AFP:  Russia - Wildfires in Russia in 2011 are three times more extensive than during the same period last year, when the country was scorched by its worst summer blazes of the modern era, a ministry said Tuesday.  Fires in Russia have destroyed some 618,000 hectares (~1.5 million acres) so far this year, an area much greater than the 215,000 hectares destroyed last year, with the increases especially impacting Siberia, the emergency ministry said.  On Tuesday, fires ravaged the Krasnoyarsk region, leaving about 20,000 people without electricity in the town of Kodinsk and the surrounding areas, which include the construction site of the Boguchany dam, one of the country's largest infrastructure projects.  The district has declared a state of emergency, the regional emergency ministry department said.  Russia endured the worst heatwave in its recorded history last year.  A record drought wiped out the harvest and wildfires spread out of control, killing dozens, burning down thousands of homes and threatening military and nuclear installations.  The 2010 fires left Moscow shrouded in smoke for several weeks, forcing people to leave the capital in droves and causing mortality rates in the city to double.  In April, President Dmitry Medvedev warned Russian officials they would be sent to personally douse the blazes if they failed to prevent fires this year.  


 My Comments:  Acts 2:19 "I will show wonders in heaven above, signs in the earth beneath, blood and fire and vapor of smoke."  Revelation 16:8 "And the fourth angel poured out his vial on the sun and power was given to him to scorch men with fire."  We haven't even really entered into what is considered to be the actual "tribulation period" yet.  Jesus said, "There will be great tribulation such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, nor ever will be" Matthew 24:21.  This means we haven't seen anything yet.  The Word of God says that He "is a consuming fire" Hebrews 12:29.  Many people who do believe in God think that He is not capable of wrath, but the Word of God tells us an entirely different truth, which the world doesn't want to hear.  God is serious; He means business; He is God.  In fact, the Bible tells us that "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom..." Psalm 111:10.  You might say, "If God is good and kind, why should I fear Him?"  God is the epitome of love, but He is also holy and He abhors sin and He will severely punish those who refuse to accept the remission of sin paid for by His only Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior.  Jesus died a brutal death on the cross to pay for your sins and mine.  Anyone who rejects that payment, will pay the ultimate price.   The good news is, those of us who have received Jesus as our Savior will enter into everlasting life with Him.  He will also protect us from His wrath, "...wait for His Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead, even Jesus, who delivered us from the wrath to come" I Thessalonians 1:10.  If you have received Jesus, you have nothing to fear.