There will never be a day so remembered by our generation as nine eleven. On September 11, 2001 a small group of mentally twisted evil men changed lives by their selfishness and wickedness. As a nation, we are determined that we will not forget what they have done. It has impacted us greatly and they were successful in changing our way of life from a life of freedom to a life enslaved by fear.
In the Garden of Eden the influence of the evil one changed the idyllic existence of the world’s first couple forever. The wickedness and self-exhalation of countless imitators over the last few thousand years has extended that mantle of fear. The freedoms God intends for us to live in have not gone away. They have been smeared and covered and redefined and has even been rendered unrecognizable at times. This has not gone away. He is still on the throne and prayer changes things.
We fondly remember great days when good and wonderful events happened. We recall with great joy and celebrate gleefully the victories of freedom over tyranny. We proclaim holidays and feast day and give gifts and plan special ceremonies to establish the sweetness of those days in our minds. In all of our histories is seems the most blessed and joyous celebrations are times remembered when God intervened in the lives of His creation to benefit their future.
We celebrate Passover and Christmas and Easter and Independence Day and birthdays and graduations and promotions and Baptisms and marriages and births. Jesus declared that He came to earth so that we might have abundant over flowing joy in our lives. His promise has not gone away. He is still on the throne and prayer changes things.
We honor our fallen dead whose struggle to provide a sense of continuity in the freedoms we hold so dear resulted in their ultimate sacrifice. We bemoan the deaths of those along the way who were victims of the evil attempting to revoke our freedom. We grieve the passing of loved ones, respected ones, friends and great examples. We commemorate their many unselfish sacrifices to preserve our freedoms.
For hundreds and in some cases, thousands of years we remember and honor and memorialize their insistence that the freedom and future and benefit of those who will come after them is worth more than a few more years in this life. We pray to God for the comfort of their families and that someone, somewhere will remember their enduring sacrifice. Their remembrance has not gone away. God is still on the throne and prayer changes things.
So today, on September eleventh, we recall the wickedness which was imposed upon us. We recall the death and destruction and vow to prevent it from recurring. We rejoice that we are here to remember. We salute those who have exacted the revenge we demanded. We honor our fallen comrades. We seek to recall the life of freedom we knew. As the children of Israel so many years ago, we went into the bliss of peace and safety and plenty only to have it changed into fear and bondage and famine.
Not a famine of food for the flesh of our bodies but a famine of the soul. When our forefathers threw off the shackles of tyranny to know the freedom of worshiping God by His dictates, they prepared for us a legacy. We are deeply indebted to their sacrifices. We, this nation of the United States of America, have grown into one of the greatest peoples of the earth. We stand as a symbol of the wonderful blessedness of knowing we are a people whose God is the Lord. That has not gone away. He is still on the throne and prayer changes things.
Then, we drifted from the protection and pleasure of His presence into the self-assurance that we could be more without Him than we are with Him. We provided our own weapons, and armies, and monies and pleasures and religion. We found within ourselves those we felt were worthy of worship. We preferred our selfishness to His freedom. We defined our own salvation and destiny and even redefined the value of life and marriage. We declared His paths as null and void. We sentenced Him and any who would follow His way to the ignominy of ignorance, declaring our wisdom and knowledge superior to Him who made us. We became our own god. We pitted our puny brains against the creator of all life and vainly declared ourselves victorious. We no longer needed to remember that He has not gone away. We no longer believed that He is still on the throne and prayer changes things. Yet He is and it does.
It is September eleventh. It is a day of remembrance, as was November twenty second and December seventh and June sixth and July fourth and October eleventh and December twenty fifth and all of the other special days of remembrance when we revisit the ancient landmarks set up to recall the joys and sorrows, victories and tragedies of our short lives. The glory and sparkle of the old landmarks have faded as we are further removed from the sacrifice which inspired their establishment. We complain about the king we have chosen and his failure to be the god we demand.
We see conspiracy and collusion in every handshake and every commitment of our government leadership. We understand nothing of the freedoms we were created to enjoy. We have been thrust out of the Eden of God by the choice of our own flesh. We look within ourselves for the answers to the sin laden problems we have created. These things we seek to change for the better will only continue to be worse and worse until we realize that He is still on the throne and prayer changes things.
So we remember the tragedy of that September eleventh in 2001 when mad men made us stop and realize our vulnerabilities. When we as a nation thought about it for a few weeks and realized God is still on the throne and prayer changes things. And then we went back to the business of our day. We put those things back on the shelf until the next disaster beyond our rationalization. The things of God. The things which our fore fathers humbly defined as the measures of our success. The things they drove deeply into our founding documents to establish this nation as a God fearing, God honoring, God worshiping example to all the peoples of the world. Remember nine eleven. Remember the importance of vigilance. Remember those who are no longer here to remember. Remember what is important. Remember the Rock from whence you are hewn lest that Rock become an offense and a stumbling block to you. And Remember He is still on the throne and prayer changes things.