Healing America:
A time to heal...
A season for healing.. Ecclesiastes 3:1-4, 4-7, 8.
Here’s a very powerful letter I found on the net from Pastor Len:
http://www.auctionsinpa.com/~westgate/messages/pastor1001.html
The Healing Of America:
My day on September 11 started out basically like many Americans
and the victims of the terrorist attacks that day. We all innocently went
to work, not thinking of any tragic event to happen. Shortly after I arrived
at my office, Florence McGrath called me, along with others, to tell me about
the airplanes crashing into the New York City World Trade Center Towers.
Like you, the rest of the day was spent listening to the news to capture all
the details I could about this awful event. As I listened, I prayed,
I went through a range of emotions, and I felt the pressure mount as to what
could I do and what must I do to help in this horrible situation.
I am sure that during this time everyone was busy, as I was,
and that, when the terrorist attacks occurred, the pressure mounted.
When pressure mounts, how do you decide which priorities you will pursue?
There are all kinds of pressures in our lives that force us to make good and
bad choices – job pressure, financial pressure, family pressure, pressure
to do church and ministry work, pressure to take some time off, pressure to
compromise, pressure that takes you away from walking closely with God.
With the terrorist attacks, there was also the pressure to become angry and
hateful.
The Apostle Paul was a very busy man and at one point he vulnerably
wrote to Corinth that he felt so much pressure that “we despaired even of
life”
(II Corinthians 1:8). Even Paul experienced this common human emotion.
None of us like pressure and we wonder what its purpose is.
We question why we should feel great pressure, sometimes to the point of despair.
Fortunately Paul explained the purpose of the pressure by explaining the
purpose of his own: “But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves
but on God” (II Corinthians 1:9).
Therefore, the purpose of pressure is to keep us constantly
dependent upon the Lord Jesus. When we rely on the Lord Jesus, He will
rescue us, heal us, and guide us because He is our Master and Savior.
When we rely upon ourselves, He cannot deliver us and heal us; but when we
yield to Him and rely on Him, He can deliver us and heal us. The Apostle
Paul referred to this in II Corinthians 1:10 when he said, “who delivered
us from so great a peril of death, and will deliver us, He on whom we have
set our hope. And He will yet deliver us.”
During this tragic event in our nation and lives that is creating
a tremendous amount of pressure upon us physically and emotionally, we need
to rely on Jesus so that He can deliver us and heal us. At this time
in our nation, we need this encouragement that will help us heal our nation
and rebuild lives that will be dedicated to God through Christ as Lord and
Savior. To heal and rebuild anything, we need to take a serious look
at the faults, the weaknesses, and all the problems that need correcting.
In healing our nation, I pray that we can do this with loving care and concern
and without critical judgment and chastisement.
When Nehemiah in Babylon heard about the poor condition of
Jerusalem, he fasted and wept over it. Then he went to the Lord, seeking
forgiveness for the sins of Israel and by his great compassion for Jerusalem,
he asked God to help him rebuild the wall of Jerusalem. God enabled
him to earn favoritism with King Artaxerxes of Babylon to return to Jerusalem
to rebuild its wall. When he returned to Jerusalem, he encouraged the
Jews, priests, nobles, and officials to rebuild the wall by telling them
that God was for them and with them and that God was in favor of Nehemiah
rebuilding the wall. With that good news they said, “Let us arise and
build.” Then the Scripture reveals that “they put their hands to the
good work” (Nehemiah 1 and 2).
God is on our side and He is in favor of us healing America
so that it remains a strong freedom nation that truly is for God and truly
wants to live up to its motto printed on all our coins and bills – “In God
We Trust.” Because God is for us and on our side, let us arise and
build by putting our hands and our hearts to the good work of healing America.
We need to be praising and thanking those who are leading the
way of healing America by their volunteer help meticulously and carefully
cleaning up the ruins of the Twin Towers of the New York World Trade Center
and the Pentagon while looking for those who died and survived in the collapse
of these buildings. Let us also thank God for President Bush, the
Congress, and the Senate who are trusting in God to help them do the right
things that will protect American citizens from future terrorist attacks
and to bring justice for those victims of the terrorist attacks on Tuesday,
September 11, 2001. May we keep our military people in prayer as they put
their lives in dangerous situations to protect us and bring justice for the
victims of these horrible terrorist attacks.
May God bless each of us and may God bless America as we do
our part in healing this nation. May we begin by turning to God, relying
on Him for everything and trusting in Him because God is on our side and is
for us.
Serving in His will,
Pastor Len.
On September 11, 2001, America has been attacked by terrorism. It
started in New York. Yes, America needs Healing.. Lots of lives been lost.
God promises healing anytime we ask for it. America really needs it.
Here’s a commentary By Bishop Kenneth Carder from
http://umns.umc.org/01/oct/479.htm
"God Bless America" has become perhaps America's most sung hymn since Sept.
11. Speeches by President Bush and many other public officials conclude with
the words "and God bless the United States of America." It is a prayer we
all can pray, a hymn we all sing with enthusiasm and longing.
Blessing is a worthy and noble aim for individuals and nations. Praying
for America to be blessed is an appropriate response to the terrible and
inexcusable terrorist attacks in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania.
The needless suffering and untimely death of several thousand defenseless
and innocent people engenders a longing for divine blessings that enable
us to transcend the devastation.
Praying for God's blessing, however, can be presumptuous and perilous. Preconceived
notions as to what constitutes God's blessings may be misleading. What would
constitute a divine blessing upon America in these treacherous times? Victory
in war? Protection from further suffering? Recovery of economic stability
and prosperity? Preservation of America's superpower status? Certainly these
are among our spoken and unspoken expectations when we pray for God to bless
America. But do they adequately express what God's blessing includes?
Prayer for God's blessing is presumptuous when we expect God to bestow blessings
in accordance with national boundaries and preconceived notions. God wants
to bless all people. To seek God's blessings for America and not for the world
fails to recognize the wideness in God's mercy and the expanse of God's love.
Further, God's blessings often come in unrecognizable packages. The blessing
to Abraham and Sarah came in the form of a call to leave their homeland in
their old age and search for "a city not made with human hands." God's blessing
to Moses resulted in confronting the Pharaoh and wandering forty years in
the wilderness with a stubborn people. The angel told Mary that she was "most
blessed." Yet she watched the son who was God's blessing to the world die
a cruel, agonizing death.
The Bible defines God's blessing most often as the opportunity to share
in God's redemptive, healing, reconciling and saving mission in the world.
God always blesses in order that the blessed will be a blessing to others.
The God of the Exodus and of Jesus Christ wants to bless America and the
world with freedom, justice, healing, reconciliation and peace.
God bless America and the world by making us instruments of God's peace!
God wants to bless and heal America. America has a symbol of an Eagle which
reminds us that we need to wait upon the Lord. It says it in Isaiah 40:31
which reads: But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength;
they shall mount with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary;
and they shall walk, and not faint. Did you catch that? It says in the scripture
that God promises to heal when we wait upon him for our healing.
In 2 Chronicles 7:14 it read as follows: If my people which are called by
my name shall humble themselves and pray, and seek my face, and turn from
their wicked ways; their I will hear from Heaven, and will forgive their sin,
and will heal their land.
2 Chronicles 7:18 Reads The will I establish the throne of thy Kingdom,
according as I have covenanted David thy Father saying, there shall not fail
thee a man to be ruler in Israel.