August 2, 2013 (Friday)
“Don’t be afraid, for I am with you. Don’t be discouraged, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you. I will hold you up with my victorious right hand” — Isaiah 41:10 NLT
Today is August 2 which means that tomorrow will be August 3, “a date,” as FDR said of December 7, “which will live in infamy.” It’s the 43rd anniversary of Hurricane Celia, which tore the roof off the “downtown” building of First Baptist Church of Rockport, and took part of the roof off the new parsonage. Other cities in the area experienced even worse damage, as numerous homes and businesses were simply blown down.
As we debated evacuating to some other place, the storm suddenly hit with fury. It only lasted four hours, but when it was over, everything had changed.
As bad as it was, it was not as bad as the one that hit this area in 1919. It was not as bad as several other hurricanes in other parts of the country in the sixties. It was small in area, but devastating. Winds within winds created a shearing effect, the results of which were sudden demolition of buildings.
We are now in hurricane season, and will be for several months. We need to pay attention.
Devotional Thought: “When the storms of life are raging, stand by me. When the storms of life are raging, stand by me. When the world is tossing me like a ship upon the sea, Thou who rulest wind and water, stand by me” (Composer: Charles Albert Tindley).
(Read all five verses, click here).
(Hear it on You Tube. Click here).