May 23
It’s six o’clock somewhere. No, doomsday didn’t come at six on May 21 like the nutcase said it would. But boy did he stir up a hornet’s nest. I believe he got more press on that than Pope John’s funeral! It was one of those ‘events’ when both the loonies and the sensible folk were on the same page: this guy was not credible.
All right. So I got really spooked on May 21 at half past six...AM! When the hotel fire alarm suddenly woke us in a very dark room. When I pulled the heavy blinds open, the blazing sun was like x-ray coming in there (Shekinah glory?) and I simply could not help having a glimmer of wonderment. After all, God could have raptured the church or done whatever He wanted on May 21 regardless of what some kook said.
But He didn’t. An oven fire made the alarm go off. The Shekinah glory was sunshine! We are not delivered. Darn. But before we throw out this over- chewed bone and go on to other things, it bears pondering. My sister in law had a massive stroke that morning. In Joplin, Missouri, six o’clock came on May 22, when a killer tornado brought down wrath that must have seemed like Armageddon. It sure looks like Armageddon there today.
Every day, in Japan, in Haiti, in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, in an overcrowded truck van trying to sneak into the country with a hundred desperate Mexicans stuffed in like sardines, in Libya as a bomb lands in a parking lot, in Syria as a sniper hits a protester, in Mississippi as floodwaters sweep across what minutes ago was a highway, it becomes a day of judgment. There is only one way to be safe from the terrors of our day. We have to trust the creator God who put us here.
It’s not like He didn’t warn us. It’s been there for centuries, the safety manual. He told Moses to “write very clearly” on stones how to avoid disasters. He said the Levites (the priests) were to recite in a loud voice how to live. (Deuteronomy 27:14-26) The rules are pretty much the same thing taught in the ten commandments (remember them?).
And this time, Instead of “Thou shalt” and “Thou shalt not”, He says cursed be the man who does wrong. Then He goes on to give a litany of good stuff that happens to those who obey. Simply put, the obedient servant gets plenty, safety, prosperity, mercy, and will come out on top.
Then God gave them the other side of the coin. Curses for being disobedient reads like today’s newspaper. Confusion, sudden ruin, drought, flood, disease, want, despair, oppression, ruin, poverty.
I hesitate to say we are reaping the harvest of all our bad choices and rebellions against God because I don’t want to have to apologize to Diane Sawyer on national television. But I’m going out on a limb here and say it anyway. If we would consider...just consider...for a moment that maybe this ain’t global warming; maybe God’s hand has raked across this great nation in anger without regard to persons I certainly don’t think Joplin, Missouri is where I’d rake my hand if I had to choose the worst town. But do your homework; when David angered the Lord by his disobedience, many died of illness before David got it right.
I don’t doubt that somewhere in America there are despicable people who deserve the wrath of God any given day for their evil deeds. Yet God chose the Mississippi to remind us that because of our luke warm faith He will spew us out of His mouth. Like vomit the river belched its way down the heart of this nation leaving a path of ruin that was referenced often by the television anchors as ‘biblical’. Remember, God Himself said He was no respecter of persons. The rain falls on the just and unjust.
I actually heard some questioning if the earthquake and tsunami that hit Japan so recently was a judgment on the nation: how politically incorrect we are when it’s not US.
So. I’m just saying. The “end” didn’t come as predicted on May 21 at six o’clock. But in light of all the birth pang-like happenings on this small planet Earth, every day it’s six o’clock somewhere.
