Will Katrina brings us to our knees...and keep us there?

I have no tears left to shed. The heartbreak that so many have experienced witnessing the devastation of Hurricane Katrina is overwhelming. The continuous stream of news coverage showing mothers with their children, fathers leading families, elderly being assisted to high ground, makes ones sense dull with a sense of awe and disbelief.

The staggering accounts of survivors telling stories of the rape and plundering; the carnage that is the result of the depravity of man, overtake our imaginations to the extreme.

Then there are the stories of neighbor helping neighbor, entire cities adopting families and communities, families taking in families. Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour said it best when he said that we would see the best of many the worst of some. The accounts of goodness far outweigh the stories of evil individuals. Governments, churches even nations have stepped forward to aid the evacuees.

The city of Houston, Texas was one of the first to take over 15,000 people and house them at the Astrodome. There is story after story of the wonderful efforts to rush to the aid of those effected by this terrible catastrophe. I believe we will continue to see many more come forward and offer time, resources and hope to help those less fortunate.

With that said, let me tell you that I am greatly concerned, that even though we are seeing many more acts of human kindness as this situation continues to unfold, with both the hopeless and the hopeful. I fear we are overlooking some facts in this sad and tragic situation.

I have been asked if this hurricane is from God, if this is His judgment upon us. I have thought about it and I must say that I don’t know for sure. But what I do know is that when a society turns its back on the Lord, trying to remove Him from every vestige of our being, and flaunt our sin and selfish disobedience in His face, we take ourselves out of the provision and the protection of the Almighty.

Let’s face it; New Orleans was in many ways a cesspool of sin. The promotion, acceptance and encouragement of sinful activities such as pornography, drunkenness, Satan worship, gambling and the like, was that cultures act of defying God and flaunting its sin in His face. With all this, we have the nerve to ask Him to bless us, and only when tragedy strikes. What a wicked and perverse generation this is.

Yes there was and is a lot of good people in that area; a lot of God’s people who were working in ministry to proclaim the Gospel. But sadly, they were cast in the shadow of a culture that was steeped in hedonism and sin. Many will disagree and scream that New Orleans was a wonderful city with tremendous historical and cultural significance. That is a given. I have been to New Orleans several times and my heart is moved for the condition that it is in. But every time I have been there, I have sensed the oppression that hangs over that city.

As I watch the mother wading through chest-high water with a little child in her arms, my thoughts do not linger on the thought of whether that child was born out of wedlock or not, but with burning in my spirit that Christ loves that mother and died that she may live in Him. But now more than ever, we cannot and must not leave that mother or anyone else, with no sense, or a false sense, or their spiritual condition.

One look at the news films of the region hit by this devastation should give us an insight into how Satan acts. He seeks to kill, steal and destroy. He sold the coast a bill of goods into thinking that the gambling, the sex, the booze, the drugs was the great thing to do. Now that he has wring them out of everything he could, he casts them off like we would throw away a used tissue, like garbage. Just as New Orleans and the gulf coast is a disaster area, so will Satan leave lives as a virtual wasteland.

Will the region be rebuilt? I can only think that the answer to that is yes. How can it not be rebuilt?

But let me throw this out for your consideration. Will the casinos, the bars, the porn shops, the gay bars, the bathhouses, the brothels and all the other dens of evil be rebuilt as well? Probably. Will New Orleans continue to offer up worship to pagan deities through the occultic practice called Mardi Gras? Probably. As much as I hate to admit it, I think that all of these things will come to pass. But how sad it is that so many cannot see that it their sin that has placed them at the whims of the enemy, and these activities are indicative of this disobedience that has, and will, lead anyone away from the salvation that only Christ can give.

Now is the time for the church to step up to the plate and not only provide for the bodily needs, but address the most important need that those ravaged by Hurricane Katrina and everyone has, and that we are sinners in need of the Savior. We must consistently, boldly and accurately proclaim the Gospel message.

I was so saddened to listen to another interview with Rick Warren, founder of the Purpose Driven Life church growth movement, in which he spent three minutes on FOX News Channel talking about the spiritual needs of the hurricane victims. Sadly I was not surprised to hear that he did not once mention the Lord Jesus Christ. He talked a lot about relationships and how hundreds of purpose driven churches will be reaching out to victims of the storm, but not once would he dare speak the Name above all names. God help us if this “other gospel” takes hold now, to a people who are so vulnerable. We cannot allow this happen.

Now is the time to take the true Gospel to the victims of this tragedy and to the world. Now is the time to take the message that to follow Christ is deny oneself, take up our cross daily and follow Him. Now is the time to do as the prophet Hosea proclaimed,

“Sow to yourselves in righteousness, reap in mercy; break up your fallow ground; for it is time to seek the Lord, till He comes and rain righteousness upon you.”

God help us and let us turn to Him while we can.