Posted by: Art | July 3, 2012

Super-Derecho, Part III

OK, what can you think of that:

  1. started in Iowa
  2. blew through Chicago, and
  3. ended up wreaking havoc in DC?

Definition of ‘derecho‘, in Spanish (H/T Bill Koenig):

upright, straight, straight ahead, right, right hand, law, to have a right to something, customs duty or fee, justice, a just claim, freedom, privilege, (road or path–obsolete sense), a collection of ordinances or regulations, care for one’s own interest, unwritten law, copyright…

From my daily reading yesterday (Monday):

PSALM 144:5 Bow your heavens, O LORD, and come down! Touch the mountains so that they smoke! 6 Flash forth the lightning and scatter them; send out your arrows and rout them! 7 Stretch out your hand from on high; rescue me and deliver me from the many waters, from the hand of foreigners, 8 whose mouths speak lies and whose right hand is a right hand of falsehood… 11 Rescue me and deliver me from the hand of foreigners, whose mouths speak lies and whose right hand is a right hand of falsehood.

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Responses

  1. Art, the worst thing about the judgments coming on the USA is that the majority of pastors and churches REFUSE to connect the dots that this is from God. the shepherds that lead the American churches are for the most part blind as to what is coming because they refuse to believe in a God that judges today, everything is intellectualized or they can only believe in the judgments coming at the last days. Because of this, I don’t see America repenting because those that have the map are reading only the part they want to read. May God have mercy on those who know Him and are listening.


    [ART: Recording Jesus' words, in Revelation 3, John writes to the church at Sardis -- idiomatic of denominational ('name') churches, a.k.a., Protestant 'mainline'):

    2 I know your works. You have the reputation of being alive, but you are dead. 2 Wake up, and strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have not found your works complete in the sight of my God. 3 Remember, then, what you received and heard. Keep it, and repent. If you will not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what hour I will come against you. 4 Yet you have still a few names in Sardis, people who have not soiled their garments, and they will walk with me in white, for they are worthy.

    Note that, a) He is coming AGAINST them and, b) part of their chastisement involves "not know[ing]” when that will happen. The implication, in context, is that He will come FOR other churches and that those WILL know the hour — at least in the rough, ‘seasonal’/weather sense in which Jesus discusses that in the gospels. They will be awake with their lamps full, like the five wise virgins in Matthew 25. Consider also that when Jesus tells a dead person to ‘wake up’, His command has an effect much more effectual than ours! Although many churches have failed to acknowledge the Living God, revealed throughout the totality of Holy Scripture, as you point out, God is still God. There is hope. Our job is to remain steadfast and not worry or get ‘down’. Which leads to…

    The Elijah, post-confrontational ‘moping’ trap is one we must work to avoid. Even amidst the worst of times, God has a remnant (7,000 in that case). He ALWAYS manages to preserve, place and use it in just the right ways, to His glory, at just the right time. Related to that is the Jonah ‘THEY will never repent’ trap, wherein we try to run the odds, by our own reasoning, conclude that the chances are zero, and go into our own insulated Tarshish-bound zone rather than spreading the gospel liberally in ‘unlikely’ environments.

    Definitely ‘preaching to myself’ here as much as anyone! I.e., I take your points — having made them myself, and often!!]

  2. I will say, those readings of scripture will never balance the very obvious consecration to “other” things by those same men.

    http://orbisvitae.com/mc/Know-Your-Enemy/51,The-American-Revolution.html#a

    The clever use of what is true to mask and substantiate what is not is most sickening to me.

    [ART: Ephesians 6: it's a spiritual battle. We are pawns. It's not my job to condemn them, (and I don't think you are doing that either). As you suggest, it's always worth keeping in mind -- and this goes for sitting in the pew on Sunday as well, or listening to a preacher on TV or YouTube or iPod -- that Satan, and some of those enslaved to him, are ADEPT at quoting scripture, trotting it out on special occasions to justify or cover what they're really about and make the sheep think they're sheep too, when in fact they're wolves.

    Yet God knows the heart and nothing escapes His attention. What's really funny, when you think about it, is that God's Word does what it was sent out to do no matter what. It does not return to Him empty. Men may attempt to twist it and use it to cover a plethora of evil deeds and intentions, but ultimately it (or rather He, the Word of God Himself) prevails. 'They' can't steal our country because it was never ours to begin with. We carry a foreign (heavenly) passport and the ticket home is already bought and paid for.]

  3. Alternative take on the derecho here:

    http://wattsupwiththat.com/2012/07/03/the-kevin-trenberth-seth-borenstein-aided-fact-free-folly-on-the-usa-heat-wave/#more-66704 scroll down about 1/2 way for the discussion on the things.

    [ART: Thanks, GT. That's one of the most lucid and informative sites I know of in regards to de-bunking the hubristic religion of antrhopocentric (WE did it with OUR 'breath' -- CO2 --and WE can and must take control of the planet) climate change. They make a good point in that article: these kinds of storms are not crazy-rare, just powerful. It's a useful perspective for those who may find fear creeping in. Our God is not capricious, and there is nothing new under the sun. (What has been will be again; we just may not have seen it in our limited human experience.)

    Beyond the basic question of the existence of God, the two three big yes/no theological questions on which everyone is forced to choose in regards to any weather pattern, and any relationship between it and human events are: 1) did God create everything? 2) Does he intervene in the affairs of men? (in various and sundry ways, for reasons we may or may not understand), and 3) is He Sovereign? Is He King? I.e., does he control or allow everything that happens? (Another way of stating this is to ask whether He is ever surprised or stymied? I.e., Do ALL things ultimately work together to His purposes?)

    Unless one goes where Thomas Jefferson and other founding fathers unfortunately 'went' (to a 'deistic', non-Trinitarian, Jesus-as-merely-wise-teacher, 'out there somewhere' 'clockmaker' God) then the conclusion is inevitable: we can and ought to be vigilant (and sober-minded, and scriptural) in seeking to see, and see more clearly, HOW He is working, not whether. :) (pun intentional)]

  4. When I watch the progress of the storm it looks like it takes the shape of a line of horsemen galloping in a charge. (I know, I see things other than what is obvious). It really accelerates and gains real formation as it progresses.

    [ART: I was about to write that we've seen horse #1 (Christ-impostor takes power; Rev 6:2) and that red (war) is next, but then I didn't... until I looked at Drudge re. the Iranian show-of-force and US response. Recalling this post from last November ('Red Horse; Red House'). Hold yer hats, folks...]

  5. Psalms 144 through 150 were the first readings of President G. Washington and the full Congress in St. Paul’s Chapel on April 30 1789 as they covenanted the new nation to Yahweh & His Christ. All worshipped, praised, prayed, and fasted throughout the entire day as the entire government of the United States of America pledged itself to the God of Israel. They culminated the Psalms by reading Psalms 149, wherein the people bound their kings and princes…….

    “We will be governed by God or ruled by tryants.”

    [ART: Wow. If I knew that, I'd thoroughly forgotten it. Praise our God for giving us the abundant blessings of a good start. May he have mercy and grant repentance to at least a few more, however unlikely they may seem to our mortal and imperfect eyes.]

  6. I somehow can’t find the link but there was an American Beech tree that was plainly visible from the Supreme court steps that was damaged by this storm. I believe it was a sign outside the Supreme court.

  7. The Hand of God.

  8. Great post. I have been following your posts for quite some time and I find them to be “inspired.” I am truly encouraged by your insights and the way the Lord is using you to communicate the truth of His Word in light of what is taking place in the world. I find that in the mainstream church, of which I am a part, we disconnect theology from present reality. What I mean by that is we have a Christian church that has a very deistic view of God. Contrary to popular belief, God still interacts with creation. He is still sovereign over all the events of this earth, and the beauty of it all is there is great purpose behind even the worst of disasters.

    God is calling His people from the four corners of the earth, the scattered sheep of the House of Israel and anyone who would return with them, to come back to the Father. Jesus came to seek and save the lost sheep of the House of Israel. He is making the two sticks into one (Ezekiel 37), the house of Judah and the house of Ephraim or Israel. He is creating one new man in place of the 2 as Ephesians 2 describes.

    I pray that the judgments that are coming upon the U.S would turn many souls back to God and that in the midst of it, we might learn who we really are as His people.

    We lack power in Christ because we have been severed from our roots.

    Art, I pray that you would continue to be a watchmen who sounds the trumpet as you do in this post.

    It is difficult to communicate the grace of God that is at the very heart of Gods judgment, and I find that you do this very well, without sacrificing his holiness, justice, or sovereign nature as so many do. Continue to preach the “full counsel of God” and it will go well with you.

    Thank you for your faithfulness to serve our Lord.

    (You can read my own post on the recent DC events here.)

    [ART: I'm in the process of discovering how important it is to connect the two (for God is living and active, as you say) but also the need to be discerning about how. (The simple idea that God 'whacks' people when they do bad things is much more complicated in practice, as Job draws out in that book.) The ultimate "watchman" role is not "out there" but "in here"... in each of our hearts... being vigilant about sin and diligent about repentance. The outside stuff is just confirmation of how late the hour is and how some just will not hear no matter what.]


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