The day of the Lord comes as a thief in the night part 3
There is a key principle in the Bible "judgement begins with the house of God". For example, the holocaust during WWII on the Jews, six million gassed to death. That gives us an idea of the judgement that will come on the world, but since the Jews represent 1% of the world's population we can guesstimate that the scale will be 100xs greater.
So then we can look at these events as "warnings to us". One man was talking to a reporter after the Dixie fire burned down his house and he said "all I have is ash and twisted metal". That is precisely what Paul said in Corinthians, that we will be saved but so as through fire. If we build with wood, hay and stubble we will suffer loss, but if we build with gold, silver and precious stones then the fire tests our work and proves that it is of God.
Suppose this same man had spent a lifetime preaching the gospel and thousands had received the word and come to the Lord as a result. He loses his house, and possessions, but think about everything stored in heaven that was not burned.
That fire was like a thief in the night. If you built your house out of stone, and the roof was metal, and you had two hundred feet on every side with nothing but grass and patio. Then the fire would not have destroyed your house and rather would have proved you were being wise. However, why is California experiencing such severe fires? It is because of the extreme drought. Why have they had 20 years of drought? Well that it appears to be man made, 80% of the water in the state goes to agriculture and they grow crops that cannot survive in California without bringing in water. So the cause of the fire was a thief, stealing the water. We can all see the huge flames from the towering inferno, but anyone watching the water being used by agriculture should have known that this was not sustainable. They should have seen the clues that we have a "thief in the night" and therefore if we don't act now we'll wake up one day and everything will be gone.
If you acted like a forensic investigator you would see that they were "stealing the water" year by year, the evidence was there. You would see that the forest you were living in was stressed due to lack of water. You would realize that the forest fires would come. Based on that you could go ahead and take action so that your house would not be destroyed in the fire.
There is a key principle in the Bible "judgement begins with the house of God". For example, the holocaust during WWII on the Jews, six million gassed to death. That gives us an idea of the judgement that will come on the world, but since the Jews represent 1% of the world's population we can guesstimate that the scale will be 100xs greater.
So then we can look at these events as "warnings to us". One man was talking to a reporter after the Dixie fire burned down his house and he said "all I have is ash and twisted metal". That is precisely what Paul said in Corinthians, that we will be saved but so as through fire. If we build with wood, hay and stubble we will suffer loss, but if we build with gold, silver and precious stones then the fire tests our work and proves that it is of God.
Suppose this same man had spent a lifetime preaching the gospel and thousands had received the word and come to the Lord as a result. He loses his house, and possessions, but think about everything stored in heaven that was not burned.
That fire was like a thief in the night. If you built your house out of stone, and the roof was metal, and you had two hundred feet on every side with nothing but grass and patio. Then the fire would not have destroyed your house and rather would have proved you were being wise. However, why is California experiencing such severe fires? It is because of the extreme drought. Why have they had 20 years of drought? Well that it appears to be man made, 80% of the water in the state goes to agriculture and they grow crops that cannot survive in California without bringing in water. So the cause of the fire was a thief, stealing the water. We can all see the huge flames from the towering inferno, but anyone watching the water being used by agriculture should have known that this was not sustainable. They should have seen the clues that we have a "thief in the night" and therefore if we don't act now we'll wake up one day and everything will be gone.
If you acted like a forensic investigator you would see that they were "stealing the water" year by year, the evidence was there. You would see that the forest you were living in was stressed due to lack of water. You would realize that the forest fires would come. Based on that you could go ahead and take action so that your house would not be destroyed in the fire.