9.11.2009

Is This an Emergency?

ambulanceWe live just down the street from a hospital in town.  It is not an unusual experience for us to hear sirens going off in the background at all times of the day and night.  With today being the 8th anniversary of 9/11, those sirens seemed to have a different sound to them.  It was the same sirens that pass our house day after day, but something was different.  Maybe it was the fact that memories of that tragic day in our nation's history were attached to them.  Maybe it was the reminder of all the sirens that we Americans heard over our TVs and radios that day.  I'm not sure.  I know that many thoughts and prayers are going out once again to the families that lost loved ones on that day.  I hope that our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, will bring comfort to those families as the memories are brought back today.

This morning I saw something that made me stop and think.  As I was dwelling on the different sound of the sirens from emergency vehicles today, there before my vehicle was an ambulance parked outside of a Books-A-Million.  Nothing going on just sitting there.  It was in that moment that God tapped me on the shoulder and reminded me of the words He spoke to the prophet Ezekiel...

"Son of man, I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel; so hear the word I speak and give them warning from Me.  What I say to the wicked, 'O wicked man, you will surely die,' and you do not speak out to dissuade him from his ways, that wicked man will die for his sin, and I will hold you accountable for his blood.  But if you do warn the wicked man to turn from his was and he does not do so, he will die for his sin, but you will have saved yourself." (Ezekiel 33:7-9 NIV)

As followers of Jesus Christ, we have been called (all of us, not just the pastors and missionaries) to sound the alarm and tell others about the coming judgment of God on sin and the forgiveness/new life that is found in Christ.  Are we like that ambulance that I saw this morning?  Are we just sitting around doing our own thing or are we sounding the alarm?

What are some things that have changed in your life since 9/11/01?
What ways are you sounding the alarm?

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