In response to some comments:

Regarding the cute little girl in the pictures.
She now has three names -

Chensley - this was taken from the wedding program as I never clearly heard her name when I was there. I am aware that typos do happen in wedding programs so....

Kingsley - an interesting name for a girl (king = male)

Kinsley - another interesting name for a girl.

Thanks to Kelly for adding this information.
...................................................

Now, on to the comments by Anonymous -

I must take issue with the last part of the comment, to wit:

"One other point, care must be taken in describing this conflict using scriptures. While it is true that the Jews have paid for breaking the covenant and crucifying the Savior,..."

First, the Jews ARE PAYING for breaking the covenant. Negative consequences were part of the covenant. It was the will of God that the Savior be crucified (Mark 14:48). This is because Christ is the savior of the Jews also. If they do not accept/receive the provisions of the New Covenant of Christ, they are left with the remnants of the old.

"... it is also true that God would rather us focus on the spiritual battle...."

Granted. Now all these things happened to them as examples, and they were written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the ages have come. -1 Corinthians 10:11 We get clues on how the fight this spiritual battle from the literal events that took place in the OT.

"The current fights in the middle east, while deplorable and could affect us in some way in the future, are not prophesied of in the OT or NT as part of God's plan now, except from the standpoint of reaping what is sown."

The fights in the Middle East for the last 4,000 years ARE affecting us NOW. It goes all the way back to Abram, Hagar and Ishmael. (see Genesis 6:11-12, 25:18) The events of 9/11/2001 were the result of past events in the Middle East. It is debatable whether the current machinations in the Middle East are prophesied about in the OT. Many times a statement in the OT can be applied to several events in the years following (or even previous). It should be clear to any Christian that the current unrest in the world among "Islam" is spiritual in nature. The "war on terror" is fundamentally a religious war. You cannot separate the physical/material events of life from the spiritual elements of our life. It all works together in the "will of God". In my view of God, NOTHING happens outside of the will of God. Even sin is around to present people with a choice. Certainly, sin is not part of the "will of God" for us in the ideal, but sin is a factor in the world around us - even if it "only" takes the form of temptation - and we still must deal with it.

Thank you for your comments.