One thing about earthquakes....you are suddenly made to realize the ground underneath your feet knows how to get your attention.Where I live here in Alaska, some of the tremors are barely felt, but stronger ones can take my car down the street by itself and bring it back without shifting gears or using a drop of gasoline. Trees sway, the ground buckles, and we are reminded of just how unprepared and vunerable we are at that exact moment---just another wide-eyed simpleton looking around for a safer place. After it’s over, and things get back to “normal”, we usually clear out any rubble, and the rebuild...usually on the same foundations.The powerful earthquake in 1907 levelled the city of San Franscisco, which had been built upon an active fault. That bustling port had been overrun by any and all---seeking to make themselves rich in the gold rush and the opening of America’s west. Structual engineering wasn’t really a priority and a factor. Gettting the gold out of it was. It was rebuilt on the same fault, and as quickly as possible.In the case of 9-11, it was the deliberate attack by airplanes flying into those twin towers on a sucicidal mission that caused their collapse. But they too were rebuilt on the same foundations; to house America’s commercial giants in luxury offices overlooking New York harbor.
There is a sense of false security in things built and created by man’s ingenuity and genius. We expect them to last forever.
The Titanic was supposed to be unsinkable. An iceberg collision proved otherwise.The Hindenburg was the answer to fast, luxurious travel via airship across the Atlantic. It exploded in a fireball.The Nazi empire was to last for a thousand years. Rome also. But both Hitler and the Caesars found that “it wasn’t necessarily so.”It is unimaginable that the Egyptian pyramids might one day be blown to bits, or that rich men might throw their gold and silver coins away like they were worthless stones. But they are both ”predictable and prophesied possibilities”, even in our lifetimes.
Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 4:18:
“While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal:but the things which are not seen are eternal.”
One does not need a prophetic mantle to predict ultimate destruction, for whatever is not built upon a firm foundation will eventually fall.
At this moment of time, mankind is experiencing the small shakings and tremors that are similarly dismissed and forgotten as soon as things return back to “normal”. We have attitudes which, over time, become as addictive as heroin. We crave the thrill and emphoria of experiencing the latest fad and sensation. Even watching our idols become crumbling relics dying from their overdoses and excesses, does not seem to matter at all. We learn nothing, because our unsatisfied craving only demands another “fix” and we are overcome in the strong worldly current propelling us to our doom.But these are only the small tremors; yet the longer they last, they can fortell an even Bigger One.God, in His great mercy, will remind those of us who might be living in fear of what may come, of a very simple lesson from nature itself: Not only do we have earthquakes and massive upheavals here in Alaska, we also have a yearly promise that comes from the seas around us. Spring thaws flow down our mountains with waters so strong no human can stand in them. Yet despite the strength of those waters, there are millions of salmon God endues with supernatural strength to leap through all those rapids, floods and tides, to eventually make it back to the gentle streams of their birthplace. There they will release and spawn the eggs of another generation which will repeat the cycle, to live forever in His promise of the eternal life He placed within them from the beginning of time.All we need to do, precious saints of God, is to remember that the One who created it all, also watches over it all. For no matter what comes in the days ahead, we can have a sure foundation in Him.On the 5th of November I suffered such an upheaval; I fell and broke my back! Can you imagine it? At age 81, I now have a broken back! I have been in the hospital, and the doctors tell me it will take at least 6 weeks before the fracture can heal. In the meanwhile, I will be on pain meds and unable to do what I had planned and hoped to accomplish.
Each of us experience many such trials time and time again throughout our lifetimes. They are certain to occur, but never a welcomed part of it. No one enjoys pain and suffering, but when things happen, we tend to have a lot of thoughts which disturb our built-up reserve of faith and pious exclamations and reasons. Beginning with number one: “WHY?””WHERE WERE THOSE PROTECTING ANGELS THAT HELD UP MOSES’ WEAK ARMS, AND RESCUED JONAH OUT OF A WHALE’S MOUTH?” “HOW COME I WASN’T WARNED OR DIVERTED IN SOME WAY?”MY EXPOSED DOUBTS AND FEARS QUESTION HIS PROMISES TO NEVER LEVE ME NOR FORSAKE ME. YET HERE I AM---LYING FLAT ON MY BACK IN EXCRUCIATING PAIN! WHAT DID I DO WRONG?The Bible answer is quite simple:“God’s ways are not our ways, his thoughts not our thoughts---they are past finding out!”
The Bible has spoken that in the last days, perilous times would come. I believe we are in those days, and that as believers we face some very critical choices that might determine how those perilous times will affect us.
Most important, we MUST not rely upon our natural man (common sense) to decide actions for us---God has provided every Christian the opportunity to be led and guided by His Holy Spirit. But unless we purpose to walk in His Spirit, we can suffer the consequences of Satan’s plan to devour and destroy. Not only we ourselves can suffer, but our loved ones as well.
What a tiny percentage of the millions of Jews living in Jerusalem were Spirit-filled in 70 AD, when Titus’ army entered that city to destroy it and leave no stone unturned (as Jesus prophesied)? None! One million Jews would perish from starvation inside the city walls! Those Christian recipients of the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost were the foundation of the church itself and were forewarned and fled, scattered by the great persecution which followed. Many chose to give their lives as martyrs along the Appian Way, but hundreds found refuge and took the Gospel thoughout the known world, wherever they went.
One such believer was Ananias, living in Damascus--a man of prayer. He knew and had heard of Saul, who had stood by as Jews stoned Stephen and slaughtered Christian Jews wherever he found them. When the Spirit spoke to him to go minister to this man, Ananias at first objected and was fearful to obey. But then the Spirit explained to him what had happened to Saul on the road from Jerusalem to Damascus city, and that Saul had had a vision of Christ and was called by God Himself to carry the Gospel. Ananias was also called, to pray for Saul and lay hands on him. It was because Ananias knew the voice of the Spirit and obeyed, that Saul became the great Apostle to the Gentiles.
God has a plan to use us all---according to His will. But we must be sensitive to that plan, and descerning of Satan’s involvement as well.God prepared a way to preserve Israel though his son Joseph. Joseph was sensitive to that plan and knew, even during his years of imprisonment, that God had sent him into Egypt “to preserve his family’s lives during the famine that was to come”.The same story of Queen Esther profiles this again: this beautiful Jewish girl became Queen when chosen by the king to replace his vain wife. Her Jewish identity had been a secret until Esther pleaded with him for her people, exposing a plot by wicked Haman to destroy all Jews---including her uncle Mordecia, who had raised her as his own adopted daughter. “Who knows; perhaps God hath chosen you for such a time as this” Mordecia had said to Esther, urging her to plead with the King.God used a young girl to preserve a nation!
Of all the millions of salmon struggling to reach the calm waters where they were spawned years before, some will grace the plate of a king’s table, but others will fill the belly of a hungry grizzly bear.It is only when we are willing to be listed as a supporting actor instead of having the starring role, that we can enjoy having been chosen to be in the play.
MARY E ADAMS