I can’t remember when I first herd the song “Riding the Storm Out” by REO Speedwagon, but it stuck with me. The siren guitar lick that opens the song and the lyrics “riding the storm out” just hooked me.
If you’ve ever been in a situation where the external pressure upon your life was so great that you had to hunker down behind the walls of a bunker… you just might know what they were singing about. Oh it may not be a bunker of steel and reinforced concrete, but nonetheless it’s a place where you’re looking out into the unknown reverberations of a catastrophic event, wondering if and when the fall-out will ever end.
I remember when I was a kid coming across a can of C-rations or something very similar. It was an olive green metal can of crackers. Maybe something soldiers might have eaten while in a fox hole somewhere or the rations that would have been stockpiled in a bomb or fall-out shelter during the fearful days of the cold-war, but I remember thinking it was kind of weird; crackers in a can.
Anyway, what I really want to write about is the idea of a fall-out shelter. That’s right, a fall-out shelter. A place where one is protected from the residual effects of a nuclear blast so devastating that without it, one could not survive.
Some generation will be on this planet when nuclear war breaks out. Some generation will be on this planet when Jesus Christ the Son of God returns. But the question is; who really knows what generation that will be? I actually believe they’re alive right now.
As it appears, my generation and the ones that follow tend to be more enamored with their newest iphone or their next tattoo then they are with the future. It seems that few today think little beyond Friday (forgive me all you iphone users and friends with tattoos).
The Bible clearly tells us in Hebrews 12:25-29 about a time that is unfolding before our very eyes. It is a time when everything on the earth and in heaven will be shifted and shaken off their once thought firm foundations. It is a time when no manmade fall-out shelter or bomb-shelter will provide protection or security. It is a time when C-rations will seem like gourmet food for those behind the blast shield.
Don’t miss what I’m saying. I’m not simply talking about limited nuclear war (albeit that could be in the mix), but what I’m talking about is all the moorings you once thought were secure will soon be insecure. They will soon be worthless to tie up to during the impending fall-out storm that IS COMING.
In the book of Romans, chapters 1-3, we find God’s wrath being unleashed upon mankind. Paul’s not talking about the judgments of the Revelation, but something far worse, but often unnoticed and benign to the ones caught in the crossfire. He’s referring to times and seasons when mankind refuses to live IN TRUTH and BY TRUTH and thereby forfeits God’s grace and in turn receives God’s wrath upon themselves. In this case the wrath of God is man left to his own designs, believing lies to be true and seeking to live without God’s grace and truth.
My friends that day is upon us. The Old Testament and the New Testament both tell of incidents where people rejected God’s grace and truth, resulting in their own unnecessary demise.
Let me state unequivocally that any manmade fall-out shelter designed to give you aide and comfort following a catastrophic event will fail in its design and intention. Understand I’m not talking about steel and reinforced concrete; I’m talking about fall-out shelters for the soul. I’m talking about manmade coping mechanisms and steps that once hitherto got humanity by, but very soon will be worthless to those seeking solace.
For not only will the physical world be in upheaval, but worse, the emotional and spiritual realms will be rent asunder. And why? Because God IS right. We cannot make it without Him.
But, because He loves us so much He gave us the free will to choose His way or ours. Unfortunately the masses have historically chosen their way. Ergo the wrath we’re beginning to experience; life without grace and truth.
All too often in our modern convoluted Christian age, we’ve been plied with a cheap and easy grace as the most popular pitch point of the sale. All the while ignoring or omitting the other corresponding side of God and Kingdom Life – namely TRUTH.
If you believe you can make it by simply “Riding the Storm Out”… you have another thing coming. No comfort or solace will be found from the storm that is on the horizon, except the shelter of truth from the Most High God.
Get ready… I think I hear the sirens.
