Seeing 9/11 though God's lenses - a case study for a biblical worldview
Have you been processing this 9/11 and the increased sense of fear and foreboding that has been coming across the US? We have to see all these things through a biblical world view and not that of the media or our own emotional soup.
Last night was basically a case study in how to take God's references about specific time and use them to hear what the Spirit is saying to the church. The added emotional angst in the culture this year demonstrates that we need to 'look again' at the implications of this past event and how it is playing out right now. There is a video found here that combines the slides and live video of me (oh, Lord, no!) into one video program that I'm creating each week so if you missed it, you can get a real sense of the room and get caught up. (Take a quick peak if you've not seen this layout.)
I love the Ben Franklin glasses from the movie, National Treasure. In that movie, the clues were all there on the document but they could not see them because they didn't have the right lenses. Once they had the right lenses - then they could see what they needed to see in order to move forward.
God gives us those lenses so we can see His perspective about what's going on. Part of those lenses are the scriptures that tie into the time and season were in.
9/11 occurred in the biblical month of Elul - so we look at where that 6th biblical month is in God's master calendar: A time when we are aware of our weaknesses and shortcomings. A time when He meets us where we are if we will but turn and return and allow him to reset things before the start of a new year. How we end a season is critical to how we will begin the new one
We're being prepared to enter into His appointed times for the fall and a new year. The biblical name of this month is Elul and it forms an acrostic from the Song of Songs verse, 'I am my beloveds and my beloved is mine.' (6:3) There's an deep reconnection with Him that we want to walk in during this time.
We guys do have a little issue with that verse...feels a bid too....well, weird to think of Jesus as our beloved... So the poem in the slide above is my attempt to get after that deep heart connection that men feel when they have shared the real battle with another man. It's the kind of bond you hear clearly when they interview WWII vets who had to put their lives in the hands of another man. So it is with Jesus.
So....with the lenses of the Word (about this month in God's word) we then look through to get perspective/revelation about 9/11 - we look and hear what God has warned, is warning us - has called us to and is calling us to, now - Not simply as a nation, but also as His people. 3 quick points:
Ezekiel (in this month) has a vision that show how the nation had turned it's back on God IN THE SANCTUARY and so the glory leaves in stages.
Haggai (in this moth) brings correction that God's people were more concerned with their own welfare that putting first the things of God. They were not walking in the blessings of first things first.
Nehemiah (in this month) is a celebration of a wall built - BUT the wall WORKED only because GOD had really done it - Not by their own strength and might.
God IS on the move. Nations are colliding because the heavens are colliding. We stay aligned and in agreement with Kingdom breaking forward into the earth.
Be encouraged - be bold, be strong, for the Lord your God is with you. GET, KEEP, HOLD a biblical worldview. See as He sees and hear what the Spirit is saying to the church.
