Snow crowned and beautiful, Mount Usu towers above the little resort towns of Date, Sobetsu and Abata-hot springs resorts-on the island of Hokkaido, Japan. Most northerly of the islands, Hokkaido is a center for winter sports among its forested mountains. But, lovely though it is, an ominous little plume of steam rises from the center of many of its mountains.
One such is Mount Usu. Under the snow and ice a fire burns, and a not-so-sleeping volcano threatens to erupt. Wise in the ways of volcanoes, the Japanese authorities evacuated thousands of residents from the danger zone.
How many lives will be lost in the next eruption? Hopefully, none. They have seen the danger and acted prudently.
A particular danger is the possibility of a mud slide as snow melts on the sides of the mountain. A previous mud slide in 1822 killed 59 people, and there are many, many more inhabitants of the same area now.
In Columbia, South America, an eruption in 1985 sent racing mud slides through a town and killed almost 25,000 people. There was little warning then and no evacuation ordered.
Lately in another South American country the mayor of a large city was quoted as saying that “the people...will have to learn to live with unstable volcanoes.”
We too seem to be living with an “unstable volcano,” a volcano of violence that erupts with little or no warning and in places considered safe. We are careful, we take precautions, but we cannot conceal from ourselves that “the earth [is] filled with violence,” and that “the wickedness of man [is] great in the earth” (Gen. 6:11,511The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence. (Genesis 6:11)
5And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. (Genesis 6:5)).
When the evil reached its peak in the world, thousands of years ago, God sent the great flood to destroy all the wicked ones. Since then He has promised that the world will not be destroyed by water again, but that the next judgment will be by fire.
Like the volcano, the warning rumblings can be heard, the rising smoke can be seen, and the time of the end of the day of God’s grace is approaching. Have you listened to the warnings and found a place of safety? There is only one certain refuge; it is found in Rom. 10:99That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. (Romans 10:9): “If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.”
Saved from what? Saved from the wrath of God that is soon to fall on this wicked world, but that is only the beginning. Saved for all eternity in God’s place of light and life and love, saved with joy and happiness forever, saved to so much that we can’t even imagine now-SAVED!