Hello 92251 List Members & Blog Readers,
This is my annual 9/11 post, which is called a 9-1-1 post for the clear reasons stated below. This is the ten year anniversary of the day ISLAMIC TERRORISTS attacked America.
I certainly hope that awful day was a wake up call for you as it was for me. I became more aware and alert on several fronts. I spoke out more. I can recall so much of the day in detail, both what I saw on TV and how I interacted with people at work. It was a very personal attack, and it still is. I am no longer an active duty “First Responder,” but much of what I saw and learned is still with me because of my chosen profession, and it will not go away. It is still something I hold dear in my heart.
I saw that second plane hit on live TV. Even though I was not in New York City, I felt it deep inside. That took me back to the actual deadly plane crash I assisted with in San Diego. Unlike San Diego, I could not respond to New York or DC, and in part, that very much irritated me. It is what responders do. When everyone else is leaving, we go in.
It irritates me now to see the idiots in charge that now restrict the First Responders and the Christian and Jewish chaplains from praying at the event. I am irritated that the clowns in charge think more of an “Islamic Center” than our fallen and the rest whom it cost so dearly. It is irritating that we are being told not to speak of Al Qaeda. Politicians are back to forgetting the ONE GOD that so blessed this nation. They barely recall the nation God once blessed. I will bet none of them will call this Patriot Day.
Some of the contents of the post have changed, but not so much. The contents of list changed too after that day, particularly with some of the things I now write or comment on. I have no issue about saying ISLAMIC TERRORISTS – it is what they were and still are.
My wife and I have jackets that we wear each winter with portions of this post written on it. It is very special to me.
This was one of the posts I got to put up on a then recognized notable blog. If you click the link you won’t find it any longer. TownHall bought out The Conservative Voice, and took down the stuff us lesser known writers used to post.
Today – I am New York. Today – I am the District of Columbia. Today – I am Shanksville, Pennsylvania. Today – I am America. And it all brings a tear to my eyes. Can we not also yet be One Nation Under God?
When all others may falter, you remember! This is to the many fallen, that we can not ever bring back. Remember! לזכור
Godspeed,
Gill Rapoza
Veritas Vos Liberabit
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
9-1-1—or—Where Was God?
By Gill Rapoza
Original post was in 2001
Minor updates in this edition (and the original link no longer works)
In every person’s life we will always remember certain days and events.
In the late fall of 1963, as I sat in the 4th grade classroom of Saint Louis School, our principle, Sister Mary Nathan, came into our class to talk with us. She said President Kennedy was just shot, and was dying, and we must go to pray for him and our country. I will never forget that day. I know where I was that day. I was part of a group of young students that prayed and remembered God. Others did the same, but many still questioned God.
In the fall of 1978, I was home one morning, at about 9:00, when the television broke the news; “An airline has crashed in the North Park area of the city, killing everyone onboard, plus others on the ground.” As a member of the San Diego Police Department, I knew what my job was. I went to the crash site to help. It was hot and miserable. The area stunk of jet fuel and burning buildings. The place was a horror, like nothing I had personally seen before or after. Pacific Southwest Airlines Flight 182 went down killing 156 people. I saw pieces of bodies everywhere. It was hard to cope.
I knew where I was that day. I was not so sure where God was that day. I was one of those that sat and wondered. I did not know why He was not there to help. My relationship to God was not all that it should have been. I, as others, questioned God.
This September 11th marks the ten-year anniversary since the infamous events of September 11th, 2001. The same day can rightly be called 9-1-1, the day we called for help as a nation. Millions of Americans once again have their thoughts drawn to the horrors and heroism of that day and the ensuing aftermath. For many, the images are as graphic and painful today as they were on that day of the cowardly attacks.
For thousands of Americans who lost family and friends that day, this first anniversary will remind them of the grief over the senseless death of loved ones. Most all of us will too have grieved today over such a tragic loss.
For many of us, this day is a day of pain and wonder. This is a day we cannot forget. We must not forget.
In such a time of grief and struggle, it is most important that we turn to God ... and each other ... for comfort, support and encouragement. I ask that we would all pray for those who are still grieving and reliving the suffering they experienced 9-1-1.
I was never at ground zero, but I can appreciate what the people saw and thought. My experience at PSA Flight 182 had taught me much. My relationship to God has much improved since 1978.
“Where was God that day?” many have asked. Others asked, “Why did He not do something?” Many sat and wondered as I once would, “Where was God?”
Job 38 gives us an answer when we think we should question God:
1 Then the LORD answered Job out of the whirlwind, and said,
2 Who is this that darkeneth counsel by words without knowledge?
3 Gird up now thy loins like a man; for I will demand of thee, and answer thou me.
4 Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? Declare, if thou hast understanding.
5 Who hath laid the measures thereof, if thou knowest? Or who hath stretched the line upon it?
6 Whereupon are the foundations thereof fastened? Or who laid the corner stone thereof;
7 When the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy?
8 Or who shut up the sea with doors, when it brake forth, as if it had issued out of the womb?
9 When I made the cloud the garment thereof, and thick darkness a swaddlingband for it,
10 And brake up for it my decreed place, and set bars and doors,
11 And said, Hitherto shalt thou come, but no further: and here shall thy proud waves be stayed?
12 Hast thou commanded the morning since thy days; and caused the dayspring to know his place;
13 That it might take hold of the ends of the earth, that the wicked might be shaken out of it?
14 It is turned as clay to the seal; and they stand as a garment.
15 And from the wicked their light is withholden, and the high arm shall be broken.
16 Hast thou entered into the springs of the sea? Or hast thou walked in the search of the depth?
17 Have the gates of death been opened unto thee? Or hast thou seen the doors of the shadow of death?
18 Hast thou perceived the breadth of the earth? Declare if thou knowest it all.
A deeper intensity of purpose to proclaim the saving grace of Jesus for the forgiveness of sin and the renewing of the heart, mind and spirit prevails. The need for the Gospel has never been more pronounced and more urgent. Speaking to people about the hope of Jesus is the single most important thing I can do. Events like 9-1-1 remind me of how helpless we are apart from God.
So, Where Was God on 9-1-1?
The above reading of Job will not satisfy everyone, so I will tell you where else was God on that fateful day.
God was with the rescue workers who ran into the burning buildings as most people were running out. (1)
God was with the flight attendant who called her husband as her plane was being hijacked to tell him that she loved him. (2)
God was with the hundreds of rescue workers, cops, fire, and medical people, who died trying to save others. (3)
God was with the two men who carried a wheelchair-bound woman down 70 flights of stairs to safety. (4)
God was with the strangers in cars, picking up those they did not know, stranded in the city and taking them home to their families. (5)
God was with the people who were begging to volunteer, to do anything to help. (6)
God was with those who perished ... those who cried out to Him in their moment of deep despair and anguish. (7)
God was with the hundreds of thousands of people, sending money, donating blood, saying prayers, from thousands of miles away, for people in New York and Washington D.C., to help people they have never met, living in cities they have never been to. (8)
God is with the people who are comforting someone ... even when they don’t know what to say. (9)
God is with the people who watched and cried for the suffering. Though they may remain anonymous in name, they will never be in their sacrifice. God knows them by name! (10)
God is in the neighborhoods where flags wave not just for patriots, but to remember those who are gone. (11)
God was with the rescue workers who looked at 100 million tons of rubble, yet saw hope in finding survivors. (12)
God was with ALL the heroes, most of whom will never be interviewed, never make the news ... whose stories might only be told to their closest friends and family ..., some who died without anyone but God knowing of their braveness and heroism. (13)
God was NOT with the ungodly terrorists that caused these inhumane events. (14)
However, God was indeed there, when and where He was needed most. (15)
If we as a nation would continue to love God and obey His commands as revealed through His Son Jesus, this nation would once again be blessed. (16)
Those who were on my email list in 2002 got the story of Todd Beamer, but for those who did not, this is how God was with him on that terrible day.
The Faith of Todd Beamer – Let’s Roll
“I don’t think we’re going to get out of this thing. I’m going to have to go out on faith.”
It was the voice of Todd Beamer, the passenger ... and Wheaton College graduate ... who said, “Let’s roll” as he led the charge against the terrorists who had hijacked United Flight 93, the one, you will remember, that crashed in the Pennsylvania countryside.
The whole world knows how brave Beamer and his fellow passengers were on September 11th. But this week we learned more fully what buttressed that bravery: Faith in Jesus Christ. Todd died as he lived, a faithful evangelical believer.
In an article titled “The Real Story of Flight 93,” Newsweek reveals gripping new details from the actual transcripts of the now-recovered cockpit voice recorder. “Todd had been afraid,” Newsweek relates. “More than once, he cried out for his Savior.”
After passengers were herded to the back of the jet, Beamer called the GTE Customer Center in Oakbrook, Illinois. He told supervisor Lisa Jefferson about the hijacking. The passengers were planning to jump the terrorists, he said. And then he asked her to pray with him.
As Newsweek relates …Beamer kept a Lord’s Prayer bookmark in his Tom Clancy novel, but he didn’t need any prompting. He began to recite the ancient litany, and Jefferson joined him: “Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be Thy name.”
As they finished, Beamer added, “Jesus, help me.”
And then, Beamer and his fellow passengers prayed a prayer that has comforted millions down through the centuries ... the prayer that David wrote in a time of great anguish:
“The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want ... Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil.”
And then the famous last words:
“Are you guys ready? Let’s roll.”
We now know from the cockpit voice recorder that Beamer and other passengers wrestled with the hijackers and forced the plane to crash into the ground, killing themselves but foiling what was believed to have been the hijackers’ plan to fly Flight 93 into the Capitol or the White House.
As Christians, we know that God can bring good out of evil. In Todd Beamer, the world witnesses a faith that held up in the extremity of fear. A faith that is even now comforting his widow and two young sons.
Lisa Beamer told NBC’s Dateline, “You know, in the Lord’s Prayer, it asks us to forgive our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.” “As Todd prayed this prayer in the last moments of his life, in a way,” Lisa said, “He was forgiving those people for what they were doing, the most horrible thing you could ever do to someone.”
It wasn’t Todd Beamer’s job to fight terrorists. He was just a passenger, who along with several others, did what he didn’t have to do but foiled a terrible evil that might have been done to his country.
As Flight 93 hurtled towards destruction, Todd Beamer could not have known that his quiet prayers would ultimately be heard by millions … that the story of his last acts on earth would be a witness to the Lord he loved and served and a lasting example of true heroism.
I’d like to recall the last portion of the speech given by President George W Bush at the National Cathedral on September 14, 2001.
“On this national day of prayer and remembrance, we ask almighty God to watch over our nation, and grant us patience and resolve in all that is to come. We pray that He will comfort and console those who now walk in sorrow. We thank Him for each life we now must mourn, and the promise of a life to come.
“As we have been assured, neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, can separate us from God’s love. May He bless the souls of the departed. May He comfort our own. And may He always guide our country.
“God bless America.”
Even more so, may we, and America bless God by turning to Him, and doing what is right.
So now, is the time to answer a question with a question. The next time you are asked, “Where was God.” you will be able to ask a question back. “Where were you?” God was there all along, waiting for you to seek Him.
You will also be able to have confidence in the one true God, by your trust in Him.
Psalm 9:10 “And they that know thy name will put their trust in thee: for thou, LORD, hast not forsaken them that seek thee.”
Notes:
1. Psalms 18:29 “For by You I can run upon a troop; And by my God I can leap over a wall.”
2. Proverbs 31:10 “An excellent wife, who can find? For her worth is far above jewels.”
3. John 15:13 “Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends.”
4. Isaiah 40:31 “Yet those who wait for the LORD Will gain new strength; They will mount up with wings like eagles, They will run and not get tired, They will walk and not become weary.”
5. 3 John 1:5 “Beloved, you are acting faithfully in whatever you accomplish for the brethren, and especially for strangers;”
6. Isaiah 1:17 “Learn to do good; Seek justice, Reprove the ruthless, Defend the orphan, Plead for the widow.”
7. 2 Chronicles 20:9 “Should evil come upon us, the sword, or judgment, or pestilence, or famine, we will stand before this house and before You (for Your name is in this house) and cry to You in our distress, and You will hear and deliver us.”
8. 2 Samuel 10:12 “Be strong, and let us show ourselves courageous for the sake of our people and for the cities of our God; and may the LORD do what is good in His sight.”
9. Isaiah 57:18 “I have seen his ways, but I will heal him; I will lead him and restore comfort to him and to his mourners,”
10. Lamentations 3:48 “My eyes run down with streams of water Because of the destruction of the daughter of my people.”
11. Romans 13:7 “Render to all what is due them: tax to whom tax is due; custom to whom custom; fear to whom fear; honor to whom honor.”
12. Psalms 9:18 “For the needy will not always be forgotten, Nor the hope of the afflicted perish forever”.
13. Hebrews 12:1 “Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,”
14. Proverbs 6:16-18 “There are six things which the LORD hates, Yes, seven which are an abomination to Him: Haughty eyes, a lying tongue, And hands that shed innocent blood, A heart that devises wicked plans, Feet that run rapidly to evil,”
15. Deuteronomy 31:6 “Be strong and courageous, do not be afraid or tremble at them, for the LORD your God is the one who goes with you. He will not fail you or forsake you.”
16. 2 Chronicles 7:14 “If My people who are called by My name humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, will forgive their sin and will heal their land.”
Some of the quotes of Todd Beamer have come from varied sources and were not mine.
All of the Bible quotes were from the King James Version
As always, if you have comments, questions, and even complaints, send them my way. I will answer what I can when I can.
The usual Copyright © rules apply with the exception that this writing may be republished, reposted, or emailed providing the person or organization doing so does not charge for subscriptions or advertising and that the column is copied intact and that full credit is given to the writer. And please let me know if you want to post this someplace.
Posts
