Nature Out of Control

Here, in the fields near Bethlehem, shepherds were guarding their sheep when an angel of the Lord appeared to them and said, Behold, I bring you tidings of great joy, for unto you is born this day the Saviour. Suddenly the angel was joined by a great company of the heavenly host, rejoicing and praising God. Every year, at Christmas, we are reminded of the timeless message of God's love. The Almighty God and Maker of all things became a helpless babe in the person of Jesus Christ in order to draw very close to mankind. And to you is born this day a Saviour, the Saviour of the world. For God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son, so that anyone who believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. God did not send his Son into the world to condemn it, but to save it. Jesus, Jesus, the only begotten Son of God the Father. Once, long ago, God took action by sending his beloved Son to die on the cross for our sins. Through Jesus, God demonstrated his boundless love. Through him, he has spoken to us. And we had two thousand years to give our response. Mother Basilea Schlink, founder of the Evangelical Sisterhood of Mary in Darmstadt, Germany, is in the Holy Land. While visiting biblical sites where the eternal God met his children in judgment and in grace, she testifies of God's merciful, saving love, which avails for us all. In all eternity, the love of God the Father can never be fastened. He has been hurt and incited by us. We have caused his only begotten Son unto anguish with our sins and brought about his death. What is God's answer to our shameful conduct? God accepts us as his children through Jesus Christ. He loves us tenderly and cares for us. He opens heaven for us so that we may one day enter into his glory. And yet we dare to be ungrateful and proud. It is incomprehensible. Time and again we rebel against God. God was patient, leaving the choice to us. But we opted for sin, which is mounting up to heaven in our day. And all the time God was silent. Not anymore. Before our very eyes, the eternal God is demonstrating his awesome majesty. He is breaking his silence and taking action as the whole world is witnessing floods, earthquakes, tornadoes, fires, extreme cold, or prolonged heat, severe drought, with famine in its wake. No one is able to stop the threatened calamity. In an instant, terror strikes. The results each time are spiraling damages and often inestimable after effects. As Mother Basilea Schlink writes in her book, Nature Out of Control, This is intervention from on high. God himself is taking action. Disasters are increasing in number and in force. Even non-believers sense that there is no natural explanation. As perhaps no other generation before, we are witnessing the greatness of God. God is so great that we cannot begin to know him. He fills his hands with lightning bolts. We feel his presence in the thunder. May all sinners be warned. God is taking action through natural disasters, and it is our sinning that kindles his wrath. Beware, lest you forget the Lord. Don't forget to be reverent to him and to serve him. God shows his anger from heaven against all sinful, evil men who push away the truth from them. Who can deny the connection between the horrendous natural disasters and the sins of our generation? We can almost hear the eternal God lamenting. Wherever I gaze is sin, destructive, perverse. Peace is proclaimed while war is instigated. Turmoil and confusion prevail. My divine laws are invalidated. Chaos wherever I look. The world I created is lying in ruins. Are we surprised that the fury of the Almighty has been kindled against us and that he has broken his silence? God is taking action, and we human beings can no longer ignore him so easily. The 1994 Los Angeles quake hit the center of America's porno video industry. The Australian bushfires of 1994 ravaged large areas of the Blue Mountains, which have a long occult tradition. Seeing our world on a collision course, God is trying to get our attention to spare us even worse calamities. Mother Rosalia testifies. When these news reports came, I was driven to prayer almost day and night with such intensity that it nearly consumed me. I knew that we needed these judgments of God. Yet my heart went out to the people in the disaster areas. I prayed that they might experience aid, deliverance, and protection, as well as a grace of repentance. At every new blow of judgment, Heaven must be waiting for us to respond to the warning, Oh, wake up, wake up. After the massive quake in Kobe, Japan, a television commentator said, Here human pride was hard hit. Modern science and technology thought it could never happen here. Houses and roads were built to be quake-proof. And a newspaper wrote, A quake like the fist of God smashing humanity's mega-techno-temple. Repent is the call for today. Repent, for otherwise the wrath of God will continue its course. It is a deep grief to God the Father when he has to deal heavy blows of judgment in the lives of people and nations. However, he has to do so because we so often do not listen to his admonitions and do not really want to be freed from our sins. If we could only see the fatherly sorrow of God, we would realize that we have often called down these blows of judgment upon ourselves. And it is we who can restrain God's hand through repentance. If you are under such judgment now, God the Father is calling to you, repent, turn from your old ways. When we have a repentant heart, God in his love will turn judgment into grace. When the Lord has no alternative but to judge, we cannot ignore his pain. Let us feel with him and lovingly enter into the suffering of those affected, humbling ourselves with them that God has to resort to such measures. God will curb the forces of nature only if there are enough people turning from their evil ways and humbling themselves before him. As a matter of fact, here and there, a move of God's spirit is becoming evident. In the stricken areas, people are seeing the freezing, the floods, the fires, the quakes. God is telling us something. It's God trying to get us to reflect on what we've done, how we act. It's a signal he's sending us. I was just humbled by the experience. It puts into perspective who God is, how powerful he is, and how little I am. God's judgments should teach us to fear not that which could cause our death, but the living God. He longs for our fear of natural disasters to be transformed into a fear of God, a reverence towards the Eternal One who made us. He is the immortal God. He is and was and always will be, from eternity to eternity. God alone has power over life and death and the entire universe. He created all life. The smallest flower and the farthest star are the work of his hands. Who is like God? None is like you. None can compare with you. O Lord, we worship you, the strong, almighty, eternal God who created the heavens and gave the earth its form. Almighty and omnipotent God. None is like you, Lord God on high. O Lord of glory, splendor and power. Should we not live in awe of this mighty God? It is true that in the natural disasters of our times, God is revealing himself in his holiness, his wrath over sin, his awesome majesty as judge. But equally, if not more so, he is manifesting himself in his love and compassion. God must judge us because he loves us. Yet, whenever he has to judge us, his compassionate heart weeps. Jesus wept when he spoke of the destruction of Jerusalem. God's heart shares all our sufferings with us. It is hard for him to punish us. Long ago, the prophet Jeremiah declared, God's compassion never ends. Great is his faithfulness. Although God gives grief, yet he will show compassion too, according to the greatness of his loving kindness. For he does not enjoy afflicting men and causing sorrow. In the disaster areas, many marveled at the supernatural way people were protected or saved, just moments from what would have been certain death. They were away from home or out of a particular room when the catastrophe struck. Can we imagine what it must have meant to God when his children offered thanks after losing all their earthly possessions? An Australian family man, whose house was totally wrecked by the bushfires, gave this moving testimony. We prayed for a miracle and it happened. We were spared. We now have a strong sense of the Lord's presence, so we know God is in control. We still have our main possessions, our lives and our children. During a service of thanksgiving, a woman who lost her house and all her possessions in the flames, came forward and read from the only page left of her Bible. God spoke to Moses out of the burning bush and promised him, I will be with you. In our times, God is revealing himself as the Holy God. Yet, as we bow down before him in deep humility, we will experience his grace. We may come to him as his children. We may say, Father, to the maker of heaven and earth, The everlasting God is love. What could be more wonderful? God demonstrated his infinite love when he offered up his son for us. And now in Christ Jesus, we may all be sons of God through faith. Yes, God loves us dearly as his children. And he wants to save us. God's power and greatness go hand in hand with his love, which is his essential character. When we humble ourselves before him and appeal to him through our Lord Jesus Christ, we will experience his amazing love and faithfulness, even in the midst of suffering. God is love. May this fact be sufficient for you. Do not try to understand God when his leadings seem incomprehensible. Rather, humble yourself beneath them. Then you will become wise and God's heart will be opened for you. Through humble love, you will be able to comprehend deeply the nature of his love. Also, your human reasoning cannot yet understand his actions. So humble yourself beneath the powerful hand of God, and you will find peace and rest in his will amid all his incomprehensible leadings. Then all the questions Satan prompts in us will dissolve into nothing. Why does God permit such things? Why doesn't he hear me when I pray so much? Why doesn't he demonstrate his power? Why did that have to happen to me? If we have really come to know God as the Almighty and as a loving Father, we will have the right attitude of heart. Who is like God, the great and mighty God? I am a mere nothing, yet even so I am his child. Then in every trial that comes our way, our one response will be, Father, it comes from you. I cannot tell what is good for me. Only you know that. All your leadings are right, for you are love, and in your love you have planned the best way for me, as I will see later. High as the sun and stars above are God the Father's plans of love, beyond man's comprehension. No human mind could ever conceive the plans by which the Father leads his chosen ones, his children. Eternal, inconceivable are God's counsels for his children. How can I understand them? God the Almighty's great designs never were made known to human minds. Their depths are like the oceans. If we put our trust in God our Father, we will find that he cares for us. Our problems may not all be resolved immediately, but we will receive the strength to bear them. Those who now live with a childlike trust in the Father in every day, no matter what their needs are, will become strong and experience his help when they call upon his name in times of great distress. Practice going through life with your heavenly Father. Practice calling upon his name trustingly. Are you in distress? Then say to God, My Father, I do not understand you, but I trust you. If we keep praying these words, we will find that nothing can separate us from God. We will never lose confidence in him and in his unfathomable will. So let us pray together. My Father, I do not understand you, but I trust in your love. Yes, God is love and always will be. It is his name and his nature. Give God glory. Worship him. For he alone is worthy to receive praise and honor. He alone is the Lord, the Most High. Holy and glorious is his name, Lord God of hosts. Great and almighty are his dealings. Everlasting and wonderful his rule and decrees. Beyond all telling is his love, which moved him to give us his only begotten Son as Savior of the world. Praise and adoration be to him. The Most High is a triune God, forever and ever. Amen. In fear, distress, and anger, Lord and God, thou art with me. What I can bear, thou know'st. Thou comfort'st me, O Father my God. Thy light doth shine, for thou art my dear Father. Would you like to pray along? Thou know'st I am weak and small. I cannot bear such pain at all. How quickly I lose courage. And yet I can do everything when thou dost touch and strengthen me. Then I am strong, courageous. A videocassette of this program is also available upon request.