In a Moment

Jeremiah 4:20 “Waves of destruction roll over the land, until it lies in complete desolation. Suddenly, every tent is destroyed; in a moment, every shelter is crushed.”  

Revelation 18:17 “And in one single moment all the wealth of the city is gone!” I thought of this verse while watching videos of the destruction in Japan. The destruction is overwhelming, like watching a scene from a bad disaster movie. One video I watched, was shot by a local Japanese man, within his 3 1/2 minute video I watched as small items were were being washed through the streets then cars, trucks and finally the houses were washed off their foundations and swept away. People were clinging to the tops of cars and to the roofs of buildings. Within a span of less than 4 minutes all that they owned and felt secure in was washed away. “Suddenly every tent is destroyed; in a moment every shelter is crushed.”  I read an account from a 16 year old who said, “I never took the annual tsunami drills seriously, I thought the towns harbor walls would protect against any big wave.  But the wave was beyond imagination, There was nothing to do but run.”

“I never took the drills seriously.” The worst part of this disaster is that of the 10,000 presumed dead, statistics say only 6% are Christians. Leaving 9,400 of the dead having placed their hope in themselves, government, money or false gods. They are now separated forever from God. Romans 6:23 “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord.” The population of Japan is 127,560,000. Meaning 119,906,400 people are facing eternal punishment unless they turn to Jesus Christ. The worlds population is 6,775,235,741, 34% of the worlds population is said to be Christian, leaving 4 1/2 billion people facing eternity in Hell. According to New Tribes Missions in the next 60 seconds 36 souls go to a Christ-less eternity, that is 51,840 each day. The Japanese people need our help, but they, like the world, really need Jesus Christ. Jesus said, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned.”