NOW COMES THE FINGER-POINTING

Criminals look for "deals" to reduce their chances of long incarcerations, so they rat on one another if arrested with accomplices.  So is the nature of man; the "bottom-line" is pure self-interest.  Blame for ones' own personal responsibility is rare.

The warnings were always there; both from the spiritual as well as the non-spiritual.  Prophets spoke, even detailing with astonishing accuracy months before.  Preachers warned. Engineers, specialists in hurricane disasters, people who knew the dangers spoke--over and over again.  But even as Katrina was bearing down and mandatory evacuation was ordered...people, for whatever reason, chose to stay.  As the raging waters soon filled the bathtub of New Orleans,  looting, rape, the basest nature of man rose with those waters to expose what was only waiting for its chance to surface.

But what we see coming across our television screens is not the real story.  As the mayor of New Orleans points the finger at the Federal Government for lack of funding to repair the levies, there is no mention of  their having used the $100,000,000 in lost yearly revenue they would have had in their coffers from the Southern Decadence festival--where gays openly revel and display their debauchery with the blessings of city officials. While the stark reality of  such destruction overwhelms their senses, most wailing concerns and bemoans the destruction and loss of revenue from glitzy gambling casinos and lewd bars along their famous strips.

There are always the poor.  And Jesus spoke that it was the poor that would embrace the Gospel.  Among the hundreds of thousands of refugees are the simple, lovely, prayerful ones--who turned to God.  Bless their hearts.  He will surely provide and bring them solace, and our prayers are with them.  But unfortunately, many people chose to live in that cesspool of humanity that they themselves abhorred.  They have long endured and suffered, and like the Lot of the Bible, "their righteous souls were vexed", but incest, fornication, abortions, drugs, alcohol, thievery, rape, abuse of all kind were a daily diet.  It was only a matter of time when the longsuffering of God would come to an end and a fateful judgment would come...as it did in Sodom and Gomorrah  and at Noah's flood long ago.

People do not like to think of God that way.  He is "supposed" to be loving...which means: He should look the other way and "understand" our "weaknesses".  But God cannot be righteous without also judging unrighteousness.  God judges individuals, and cities, and nations.  And while the finger is often pointed at the Almighty as to who is to blame; look carefully His longsuffering.   Men and women who spoke, and warned, and pleaded were called "right-wing, fundamental religious idiots" and even jailed.  The message from God was rejected, scorned, and thrown out with the condoms and bourbon bottles..as the bands played on.  Yet His mercy kept pleading day after day, year after year until finally, the door of the Ark was closed and the floodwaters came.
 

There will be more Katrinas.  They are now headed for the man-made levees in every nation, city, and home where His righteousness and His love has been rejected and the Word of God has been trampled underfoot.  The warnings are blaring: "Come out from among them and be ye separate!"

Sin does have consequences.

MARY E. ADAMS