Swine Flu: Is There Divine Meaning in Natural Disaster?

On one rainy day in Costa Rica, I was overwhelmed as CNN scrolled news about natural disasters on several fronts:

• The earthquake in South Asia taking at least 3000 lives
• Hurricane Katrina’s death toll passing the 1000 mark
• Mudslides washing away an entire village in Guatemala, followed by an earthquake
• The fear of bird flu mutating and invading the human race

Right now, authorities are hoping that the swine flu will not turn into an international pandemic.

This is not the first time we have been met with this type of disaster. In 2005 we awaited the avian influenza, while remembering the 1918–19 Spanish flu which killed 50 million people in 18 months. And “scientists have long forecast the appearance of an influenza virus capable of infecting 40 percent of the world’s human population and killing unimaginable numbers” (“The Next Pandemic?” by Laurie Garrett, Foreign Affairs, July/August 2005, 84:4:3). As death tolls rise, the questions gnaw at my soul. Why all of this apparent mindless, meaningless madness? Is God telling us, our country, our world something specific? Is this the beginning of the end?

On the one hand, I wish I knew final and definite answers. But that requires me to be God Himself. Having been relieved of that privilege and responsibility, my next best option is to seek answers in His final and definite revelation in His Word.

One of the unquestionable causes is original human sin. Sin is rebellion against God. The most radical event in early earth history was humankind’s Fall away from God, when the original humans chose to rebel against Him. That mother-of-all disasters put the earth under God’s curse. Thankfully, God didn’t turn away from his providential care for the human race (or else we wouldn’t be here at all). Sadly, humanity lost immediate, existential relationship to Him. This earth is not heaven, and often feels like hell, for it is groaning, grunting, and growling in futility. Our planet is still paying for mankind’s original departure from the Creator.

We also factor in Satan’s role in random human suffering and death. Satan defied God’s sovereignty —he cannot ever overthrow it—and was cast out of heaven to earth. Our earth began to shudder and continues to tremble.

There is hope, however. Because of the triumph of the Lord Jesus over sin, death, and Satan, we can know that one day God will pull His people out of the suffering, and this quaking earth will destruct. The Sovereign Savior will one day return to rule this earth and to guide the nations with righteousness. In that day, those who have trusted in Him will not have to deal with such terrors as the swine flue and economic uncertainties.


Today, in the face of uncertainties, we have the choice to realize our inability to predict and control and repent before God or to resist Him. People are small, weak, and at the mercy of the elements. Natural disaster calls for humility before God and reminds people to find their permanent security in God alone. Our only hope is to repent and pursue a right relationship with God.

Our planet is quaking, rocking, shaking, and will one day be destroyed. Are you ready to secure your destiny? Even things you may sincerely consider spiritual aids to personal health will only harm in the fires of judgment if you do not have a relationship with the Lord Jesus. If you are not assured of your salvation standing with God, will you contact me about the possibility of personal and eternal hope for you, regardless of your earthly circumstance?

Write to me by going to www.rameshrichard.com and clicking "Ask a Question."

The Purpose Giver

The purpose-giver is your Creator. He made you with a purpose in mind. He didn't make you to be wondering and wandering in this world without moorings and rootedness. He made you with a distinct purpose to accomplish, with a purpose in mind.

So, you must relate to your Creator in order to discover your purpose and be liberated from the prison of purposelessness.

How can you relate to your Creator?



Normally, you can't. Because you have distanced yourself from him in so many ways, he is hidden from your sight. Because you have not followed his purposes, he is not accessible to you. Because you have attempted to fulfill your own purposes, you have left him out of your life.

I have good news for you, my friend. Since you want to find purpose, and since you are convinced you must relate to the purpose giver, the news is "he is reachable; he is findable; he is approachable."

The purpose-giver has reached you, found you, and approached you. The purpose-giver is also the Savior.

Limited Intellect

I don't know all there is to know. By the time I catch up on one thing, even becoming a specialist, in one area, the discipline develops, the science leaves me behind. If knowledge is doubling every 4 years or faster, then we cannot keep up with what we are supposed to know.



We don't even know all that is important to know. Let's take health for example. How do I keep myself completely well all the days of my life? There are are so many viruses and diseases that we can't handle them. Just when we discover the anti-body a new virus begins.

Or let's take the future. More than anything, people want to know what the future has for them. It would help us to plan accordingly. But our minds are limited.

It takes God to know all there is to know. But it also takes God, for us to know all we need to know and all that is right to know.

Heart Prison

To those who are brokenhearted, forlorn, lonely, and forsaken, God gives love, forgiveness and hope. He loves you as though there was no one else in the whole world. If you were the only one who ever lived, he would have loved you the same way, he loves you now.

To those who are hardhearted and hard headed, God says he is gentle and humble in heart. He can soften your heart and free you from the constraints of your own prison. You can't forgive your brother, well God gives you the resources to forgive your brother from your heart

To those who are fainthearted with fear, God will give you the courage and hope that you need for the future. Even as I write these notes, a former friend of mine has attempted to take his life; to him as well as to you, I say, "ask God to overcome your fear and anxiety."

To all of us who have evil hearts—and all of us do--God says he will give us a new heart. Your heart is not right before God, God can make your heart right before God. You have a troubled heart, he will calm your heart. He assures you: "Don't let your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in me." Not only did he claim to be equal to God in that statement, he claimed that he can calm your heart like only God can.

Here is an amazing teaching: you can trouble your own heart by yourself; but for your heart to be opened to God; God has to open your heart. You can't open your own prison. He has the keys. God must open your heart to respond to this message. He is willing to open the heart-prison, would you like it to be opened?



If you say, Yes! I want my heart to be opened. I am fed up of my broken, faint, hard, evil heartedness, I want you to talk to God, right now where you are.

Please let us know if you make this decision by responding here or asking a question at www.rameshrichard.com.

Freedom from Your Heart Prison

What does it take for you to be freed from the prison of the heart? Only God has the key.

Why? Because by virtue of being God, God knows all that is in your heart. You can’t hide anything from him--your grief or your evil. He knows everything. You can't escape from him. He knows you. He cares for you.

Also, out the heart comes your evil thoughts but only the pure in heart are blessed. Only the pure in heart are fortunate. Only the pure in heart can see God, that for which your heart longs.


Next, loving God takes your heart too. You must love the Lord your God with all your heart! Right now you love your self with all your heart. Instead, you ought to love the Lord your God will all your heart.

You see, there is a deep, strong relationship between head and heart. The heart won't value what the head won't believe. The heart may value, what the head doesn't know. But the heart won't value what the head doesn’t believe even though it can't know.

I want to give you Someone the head may believe and the heart may value. Only God is worth that kind of value and belief.


Finally, for you to have the salvation of your soul, the freedom of your heart, you have to believe in God with your heart.