September 11, 2008

We once lived in a world where we could not imagine the events of September 11, 2001 actually happening to us.  In a heartbeat, our lives, our hearts, our very souls were changed forever by that enourmous display of unmitigated evil.  It did not affect just the people who worked in the financial district of New York City, just New Yorkers in general, just Americans…no.  The world cried out and grieved and mourned.  Seven years later, we still carry a sinking feeling in our spirits when we find ourselves planning something for that day, writing the date on a check, or putting together a post like this.  That is natural and correct.  What seems out of place is that we seem to have so quickly allowed our memories to dim the other 364 days of the year. Let this page stand, then, as a daily reminder to me and to anyone who visits, that we must remain on guard against evil in all its forms.  We must not lull ourselves into the perilous belief that it could never happen again or that it isn’t being planned every day in places we almost never think about.  We have enemies.  We need God on our side, today and every day.  We achieve that by being on His side and walking in obedience.

2 Chronicals 7:14 if My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.

Romans 8:31 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? 33 Who shall bring a charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. 34 Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us. 35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? 36 As it is written: “For Your sake we are killed all day long; We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.”  37 Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. 38 For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, 39 nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Isaiah 54:13 All your children shall be taught by the Lord, And great shall be the peace of your children. 14 In righteousness you shall be established; You shall be far from oppression, for you shall not fear; And from terror, for it shall not come near you. 15 Indeed they shall surely assemble, but not because of Me. Whoever assembles against you shall fall for your sake. 16 “Behold, I have created the blacksmith Who blows the coals in the fire, Who brings forth an instrument for his work; And I have created the spoiler to destroy. 17 No weapon formed against you shall prosper, And every tongue which rises against you in judgment You shall condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, And their righteousness is from Me,” Says the Lord.

Here is an online memorial from CNN.  A comprehensive list of those lost that day.