Roderick C. Meredith (1930-2017)

Scripture tells us what our Savior did to acquire spiritual strength, in connection with the devil's attack on Him: "Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted [or tried] by the devil. And when He had fasted forty days and forty nights, afterward He was hungry" (Matthew 4:1–2). Notice—He fasted!

As many of you may remember, January 16th was the 20th anniversary of the death of Herbert W. Armstrong. It is very helpful, I feel, to remember that Christ used this man—human as he was—more than anyone we know of for the last several hundred years. A number of us in this Work had the privilege of working with him closely for decades. It was a privilege that we will never forget.

A series of terrorist attacks has just occurred in the city of London, England. This is indeed a horrible tragedy. All of us should pray for the victims and their families. But it will do only a limited amount of good to sorrow over what has already happened. For this is only the beginning of the "series of terrorist attacks"—as Prime Minister Blair of Britain called them—which are predicted by the Creator to continue. And these attacks are destined to affect primarily the Americans, the British and the other British-descended peoples of the world.

Hurricane Katrina has just struck the Gulf Coast with fury! News reports already are telling us that at least 1,000 people are dead. And the death toll may greatly increase when all the bodies are counted! The authorities have also stated that Katrina will definitely become one of the worst natural disasters in American history in financial terms. The damages will mount up into the tens of billions. .

What important prophetic events are happening right now? Where will they lead? One "key" event occurred over this past weekend! The French people voted "no" on the proposed EU Constitution! And the Dutch are probably going to do the same thing this Wednesday. This has already caused "shock waves" to reverberate across Europe. What next?