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Roots in Ripon
Chuck
Roots
11
September 2017
As
typically happens whenever there are natural catastrophes of immense
destruction, there are those who come out with doomsday
pronouncements declaring the world is being judged, or the end of the
world is at hand.
As
the 24/7 news cycle has so breathlessly attempted to keep us up to
date, we have watched as massively destructive hurricanes ravage
Texas along its Gulf of Mexico coastline, and now Hurricane Irma is
about to pounce on Florida from stem-to-stern. There is a virtual
national hysteria over the size and force of Irma as she bears down
on Sunshine State, having her way, disrupting all the inhabitants
from Key West to Jacksonville and beyond. This hurricane has already
left in her wake death and destruction, ripping through the Caribbean
Islands. A retired Navy chaplain friend who hails from Saint Thomas,
the Virgin Islands, informed me that he finally made contact with his
brothers and sister back in St. Thomas. They are all well, but one
cousin was killed. And not a single roof survived the fury of the
storm.
I
find myself getting really annoyed by fools who decide to stay even
after a mandatory evacuation has been called for. I’m referring
specifically to those who are very capable of leaving the area, but
choose not to for whatever foolish reasons they imagine. I heard of
one professional surfer who decided he would like to ride the wave
produced by Irma. I’m not sure where he did this, but the end
result was his death. Others are seen running around like frat boys
acting stupidly in the face of certain death. You would think that
the horrors of Hurricane Harvey would have been enough to convince
folks that these storms are nothing to trifle with.
Mexico
has had its own natural disasters over the past couple of days.
First, it was an 8.2 seismic reading some 60 miles off the western
coast of Mexico now known as the Chiapas Quake. It is listed as the
strongest quake anywhere in the world during 2017. Last report listed
61 people died. A day later, a hurricane hit the other side of Mexico
wreaking destruction and additional loss of life.
Back
home in the western part of the USA, we have experienced devastating
forest fires in Washington, Oregon, California, Idaho, Montana,
Wyoming, Arizona, Utah, Nevada, and Colorado. I looked at a map on
the Internet that showed where all the fires are. It’s frightful to
literally see ten of the western states going up in flames. A golfing
buddy just returned from Denver where he said they fires had created
so much smoke that you couldn’t see any blue sky. Another friend
said the air quality in Oregon and Washington was horrible, all due
to out-of-control fires.
Roots in Ripon - Author Chuck Roots |
Add
to these assaults by mother nature a crazy man as the leader of North
Korea, who seems to think it’s okay to “beard the lion.” Kim
Jung Un is doing his utmost to draw the US into a war. This is
lunacy! He threatens to use nuclear weapons against our allies, South
Korea and Japan, as well as nuke the US territory of Guam and even
mainland USA! What chutzpah! Can this madman actually cause
destruction and death? Certainly! Can the US wipe him and his nation
out quickly? Yes. But only if we are forced to do so. Let’s pray
that this nut job will take a hiatus.
One
more devastation is the widespread famine that has affected
significant portions of Africa. Famine is nothing new on the African
continent, but most of the time these famines are caused by sparse
rainfall. Two the worst famines in Africa at this writing have been
caused by warring factions, each destroying the fields and crops of
the other. Literally tens of thousands are dying due to lack of food.
It’s at times like this
that I’ll hear someone intone, almost as a prayer, “Jesus has to
be coming back soon! Things can’t possibly get any worse.” My
response is, “Not so fast!” Does the Bible have anything to say
about this? Well, yes it does. In the 13th
chapter of the Gospel of Luke, we read, “When
you hear of wars and rumors of wars, do not be alarmed. Such things
must happen, but the end is still to come. Nation will rise against
nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be earthquakes in
various places, and famines. These are the beginning of birth pains.”
What
does all this mean then? The beginning of the End Times will be
evident through earthquakes, wars and rumors of wars, and famines,
among other things. But this would only be the beginning of that
lengthy time period leading up to the triumphant return of Jesus.
You
and I have no control over the natural cataclysms that take place,
nor do we have the power to prevent war and its aftermath.
But
we can decide whose side we’re on. Joshua said, “But
if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for
yourselves this day whom you will serve. But as for me and my
household, we will serve the Lord!”
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