GOD’S MERCY AND PATIENCE IN NEW ORLEANS

J. Grant Swank, Jr.

Various emails to me ask where God’s mercy in patience was in Katrina.

I have answered that in part in prior posts:

http://www.michnews.com/artman/publish/article_9292.shtml and http://www.out2.com/copyroom/articles.asp?StoryKey=308603 and http://www.out2.com/copyroom/articles.asp?StoryKey=308487 and http://www.michnews.com/artman/publish/article_9281.shtml and http://www.michnews.com/artman/publish/article_9261.shtml.

Before speaking further to the divine mercy in patience, here’s an interesting email I just received with which I totallyagree . It is in response to my post regarding the debauchery planned for this Labor Day weekend when homosexuals were going to descend upon New Orleans for their "Southern Decadence" annual celebration. Of course, my post condemned the event.:

"Amen! It is eerie how this perfect storm hit the city of drunken
springbreak orgyfests and land of voodoo witchcraft. . .while at the same
time dealing a blow to the jugular vein of our energy supply at the very
moment of all-time oil scarcity.

"Not that my sins stink any less in God's nostrils. . .we're all sinners in need of salvation by Jesus Christ.

"But the USA has been begging for this. 9/11 was a wake-up call, but we
went back to business as usual. I pray this shake-up from God's finger
brings some true repentance.

"Drew"

Okay. Now to the divine mercy and patience.

God has such mercy that it is unfathomable. We all have sinned and come short of His glory. We all deserve punishment for breaking the divine statutes. But in His mercy He forgives those who in genuine sorrow for committed sins repent of their waywardness. They thereby receive His grace and love in forgiveness by which such persons, in thanksgiving, live the Christian life.

In other words, such disciples of Christ know full-well that they deserved the eternal damnation Jesus warned of as recorded in the Gospel records. But the Lord’s mercy was extended to their contrite souls upon repentance; therefore, instead of hell they anticipate heaven as well as the abiding daily presence of Christ’s Spirit.

God’s mercy is ever available; but stubborn souls, wanting to live for self and sin, ignore His mercy. Yet He waits and waits again. In His patience He waits, sometimes generation upon generation. But then finally there is a limit to His patience in mercy. When, in his perfect knowledge and wisdom, He concludes that there is no more waiting for the stubbornness of mankind to repent, He acts.

For instance, when Noah’s generation was given the opportunity to turn toward God’s mercy, that society had plenty of time to repent of their waywardness. But they refused to give up their evil; therefore, they went over the line of God’s patience in mercy. He acted with the floodwaters. Only eight righteous mortals were left alive.

When Sodom and Gomorrah were given ample time in which to repent of their homosexual lifestyles, righteous Lot's family being in their midst, that citizenry went over the line of God's patience in mercy. He acted with fire and brimstone.

These are the last days of the Church Age, according to numerous Bible scholars. Therefore, there are to be divine signs set loose by which warnings will attract global attention in the divine’s pursuit of repentant souls. In prophecy these rough times are known as "pestilence." Such pestilence is now with us on every hand. Such is increasing steadily.

Katrina came upon "the just and the unjust." It wiped out a citadel of sin cuddled inside an earthen bowl. How many times had God reached out by mercy in patience to redeem souls in that entire geography, only to have souls rebel? Only God knows.

Then there came the crossing the line of the Lord’s patience in mercy. So we now deal with the aftermath of that divine wrath. Yes, the innocent suffer along with the sinful. That’s the way things are down here. As Jesus said, "The rain falls on the just and the unjust."

Yet as I have written in another post, "What About the Saints in New Orleans?" http://www.out2.com/copyroom/articles.asp?StoryKey=308603, God has a pattern He is working through in the believers’ lives for this existence and the next.

The question now remains: Where else will the Lord strike in order to bring the world community to its senses before His judgment throne? Time will tell.

Stay tuned.