Daily Devotional for Friday September 9, 2005

When the Wrath of God is Really Unleashed on this Nation

(2 Chronicles 7:14; 2 Timothy 3:1-5; 2 Peter 3:3-4; Matthew 24:3-14)

I really wish I could take credit for how these Daily Devotionals often dovetail each other and over the course of a few days blend together like a great symphony orchestra. Trust me, on those occasions it is all God and not me. Tuesday I shared with you about the United States being on the wrong side of God in regards to our role in giving away part of the land God promised to and gave to the Jewish people. Wednesday I put into perspective for you the most critical issue facing our nation today, the upcoming battle for the new make-up of the Supreme Court and the opportunity to finally overturn Roe vs. Wade to get the Federal Government out of the business of slaughtering over 4,000 innocent babies every day. Today, I want to share with you a final word on Hurricane Katrina and talk to you about when the wrath of God is REALLY unleashed on this nation.

The Holy Spirit had me share with you THE DAY AFTER Katrina that this was a horrible natural disaster, when all is said and done possibly the worse in this nations history, but it was just that?a natural disaster. Nothing more than fallen nature doing what it has done since man sinned in the Garden and will do until God ends this world as we know it. I warned you on that day you would be getting emails, reading and hearing in the media, from people claiming this was ?God?s judgment.?

Right on cue, over the past 11 days, I have received an average of 8 emails a day from different people and groups, some claiming this was God?s judgment on New Orleans since it is a stronghold of witchcraft and voodoo, others because it is a wicked city where gross sexual sin is embraced, others because of an upcoming homosexual event, still others because of the United States role in giving away Israel?s land to its enemies (what I shared with you on Tuesday), and a few because of the gambling mecca the Mississippi Gulf has become.

I even started receiving emails about ?prophecies? that had been given the week before in regard to a hurricane hitting New Orleans and Florida. Actually, all you had to do was follow the NOAA website and you would have seen a computer model a month before that accurately predicted the path of Hurricane Katrina. The fact is, prophesying a hurricane to hit New Orleans and Florida at this time of year is like prophesying the sun will rise in the east tomorrow.

Let me once again put into proper perspective what Hurricane Katrina was. Hurricane Katrina was simply fallen nature at work. To play the game of going back and trying to tie every act of fallen nature to sin in the area that was affected is a foolish game. If that was the case, cities like San Francisco and Las Vegas should have been raised to the ground a long time ago. Actually, you can make a case for gross wickedness in almost every city and town that would warrant God?s judgment and the death and destruction seen by Hurricane Katrina.

You see my friend, what is really happening is man KNOWS that he is living in rebellion to God and His Word and man KNOWS that God?s judgment is coming. Let me say that again because I don?t want you to miss this critical point. Man KNOWS that he is living in rebellion to God and His Word and man KNOWS that God?s judgment is coming! That is why man is trying so hard to explain a simple act of fallen nature as God?s judgment for our sin. Man knows that God?s judgment is not only due, but coming!

Listen, you don?t have to be a Bible scholar to read the words of Paul to Timothy in 2 Timothy Chapter 3, the words of Peter in 2 Peter Chapter 3, or the words of our Lord in Matthew Chapter 24 as they describe the signs of the ?last days.? No man knows the hour the Lord will return but the Bible is clear He may come back at any moment in the ?twinkling of an eye.? We are in the last days, Christ is coming back at any second, and because of our gross sin, wickedness, and rebellion to God and His Word we are DUE His judgment.

I have been laughing at some of the news media who proclaimed that Hurricane Katrina was a disaster of ?Biblical proportions.? Please know that when God does bring His judgement on this nation, whatever method He may use, you won?t have to wonder or speculate if this was God?s judgment or not. It will be death and destruction on an unprecedented scale and of a magnitude EVERYONE will know without a doubt THIS WAS GOD?S JUDGMENT!

I?ll let the pundits and politicians point fingers and decide who gets blamed for what went wrong in the response to getting help for the victims of Hurricane Katrina. I?ll simply say this. The local, state, and federal governments simply are not prepared for a large natural disaster.They really haven?t got a clue what to do. Look at what is happening today. It has taken the full resources of the public and private sector to simply respond to this one storm that hit one major city and a few hundred miles of coastline directly affecting the lives of only a couple of million people. The humanitarian efforts will be ongoing for many months to come and the rebuilding process will take years to complete and tens of billions of taxpayer dollars on top of the hundreds of millions raised by non-profit organizations like the Red Cross.

Now, what is going to happen when we are talking about God?s judgement hitting 20, 30, or 50 major cities, involving 20 to 30 complete states and 80 to 100 million people? What is going to happen when it is trillions of dollars of property destroyed, the complete infrastructure of transportation, electric, communications, water and sewage obliterated, hundreds of thousands of people dead, and the entire economy of the nation crippled and brought to a screeching halt? My friend, there won?t be any response by all the governments of the world nor all the resources on this planet that will be adequate. Life as we know it today will cease to exist. Just like in the isolated tragedy we are watching on our t.v. each day, people?s lives will be reduced to simply trying to survive from one day to the next. Living will be the biggest challenge each day for tens of millions of people.

I love you and care about you so much! I assure you that I am not trying to scare you today, only be honest with you. If God spared not His judgment on His very people for their sins, why do we think He will spare us His judgment for our sins? We not only deserve but are due, no OVERDUE, the judgment of God for our gross wickedness. Unless this nation repents, turns back to the God of the Bible and follows Him, it is not a matter of if, only when God?s judgment will be unleashed on this nation. When it happens, there won?t be anyone speculating if or if not this was the hand of God.

Let me encourage you today. I tell you often that the only thing you will take from this life into eternity is your relationship with Jesus.Christ. You can lose your home and all your possessions, you can lose you business, you can lose your job, you can lose those you love so much, but the one thing that can never be taken from you is your relationship with Christ. That is the ONE THING that you can?t lose or have taken from you. That is why I stress so much each day how critical and important that relationship is to each one of us.

One of the shining moments throughout the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina has been the response of the church. GOD?S PEOPLE HAVE STEPPED UP TO THE PLATE AND ANSWERED THE CALL AS THEY ALWAYS DO IN TIMES OF CRISIS! It is no longer about being Catholic, Baptist, Methodist, or Pentecostal. It has been the Body of Christ reaching out to hurting people and bringing Christ to them in a real and tangible way. The church should be proud of the role they have played in bringing hope and comfort to the suffering.

God bless the Federal Government for the role they have played, God bless the Red Cross for what they have done, but the real work that has been done in the lives of these people affected by Hurricane Katrina has been performed by the Christian church. When the media packs up their cameras and moves on to its next big story, when all the celebrities are back living their phat lives, when those who have sadly run to New Orleans to exploit this tragedy for their own gain are gone, left will be God?s people doing the day-to-day work of helping to rebuild these lives.

Let me share this insight with you. When God does judge this nation and unleash His wrath upon it, it will be those who know Christ as their Savior who will rise up and be the lone beacon of light in the darkness. Gone will be the beautiful multi-million dollar churches, those who become the voice for God no longer will be living in mansions, flying around in private jets, and acting like Hollywood celebrities, all of the ways we have found to divide ourselves will no longer exist as the body of Christ truly becomes one, and the basic Truth of the Gospel will be the sole hope left for the people who will be looking for answers. It will be one of the greatest harvest of souls in human history as millions cling to the only answer they have left, JESUS CHRIST!

I will be praying for you today. Praying that you will take time to pray for this nation God has blessed us with. Sadly we have taken for granted and squandered our blessings. God is not going to sit back and watch us continue to slaughter over 4,000 innocent babies every day. God is not going to sit back and watch His Holy Institution of Marriage be redefined. God is not going to sit back and watch His plan for the family perverted. God is not going to sit back and watch the gross sexual perversion that exists today. God is not going to bless us for being involved in giving away the land He personally gave to Israel. At some point, God?s patience will run out and He will unleash His wrath on this once great nation that used to honor and follow Him.

Pray with me today that as a nation we get on our knees, repent, ask God to forgive us for our sins and that we will turn our hearts and lives back to Him. If we don?t then it is only a mater of time before we see the wrath of God poured out on this land and the life we know today will no longer exist. God is giving us one last chance. Will we take it?