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NOTE: This article or series has not been updated recently. As such, it may possibly contain some outdated information, and/or ideas and beliefs which I no longer embrace, or which have changed to some degree.



As I concluded in part three, following a natural disaster,
the best time to reach people with the truth is while they
are still suffering, and while their hearts are still soft
and sensitive to hearing what God may have to tell them. In
other words, before they have an opportunity to harden their
hearts again. You can comfort them, as we are instructed to
do in God's Word; and you can minister to them physically if
you have the means to do so; but if the Lord has given you
something regarding why the disaster occurred, or why they
were a victim of it, then you're obligated to share that with
them as well. If you procrastinate and fail to do this, that
wall of pride will eventually envelop their heart once again;
self-delusion and self-justification will come in and take a
front row seat; and you may never have another opportunity to
reach them with the truth again.

Some people will even go so far as to become angry with God,
and will bitterly accuse Him by saying "Why me God? What did
I do to deserve this?". If you personally feel this way, then
I encourage you to read such articles as "Beholding The Evil
And The Good" and "Are Personal Tragedies Due To Sin?". One
other related article is "Why Doesn't God Heal Me?". If there
is one thing that I can share with you, it is that it is not
wise to question or criticize the Lord and His doings. No
matter how angry you may feel, there is no way on Earth that
your personal righteousness can exceed that of the Lord. If
you have experienced a natural disaster, and have suffered
some great personal loss as a result of it, you need to suck
it up, and seek answers from the Lord in a humble spirit. As
we read in the Scriptures:

"Moreover the LORD answered Job, and said, Shall he that
contendeth with the Almighty instruct him? he that reproveth
God, let him answer it. Then Job answered the LORD, and
said, Behold, I am vile; what shall I answer thee? I will
lay mine hand upon my mouth. Once have I spoken; but I will
not answer: yea, twice; but I will proceed no further. Then
answered the LORD unto Job out of the whirlwind, and said,
Gird up thy loins now like a man: I will demand of thee, and
declare thou unto me. Wilt thou also disannul my judgment?
wilt thou condemn me, that thou mayest be righteous?"
Job 40:1-8, KJV

"Be not rash with thy mouth, and let not thine heart be
hasty to utter any thing before God: for God is in heaven,
and thou upon earth: therefore let thy words be few."
Ecclesiastes 5:2, KJV

"Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God?
Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast
thou made me thus?"
Romans 9:20, KJV

Hurricane Katrina was indeed a real tragedy, and I truly feel
sorry for those people who have suffered in a variety of ways;
either through losing their loved ones, or through the loss of
some of their physical possessions, or in other ways. For your
information, I'm more than aware of what it is like to have to
endure such powerful tropical storms. I have endured them as
well for not quite twenty-five years. While I've never lost a
loved one to such storms, I have lost physical possessions; I
have endured electrical power outages for up to a month, and
I have endured water outages for days or weeks at a time as
well. And then of course there is the tropical heat, as well
as the swarms of hungry mosquitoes which attack you while you
are waiting for your windows to be repaired. On one occasion,
I had to wait for five months before my two bedroom windows
could be replaced due to a severe shortage of glass.

While Hurricane Katrina was indeed a tragedy from a human
perspective, and is how most people will view it, as I have
been demonstrating all along, as Christians, we must train
ourselves to see things with the eyes of the Spirit. We need
to stop seeing these events as the world sees them, and begin
to view them as God views them. In the case of Katrina -- or
any other natural disaster for that matter -- it seems to me
that the real tragedy isn't the disaster itself, but rather
the fact that the Lord had to allow it to happen in the first
place. The real tragedy is that some people can place so much
distance between themselves and the Lord, and fall into such
deep rebellion and sin, that God sees no other way to wake
them up, than by allowing these natural disasters to occur.
Isn't that precisely why the Genesis Flood occurred? If you
doubt my word, consider these interesting verses:

"And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the
earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his
heart was only evil continually. And it repented the LORD
that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his
heart. And the LORD said, I will destroy man whom I have
created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and
the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it
repenteth me that I have made them. But Noah found grace in
the eyes of the LORD. These are the generations of Noah: Noah
was a just man and perfect in his generations, and Noah
walked with God. And Noah begat three sons, Shem, Ham, and
Japheth. The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth
was filled with violence. And God looked upon the earth, and,
behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way
upon the earth. And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh
is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence
through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the
earth."
Genesis 6:5-13, KJV

As this series has demonstrated, we see these types of things
happening again and again in the Scriptures with the ancient
Israelites; maybe not a great flood, but persecution by, and
wars with their bitter enemies, as well as droughts and crop
failures, famines, disease, earthquakes, foreign enslavement,
etc. To our shame, the Scriptures inform us that the world is
going to witness and experience those very same things once
again -- and even worse -- for the very same reasons; that
is, due to the current apostasy that is overtaking the world.
As Jesus Himself noted in Matthew chapter twenty-four:

"For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against
kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and
earthquakes, in divers places. All these are the beginning
of sorrows."
Matthew 24:7-8, KJV

For a more in-depth understanding of how the previous verses
are even now being fulfilled, please refer to the fourteen
part series, "The Beginning Of Sorrows".

Please stop and consider what those verses are saying. I am
not referring to the fact that Jesus is prophesying of an
increased level of wars, famines, pestilences and earthquakes
occurring in the Last Days prior to His glorious Return. I am
referring to the fact that the Lord was able to make such an
amazing prophecy at all. In other words, just the fact that
He and His Father knew that they are going to happen clearly
demonstrates that these Endtime events are the foreordained
and perfect Will of God, and that God must be in control of
them. So again, we see a confirmation that so-called natural
disasters are really the Hand of God at work, or Acts of God,
if you prefer. They're not just the result of so-called Mother
Nature, or Gaia, acting on her own. There is an Intelligence
behind all of them, and that is God!

All of these events -- including the various Plagues that are
described for us in the Book of Revelation -- are going to be
God's Divine Chastisements against a very rebellious and evil
world. As we can learn from the Book of Proverbs, sometimes
it becomes necessary for the Lord to demonstrate tough love
towards His children, by means of an open rebuke, just as we
are sometimes forced to do the same with our own children, as
we see here:

"Open rebuke is better than secret love."
Proverbs 27:5, KJV

So again, while God's Divine Chastisements can sometimes be
difficult for us to endure, let us not lose sight of the fact
that they are a sign of His great love for us. Furthermore,
we need to understand that God does not afflict us willingly,
but that sometimes, through our own pride, stubbornness and
foolish rebellion, we really leave Him with no other choice.
If we fail to take notice of the Lord's gentle warnings to
straighten ourselves out and get our lives and hearts right
with Him, then He will lower the rod of correction in a very
big way. I would posit that Hurricane Katrina was a very big
way. Furthermore, His desire is not that we should grow weak,
become discouraged and fall away from the faith when He deals
firmly with us, but rather that we should repent of our sins,
and allow ourselves to be cleansed by His Word, and renewed
in spirit, as we see by the following verses:

"For the Lord will not cast off for ever: But though he cause
grief, yet will he have compassion according to the multitude
of his mercies. For he doth not afflict willingly nor grieve
the children of men . . . Wherefore doth a living man complain,
a man for the punishment of his sins? Let us search and try
our ways, and turn again to the LORD. Let us lift up our
heart with our hands unto God in the heavens."
Lamentations 3:31-33, 39-41, KJV

"And ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you
as unto children, My son, despise not thou the chastening of
the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him: For whom the
Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he
receiveth. If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as
with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not?
But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers,
then are ye bastards, and not sons. Furthermore we have had
fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them
reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the
Father of spirits, and live? For they verily for a few days
chastened us after their own pleasure; but he for our profit,
that we might be partakers of his holiness. Now no chastening
for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous:
nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of
righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby. Wherefore
lift up the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees; And
make straight paths for your feet, lest that which is lame be
turned out of the way; but let it rather be healed."
Hebrews 12:5-13, KJV

"The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men
count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing
that any should perish, but that all should come to
repentance."
2 Peter 3:9, KJV

"Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit
within me."
Psalm 51:10, KJV

So you see, while so-called natural disasters can result in
a lot of destruction and death, at the same time, if we truly
understand the ways of the Lord, and if we are really honest
with ourselves, then we will also realize that we must have
truly had it coming to us, or else God would not have been
forced to apply His rod of correction. In short, we get what
we honestly deserve, and God's judgments are always righteous
judgments.

While I have chosen to use Hurricane Katrina as an example
in this series, it is important that you understand that the
form that the chastisement takes is not the emphasis of this
series. Whether God chooses to use a hurricane, or a flood,
or an earthquake, or a drought, or a typhoon, or a disease,
or a fire, or if He permits foreign invasion, or uses some
other form of chastisement, the most important thing is that
we recognize His hand working in our lives and that we don't
fall under the worldly deception that accepts that "certain
things just happen". Nothing just happens, and there are no
coincidences with God.

It is my personal belief that all things happen according to
His Divine Purpose and Will. The Lord either directly causes
certain events to happen, or at the very least, He lets them
happen, for reasons that are known to Him. As we saw earlier
in this series, sometimes God will even use Satan and/or his
demons as executioners of His Divine Will. After all, as the
Apostle Paul informs us, that Demon of Darkness is the false
god of this world. Concerning the mysteries of God's ways,
we are told in the Scriptures:

"For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your
ways my ways, saith the LORD. For as the heavens are higher
than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my
thoughts than your thoughts."
Isaiah 55:8-9, KJV

"Which doeth great things past finding out; yea, and wonders
without number."
Job 9:10, KJV

"O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge
of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways
past finding out!"
Romans 11:33, KJV

Are you personally going through a difficult time in your life
right now? Do you feel a lot of anger building up inside? If
so, before you point a finger at God in an accusatory fashion
and yell "Why me, God? What did I do to deserve this?", please
take some time to honestly examine your own heart and life. If
you do, perhaps God will show you what is displeasing to Him.
And remember; God does not afflict us willingly. It is we who
ask for His chastisements when we step out of line. If you are
interested in learning more about this topic, then I again
encourage you to consider reading such articles and series as
"Are Personal Tragedies Due To Sin?", "Beholding The Evil And
The Good" and "The Fruits Of Disobedience".

As I explained in part three, it is probable that different
people will react in different ways to the contents of this
series. Those of you who come from a Bible-based background,
and who believe in the Divine Inspiration of the Scriptures,
will probably embrace the truths that I have shared here. On
the other hand, some nominal Christians, and other people who
reject the Bible as God's inspired Word, will probably take
offense to this series, and will accuse me of being callous,
uncaring and judgmental. Then, of course, there will be the
typical minority of atheists who will write me off as being
just another wacko Christian fundamentalist and extremist.
Concerning this latter group, all I have to say is this:

"But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit
of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he
know them, because they are spiritually discerned."
1 Corinthians 2:14, KJV

In short, people who lack the anointing of God's Spirit in
their lives simply cannot understand the ways of God, or the
Word of God. Such things are totally foreign and alien to
their minds. The Apostle Paul tells us that it is because
their minds and hearts have been spiritually blinded and
darkened, and they are past feeling the conviction of God's
Spirit in their lives. On the other hand, Paul also tells us
that we who have been born again in the Spirit have the mind
of Christ, as we see by these verses:

"Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as
God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their
imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened."
Romans 1:21, KJV

"Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the
life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because
of the blindness of their heart: Who being past feeling have
given themselves over unto lasciviousness, to work all
uncleanness with greediness."
Ephesians 4:18-19, KJV

"For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may
instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ."
1 Corinthians 2:16, KJV

You will recall that Jesus said the very same things about
the religious leaders of His day; that is, the Scribes and
the Pharisees. He said that they were the blind leading the
blind, and that is why certain of His teachings were hidden
from them -- in parables -- as we see here:

"Let them alone: they be blind leaders of the blind. And if
the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch."
Matthew 15:14, KJV

"And the disciples came, and said unto him, Why speakest
thou unto them in parables? He answered and said unto them,
Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the
kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given. For
whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have
more abundance: but whosoever hath not, from him shall be
taken away even that he hath. Therefore speak I to them in
parables: because they seeing see not; and hearing they hear
not, neither do they understand. And in them is fulfilled
the prophecy of Esaias, which saith, By hearing ye shall
hear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye shall see, and
shall not perceive: For this people's heart is waxed gross,
and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have
closed; lest at any time they should see with their eyes,
and hear with their ears, and should understand with their
heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them. But
blessed are your eyes, for they see: and your ears, for they
hear."
Matthew 13:10-16, KJV

Sadly, the same holds true today. There are many people who
simply will not understand this series, and who will in fact
be shocked by it, offended by it, and angered by it, because
they don't have an inkling regarding how God operates, or why
He does the things that He does. Based on what I have shared
in this series, I suspect that there will also be some people
who will accuse God of being some kind of monster, because He
doesn't prevent some of the natural disasters from occurring.
As I explained earlier, about the only thing that I can say
concerning such people is that they lack wisdom and are utter
fools for daring to criticize and judge God. What is clearly
lacking in their lives is a healthy fear of the Lord; for as
it is also written:

"And unto man he said, Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is
wisdom; and to depart from evil is understanding."
Job 28:28, KJV

"The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom: a good
understanding have all they that do his commandments: his
praise endureth for ever."
Psalm 111:10, KJV

"The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge: but
fools despise wisdom and instruction."
Proverbs 1:7

"The fear of the LORD is to hate evil: pride, and arrogancy,
and the evil way, and the froward mouth, do I hate."
Proverbs 8:13, KJV

"The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom: and the
knowledge of the holy is understanding."
Proverbs 9:10, KJV

"The fear of the LORD prolongeth days: but the years of the
wicked shall be shortened."
Proverbs 10:27, KJV

"The fear of the LORD is a fountain of life, to depart from
the snares of death."
Proverbs 14:27, KJV

"The fear of the LORD is the instruction of wisdom; and
before honour is humility."
Proverbs 15:33, KJV

"By mercy and truth iniquity is purged: and by the fear of
the LORD men depart from evil."
Proverbs 16:6, KJV

"The fear of the LORD tendeth to life: and he that hath it
shall abide satisfied; he shall not be visited with evil."
Proverbs 19:23, KJV

"By humility and the fear of the LORD are riches, and
honour, and life."
Proverbs 22:4, KJV

As difficult as this series may have been for some of you to
read, nevertheless, I pray that it's been a blessing in your
life, and that you have now obtained a better grasp of how
the Lord sometimes tends to operate. When things are looking
down in your life, the very best thing for you to do at that
moment is to look up; for it is there where you may find the
answers that you seek.

With these thoughts, I will bring this article to a close. It is my hope that you have found it informative, enlightening, and I pray that it has been a blessing in your life as well. If you have an account with Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr or with any other social network, I would really appreciate if you'd take the time to click or tap on the corresponding link that is found on this page. Thanks so much, and may God bless you abundantly!

For additional information and further study, you may want to refer to the list of reading resources below which were either mentioned in this article, or which contain topics which are related to this article. All of these articles are likewise located on the Bill's Bible Basics web server. To read these articles, simply click or tap on any link you see below.

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