The warning of Tilly Smith

During an English winter the Smith Family decided to go to a Thailand beach resort for the southern hemisphere summer. Tilly and her sister Molly were playing on the beach at Phuket just before 11am. Ten-year-old Tilly and eight-year-old Molly were building sandcastles when the waves suddenly retreated. Tilly had learned about tsunamis in a geography lesson two weeks before, and she remembered Mr Kearney’s warning. A tsunami was coming! She told her sister and they both ran and found their father and mother. It took a bit to convince their father, but finally he alerted Hotel staff and beach security. The warning was given to clear the beach. This was the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami that killed 230,000 people across 14 countries. It was the year myself, Deisy, and our girls were holidaying for Christmas and new year on a beach in Coffs Harbour.

It began at 9am with a massive 9.1 magnitude earthquake on the northern tip of Sumatra (Indonesia). 2 hrs later waves hit Sri Lank, India, and Thailand

No one died at Maikhao Beach in Thailand because minutes before the tsumani hit Tilly had warned everyone. She had listened in class, and heeded the warning. In the last days there is a warning going out. It is the last warning message to the world. The Book of Revelation calls it the Message of The Three Angels. (See Revelation 14:6-12)

Tilley had recognized the signs caused by the earthquake and subsequent receding water. The beach was evacuated before the tsunami reached shore, and was one of the few beaches on the island with no reported casualties. How many lives did Tilly’s alertness save that day?

There are 2500 references in the Bible to the second coming of Jesus. This is earth’s curtain call – the end of the rebellion. One out of every thirty verses in the Bible talks about the second coming or the events leading up to it. There are hundreds of ways of proving that we are living in that period that is called “the time of the end.” But who will head the call to the safety of the cross? Jesus said we would be eating, drinking, marrying, and giving in marriage, and at the end Paul says the coming of Jesus will catch people off guard like a thief in the night. Read his counsel to you; “Now concerning how and when all this will happen, dear brothers and sisters, we don’t really need to write you.  For you know quite well that the day of the Lord’s return will come unexpectedly, like a thief in the night. When people are saying, “Everything is peaceful and secure,” then disaster will fall on them as suddenly as a pregnant woman’s labor pains begin. And there will be no escape. But you aren’t in the dark about these things, dear brothers and sisters, and you won’t be surprised when the day of the Lord comes like a thief. For you are all children of the light and of the day; we don’t belong to darkness and night. So be on your guard, not asleep like the others. Stay alert and be clearheaded. Night is the time when people sleep and drinkers get drunk. But let us who live in the light be clearheaded, protected by the armor of faith and love, and wearing as our helmet the confidence of our salvation.” (1 Thessalonians 5:1-8)