The stock market plunged. Tornadoes ravaged parts of the country. Drought and dangerous temperatures parch the land. Lawlessness and immorality have taken hold. Many say the Last Days. Others say judgment. Neither, or both?
We've seen this before. Read Judges. I and II Kings. The Chronicles. The prophets. Everyone did what was right in their own eyes, with disastrous results.
What to do? The answer is simple, though as in those days, it's doubtful it will be taken to heart. God's people, that is, the Church, children of God born through the blood of Christ as related in the first chapter of John, are to repent.
Repent of what? you might ask in a voice tinged with sarcasm and a trace of disgust. We're under grace. We don't have to do anything, so there's no need of repenting.
Under grace for salvation, yes, but there's more to the story. But in this day and age, far too many pastors neglect to tell their congregations what Christ told His followers. Words left for us. Read them, all of them, not just the New Testament (Didn't Jesus, his disciples, Paul all quote the Old Testament? Why then should be ignore it?)
God in the flesh said "Repent."
"When I shut up heaven and there is no rain, or command the locusts to devour the land, or send pestilence among My people, if My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land." -- II Chronicles 7:14 (emphasis mine)
For He is our calm in the midst of chaos.