In 1811-1812 powerful earthquakes along the New Madrid, Missouri Fault heaved the earth like children's shovels of dirt. Some of the tremors reached 7.7 in tectonic destruction. The tremors so terrified residents of the lower Mississippi Valley that church attendance boomed. When the tremors quieted and ceased, and danger passed, church attendance bottomed.
Religious leaders sarcastically labelled those people earthquake Christians. Deservedly so. A warning to all of us: believing in God only when trouble comes is like fastening your seat belt at the instant of CRASH! It's like laboring to build a house piece-by-piece-by-hand only to have a tornado rip it apart. GOD is NECESSARY—don't bother putting a time limit on it—PURELY, EVERLASTINGLY NECESSARY. Bless every incident or experience that enlarges our understanding of that FACT. Mourn every one that diminishes it. In the aftermath of San Francisco's 1906 earthquake, survivors found themselves strangely courteous to, patient with and generous in personal relationships. Critics hardened in the city's usual sybaritic lifestyle scornfully called the new behavior Earthquake Love. If true, bring on more earthquakes! Societies absolutely need the benefits God's love provided Israel in the Law of Moses. Even more dramatically God's love expressed in sending Jesus, and his in COMING. Our recent Christmas season once again spread cheer—and not the alcoholic kind; good-will—seen in efforts to alleviate the sufferings of others; and peace in families, churches and cities—but lasting only in the lives of those in "whom God's favor rests" Luke 2:14. If, in celebrating Christ as an infant, spiritual graces budded and blossomed in society, celebrating his manhood teachings, compassion and forgiveness should inspire perpetual concern, patience and love among us. If infant Emmanuel merely by being born has so profound an effect, how massively greater should the God/Man living among us, changing our perspectives, reducing our self-centeredness, increasing our awareness of others.
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