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.
"Blow the trumpet in Zion, sound the alarm on my holy mountain! Let all who dwell in the land tremble, for the day of the LORD is coming; Yes, it is near, a day of darkness and of gloom, a day of clouds and somberness! Like dawn spreading over the mountains ...Yet even now, says the LORD, return to me with your whole heart, with fasting, and weeping, and mourning; Rend your hearts, not your garments, and return to the LORD, your God. For gracious and merciful is he, slow to anger, rich in kindness, and relenting in punishment. Perhaps he will again relent and leave behind him a blessing... Blow the trumpet in Zion! proclaim a fast, call an assembly; Gather the people, notify the congregation; Assemble the elders, gather the children and the infants at the breast; Let the bridegroom quit his room, and the bride her chamber. Between the porch and the altar let the priests, the ministers of the LORD, weep, And say, "Spare, O LORD, your people, and make not your heritage a reproach, with the nations ruling over them! Why should they say among the peoples, ’Where is their God?’" Joel 2
The Holy Spirit is looking for Christians to "stand in the gap" and pray, intercede and repent for this sin sick country of ours. May we not found wanting in response to His call.
"Thus I have searched among them for someone who could build a wall or stand in the gap before me to keep me from destroying the land; but I found no one. Therefore I have poured out my fury upon them; with my fiery wrath I have consumed them; I have brought down their conduct upon their heads, says the Lord GOD." Ezek 22: 30-31
Moses "stood in the gap," prayed and offered his life for his people: "Forgive their sin. If not then strike me out of the book you have written." (Ex 32: 32)
St. Paul did likewise: "I would even wish to be separated from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my kinsman, the Israelites." (Ro 9:3)
This is the hour for our hearts to be broken for the lost, our brothers and sisters who don’t know Christ. This is the hour to offer our lives in prayer, repentance, and intercession for all those who have not met personally this beautiful savior of ours, Jesus. This is the hour to "stand in the gap" between God and man.
Will we cry out to Jesus and weep and mourn for mercy for those locked in the clutches of the enemy? Will we let the Holy Spirit pour His love and compassion for sinners into our hearts? Will we let the Holy Spirit open our ears to the agonizing moans of the demon possessed and the silent screams of the innocent in the wombs? Can we hear the pleading of the abandoned single Mom for food and clothing for her children?
Will any of this drive us to our knees in prayer and repentance? Or will it remain business as usual for us, we have our plans, thank you just the same. And if it does remain business as usual, what do we think God’s response to us will be? What good will our plans and programs be, if our society continues down the road of the culture of death and our country is destroyed from within.
O my Jesus, forgive us our sins, save us from the fires of hell and lead all souls into heaven, especially those in most need of your mercy. Amen.
***** JESUS IS LORD *****
