“Heroes and Henchmen” The world watched, stunned, as the worst case scenario for New Orleans in the form of Hurricane Katrina descended upon the city like an apocalyptic movie.  As chaos and fear gripped the city, people were mobilized by the crisis.   A New Orleans official spoke truly when he said a catastrophe like this brings out the best and the worst in people.  Those who value life and have compassion for their fellow man were stirred to immediate action.  Ordinary civilians worked alongside the police and the Red Cross to rescue people stranded in trees and on rooftops.  My 76 year-old father hooked up his old flat boat to his pick-up truck and left for New Orleans, ferrying dozens of people to safety with other boats in a relay line.  A couple of my friends, Ron and Sammie, along with their 18 month-old grandson, were checking on a family member in a retirement center in Metairie when the flooding started.  When 140 of the elderly residents there decided not to evacuate, they were abandoned by the workers who fled from the storm.  Ron and Sammie carried bed-ridden and wheelchair-bound people up several flights of stairs to escape the rising water.  Had they not been there, the frail people on the first level would have drowned.  They were holed up for days without food, water and electricity, enduring the sounds of gunfire, breaking glass, and looters at night.  After spending days in this situation, Sammie told me that it felt like they had been through a war, struggling to survive. There are many stories of people who, without a thought for their own safety, plunged into danger to help their neighbors.  Jesus said, “Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends” (John 15:13).  The love of God is shed abroad in the hearts of people who reach out to save strangers, knowing that they, too, could someday be in a helpless state.  If anything good comes from tragedy, it’s that people will shrug off everyday indifference and rise up to help the needy… people we call heroes. Conversely, there are people who seize the opportunity and exploit the vulnerable.  Selfish people without concern for others steal, rape and kill the weak and disadvantaged.  Because there was no law enforcement in the city to restrain lawlessness, anarchy reigned through the devil’s henchmen resulting in the suffering of many, now twice victimized.  The Bible warns against keeping company with bloodthirsty men who “lie in wait to shed blood, lurk secretly for the innocent without cause…for their feet run to evil, and they make haste to shed blood…so are the ways of everyone who is greedy for gain; it takes away the life of its owners” (Proverbs 1: 11, 16-19).   An inner city minister friend of mine who spent 5 days in the Superdome  said that the press understated the level of crime that occurred there.  She witnessed murders and rapes, and total mob rule at nighttime.  She said she felt like she had lived through the Last Days.  The Last Days are times of violence and upheaval that will escalate until the return of Jesus Christ to the earth:  “But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come:  For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God…from such people turn away!” (2 Timothy 3:1-5). Dear Reader, the days are coming when deep darkness will cover the earth. Jesus called these days “the beginning of sorrows” which are like “the birthpangs that come upon a woman in labor,” increasing in intensity as the Day of His return draws near (Matthew 24).  We need to repent from our sins and seek the Lord so that our lives are hid in Christ, and our souls saved for everlasting life with the Father.  God’s mercy endures forever and He remembers those who are His, and heeds their cries.  He is our help, the Maker of Heaven and Earth. “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.  Therefore we  will not fear, even though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea; though its waters roar and be troubled, though the mountains shake with its swelling”  (Psalm 46:1-3).