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Themes: "Salvation, Certainty of Judgement JD "Please seek shelter immediately. Hurricane Andrew should hit Florida early tomorrow morning. There will be heavy rains and winds of 150 miles per hour."
Geneva Wilson swallowed hard as the announcer's voice rambled on. She looked around at the 15 family members sitting in her house. Two year old jacinth, played on the floor oblivious to the warnings. Her husband slid out of his rocking chair and opened the front door to look up at the sky.
"It's hard to believe a hurricane is coming. You can see the stars and there is just a slight breeze," he exclaimed.
People don't believe that God will bring His judgment on their sin either. They ignore the warnings of God's Word (Amos 4:12).
The family had prepared for the storm by filling bottles of water, putting things away, and by lining mattresses on the floor so the family could be together.
"Well, since andrew isn't to coming until morning, we should all try and get some sleep." Geneva addressed the Wilson clan.
As Geneva lay in the back bedroom, she dozed occasionally. Her stomach churned and rolled as she tried to keep calm. She thought over the announcer's words describing the destruction and death the hurricane caused in the Bahamas the day before.
At 3:00am. everyone awoke. The winds had increased steadily and it had begun to rain. Trees bent to the limit and the rain became severe. The family decided to go into Geneva's bedroom which only had one window. Outside, branches tumbled by. The winds began to roar like a jet at full throttle. Suddenly, there was a loud pop and the lights went out. The family huddled in the darkness. Some prayed quietly while some held hands.
Sometime near 3:30am a front porch window shattered. The Wilsons looked out the window at the car in the driveway. It rocked like a boat on a stormy sea. Horrified, they watched as the wind rocked it and flipped it over.
They decided they couldn't watch anymore. Three of the men propped a mattress up against the window. Silently, they listened as one by one the wind smashed the windows in the house. They leaned against the mattress as the window blew out in their little hideout. The winds and rain pounded against the house. Outside, shingles and siding peeled off houses like apple skins and hurtled through the air. The family tool shed lifted off the footings, whizzed by the bedroom window and crash landed in a tree. The men continued to hold the mattress as the wind, rain, hunks of metal, and full trees slammed against it. For two hours the family crouched together. The difference between life and death was the eight inch thick mattress covering the window opening.
Finally, after several hours of horrendous rain and winds gusting up to 164 miles per hour, they opened the bedroom door. Several inches of rain water lay in the living room. The furniture was over turned and torn. It seemed like someone had lifted the house and shook it. When they looked outside the bedroom window, they realized they could have died. The mattress in the window had saved them. None of the Wilson family felt the storm. The mattress absorbed the rain, felt the wind, and endured the pelting of metal and wood against the house.
There is a storm that makes Hurricane Andrew seem like a summer breeze. You and I need to be saved from the storm of God's judgement for sin. Jesus described the one way of salvation. He said, "I am the way." He is the way because on the cross, he endured the judgement of God for sin. As the Bible says, "Christ also hath once suffered for sins." We can be saved from the judgment by christ alone.
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