I went to get a second weather alert radio for our home this week, they were out. I guess I shouldn't have been surprised. Not with what tornadoes just did to lives and property across eleven states. We weren't far from one of them ourselves.
Broken homes. Broken hearts. Towns nearly erased. It's just plain heart-wrenching to watch.
With all the shock and loss, everyone's saying, "It could have been so much worse." Looking at the leveled landscape left by the twisters, it really is remarkable that there weren't many more fatalities. That's why USA Today's "killer tornadoes aftermath" article declares, "Amid tragedy, 'thank God.'"
One man in Indiana lost his house and his horses, but was thanking God his family was okay. His comment was that "he had enough warning of the storms' approach to leave for safer ground."
That seemed to be the common denominator of every survival story I've seen. They had a warning and they heeded the warning.
Responding to the warning and taking shelter where it's safe is literally the difference between life and death. Now. And forever.
Years ago, I heard God's warning about the storm that's coming. And His invitation to go to the one place where I could find safety. It's changed everything.
Jesus was issuing a sobering eternity warning when He said, "If you do not believe that I am the one I claim to be, you will indeed die in your sins" (John 8:24). To die unforgiven is to stand in the path of the storm. Because sin - the aborting of the Creator's plan for me, rejecting Him being God so I could be god of my life - carries with it intrinsic judgment. A sinless God cannot allow me and my sin in His presence. So, as the Bible says, "Your sins have separated you from your God" (Isaiah 59:2). Living without Him is hard. Dying without Him is hell.
With God's warning also comes God's way to escape the storm. The same God I've turned my back on - whose judgment for my sin comes closer each day - acted with radical, incalculable love to provide a safe place for my soul. "God showed His great love for us by sending Christ to die for us" (Romans 5:8). That's God's Son! Dying an excruciating death on a cross. For us. In our place. Absorbing the storm of God's judgment on my sin so I would never have to. To this day, that love that held nothing back overwhelms me beyond words.
I remember hearing how Native Americans saved their villages from raging prairie fires years ago. They actually set a fire to stop a fire. They burned the ground around the village to deprive the fire of the fuel it needed. They said, "The fire cannot come where the fire has already been."
That's what happened at Jesus' Cross. The fire of God's judgment on our sin fell on God's Son instead. So "whoever believes in Him is not condemned" (John 3:18). When I embrace Jesus and His sacrifice as the payment for my sin, the forgiveness He purchased on the cross becomes mine. And every sin is erased from God's book forever.
When a storm warning is issued, you can ignore it. You can reject it. You can postpone doing something about it. You can stand totally exposed to the killer storm. Or you can go where you're safe from the storm. That's the choice God gives us about the Son He sent to save us. "Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life" (John 3:36).
The warning's been sounded and we're all in the path of the storm. But there's one safe place. The cross where Jesus died for you. Where God's precious Son took the full force of the storm. So we don't have to.
God's one question when we enter eternity will be, "What did you do with My Son?" Because of what His Son did for you. If you're not sure you belong to Him - and you'd like to be, tell Him that today. And please - take a moment to visit YoursForLife.net where I can help you know exactly how to take for yourself what He died on the cross to give you.