No house.  No phone, no communication.  No car.  No Job.  No food.  No water.  No money. No bath or deodorant.  No toilets or Porta Pottys.  Lawlessness and looting,  roaming bands of armed thugs and criminals,  helpless and powerless policemen with no jails, no headquarters, out-gunned and out-witted.  The smell of raw sewage, rotting food and decaying corpses.  Welcome to America. 

Or at least welcome to a glimpse of what America may well look like if God removes His protective hand and blessing.  If this is not a wake up call, then nothing is.  We can’t blame the Muslims for this mess. 

All the debates about creationism and intelligent design,  the right of gay marriage or civil unions, the crèche or cross on public property, and prayer in the public schools will be moot when everyone is taking shelter from the sweltering and searing sun in some less than super dome. 

No one will be talking about cloning human beings when those human beings are reduced to third world refugees.  We have been blessed for so long, with so much that we forget, that given the equal playing field of catastrophe, there is little difference between one man born in Mexico and one born in Mississippi or Mesopotamia.  We are all the children of Adam. 

What we see on our TV is not an Oliver Stone movie.  It is not exaggeration.  It’s  reality TV at its worst.  However, it is reality.  Unfortunately, few can interpret the hand writing on the wall, like a Daniel can.  Any prophet can read the letters of the Apocalypse.  All the talk about how great “we” are may indeed be put to the acid test of this mini-tribulation. 

Even the church has forgotten God.  We have marketed religion, like a Mocco double-latte.  What just happened in New Orleans was larger and more significant than 9/11. Special prayer meetings should have been called to pray for some believer sitting in a water-filled attic and for a nation that may be as much under judgment as it is under water.  As gas prices rise and supply runs out and economists begin to board up their investments, someone might want to check the books to see if we have become spiritually bankrupt.   But from what I see, it’s business as usual, and as if we just had bit of bad weather.  A number five hurricane is about as high as we can put on a chart.  What if what happened, to America was more than bad weather?  What if it was just the feeder band of a coming larger storm.  What if we have loved this world so much, with all its credit card comforts, or God takes our world away and gives us another? 

I know that now is the time for men with sandwiches, not men with sandwich boards.  This is a letter to the church, not the homeless.  Some reading this will “roll their eyes,” I know.    We always kill the prophets.  None of this stuff makes us feel good, and we do want to feel good.  America has aborted more babies than ancient Babylon ever did.  Sodom and Gomorrah has nothing on us, and would be jealous if they could see Las Vegas or gay San Francisco.  Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego would wonder why we are all bowing down to idols.  Noah would be surprised no one is building a fire-proof Ark. Our President said we will rebuild because we are a great nation and a great people.  If America was great, it was never because “we” were great.  Muslims say “God is great.”  On this point, they are closer to the mark than many Americans.  I am not sure God will help us rebuild Bourbon Street (think about it) and if I were a betting man, I wouldn’t bet on Him helping rebuild our casinos or set up the slot machines.  Our leaders say we will rebuild, not without God – we won’t.      

                                                                                                              id