La Noche de la Progresiva Derecho

“It is He who made the earth by His power, who established the world by His wisdom, and by His understanding stretched out the heavens. When He utters His voice there is a tumult of waters in the heavens, and He makes the mist rise from the ends of the earth. He makes lightning for the rain, and He brings forth the wind from His storehouses.” Jeremiah 51:15-16 (ESV)

I can see Snoopy on the roof on his doghouse typing the following words, “It was a dark and stormy night…” and then I could follow with, “a Friday night, just after one in the morning. The wind is howling as the hail slams against the windows. A genuine fear arose when my wife awoke me to say that I have to get of bed to see the fury that The Almighty has descended upon us.” And the funny thing with this is that it would have been very true. The 30^th of June, this year, our Creator permitted what has been called a “Derecho” to come from the west and pretty much destroy much of the electrical, cable tv and telephone infrastructure in my part of Southern New Jersey.

Here is what I found out about the word “Derecho”. It comes from the Spanish word for straight (direct) wind and is in contrast with a tornado which is a twisted wind. The one that hit us is known as a progressive derecho and happens when small lines of thunderstorms take a bow-shape and travel for hundreds of miles along stationary fronts. The winds gain a speed of up to 80mph+ and this thing puts on quite a lightning show. The hail was, at times, golf ball size and they made a lot of noise as they hit the house. The sound of this thing was real loud and when it was over we wearily went back to sleep.

Photo courtesy of Discovery News

The next morning was the reality shot. Everything was all over the place but The Lord, in His infinite wisdom, spared our home. Others were not so lucky. We have heard some amazing stories on how close calls were made on our church family as well as the community in general. My wife just recently showed me a picture of what this thing looks like if it happens in the day.  It looks as if Judgment Day has arrived and Jesus is right behind ready to speak The Word that finishes it all. It did make me wonder about just how ready am I if this had been Judgment Day.

I wondered what the major Prophets would have said if they saw this thing coming and in the melancholy of my thoughts I looked back as if I might be Jeremiah. The verses I started off with should remind us all just who God is all the time. A sovereign, wise and awesomely powerful God who exposes the stupidity of men as they trust in their idols. And in this case I dare themselves because it doesn’t matter how well man goes about engineering infrastructure, God can simply destroy it with a mighty wind from literally left field. God can make mortal man appreciate the simplicity of running water just by situating him in a position where he has to travel a long distance to get lake water to flush toilets. (Yes that man was me and there were others)

It seems as if the storms are getting more frequent and the damage they cause is increasing as well…remember not all of these storms will be of nature. Not long after the “Derecho” my wife and I were taking much needed showers at a friend’s house when a conversation was stuck up about how God is dealing with America these days. My close friend Alan believes that it won’t be much longer before El Shaddai says, “I’ve had enough!!”

The important point to this conversation was our need to be in right relationship with Jesus Christ. The whole of being ready is being in right relationship with Jesus. Are you in that right relationship this morning? If you are I’d say you’re ready, if not…well I’ll just leave that as “’nough said!” — Chris Hughes is a graduate of the Colony of Mercy and contributes regularly to the Freedom Fighter blog

Team YOU: Psalm 18-19; Proverbs 17; Acts 20:17-38

Motivations: “Oh, how we need to know ourselves. Are we saved? Are we alive in Christ? There is only one instrument that creates, detects, and confirms eternal life in the soul of man; namely, the Word of God.”—John Piper

Practice to Remember: Level 1:Philippians 2:4; Level 2: Philippians 2:5-11

Powered Up:  To pray effectively we must want what God wants – that and that only is to pray in the will of God. A. W. Tozer