"Mr Mike, I want to ask you something. How do you think we can prevent this problem of tornadoes? If you don't have an answer, I do."

"Okay, my friend, what is your answer?"

"Americans need to build houses smaller and closer to the ground. There needs to be big storm shelters underground for every neighborhood. That will save lives."

"The storm shelters might be a good idea, but with 314 miles per hour winds, I don't think any house will stand up against that kind of blasting. These tornadoes were so close to the ground that they uprooted grass. They twisted and broke off trees as if they were match sticks. With 5,000 plus houses being destroyed, several apartment buildings and at least two schools being hit hard, I think the number of 43 dead is phenomenal. Now you asked me `How to prevent these tornadoes from occurring?' and I really don't think your answer tells us how to prevent these storms."

"Oh, no human being can stop these tornadoes, but we need to be better prepared for them when they come."

As I listened to the two men talking, I pondered the question: How can we prevent tornadoes? Does any human being have the power to stop tornadoes or to tell them where to go? American insurance companies label tornadoes, floods, earthquakes and hurricanes as "acts of God."

Our Lord God JEHOVAH has power in His voice to speak all things into existence. (Genesis 1.) He will send the rain when He pleases (Matthew 5:45) and He can calm the stormy winds with His voice. (Mark 4:41.) He is omnipotent, with the universe under His control. (Psalm 107.) If He had wanted to, He could have stopped those tornadoes from hitting central Oklahoma. Surely there were hundreds of prayers pleading with Him to hold back those strong, damaging winds. Why did He not prevent the storm? Was it an act of punishment? Did He not like those people?

God has been asked questions like these a multitude of times. Some four thousand years ago Job questioned the Lord when he was tried and tested. He wrote in Job 14:1-2: "Man that is born of a woman is of few days, and full of trouble. He cometh forth like a flower, and is cut down: he fleeth also as a shadow, and continueth not." Surely Job had plenty of reason to doubt the Lord's wisdom in taking everything from him, including health. However, Job kept his integrity with the Lord and "in all this did not Job sin with his lips." (Job 2:3,10.) In the end he was blessed with a double abundance of what he previously owned.

Job`s faith in God brought him through the negative counsel and insults his three friends poured upon him. They told Job he must have sinned and greatly displeased God. Job admitted his weakness and insignificance, but He trusted in God stating: "I know that thou canst do every thing, and that no thought can be withholden from thee." (Job 42:2.) Unwavering faith in God's power and wisdom was a shelter to Job during his trial. He understood that he was a man born into troubles and the best way to survive them was to cling to the Lord.

Every human being inherited sin and troubles from Adam and Eve when they willingly disobeyed the Lord. (Genesis 3; Romans 5:12-21; I Corinthians 15:22-49.) In the beginning God made a paradise of peace and rest for man and woman. He did not bring problems to man---the man and woman chose the way of sorrow when they wanted to be wise like God and therefore ate of the fruit.

Though the plan of salvation makes a way for us to live at peace with God, it does not guarantee any person a carefree life of ease. Never give a sinner the false hope that "if you will just get saved, God will solve all your troubles." There is no scripture that will give this promise, but there are many that assure the Christian:

"And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose." Romans 8:28.

"There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it." I Corinthians 10:13.

"...For he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee." (Hebrews 13:5) Scriptures of promise give the Christian faith to trust the Lord no matter what happens.

FAITH AND TRUST IN GOD ARE SHELTERS AGAINST THE STORMS OF LIFE

David was a man highly esteemed of the Lord. (I Samuel 13:14) As a shepherd boy he was anointed to be the king over Israel some day. Through several events in his life, David became a fugitive in his own country---the country he was supposed to reign over. All during the time that he fled from King Saul, David remembered that he had been anointed to reign over Israel, and he wrote, "Oh let the wickedness of the wicked come to an end; but establish the just; for the righteous God trieth the hearts and reins. My defense is of God, which saveth the upright in heart." (Psalm 7:9-10) At least two times, King Saul was at David's mercy, (I Samuel 23, 26) but David spared the Lord's anointed. He was respecting the office of the King, knowing that some day he would be in that office. He had a hope that brought him through the adversities of his life. Within his soul he knew that these storms of danger and fleeing would pass away and better days were ahead.

I'm reminded of a song of "Hope"---This song is packed with promises of hope, covering at least fourteen scriptures that assure us: "Hope has brought us thro' the dangers and temptations of the past, And we fear not those to come, By her blessings we'll go forward, while our mortal life shall last, Then we'll joyously go home."

Every problem, trial, sickness, sorrow, heartache, disappointment, persecution, etc. will pass away. If we do not reap the rewards of patience and hope here on earth, then we will be rewarded in our heavenly home. Our earthly life will always have storms, so it is best to accept them when they come, but we can have our anchor so steadfast in the hope of eternal life that we won't let go of faith and trust in God. (Hebrews 6:19.) We do have promises of serene peace and blissful joy in heaven and that is a Christian's final home.

HOPE IS A SHELTER THROUGH THE STORMS OF LIFE

The apostle Paul knew what suffering and trials were all about. In 2 Corinthians 11:24-28 he summarized his walk with the Lord: "Of the Jews five times received I forty stripes save one. Thrice was I beaten with rods, once was I stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck, a night and a day I have been in the deep; In journeyings often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils by mine own countrymen, in perils by the heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren; In weariness and painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness. Besides those things that are without, that which cometh upon me daily, the care of all the churches."

Quite a long list of woes. Before he was a Christian, the apostle Paul probably enjoyed the best of that era. He was a Jewish Pharisee---wealthy enough to be counted a Roman citizen. (Acts 22:25; 23:6) Yet he counted all his past but "dung that I may win Christ." (Philippians 3:8) The apostle Paul had met Jesus Christ on the road to Damascus and he was never the same man. He learned to respect and love Jesus Christ so much, that nothing could destroy his love.

Any one of his troubles could have shaken the apostle Paul from his hold on the Lord. He didn't think all these things had come his way because God was angry with him. Instead, he knew that "For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth." (Hebrews 12:6) The apostle Paul took refuge in the love of His Father.

In Romans 8:35, he says, "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us." He continued to say that nothing would separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

THE LOVE OF GOD IS A SHELTER IN THE STORMS OF LIFE

Every person from babyhood onward will have storms to bombard his life. It isn't so important how hard the winds blow as it is who survives the storm, let's be encouraged to press onward.

We humans will never understand the perplexities that entangle our lives with suspense and trauma. We weren't created to understand everything. We are made to have faith and trust in a loving God who has promised to reward us with eternal life.

We hope you're abiding in the storm shelters He has made for us. [ The End ]