Current Disasters: a Serious Wake Up Call

[Fsiphskilm]

Disasters like these aren't nessessarliy a bad thing, at least not for one's spirituality. They're more of a blessed wake up call. or a Trial of Souls. Things like these seperate the men from the boys, the beleivers from the pretenders, the true from the fake.

9/11, Great Black-Out, Huricane Katrina, etc... are all very vital for the spiritual revival of people's faith. Sacrafising your life is a small price to pay for saving your soul. Have you noticed that People now a days don't mension a thing about God unless some bad disaster occures. Right after something bad happens, people get all spiritual and start praying. They realize how horrible and on the edge life really is. And that they need God to protect them from things they can't control.

Unless Our Nation and other Countries leave our sinful ways and start praying, I seriously doubt this chain of Disasters is going to stop. Owning an SUV, living the perfect life, in the perfect house, with a high paying Job is Worthless. People are starting to realize this. You can never really appreciate something until it's Gone.

And with the way things are going. Teen Sex, Drugs, Porn, Abortions, Affairs, New Cults being formed every day, Blasphemy, disrespect to your creator, you can take those bumper stickers off your car, because there's not really a reason for God to bless America. We're not exactly a nation of Angels. The only reason We're still on the map is because of the small percentage of True Beleivers that live on this land. God has spared them, because of Our Faith.

Blessings are for the Rightious, curses are the absinitce of blessings.

Thank the Lord EVERYDAY. Thank him Every single day you wake up, for him being so merciful, forgiving, and loving. Because if I were God, I would of wiped the earth clean long ago.

[Syaoran]

Thanks for the info and thanks for the wake up call Volt. I did not know that there was a storm that hit land......I live in Canada and I can't do any thing phyicaly. but I can help by Praying for the victoms(sp)

[ChristianKitsune]

I agree with you 100 percent!

and I just know there are gonna be some people blaming God for this.. but you know what? Maybe this will open our eyes, God is stronger than Technology, he is stronger than humans... and he is smarter as well..

Here in America we think we have it made.. we have tv, food, fashion, and all the high points of life!

I mean seriously the average american family owns TWO Cars! (ok..so I own 4..but they are used...*looks around* ) But seriously.. we complain and complain and we forget who lets us have these pleasures.

This disastor has really opened my eyes. To how much I should thank God everyday even for the negative..

Take Katrina for Ex. This could have been A LOT worse...hard to think about..but really!

Excellent points, Volt! I was thinking the same thing..

[Zilch]

He's right, you know. I mean, I'm not a doom-and-gloom, fire-and-brimstone person. I don't automatically assume that every disater that happens is a judgment. Crap happens, and that crap happens to be flung in the face of some of those that need judging sometimes...

But I digress...

We do need to be praying for both the victims and the nation. Simple as that.

[K. Ayato]

Thanks for sharing that, Volt. Hurricane Katrina, the Southern California fires 2 years ago, and 9/11 all have one thing in common: God is trying to tell everyone (not just the Believers) something. About the fires, as I viewed them I wasn't dwelling on "Oh, no, people's homes are being burned" as much as I was "Most if not all may experience their souls burning forever in Hell".

[FelinaofL2]

Oh snap, don't even start about 9/11.

I was in eighth grade, and had just entered my 3rd period History class when my teacher came in and told us what happened. I was in tears by lunch, sick with worry, because my dad worked in the Pentagon at that time.
Thankfully, my mom sent word that he was ok. If that person had been on his original course and not had to make that turn, he would've hit my father's section.
I think that it is some very sick, twisted irony that the side that was hit is the side that faces Arlington Cemetary.

Every time I think about where he's been in the Middle East (he's a Colonel in the Army) and such, I'm always thankful to God that my father was lucky that day, and lucky every time I get to see him come home.

Even now, as I type this, my dad's on a plane headed for Egypt. I pray to God that he comes home safe in 3 weeks.

9/11 will always be a scar on the hearts of those who knew someone that was at the site of the attacks, just as 12/7/1941 was a scar on those of the WW2 generation.

[Mr. SmartyPants]

I found something on another fourum that got me thinking... here it is

In light of the many perversions and jokes we send to one another for a laugh, this is a little different: This is not intended to be a joke, it's not funny, it's intended to get you thinking.

Billy Graham's daughter was interviewed on the Early Show and Jane Clayson asked her "How could God let something like this happen?" (regarding the attacks on Sept. 11).

Anne Graham gave an extremely profound and insightful response. She said, "I believe God is deeply saddened by this, just as we are, but for years we've been telling God to get out of our schools, to get out of our government and to get out of our lives.

And being the gentleman He is, I believe He has calmly backed out. How can we expect God to give us His blessing and His protection if we demand He leave us alone?"

In light of recent events...terrorists attack, school shootings, etc. I think it started when Madeleine Murray O'Hare (she was murdered, her body found recently) complained she didn't want prayer in our schools, and we said OK.

Then someone said you better not read the Bible in school . the Bible says thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not steal, and love your neighbor as yourself. And we said OK.

Then Dr. Benjamin Spock said we shouldn't spank our children when they misbehave because their little personalities would be warped and we might damage their self-esteem (Dr. Spock's son committed suicide). We said an expert should know what he's talking about. And we said OK.

Now we're asking ourselves why our children have no conscience, why they don't know right from wrong, and why it doesn't bother them to kill strangers, their classmates, and themselves.

Probably, if we think about it long and hard enough, we can figure it out. I think it has a great deal to do with "WE REAP WHAT WE SOW."

Funny how simple it is for people to trash God and then wonder why the world's going to hell. Funny how we believe what the newspapers say, but question what the Bible says.

Funny how you can send 'jokes' through e-mail and they spread like wildfire but when you start sending messages regarding the Lord, people think twice about sharing.

Funny how lewd, crude, vulgar and obscene articles pass freely through cyberspace, but public discussion of God is suppressed in the school and workplace.

Are you laughing?

Funny how when you forward this message, you will not send it to many on your address list because you're not sure what they believe, or what they will think of you for sending it. Funny how we can be more worried about what other people think of us than what God thinks of us.

Pass it on if you think it has merit. If not then just discard it... no one will know you did. But, if you discard this thought process, don't sit back and complain about what bad shape the world is in.

[Technomancer]

And sometimes a hurricane is just a hurricane. Disasters strike the great and the good as much as they do the wicked. Tragedies of this nature have happened before and sadly, will happen again.

[Nate]

And sometimes a hurricane is just a hurricane. Disasters strike the great and the good as much as they do the wicked. Tragedies of this nature have happened before and sadly, will happen again.

Right, I see this hurricane as just an effect of the weather system, nothing more. I don't see it as "divine wrath" or anything of the sort.

[Steeltemplar]

I think that perhaps here my sig quote applies well.

"There is no surer sign of decay in a country than to see the rites of religion held in contempt." - Niccolo Machiavelli

On the other hand, I do not think that America is being punished. No, we are our own punishment.

I don't think that if we were a righteous nation we would have been spared 9/11 or what happened in New Orleans. God does not necessarily keep the lives of His faithful free from trial and hardship. Rather He gives us the strength to bear it and to keep from despair.

The punishment we face for our sinfulness is more in the looters and gangs infesting New Orleans than in the storm itself. It is more in the self-serving political sniping that is going on in Washington. These and other things are how a nation that is turning away from God becomes its own enemy.

[Hitokiri]

God does work in mysterious ways.

I will give an example. My pastor died in a car accient 2 weeks ago wendsday. Wierd thing was he was a extremely cautious driver; a perfectionist at heart. His bookshelf in his office was color codes and in alphabetical order shelved in a certain way. Each sunday, people would go in as a practical joke and push them in (meaning he kept the books close to the end of the shelf so they are not up against the back of shelf). Next sunday they would all be put back in order and dusted. Him getting into a car accdient was just a shock cause they way he did. He pulled right out in front of the person when turning left. That's why I think this is a God thing, as well as Katrina, 9/11, the 800 women and children who died in Iraq this wee, the Asian Tsunami's and everything else that has happened cause God allowed it to happen, by His will, so that his glory may be shown through it. After 9/11 we saw many people return to church and come to Christ. We saw a nation briefly united. In Katrina, we see the nation united again to help those in need and hopefully attention brought to the Creator. My pastor invisioned to form a unifcation of the area church's. Because of his death, the church's around the area are more unified then ever right now. Sad that God took my pastor's life to accomplish this but this is how he works for the better.

The victims of Katrina are always in my prayers and thoughts. I am just saddened and disheartened by all the ransakcing, raping, and terroizing invovled in New Orleans and surrounding area as well as places like Iraq, Afganistan, Isreal, Palistein, Venezula, and other war torn/corrupted parts but to know that God has everything in control and everything that happens will bring further glory to Him just makes me wonder in awe at his plan.

[Fsiphskilm]

I also Don't beleive that disasters like these are the Wrath of God. Hurricanes will be hurricanes, governments will be governments, terrorists will be terrorists. Like I said. Curses are simply Missing Blessings.

If you don't bless a country, it is cursed on it's own. Katrina, 9/11, and everything in between and in the future. Is not a curse, but rather God Leaving us alone, just like we asked.

Whenever the Crap goes down, people all of a sudden want God back in their lives.

Huricane Katrina
The Question isn't "Where's God?". It's "Where are our Soldiers when we need them?"

[GhostontheNet]

And sometimes a hurricane is just a hurricane. Disasters strike the great and the good as much as they do the wicked. Tragedies of this nature have happened before and sadly, will happen again.

Here myself I'll fuse these ideas, I think allowing this to happen as it naturally would serves as a warning to the city that the scientists are not joking when they say the city is highly vulnerable to flooding with a precarious chance of escape, possibly to the death of very many people and the destruction of the city. Now if the city is destroyed their blood is on their own heads for not heading the warnings of the scientists and the warnings of their experience. This is I think, tantamount to the major earthquake at Pompey in A.D. 69 as a prelude to the Erruption of A.D. 79.

[Fsiphskilm]

I think allowing this to happen as it naturally would serves as a warning to the city that the scientists are not joking when they say the city is highly vulnerable to flooding with a precarious chance of escape

I totally agree.

And still to this day, I am shocked to find so many people still living in the hurricane zones. WHY?

For the Love of God, save yourself and your family and get out of these places. As soon as I'm done with College I'm getting out of Florida (next year).

It's a bit rude but it's the truth. These people foolishly build their houses in harms way, they expect us to feel sorry for them, when nature takes it's course and wipes it off the map. Guess no one's going to be flashing their breasts this Marti-Gra season.

Out of all the People to Blame this perticular disaster on, God is no where on the List. The Government, the Officers, the citizens, the Country as a whole is the one that could of stopped this from happening.

What a Great Example of
You reap what you sow

If you plant a tomato, you're going to harvest a tomato
If you plant a Carrot, you're going to be eating a carrot

If you move your family into a town in a hurricane zone that's prone to flooding, you're going to get it. Because that's what you asked for.

How Ironic, Marti Gra celebrations would last into the night, nude women screaming for Beads. And now There's nude women screaming for help.
You reap what you Sow. The Bible said it millenia ago, if anyone bothered to read it, we wouldn't be in this mess

[Ashley]

You know Volt, you're making a lot of presumptious statements and touching on issues that are not only quite tender to people, but also controversial. I suggest if you want to continue to espouse such opinions, you invest in a blog. This conversation is closed before we get a flame war going on.