Let’s Remember 9/11 but
Not Forget the Greatest Crisis
We Face Today

 

Let’s Remember 9/11 but

Not Forget the Greatest Crisis

We Face Today

On this 9/11 Remembrance Day, isn’t it about time we tackle

the greatest crisis facing our nation today?

Some crises can break a heart. Some crises can stun a nation. Some crises can alter the course of a whole generation.

We live in an age of crises.

Wednesday, September 11, 2019—we commemorate a crisis of apocalyptic proportions. We remember the thousands who died eighteen years ago during jihadist attacks on our nation on 9/11, including all of the first responders who died that day and afterwards from the consequences of their heroic efforts to save others.

But we can’t stop there! At this special moment of remembrance and sorrow, God’s people must be summoned to take on, with renewed fervor, what remains the GREATEST CRISIS of all. It’s one many may not immediately recognize, but it’s currently overwhelming us.

Confronting and curing this crisis impinges directly on how—or whether—our nation itself can ever fully recover from 9/11 and its tragic aftermaths.

Therefore, I’m sending you this blog post to sound the alarm—but also to point the way toward the victory in Jesus that holds national and global ramifications—just as 9/11 did.


A View From the Mountaintop

On 9/11, 2001, I stood near my home on a mountain crest called Washington Rock Park. From this vantage point in 1777, George Washington monitored the movements of British troops in the New Jersey valley. From this rock, one can see the entire skyline of New York City just 20 miles away.

On this September 11 evening what I saw, however, recalled funeral pyres I’d witnessed along India’s Ganges River. Smoke billowed to blanket the horizon from the steel tomb that TIME magazine called “The Twin Terrors.”

In the fall of 2001, a whole nation gazed at a crisis, unlike anything we had ever seen before. It was a crisis both global and personal—one that has permanently changed the outlook of millions of people worldwide.

Consider what a crisis it was . . . and is. That one event

  • took down mammoth physical structures and instantly destroyed thousands of lives (from over 90 nations)
  • ignited what has become America’s longest war
  • threw the USA into trillions of dollars of debt
  • created a spirit of fear in the land that still rules—in our souls, in our politics, and in our entire view of the world and America’s place in it

However, as I said above, there’s another crisis looming over us that outweighs all others. It carries far more profound biblical consequences than any other. This second “ground zero” is more sobering, potentially more catastrophic than collapsing towers in lower Manhattan. It is more decisive, too, as far as eternity is concerned.

The Greatest Crisis in an Age of Crises

It’s a crisis found within the Church of Jesus Christ. This crucible carries repercussions for an entire generation of God’s people—and for the future of the cause of Christ in America.

This crisis also impacts ultimate issues touching the Kingdom of God and its advance among the nations.

Some have called it a “crisis of Christology.” Sometimes I prefer to call it a crisis of supremacy.” Either way, the challenge has everything to do with how fully Christians see the glories of Christ and serve the claims of Christ.

And that, in turn, has everything to do with how effectively we minister to this nation or any other nation in the face of all of the threats constantly coming at us from the powers of darkness bent on destroying our nation and the world.

BECAUSE the vast majority of believers—leaders included—don’t see the Lord Jesus Christ in his majestic supremacy as the reigning king of our lives, of our nations, of the entire universe, BECAUSE we don’t see him as all-powerful, all-knowing, one with the Father and the Holy Spirit

  • we don’t talk about him to each other, let alone to unbelievers
  • we don’t pray powerful, life-changing prayers of faith
  • we don’t exalt Jesus as the One who is THE ANSWER to our problems and the nation’s problems and the world’s problems
  • we don’t go into our communities and into the nations with the good news of Jesus’ life-changing love and salvation
  • we don’t surrender our lives without reserve to his will and his ways

And if we don’t do these things, if we don’t see Jesus for ALL he is and surrender our lives to him to do his will, WE HAVE NO HOPE—and our nation and our world also have no hope and will continue to spiral out of control, downward into destruction.

The Lord Jesus Christ in his spectacular supremacy is the ONLY HOPE for US, our NATION, and our WORLD.

Let’s Lay It All on the Table!

How many Christians do you know who are fully, even passionately, alert to God’s Son for ALL he is in light of the glory of his active supremacy? Instead, how many Christians in your congregation may require, in fact, a re-introduction to him on a number of fronts?

How regularly do we worship Jesus as

  • Sovereign Son of the Father, reigning at his right hand forever and ever?
  • Triumphant Victor over every foe—sin, death, Hades?
  • Glorious Conqueror, the dominating personality for all ages to come?
  • Unequivocal Commander of heaven’s hosts, ready to obey his every word?
  • Indisputable Judge of peoples and nations, to whom all must give an account?
  • Undeniable Ruler of history, overseeing its path and its outcome from beginning to end?
  • Incomparable King of an Empire that will ultimately fill creation with his power and piety?
  • Irreplaceable Head and Heart of a people whom he has bought with his own blood?
  • Reigning Redeemer of the Church universal, militant, and triumphant?
  • Supreme Lord at this moment just as fully as he will be Supreme Lord at the end?

Since so many of God’s people today are experiencing this critical “crisis of supremacy” at such a deadly level, we must not run from it. The time has come to confront and cure the crisis.

On This September 11, 2019, Let’s Resolve to Confront the

REAL Crisis Among Us

Once and for All

Internationally respected Christian leader, Dr. John Piper, puts it this way:

Since September 11, 2001, I have seen more clearly than ever how essential it is to exalt explicitly in the excellence of Christ—crucified for sinners and risen from the dead. Christ must be explicit in all our God-talk. It will not do, in this day of pluralism, to talk about the glory of God in vague ways. God without Christ is no God. God-in-Christ is the only true God and the only path to joy. If we would see and savor the glory of God, we must see and savor Christ.

Surely, the hour has come for us to wake up fully to Christ—to embrace the urgency to our emergency! We must take up this challenge with all the resolve and courage the Holy Spirit inspires within us.

Everything precious to us and our churches is at stake. The very advance of Christ’s mission in this generation is on the line.

It requires nothing short of a new kind of reformation—a re-forming, if you will, of vision about the whole Christ throughout the whole Church that helps us embrace whole-heartedly the whole extent of his glorious reign for the whole world.

Our Most Strategic Response

to the Crisis of Christology?

Increasing numbers of Christian leaders have sensed the need for such dramatic changes.

In fact, a couple of years after 9/11, seventy national Christian leaders issued a joint letter that said, in part:

September 11, 2001, made it clear. Never has there been more urgency in our land for a God-given awakening to Christ. God has always called out agents of renewal at specific times, with a specific message, to heed the need of the hour. A vision of Christ and the full extent of his supremacy can bring the Body of Christ together in powerfully transforming ways. It’s exactly what is needed at this critical moment in America.

According to these leaders, all that remains in order to trigger a fresh stirring to action may be nothing more than a clarion call—for leaders together to issue a reformation “manifesto.” This decree could create the tipping point to unleash among us a nationwide Christ Awakening movement.

Such a summons will have little impact, however, unless it spreads far and wide. The message must be delivered by an ardent army of heralds inside the Church. The call to a Christ-exalting reformation must enlist Christians like you and me who care that Christ receives the glory he deserves among his people.

This includes us who are part of the community of CHRISTNOW.COM who must join in this campaign.

We must start proclaiming a larger vision of our redeemer King throughout the Body, holding nothing back as we do. That’s precisely what this manifesto envisions: a Church flooded with Christ-proclaimers!

Stated simply, my premise is this:

We must proclaim and promote and pursue the full extent of Christ’s lordship among each other as believers.

Each of us must begin, right now, to make a decisive difference in our churches by what we say about the Savior to disciples who sit with us every Sunday. We must call Christians to re-engage with our Sovereign around the grand scope of the HOPE his supremacy secures.

Be encouraged!

  • Already, the potential for such a Christ Awakening movement is unparalleled.
  • Already, God’s miracle-working grace has preceded us.
  • Already, the Spirit has rekindled countless Christians waiting in the wings, hungry for a fresh message about the greatness of God’s Son, eager to band with us to exalt him in new ways.
  • Already, God is raising up a multitude of willing proclaimers poised for action. I’ve met with thousands of them around the world the past two decades. And there are literally millions more. I see them everywhere I go. I hear from them through all the social media outreaches of ChristNow.com. I read about you in your responses to my blog posts.

You can become a change agent! Begin now!

  • First, get filled with more of Jesus day by day and get equipped to present to fellow Christians a more dynamic vision of Jesus that calls them to be re-converted to him for ALL that he is.
  • Second, discover the thrill of growing in Christ in new ways as you seek to live out the promises Jesus secures for you in himself. Tell others what you discover!
  • Third, become pioneers of a Christ Awakening movement, working together to overthrow the spiritual lethargy that plagues so many of our people; you must show other believers how to serve Christ in anticipation of more of God’s kingdom working through you and them.

This Is Why CHRISTNOW.COM Exists!

As the only website of its kind anywhere in the digital world—and with social media platforms that are connecting tens of thousands of Christians who are waking up to the majesty and supremacy and wonders of God’s Son—CHRISTNOW.COM exists to help you discover a Jesus who is big enough, not just for national crises but for every crisis in your own walk with him.

Come and visit us here. Explore the hundreds of free resources. Join the conversation at Facebook and Twitter and Instagram. Click here to find suggestions on where you can begin your journey into more of Christ.

Let us help you discover the greatness of Jesus in amazing new ways. Let us help you become part of a glorious movement to bring God’s people back to Christ for ALL he is!

Take that first step! Get started! Let’s bring the HOPE of Jesus to hurting hearts, to a divided nation, to a desperate world—TOGETHER!

HE is the ANSWER!

 

About the Author

Over the past 40 years, David Bryant has been defined by many as a “messenger of hope” and a “Christ proclaimer” to the Church throughout the world. Formerly a minister-at-large with the InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, president of Concerts of Prayer International (COPI), and chairman of America’s National Prayer Committee, David now provides leadership to ChristNow.com and Proclaim Hope!, whose mission is to foster and serve Christ-awakening movements. Order his widely read books at DavidBryantBooks.com.

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