This Saturday marks the 20th anniversary of the September 11 bombings. Terrorists launched coordinated attacks on the U.S. using airplanes as their weapons. Nearly 3,000 people were killed.
Greg Asimakoupoulos (pastor and author) shared the following true story from an article originally published in the Wall Street Journal (October 12, 2001).
The weekend following September 11th, syndicated columnist and former presidential speechwriter Peggy Noonan drove to Lower Manhattan to witness the relief effort taking place at Ground Zero. She found herself focusing on the convoy of trucks filled with rescue workers coming off their 12-hour shifts. The men in the trucks were construction and electrical workers, police, emergency medical workers, and firemen. It was a procession of the not-so-rich and famous.
Nonetheless, these New Yorkers were celebrities in a human drama more significant than any Broadway act. Noonan joined the growing crowd of onlookers cheering the workers with shouts of “God bless you!” and “We love you!” They clapped and blew kisses.
Noonan writes: I looked around me at all of us who were cheering. And saw who we were. Investment bankers! Orthodontists! Magazine editors! In my group, a lawyer, a columnist, and a writer. We had been the kings and queens of the city, respected professionals in a city that respects its professional class.
And this night we were nobody. We were so useless, all we could do was applaud the somebodies, the workers who, unlike us, had not been applauded much in their lives.… I was so moved and, oddly I guess, grateful. Because they’d always been the people who ran the place, who kept it going; they’d just never been given their due.
Asimakoupoulos concludes: “This reversal Peggy Noonan witnessed is nothing less than a foreshadowing of what Jesus talked about. A day is coming when the first shall be last and the last shall be first.”
What did the evil and turmoil and chaos of September 11 reveal to you? In the days following the attacks, I witnessed a number of people in my neighborhood and community openly weeping. I’m confident they were feeling compassion for the families who had lost their loved ones and the heroes who had given their lives. But it struck me that many were no doubt experiencing Fear that, despite the fact that this attack had taken place thousands of miles away, it had happened in our own nation, our own backyard. And it could have been them on the planes; they could have been the ones who lost their lives. I suspect some of their tears were for themselves.
Even months later, people in the congregation I pastored mentioned that they were not ready to fly. They were hesitant about getting into an airplane and having the same thing happen to them!
Friends, God is in Control! Jesus Christ is the Victor! No matter what trouble comes our way – terrorist attacks, Covid19, financial instability, government chaos – Jesus can take care of it. He defeated death, hell and the grave. There is Nothing too hard for Him! He is Bigger than any problem and Greater than any foe.
The book of the Revelation describes His triumph. Look to Him and be saved. Get on the Winning side!
This Sunday, September 12, we will consider the question, “How should a Christian respond to Evil?” Thankfully the Bible gives us Hope! Please join us in-person in the building at 10:35am for worship. If not, please join us online for the Live broadcast on either Facebook (Search: Honolulu AG) or our YouTube channel (Search: Honolulu Assembly of God). A link will be posted later here to our website.
Coming Up: Compassion Sunday with Pastor Ron Peer and River of Life Mission on September 19.
Aloha and Aloha ke Akua!