean products are. GMO wheat is not legal yet:

• "Monsanto readies first-ever GMO wheat" on (RT Question More, January 15, 2014)

A Famine of God's Word

Obviously Jesus was talking about a world-wide shortage of food. But could he also have had in mind another kind of famine we can suffer from, too? I believe we are suffering from it right now and that is a famine of God's Word. (Tweet that!)

Jesus is the Bread of Life.

Then Jesus declared, "I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty" (John 6:35, NIV). 

Without Jesus being preached in truth, we are experiencing a famine of the knowledge of the Bread of Life.

While I know, I know, many churches, preachers, evangelists, missionaries, and people of God are still making Jesus Christ known, there is still a powerful trend of church and Christian leaders who are not, who are straying from or compromising the Truth. This is a famine of the Bread that brings life. (Tweet that!)

Again, this is not the first time for such a thing to happen on the earth. The Old Testament prophet Amos, who prophesied in about 760 – 750 B.C., wrote this:

"The days are coming," declares the Sovereign Lord, "when I will send a famine through the land—not a famine of food or a thirst for water, but a famine of hearing the words of the Lord" (Amos 8:11,NIV).

We here in the United States are experiencing this famine already, and I expect it to continue and accelerate. My guess is this is also happening in many parts of the world, and all creation groans under the stress of sin and the drought in the lack of God's blessings due to the people forgetting, ignoring, or rebelling again Him.

The lack of physical food is in direct relation to the lack of spiritual food. The coming prophesied famine of food will be in direct relation to the current and coming famine of God's Word. (Tweet that!)

Related Articles: 

• July 3, 2014: "Wars and Rumors of Wars"
• Coming July 8, 2014: "There will be… Earthquakes in Various Places"
• Update: We may add a few more posts here before getting to...
• Coming: "The Beginning of Birth Pains"