Week of March 5

No Surprise 
by Skip Heitzig

You may have seen it on the news. Some months back, an asteroid 70 to 150 feet in diameter passed by the earth, only about 43,000 miles away. In astronomical terms, 43,000 miles is really close. After all, it's five times that far to the moon, and satellites in stationary orbit cruise at 22,000 miles out. So it was a near-miss. And if you think the asteroid was pretty small, consider this: In 1908, an asteroid that size hit an unpopulated area of Siberia, devastating about 800 square miles.

Or maybe you didn't hear about it.  The asteroid was already long past the earth by the time some news reports mentioned it.  It was only visible to astronomers in Australia and the Far East. And they knew it wouldn't hit the earth within an hour after they first saw it.

Much greater disasters are coming than this asteroid might have caused. Revelation chapter 8 speaks about "something like a great mountain burning with fire" destroying a third of the sea life and a third of the ships (v. 8). What is this thing falling from the sky?  An asteroid?  It might be.

But since this is part of God's judgment on the earth, I suspect people will know well beforehand that it's coming. I imagine the earth will be able to see it, with the sophisticated instruments we have, and they'll be able to track it. It'll be no surprise. And it'll be frontline news every night of the week, with the speculation, "Will it hit the earth or not?"

The ecological disaster it will cause will be profound. If those who worship the earth think we've done a lot of damage to the planet, just wait until they see what God does to it! And just when they think they have a handle on what's happening on the earth, they'll have to look skyward, because this is just one of the seven "trumpet judgments" in Revelation 8-11. I imagine there will be pandemonium all over the earth.

But my point in mentioning all this is to remind you of something. Anything that happens in the world, or to us personally, should point us toward God and His Word.  Revelation was written for people on the earth to wake up and give their lives to Jesus Christ. He is the center of this entire Bible.  He's the hope of it.

God has given mankind the time and the space to change.  He is calling all to turn from death to life. If you haven't yet made that decision, I invite you do it now.  God says, "Turn ye, turn ye…for why would ye die?" (Ezekiel 33:11).

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