Judgment is in the Air

        Every now and then you are privileged to see blessings that come out of disaster. I grew up living in “tornado alley” in Indiana. They were frequent. At one time, while living in our finished basement, we looked out of the basement window and saw three tornadoes in a line bobbing up and down as they would touch the earth and then bounce back upwards into the clouds. We had one small one that came through our yard, took down an apple tree, went around the house and then took our hot dog stand and dumped it about 50 feet away in a pile of rubble. God's power is often just plain magnificent to watch when you get the opportunity to do so. The following verse shows what God was about to do to the nation Israel. Jeremiah 34:2 says, "Thus saith the LORD, the God of Israel; Go and speak to Zedekiah king of Judah, and tell him, Thus saith the LORD; Behold, I will give this city into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall burn it with fire:"

      Israel had lived according to God's direction for a long period of time, but then sin came in and their direction changed. They had been warned but they just ignored the warning and did what they thought was right for them and turned their back on God. The prophet Jeremiah was left in Jerusalem after the siege of Nebuchadnezzar and he saw the destruction and misery that was left. Lamentations records the picture of that city that had ignored the Word of God. Blessings, however did come later, the best of all was the arrival of the Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ some 400 years later. Of course, He was crucified, died, was buried but rose again the third day. Jerusalem was then destroyed around 70 AD but now, we have been privileged to see the rebirth of that country. In 1947 after almost 2500 years, Israel became a nation once more. Prophecies of today that were mentioned during Old Testament times are being fulfilled each and every day. I once saw a picture of a desert in Israel that was alive with strawberry plants as each one had an individual plastic cover over it and the condensation would water the plant. The desert was blooming just as the Bible had said it would. We have an expression in this country which goes, "A word to the wise is sufficient." The CDC reports that over 600,000 abortions are performed every year, at least for the past 5 years. When a nation cares more for sea turtles than a human being, you can be assured that God is going to do something, sometime and in some way. You don't have to be a "Jeremiah" to figure that out. The promise that was given to David about seeing his dead child gives hope and blessing to each aborted infant and there are souls in heaven from those that we have never seen here on earth. While God's judgment is certain, His blessing is also certain. You and I as believers here in this country need to be about the business of sharing the Gospel message. We have been privileged to possess the answer to life's questions, Where did I come from, Why am I here, and where am I going? The time to share what we know to be true is now. We might be in deep trouble now and we may end up suffering as a result of our actions, but we can still have hope in that God will not abandon His children. Praise god that He knows all about our "trouble" and that He always provides.