Thursday, September 16, 2004

Weathering the Storm

Weathering the Storm - Thursday, September 16, 2004

Your boy Noah and his family had it going on huh?



What do you mean?



You know..Noah was so good, that God saved him and his family from perishing away in ‘the flood’..right?



Yeah..I guess you can say that. Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. (Gen 6:8)



So you’re trying to tell me that NOBODY else in the entire world was good, but Noah and his family?



The Bible says that men’s hearts were on evil thoughts continuously (Gen 6:5).



Once again, there are only a select few who can find this ‘grace’.



What do you mean by that?



I mean..well..I guess one of my main problems with the Bible is that it designates only a select few as God’s chosen..everybody else is just screwed. I just don’t think that’s fair.



God’s chosen is not restricted to a certain race..everybody has his or her own free will to follow Christ, it doesn’t matter what family or country or religion you’re from.



I dunno D..I mean, I’ve been reading your stuff, and I’m TRYING to have an open mind about ‘what if’ all this Creationist stuff and flood IS really true..it’s just hard for me.



I understand.



And on top of all that, I KNOW you’re one of them Stanford n’gas with a degree in Engineering, so I know you of all people have SOME rational intelligence.



(laughing) Thanks for the compliment!



No..you know I’m not trying to offend..it’s just that so many of the Bible thumpers I come in contact with are all obsessed by it..it’s almost as if they’ve blocked out all of their rational thought and they’re just..I dunno..



Gone on that Jesus?



Exactly!! Almost like some dope fiends…it’s hard to talk to them sometimes, because they are constantly trying to tell you what they believe, but yet when you throw some facts or stuff out there that support evolution, they just keep spewing Bible verses but never have any hard evidence to support all that stuff.



Well..you know, some people don’t have to have ‘hard’ scientific evidence to believe in God and His Word. We walk by faith, not by sight.



Man..even if Noah COULD find all them animals and get them on that boat, how the hell could they survive all that time locked up together?? I mean, lions woulda been eating antelope and all that kinda sh’t!



Yeah..I guess it does SOUND wild..and I’ve thought about that too..but I guess if you have infants or the very young of each species, it would make it a lot different than if everything was full grown.



Hmm..I guess I never thought about it like that. That 40 days and 40 nights still wasn’t nothing nice I know!



It rained 40 days and 40 nights..they were locked up in the ark for 150 days after the rain stopped. (Gen. 7:24)

Whoa! I would have went CRAZY on that floating zoo!! 6 months locked up with all them animals?? You KNOW it was fonky on there!!



(laughing) Yeah..it was probably pretty tart on there!



Doesn’t it bother you that EVERYBODY else died?? I mean…c’mon now, I know SOMEBODY else was doing SOMEthing good at least some times.



Oh..so you feel that a lot of people were unjustly punished??



I mean..I know everybody couldn’t be ‘holy’ men and all..but what about the plain regular old folks? They got killed just because of all the evil folks…that’s not fair.



Well..God never said that it would be ‘fair’…He said it rains on the just as well as the unjust. (Matt 5:45)



So what good does it make it to be good and obey God, if you’re going to have to deal with the storms and floods just like all the bad folks??



Because once you accept the Savior into your life…you have an ark of salvation to enter into eternity. He got you.



Once again…that’s what the Bible SAYS…nobody really knows what happens after we die.



Yeah..well one day you’re going to reach a point where you feel like you’re caught up in a storm. It could be problems with your family, legal issues, financial woes, health problems, hurricanes..something is going to come your way that’s going to make you crave shelter and rest. That’s what most people don’t understand about Christians..in Christ, we find our rest.



I sleep good everynight mane..I’m not hurting for any rest.



That’s good, I’m glad you have a peace with yourself. But if you ever happen to come upon one of those Category 5 storms in life…at some point your mind will start thinking about the Lord and His power and you’re going to crave His grace and mercy.



But you just said that it rains on everybody!



Of course..but the main question you have to ask yourself is just like one of New Edition’s songs.



New Edition???



Yep…’Can You Stand the Rain’. There’s no pressure from God for you to come in, everybody has their own choice to make...but He definitely wants you to seek shelter in Him.


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Just like a lot of other Christians, I often find myself having to explain the reason for my faith to a lot of non-believers. Most of them can’t understand how I can believe in something that ‘hard’ scientific evidence seems to refute and discredit. I’m not a scholar that completely understands the workings of the universe and how things fit together, originally and now. I don’t know all the intricacies of ‘how’, but I do know ‘Who’.

This week, as I watched all the news reports of Hurricane Ivan, as it made it’s trek into the Gulf Coast, I couldn’t help but think back on some of the storms I’ve had to go through in my life. Being a native Houstonian, I’ve had my own personal experiences with hurricanes also. The most notable one being Hurricane Alicia back in 1983. I can remember all of our family being home and safe as the storm blew through. My father and my uncle had taped and boarded up some of our windows to prepare for the high speed winds that the weatherman had promised was coming our way.



We had made provisions for food and batteries and water to last us awhile, because we had no idea how long we were going to be grounded by the storm. We even had lanterns flashlights and candles ready for if the lights went out. As Alicia moved through our Southside neighborhood, the sheer force of the winds and rain was incredible. We could look outside and see things blowing around all over the place, but then, right there in the middle of all the rain and high winds, the eye of the storm passed over us and I went outside with my father to feel the experience. You would be amazed at how calm and pretty it seemed as the eye moved through..I mean..you could actually SEE the sun! There we were in the midst of one of the fiercest hurricanes in decades and right there smack dab in the middle of the storm was peace.



My father had already told me about this peace in the eye of the hurricane. He said that Navy ships who were out at sea would sometimes purposely move to the eye of the hurricane and ride along in it to avoid the turbulence caused by the storms main body.



We stayed outside gazing up at the sky for a while, until the eye began to pass us and the backside of the hurricane moved in. I was still amazed to see the hurling winds return so quickly after we had witnessed the peace of the eye. As I looked out our back window I saw our aluminum tool shed uproot from it’s foundation and get carried away up over the fence and tumbling into our neighbors yard as it was blown away. I briefly thought about our house being uprooted also. Where would we live? Where would we go? What would happen to us??

Fortunately, we all survived that storm. Once the power went out, we lit candles and played cards and games while we listened to the radio. Even after the hurricane was over, our power was off for several days. Once the waters receded where we could leave the neighborhood, I rode with my dad over to the ice factory to stand in the long line to get ice. If your power goes out for a long time, then you’re subject to lose all of the food in your freezer and/or deep freezer..so you need ice. Those uncomfortable days without power and running water in the heat of a Houston August will make you feel like you’re suffering. But whenever you hear the reports of the families that lost everything, their homes, their cars, their lives..well, that makes you realize that despite your condition, it’s a blessing just to be alive. Once you enter into the ark of faith, then you are prepared to weather even the most damaging storms.