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Day 9 – Volcanoes

Mt. St. Helens during sunset, taken from my iPhone [OC ...

And the second angel sounded, and as it were a great mountain burning with fire was cast into the sea: and the third part of the sea became blood; (Rev 8:8 )

The beauty of volcanoes lighting up the night sky is breath taking, isn’t it? How can something so beautiful also cause such destruction!

Throughout history, we have seen the havoc wreaked by one of these awesome mountains. As we look at the volcano, we can see how God can use one to accomplish His wrath, but what good can come from them? As I searched the Internet, I learned that volcanoes provide hydrothermal vents which are responsible for almost all of our iron, copper, nickel, platinum, gold, silver, zinc, etc. The metals available to mankind are a result of this fabulous creation! Don’t you see God’s Goodness in that? The Lord can take something He created, which we consider bad and destructive, and He can use it for good. That is why I included the volcano in my series on God’s Goodness.

The Word is filled with God using His creation to fulfill prophecy – the Great Flood, the plagues on Egypt, etc. It is no different with the volcano. Our text verse in Revelation shows a possible volcano turning the sea into blood. Volcanoes which erupted in history will be considered child’s play compared to the end times.

In history we learned that Mount Vesuvius destroyed Pompeii and Herculaneum. In May 1980, Mount St. Helen destroyed 57 people, miles of highways and flattened millions of Douglas fir trees over a fan-shaped area of 230 square miles! The blast was likened to 2500 Hiroshima’s! This picture shows trees knocked down like match sticks. The ash columns were almost as high as 6,600 feet (that’s 1.2 miles)! My brother lived 250 miles away from Mount St. Helen in 1980 when everything in his town was covered in ash! This was from 250 miles away! Today, just six miles from the base of Mount St. Helen, are flowers and life rising through the flattened trees. The devastated landscape is now scattered with green and various wildlife. It will take years for a new landscape to emerge but new life is sprouting.

A friend shared a story he remembered about Mount Pelee.

I thought I would share some of what I remember. I used the illustration once in a message on soul winning.

The story was the eyewitness account of a local scientist who lived in the town or close to it anyhow. He was very well educated in the earth and I believe he was a vulcanologist(?) This town was a sea port, a very rich seaport. It was the main revenue for the town.

Any way, the scientist started noticing different things starting to happen. Water turning color and putting off odor, fish dying, animals disappearing, minor thing at first. As he investigated he started to become sure that the volcano would soon erupt. He went and told the town counsel, but they were more concerned with their revenue than anything this guy had to say.

Well more and more strange things started to happen, people started disappearing, small fissures opening in the ground,and smoke starting to rise from the mountain. The signs were becoming more and more evident that disaster would soon strike and if the town did not evacuate thousands of people would perish. still the counsel would do nothing. The scientist warned who he could but few would listen, they were to tied up in their affairs to really care.

Then it happened, the Mount exploded with such violence, it is hard to imagine, some people most likely did not even know what happened, they were simply dead. The pyroclastic(?) flow, which is nothing but intensely heated gas vapors moves so fast and with such force and with such a searing heat, something like an atom bomb. Many people were killed were they stood, it is the ones that survived, for a while that stuck in my mind. That flow of super heated vapors was so hot that it burned the eyes out of the socket, seared the throat shut, and burned limbs so severely that they could no longer feel anything but burning. They could not see(utter darkness) they thirsted but could not drink, the only thing they could do was hear the weeping and feel the burning.

So my point was that these people were suffering yes, But the suffering in Hell is much, much worse, and their will never be relief. Jesus, like the scientist has warned us that the end is coming, we see the signs, we have the evidence, but will we sacrifice our comfort, our lifestyle, our income, to go out and reach those that are lost.

I liken the eruption of a volcano to unconfessed sin in our lives. If a person is not saved, sin will wreak havoc and cause destruction in his life and in his path. Sin separates man from God. It will also destroy the unsaved person’s relationship with his family, and it can destroy him in death, both spiritually and physically. Someone else pointed out, he looks at volcanoes as “the joy of the Lord which erupts from a heart surrendered to the Holy Spirit within”! What a beautiful picture! When a yielded believer allows the Holy Spirit to work within, everyone who comes in his path will be permanently affected as that believer shares the Good News of the Gospel of Jesus Christ! Another said that she remembered hearing a message once where the preacher said that whenever a volcano erupted it was Hell expanding because more people had died and gone to a Christ-less eternity. What a thought, huh?

Dear God…
Your creation brings such wonder
To this simple heart of mine
Through each and every aspect
I can see Your handiwork so fine