September 15, 2001, Vol.1,
No.6.
Two new articles every two weeks.
Bible Question? E-mail
us.
THIS ISSUE: "Lessons
to Learn from September 11, 2001"
(see below)
and "Behold, a Sower Went
Out to Sow"
LESSONS to LEARN
from SEPTEMBER 11, 2001
by Tom Rainwater
Few events are as horrifying as what this country witnessed
on the morning of September 11, 2001. Thousands lost their lives
within a few moments when suicide terrorists took control of
four commercial airliners, intentionally slamming two of them
and their passengers into the World Trade Center Towers in New
York City and another into the Pentagon in Washington, D.C. The
video of a plane crashing into the South tower plus that of the
two towers crumbling to the ground will be forever etched in
our memories.
Our prayers to God are for those who have lost loved ones
and friends, and for those who bravely work in the rubble hoping
to rescue those who may still be alive, and for our President
who must make some difficult decisions in the coming days.
There is no question that the events of September 11 speak
loudly to us. Sobering lessons should be learned from what happened.
What are those lessons?
There is a Devil
Atheists typically and foolishly say that disaster and suffering
are proofs that there is no God. They miss a real and most obvious
proof: that evil events such as these prove there is a devil
and that we are at war with him.
Satan has been against mankind from the beginning. Jesus said
that "he was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not
in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh
a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father
of it." (John 8:44). The Apostle John said, "the devil
sinneth from the beginning." (1 John 3:8). John describes
him as "that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which
deceiveth the whole world" (Revelation 12:9). As Satan sought
to destroy Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden through temptation
(Genesis 3), and unsuccessfully tried to bring Job down through
grief and physical suffering (Job 1,2), he likewise seeks our
downfall today. The apostle Peter said, "Be sober, be vigilant;
because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh
about, seeking whom he may devour" (1 Peter 5:8). There
is no question that the devil works in the world today. The presence
of sin and suffering in this world is testimony enough that the
devil wars against us.
We CAN serve God in an evil
world
Too many people are deceived by the devil's temptations and
do many evil acts to others out of lust, hatred, and even in
the name of "religion." The good news is that we can
resist him and fight him together spiritually. "Your adversary,
the devil, prowls about like a roaring lion, seeking someone
to devour. But resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the
same experiences of suffering are being accomplished by your
brethren who are in the world." (1 Peter 5:8b-9 -NASB translation).
James said, "Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist
the devil, and he will flee from you." (James 4:7).
If Noah and his family could serve God in the midst of a world
totally given over to evil (Gen.6:5,8), then we can serve God
today no matter what evil exists around us.
The key to fighting Satan is submitting to God through His
Son and our Savior, Jesus Christ. When Jesus came to this earth,
the devil threw every evil thing that he could at Jesus. Satan
tried to tempt Jesus to sin, but Jesus resisted. Satan resorted
to bringing physical suffering and death upon Jesus through wicked
people. Jesus gained the victory over Satan and his allies by
becoming our pure sacrifice for sin on the cross and by being
raised from the dead. Hebrews 2:14 reads, "Forasmuch then
as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself
likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy
him that had the power of death, that is, the devil." John
says, "For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that
he might destroy the works of the devil." (1 John 3:8b).
The victory over the devil is already won. The devil knows
he is lost and doomed to Hell (Rev.20:10). Therefore he, out
of hatred, is going to try to take as many people with him as
he can. "Woe to the inhabiters of the earth and of the sea!
for the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because
he knoweth that he hath but a short time." (Revelation 12:12).
Will we let him take us down? Let's resist him and fight him
by believing and obeying our Lord Jesus Christ!
We do not know when we will
die
One of the lessons we can learn from September 11, 2001, is
that life is fragile and precious. None of us know when our own
lives may end. All those people in those buildings were either
going to work as usual, or they were visiting as tourists, or
they just happened to be there for whatever reason. None of them
expected to die that morning. Also those people that boarded
those planes were either going on vacation somewhere or were
flying on business or were headed home. Had they known ahead
of time what was to happen, none of them would have been on those
flights.
James says this about the uncertainty of tomorrow: "Come
now, you who say, 'Today or tomorrow, we shall go to such and
such a city, and spend a year there and engage in business and
make a profit.' Yet you do not know what your life will be like
tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while
and then vanishes away." (James 4:14-15 -NASB translation).
Death is a certain event. Are we prepared for it and what follows?
Hebrews 9:27 says, "And as it is appointed unto men once
to die, but after this the judgment."
There is a better place
Pain and suffering are cruel teachers. But one thing they
both clearly teach us is this: a better place exists beyond this
earth and this life. God has promised to all those who serve
Him an eternal home in Heaven, where "God shall wipe away
all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death,
neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain:
for the former things are passed away." (Revelation 21:4)
We will never again have to experience the pain and sadness we
did on September 11 or on any other day. "Blessed are they
that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree
of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city."
(Revelation 22:14).
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