Griffin Speaks

GOD IS NOT ASLEEP

On Sunday, December 26, 2004 a magnitude 9.0 earthquake caused a tsunami in Southeast Asia killing more than 150,000 people. The giant waves also left thousands injured and missing as well as hundreds of thousands homeless. A tsunami is a series of huge waves that occurs after an undersea disturbance such as an earthquake or volcano eruption. In the United States, Hawaii is the state at greatest risk for a tsunami. A tsunami occurs in Hawaii every year with a damaging tsunami occurring about every seven years. Alaska, California, Oregon and Washington experience a damaging tsunami every 18 years. 

President George W. Bush has pledged 350 million dollars to assist the victims of the tsunami. Forty-Five other nations have pledged a total of 4 billion dollars. What took an instant to wipe out will take years to rebuild.  

When I learned that the tsunami had hit Sri Lanka I immediately became concerned about my friend Anuk Christianz and his boyhood friend Metrie.

Anuk and Metrie are  residents of Montgomery, Alabama but they still have family in Sri Lanka. Since it was the holiday I was concerned that they may have been there visiting family. I called Anuk’s cell phone and he answered. He was headed to Destin with his wife, a Wynlake’s socialite. Anuk thanked me for calling. He told me that his and Metrie’s family were safe because they did not live on the  side of the island where the tsunami hit. We talked for a few more moments then I hung up the phone thanking God that the families of Anuk and Metrie were safe. 

I then began to reflect on what the Bible says about the end of the world, the power of God and Sin. While the media giants such as CBS, ABC, NBC, CNN and WSFA report about the unimaginable, unthinkable horrific events that occurred on December 26, 2004, the Holy Bible tells us that they were not so unimaginable and unthinkable. What occurred in Southeast Asia is what the Bible tells us will happen to the whole world when God shows his anger.  In Ecclesiastes chapter 12 verse 13. Fear God, and keep his commands, because this applies to everyone. 14 God will certainly judge everything that is done. This includes every secret thing, whether it is good or bad. In Isaiah Chapter 24 the Lord is going to devastate the earth and leave it desolate. He will twist the earth’s surface and scatter its people. 2 Everyone will meet the same fate-the priests and the people, slaves and masters, buyers and sellers, lenders and borrowers, rich and poor. 3 the earth will lie shattered and ruined. The lord has spoken and it will be done. 4 The earth dries up and wither; the whole world grows weak; both earth and sky decay. 5 The people have defiled the earth by breaking God’s laws… 

In Isaiah chapter 13 v 9 The day of the Lord is coming-that cruel day of his fierce anger and fury. The earth will be made a wilderness, and every sinner will be destroyed. 10 Every star and every constellation will stop shinning, the sun will be dark when it rises, and the moon will give no light. 11 The Lord says, “I will bring disaster on the earth and punish everyone who is arrogant and cruel. 12 Those who survive will be scarcer than gold. 13 I will make the heavens tremble and the earth will be shaken out of its place on the day when I, the Lord Almighty, show my anger. 

God is not asleep! I believe that God is not happy with the world. We are so busy trying to be politically correct that we are allowing wicked and immoral people to rule the world. We are afraid to speak out in public when we see God’s laws broken. If we fail to repent and change our wicked ways, what occurred on December 26, 2004 will seem like nothing. God is not asleep! The world is weighed down by its sin; it will never rise again if we fail to repent.  

Wild animals escaped the tsunami. Sri Lankan wildlife officials have reported that no dead animals have been found. “No elephants are dead, not even a dead hare or rabbit,” said H. D. Ratnayake, deputy director of Sri Lanka’s Wildlife Department. It makes you go Hmmm!

Greg Griffin is a free lance writer. You can read his previous articles by visiting his web page at www.greggriffin.com