Judgment on the Earth

At night my soul longs for You,

Indeed, my spirit within me seeks You diligently;

For when the earth experiences Your judgments 

The inhabitants of the world learn righteousness.

Isaiah 26:9

Rescuers rush to trapped survivors in Japan quakes

One massive landslide tore open a mountainside in Kumamoto's Minamiaso village all the way from the top to a highway below. Another gnawed at a highway, collapsing a house that fell down a ravine and smashed at the bottom. In another part of the village, houses were left hanging precariously at the edge of a huge hole cut open in the earth.

David Rothery, professor of planetary geosciences at The Open University in Britain, said the Saturday morning quake was 30 times more powerful than the one Thursday night. "It is unusual but not unprecedented for a larger and more damaging earthquake to follow what was taken to be 'the main event,'" he said.

Idolatry shrine in Kumamato, Japan severely damaged

ASO, Kumamoto -- The tower gate and worship hall at Aso Shrine in this city have both completely collapsed, the Kumamoto Prefectural Police's Aso station reported.

The historic Aso Shrine, a picturesque complex near the volcano, was seriously damaged, with a number of buildings with curved tiled roofs flattened on the ground like lopsided fans.

Kyushu island's Mount Aso, the largest active volcano in Japan, erupted for the first time in a month, sending smoke rising about 100 meters (328 feet) into the air..

Isaiah 24

Behold, the Lord lays the earth waste, devastates it, distorts its surface and scatters its inhabitants.  And the people will be like the priest, the servant like his master, the maid like her mistress, the buyer like the seller, the lender like the borrower, the creditor like the debtor.
The earth will be completely laid waste and completely despoiled, for the Lord has spoken this word.
The earth mourns and withers, the world fades and withers, the exalted of the people of the earth fade away.
The earth is also polluted by its inhabitants, for they transgressed laws, violated statutes, broke the everlasting covenant.
Therefore, a curse devours the earth, and those who live in it are held guilty.
Therefore, the inhabitants of the earth are burned, and few men are left....

All joy turns to gloom. The gaiety of the earth is banished.
Desolation is left in the city And the gate is battered to ruins.
For thus it will be in the midst of the earth among the peoples, as the shaking of an olive tree..

All the lying idols man has built are coming down

The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.

But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.

Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness,
looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat?

Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness.
Wherefore, beloved, seeing that ye look for such things, be diligent that ye may be found of him in peace, without spot, and blameless.
And account that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation; even as our beloved brother Paul also according to the wisdom given unto him hath written unto you;

2 Peter 3