With all the focus on the humanitarian disaster in Pakistan (terrible floods, disease, famine) there is an equally devastating one occurring in a little-known part of the world. Ladakh is a tiny region in northern India surrounded by the Himalayan Mountain range, on the border of Pakistan and China. The region receives less than 2 inches of rain per year. It is high, dry, peaceful, and nothing much ever happens. Until last week.

Did you get that snippet of an interesting fact? An arid region that receives less than 2 inches of rain per year, was devastated by a sudden flood. The birth pangs of the last days (Mark 13:8) are increasing just as Jesus said they would. I agree, a flood here or there does not mean the world is ending. But disaster after disaster, more of them than ever, and disasters of unusual aspect like arid regions getting floods, IS a sign of the last days. Read this first-hand account:

India’s Himalayas Battered by Rare Floods in Ladakh
“While the devastating floods in Pakistan continue to make the headlines, torrents have leveled a region of northern India that usually gets less than two inches of rain a year. The famous trekking destination of Ladakh, located in the Himalayan Mountains between Pakistan and Tibet, suffered a heavy death toll and extensive damage early this month when the normally arid desert area was hit by unexpected and violent storms for days. In a place where even a few raindrops are extremely rare and houses are flat-roofed and built with clay, the storms has caused the worst natural disaster in the region’s history.”

Rescuers said the mud was about 15 feet high in some places. 

‘Ladakh turned on its people’
An eyewitness account of the floods
In the far north of India, beyond Delhi, Shimla and Dharamshala, lies a remote little region called Ladakh. Sandwiched between Pakistan, Afghanistan, China and the imposing hilly state of Himachal Pradesh, its strategic importance is undeniable. Its proximity to constantly conflicted Kashmir makes it an important military hub. But first and foremost, Ladakh is a cultural treasure trove showcasing the way a people – Buddhists, Muslims, Aryans, Mongols and others thrown together in a distinctly central Asian mix – can survive and even flourish in one of the most challenging, isolated regions in the world, a veritable high-altitude desert. August is peak tourist season in Ladakh, about 280 miles (450 kilometers) east of Srinagar. It is a high-altitude desert with a stark moonscape-like terrain, and normally received very little rain.”

“But last week, the land of Ladakh raged and turned on its people. Nature changed its course, cloudbursts brought flash floods, mudslides and avalanches to this usually peaceful region. Over a thousand were declared missing, hundreds feared dead. In Ladakh’s only “big city,” Leh, the damage was devastating. Outside of Leh, it was bound to be worse Between June and September, when the snow melts and the roads open, Leh is a top tourist destination. Hundreds of backpackers and trekking aficionados pour in from countries all over the map, from South Korea to Canada to Israel, and from India’s 26 states.

To supply these tourists with hot running water, electricity and continental food means stretching Leh’s already shoddy infrastructure to the limit and playing host to hundreds of Kashmiri traders eager to make a quick buck away from their troubled native land. And so it goes every summer – but not when nature strikes.

When nature strikes, when Leh is buried under mud, backpackers roam the streets at a loss for words. Stranded, they drift toward the areas that suffered the brunt of the damage, watching in awe as the local men, women and children energetically lift stone after stone and log after log, plunging their shovels into the hard, dry mud. An old woman passes a heavy rock to her grandchild, who passes it to a Kashmiri, who passes it to a tourist from France, Germany, Spain, Poland, New Delhi – and, yes, Israel.”

snip

“The people of Ladakh are not typical Indians. Ethnically, they are not really Indians at all – most are Tibetan Buddhists, and indeed, Ladakh shares a border with Chinese-occupied Tibet. The Dalai Lama, in exile in popular backpacker destination Dharamshala, occasionally visits Ladakh, and his face can be seen on everything from temple altars to buses to trucks. But Ladakh is not Tibet. It was an independent mountain kingdom for several centuries, occupying an important position on the silk route and on the crossroads between the Himalayas and the Karakorum mountains. Its people, over the course of more than a dozen centuries, developed a unique identity and culture and grew into a hardy, resilient people. They developed different uses for everything, from the barley they grew to their animals’ excrement. They survived on salty yak butter tea, spun voluminous sheep’s-wool clothes and adhered to the principles of Buddhism.”

“In Chonglamsar, a Tibetan refugee camp 5 kilometers away from Leh, the devastation is so complete that it almost appears as though the village has always been buried under mud. Cars can be seen sitting stationary half inside, half outside the mire; shop facades are squashed and slanted, leaning down. Women stand on little islands of caked mud, digging into it with sticks to unearth stones with religious inscriptions carved onto them. The people and possessions will be dealt with later on, when the mud hardens enough for the army to bring in its heavy machinery.”

I still can’t get over the suddenly erupting volcano in Indonesia, which had lain dormant for 400 years; the floods in Pakistan displacing 20 million- the same as the population of Texas. The train of hurricanes in the Atlantic and Earl bearing down on the US. And this flood in the High Himalayas where even a few raindrops are cause for wonder and celebration.  What will God do next? It is all for the cause to show His power and our helplessness in the face of our unrepentant sin. Will you repent today? Turn from your sins, asking Jesus to forgive them? And you will be standing on this side of the dividing line, awe-struck at God’s power, rather than scratching your head at the scientific perplexities of a world undergoing “climate change”. The climate IS changing, but it is a spiritual change, changing toward sin and away from God. Make no mistake, there IS a dividing line, and you DO want to be on this side of it, the forgiven sin side.

Estimates are that about 80% of the region’s infrastructure is partially or totally destroyed.

You can escape all these things: if you are forgiven of your sins when the Rapture comes, you will be removed from the world to be sequestered as Jesus’s bride in heaven while the world undergoes the worst tribulation that it has ever seen. (Matthew 24:21) Repent NOW.

You may have heard the phrase, “God’s hand of protection” or “He is lifting His hand of protection.” It seems that is something God would do, keep a person or nation in the shelter of His hand. It seems logical to think that in His fierce wrath and anger that He would lift His hand. But is it biblical? Yes, it is.

In Lamentations 2, a chapter titled, God’s anger at sin, we read in verse 3: “In fierce anger He has cut off All the strength of Israel; He has drawn back His right hand From before the enemy. (Lam 2:3a). In Psalm 74:11 we read, “Why do You withdraw Your hand, even Your right hand? From within Your bosom, destroy them!”

In the news these days we read about and see devastating events, each more ‘unusual’, or ‘destructive’ or ‘unprecedented’ than the last. They are happening more frequently too, a major earthquake or flood or eruption each month, and each week. Pakistan is inundated. The flooding disaster has killed an estimated 1,600 people and affected up to 20 million. Disease is rearing its head and famine is on the horizon, all things Jesus said would occur in the last days as signs of His soon coming. (Luke 21:11).

When a devastating event occurs that affects such a large population, a nation, really, one has to wonder, “Is God lifting His hand from Pakistan? From China? From America?” As far as Pakistan goes, it does seem as though God is lifting His hand from them. It’s the home of the Taliban, which Pakistan’s President says the “world is losing the war against.” Pakistan is epicenter to birthing ground if Islamic militant violence, violence that does not even take a respite when floods come. “Taliban guerrillas are taking advantage of the large-scale misery caused by the devastating floods in Pakistan by attempting to enlist 50,000 new fighters — in return for food and medicine.” Violent, Godless, duplicitous, insurgent, Pakistan may indeed be enduring the withdrawn hand of LORD GOD at this moment.

God promises to destroy nations in which the Jews had fled during the Diaspora (Jer. 30:11), He also described the six things He must accomplish as stated in Daniel’s decree (Dan 9:24): “Seventy ‘sevens’ are decreed for your people and your holy city to finish transgression, to put an end to sin, to atone for wickedness, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy and to anoint the most holy.”

One of the purposes of the tribulation is “to put an end to sin”, and though we are not in the Tribulation yet, God is withdrawing His hand, because who among us as individuals or as nations have not sinned? Who among us deserves to have God’s hand of protection still sheltering them from their own consequences? None. That He has not taken it away from all nations yet is the miracle. These devastating events are not “accidents” nor are they merely or the ‘natural cycle of things.’ Pakistan is, and soon other countries will be enduring events that are designed to focus our eyes on sin, and cause us to repent.

He is lifting His hand of protection from the nations of the world. No, things will never “get back to normal.” They will only get worse. As the birth pangs inexorably contract, who will be the next nation to endure the consequences of sin, absent His hand of protection? America? “Alas for the day! For the day of the Lord is near, and as destruction from the Almighty it comes.” (Joel 1:14-15).

In the bible, there’s a pattern to the proportions of people saved versus people lost. I just want you to think about the numbers, their proportions, even if I can’t make a doctrine out of it. The pattern is still troubling enough.

In the days prior to the flood, the earth had become populated. With average life-spans regularly in the 900-year range, the population could easily have reached several hundred million. Only Noah and his family – eight people- out of millions were found to be righteous, and saved. (Gen 6:9-11)

Sodom and Gomorrah (and Admah and Zeboim) were cities filled with a populace engaging in perversion, corruption, and wickedness. God decided to condemn the entire population of these four cities because of their wickedness. They cared not at all for God nor His ways. (Genesis 19:24-25, Deuteronomy 29:23). Only Lot, his wife, and their two daughters were spared, and even at that, Mrs. Lot looked back, disobeying God and thus was condemned also. Out of the population of four entire cities, four people were spared. (And one of those turned out to be a false convert…)

In Matt 13:3-23; Mk 4:2-20; Lk 8:4-15, Jesus tells the Parable of the Sower. A farmer sows seeds, and the seeds fall on different kinds of ground. The seed is explained to be the Word of God, received in varying degrees of success by the hearers. Some seed fell on the path and it was either trampled or birds ate it. Other seeds fell on rocky ground and withered. Still other seed fell on ground where thorns grew and was choked. The last example was seed that fell on good ground, took root, and grew fruit for the Kingdom of God. These last seeds are Believers. Four kinds of ground, and only one grew into believers destined for the kingdom. One in four.

In Revelation, John is told to write seven letters to seven churches: Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, Laodicea. The purpose of the letters was first, literal, each church of that day had a special message they needed to hear. But in a double fulfillment, Jesus also wanted us to know that each church is a type and an age of church-going attitudes that also needed to hear the message through the ages. Of the seven churches/ages, only two were not rebuked: Smyrna and Philadelphia. Five churches were found to have been displeasing to the Lord. Five vs. two

In Matthew 7:13 Jesus warned, “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it.” In verse 14 Jesus says, “But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.” Many vs. few.

In Revelation 20:12, John wrote that “I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books.”

There are so many unsaved that their names take books to list them, but there are so few saved their names are contained in one book. Books vs. book.

What does this tell you? You can interpret it it however you feel the Spirit is telling you to interpret it, but I see that the pattern from Genesis to Revelation is many lost and few saved.

Therefore am going to take Paul’s warning in 2 Corinthians 13:5 to heart and I urge you to do the same:
“Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith; examine yourselves! Or do you not recognize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you—unless indeed you fail the test?”

If you are standing before God and He tells you that you failed the test, it is TOO LATE. Check yourselves now. If you have not accepted Jesus as Savior yet, do not wait any longer. Time is growing short. You can almost hear the trumpet call.

More later…

Long-dormant Indonesian volcano suddenly erupts

A volcano in western Indonesia spewed hot lava and sand high into the sky early Sunday in its first eruption in 400 years. Government volcanologist Surono, who uses only one name, said Mount Sinabung in North Sumatra province started rumbling a few days ago and the minor morning eruption has mostly stopped. It sent sand and ash up to a mile (1.5 kilometers) high but lava only moved near the crater. It caused no major damage “but only dust covered plants and trees,” he said. He said Mount Sinabung last erupted in 1600, so observers don’t know the volcano’s eruption pattern and are monitoring it closely for more activity.