Katrina, Accident or not

In the wake of the devastation by Katrina, maybe we should
stop and reflect on a few things. Should we ask "why us"? Maybe,
but no one knows the answer to that question. However, the Bible
clearly states that God punishes nations whom he is displeased with,
because of their wickedness, with horrible weather, diseases, pestilence
droughts, and wars.

Now to the secular moralist, and the rank unbeliever alike, this is
nonsense. For some of them, God either openly does not exist (the
Atheist), or covertly He does not exist, (the Moralist), or He exist
but has no hand in the affairs of men (the Deist).Solomon the third
King of Israel reigned from 965-925 B.C. At the beginning of his reign
he prayed thus, "When Your people Israel are defeated before an enemy
because they have sinned against You; When there is famine in the land,
pestilence, or blight or mildew, locust or grasshoppers, (what we call natural
disasters) when their enemies besiege them because of sin, hear from Heaven
and forgive our sins and restore us. Solomon knowing that God dealt with
individuals as well as nations, was not only confessing national sins but
also seeking pardon for those sins. We, indeed are guilty of gross national
sins; to name a few Pornography, Abortion, Unpunished Murders , (unrequited
blood) Adultery, Fornication, Homosexuality. Now we think those things
are just normal ways of life because we have moved so far from an understanding of
Scripture ,But God has not changed and everything He looks upon as sin worthy
of death is still sin worthy of death.

Jonathan Edwards prior to his death understood the direction the nation was
taking; away from thinking through life with a God centered view, to thinking that
logic, reason and morality were the truest ways of looking at things. He never lived
to see it entirely develop, but it indeed has become the norm. Because we are finite
creatures, we see through a glass of cloudy liquid but God on the other hand, is infinite,
and sees everything in a complete and crystal clear picture and knows what yesterday's
actions, will reap, today. So our logic says to us that the people suffering from the effects
of Katrina are suffering unjustly. We ask what did they do to deserve this? We feel
that this is unfair. But to believe this, is to believe that God is unjust and unfair. The
Scriptures in describing the character of God says of Him; He is Holy, He is just, He
is Merciful and Kind, God is Love, Truth, Longsuffering, Patient and Good. Not one
of His attributes shows Him to be unjust and unfair. Feelings of injustice and being
unfairly dealt with are born out of our human emotions because we see, with
limited vision. Our understanding of God should conclude that He not only looks at
our individual sins and deals with us about them personally, but He also looks at the
national sin and sometimes many must suffer the national, punishment for national
sins. Where God decides to visit that punishment is something He only determines. So
the people of Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama are no more or less sinful than the
people of other states, but God in His infinite wisdom chose this place to unleash His
wrath against our national ungodliness, perhaps to punish or perhaps to warn of coming
judgment or perhaps to do both. One thing we do know about God is that He is not whimsical,
every action has a definite purpose.

In an effort to understand the proper perspective of all this including the war
on terror I Googled, the number of violent crimes in the United Stated
randomly picking the year 2002, what I found from my search was astonishing;
In 2002 - 11,877,000 violent crimes were committed, 1 426,000 people died as a
result of murder; 16,000 manslaughters; 95,000 forcible rapes; 421,000 robberies;
894,000 aggravated assaults (information gathered from the Census Bureau web site)
Yet the American people have practically abandoned the war on terror, because in
two years roughly 1900 Americans have died in battle. That is not to downgrade
the importance of those deaths. Rather it should put a different perspective on how
we view things.

Systematically the liberals have criticized the Bush administration for everything
from the problems in Baghdad to causing the Hurricane. However, our nation is
no safer than Baghdad. Violent crimes, looting, hundreds dying daily, lack of
water and electricity, and the liberals who blame the President for causing
all these things and his failure to plan for them. And then there is, New Orleans;
looting, crimes, death, violent criminals taking anything not nailed down. Lack of
fresh water, fires, and no electricity and of course the Presidents failure to stop the
hurricane, the Presidents failure to arrive on the scene earlier, (and do what?) The
Presidents blah blah blah!


I believe the Bible and what it says about man. My opinions are not based on anyone's
political agenda, no, not even my own. Rather they stand upon the Scriptural descriptions
of mans depraved condition. For example, we always look at the American people as
basically a good and compassionate group of people, always going to the rescue of those
in dire straits, and on the surface that is correct. But the question of depravity also plays into
what we do in our day-to-day lives, not just in what we do in extraordinary times. Example:
I have a friend who has a handicap sticker legally obtained, however the conditions
she suffers from is not consistent, and for the most part she seems ok to me. One
day we were out and about in my car and we made a stop, she offered to let me use
her handicap sticker, when I refused she was bewildered and thought it strange,
until I explained to her that I am not handicapped, and I would rather not take
a space someone else might really need just to save myself a few steps.

We know all the adjectives we use in describing our character, compassionate,
good, kind etc. we worship the work of our own hands. But what do the Scriptures say
about man, "The heart of man is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked,
who can know it. (Jeremiah 17:9) Or what about this description, "And God saw that
the wickedness of man was great in the earth and that every imagination of the
thoughts of his heart are only evil continually". (Genesis 6:5) Jonathan Edwards believed
that God created the first humans with two principals working in them; First, the
lower principle, that which we call natural, such as, self-love, and natural appetites and
passions. In addition God implanted principles that were spiritual, holy and divine. So long as
the higher principle of love to God reigned supreme, Adam and Eve were perfectly
happy, Yet God also had given them the ability to choose between right and wrong,
the ability to choose to live life as He prescribed, or to disobey Him. When they
disobeyed, spurning Gods love, God withdrew the higher principle from them
leaving only the lower nature to rule. (excerpted in part from Jonathan Edwards,
A Life-George M. Marsden - Yale University Press)

Finally the media, whether electronic, or print, should hide their faces in shame.
Immediately they set out pointing fingers at the administration. But what about the
Mayor of Louisiana, and the Governor of Louisiana, If fingers are to be pointed should
they not first be pointed at the local and state levels before the federal level. It amazes me
that we scream for less government and demand that the federal government not
usurp states rights, except when there is a disaster, then the federal government
becomes the scapegoat for everything the Governor and Mayor failed to do.
Lt. General Honore, the now lead person on the rescue efforts said it succinctly y
esterday on Fox, when the first responders are themselves victims and the infrastructure
is destroyed it is in effect impossible to execute a proper response to the disaster. He
suggested that we tamp down the rhetoric of finger pointing and get about the business
of rescuing and cleaning up the aftermath of this disaster. Pray for a 21st century
"Great Awakening"