“Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a reproach [shame] to any people.” Proverbs 14:34.

The Missouri river basin which crosses ten states has seen record flooding over the last several weeks and threatens to continue, fatalities are minimal, yet the property damage is beyond imagination.

The Joplin tornado is another question, property damage again is horrific and the deaths at 134 are even more so; the consequent misery cannot be measured.

The flocks of tornadoes attending these disasters are not just frightening; they are reminiscent of a war zone. According to one news report seven of the ten worst tornadoes in our history have occurred since 1953; this does not include the Joplin disaster.

Wildfires in Texas, Arizona, and the nearly continuous ones in California over the last twenty or so years have resulted in the death of many folks in those areas; add in property damage and the death of countless animals and again one begins to reel at the thought.

As of May 19, 2011 there have been about 16 magnitude 6 plus earthquakes worldwide, six 7 plus magnitude  quakes and of course the one 9.0 that hit Japan on March 11, 2011 shifting the earth on its axis 4 inches, and causing widespread damage with the death of 15,281 persons and 8,492 missing.

The year 2010 registered twenty-one magnitude 7 plus quakes and one magnitude 8. In 2009 there were sixteen magnitude 7 plus quakes and one 8. On December 26, 2004 the Indian Ocean tsunami killed some 280,000 people, over eighteen times the toll of the recent Japanese quake.

Unemployment in this country is at an all time high and the country itself is facing a financial meltdown.

Yet government continues to spend and to send billions to countries who are not even our friends, furthermore they seem determined to turn over our sovereignty to the United Nations, a godless group who are incapable of displaying the least amount of common sense in the simplest of circumstances.

You know all this, so why the long drawn out regurgitation?

Please bear with me, there is an extremely important concept in this that may be of help to you. Speaking to a large multitude concerning His advent, the Lord Jesus said the following.

“When you see a cloud rising out of the west, immediately you say, ‘A shower is coming’; and so it is. And when you see the south wind blow, you say, ‘There will be hot weather’; and there is. Hypocrites! You can discern the face of the sky and of the earth, but how is it you do not discern this time?” Luke 12:54b-56.

The people could tell the weather but they could not accept the fact that Jesus was the Messiah promised to Israel centuries before; yet His truthfulness and authority was confirmed by His miracles.

Americans too can tell the weather and should be able to recognize that this country has forsaken God and these things are reminders from Him to return to our Christian roots.

The ridiculous prediction of the rapture on May 21 made by a man educated enough in the Scriptures to know that Jesus Himself had said that no man could know the day or hour; notwithstanding, it will happen, whether tomorrow or in ten years, it is a fact. The disasters mentioned above are a good indication that the whole world is in its death throes and the rapture indeed, can happen at any time.

While this may be the case, it is important to note that the disasters in the United States have a much more sinister meaning to them. And the meaning is this, these disasters are a warning from God that this country has rejected Him and He is on the verge of rejecting it.

“Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, and the people whom He has chosen as His own inheritance.” “No king is saved by the multitude of an army; a mighty man is not delivered by great strength. A horse is a vain hope for safety; neither shall it deliver any by its great strength. Behold, the eye of the Lord is on those who fear Him, on those who hope in His mercy, to deliver their soul from death, and to keep them alive in famine. Our soul waits for the Lord; He is our help and our shield. For our heart shall rejoice in Him, because we have trusted in His holy name. Let Your mercy, O Lord, be upon us, just as we hope in You.” Psalm 33:12 and 16-22.

So a Christian nation is blessed, and the Lord’s eye is on those who trust in Him. Can you say for the most part that that is true of this nation for the last forty years? God is speaking of a nation that adheres to His principles and those who are His follow Him to the best of their ability; there has never been a nation consisting of 100% God fearing citizens, yet because of a godly leadership and populace, this country became great.

Mistakes were made, no question, but still the hearts of men and women were true to God and He blessed them in spite of their often sinful actions. Mistakes are made today by unrepentant men and women who go on to do still more sinful deeds, dooming children of the next generation to compound their evil.

Can any sane person make a case for rejecting God while at the same time expecting Him to bless a rebellious nation? However God is not willing for any to perish, so He allows these disasters to come upon us to tell us just what it will be like without His help.

Look for yourselves, hundreds of thousands perish in disasters in Muslim and pagan countries because they have decided to follow Satan in rebellion just as the fallen angels elected to do eons ago!

Where there is no disaster, they are man made, in the Middle East people are blowing each other up, killing each other in a completely unnecessary bloodbath. Places like Rwanda, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Cote d’Ivoire, Ethiopia, Sudan, Angola, about fifteen African countries where innocent people are hacked to death with machetes, raped, tortured; for what? It is done to please the devil, one who enjoys tormenting God’s creatures.

“This is the message which we have heard from Him and declare to you, that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all.” I John 1:5.

Men and women who stay near to God and dwell in His light have nothing to fear. But those who wander away into the swirling mists of darkness open themselves up to the evil creatures that dwell therein.

These evil creatures brought the message to America by the hand of Islam when they murdered some 3000 innocent people in the World Trade Center attack on 9-11-01. While considering this, remember that the buildings had some 50,000 employees and many more visitors; and I have read that the capacity could have been as much as 150,000 persons, so there were less than one tenth of the employees in the buildings. So even in judgment God’s hand delivers.

“Yes, but three thousand people died!” True, three thousand and another 134 in Joplin, the Northridge quake in 1994, killed 57 and the San Francisco quake, October 17, 1989 killed 67 persons; and with each disaster we read the horror stories and ask “Why”. Jesus gave the best answer to this question when asked about a recent slaughter by the Romans.

“…Do you suppose that these Galileans were worse sinners than all other Galileans, because they suffered such things? I tell you, no; but unless you repent you will all likewise perish. Or those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them, do you think that they were worse sinners than all other men who dwelt in Jerusalem? I tell you, no; but unless you repent you will all likewise perish.” Luke 13:2-5.

The Lord puts His finger on the core of the problem here; we spend so much time questioning things like how and why, that we miss the point of the lesson. What if it were me, and where would I be right now?

People do seem to miss the point; for instance for those who remember Desert Storm in 1991, you will probably recall the fear of incurring tens of thousands of American casualties and the prayers that went up, by the end of the war the United States had suffered a total of 148 dead as opposed to Iraq’s 100,000 dead.

It would seem that a national day of prayer and thanksgiving should be declared, but that was forgotten as America praised its military might and thanked the soldiers who participated (and rightfully so). God was forgotten so several months later He sent a reminder as to who rules the affairs of men.

Hurricane Andrew on August 14, 1992 cost 26.5 billion dollars and left 26 dead; hurricane Iniki in Hawaii on September 11, 1992 cost 1.8 billion dollars and killed 6 people. If you have studied Israel’s history in the Old Testament you will realize that many similar things happened to them before they finally went into captivity in Babylon. This scenario is not far fetched.

Modern Americans still seem to be missing the point as did the Israelites, so Jesus continued answering the Galilean question above in a parable. The fig tree is a symbol of Israel and the fact that it was not bearing fruit is significant.

“A certain man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard, and he came seeking fruit on it and found none. Then he said to the keeper of his vineyard, ‘Look, for three years I have come seeking fruit on this fig tree and find none. Cut it down; why does it use up the ground?’ But he answered and said to him, ‘Sir, let it alone this year also, until I dig around it and fertilize it. And if it bears fruit, well. But if not, after that you can cut it down’” Luke 13:6-9.

In 70 A.D. Israel was still not bearing fruit, and Titus and the Roman legions came and killed, enslaved and dispersed all of Israel throughout the world. America is ceasing to bear fruit to God in Christ; the likelihood of becoming a third world country is impending; especially now that our government seems determined to cater to Islam and desert Israel.

“Again the word of the Lord came to me, saying, ‘Son of man, speak to the children of your people, and say to them: When I bring the sword upon a land, and the people of the land take a man from their territory and make him their watchman, when he sees the sword coming upon the land, if he blows the trumpet and warns the people, then whoever hears the sound of the trumpet and does not take warning, if the sword comes and takes him away, his blood shall be on his own head. He heard the sound of the trumpet, but did not take warning; his blood shall be upon himself. But he who takes warning will save his life. But if the watchman sees the sword coming and does not blow the trumpet, and the people are not warned, and the sword comes and takes any person from among them, he is taken away in his iniquity; but his blood I will require at the watchman’s hand. So you, son of man: I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel; therefore you shall hear a word from My mouth and warn them for Me. When I say to the wicked, ‘O wicked man, you shall surely die!’ and you do not speak to warn the wicked from his way, that wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood I will require at your hand. Nevertheless if you warn the wicked to turn from his way, and he does not turn from his way, he shall die in his iniquity; but you have delivered your soul. Therefore you, O son of man, say to the house of Israel: “Thus you say, ‘If our transgressions and our sins lie upon us, and we pine away in them, how can we then live?’” Say to them: ‘As I live,’ says the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live. Turn, turn from your evil ways! For why should you die, O house of Israel?’” Ezekiel 33:1-11.

After 911 church attendances spiked, but there was no revival as there should have been. Did the pastors tell the bewildered flock that the reason for such a disaster was that America had abandoned God and relied upon their own strength,

“Thus says the Lord: ‘Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength, whose heart departs from the Lord. For he shall be like a shrub in the desert, and shall not see when good comes, but shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness, in a salt land which is not inhabited.’” Jeremiah 17:5-6.

America told God that they did not need Him to preserve them; after all, look at Desert Storm. But,

“Because you say, ‘I am rich, have become wealthy, and have need of nothing’ – and do not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked…Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me.” Revelation 3:17 and 20.

Look for Jesus, on television in movies or in the rest of the media; can you see Jesus in the classrooms, in courtrooms, the executive branch, and congress; do you even hear much of Him from the pulpit?

After 911, did pastors tell people of Christ’s sacrifice on the cross and His enduring love for the lost, or did they just babble politically correct things about politics and speak of love and acceptance of those responsible?

These men are the watchmen; it is their responsibility to warn people of the peril of dying in their sins. The blood of those who do die in their sins will be required of all who set themselves up as pastors and teachers of Christ and then ignore the plight of the lost.

The warning shot has been fired and none will have excuse for ignoring it. It is a revival that will save this country, and it is the Christian who is the watchman; weak as we are, earthen vessels really.

“For we do not preach ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves your servants for Jesus’ sake. For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us.” II Corinthians 4:5-7.

Warning Shot taken from godisrevealed.com

Scripture taken from the New King James version. Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.