Dear Wake Up Family:
On the morning of 2 June 2025 around 11 am, Mount Etna erupted. Video of the event showed an ashen, soot-filled smoke cloud rising 4 miles into the air. Soon after the initial eruption, a hot pyroclastic lava flow began streaming from its summit. Because the mountain is in southern Italy, I began to imagine what the Pompeii tragedy of AD 79 must have looked and felt like to that city’s citizens the day their lives suddenly changed forever.
The tour guide, Rick Steves, describes that dreadful event this way:
Neither rich nor poor, Pompeii was a typical middle-class town. To serve its 20,000 residents, the city boasted more than 40 bakeries, 130 bars, and plenty of public baths. Being a port, it also had brothels, restaurants, and entertainment venues that catered to sailors from all over the Roman world.
Most of Pompeii’s buildings were covered in brilliant white ground-marble stucco, making it an impressive sight. And from its richly decorated forum, people had a postcard-perfect view of the looming volcano, Mount Vesuvius.
Vesuvius sent a mushroom cloud of ash, dust, and rocks 12 miles into the sky. It spewed for 18 hours straight, as winds blew the cloud south toward the city. The white-gray ash settled like a heavy snow on Pompeii, its weight eventually collapsing roofs and floors. Though most of Pompeii’s residents had fled, 2,000 stayed behind. A bad move, because the next morning the city was buried under 30 feet of volcanic debris.
Something has clearly gone wrong with the world that God made. This is not the kind of home He created for us to dwell in, nor is it the kind He intends for us to inherit. Think about it. We have destructive storms, forest fires, blizzards, mudslides, flash floods, hurricanes, tornadoes, earthquakes, and volcanoes. And these are called natural disasters. But are they really? I mean, were any of these supposed to naturally occur in God’s good creation? Added to those natural phenomena, we have man-made proxy wars, hot wars, crime, violence; political, economic, and social disorder. How costly and troublesome all of these are. Surely, none of these things were meant to exist in God’s creation.
The effects of sin, like the frailties of age, are taking a toll on this world. Isaiah seemed to foretell our day when he said, “Darkness covers the earth, and total darkness the peoples.” (Isaiah 60:2) Even as I write, LA is experiencing senseless riots over the mindless concept that those who have entered our country illegally have a legal right to remain here. And of course, the Middle East is blowing up again.
The news of today sounds very much like the news of yesterday. Only the conditions grow worse, and the results more dire. As the years go by, each one brings new troubles that defy any realizable solution. The constitutional republic form of government God gave our forefathers the wisdom to create, seems to have morphed into a malfunctioning democracy. Today, the US is experiencing widespread discontentment; its laws are openly broken. The legitimacy of our government is in question because of its inability to operate responsibly or even function coherently, which leaves both domestic and foreign policy chaotic. No one seems to be in charge anymore; at least not the faces we see and are told are in charge. Because of this, many people are growing confused, both domestically and abroad.
This is concerning because confusion breeds disenchantment; disenchantment, unpredictability; unpredictability, fear. Then as disillusionment spreads, thinking people begin to wonder why so many of the promised plans for a better world fail to materialize.
The fact of the matter is that man has a weakness, a malady, over which he has little control without divine help. On a personal level, it is difficult to detect and acknowledge. But at scale, it can plainly be seen. The disease I refer to is sin, and it can only be revealed by the Holy Spirit and treated by Jesus.
The Bible asks, “Can an Ethiopian change the color of his skin? Can a leopard take away its spots? Neither can you start doing good, for you have always done evil.” (Jeremiah 13:23)
And so as the merry-go-round we live on spins faster out of control, people grow more scared—afraid of the result of recent events; afraid of what the future holds; afraid of the unknown. Today’s world reminds me of the condition of those whom the apostle Paul described as “having no hope and without God in the world.” (Ephesians 2:12) Such is the sum of life for billions of people.
Have you ever really thought about where your hope rests? About what makes you feel secure in your life? Have you found a remedy for fear of the unknown? Notice how Paul foresaw our day. “You should know this, that in the last days there will be very difficult times. For people will love only themselves and their money. They will be boastful and proud, scoffing at God, disobedient to their parents, and ungrateful. They will consider nothing sacred. They will be unloving and unforgiving; they will slander others and have no self-control. They will be cruel and hate what is good. They will betray their friends, be reckless, be puffed up with pride, and love pleasure rather than God.” (2 Timothy 3:1–4)
How accurately this prediction describes our world. How true it is that billions are lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God. “They act religious, but reject the power that could make them godly.” Hence the ever-increasing growth of lawlessness and the staggering decline of morality.
I wonder how Paul felt as he visited Pompeii to preach the gospel. We know he traveled throughout the Roman Empire with the gospel message, so he must have visited the ancient port city. As a center of revelry and sin, the majority of its people would have resisted Paul’s preaching, I would think. Can’t you see him turning away in sorrow, as he must have done so many times before after visiting other cities? Surely the Holy Spirit must have worked with great intensity in the city of Pompeii the night before its destruction. I can imagine that many were unable to sleep, restless because of the pricking and pressing being done to each conscience.
Back in ancient times, even prior to the flood of Noah’s day, the Bible records in Genesis 6:11 that the earth was filled with violence. Writing about the same time period, Matthew says “In those days before the flood, the people were enjoying banquets and parties and weddings right up to the time Noah entered his boat.” (Matthew 24:38)
Today, it hasn’t changed much. When mankind turns away from God and His rules of morality, unbridled greed seeps in creating discontentment, unrest, violence, riots, revolution, and war. Jesus warned us of this by stating, “When the Son of Man returns, it will be like it was in Noah’s day.” (Luke 17:26) Is our world much different than the way the Bible described Noah’s day? Look around. It looks quite similar to me, and getting worse.
To set apart the “normal” chaos of the world today, God planned for the second coming event to happen in a very specific way; one that would include a time of trouble noticeably different from anything the world has experienced prior. Speaking of the signs that will precede His return, Christ mentioned that “the nations will be in turmoil, perplexed by the roaring seas and strange tides. People will be terrified at what they see coming upon the earth, for the powers in the heavens will be shaken.” (Luke 21:25–26) And even though He informs us of what to expect in the books of Daniel and Revelation, His second coming will still erupt upon multitudes of careless people as an overwhelming surprise.
The story of Sodom and Gomorrah is another biblical example of how one day will be the last day. The people of the city were committing the most flagrant sins of immorality and blasphemy. Only one man believed the angel’s message and fled with his wife and two daughters; none of the others could be persuaded to leave. The sobering takeaway from this story is that there comes a time in everyone’s life when everything depends upon the decision of the next few minutes. The Bible is filled with examples of those who were almost persuaded to make that life-changing decision.
When Paul reasoned with Felix about the judgment to come, Felix trembled as the Holy Spirit wrestled with his heart. For a moment, Felix weighed his options to yield or reject the nagging. Slowly, the scales tilted to the wrong side. Felix said: “Go away for now. When it is more convenient, I’ll call for you again.” (Acts 24:25) King Agrippa responded similarly in Acts 26.
We know from statistics that mankind doesn’t live for very long. Life at its best is too short. The curse of sin lies heavily upon us. Because of it, we’re destined to die. But we have an intercessor, a savior in Jesus. He alone is our great remedy; He alone is the great panacea to the world’s ills. Have you accepted Jesus as your savior? He is the only reliable helper who can deliver us from the lost and dying world we live in. He truly is our only hope. And there is no better and more convenient time to give your life to Jesus than right now—today. Paul says in 2 Corinthians 6, “Indeed, the ‘right time’ is now. Today is the day of salvation.”
Now, if we resist, if we continue to linger when the Holy Spirit presses us, we are making the biggest and worst mistake of our lives. I didn’t say that. Peter said it in 2 Peter 2:21. “It would be better if they had never known the way to righteousness than to know it and then reject the command they were given to live a holy life.”
He says it this way because when we procrastinate, we begin to neglect even the important things that need doing. I have experience with procrastination; that’s how I know what happens when a person continues to neglect what needs to be done. By neglecting and disobeying, we gradually lose the strength to turn away from wrongdoing. Lucifer eventually arrived at that place. He actually persisted in sin until he was immune to the voice of the Holy Spirit. When that happens, it’s too late. The Holy Spirit’s nagging is too important a matter to stifle. God will put up with rebellion for only so long and then He’ll leave us alone. He will eventually leave us to our own desires.
A person who feels the prompting of the Holy Spirit is brought face-to-face with the supreme question of life. And our answer to it is truly the only thing that matters. The paramount question of this life is—not whether there will be another war, there will be; not whether our business will fail, or whether the government will fall. It is—what will you do when God’s call comes?
The only way that we can be sure of a place in heaven is to follow Jesus all the way home. Don’t turn away from the Holy Spirit. When you feel His nagging, respond straightaway. That decision is too vital to neglect.
Rex
