The weather forecasters were puzzled. The computers must be wrong. The computerized model of the National Weather Service showed a huge storm coming to the eastern United States—“a storm of relatively unprecedented proportions,” as Elbert Friday, the Service’s director, described it.
How could that be? Such a storm? A week before spring would officially begin? The weathermen shook their heads and concluded that the computers were wrong; someone had fed the wrong figures in, or had not used the right equations.
There was no mistake. The computers were right, and by the week’s end the whole eastern seaboard was swept by a “once in a lifetime” storm. Homes and buildings were destroyed, travel was disrupted, and lives were lost from the Tortugas to the Maritimes. Truly it was a storm of “unprecedented proportions.”
Another storm has been forecast, and it is a perfectly reliable forecast. The storm of God’s judgment on this whole world is not far in the future. We can see the storm winds rising already. The Bible has accurately described the signs of the last days.
One definite sign is that perilous times shall come. At a recent count there were 42 different parts of the world torn by civil strife, if not outright warfare, where the whole population lives in daily peril. Even in this land terrorist actions and a rising tide of crime leave few people confident of safety.
Safety? Where is it? As one man said, “The only safe place in a tornado is somewhere else!”
Exactly! And that is God’s plan for every born- again child of His. Before the full fury of that worldwide storm strikes, the Lord Jesus is going to descend from heaven with a shout . . . and the dead in Christ shall rise first: then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. (1 Thessalonians 4:16,1716For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: 17Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. (1 Thessalonians 4:16‑17).)
It could be today!
Will your eyes behold through the morning light
The city of gold and the harbor bright?
Will you anchor safe by the heavenly shore
When life’s storms are past forevermore?
We have an anchor that keeps the soul
Steadfast and sure while the billows roll;
Fastened to the Rock which cannot move,
Grounded firm and deep in the Saviour’s love