SHAKE AND BAKE

The Connecticut River is delivering Irene's flood waters out through Long Island Sound.  Part of Vermont enters the Atlantic Ocean.

This week wildfires are burning central Texas and their drought is severe.  A couple of weeks ago, earthquakes were rattling our nerves.

You don't have to be brilliant or a Bible scholar to notice something going on; these are the signs of our times.  While natural disasters have always been around, the Bible says in the last days they will increase in frequency and widen in scope.

All of creation is eagerly awaiting the future day when God will reveal who his children really are (Romans 8.19).  Until then, it says creation groans as with childbirth pains.  Creation is groaning, all right.

We were stunned last winter when Fayetteville registered a MINUS 20 degrees.  Then this summer we lived through many consecutive 100+ days.  When Brad and Laura arrived at the Little Rock airport, 108 degrees slapped them in the face.  The next day was 114.  I heard Laura ask Beth if she remembered it being that hot when she and Brad were growing up.  Huh uh!  Our NW AR trees are so stressed from the extreme temperature variance, they have thrown up their arms and crisped their leaves.  No more singing "the hills are alive" as we drive south on I540.  This fall the hills are begging for mercy.

The Bible also talks about how the Lord will shake the nations in the end times.  Colorado and DC have just had their first earthquakes and the Washington Monument got a four foot crack.  Central AR has had quivers.

Our nation shakes literally, but she especially shakes economically these days.  The market is rolling like a queasy stomach.  With 14M jobs gone, nothing says shaken like being unemployed...or being in your 60's and watching your nest egg melt like cotton candy on the tongue.

All around the globe we see similar physical and economic and soul-yearning shaking.  European economies are upside down.  There is an unprecedented political shaking in the Arab world as dictators are being thrown out.  Shall we start a party?  Not yet.  Our pause for the Arabs is that we wonder if people who have always lived under a harsh thumb...can structure freedom.  If chaos reigns, then the people will be more unsafe than they were before and they will beg for peace.

Disasters make us feel helpless.  I can only imagine how the people in Joplin crouched in fear.  When Japan shook, I'm remembering the video of those poor souls screaming and running from the tsunami wall of water that swept into their valley.  When we are helpless, we look for a savior.  That sets the stage for the "hero" with supernatural winsomeness who steps forward to offer worldwide peace.  That faux peacemaker/savior is the one believers are warned to beware.

It is so critical to know what the Bible says.  The ancient words talk about how people will swarm to this man of peace who turns out to be peace's polar opposite.  We need to know truth because we want to follow the One who will be left standing.  Once the endtimes sounded pretty farfetched, but notsomuch now.  We can all envision a global economy accessed by a chip implant.  How long do you think it would take you to submit to the chip if the chip was necessary to buy or sell?  Do you know what the Bible says about such a chip?

I heard an old expression the other day "going to hell in a handbasket".  Well, I've said that all my life, but my logical side waked and wondered "what does that even MEAN"?  So I googled it.  It said that back in the off with their heads days, there was a receiving basket under the guillotine.  And because people with a death sentence were thought to be GUILTY and headed for the underworld...voila!  Makes perfect sense.

GUILTY describes the age we live in and it would be no problem to make a case for why God should call us to account.  Remarkably, He knows our bent and wants us.  His desire is to save us from the handbasket.  He wants to be an ark of safety like Noah entered when the flood waters rose.

So please study the Bestseller.  Kneel before Christ.  And get ready for the big ride.