The world is a scary place.

Several years ago I took a business trip to Israel. While I was there, I stayed in Beersheba, which is known for Abraham's Well. Some of us decided one evening we wanted to see this little piece of Biblical history, so we asked the hotel clerk how to get to it.

He told us to go out of the hotel, down the street, turn in at the bus station, walk through and out the other side of the station, then turn down that street, and the well was at the end.

So that's what we did. Abraham's Well was not really all that exciting -- a hole in the ground with a grate over it to keep people from throwing things in (or falling in, I suppose) and a fence all the way around it.

So we turned around and came back to the hotel, retracing our steps, going back through the bus station, and down the street as before.

And I didn't think anything about it until about four days later. I was back home, and I got a call from Matt, who was with me on that trip. "Doug, have you seen a newspaper this morning?"

"No."

"Go get one."

So I went and picked up a newspaper. On the front page was a picture of a building that had been utterly demolished. The caption read: "Terrorist bomb destroys bus station in Beersheba."

YIKES! I was in that bus station four days earlier!

The world really is a scary place. But this story makes me think of two verses in the Bible. One is 16:33I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”John 16:33 in which Jesus says: "In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world." Isn't that good to know? There is nothing in this world which takes God by surprise. He knows it all. Yes, the world is scary. Yes, we will have troubles. But He is bigger than all our troubles.

The other verse I think of is 15:30Why are we in danger every hour?1 Corinthians 15:30. This verse is right in the midst of Paul's discussion on the resurrection, and Paul says that he is "in danger every hour." How can you live with such trouble and tribulation? Because what happens to this mortal body is only temporary, because for the believer, there is something far greater waiting for us.