On September 21, 1938 a storm of monstrous proportions hit New York and New England. Ordinary hurricanes are bad enough. A fully developed one, with winds blowing 75 mph, is as powerful as 500 Nagasaki-type atomic bombs and contains more electricity than the entire United States uses in six months, but this cyclone was churning at over 200 mph. When it came inland it smashed Long Island with a forty foot tidal wave, the impact of which was registered on a seismograph in Sitka, Alaska. At Providence, Rhode Island, the entire downtown area was submerged under thirteen feet of water after a one hundred foot wave roared up Narragansett Bay. When the skies finally cleared, 700 people had been killed, 1,174 injured, and 63,000 left homeless.
Among the striking stories which later came to light was an incident involving a Long Islander. On the morning of the disaster he had received a barometer which he had purchased a few days earlier in a New York store. While unpacking it, he was irritated to see that the needle pointed to the place on the dial which read “Hurricanes and Tornados.” (The U.S. Weather Bureau was in its infancy then; no warning of the storm had been issued.) First he shook it and then he banged it against the wall, but the needle wouldn’t budge. Annoyed he repacked it and drove to the post office to mail it back. While he was gone his house blew away. Folks, YOU CAN IGNORE THE BAROMETER, BUT YOU CAN’T STOP THE STORM!
In unmistakable language our New Testament warns us that a day is coming when a storm of Divine judgment shall break out upon those who “know not God, and obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ” (Matthew 25:41; 2:Thess. 1:7-9). It is with a view to this day that Peter pinpoints the most crucial question, “Since everything will be destroyed… what kind of people ought we be?” (2 Pet. 3:7).
If you’re serious about averting the storm and attaining salvation, start – and start today – committing yourself to the pursuit of holy and godly living (2 Pet. 3:11). For, “How shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation?” Remember, YOU CAN IGNORE THE BAROMETER, BUT YOU CAN’T STOP THE STORM!
Borrowed