I'm a recovering news junkie. OK, maybe not recovering. But I have been overwhelmed with all the major news stories this past spring! One of the biggest news events was the "triple disaster" in Japan: first an earthquake, then a monster tsunami, and then a nuclear crisis.
As staggering as the human toll was, we now know that it could have been much worse. The loss of life in the 2004 South Asia tsunami was some twenty times greater. They had no warning. The Japanese did. Those wailing sirens allowed people to get to the safety of high ground - people who otherwise would have been swept away.
The warning is the difference between life-and-death in a tsunami - including the one that races across this planet every day. Every day, 150,000 of our fellow humans are swept into eternity by the tsunami of death, ready or not. Oh, you won't see it on the news because it usually happens one life at a time. And the Bible reveals that with death comes judgment - "Man is destined to die once and after that to face judgment" (Hebrews 9:27).
The only eternal hope for every person on our planet is the warning of what's coming. And the chance to get to high ground before it's too late. The high ground is a hill - with a cross on it. Where Jesus "carried our sins in His own body on the tree" (1 Peter 2:24). And God's warning system? It's you and me.
"I have made you a watchman...give them warning from Me...I will hold you accountable..." (Ezekiel 3:17-18)
Every person - from the neighbor next door to the native a world away - deserves the chance to hear what we heard. To hear that God's Son took the full force of the tsunami of God's judgment so we would never have to. That the Cross of Jesus is the one safe place in a precarious world, the only place to escape an awful eternity.
I thank God that you're not content to just let people be swept away without ever knowing what Jesus did for them. No, you have joined us as part of the tsunami warning system of God.
Because our Team, partnering with you, is committed to rescue the dying, whatever it takes.
Today, and every day, we're sounding the warning. Through rescue radio. Through the unprecedented reach of the Internet. Through teams of Native American young people who sound the warning on reservations where His warning has seldom reached. Through community events where many can hear at once. Through equipping believers to point the people they know to the high ground of His Cross.
When the Japanese tsunami was racing across the Pacific toward the U.S., people were urged by authorities to "take urgent action to save lives." We are. We must. Our Team believes, as many believers do these days, that we're living in unprecedented times, maybe even end times. It's not a time for business as usual.
So your prayer and your giving are fueling the most all-out, innovative, urgent effort of our lives to get the Gospel to the ends of the earth. When we meet, we talk about how to reach more. When we pray, we pray about reaching more. When we commit the gift you give, we spend on what will reach more. Because "He is not willing that one should perish" and He's ordered us to "go and preach the Good News to everyone, everywhere" (Mark 15:16 - NLB).
After the disaster in Japan, I saw moving video of some folks who barely managed to escape the surging tsunami by getting to high ground just in time. They were safe. But others weren't. A man was trapped in a tree, a girl on a small wall that would soon be swamped, some children on top of a car. Immediately those who were safe began to search for a way to save those close by who were about to be swept away. They found a hose and used it to pull the man in the tree through the debris, then to safety on the roof. Then they rescued the girl on the wall, followed by forming a human chain to save the children on the car. It wasn't enough that they were safe. They knew they had to save those who weren't.
Thank you for not being content to just be safe in Jesus yourself. And for joining us in saving many others who otherwise have no hope.
Grateful to serve with you on Jesus' "Search and Rescue" Team,
Ron Hutchcraft
