2003 Soap Box Archives

Oh What An Awesome God 05/05/03

About four o'clock on Tuesday morning Hazel and myself woke up with the
side of the house shaking. Since we live in a log house on a hill I
thought that either the house was settling or one of the logs had given
way.

It was either something like that or the “unthinkable”, an earthquake.
An earthquake in Tennessee? Not that it’s an unheard of event in The
Volunteer State, in fact we have our very own fault line, the New
Madrid, and as to earthquakes we had a “big un” in our distant history
when the Mississippi ran backwards for a while and Reelfoot Lake was
created in West Tennessee.

But an earthquake in 2003 in Middle Tennessee?

I have a radio in my shower and turned it on to hear a boisterous
morning team joking about the tremor Tennessee had that morning.

I called an early rising, better informed friend to find that we had
indeed had an earthquake, that it measured four point nine on the
Richter scale and that the epicenter was in Fort Payne, Alabama some
hundred and fifty or so miles away.

The quake only lasted a few seconds but it felt like a giant had
grabbed the side of the house and shook it violently.

Later in the day I was talking to a gentleman who had lived in
California and spoke of tremors lasting forty five seconds or so and
looking out the windows at power lines falling.

Now I don’t need none of that, those few seconds were enough to
convince me that earthquakes are one of the most powerful
forces in existence and compared to them an eight thousand pound bunker
buster is like an M80 being compared to an atomic bomb.

We keep building increasingly powerful weapons but we can never even
come close to God’s arsenal. The most powerful bomb we’ll ever build
could never approach the damage predicted if the big one ever hits
California, with the Pacific Ocean becoming several thousand square
miles bigger than it already is.

I visited the USS Roosevelt aircraft carrier a few years ago to do some
picking and singing for the guys and gals on board and was amazed at
the sheer size of this floating city.

I said something to the Captain about the size of the ship being able
to take on any kind of weather and he told me that he had been out
during what became to be known as the storm of the century

And that this humongous aircraft carrier had been tossed around like an
ordinary ship and he thought about that old seagoing prayer, ”Lord your
ocean is so big and my ship is so small.”

There will be wars and rumors of wars until the end of time but all
those wars put together are not capable of competing with the power of
God.

He can make the oceans and rivers rise and flood the land and there is
nothing we can do about it. He can send torrential rain storms and
wash away mountainsides. He can raise a wind which makes the waves
rise high and wild or twist in deadly circles clearing a path through
mighty forests. He can make the ground shake and crumble skyscrapers
and bridges.

There is no limit to the power of God.

I am so glad and thankful that He loves us so much.

I love it when God sends us the gentle spring rain and the gentle
breeze with the scent of new flowers and freshly mown grass. I even
enjoy a good loud thunderstorm and a hard downpour.

I love to watch the rhythmic roll of the ocean and I never get tired of
seeing the Big Muddy make its rolling way to the sea.

I love God’s sunshine and the newness of spring, the hot bustle of
summer, the patchwork wonder of fall, and there is nothing like
blizzard in the Rockies.

Yes, I love it all, but a little reminder of the power of God once in a
while really gets our attention.

Pray for our troops.

What do you think?

God Bless America

Charlie Daniels

 

©Copyright The Charlie Daniels Band