Massive Hurricane Ike weakened to a Category 1 storm Saturday morning after ravaging southeast Texas and battering the coast with driving rain and ferocious wind gusts as residents who decided too late they should have heeded calls to evacuate made futile calls for rescue.

Some 30 miles inland, storm surge pushing up through Galveston Bay was sending water into a neighborhood near Johnson Space Center where they had made rounds earlier with a bullhorn trying to compel people to leave.

Even before Ike made landfall, Coast Guard helicopters had rescued 103 people in the Bolivar Peninsula near Galveston Island, said Petty Officer 3rd Class Ayla Stevens. "Some people were on roofs, some people in cars," she said.

Though 1 million people fled coastal communities near where the storm made landfall, authorities in four counties alone said roughly 140,000 ignored mandatory evacuation orders and stayed behind. Other counties were unable to provide numbers but officials said they were concerned that many decided to brave deadly conditions rather than flee.

"Some people didn't evacuate when asked," Bush said about the tens of thousands of people who may have to be rescued. "I've been briefed on the rescue teams there in the area. They're prepared to move as soon as weather conditions permit. Obviously, people on the ground there are sensitive to helping people and are fully prepared to do so."

But the biggest fear was that tens of thousands of people had defied orders to flee and would need to be rescued from submerged homes and neighborhoods.

"The unfortunate truth is we're going to have to go in ... and put our people in the tough situation to save people who did not choose wisely. We'll probably do the largest search and rescue operation that's ever been conducted in the state of Texas," said Andrew Barlow, spokesman for Gov. Rick Perry.

"We don't know what we are going to find. We hope we will find the people who are left here alive and well," Galveston Mayor Lyda Ann Thomas said. "We are keeping our fingers crossed all the people who stayed on Galveston Island managed to survive this."

How amazing. We are still cleaning up from Katrina, and people are still stupid and even selfish enough to not evacuate when they are told they need too. The last two statements just blow me away.

We have to send our people in, risk their lives, take their time to rescue people who had a chance to do it right the first time. I like how the Governor said they were "people who did not choose wisely". What a great thing to say. It is true that they did not choose wisely when it came to life or death.

Then the "we don't know what we are going to find" statement. They are just hoping they find some people who are still alive. Someone who might have made it through the storm. Even though they had been asked to leave and had been given a chance of salvation BEFORE it got bad.

I know that these were all written in response to Ike, however, I think I have read them out of scripture in some form or another.

Church, we have to grab a hold of the depth of these statements, and choices, made by people in Texas. We have to understand them in spiritual ways. We have people around us that are not heeding the warnings that are being given. Yes, there are people in this world who are not making commitments to follow Christ, but they are not the ones I'm talking to here.

If you notice, these people of Texas knew better. It's not like this is the first hurricane they have experienced or at least read about. But, they still made the choice to not go to safety, not to get out when they could. Church, fellow Christ follower, this is too many of us. We know better, we have heard the bull horns yelling, we know where safety is, we know we must get out…but we sadly refuse, choosing to hold on and do what we want. We have been given the chance to get out of the world for a long time, but we are too stupid, deciding we will ride this one out. We CAN NOT be participants of this world and not expect to get overwhelmed by the waves of sin and the winds of Satan, not to mention all the stuff that gets picked up and flung at us. Why do we still sit, expecting that nothing will happen to us? Ignoring the warning bells. Turning a blind eye and a deaf ear to the worldly things in OUR life.

Jesus said for us not to be a part of this world. Light and dark can't mix. Light is suppose to take over darkness, not become it. Are we happy enough to be un-salty? Jesus says later on, that He won't take in those who have refused to come out of the world, remember the hot and cold and luke warm thing? I know that it is tough. I don't say these things with condemnation, but with love and sorrow. I don't say this with judgment or blame, but with a burden for the church. I say these things with what I believe is just one more warning from the Creator. A warning that right now it is not too late, but we must get ourselves out, before it is too late and what we hear is not the bull horn…but the trumpet blast! Then it's too late.