[Darris McNeely] In recent mornings, I've been waking up every morning, turning on the news to find out whether North Korea has made good on its threats again to fire a nuclear-tipped missile toward the United States or some other neighboring country. North Korea, the so-called "Hermit Kingdom" has been playing this brinkmanship type of diplomacy and threats for a number of years against particularly the United States and other nations. Every time they have backed off when money, food, and other matters have been given to them because they don't have enough money to even feed their own people, but they've poured their resources into this type of technology and they make threats. What's changed with the new leadership under Kim Jong Un in North Korea is these threats are more frequent. They don't seem to be backing down, and people don't know whether or not he really understands what he is doing and what could happen. It is really a tinderbox.

You know, I've been reading a book about World War I and how it started with a very small, insignificant affair in the Balkans in 1914. And you translate that to today and you realize that a threat like this in North Korea, in an isolated part of the world, could turn into a small item, but it could ignite a further problem with many other nations.

We've talked about that in other editions of BT Daily. So it is a serious matter, so serious that 4 out of 10 Americans think there is a critical threat from the North Koreans. They do have missile technology capable of sending a nuclear weapon. Nobody knows really how effective it could be, and certainly nobody knows just how predictable the current leadership is in North Korea. So it's got everyone on edge. It is something to watch and to understand.

It reminded me of a Proverb in Proverbs 26 beginning in verse 18 where it talks about relationships between people, and it fits to this situation here in North Korea. Verses 18 to 19. And I think that's probably the big lesson for us here. Let us just read the Proverb. Proverbs 26:18 it says, "Like a madman who throws firebrands, arrows, and death is the man who deceives his neighbor, and says, 'I was only joking!'" Well, that's kind of what's going on in North Korea. But you know, bring that down to your level and to mine.

Sometimes we in our relationships with people just like between nations, we provoke each other. We engage in behavior that irritates other people. And then we back off from it or we say, "You know, I was only kidding. I didn't really mean it." And yet it erodes and sometimes will even end a friendship or a relationship. Does this happen to you? So the lesson I think to learn: we see something like this happening on the international stage, and though we think it doesn't really apply to us, there are lessons there for us to understand when it comes to our own personal relationships.

That's BT Daily. Join us next time.