On March 11th a ferocious tsunami unleashed by Japan’s largest earthquake on record slammed into its eastern coast. Thousands (maybe tens of thousands) died in the aftermath. And, unfortunately, the body count is rising everyday. Let’s pray for the people of Japan as they fight for life amidst the rubbleand radiation filled consequences of this shocking wave of destruction.
In light of this past week’s tragedy I have a kind-of-weird question or two to ask you.
What if somehow you got early intel that the tsunami was going to hit when it did? What if, through some miraculous circumstance, you discovered a few weeks ago that this 9.0 earthquake was going to devastate Japan last Friday? If you knew it was going to happen you’d take action wouldn’t you?
Of course you would!
You would probably begin by calling the local authorities in your own state. You’d share with them your evidence of impending disaster. If that didn’t work you’d go face to face and present your evidence to the powers that be in your state capitol. If they resisted your evidence you’d go higher and higher up the chain of command until you found someone who believed you. If it took calling the White House you would. If it took calling long distance to Japan you would.
If that didn’t work you’d fork out the money to buy a plane ticket to Tokyo to inform the authorities there face to face. If that didn’t work you’d probably catch a train from Tokyo to the cities and villages that would be hardest hit by the tsunami. You’d beg people to get away from the beaches, to go inland and to save themselves from the coming destruction. You wouldn’t care how much it cost you for a plane or train ticket as long as the thousands that were going to die would be warned. You wouldn’t care how much embarrassment you suffered as long as everyone could hear the news that they could be saved from certain death.
I’m convinced you’d do all of this because you are not only human, but humane. And if you are a follower of Jesus you could help but do nothing less. What’s the price of a ticket and a little embarrassment in comparison with so much death, devastation and destruction?
Guess what? There are billions of people all over the world who have a tsunami of utter hopelessness headed straight for them. People all around the planet who don’t know Jesus have a wave, not of water, but of fire and brimstone, that is speeding relentlessly toward them. But, unlike the Japanese tsunami, this wave is not just headed toward people in a far away land. It’s headed toward your neighbors, co-workers, classmates, teammates, friends and family members who don’t know Jesus as their Savior.
As believers in Jesus we have inside intel as to what is waiting for unbelievers when this wave hits. It’s tucked away in 2 Thessalonians 1:7-9, “This will happen when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven in blazing fire with his powerful angels. He will punish those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. They will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might.”
What are you willing to do about it? Are you willing to warn them to flee the coming destruction? Are you willing to suffer a little humiliation and embarrassment to tell them the good news about Jesus? Are you willing to support missionaries around the world as they seek to save every tribe and every nation from this wave of death?
The world is wandering on the beach of impeding destruction. A devastating wave of Biblical proportions is speeding straight at them. Somebody has got to warn them to call on Jesus before it’s too late. As Romans 10:14 reminds us, “How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them?”
That someone is you. That someone is me. Let’s do what it takes to share our faith with everyone we can before it’s too late.
