Recently, my co-workers were discussing the recent hurricanes and the particularly cool and wet summer and snowy past winter in the northeast. As of August 31, 2004 we've had 8 hurricanes. Usually, we have 8 hurricanes by October 31, 2004. One co-worker asked if God is trying to tell us something through the storms? What do you think?

-- Anonymous, September 08, 2004

Answers

Sister Brooks,

I have been totally convinced of it. "My Lord, he calls me, He calls me by the thunder."

On Monday I said to a friend look at the way these storms are traveling, look at where the brunt of them is felt and look at the year and the timing of it.

It is quite unusual that these storms, which are largely oceanic and coastal, would travel six to eight hundred miles on land and then cross over from the Atlantic to the Gulf, then roar back across the land again.

Our people once sang, "God Rode in a Windstorm, And He Troubled Everybody's Mind." Or the one in the Color Purple, "God Is Trying To Tell You Something".

My Bible says, "Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap." God is not only speaking loud and clear but the Law of Retribution is now at work. Again drawing from the songs of our people, "You May Run, But You Sho Can't Hide". For "He see all you do and He hears all you say, My God is writing all the time".

One of the clear messages God is sending us is "I see you". He that has ears to hear, let him hear!

-- Anonymous, September 08, 2004

I think these Hurricanes are a punishment for Hurricane "Chad" in 2000.

Let's pray that ALL of the votes are counted this election.

By the way, I'm just kidding....Don't send me hate mail. I have friends in Florida who just moved there.......

-- Anonymous, September 08, 2004

There is yet another message in the storm which I simply cannot let pass without saying here. For two days in Atlanta, the skies were black, the rains were torrential, and the wind was fierce. Twenty- nine Public Schools were closed because of insufficient electrical power to open them—a blessing for kids who, following the last holiday of summer, got an extremely long an unexpected weekend.

Not only for the kids but for the rest of us as well there was a blessing in the storm. Atlanta is a city of many trees; one might say urban sprawl in the woods. This is most apparent when you are flying over it. So often we spend a lot of time cutting and tending trees, to see that they don’t spring up in unwanted places, become overbearing or fall on the roof. Among these trees are evergreens, magnolias, pines, occasional cedars and boxwoods. These especially must be tended because in winter they become brittle and fragile from occasional snow and ice storms and fall on the roof. But let me hasten to the point I wish to make here.

Today my trees are neatly pruned, the dead leaves and limbs are on the ground, the evergreen are in excellent shape for ice and snow and my grass which was dry, has been watered and refreshed. Most importantly I did not have to spend a cent or labor for it. God took care of it all through the storm. I only need to rake and pile it on the curb.

Atlanta is also a city, which has summer haze and smog. Today the sky was crystal clear, the pollution and smog has been scoured and washed clean by the rain. As I drove into the city this morning I was greeted by the most beautiful sun I have seen all summer long, as it hastens towards the equator and the autumnal equinox.

The lesson is that there will always be storms in our lives, but God is willing and able to bring us through the storms. Not only is God blessing us while we are passing through the storms; but oh what a glorious morning awaits us when He has brought us through.

-- Anonymous, September 09, 2004

Experience is not what happens to you - it is what you do with what happens to you. You cannot run around everytime a disater happens and bring God into it. You are conversed with His Word and therefore ought to know how to apply what happens to you.

-- Anonymous, September 10, 2004

When I was young and a storm would pass through, my mother would turn off the television, radio, lights and not answer the phone. She would say "Sit still and be quiet while the Lord is doing His work." I always wondered what work He was doing. It is my belief that God causes us to pray to Him during time of trouble and storm. Who else can hold back the wind except for God? And when destruction and devestation occurs He forces us to look to the hills from whence cometh our help, to the Lord God. He forces us to remember who is in charge. My bible tells me the following:

Psalm 83:15: As fire consumes the forest, as the flame sets the mountain ablaze, so do thou pursue them with thy tempest and terrify them with thy hurricane.

Psalm 107:25: For He commanded, and raised the stormy wind, which lifted the waves of the sea.

Psam 107:29: Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble, and He delivered them from their distress; He made the storm be still, and the waves of the sea were hushed.

Psalm 148:8: Fire and hail, snow and frost, stormy wind fulfilling His command.

Isaiah 29:6: You will be visited by the Lord of hosts with thunder and with earthquake and great noise, with whirlwind and tempest and the flame of a devouring fire.

Nahum 1:2 and 3: The Lord is a jealous God and avenging, the Lord is avenging and wrathful; the Lord is slow to anger and a great might, and the Lord will by no means clear the guilty. His way is in the whirlwind and the storm, and the clouds are the dust of His feet.

-- Anonymous, September 10, 2004

St. Paul was right when he said "All things (including storms) work together for good for those who love the Lord and are called according to His purposes."

-- Anonymous, September 10, 2004