Earthquakes, Tremors and Aftershocks

[HKHaugan]

Earthquakes, Tremors and Aftershocks

California is the focal point when discussing earthquakes. There have been some devastating ones in that state. The one in 1989 seems to be the most talked about what with its collapsing overpasses and damaged housing. The topic there is the ‘Big One’ that has yet to come. Movies like San Andreas Fault, wildly imaginative though they may be, only build a certain expectation of disaster at any moment. In talking with some of the people out there it appears they just accept there’s nothing you can do about it. It is what it is. Hmmm.

While on a hiking trip out there, we were taken to what was considered the center of that quake, Olema, a small town not far from the coast. As our guide walked with us she pointed to a 14-foot break in a fence where the underground plates separated and slid apart that far. The fence had been left that way for a talking point to describe the power of the quake.

The thing about earthquakes is, you don’t know when they’re going to happen. When they do happen, it places you in a new interior zone. It’s terrifying. It localizes everything in one thought, immediate personal survival. When the very ground you are used to, you rely on being firm, something you take for granted, when it shakes, everything within is shaken by the fear it induces. There are no comfort zones in earthquakes external or internal.

Now the earthquakes recorded at the Crucifixion and Resurrection had a purpose, a spiritual purpose. The Lord God created those two seismic disturbances to make one spiritual point. God is a personal God. Notice the context in the two. It’s personal. The earthquake brings with it an angel. There is quite a difference between the response of the guards and the two Mary’s to the angel's presence. The guards are frozen in fear, the guards appointed by secular authority. They looked like dead men. But the two Mary’s also are afraid. But these are believing Jewish women. For them this is an awesome fear when the angel speaks to them. He tells them not to be afraid and then gives them specific instructions to go back and tell the disciples about the risen Lord.

Add to that the massive thick curtain in the Jewish Temple being torn from top to bottom. Then graves are opened and dead believers get up and walk into Jerusalem. I’d say all that’s fairly attention getting, wouldn’t you? Why are these things recorded? What do they mean for us right now where we are? They have spiritual significance because Jesus was a spiritual person living in a physical body and because of Jesus everything physical has a spiritual meaning. We may never get all aspects of the universe understood.  But the fact is, everything was spiritually created to begin with.  Therefore, it’s just plain logic for us to think spiritually first.

The point is this, we were made to think and act spiritually. So, the Scripture is giving us the basics. We’re being spiritually armed to be disciples in a spiritually broken world. It’s shaking and the Word of God prophesies we are in the end times. So, Scripture deals not only with a worldview awareness, a worldwide consciousness, but the fact is Jesus shakes the heart, mind and spirit in each human being. Unlike a physical earthquake this is a spiritual one that continues its tremors and aftershocks every time someone really faces the fact of Jesus’ presence among us. He brings a local, personal and relational consciousness that confronts our self-centeredness. It goes far beyond the world in which we live. Because of sin, everyone is earthquake prone and intentionally so. When truth breaks through into our personal internal world, shaking, breaking and waking happen. Sin may accuse, insert guilt and freeze us in our tracks like the guards at the tomb but, like the two Mary’s, the awe of God moves us to run and witness for Him because He’s for real, I’m forgiven and so are those who accept Jesus through our witness! Our witness is the earthquake personally delivered in us by the Holy Spirit causing tremors and aftershocks as we grow in Him.

Let’s look more closely at our personal experience. There are tremors that precede the quake, circumstances that upset the flow of life---sickness, death, relational conflict, loss of a job, emotional stress, bitterness, disappointments—tremors that make us feel alone and insecure. Things happen in our lives over which we have no control. There is a period of anger. Anger is a tremor. We get easily upset, tremor. We get snippy, upset with people and their attitudes or actions, tremor. We complain but nothing changes, tremor. Why do I have to deal with idiots and nothing goes my way? Tremor. I never seem to get a break, tremor. They had no right to talk to me like that. I’ll get back at them, tremor. I can’t understand why I have to put up with lousy neighbors, tremor. TV news keeps me upset all the time, tremor. I’ve got thoughts I can’t handle, feelings that I have no one to share with, I stay depressed about my kids, my marriage, my in-laws, my boss, my meaningless job, tremors. The earthquake is coming.

Enter Jesus, at our request of course.  The earthquake happens within. Unlike the physical earthquake with its aftershocks that cause fear, Jesus, the spiritual earthquake does the opposite. He came at the right moment in our lives when we turned to God and said, ‘Help!’ All the formulas, strategies and goals we set for ourselves were exposed as empty. We found all the things we did to gain recognition, acceptance and inner satisfaction were lifeless. There was no depth in the friendships we had. The games we played to feel good about ourselves and to have others feel good about us were just as empty. God shook us to the core. We, our mind, hearts and spirits, were shaken to the core. We experienced being humbled. The end of self-justification was at hand. This is where we needed to be, on our knees. If not in body at least in our mind and heart. Bent knees  arrive eventually.

Now comes the first aftershock. We don’t get shaken and confronted inside without the awareness of a new and profound insight. God’s grace, His love and the Holy Spirit delivering a series of aftershocks. Every new and inspiring insight is an aftershock. The earthquake never really quits. Jesus sends more aftershocks. That’s the purpose of Scripture. It’s God’s mind revealing, through the Holy Spirit, our personal growth plan. His plan for each of us is simply, faith practiced in every next moment.  We have a companion, a friend, a Counselor, working in our hearts to help us rebuild our mind, reshape our heart and re-energize our spirit through faith. All done in a relationship with Jesus who lives in us by the Holy Spirit.

This brings us to strongholds, spiritual strongholds. Strongholds are the attitudes we have built in our past to protect us against relational pain. Attitudes breed platitudes to cover how we sound to others. They cause us to devise strategies for every encounter with others. Attitudes are heart defenders. Paul explains what strongholds are:

Paul says we have spiritual weapons because we are in a spiritual war that uses different weapons. We discern, by the Spirit, the attitudes that keep us from being open and honest in the presence of others. Those are the attitudes that cause us to make up a reason to justify how we feel and then act based on the attitude. We take captive the thought serving the attitude. We determine whether or not it serves God. If it doesn’t we take it captive and deny it. We may feel like we need to act on it but the Spirit could prompt us otherwise. Is it consistent with Jesus’ will for us in that moment? We place Jesus in the driver’s seat at that moment. Then we crush its effect and assume the attitude of Christ and follow His example.