I remember where I was when JFK and Jack Ruby were shot…when ML King and
RFK were shot. I remember when my friend became a Vietnam casualty, when I
received my draft notice, and when Nixon resigned. I remember the ’68
Democratic convention, Reagan being shot, the Challenger exploding,
President Bush Sr. declaring war on Iraq, the Oklahoma City bombing, Waco,
the first bombing of the Trade Center, and Columbine. And now I remember,
like you, watching helplessly while a handful of fanatics in hijacked jets
murdered thousands of innocent people. I never thought this would happen to
us, on our land. I’ll never forget September 11, 2001.
I can’t even express my feelings. I’m numb and near tears for what has
happened to our nation and the free world. Now I know how my parents felt on
December 7, 1941. We are again at war. I support and pray for our elected
leaders to do the right thing.
I don’t want to discount the pain and carnage our nation is experiencing,
but I also would like to look at this tragedy from another perspective.
Could this be a wakeup call for Christians in America?
Romans 13:11-14 could easily apply to us, “The hour has come for you to wake
up from your slumber, because our salvation is nearer now than when we first
believed. The night is nearly over; the day is almost here. So let us put
aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light. Let us behave
decently, as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual
immorality and debauchery, not in dissension and jealousy. Rather, clothe
yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify
the desires of the sinful nature.”
We are in another war – a spiritual war that is even more devastating than
the recent destruction of the World Trade Center. This spiritual war is
against a fully armed invisible enemy whose purpose is to destroy us –
physically and spiritually. I believe that the vast majority of his
ammunition is coming at us from the entertainment media. This spiritual war
is insidious – instead of the pain and destruction of the physical war our
country is now experiencing, the spiritual war is literally “entertaining us
to death” with “deeds of darkness, sexual immorality and debauchery.”
Colossians 2:8 warns us to not let others spoil our faith and joy with their
philosophies which are wrong, shallow answers because they are based on
men’s thoughts and ideas instead of what Christ has said. Isn’t this is a
description of the majority of today’s entertainment – some man or woman’s
thought and idea? Add a tune to it and it’s called music, put it on video
and it becomes a TV program, on celluloid and it’s a movie. If it is against
biblical values and we still chose to entertain ourselves with it,
eventually it will undermine our faith and joy in Jesus. As Keith Green once
sang, “We are asleep (slumbering) in the light.”
As we remember the victims and the resulting tension World Trade Center
tragedy will bring in the world around us. Let us also remember the other
very real war – the war for our spiritual lives. There is very little we can
do personally about September 11 except to pray, donate blood, and follow
the leadership of our president. But there is much we can do in the
spiritual war. We can start by “not gratifying our sinful desires” with
today’s entertainment, but “clothing ourselves in Christ.”
Just as we are starting to understand that we are in a physical war against
some power that hates America and is trying to destroy us, we must also
understand that we are in a spiritual war against a power that hates us and
is trying to destroy our spiritual life.
This is war. Let September 11 be our wake up call.
