In a CBS article by Janet Yee, members of the U.S. military are quoted as saying that something spooky is going on, that "it's not just images of death and destruction that haunt them."
By all accounts, the Sophie B. Wright Middle School in New Orleans sits empty and evacuated except for military personnel who have taken over the campus as a staging site for missions around the battered city.
But the men in uniform have the feeling that they're not alone. It prompted a chaplain to utter this directive: “In the name of Jesus Christ, I command you Satan to leave the dark areas of this building.”
Said Sgt. Robin Hairston of the California National Guard: “I was in my sleeping bag and I opened by eyes and in the doorway was a little girl. It wasn't my imagination.”
Hairston wasn't the only one seeing things. Spc. Rosales Leanor had her own close encounter.
"I was using the restroom and I just saw a little shadow,” Leanor said. “Kind of looming in front of me.”
Another member of the Guard unit said that she saw and heard a little girl laughing when she opened a closet that contained cleaning supplies.
It's not as if this city of New Orleans is any stranger to these kinds of stories. But coming after such powerful act of nature or God, it is thought-provoking.
Bibles opened to the Book of Revelation
Even more interesting, from a biblical or apocalyptic point of view, Bibles were found opened by the storm to the same passage in the Book of Revelation.
At a Baton Rouge marina, boats were strewn like trash, but not a shred of paper could be found. Except for the pages of a Bible that was found by a soldier. It was open to the Book of Revelation.
At a nearby church, nearly destroyed, another Bible was found, showing the exact same passage from Revelation.
At this, Janet comments cryptically, "Like the power of nature, there is a power at work in New Orleans that defies explanation."
Indeed. I'd be interested to know exactly what passage in Revelation was opened. Was it Revelation 22:15?
But outside are dogs and sorcerers and sexually immoral and murderers and idolaters, and whoever loves and practices a lie.
Or, was it Revelation 22:10-11?
And he said to me, 'Do not seal the words of the prophecy of this book, for the time is at hand.
He who is unjust, let him be unjust still; he who is filthy, let him be filthy still; he who is righteous, let him be righteous still; he who is holy, let him be holy still.'
Or, was it Revelation 8:5-6, 13?
Then the angel took the censer, filled it with fire from the altar, and threw it to the earth. And there were noises, thunderings, lightnings, and an earthquake.
So the seven angels who had the seven trumpets prepared themselves to sound...
And I looked, and I heard an angel flying through the midst of heaven, saying with a loud voice, "Woe, woe, woe to the inhabitants of the earth, because of the remaining blasts of the trumpet of the...angels who are about to sound!"
If we are wise, we will read the signs of the times. And lift up a voice of prayer, and intercession. Who knows but that our city might be spared? Our land granted a stay? As Abraham found before the Lord, for the sake of ten righteous…even Sodom would have been granted a stay.
The Hebrew prophets always called for confession and prayer in times of disaster. It was the default reaction for people of God. And, as Sara Yoheved Rigler noted at a prior disaster, it is for good reason…
So then let us confess and pray!
Who knows what good may yet come?
No comments:
Post a Comment