Keeping The Faith
“O Timothy! Guard what was committed to your trust” 1Timothy 6:20
The tiny Pacific island of Nauru is located between Hawaii and Australia. It is inhabited by some 13,500 people. It is only twelve miles in circumference and eight square miles in total area. At one time, it was a pristine paradise with sufficient resources to take care of its population. That is no longer the case.
Nauru is rich in phosphate, an ingredient in fertilizer and a much sought after commodity. At one time, because of this valuable mineral, the Island nation boasted of the second highest gross national product per citizen in the world. Over the last century, almost every ounce of the phosphate has been strip-mined leaving the Island’s interior decimated. The native population has been spoiled by the riches the phosphate bought. They adopted a western diet and now are a world leader in per capita diabetes and obesity.
With its national resources squandered, the tiny country found itself bankrupt and began allowing offshore drilling for oil in abundance and became a holding place for dangerous unwanted refugees. Today, electricity is rationed and the infrastructure is crumbling. Fifty percent of the working force is unemployed. There is serious talk of simply abandoning the Island and relocating everyone somewhere else.
When I think about this tragic Island I can’t help but think of the evangelical church in America. We are rich beyond belief in Christ. We have, however, not guarded that which has been entrusted to us. We have allowed ourselves to be stripped of our blessings in the name of prosperity. We have adopted the world’s diet of materialism and accommodation, and we have become religiously fat and spiritually unhealthy. Our churches are being abandoned by the next generation because we offer them nothing of substance. We have not kept the faith.
Keeping the faith... that is our theme for this fall. Nearly twenty centuries ago the Apostle Paul felt the need to charge his spiritual son in the faith, Timothy. He proclaimed, “O Timothy! Guard what was committed to your trust” (1 Timothy 6:20). Today we do well to heed his words and go and do likewise.
Rarely does a month go by that a prominent Christian or Pastor is not implicated in a scandal. The airways are filled with many national ministries whose message qualifies at best as Christianity Lite and at worst as heresy. Doctrinal truths once held so dear are now negotiable.
On a more personal note, we all know of professing believers who are no longer active in church. We know of others who are essentially going through the motions when it comes to the things of God. Sadly, many of us can probably identify a few who have completely left our Lord.
Jude, the brother of our Lord, in his short epistle wrote, “I found it necessary to write to you exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints.” (Jude 3) This is an important command to obey. It is, however, a command we don’t seem to know how to follow.
Beginning September 9th and continuing for the next 12 weeks, we will be studying the Bible’s instructions regarding how we can keep the faith. The book of First Timothy will be our guide. I cannot think of a timelier message for God’s church and God’s people in these perilous times. Please make every effort to join us for this critical series. See you Sunday. Until then, keep the faith!
Sunday, September 23, 2007
It’s Not Just Another Day
It’s Not Just Another Day
Last year we observed the Fifth Anniversary of the terror attacks on our country. Here in our city there were tears, moments of silence and various commemorations. My daughter, who saw the Towers in flames as she walked to her High School, sent me an Instant Message from her out of state college. She was frustrated and angry. “They don’t understand” she wrote from her campus. Some of my own friends who have moved out of state called me on that day. They were appalled. Their neighbors were treating September 11th just like any other day.
This coming Tuesday is not just another day. We can never let it be just that. September 11, 2001 was the day the world changed. It was the day terror fell from the sky. It was the day the unthinkable became a stark reality. It was the day we realized how vulnerable we are and how powerless our government can be. It was the day “In God We Trust” became more than a sound byte on our currency. It became all we had.
I know that many want to move that day to the furthest recesses of their minds, but in this city we can’t. We have 2752 families whose loved ones were victims of that unspeakable horror. We continue to have a giant bull’s eye on our collective backs for the terrorists to take aim at. We have a skyline that looks like a giant jigsaw puzzle with two important pieces missing. September 11th is not just another day, and we can never let it become such.
Some 2900 years ago, the writer of Ecclesiastes penned, “There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven: a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot….a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance…. (3:1-4)”. There is an appropriate time for everything we must do.
On 9/11 it is our time to mourn with those who lost so much six years ago. It is our time to weep for our collective losses. It is our time to remember the heroism of 23 of our Finest and 37 Port Authority Police Officers who died protecting and serving us. It is our time to pay homage to 342 of our Bravest (78 from our Borough) who ran into danger, saving thousands of lives while losing their own. It’s not appropriate for this date to be just another day.
Ecclesiastes goes on to say that there is, “a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them, a time to embrace and a time to refrain” (3:5). Tuesday is also our time to embrace those who are with us. We should honor firefighters, cops, and EMS workers. We should applaud those everyday heroes who in spite of their fears go into work just a few blocks from Ground Zero. They have chosen not to be victims but victors. We should embrace them, we should thank them and we should emulate them.
In Ecclesiastes we also read, “He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end” (3:12). Though our souls will live forever, we cannot presently understand all of God’s plans. Right now, it is impossible for us to comprehend how God can make an event like 9/11 into a thing of beauty. Yet He can, and He will. It is not yet our time to fully understand, but the Scriptures also tell us, “Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.” Until then, “It’s not just another day”.
Last year we observed the Fifth Anniversary of the terror attacks on our country. Here in our city there were tears, moments of silence and various commemorations. My daughter, who saw the Towers in flames as she walked to her High School, sent me an Instant Message from her out of state college. She was frustrated and angry. “They don’t understand” she wrote from her campus. Some of my own friends who have moved out of state called me on that day. They were appalled. Their neighbors were treating September 11th just like any other day.
This coming Tuesday is not just another day. We can never let it be just that. September 11, 2001 was the day the world changed. It was the day terror fell from the sky. It was the day the unthinkable became a stark reality. It was the day we realized how vulnerable we are and how powerless our government can be. It was the day “In God We Trust” became more than a sound byte on our currency. It became all we had.
I know that many want to move that day to the furthest recesses of their minds, but in this city we can’t. We have 2752 families whose loved ones were victims of that unspeakable horror. We continue to have a giant bull’s eye on our collective backs for the terrorists to take aim at. We have a skyline that looks like a giant jigsaw puzzle with two important pieces missing. September 11th is not just another day, and we can never let it become such.
Some 2900 years ago, the writer of Ecclesiastes penned, “There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven: a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot….a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance…. (3:1-4)”. There is an appropriate time for everything we must do.
On 9/11 it is our time to mourn with those who lost so much six years ago. It is our time to weep for our collective losses. It is our time to remember the heroism of 23 of our Finest and 37 Port Authority Police Officers who died protecting and serving us. It is our time to pay homage to 342 of our Bravest (78 from our Borough) who ran into danger, saving thousands of lives while losing their own. It’s not appropriate for this date to be just another day.
Ecclesiastes goes on to say that there is, “a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them, a time to embrace and a time to refrain” (3:5). Tuesday is also our time to embrace those who are with us. We should honor firefighters, cops, and EMS workers. We should applaud those everyday heroes who in spite of their fears go into work just a few blocks from Ground Zero. They have chosen not to be victims but victors. We should embrace them, we should thank them and we should emulate them.
In Ecclesiastes we also read, “He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end” (3:12). Though our souls will live forever, we cannot presently understand all of God’s plans. Right now, it is impossible for us to comprehend how God can make an event like 9/11 into a thing of beauty. Yet He can, and He will. It is not yet our time to fully understand, but the Scriptures also tell us, “Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.” Until then, “It’s not just another day”.
It rained today on 9/11
It rained today on 9/11 and it seemed so out of place
I guess it’s the first time on the Anniversary the heavens have been unfavorable toward us
But it is an intermittent and inconsistent rain, not a hard driving storm like we had some six years ago.
The sky was cloudless and the sun shined brightly that September morning
But it rained that day, oh how it rained.
It rained terror and fear as first one plane and then another plummeted the skyline of the place we call home.
And it rained horror, unspeakable horror as debris and people, yes people, fell from the sky with twisted steel and melted soot and ash
A flood of pain, hurt, and grief followed that bitter driving storm
The waters almost devoured us and most certainly overwhelmed us
Like the rains of late fall it made the trees so barren and life so cold.
It chilled us to the bone and we wished so badly that we could come in out of the rain,
but it seemed there was no shelter, no place to hide, the rain was everywhere
Serendipitously another storm followed, a much different kind of rain let loose.
It was a much needed deluge of hope, strength, and mercy poured out by heaven,
The second storm diluted the first with heroism, courage and grace.
Were it not for this second storm we may not have survived.
Yes it rained today on 9/11, much like it did six years ago
I guess it’s the first time on the Anniversary the heavens have been unfavorable toward us
But it is an intermittent and inconsistent rain, not a hard driving storm like we had some six years ago.
The sky was cloudless and the sun shined brightly that September morning
But it rained that day, oh how it rained.
It rained terror and fear as first one plane and then another plummeted the skyline of the place we call home.
And it rained horror, unspeakable horror as debris and people, yes people, fell from the sky with twisted steel and melted soot and ash
A flood of pain, hurt, and grief followed that bitter driving storm
The waters almost devoured us and most certainly overwhelmed us
Like the rains of late fall it made the trees so barren and life so cold.
It chilled us to the bone and we wished so badly that we could come in out of the rain,
but it seemed there was no shelter, no place to hide, the rain was everywhere
Serendipitously another storm followed, a much different kind of rain let loose.
It was a much needed deluge of hope, strength, and mercy poured out by heaven,
The second storm diluted the first with heroism, courage and grace.
Were it not for this second storm we may not have survived.
Yes it rained today on 9/11, much like it did six years ago
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)