Have you ever lay down in bed and wondered why the roof won't collapse in on you while just yesterday you heard about a tree that caved in your neighbor's house? Have you ever thought why is this roof so special that it can withstand the same disaster that happened next door?
On Thursday, before I was about to head for a routine trip to New York, the TV blipped up with a special report. What happened was a two engine American Airline jet crashed right into the Hudson river. Both engines went out when it carried over 150 people on board with it. The mess could be seen on the border of both New York and here in Jersey. To make things worse, the plane was sinking and the water was near freezing because of the weather we are having here. Normally a crash like that with such cold temperatures in the water would have caused major fatalities. History tells us, with such disasters like the Titanic, how near freezing water can kill people as easy as drowning can. And these people on the plane were swimming in that freezing water before the ferries and rescue boats got to them.
Miraculously all 155 people on board survived! Every last person was rescued and amazingly the worst wound was a laceration on someone's leg. God's divine providence shined brighter than the sun that day. With all sorts of obstacles that could have went wrong, God strove with all those people so that nothing went wrong. However what surprised me was that instead of giving the Lord any credit, the news media hailed the pilot as the hero. It's like the good Lord was just totally erased from memory. Granted I'm glad the pilot is alive but he could have been killed instantly by the crash or by the hypothermia that followed. Yet everyone is thanking him for saving those 155 passengers instead of God.
I understand in this day and age that we all believe it's our own skill or power which saves us from disaster. But truth be told that's not the case. Take a look at Hurricane Katrina that happened in Louisiana. We were so sure that our reliance on FEMA and the city rapid response would protect New Orleans that we never bothered to ask ourselves “what if”. Finally when the disaster struck and countless people died, that “what if” happened before our eyes. And worst of all the city response and FEMA was blamed for being too botched. It was all too late that we finally realize that our own skill & power wasn't the salvation we thought it was. We relied so much on ourselves and not enough on the Lord, and then disaster struck. Before Katrina New Orleans was the original sin city and even complete with a voodoo shop here and there. We didn't care and indulged in it and shut the door in the face of God.
Further more even after the hurricane hit New Orleans, another tragedy became uncovered. We saw the news of how crime arose and the pandemonium at the dome. Even the mayor of that city rather had blamed the president instead of taking any responsibility. It was a big fiasco and it went on because we thought we could trust the strength of our own arm over the Lord's grace. A strong man does not see danger until he runs into a rock that he cannot lift.
But this is what I'm saying. Those people in the plane that crashed on Thursday could have ended up like those people in New Orleans...stuck and abandoned. But instead the Lord's mercy showed upon every single person in that plane. Before they were about to crash people prayed on that plane and the Lord answered and everyone survived. The Lord answered their prayer even up until the last moment before the plane went down and hit the water. The people on that plane and it's pilot were wise. They didn't trust on the mechanics of the aircraft but instead turned their eyes upward. It payed off in the end because they got their miracle.
I was watching the testimony of a pilot in Vietnam whose F-4 Phantom jet got into a dogfight with several enemy Migs. After beating back the enemy fighters, one lucky missile found it's way near his exhaust. His fighter nearly broke in half. The pilot steered his way in the fractured aircraft out of enemy territory. When his plane was riding upside down and tilting downward, he started to pray to God. As the Lord's blessings would have it, his plane started to stabilize even though it was smoking through the air. When the pilot's plane started to level out he figured that his flight training was really going to be the factor of whether he lives, dies or gets captured. Just when he got self-confident, his damaged aircraft started to tilt upside down again and lose control. Realizing his situation and that he was back in trouble, he knocked himself out of his self-glorifying stupor and went back to praying to God. And fortunately again his plane went back up to stabilizing itself until he could get to safety.
Disaster could have come for that pilot at anytime, disaster could have come for those people in downed airliner, disaster could have come for the entire population of New Orleans. But disaster doesn't come and disaster is avoided because of the Lord's hand which is held out to guard us. The Lord doesn't just hold out His hand to keep disaster down, but he holds out his hand to also lend us a bridge to cross over to safety. That safety is with Him and that bridge is Jesus the Christ.
........
From a personal experience
death almost came to me and without me knowing until it passed over
me. As you all know I live in a city called Newark, NJ. There's
plenty of violence to go around. Well one day I was told that a
stray bullet from a nearby firefight hit the wall of the very area I
sleep. If this bullet was of a stronger caliber it may have entered
through the wall and would have hit either my head or neck. Worst
yet I would not have known what hit me because I would have been
asleep. I have a lot of unrepentant evil in my life so if I died
that day I would have perhaps gone to hell. But the Lord showed me
through at that time and I was kept safe. See I didn't know God
still had that shield over me at that time. And I'm thankful He did
guard me. The Lord decided that it was not yet my time.
But for another gentleman
in Newark, it WAS his time. I heard on the news a few months
ago of a young man who was also sleeping when a bullet from a gun
fired downstairs went through the top floor. The young man was
killed instantly. At times I think and I hope that this poor
gentleman accepted the Lord and became right with him. I pray that
he died in ready and prepared for the Lord.
Sooner or later death or disaster comes for every person; both great and small. And when death & disaster finally does come for us, we have to be prepared. There is only one precaution that is totally full proof and like platinum. The measure I'm referring to is bowing the knee to Jesus Christ and following Him as your king. Going to Him is not just preparing yourself for death, which eventually comes for everyone, but it also prepares you for any hardship that you may see in life. He makes you a new man and a more powerful man. So when death finally takes you or disaster tries to strike you, they will have no power over you because Jesus Christ triumphed over both of them. As the saying goes, “He who is in me is greater than he who is in the world”.
So even when both engines on the plane go out, you will trust in the Lord. Even when you start to sink in frigid water, you will trust the Lord. And even when your muscles start to freeze up, you will trust in the Lord. Because His rescue boat always comes for those who trust and follow Him. And when He finally pulls you to safety; even death and hell won't be able to harm you anymore.
God bless
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