Jun 30, 2008
We Don’t Normally Have Hurricanes In Nebraska
I’ve always wanted to know what it would be like to experience the impact of a land-falling hurricane. Because
I live about 800 miles from the nearest coast, I didn’t think my wish would ever come true. On the afternoon of June 27, I
found out would it would be like, as my whole neighborhood was engulfed by a storm packing hurricane-force winds.
Last Friday afternoon, I was working on my computer, and suddenly, at around 4:30 p.m., I heard tornado warning sirens going off. Because there were no tornado watches, it didn’t make any sense to me for the city to be blaring the sirens. I turned on the TV to channel 6 and learned that a storm with 90 mph wind gusts was racing my way.
My first reaction was, “This should be interesting.” Unless a tornado is headed in my direction, weather warnings don’t really impress me.
As the storm came closer, I could see it was no ordinary storm. When you see clouds a mile away stirring in real time, you know they must be moving very fast.
I stood in the front doorway and watched the storm roll in. When I saw a pure white cloud mixing in with flying shingles, I knew it was time to close the door. No sooner had I done that than the house was struck by a huge gust that caused it to shudder. I looked out the window and saw an image that looked like the interior of a commercial-grade dishwasher.
When the storm finally calmed down, I looked out the front window and was surprised to see two of my evergreen trees lying on their side. I ran to see what might have happened to the elm tree in the back, and there was no sign of it. When I went out on the back porch, I found it prostrate at the bottom of the short hill behind my house.
Soon after, a news crew from our local CBS affiliate came to survey the damage. I talked to one of the reporters, who said, “I’m sick of covering all these storms.”
The damage was not limited to my area of Omaha. The storm caused massive damage all over the metro area. At one point, 40 percent of the city was without power. The Qwest Center had parts of its siding ripped off.
The storm took a deadly toll as it crossed the Missouri River into Council Bluffs, Iowa. Two teens were killed when a tree fell across the front seat of the 1992 Honda Civic they were in.
The Weather Service estimated that the storm had winds of 100-115 mph. This would equal a category II hurricane.
This storm will only add to the food crisis. The morning of that fateful day, I had toured some local cornfields to get a first-hand view of the flood damage. The damage was about 10 to 20 percent. Friday’s storm turned many of these same fields into total losses. The corn looked like someone had taken a shotgun to it.
The big question is: What does all this mean? It was just the 8th of June when Omaha saw the most destructive tornado in the city in the past 32 years. Since spring, Nebraska, along with several other states, has suffered record flooding. California is currently experiencing wildfires that have everyone there scratching their heads in amazement.
I am not at all surprised to see my local community turned into a disaster area. It was just two weeks ago that I had posted this remark: “Unless the Lord Jesus comes quickly, I can only see the increasing rate of birth pangs.” Until the Lord comes for us, I recommend everyone have an emergency kit on hand.
Here is a link to coverage of some of the damage in my local area: Storm Photos
-- Todd
The Israel Star
While the subject of Israel is indeed the star of end-times Bible prophecy, so far as the nations are concerned, the title of this week’s Nearing Midnight column is not used in reference to that fact. Neither is the blue, six-pointed pyramid/inverted pyramid star that is the symbol of modern Israel the subject of this commentary. The flavor of this piece, however, does include the aforementioned factors.
Particularly, by “the Israel star” I mean to liken the modern incarnation of God’s chosen nation to Planet Earth’s own star, the sun. Just as all bodies in this solar system revolve around the sun, so, it seems, issues, events–nations—revolve around this tiny sliver of land in the Middle East. We will look briefly at things orbiting the Jewish state. The orbits of Israel’s satellites are decaying, and the prophetic Word of God forewarns that as Christ’s return nears, all orbiting humanistic matter will threaten to destroy the Israel star.
The prophecy is plainly in view, and we have used it many times. It becomes more manifest, more relevant for our time, with each passing second.
“The burden of the word of the LORD for Israel, saith the LORD, which stretcheth forth the heavens, and layeth the foundation of the earth, and formeth the spirit of man within him. Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of trembling unto all the people round about, when they shall be in the siege both against Judah and against Jerusalem. And in that day will I make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all people: all that burden themselves with it shall be cut in pieces, though all the people of the earth be gathered together against it” (Zech. 12:1-3).
The end-time’s satellites orbiting the minuscule nation and city that God himself calls “the apple of my eye” are everywhere one looks on the geopolitical, socioeconomic, and ecumenical/religious skyline. The orbiting geopolitical issues and events are pressing hard against the atmospherics surrounding Israel.
On the geopolitical front, the Quartet (the U.S., EU, Russia, and U.N.), representing ostensibly the international community, pushes forward with attempts to force a peace process upon Israel and her Islamic/Arab neighbors. The “Palestinian problem” is at the center of the whole Mid-East powder keg that threatens thermonuclear confrontation once Iran gets atomic weapons with the capability to rain the warheads upon the hated Jewish nation the Iranian leader has vowed to erase from existence.
American administration pressures are an everyday diplomatic tactic, while the U.S. secretary of state–and even the president—travel to the region to strongly urge acceptance of the terms of the "Roadmap to Peace." At the heart of the process is the demand that Israel divide its already small land, and that a Palestinian state, created from donated Israeli land, comes into existence for the hapless Palestinian people.
Socioeconomically, Israel is increasingly blamed by the western and growing eastern industrialized power players for the exploding prices per barrel of oil. The unsettled Middle East, at the center of which sits the Jewish state, has a stranglehold on the great, wealth-producing entities. Israel’s refusal to give in to all demands its oil-rich neighbors desire is at the back of the minds of all who thirst for energy to fuel their industrial bases. Again, the craving for a peace that will settle things is at the heart of all of these exigencies orbiting the Jewish state.
Leaders of the wealthier nations are now feeling fierce pressures of their peoples, the ones who do the work that produces the wealth. For example, the truckers of Europe are becoming violent because of diesel prices. Citizenries are more and more feeling the pinch of the upwardly raging prices of petroleum–again, the problem festering in the heart of the Middle East. Societal/cultural pressures are almost certainly set to force leaderships to make moves that will assuage the angers of the working classes within America and Europe–those who have become accustomed to less expensive oil and the cheaper offshoot luxuries they’ve enjoyed.
Again, Israel is seen as the core of the boiling, growing problems that afflict the world socioeconomically.
The anti-Israel religious factions that orbit the nation during these end times increasingly are threatening pressures to force the Jewish state into acquiescing to their angry surrounding neighbors. Some clergy within mainline Reform churches–those that broke from Catholicism in Luther’s Reformation—are making their wishes known. They are supporting the causes of those of Israel’s neighbors. At the heart of this is the part of the Catholic dogma from which the Reform movement clergy never broke. That is, they still hold that the Church has replaced Israel as God’s people of His promises.
Modern Israel has nothing to do with prophecy yet future, is the mantra. This lie from the pit of Satan’s lair will, I believe the prophetic Word of God foretells, be at the center of the whole world crushing around and marginalizing this people of destiny–the Jews.
SAN JOSE, Calif. — The Presbyterian Church is hearing impassioned pleas to declare its solidarity with the Palestinian Arabs by adopting a series of anti-Israel measures, including proposals for divestment and for backing a suspension of American military aid to the Jewish state…[The body’s "peace committee"] voted, 38-26, to endorse the Amman Call, a peace proposal that includes a Palestinian Arab "right of return," a guarantee that Jewish leaders contend would lead to the demise of Israel as a Jewish state… ("Presbyterians Urged To Side With Palestinians," Josh Gerstein, New York Sun, June 25, 2008).
A star once pointed the way to Israel, and the Prince of Peace was born into a world needing saving. The Israel star today, though in unbelief, and unwittingly, is pointing to the prophetic fact that that returning Prince is on His way to truly bring tranquility to a world about to self-destruct.
--Terry
