JOPLIN

Gotta love an imaginative, entrepreneurial spirit.  For 5K, you can get some guys to come dig out below your garage slab and insert a fraidy hole.  The car is parked above it, but there is still room to slide the lid open and get in.  I'll bet those companies pick up the business now!

Well, if you lived down South this spring, you would be considering a fraidy hole, too.  Arkansans are used to tornadic activity and STILL we have been frightened.  Why?  The tornados came after months of out-of-a-boot rain and flooding, which came after ice storms, 24" of snow, and a minus 20 degree temp.  We are scratching our heads here.  Since I don't have enough faith to believe a global warming theory, does that mean the world is coming to an end?

We're certainly closer to that than we were yesterday.  Jesus called the days He lived in "the last days" and that was 2,000 years ago.  It MUST be the last of the last days.  Disasters are coming more frequently and with greater fierceness.

The people of Joplin had a twenty-minute warning on May 22nd, but where would you go if you didn't have a concrete hole?

Where would there be protection from a wind that sucks paint off a house and implants a brick into the side of a red Chevrolet?

Yesterday a dozen from our church went to Joplin.  One team worked with the Salvation Army to assimilate supplies.  The second team went out to homes with four chainsaws and assorted log bearers.

The home where we served was missing the hospitalized grandmother, who was making her way into the bathroom to be safe when the tornado hit.  The wind blew out the bath window and the grandmother was picked up and slammed against the hall wall, breaking her hip.

You might wonder why the lady was late getting to her safe place if the alarm had been sounding for twenty minutes.  Perhaps the 76-year-old was having difficulty getting there.  But sometimes when I hear the tornado warnings, I don't want to be interrupted until I really need to be.  So I keep one eye on the sky and proceed with my agenda.

As we later drove through the swath-leveled neighborhoods, you only saw matchsticks.  There are piles and piles of matchsticks as far as the eye can see.

I know that Solomon was the wisest man on earth and he said all of life was vanity.  But I'm thinking if he had seen Joplin, he might also want to add "matchsticks" to his assessment.  All their dwellings, Barcaloungers, and toys are all bulldozed out by the curb and worthless.



What endures?  Only God's people and God's Word go into eternity.  No one gets out alive from this world...but then, this world is not our home.  This is just the dress rehearsal.  According to Colossians 1.17, the One who spoke all this world into existence also holds it all together.  And if the Lord is slightly removing His protective hand, men will begin to realize how much protection we've taken for granted.


I like what Dr. James Denison said:  "God redeems what He allows, in ways we see and ways we do not see".  If this weather is a warning, and if this weather causes people to look up...then it is a good thing.  Souls are important and eternity is a long time.  I wouldn't go sit on the porch in Joplin or Tuscaloosa with sirens blasting, and I wouldn't fail to sandbag my home along the Mississippi River.  By the same token, I wouldn't ignore God's words about what is coming.

God is a gentleman.  There are lots of black books laying around that spell out His plan and there are churches on lots of corners.  They are like sirens going off to deaf ears.  Still, the Lord is a Grand Auctioneer, calling out "fair warning!".  Dr. Denison pointed out that God warned people before the destruction in Noah's day.  He also sent Moses to warn Pharaoh, and He sent prophets to Assyria and Babylon.  The Lord said in Revelation that those with ears to hear should listen.

Perhaps people intrinsically know that God is speaking through all this freaky weather.  It IS causing some to look up!  But we can't just keep one eye on the sky and proceed with our agenda.  Scripture says the Lord is a high tower; the righteous run in and are saved.

That means they give up their agenda, and ask God what His agenda is.

They tell the Lord that they are sorry for "going their own way".

They ask Him to make Jesus' sacrifice count for their sin...and they start living for Him.

And reading His book.  And getting together with His people.

And praying and growing.

Remember that fraidy hole at the beginning of this blog?  Make Jesus your place of safety.