The California fires have ravaged the area. Winds of hurricane strength made the flames spread, and the lack of water in the hydrants because the Dam that had water was under construction. This tragedy has many sensing conspiracy, as Mel Gibson who lost his house in Malibu to the fire mentioned the Arsonist caught who did not get charged, and the plans to turn those neighborhoods into climate control and migrant ready housing where people will be bunched upon one another. Others might claim this is God destroying Hollywood for all their sacrilegious and antichrist behavior and stories. Some might even say, "God is a consuming fire," (Deuteronomy 4:24) and that Christ is returning with fire, "But the day of the Lord will come as unexpectedly as a thief. Then the heavens will pass away with a terrible noise, and the very elements themselves will disappear in fire, and the earth and everything on it will be found to deserve judgment" (2 Peter 3:10). I want to urge you saints to be careful.. delighting in the downfall of the affluent is not Christian, God even warns, "Do not rejoice when your enemy falls, and let not your heart be glad when he stumbles, lest the Lord see it and be displeased, and turn away his anger from him." (Proverbs 24:17). I am not claiming that is what is happening, but if it was, we are not to rejoice, we are to remember to take log out of our own eye, "Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye," (Matthew 7:3-5) and to bring the gospel and fruits of the Spirit to people of, "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control," (Galatians 5:22-23) and " God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth." (John 4:24).
If God was at work in humbling Hollywood, we are not to rejoice in it. The apostle Paul tells us to mourn with those who are mourning the loss of their homes, "Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn. Live in harmony with one another." (Romans 7:3-5). We need to be praying for those who have lost so much, and remember that these terrible catastrophes do not just fall on those you might be urged to gloat over getting their reckoning, The Bible Belt gets hit all the time with tornadoes and hurricanes, and we do not say, "Well good! God smite his own." So be careful in rejoicing in the harm of others, for one day calamity may come your way, and will you like hearing, "Well it's God's Judgement of you!" No, that is not the way! We as Christians are to do as Jesus said, "Judge not, that you be not judged. For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you," (Matthew 7:1-2) and " So do you think that you can judge those other people? You are wrong. You too are guilty of sin. You judge them, but you do the same things they do. So when you judge them, you are really condemning yourself. 2 God judges all who do such things, and we know his judgment is right. And since you do the same things as those people you judge, surely you understand that God will punish you too. How could you think you would be able to escape his judgment? God has been kind to you. He has been very patient, waiting for you to change. But you think nothing of his kindness. Maybe you don’t understand that God is kind to you so that you will decide to change your lives." (Romans 2:1-4). I say mediate on those verses, especially Romans 2:1-4 before you snap to gloating, making YouTube vids that this is God's Judgement and rejoice over it. Remember that often the sin you judge in others you yourself are hiding in secret, and you will find yourself in the place of hypocrites.
Once more I am not saying God is not judging, I do not presume to declare what God is or isn't up to in matters such as these. I tend to instead of throwing God into it say that this is because are world is fallen, "For the creation was subjected to futility, not by its own will, but because of the One who subjected it," (Romans 8:20), this futility has opened the world to a curse, the Original Sin, that made this planet violent and prone to destruction. Only Christ can save, thanks Be He Came! So I tend to see events like this is because we live in decaying and intropying world as The Scriptures say, and it has less to do with God or even sinners today, for do not forget that Nineveh which the Prophet Jonah went to was suppose to be judged by God, and instead they repented and lasted another four hundred years. We need to remember mercy, to offer the greatest mercy of all to people in these trying times, that Jesus loves them, even as they are as enemies and sinners, "but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life." (Romans 5:8-10). Amen.
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