“The Unexpected Storm!”

By Lou K. Coleman | WSS News Contributor

“At 2:45 p.m. on Friday, local time, life was normal in Japan. People were working. Students were in class. Shoppers were in grocery stores. Trains were running and passengers were loading airplanes. Banks were open, government officials were in meetings, and lovers were thinking of dinner dates later that night. Power plants were running smoothly, roads were in the right place, and dock workers were preparing goods to be loaded on cargo ships.

At 2:46, without warning, the earth began to shake.

Immediately, power was cut off to all power plants. Warning signals blared across the land. Students dove under desks, just as they’d been trained to do. Buildings swayed, but did not fall, just as they’d been built to do. Government, military and law enforcement officials went into emergency mode, just as they’d all drilled to do.

But the earth kept shaking.

Eighty miles out, in the deep blue seascape of the Pacific Ocean, six miles above the massive movements of the earth’s plates, salt water was being churned and tossed about with a force far stronger than any force ever created by man. The first waves slammed into the shoreline two hours later, 23 feet above the beaches that had been so calm just an hour earlier. Cars, ships, houses and chucks of the roadway were swept along with the water, destroying everything in the path of the surge.

The aftershocks came, one after another, one dozen after another dozen, until more than 50 had been recorded.

By the time the first waves receded into the sea, preparing for yet another blast of water and houses and cars and explosions, hundreds of bodies were already among the litter. At sea, a ship loaded with 100 people was swept away. Tankers were flipped over in their harbors. A passenger train is missing. The whole thing. Missing. The waterfront of Sendai burns out of control, and firefighters can’t reach the area. All roads are broken or missing.

Inland, 30 miles from the coast, and 50 miles from the worst of the damage, a dam in one town breaks, immediately sending a torrent of water through residential neighborhoods. By the time the damage is surveyed, 1,800 homes have been destroyed in an area that should have felt safe from the danger of a tsunami. Landslides triggered by the earthquake quickly buried other communities, while people were still inside the buildings. As far south as Tokyo, ambulances lined up outside a school where a roof had collapsed on an unknown number of students, teachers, and parents who had gathered for graduation ceremonies. With the collapse of infrastructure, six million homes lost power, and millions of people were looking for food and fresh water within the day. Many of them resorted to walking on the broken highways, hoping to find a way to survive on higher ground.

And on the horizon loomed the worst news of all. There were critical, potentially devastating, problems developing at a nuclear power plant.

Warnings are issued for countries all around the Pacific rim, and Hawaii braces for the worst. The tsunami races across the surface of the ocean at more than 200 miles per hour, and visions of more destruction terrify coastal communities from Indonesia to New Zealand to the Americas.

Two hours and 14 minutes after the first tremor, officials announce that the death toll was expected to top 1,000. Even as they make the announcement, a magnitude 6.6 earthquake shakes central Japan, and skyscrapers in Tokyo sway as if they were drunk.”

Such is the nature of an unexpected storm. [Matthew 14:24].

Now I don’t know about you, but the phrase that strikes me is … “without warning.” It was a Normal day. Normal workday. Normal conversation, and without warning, it was all at risk. It became imperative not to complete the task at hand … it became imperative just to stay alive. That’s all. Just stay alive.

Now there are many prophecies concerning a final great shaking where God is going to shake this world in judgment. Revelation speaks of mountains and islands being removed and of men crying out for the rocks to fall on them. [Revelation 16:20].

? Isaiah 24:1-20 ? gives us a picture of God’s judgment to come and speaks of the earth reeling to and fro like a drunkard.

? Haggai 2:6-7 ? God says, it is a little while, and I will shake the heavens, and the earth, and the sea, and the dry land; And I will shake all nations.

? Ezekiel 30:20-23 ? says that when God’s fury arises, He will shake terribly all that can be shaken.

Can’t you feel the earth is shaking underneath you? Can’t you see the columns beginning to collapse around you? God warns – NOW is the acceptable time, NOW is the day of salvation. [2 Corinthians 6:2].

One last call to believe…to repent…to receive Christ and be saved.

When the Lord says, “I’m going to shake the earth one more time,” He means it! No one will be able to explain it. The devasting storm of God’s wrath. [John 3:36, Romans 2:5, the whole book of Revelation].

Don’t be among those that won’t believe that God’s wrath is real until it is upon them. Today, heed the warnings and seek the shelter before it is too late.

The Bible also warns us that, simultaneous to God’s shaking, a great demonic flood is descending upon humankind. The devil is about to bring a fierce downpour of filth, wickedness and testing beyond anything our minds can conjure. He knows his time is short – and he is preparing to unleash overwhelming winds and waves of evil.

Blowing the Shofar – Unexpected storms are Coming – [Matthew 8; Matthew 24:42]. Get under the Umbrella of the Almighty God NOW! Ignoring God’s warnings can lead to dire consequences. [Proverbs 29:1].

Unless we are pridefully foolish or foolishly proud, we will appreciate such warnings rather than resent them. Why? Because they are meant for our good. They are all meant to protect us from harm. [2 Timothy 3:16].

Even so, some will not heed the warning.

O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing. [Matthew 23:37]. Judgment against you will be greater than your fathers because you had a greater revelation! [Matthew 11:24].