Good morning on this Saturday, the 16th of May. Have you noticed that gas prices are creeping up at the pump? They are up thirty cents in a matter of days and looking to go higher in the weeks to come. It is not unusual for gas prices to go up during the summer driving season because of increasing consumption, but this year experts are saying the supply and demand equation should help keep prices from rising strongly because world demand is weaker. Russia is clearly feeling the effects from the price of oil falling nearly $100 a barrel as they are one of the world's largest producers and have used the windfall profits from their oil to rebuild their military and stock of armaments. This has led Putin to warn that oil may lead to war. Russia appears to have its eye on some of the smaller countries in the region which either have supplies of oil or pipelines necessary to transport it. Last winter they engineered a cut off of some supplies to a number of European countries during the critical heating season. It is a fact that some of the large oil-producing countries are hostile to the United States and many European countries, e.g., Russia, Venezuela, etc. The world must rely on this oil for the foreseeable future because mass produced suitable sources of alternative energy is many years in the future. It is important to keep a close eye on the haves and have-nots in the supply of oil because many Biblical prophecy experts believe it could be a primary catalyst in the predicted conflicts the Bible presents. Lord willing, we'll deal more extensively with this topic when we do our prophecy update series later this year.
Tomorrow's message is the first of several in the series, Everything I Needed To Know About Relationships, I Learned In Scripture. I'll see you there.
Mel Brown