We don't need halloween this year with all the horror already before us. Those 19 suicide terrorists that started this war have reminded me of that EgyptAir 990 jetliner that dove into the Atlantic just nine minutes after leaving NYC. It must have set some of our leaders considering a possible war to come. Our National Transportation Safety Board concluded that all 217 aboard were a sort of ritual sacrifice made by the co-pilot. His prayer to Allah was on the pilot recorder, though Egypt claimed it was misunderstood by the Americans. So the report was kept low key for the sake of international relations. That was back in October of '99 and now I wonder if it was a sign of so much worse to come. Even all those sharks around Florida making so many attacks were seen in this column as more than mere nature and possible warnings of far worse evil ahead. The fact that it was around the state most crucial in choosing our president in 2000 seemed symbolic to me. I've compared sharks to Leviathan, that monster of the deep mentioned in Scripture (where "whale" is another comparison) to represent Satan. Now that monster has surfaced into our global consciousness as an international network of terrorism. The devil is elusive and hides behind lies or deception, his favorite facade being religion. How he loves to pervert it. He's even been able to seduce many religious people into thinking he's only an abstraction, just a figure of speech. Yet what other power could twist Muslim minds into believing they would gain great gratification in the hereafter by leaving all to horribly murder unsuspecting men, women and children plus themselves? I once tried to speak of "religionless Christianity" as Dietrich Bonhoeffer did. But I came to see that as an oxymoron since Christianity is a religion. Then I came to see that being human is to be religious. There's no escape. Even the irreligious have their faith in something, man if not GOD. Lately I've used that politically correct expression "people of faith" to include all moral and decent religious souls. But now I see those of false faith too, which makes such a description inadequate. So "people of true faith" might be a better inclusive designation, though Christ is the Truth for me. Maybe "souls against Satan" would be accurate. I watched part of the prayer service Sunday in Yankee Stadium which Ophra Winfrey and James Earl Jones hosted and sensed a new kind of unity among folks from various religions. That may become a trend and I don't know just what to make of it; God fearing but holy? Secular is the worldly style and we've been forced that way with our public life to avoid religious rivalry. We even make atheists feel comfortable. Then we have a rift between the sacred and the secular, which we have come to equate with church and state. Such is a serious mis-conception since the state, though it may appear unGodly, is divinely ordained the same as the church. Now this new unity, as shown in that prayer time, against the devil and for the U.S.A. may afford us Christians a fresh opportunity for offering Christ to those who don't know Him (and won't take Christianity). Jesus brings men into the Kingdom of heaven instead of a particular religion. And He's surely coming back soon for all those who've claimed their higher citizenship by accepting Him as Lord and Savior. May our renewed patriotism move in that direction as the Day of the Lord approaches..
We've been told that the terrorists were trying to topple the WTC twin towers back in '93 with that first bombing attack. So they figured out an incredibly more effective method to use on Sept.11. Why would the World Trade Center continue to be their target? It must be their hatred of our commercial civilization and our military that protect us, since they added the Pentagon too. The stock market really took a dive in days following, despite all the patriotic talk of heading it off. Thank heaven it regained on Monday and still holding Tuesday because some were loyal enough, though the airline industry remains in bad shape because of the federal shut down to prevent other terrorist hijackings. Now with skymarshals, folks that need to fly should not yield to fear since that gives the terrorists another victory. The same is true of our economy. We're told in Hebrews 12:27 of a shaking of the foundations at the close of this age. Well it's here, the show down. If our nation has been built on the Rock, it will stand. Otherwise, it falls like a house of cards. Remember how the image from a poker game got us through that great depression, "The New Deal." Lord you've dealt us a new hand to play in this hour. Help us have the guts(faith) to play and win by Thy grace in this jihad game of poker. Amen
"Precious Memories" is a funeral song that evokes great sadness. So I've used that tune for this song description of 9-11-01,"Awful Memories." It's a kind of funeral dirge for our whole nation: Tragic Tuesday seemed like Doomsday, O're our land it cast a pall!! Airplanes crashing, jet fuel splashing, Causing buildings high to fall! Thousands dying. rubble flying down to pile up over all. Nation's shaken, faith awakens, soon upon the LORD to call.
Millions wonder at the thunder while great throngs all fled away. Cameras capture like a rapture pictures of escape, I'd say. Outward streaming, with some screaming. They went running far to stay. Streets were smoking, crowds were choking. There was sure no time to pray.
I plan to add some more verses but they haven't come to me yet as these did. It's just over two weeks later and already a report was on TV that the religious surge is wearing away. Are we so foolish as to go back to our old ways without any conversion to greater Godliness? Surely we won't just leave it to military strength to keep us safe. Thank GOD we have them. Therefore we owe Him for our safety, as well as the armed forces. And this nation's motto must be burned more deeply in it's soul or we are hopelessly callous. If that should prove the case, then we surely need a "call to repentance." But I'm seeing divine grace as bringing great good out of that enormous evil, resurrection out of death, the positive of that ultimate plus sign, the Cross of Christ Jesus. If we are just set on getting even, then I'm gravely concerned for America's future. Now that we're told that the terrorists were aiming to hit so many other major cities, we'll have a lot more to reckon with unless the Lord gives our forces victory in stamping it out all over the world. And it will be like fighting cancer. We can't afford to miss a single malignant cell. So the chemo and radiation will be tough to endure. But the alternative is totally unacceptable. A large part of our treatment will be a more strict set of moral observances; perhaps a Puritan new age that will curtail our craze for sensuality, lewdness, depravity, perversion in our entertainment.