This coming Sunday is the tenth anniversary of the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon by radical Islamist terrorists. The nation is gearing up for all manner of observances and ceremonies of remembrance. It was the worst attack upon our citizens on our own soil since Pearl Harbor in 1941. However, everyone knows what issued forth as a result of the day that lives in infamy--December, 1941. Our nation entered the Second World War and we helped to lead the Allied effort win through to victory both against the Nazis in Europe and Imperial Japan in the Pacific.

But ten years later, we still don't know or understand the significance of the 9/11 attacks. We have entered foreign wars in two nations as a result of those attacks. But today few see that connection as primary; and besides, our men and women are still fighting in both of those nations as part of a global war against terrorist activity. We remember 9/11 as a day of great heroism by first responders and by the men and women who brought down the fourth plane before it could fly into the Capitol building or the White House in Washington. It is right and proper that we honor these citizen patriots. 9/11/01 also ushered in one of the most tumultuous economic decades our nation has ever seen. And indeed, the primary attack was upon the American center of global trade in New York's financial district.

I myself don't claim to have the answer as to what 9/11 'means.' But I do know that it was and continues to be a pivotal day in our history as a nation.

This year as we gather for worship on September 11 I plan to begin a short, two-week series on King Hezekiah of ancient Judah. His story and his lifetime of leadership was likewise pivotal for the southern Kingdom of Judah, and is told in II Kings, II Chronicles and in the book of Isaiah.

I have long been fascinated by the way Hezekiah was used to turn the nation back to the Lord and to his ways. I am also fascinated by a huge opportunity that Hezekiah did not lead through--and ultimately missed. In these two upcoming weeks, as we reflect upon our nation's recent crises and current turmoil, I hope to bring some light from the Scriptures that will illuminate our way forward as God's people in the midst of a land that is at a major turning point in its history.

Blessings,

Pastor Rick