"I have no pleasure in the death of anyone says the
Lord God." Ezekiel 18:32
I
was in New York City on 9/11 and as a matter of fact I had just moved there the
day before. It was a very hard time to be there but at the same time it was a
wonderful opportunity do to some reflecting. I want to share a journal entry
that I wrote one afternoon just a short while after 9/11 while I was waiting for
the fairy to take me into New York City from Staten Island. I think back to the
day that I wrote this and it is still fresh in my mind but I know that God is
still in control. We need to remember this even now. Please read this and pass
it on to anyone you think may reap from its message.
Be Blessed
amy
“I have no pleasure in the death of anyone says the Lord God.” Ezekiel 18:32
As I sit on the shore side at the Minor League Baseball Stadium on Staten Island listening to the lapping waves of the Hudson River and trying not to sniff the faint fish odor I look out across the water into the foggy haze at only an outline of the city. Without the World Trade Center buildings looming high above the concrete jungle, from this point of view the city seems dwarfed somehow, even more so today in the haze. Lady Liberty is tiny from here, not that she’s all that big to begin with. What I notice about her is that her face in some small semblance of fate is turned so that only her peripheral view can see that remaining rubble of those destroying moments. I think that it is fitting that she didn’t have to watch it happen and that only a glimpse of that day was caught by her. That is how America one day will see it, as only a glimpse, like so many other history making events that have taken place in the course of our nation’s life. We will not spend needless hours of watching and waiting, but we will see it as a glimpse of our past. We know that it happened but we must remain standing, like Lady Liberty, to say that life goes on and we stand up for great things!
The haze of this day is a reminder that the memory of 9-11-01 will, even though it is hard to imagine, one day be a hazy memory. Don’t get me wrong, this day for some will never weaver in brightness or rather I should say darkness but to the countless rest of the people who were in no way connected other than being alive, being American, and watching the news will realize that this become a memory of “where I was on that day”. It reminds me of the way America sees the death of President Kennedy. I was not alive then so I only have film and stories from others about the terrible day. This too will be the way 9/11 will be seen by generations in the future. In no way do I intend to down play this most horrible tragedy of 9/11 but in all ways I do intend to remind everyone that there is something bigger than all this, and that something is someone. God! He loves you and He loved and cared about each one of those lost lives from that day, yes, even the men who carried out the horrible task.
I don’t want to discuss the issues of if this was God’s plan or the devil’s plan except that there are a few Scriptures that we can look at to see what part belonged to whom. The fact of the matter is that God is in control and all the Glory will go to Him in the end. If you see 9/11 as an act of God to wake us up or if you see it as an act of the devil to destroy us, either way there is only one way to turn and that is up toward God. A quote from the book Desiring God by John Piper helped me see clearly how I should view this event. The quote says, “How can God be happy and decree calamity? Consider that he has the capacity to view the world through two lenses. Through the narrow one He is grieved and angered at sin and pain. Through the wide one He sees evil in relation to its eternal purposes. Reality is like a mosaic. The parts may be ugly in themselves, but the whole is beautiful.” And also quoted from the same book, “If God reigns as sovereign over the world, then the evil of the world is not outside His design.” Amos 3:6 “Does evil befall a city, unless the Lord has done it?” This may sound harsh and like it is an action from an unloving God but please, I encourage you to take some time and search the Scriptures to see that God’s plan will not cease no matter how painful it may be for us. In the end He always follows His plan. Here are a few verses that I found:
Lamentations 2:11 “My eyes fail from weeping, I am in torment within, my heart is poured out on the ground because my people are destroyed, because children and infants faint in the streets of the city.”
Be Blessed
amy
“I have no pleasure in the death of anyone says the Lord God.” Ezekiel 18:32
As I sit on the shore side at the Minor League Baseball Stadium on Staten Island listening to the lapping waves of the Hudson River and trying not to sniff the faint fish odor I look out across the water into the foggy haze at only an outline of the city. Without the World Trade Center buildings looming high above the concrete jungle, from this point of view the city seems dwarfed somehow, even more so today in the haze. Lady Liberty is tiny from here, not that she’s all that big to begin with. What I notice about her is that her face in some small semblance of fate is turned so that only her peripheral view can see that remaining rubble of those destroying moments. I think that it is fitting that she didn’t have to watch it happen and that only a glimpse of that day was caught by her. That is how America one day will see it, as only a glimpse, like so many other history making events that have taken place in the course of our nation’s life. We will not spend needless hours of watching and waiting, but we will see it as a glimpse of our past. We know that it happened but we must remain standing, like Lady Liberty, to say that life goes on and we stand up for great things!
The haze of this day is a reminder that the memory of 9-11-01 will, even though it is hard to imagine, one day be a hazy memory. Don’t get me wrong, this day for some will never weaver in brightness or rather I should say darkness but to the countless rest of the people who were in no way connected other than being alive, being American, and watching the news will realize that this become a memory of “where I was on that day”. It reminds me of the way America sees the death of President Kennedy. I was not alive then so I only have film and stories from others about the terrible day. This too will be the way 9/11 will be seen by generations in the future. In no way do I intend to down play this most horrible tragedy of 9/11 but in all ways I do intend to remind everyone that there is something bigger than all this, and that something is someone. God! He loves you and He loved and cared about each one of those lost lives from that day, yes, even the men who carried out the horrible task.
I don’t want to discuss the issues of if this was God’s plan or the devil’s plan except that there are a few Scriptures that we can look at to see what part belonged to whom. The fact of the matter is that God is in control and all the Glory will go to Him in the end. If you see 9/11 as an act of God to wake us up or if you see it as an act of the devil to destroy us, either way there is only one way to turn and that is up toward God. A quote from the book Desiring God by John Piper helped me see clearly how I should view this event. The quote says, “How can God be happy and decree calamity? Consider that he has the capacity to view the world through two lenses. Through the narrow one He is grieved and angered at sin and pain. Through the wide one He sees evil in relation to its eternal purposes. Reality is like a mosaic. The parts may be ugly in themselves, but the whole is beautiful.” And also quoted from the same book, “If God reigns as sovereign over the world, then the evil of the world is not outside His design.” Amos 3:6 “Does evil befall a city, unless the Lord has done it?” This may sound harsh and like it is an action from an unloving God but please, I encourage you to take some time and search the Scriptures to see that God’s plan will not cease no matter how painful it may be for us. In the end He always follows His plan. Here are a few verses that I found:
Lamentations 2:11 “My eyes fail from weeping, I am in torment within, my heart is poured out on the ground because my people are destroyed, because children and infants faint in the streets of the city.”
Lamentations 3:37-38 “Who can speak and have
it happen if the Lord has not decreed it? Is it not from the mouth of the Most
High that both calamities and good things come?”
Revelation 17:17 “For God has put it into
their hearts to accomplish His purpose by agreeing to give the beast their power
to rule, until God’s words are fulfilled.”
I know that this may be hard to take but it is true. Even harder to take is the fact that thousands of those lost that day was just that, lost. They will spend an eternity in hell. I think about the pictures that I saw on the news where the people on the floors above where the airplane hit the towers were hanging out of the windows trying to escape the intense heat from the fire that the airplane fuel ignited and I wondered if those people were going to be entering into a fire much hotter of which they can never escape……. We can’t say that God was mean for taking them this way knowing so many would go to hell, but the fact of the matter is that none of us knows which day will be our last. Friend, I urge you with all that is within me to ask Jesus Christ to come into your heart and save you. We all need to be saved because we all have sinned. Romans 3:23 “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” That sin has separated us from God and when we die in our sin then we are forever separated from Him but He has given us a gift to take instead. Romans 6:23 “For the wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” How and why did God give us this gift? John 3:16 “ For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” God loved us from the beginning and He showed us His love by giving us His son. Romans 5:8 “But God demonstrates His own love for us in this: while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” What right does this give you? John 1:12 “Yet to all who received Him, to those who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God.” You see satan intends for us to be destroyed, he is like a thief that comes and steals from you, but God has a better plan. John 10:10 “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy, I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.” Jesus is asking you now to let Him into your heart and allow Him to become the Lord of your life to save you from an eternity in hell. Revelation 3:20 “Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him and he with me.”
Make the decision today to accept Christ and if you already know Jesus as your personal Savior than please tell those around you about Him.
I know that this may be hard to take but it is true. Even harder to take is the fact that thousands of those lost that day was just that, lost. They will spend an eternity in hell. I think about the pictures that I saw on the news where the people on the floors above where the airplane hit the towers were hanging out of the windows trying to escape the intense heat from the fire that the airplane fuel ignited and I wondered if those people were going to be entering into a fire much hotter of which they can never escape……. We can’t say that God was mean for taking them this way knowing so many would go to hell, but the fact of the matter is that none of us knows which day will be our last. Friend, I urge you with all that is within me to ask Jesus Christ to come into your heart and save you. We all need to be saved because we all have sinned. Romans 3:23 “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” That sin has separated us from God and when we die in our sin then we are forever separated from Him but He has given us a gift to take instead. Romans 6:23 “For the wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” How and why did God give us this gift? John 3:16 “ For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” God loved us from the beginning and He showed us His love by giving us His son. Romans 5:8 “But God demonstrates His own love for us in this: while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” What right does this give you? John 1:12 “Yet to all who received Him, to those who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God.” You see satan intends for us to be destroyed, he is like a thief that comes and steals from you, but God has a better plan. John 10:10 “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy, I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.” Jesus is asking you now to let Him into your heart and allow Him to become the Lord of your life to save you from an eternity in hell. Revelation 3:20 “Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him and he with me.”
Make the decision today to accept Christ and if you already know Jesus as your personal Savior than please tell those around you about Him.
