Storm Warning!

 “For you yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so comes as a thief in the night. For when they say: ‘Peace and safety!’ then sudden destruction comes upon them, as labor pains upon a pregnant woman. And they shall not escape.” (1^stThessalonians 5:2-3)

 

   In 1984 I was the operations officer for an Infantry battalion stationed at Fort Campbell, KY. We were out in the large training area on post conducting training to prepare our unit for a tactical evaluation that was coming the next month. We had been in the field for a week and it had rained every day that week and I had been in my rain suit practically the whole time. On the seventh day we were training with a Blackhawk Helicopter Battalion and the helicopters were taking turns moving each infantry company forward in an operation called a ‘movement to contact.’ The helicopters had just finished moving one company and were on the way to pick up a second company, when the Air Liaison Officer came to me, and said that he had to terminate the exercise and get all the aircraft back to the airfield. There was Black Weather Alert for a violent rainstorm that was approaching!

 

   The helicopters quickly exited the training area, and as I was trying to figure out how I could salvage the operation and do by “foot” the rest of the exercise, I looked out over the terrain, and 2 kilometers away I could see the storm coming. It was a solid wall of black rain that blotted out the sky! We quickly gave instructions to the units to take cover where they could, and I stood there mesmerized, watching this powerful storm approach.

   It hit with a fury of wind and rain so hard that it was almost like being under a waterfall, as I stood there with nothing but a steel helmet and a rain suit. Within 5 minutes I was soaked completely inside the rain suit, as enough water had poured through the neck opening. 

 

   We had been warned that it was coming but we really didn’t understand how damaging it would be! We then received a radio call from our Brigade headquarters telling us that they were sending a convoy of trucks to pick up the battalion within  the hour so that we could get across the bridges that separated us from main post. They predicted that the bridges would be underwater within two hours, and if we didn’t move fast we might be cut off there for days. Two ours later, I was in the last vehicle to cross the bridge, and there was already six inches of water running over the bridge!

 

    In 1996 Pastor Joe Wright was asked to open the new session of the Kansas Senate. He gave us all a warning then. Here is what he said that day:

 

  “Heavenly Father, we come before you today to ask your forgiveness and to seek your direction and guidance. We know Your Word says, ‘Woe to those who call evil good,’ but that is exactly what we have done. We have lost our spiritual equilibrium and reversed our values.

We have exploited the poor and called it the lottery.

We have rewarded laziness and called it welfare.

We have killed our unborn and called it choice.

We have shot abortionists and called it justifiable.

We have neglected to discipline our children and called it building self-esteem.

We have abused power and called it politics.

We have coveted our neighbor’s possessions and called it ambition.

We have polluted the air with profanity and pornography and called it freedom of expression.

We have ridiculed the time-honored values of our forefathers and called it enlightenment.

Search us, Oh God, and know our hearts today; cleans us from every sin and set us free. Amen!”

 

  

   Twenty-five years have passed since Pastor Wright rendered this indictment on our nation. Things have not gotten better! If anything they have gotten much, much worse! We have seen the storm coming and it continues to rain down its consequences on our nation. When will we make a stand for the unborn? When will we get rid of the tyrannical politicians who are taking away our rights and cramming their godless agenda down our throats? There is really only one thing we can do, and that is PRAY! Only God can stem the tide of cancer that has engulfed our land!

 

  “If My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.” (II Chronicles 7:14)

 

 

PRAY

 

1.    Lord, forgive me, for I am a sinner and I need You to guide me and direct my paths daily. Help me to spend time today in prayer for our nation and its leaders.

2.    Lord, help my church to be a beacon of righteousness for the community around us and to demonstrate the love or Christ as we work to stop the murder of unborn babies in our land.

3.    Lord, I pray for Godly men and women to be our leaders and politicians and that if You call me to do anything to tell others about You, I will be the first to say loudly: “Here am I Lord, send me!”

 

Run the race

 

  “For I am already being poured out as drink offering, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Finally, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness which the Lord, the righteous judge will give to me on that Day, and not to me only but also to those who have loved His appearing.” (II Timothy 4:6-8)

 

 

  When I was in high school I decided to try out for the track team my senior year. I had been on the swim team for three years and the season ended in March with the state championships. I was planning to go into the military after graduation, so I wanted to stay in good physical shape. The track team had been practicing for a month already when I went out, and the coach put me with the group that ran the 440. The first weeks of practice were brutal for me. Although in shape for swimming, running uses some different muscles and our practices included sprinting a 220, and walking a 220, ten times, running two 440’s and then a mile run. I was so sore, those first weeks that I walked around like a cripple when I wasn’t at track practice. (There was no such thing as stretching out before and after practice like I have since learned since to do.)

 

   There were two fast runners in my group so that I was only the 3^rdfastest on our team. We were excited to run against another team at the University of Georgia’s new asphalt track for one of our meets. (Our track was cinder.) I was to run the third leg of the 4 X 440 relay and would hand the baton to the fastest man on the team. Our first runner took a good lead and made a clean handoff to the second who maintained the lead. I took the baton and was able to keep well ahead of their 3^rdrunner also. When we came into the exchange zone I was spent, and when I told the last runner to go he took off so fast that I had to lunge to hand him the baton. We dropped it! We were disqualified, and lost the race we had well in hand!

 

   Lately I have been thinking about finishing well. The Apostle Paul in the Scripture above indicates that he had “finished the race,” he had “kept the faith.”  What does that mean for you and I today? Am I still interested in being used by God for anything He has for me to do? Am I making sure the baton has been passed to my children or grandchildren? Yes, I am getting older but that doesn’t mean that God still doesn’t have things for me to do. When Caleb was 85 he asked Joshua if he could have the hill country of Judah. He would take the land, that God had given them, away from the Anakim, the giants that had discouraged the Israelites from entering the Promised Land 40 years earlier. 

 

 The author of Hebrews writes in another letter:

 

 “Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” (Hebrews 12:1-2)

 

   

  I want to finish well. I want to keep the faith. I want to keep running the race He has given me to run, and I don’t want to drop any more batons!

 

Pray

 

1.    Lord thank you for the years You have given me to live for you so far, and I thank you for however many more You have for me.

2.    Fill me with Your Spirit today that I can be used by You. I know that I can do nothing of value without You guiding and directing my every word and action.

3.    Thank You Lord for loving me first and calling me to surrender my life to You. I praise You and adore You and I need You to direct my life daily.