by Chris Steele

July 2, 2006

Floridians look on with keen awareness and interest as the hurricane season officially began last month. For me, I took a second glance when “Chris” appeared on the list for possible named storms for this year. Because it is only third on the list, I am confident that this storm will arrive sometime this summer. When it does comes, I do hope that it is not a very bad one.

As we approach another active season, we are warned to be alert and prepared. We receive booklets in newspapers and through the mail on hurricane preparedness; what we need to know if we evacuate, or what supplies we should have on hand if we stay and weather the storm. In spite of all the warnings, in spite of the close calls we have had in recent years, many people simply fail to prepare.

There is another storm that is approaching. It will be far more severe than anything that mankind has ever seen. It is the storm of storms. It will be the last of all storms. It will effect everyone in the entire world. We cannot track it on radar. None-the-less it is real and it is coming. Its name is “Judgment.”

We have been warned about this coming day for a long time, and yet so many still refuse to prepare themselves for it. Much time, effort, and money is spent trying to encourage people, even beg people to heed the warning, but to no avail. Only those who are prepared will survive and live. All others will dies without hope (Amos 4:12; Matthew 25:41-46).

We can recover and rebuild our lives when a hurricane has destroyed our homes and disrupted our lives. God tells us that we can even recover from death through the resurrection (1 Corinthians 15:22-24). But there is no recovery if we are unprepared as we come before the judgment seat of Christ (2 Corinthians 5:10-11).

As the song says, “Sadly you’ll stand if you’re unprepared, Trembling you’ll fall on your knee; Facing the sentence of life or of death, What will that sentence be? Now is the time to prepare my friend, Make your soul spotless and free; Washed in the blood of the Crucified One, He will your answer be.”