September 14, 2008–Most people fled Hurricane Ike’s massive, destructive forces.
But Willis Turner & his wife decided to ride it out. The two held on inside a home that Turner’s wife said “vibrated like a guitar string.” “It was like an atomic bomb going off. Right after the eye passed, whole houses came by us at 30 miles an hour — WHOLE HOUSES! — just floating right past,” Turner said. “It was unreal. Unreal.”
Turner and his wife awoke the next day to an island they no longer recognized. The first four rows of houses on the beach were washed into the sea. There were no more restaurants, no more gas stations, no more grocery stores. The neighborhood was gone.
Richard Jones, a shrimper, fled with others at the last moment to a Baptist church on Bolivar Island and spent the night in safety there.
Jones said he hadn’t stepped foot in a church in the 40 years he has lived on this spit of land. And he wasn’t ready to call his survival divine intervention. “I drink beer and chase women, gamble, cuss,” Jones said. “You can’t call that religion. I’m either too good, the devil won’t have me, or I’m so bad the Good Lord won’t take me. That’s a good toss-up.”1
Mr. Jones, have you no fear of God? Do you not know that it is the kindness of God that leads you to repentance? 2 Seek the Lord while He may be found; call upon Him while He is near.3 A man who hardens his neck after much reproof will suddenly be broken beyond remedy.4
May the Lord protect each of us from a hard heart!
In the grip of His grace,
Paul
2 Romans 2:4
3 Isaiah 55:6
4 Proverbs 29:1