May 30, 2015

Many of you know that Texas had some dangerous storms the day after Pentecost. They had more than 3 weeks of heavy rain before Pentecost, which saturated the ground, filled the lakes and rivers, and ruined a lot of wheat. It seems that Texas experienced the latter rains, which, in Bible days, were supposed to ripen the wheat in time for Pentecost. Dallas has now had 16 inches of rain in May alone, with more on the way.

Last Monday, the day after Pentecost, we drove south from Dallas toward Houston to visit with our friends, Wayne and Bonnie Lynn for an evening. Mike and Kathy came a little later, and Cindy was there, too. After we arrived there, a powerful storm came in from the south. As it came, we decided to turn on the television to see the local weather news. We came into the newscast where they were showing a map of our area with a large red (storm) weather system coming our way.

The weatherman was telling people to take cover, because there was a “hook” in the red, indicating a strong possibility of a tornado. The parameters of the storm, pictured with 2 parallel straight lines, with our location in the center between those lines. In other words, it appeared that a tornado was heading in our direction, and if it continued in its expected path, it would hit Wayne’s house where we were visiting. The weatherman said it was particularly dangerous because the hard rain would make a tornado impossible to see until the last moment.

Then the satellite signal was lost, and soon the electric power itself was lost. So we were unable to obtain any further weather reports. The last report we got was showing a tornado coming directly toward us.

So we did what we knew best. We prayed to God for protection and also spoke directly to the storm or tornado, telling it to turn aside or go over us, and reminding it that this property was under divine protection. After rebuking the storm, we continued visiting, and in a few hours the electric power was restored. Meanwhile, we got about 2 inches of rain in a short period of time, and the house was surrounded by running water.

The next day I saw the headline news, showing the “epic flood” in Houston and other areas and how more than two dozen people died in the storm. I do not know if any tornado was actually seen or if any came to the ground in our area, because we saw nothing except a lot of rain.

I was reminded of Malachi 3:16, 17, which says,

¹⁶ Then those who feared the Lord spoke to one another, and the Lord gave attention and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before Him for those who fear the Lord and who esteem His name. ¹⁷ “And they will be Mine,” says the Lord of hosts, “on the day that I prepare My own possession, and I will spare them as a man spares his own son who serves him.”

I interpret this to mean that those who have faith in God rehearse the righteous acts of God that they have experienced in order to encourage others and deepen their faith in Him. So our conversation turned toward our past experiences in dealing with storms and tornados. For me, it does back to March 1984 when I first rebuked a tornado and saw it make a sudden 90-degree turn as it approached our town (Batesville, Arkansas).

We saw many more examples of this from 1987-1989 when we lived in Memphis, TN. In fact, a half dozen neighbor kids used to run to our house for protection whenever tornados threatened. Of course, we were not the only ones doing this, but these were stories that we could relate from personal experience.

So that was our adventure earlier this week when we were just north of Houston. The next day we began heading back to Minnesota, and the weather was beautiful all the way home. Thanks for your prayer support.