Do YOU Remember?

Where were you seven years ago today?
Do you remember how you felt when you saw the images of flames shooting out of the twin towers and smoke ascending from the Pentagon? I remember!

And, I also remember the days that followed 9/11/01! I remember the courtesy in shopping lines, the open friendliness on the street, the time to talk and share and even cry. I remember the people that gathered in churches across these United States to pray and just to be together.
Then, once the crisis passed, America quickly returned to the old patterns. The God that we sought when desperate, was soon relegated to the back shelf, and wickedness increased all the more. Pleasure, sex, greed, and injustice became even more widespread. We are like ancient Rome demanding that our emperor bring us pleasure even as the culture collapses into greater depravity year by year.

I wonder what might have happened if genuine spiritual renewal had taken root broadly across the nation seven years ago, don't you?
Would the national economy be in tatters because of Wall Street greed, mortgages issued on flimsy hopes of continuing property value escalation, and a ruinous war debt?
Would we have continued to consume energy in ever bigger houses and cars, or would we have chosen a more sane route of increased supply and conservation that would have kept energy affordable for all?
Would the 2008 election debates be about how to take care of those in need of health care, how to assure the well-being of our increasingly aging population, and how to strengthen families that are the foundation of a solid, prosperous nation instead of silly debates about celebrity, moose hunting, and lipstick on pigs? (If you haven't been tuned for the last couple of days, you won't get that one!)

On the Sunday following the tragic events of 9/11/01, here's what I said across the pulpit. I think it's still worth saying, probably even more so today. My three major points that Sunday were: _______________________________

1. Jesus reminds us that turmoil and uncertainty will be a part of life, but we need not be PANICKED!

2. Take precautions to keep yourself from becoming spiritually dull because of excessive entanglement with the affairs of this transitory world.

3. Faithfulness is required. So, He calls us to "Be always on the watch... pray for strength...."

"The events of this week do not necessarily point to the imminent return of Christ, but they do remind us that we are soldiers on duty in the ongoing battle with evil. Our response? We must re-double our commitment to the cause of Christ. We need to hear these tragedies as a wake-up call to those who call themselves Believers. I thought of Jesus' words that are recorded in Revelation 3:14-21: (The Message) are particularly appropriate:

'Write to Laodicea, to the Angel of the church. God's Yes, the Faithful and Accurate Witness, the First of God's creation, says: "I know you inside and out, and find little to my liking. You're not cold, you're not hot--far better to be either cold or hot! You're stale. You're stagnant. You make me want to vomit. You brag, 'I'm rich, I've got it made, I need nothing from anyone,' oblivious that in fact you're a pitiful, blind beggar, threadbare and homeless.

Here's what I want you to do: Buy your gold from me, gold that's been through the refiner's fire. Then you'll be rich. Buy your clothes from me, clothes designed in Heaven. You've gone around half-naked long enough. And buy medicine for your eyes from me so you can see, really see.The people I love, I call to account--prod and correct and guide so that they'll live at their best. Up on your feet, then! About face! Run after God!

Look at me. I stand at the door. I knock. If you hear me call and open the door, I'll come right in and sit down to supper with you. Conquerors will sit alongside me at the head table, just as I, having conquered, took the place of honor at the side of my Father. That's my gift to the conquerors! "Are your ears awake? Listen. Listen to the Wind Words, the Spirit blowing through the churches.'

Has prosperity caused you to put God on life's back burner?
Has comfort caused you to treat God as irrelevant?

Jesus said that the kind of terrors that fell on us this week will be an occasion for true disciples to show their colors, to demonstrate the reality of the Gospel's transforming truth.

Friends and family will ask 'why' and look for hope. Don't give them platitudes or sensational prophecies, born in the fertile imaginations of TV preachers. Instead, tell them you too are amazed by the mysteries of God's plan, but that you are secure in the certainty of God's power to do all that He planned including keeping YOU spiritually safe.The Apostle Paul, sat on Death Row in Rome, and wrote: "I am not ashamed, because I know whom I have believed, and am convinced that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him for that day. "

Answer those who ask the great 'what' questions with both words and actions.
What is the meaning of life?
What is our purpose?
We can explain that we live in a world filled with sin and men controlled by sinful human nature. We can, boldly declare, that those whose hope is fixed in this temporary world will always be disappointed and have a life without a solid foundation. When people are afraid, insecure and have shattered hope in mankind, we can use this as an opportunity to share the hope of Jesus Christ. But our words only have the ring of authenticity IF others see that they are WORDS WE LIVE BY.

Are you afraid? Take another look at the Word of God which tells us this world is passing away and all that is in it. Those who hope in the world will be troubled and distressed. We who hope in Christ have peace and our peace becomes a testimony to draw others to the solid Rock, Jesus Christ."
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Though first spoken seven years, the message is still valid, disciple! Amen

Full text of that sermon can be read at http://www.washingtonag.com/whatnow.htm