Bracing For Another Disaster?

The National Geophysical Data Center and the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences have completed tsunami maps of three more East Coast areas. The purpose of the effort is for predicting the risks in specified locations. Tsunamis are caused when geological movements occur under the ocean, potentially sending massive waves crashing ashore.

The agency devised digital elevation models for Long Island, Atlantic City, New Jersey, and Daytona Beach in Florida. Each reveals the makeup of the seafloor and the surrounding land elevations. This brings the total number of such maps to 21 nationwide. Lisa Taylor, the project manager for the study stated, "Tsunamis are a real threat to coastal communities across the world, including the United States.

”Most will recall the massive tsunami in December of 2004 that killed more than 230,000 people and left a half million homeless in a dozen countries. It is hoped the newly acquired data will help evaluate the potential impact of a similar catastrophe.

One of the many blessings of modern life can be the variety of warning systems which technology has brought. For example, as terrible as Hurricane Katrina was, the loss of life would have been horrendous had the storm not been foreseen as it was. And few things are more helpful than current medical procedures where early warnings can be a literal matter of life and death.

Most everyone appreciates being warned in advance and given opportunity to prepare accordingly. And while new ways of doing so continue to advance, there is one area of life where the most serious warning of all has gone virtually unchanged for centuries.

Scripture goes to great lengths to provide men and women more than fair warning concerning their own spiritual condition. Romans chapter one gives perhaps the best overview of sin’s cause and effects. Verse 18 states, “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness.” This is but one of the numerous no-nonsense warnings saying that a holy God must and will deal with all who willingly deny His existence and resist His redemptive plan.

God’s simple, but fully effective, preparation for the soul is described throughout His letter to the Romans. Chapter three states that, “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” That is man’s tragic situation. In chapter five, we read, “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” That is God’s loving reaction. Then in Romans ten we find, “that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.” That is man’s only option to what is God’s solitary solution.

A timely warning may be helpful in avoiding some of life’s common pitfalls. But failure to know about and properly ready one’s heart for the coming certain judgement is beyond unimaginable. The author of Hebrews adds his weight on the subject writing in 10:31, “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.”

Preparation and survival in a fallen world, or even possessing all its many treasures, is utterly futile if the ultimate question of Matthew 16:26 is not properly answered. “For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?”

Bill Breckenridge