Daily News (excerpts):  Huejotzingo, Mexico - The Popocatepetl volcano erupted, shooting a heavy plume of ash into the sky and spewed glowing rock from its crater on Friday.  Authorities raised the alert level this week due to increasing activity at the volcano.  The coordinator general for civil protection, Laura Gurza, told Televisa that officials were not yet ready to order any evacuations, but urged people living near the volcano to be "very, very attentive" to action at the volcano, which is about 40 miles from Mexico City.  She also urged them to gather important papers and to have their escape routes planned in case they have to leave.

The ash was blowing to the northwest in the direction of the city of Puebla.  Residents of Huejotzingo, 18 miles from the peak, went about the day as normal, despite a magnificent plume of ash and water vapor.  Luz Maria de Olate, 35, put her five year old in a surgical mask because the teachers said the ash could damage children's lungs.  Nevertheless, like hundreds of other residents on the flank of the volcano, she doesn't fear an eruption, neither did her son, as they headed for school.  "I'm not afraid, he's my uncle," said Oscar Olate, expressing the personal relationship many in the Mexico Valley feel toward Popocatepetl, whose name means "smoking mountain" in the indigenous Nahuatl language of the Aztecs.  "People view it with fondness," said street vendor David Gorzo Navarro, 45. 

More than 30 million people live within view of the volcano, which sits at a point where the states of Mexico, Puebla, and Morelos come together.  It has been erupting intermittently since 1994.  President Felipe Calderon said Mexicans are living in complicated times, given the 2009 swine flu outbreak, floods and drought this year.  "All we're missing is an eruption of Popocatepetl and we'll complete the picture," he said in a speech late Thursday.  "Hopefully not," he added, knocking on wood.

Commentary:  It seems "hoping" and "knocking on wood" Thursday was no help at all when the volcano erupted on Friday.  In fact, the only real hope anyone has in this unstable, turbulent world in these last days is Jesus Christ, the Son of God and Savior of the world.  Instead of brushing it off arrogantly, those living near this volcano in Mexico should probably take a moment to reflect on Pompeii.  That civilization was destroyed suddenly when Vesuvius erupted in 79 AD.  The city of Pompeii was extremely liberal and immoral, according to artifacts uncovered by geologists, just as the world has become in our generation.  The Bible says concerning the last days, "I (God) will show signs and wonders in heaven above and signs in the earth beneath; blood, fire and vapor of smoke" Acts 2:19. 

We are living in the last days, friends, and Bible prophecy is being fulfilled all around us, right before our eyes.  The volcanic activity graphs below, as in the earthquake graphs displayed with earthquake reports on this site, are very telling.  Geologists have determined that the "Chandler's Wobble," wobbling of the earth's axis, causes earthquakes and volcanoes.  The Bible also says concerning the last days, "The earth will reel to and fro like a drunkard and shall be removed like a cottage, and the transgression of it will be heavy upon it, and it will fall and not rise again" Isaiah 24:20.  If you aren't ready for the return of the Lord and the judgment that will soon come to the inhabitants of the earth, please visit the How Can I Be Saved page of this website.  God bless you.