Gathering Storm Clouds Overhead

“Thou and I are but the blind instruments of some irresistible fatality, that hurries us along, like goodly vessels driving before the storm, which are dashed against each other, and so perish.” – Sir Walter Scott

When our family relocated to Florida in 2011, some of our friends in New Jersey asked us how we would handle the heat and humidity in the Sunshine State, let alone the hurricanes. Well, more often than not, the summertime temperatures here in Vero Beach are a few degrees lower than those in South Jersey (maybe because the heat is trapped amidst all the asphalt in the Philly suburbs) and there is always a refreshing afternoon breeze coming off the Atlantic Ocean.

As for the hurricanes, we haven’t had a major one on the east coast of Florida since 2004. Sadly, our fellow Floridians on the Gulf Coast have been slammed in recent years by Irma (2017), Michael (2018), Ian (2018), Idalia (2023), Helene and Milton (both 2024). Of course, New Jersey was hit hard by Super Storm Sandy in 2012 and the remnants of Hurricane Ida in 2021, as well as by too many snowstorms to count… including the one in the winter of 2010 that dumped 24” of the white stuff in our driveway in Barrington!

After three years as full-time stationary RVers, Deanna and I moved into a new house in Spanish Lakes in January, just three miles away from our previous home but across both city and county lines. Last October, just three months before we moved in, portions of Spanish Lakes were hit by a freak EF3 tornado that killed six people and destroyed dozens of manufactured homes. Thankfully, the concrete block structures (CBS) with metal roofs like ours weren’t touched, but those with aluminum siding were no match for wind gusts of 160 mph or more.

I guess you could say that I prefer snowstorms and hurricanes to tornadoes because you have enough advance warning to prepare or to get out of harm’s way. Tornadoes, on the other hand, seem to sprout up with little or no warning.

In today’s quote – and in the following passages – Sir Walter Scott and Charles Spurgeon use the darkening skies that foretell a fast-approaching storm to illustrate the danger, devastation, and death that await unrepentant sinners. BEWARE, my friend, if you have not yet repented of your sins and trusted Jesus as your Savior, because the storm clouds of God’s wrath and eternal judgment are gathering overhead.

“But how terrible it is to witness the approach of a tempest—to note the forewarnings of the storm; to mark the birds of heaven as they droop their wings; to see the cattle as they lay their heads low in terror; to discern the face of the sky as it grows black, and to find the sun obscured, and the heavens angry and frowning! How terrible to await the dread advance of a hurricane, to wait in terrible apprehension till the wind rushes forth in fury, tearing up trees from their roots, forcing rocks from their pedestals, and hurling down all the dwelling-places of man!”

“And yet, sinner, this is your present position. No hot drops have fallen as yet, but a shower of fire is coming. No terrible winds howl around you, but God’s tempest is gathering its dread artillery. So far the water-floods are dammed up by mercy, but the floodgates will soon be opened: The thunderbolts of God are still in His storehouse, the tempest is coming, and how awful will that moment be when God, robed in vengeance, shall march forth in fury!”

“And they said to the mountains and the rocks, ‘Fall on us and hide us from the face of the One seated on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb.’” Revelation 6:16 (BSB)

- Rev. Dale M. Glading, President