Sun May 17: Ebola Returns, A Senator's Vote, Drones Over Moscow

This is The Gospel Briefing. I'm Charles King. Today... an outbreak in Central Africa puts the world on alert. A Louisiana senator learns the price of a single vote. And drones, deserts, and a Danish whale all preach the same sermon if you have ears to hear it. Headlines... Heartbeat... Hope. Let's get into it. [TRANSITION] We start in Central Africa. The World Health Organization has declared a public health emergency of international concern. Ebola is back. The outbreak is centered in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and has spread across the border into Uganda. As of this weekend, roughly eighty suspected deaths. That number is expected to climb. If you've been around long enough, you remember the West African outbreak from 2014. More than eleven thousand people died. The world watched, panicked, then forgot. Ebola has a way of doing that to us. It flares. We pay attention. It quiets. We move on. Here's what I keep coming back to. The people fighting this outbreak right now — Congolese doctors, Ugandan nurses, missionary hospitals run on shoestring budgets — they don't have the luxury of forgetting. They suit up in the heat. They bury the dead. They hold the hands of the dying through layers of plastic. Scripture has a category for this kind of work. James, chapter one, verse twenty-seven. "Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction." Pure religion isn't loud. It doesn't trend. It shows up at the bedside of a stranger in a remote village and stays there. Pray for those workers by name if you know any. Give if you can. And resist the temptation to scroll past suffering just because it's far away. The Body of Christ doesn't have a passport. [TRANSITION] Now to Louisiana. Republican Senator Bill Cassidy lost his primary this weekend. He lost it badly. The challenger, Congresswoman Julia Letlow, was endorsed personally by President Trump, who called Cassidy — and I'm quoting here — "disloyal." Cassidy's offense? He was one of seven Republican senators who voted to convict Donald Trump in the second impeachment trial back in 2021. Five years later... the bill came due. Now, you can read this story politically. Plenty of people will. But I want you to read it differently for a moment. This is a story about what loyalty means and to whom we owe it. Proverbs 29:25. "The fear of man lays a snare, but whoever trusts in the Lord is safe." Every politician — every pastor, every teacher, every one of us — eventually faces a moment when telling the truth costs us standing with people we want to keep. Cassidy did what he believed was right. Whether you agree with that vote or not, he paid a price for it. That's worth noticing in an age when most of us calibrate our convictions to the room we're in. Christians ought to be the least surprised people in the country when faithfulness is expensive. Jesus told us it would be. The question isn't whether we'll face the pressure. The question is who we're afraid of when we do. [TRANSITION] Third story takes us to the skies over Moscow. Russia is reporting that a large-scale Ukrainian drone attack killed three people in the Moscow region overnight. Ukrainian officials, meanwhile, say eight people were injured in Russian strikes on their own cities. The war grinds into its fifth year. The headlines have started to feel routine. That should disturb us. I don't say that lightly. I say it because Scripture warns about the hardening that comes with repeated exposure to evil. We get used to things we should never get used to. Isaiah 59, verse eight. "The way of peace they do not know, and there is no justice in their paths." Christians have disagreed for two thousand years about the ethics of war — when it's justified, what's permitted within it, where the lines are. That conversation is worth having. But underneath every position, the same conviction holds. Peace is not the absence of conflict. Peace is a Person. And until He returns, we will keep reading headlines like this one. Pray for Ukraine. Pray for Russia. Pray for the leaders making decisions tonight that will end someone's life by morning. And pray, as Jesus taught us, "Thy kingdom come." [TRANSITION] Now to the quick briefs. President Trump threatened to pull his endorsement of Congresswoman Lauren Boebert this week, calling her "weak-minded" for supporting Representative Thomas Massie. Two stories in one episode about loyalty tests inside one political party. That's not a coincidence. That's a pattern. And Proverbs 27:6 reminds us that faithful are the wounds of a friend — but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful. Discernment matters. Eurovision crowned a winner last night. Bulgaria took its first-ever title with a song called "Bangaranga." I will not be attempting that pronunciation again. The contest drew an audience of nearly two hundred million people. Two hundred million. Reminder that culture is never neutral and never small. What entertains a continent... shapes a continent. A humpback whale named Timmy was found dead off the Danish coast this week. He had been the subject of a high-profile, controversial rescue two weeks earlier after stranding himself repeatedly off the German coast. Sometimes the rescue doesn't take. Genesis tells us creation itself groans. This is what that groaning sounds like. And the aurora borealis is expected to be visible across much of North America tonight. Step outside if you can. Psalm 19. "The heavens declare the glory of God." Some sermons don't need words. [TRANSITION] In a moment you'll hear today's verse. What you do with it after — that's where Bible Copilot comes in. It's an inductive Bible study app — open any verse, ask anything about it, and it walks you through it: observe, interpret, apply. One rule: Scripture interprets Scripture. No outside commentary. No agenda. Free — no ads, no account, no data collection. Pro is five dollars a month for unlimited studies and guided reading plans. Search "Bible Copilot" in the App Store. Link's in the show notes. Today's verse is Psalm 46, verses one and two. "God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear though the earth gives way, though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea." Outbreaks. Elections. Drones. A dead whale. The earth gives way in big ways and small ways every single week. The psalmist doesn't pretend otherwise. He just refuses to let the trembling earth have the last word. God is our refuge. Present tense. Very present. Not distant. Not coming eventually. Here. Now. In Congo, in Louisiana, in Moscow, in your kitchen this Sunday evening. Thanks for listening to The Gospel Briefing. If today's episode helped you make sense of the noise, send it to one person who needs a steadier signal this week. We'll be back tomorrow. Until then, the news will keep coming — but it does not get the last word. He does.