Headline News

HEADLINE NEWS!

"Whatever the LORD wishes he does in heaven and on earth, in the seas and in all the deeps. He raises storm clouds from the end of the earth, makes lightning and rain, brings forth wind from the storehouse" Ps 135: 6-7

God alone controls the weather and He speaks through natural events!

Headlines news from last week:

Drought worsens for half of America.

Torrential mid-west rains cause flooding - flash floods hit parts of South Dakota, Nebraska, Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin and Illinois.

Winds of 100 mph lash Kansas: A supercell thunderstorm that morphed into a line known as a bow echo produced straight line winds of up to 100 mph and as much as 4" of rain.

Europe struggles with floods.

Hundreds of thousands evacuated in flood ravaged Europe.

German Chancellor calls flood national catastrophe.

Germany, Austria, Czech Republic and Slovakia face massive cleanup. Total cost over 20 billion dollars.

Russia suffers devastating floods.

10 million said to be under severe risk of China dam burst.

One million workers rush to halt floods about to destroy 6 cities in central China.

Typhoons wreck havoc in Asia.

China on disaster alert.

Vietnam preparing for more floods.

In Japan threat of huge tidal wave - Tokyo is bracing itself.

South Asia - Bangladesh river overflows.

Millions flee flood in India - 6 million residents homeless in Indian State of Assam.

Asian brown cloud said to pose global threat: A dense blanket of pollution is hovering over South Asia with scientist warning it could kill millions of people in region and pose a global threat.

South Pacific hit by quake of 7.7 magnitude.

Powerful quake rocks New Zealand.

Pope warns world faces destruction for interfering with mystery of life.

God is speaking, but is anybody listening? All these disasters occurring simultaneously around the world are not by accident or just "Mother Nature taking its course." It is God calling, pleading and warning his people that it is very late in the day! It is well past the time to initiate repentance. Each disaster is an increasing louder call to repentance. Jesus is saying to us today, the same thing He said 2000 years ago:

"In the evening you say, ’Red sky at night, the day will be bright’; but in the morning, ’Sky red and gloomy, the day will be stormy’ You know how to judge the appearance of the sky, but you cannot judge the signs of the times. Mt 16:2

We seem to be deaf. It is business as usual. We have our plans and programs that we will not change. The twin towers have fallen, the Catholic Church is humiliated in scandal, 4400 babies a day are butchered and it is business as usual. Nothing changes. We seemed to be drugged, nothing fazes us, nothing drives us to our knees. Life goes on. We seem to believe that God doesn’t care about the millions of aborted babies on the altar of the triune god of me, myself and I.

Our pulpits are muted. Sin is not called sin. There is no prophetic voice. We have a famine for the Word of God anointed by the Spirit of God. Miracles and healings are absent. Moral outrage doesn’t exist and moral courage is in short supply. As C S Lewis put it, "we are men without chests." Fear of the Lord seems to be non-existent. St. Patrick’s Cathedral is desecrated and the diocese is silent. We are rudderless on an ocean of trouble.

Massive repentance is our only hope, but that word seems to stick in the throats of many Christian leaders. Associating ourselves with the sins of our community, our Church and our nation is a foreign notion to many Christians. We can and should pray as part of the problem, e.g. - "WE are a sinful community, WE are a sinful church, WE are a sinful nation, please forgive us Lord. WE are a people with blood on our hands, have mercy on us Lord, cause us to turn back to you in repentance."

Daniel, a holy righteous man prayed nine times in Dan. Chapter 9, "WE have sinned, WE have rebelled, WE have not obeyed, WE are shamefaced", etc. He was innocent, but he associated himself with the sins of his nation. We are all in this together. We need to associate ourselves with the sins of our nation, our Church, our community, our families and humble ourselves before Jesus and repent and cry out for mercy for ourselves and others.

We Need Corporate Repentance!

We need to pray from the midst of the problem, WE have sinned, not they have sinned. We need Church leaders to sound the alarm! We need leaders who are intimate with Jesus and His heart cry, to lead us to our knees in humble adoration and repentance before a holy awesome God. We must set aside business as usual, our plans and our programs and seek the Lord’s plan! We need ongoing, deep, coast to coast, border to border, corporate repentance. Perhaps God will hold back some of the punishment due for our sins.