Psalm 9:16
"The Lord is known by the judgment which He executeth: the wicked is snared in the works of his own hands. Higgaion. Selah"
Hurricane Dennis
July 9, 2005
Deja vu. It seem like we have been here before. July 9th, 2005 a category 3 hurricane bearing down on the gulf coast with the potential to do catastrophic damage. Sounds all to familiar…. September 15th, 2004, just 10 months earlier, we were faced with the certain destruction that Hurricane Ivan would bring as it made landfall just west of Gulf Shores, Alabama and made it’s trek northward. True to the catastrophic destruction that category 3 storms can bring, Atmore was once again hit hard. The small community in Southwest Alabama saw massive property damage, but NO loss of life. For this, we can give praise unto the Lord God, the Creator of the heavens and the earth..
When one finds him/herself in the midst of a powerful storm such as Hurricane Ivan or Dennis, one cannot help but share the concerns of the Lord’s disciples when they were in a boat on the Sea of Galilee, only to find themselves in the midst of a storm. The disciples came to the Lord and asked, “Carest not that we perisheth?” Mark 4:35-41 In times like these, it appears, at least for the moment, that the elements are more than the Lord can control and we are left to the devastation of the storm. In times like this, it is good to lay hold to the truth of God’s Word… Nahum 1:2-8
In the Old Testament book of Nahum, the prophet was sent to Nineveh to pronounce the certain judgment of God because of their wickedness. There are three very important truths that the believer can lay hold too from the Old Testament writing….
The first is that the Lord is jealous and the Lord revengeth. He will take vengeance on His adversary, but is slow to anger. He is longsuffering and patient with the sinner. God is not willing that any should perish but that all would come to repentance…
The second is that He will have His way in the whirlwind and the storm. He uses the elements of nature to unleash His wrath. He rebuketh the sea and maketh it dry, and drieth up all the rivers. The mountains quake at Him, and the hills melt and the earth is burned up at His presence. He not only created it, but is in full control of His creation....
The third is that the Lord is good, a strong hold in the day of trouble; and He knoweth them that trust in Him. But with an overrunning flood He will make an utter end of the place thereof...
We can see God's hand in the storm in the life of another prophet that was sent to Nineveh approximately 100 years earlier than Nahum- Jonah 1:1-15. God commissioned Jonah to go and preach His message of repentance to Nineveh. Jonah ignored God’s command and boarded a ship in Joppa and headed for Tarshish. The Word of God says that “Jonah went to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord”. Friend, man ought to know he can not hide himself nor his SIN from God. The Word of God says, “The Lord sent out a great wind.” In other words, the Lord sent out a storm, a hurricane if you please. The purpose of the storm was to get the attention of a disobedient prophet.
As a believer and student of the scripture, one cannot experience the wrath of the storm and not consider Nahum's admonition? If the scripture is true, and the Lord will not acquit the wicked and He uses the storm to meet out His vengeance, we must ask the question; why would He possibly be unhappy with the gulf coast? Is He trying to get the attention of those living along the gulf coast, more specifically, Pensacola Beach?
KNOW YE NOT THAT YOUR SIN WILL FIND YOU OUT
Every Memorial Day weekend, Pensacola Beach kicks off a week of gay pride and “fun in the sun!”. And it all happens in
good ole Pensacola. Gay men and women literally take over the town and everyone has a really good time while getting a suntan, drinking and dancing.
The beaches of Pensacola fill with bronzed, muscular male bodies…. One after the other, on top of one another, in front of and behind and even, side
by side. Many of the gays actually camp right on the beach… and by that I mean, “pitch tents!”(1)
The article goes on to say that 60,000 – 100,000 homosexuals begin their week long celebration in blatant defiance to the clear teaching of
God’s Word.
“Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination.” Leviticus 18:22
“And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompense of their error which was meet” Romans 1:27
If God would send a storm to get the attention of a disobedient prophet, it is conceivable, at least to me that He would send not only one, but two category 3 hurricanes in less than one year to get the attention of a disobedient vacation resort located along the Emerald Gulf Coast of Pensacola Beach.
One reading this article might question, what has Atmore, Alabama got to do with Pensacola Beach? If we could go back to the story of the above mentioned prophet… Jonah, we will find that while Jonah was aboard the ship headed to Tarshish and in the midst of the storm that Jonah was not the only mariner on board. There were other shipmen who were in the midst of the mighty tempest because of Jonah’s sin. It is a perfect parallel…. Atmore just happens to be due north of Pensacola Florida.
“That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for He maketh His sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.” Matthew 5:45
The only words of encouragement that the believer might find in the midst of the storm of God's judgment, is that “the Lord is good, a strong hold in the day of trouble; and He knoweth them that trust in Him”. Nahum 1:7
God Bless My Friend
Brother Dennis
Tripsmarter.com article Memorial Day Weekend in Pensacola is memorable.
http://www.tripsmarter.com/pensacola/archives/events/memorialgay.htm?smarttips42104
Hurricane Dennis Picture (Courtesy UWisc CIMSS.)