Earthquake And Tsunami Devastate Indian Ocean Coastal Areas
Mark John Ostrum - 2005-01-08 00:00:00
It has been two weeks since the devastating earthquake and tsunami in the Indian Ocean region of the world.?The outpouring of prayers and support has been unprecedented.?We've all heard the stories, seen the videos and photos.?There is no doubt that this disaster has had a truly global impact.?Continue to pray for the victims and their families.
Of the reports that I heard or read there have been two that particularly interested me.?The first one was an article I found after a few days on one of the national news network websites.?In this article it was reported that despite the devastation around the rim of the Indian Ocean, the U.S. military base at Diego Garcia was largely untouched despite being in the path of the wave.
The observation I made was that the United States is predominately a Christian nation.?The region surrounding the Indian Ocean is largely Hindu, Muslim, and Buddhist.?It made me wonder briefly why the US base was undamaged while over 150,000 persons died in all the other areas.?Perhaps it is time to think about who God is and how he will respond to those who refuse to accept Jesus Christ, his Son as their savior.?Perhaps God caused this to happen in that particular region to demonstrate once again that there is only one God, and he is him.
Recall the stories in the Old Testament about how God caused massive armies of nations who followed false gods to be utterly destroyed by the Israelites.?When he was speaking to Moses, and giving his commandments, the first one is, "You shall have no other gods before me."?God made a point of proclaiming himself to be a jealous God.?He will not be shared with other gods.
There is the story about Elijah calling together all the priests of Baal and Ashteroth on the mountain.?He issued a challenge:?We each build an alter to our gods, load it with wood for a burnt offering, and pray to our gods to find out which god will listen.?The Baals and Asherahs agreed.?They piled on wood on their alter and place their sacrifice on it.?Then they prayed, according to the challenge, to have their gods light the fire and consume the offering.?They prayed and prayed.?Nothing happened.?Elijah chided them saying things like, "Maybe your god is asleep".?Pray louder."?Still nothing happened.
Then Elijah prepared his alter, piled on the wood and the offering.?He then ordered a trench to be dug around his alter and to have water poured over the wood and offering on the alter until the trench was filled with water.?Once that was completed, he prayed to the Lord to accept his offering.?Flames came down from heaven and consumed the offering, the wood, the alter, and the water.?Then the fire consumed the priests of the false gods (1 Kings 18:16-46).
Whenever Israel began following the false gods of those nations they were supposed to have driven out and destroy (but didn't obey God in his command), God sent armies to them to scatter them.?Soon there was only a small remnant of Israelites.?Eventually they were all taken captive to Babylon.
The second story I heard I just heard this morning on public radio. Paul Landgraver,?An American man living in a new house near the beach on the Indian Ocean at the time the wave struck was recounting his harrowing tale of survival.?He and his wife had to climb to the roof of their two-story house, and it was yet not high enough to save them.?They wound up in the water.?He tells his dramatic story of how he was sucked under the water several times, how he got banged up by debris, and how he finally made it to land again and began helping others who were in worse shape than he was.
After the waters receded he returned to his home to survey the destruction.?He said the first floor was totally gone, the second floor had several walls missing, and the only thing he had left that seemed untouched was a Jesus doll he had bought as a joke.?He closed saying that the only thing he has left now is his wife and his Jesus doll.
The fact that he bought that Jesus doll as a joke says a lot about who this man is in the eyes of God.?That the Jesus doll is the only thing of his that survived the tsunami should be a lesson to him, and to you.?My prayer is that this man and his wife would turn away from whatever lifestyle they had that would cause them to buy a Jesus doll as a joke, and put their full faith in Jesus, the only one who can save.?I pray also that all who heard this man's story this morning on NPR will understand that salvation can only come from Jesus, and that there is only one God.?May God use this tragedy to destroy all faith in false gods.
If you would like to hear this man's story, go to the NPR's Weekend Edition site and click on "An E-Mail from a Tsunami Survivor" by Paul Landgraver. This story link may not be available until some time after the January 8 broadcast completes.
All religions are not alike.?All faiths are not saving.?Only one faith is saving and that faith is the faith that comes as a free gift of the Holy Spirit, the faith in Jesus Christ, the true Son of God who came to save the world.