Author Archives: Pastor Tommy

“The Lord God called to the man and said to him, ‘Where are you?’” (Genesis 3:9)

Today is our final installment on God’s incredible question to two rebellious, fear-stricken, on-the-run sinners.  We’ve examined the HONOR of the question and the HOPE in God’s question.  Today we will see the HEART behind the question.

The HEART behind the Question

It is important for us to understand what was going on before the question.  “[Adam and Eve] heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day” (Genesis 3:8).  If this had been the first time the Lord God walked in the garden in the cool of the day, the sound they heard would have been unfamiliar, but it was not.  This was a part of daily living for Adam and Eve—personal, intimate, heart-to-heart, face-to-face communion with their God.  The heart behind the question was a heart that beat for Adam and Eve.  But that’s not all.

It is also instructive to note how God came to the very first sinners.  He came to Adam and Eve in exactly the same manner He had come to them prior to their sin: “walking in the garden in the cool of the day.”  Notice that God was walking and not running, so as not to startle them as they crouched trembling in the brush, seared in their sin.  He came in “the cool of the day,” as was His custom.  Had the sovereign Lord suddenly appeared out of the darkness, surely the two sinners would have been even more terrified.  The “cool of the day” suggests the end of the day; more than enough time had elapsed than was needed for Adam and Eve to fashion their flimsy garments of fig leaves.  This delay suggests God’s long-suffering heart for sinners. 

God came to Adam and Eve after their awful betrayal in the same way He came to them before it.  This is a source of great comfort to us all!  Scripture assures us that God does not change (Malachi 3:6).  He comes to sinners the same way after the Fall as before it.  He comes to us with a heart overflowing with love, patience, mercy, and grace.  God knows that our rebellion has caused our once-perfected image of God to be marred and dreadfully stained by sin.  We are all poor . . . blind . . . and naked.  Yet in our sin-stained condition, God still comes to us!

“Come to me,” The Lord God calls tenderly to man, “all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28).  He pursues rebels who are on the run from Him . . . who are hiding from Him . . . who are hostile to Him . . . and He gives them rest from the fearful torment of their sinful condition. That is His heart.

This is the gospel.  This is grace for your race.  NEVER FORGET THAT . . . AMEN!

“The Lord God called to the man and said to him, ‘Where are you?’” (Genesis 3:9)

We are in the middle of a three-part message on God’s incredible question to two rebellious, fear-stricken, on-the-run sinners.  On Monday we examined the HONOR of the question.  Today we will rejoice in the HOPE in the question, and on Friday we will gaze upon the Heart behind the question.

The HOPE in the Question

Adam and Eve’s actions immediately after their cosmic rebellion against their God make it clear that they believed all hope was lost.  Their consciences were burning, and they tried to cover their naked sin with fig leaves.  They heard the familiar (and formerly delightful) sound of the Lord God walking in the garden; instead of running to Him, they ran away from Him and hid.  They slunk miserably away from the One who had given them everything, including an intimate, loving relationship with the God of all creation.  But then, when all hope seemed irretrievably lost, God called to them: “Where are you?”

The question confirms that Adam was, indeed, lost because of his decision to deny God—and in the process, to deny himself.  Yet, even in his state of alienation from God, this question of hope confirms that our loving Lord intended to deliver mercy in the middle of their misery.

 Think for a moment of all of the different responses God could have delivered to Adam and Eve after their rebellion.  Do any of the following questions sound like something you might say when someone does you wrong?

“How could you do such a thing!”

“What in the world have you done!”

“I can’t believe you did this to me!”

Instead of responding to the first sinners with harsh questions like these, the voice of Grace called to them . . . “Where are you?”  You see, regardless of what circumstances of life you are currently in, even if a situation seems utterly hopeless, you still have hope.  God came after Adam and Eve, and He comes after us every time we turn from Him and choose to do what is right in our own eyes. 

One final point regarding the hope in this question: despite all the doctrines the proud Pharisaical heart devises for free will and man “choosing” God, man never has and will never seek after his God.  Scripture is quite clear on this matter: “The sinful mind is hostile to God. It does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so. Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God” (Romans 8:7-8 NIV).  Man does not go looking for a relationship with God; it is God who does the pursuing—God and God alone.  There is great hope and comfort in knowing that!  If I thought for a moment I had anything to do with my salvation, despair would define my life, not devotion to my Savior.  Think about it for a moment; if you salvation depended on you to even the slightest degree, what is the likelihood of you spending eternity in the presence of a perfectly holy and just God?

God seeks the sinner; the sinner never seeks God.  This is the greatest hope that the world has ever known!  God loves us enough to call us out of our sin and rebellion: “Where are you?”

As Paul explained, “At one time we too were foolish, disobedient, deceived and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures. We lived in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another. But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy” (Titus 3:3-5 NIV).

This is the gospel.  This is grace for your race.  NEVER FORGET THAT . . . AMEN!

 

“The Lord God called to the man and said to him, ‘Where are you?’” (Genesis 3:9)

 Have you given thought to God’s gracious response to the very first sinners?  Adam and Eve had denied their divine design and chosen to serve their own little kingdom, rather than the “Big Kingdom” of God.  And what did God do?  He pursued them and rescued them from themselves!  This week we will look at three different aspects of God’s incredible question: the HONOR of the question, the HOPE in the question, and the Heart behind the question.

The HONOR of the Question

Did God need to ask any questions of the first sinners?  Absolutely not!  He simply could have delivered a thunderbolt from the heavens, turning Adam and Eve into ashes . . . but He did not.  God honored these rebellious sinners with a question of great grace. 

While Adam and Eve futilely tried to cover their nakedness and shame with fig leaves, God spoke to them tenderly, with great love.  Think about it this way: have you ever had someone wrong you—slander you, gossip against you, betray you in some way—and you responded with, “I won’t have anything to do with that person ever again!”?  We’re all prone to that . . . but that’s not how God operates! 

God gave Adam and Eve everything they needed for a life of bliss.  Their days would be taken up with finding meaning and significance in the purpose, presence, and person of God.  All of life would be an act of worship of the Most High God.  Their love for God would control their hearts, direct their behavior, and shape their lives.

But Adam and Eve thought they were missing out on something, and they turned their worship and love inward onto themselves, seeking a life of autonomy and self-sufficiency.  In a word, they sought a subhuman existence, and didn’t realize what they had done until it was tragically too late.  And yet, in spite of their awful act of cosmic treason, God honored them with a most gracious response: “Where are you?”

God asks that same question of us today.  Remember, God was not seeking to determine Adam’s whereabouts!  Omniscience knows everything and omnipresence is everywhere.  David’s psalm expresses this beautifully:

Where shall I go from your Spirit?

Or where shall I flee from your presence?

If I ascend to heaven, you are there!

 If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there!

If I take the wings of the morning

and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,

even there your hand shall lead me,

and your right hand shall hold me (Psalm 139:7-10).

No, God wasn’t trying to find out where Adam was; it was Adam and Eve who didn’t know where they were!  They had completely lost their way, cowering in fear in a place where they once known only the loving presence of their God, walking and communing with Him in the cool of the day.

God is asking you today, “Where are you?”  He knows precisely where you are; do you?  Are you communing with Him, seeking to enjoy His presence?  Or has something else captured your desire?

 This is the gospel.  This is grace for your race.  NEVER FORGET THAT . . . AMEN!

On Wednesday we looked at the first part of Satan’s temptation of Adam and Eve in the Garden: “The Laugh.”  Today we will look at part two, “The Lie.”  Remember, as soon as Satan showed up in the Garden of Eden, he launched his fiery dart at our first parents.

THE LIE

The lie is found in Genesis 3:4—“The serpent said to the woman, ‘You will not surely die.’”  We know this is a bold-faced lie, because it is a direct contradiction of the Word of God in Genesis 2:16-17.

The Lord God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”

Here we have the Word of God versus the distortion of the father of lies.  It is instructive to note that Satan does not attempt to deny the existence of God, nor does he try to deny the law of God.  He does not attempt to deny the will of God.  The devil delivers a declaration of defiance—not against the existence, the law, or even the will of God, but rather he denies the goodness of God.  When the laugh and the lie of Satan are rightly understood, we see it for what it truly was: an attack on the goodness of God.

Satan was essentially saying that God wanted to deny Adam and Eve the fullness of life by delivering His one prohibition.  Satan got Adam and Eve to focus on the one thing that was forbidden, rather than everything else that was graciously given and permitted.  Satan intimated to our first parents that there was a happier life than what they had with God.  He sold Eve on a more satisfying existence, one she had not yet experienced, an experience apart from God.

What a sales pitch the devil delivered!  He convinced Adam and Eve that God’s borders were narrow and restricting, and that God’s ultimate goal was to deny them the best that the Garden had to offer by demanding obedience to the proscription of that one forbidden tree.  Satan’s “you can be like God” offer was too much for them to resist.  They believed the lie, exchanged kingdoms, shrunk the size of their lives down to the size of their lives, and sent all of creation on a downward spiral.  What they got was exactly what God promised: death.  Satan was the one who was robbing Adam and Eve of the best life, and every man, woman, and child to follow was plunged into bondage to sin because of their deliberate disobedience.

The lie that promised more actually delivered less . . . so much less!  You see, God never designed us to live apart from Him.  We were made to be dependent upon our Creator, and we were never to find our identity, purpose, significance, or meaning apart from Him.  Yet God refused to leave us in our rebellion.  He pursued us in the middle of our sin, purchased us with the blood of the Savior, and set us apart by the power of the Holy Spirit.  This is no lie!

This is the Gospel.  This is grace for your race.  NEVER FORGET THAT . . . AMEN!

Our Adult Sunday School class is examining the three parts that make up the Scriptures: Creation, Fall, and Redemption.  We have just entered the point in the Genesis narrative where Satan appears in the Garden of Eden and directs his seductive words at our first parents, Adam and Eve.  I want to split Satan’s temptation into two parts: the Laugh and the Lie, in order that you and I can be better prepared for his continual attacks in our lives. We’ll explore the Laugh today and move on to the Lie on Friday.

THE LAUGH

The “laugh” is located in Genesis 3:1, the first recorded question in Scripture: “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?”  It is as if Satan is laughing, mocking God in the question he asks Eve.  He is not asking Eve to confirm that God actually said what He said; rather, the serpent seems to be asking, “Was God really so foolish as to say such a thing?”     

Satan was not denying what God said; he was sneering at what God said.  And this, my friend, is the spirit of this age.  The Word of God is held up to such ridicule in so many quarters, those who believe it are laughed at and mocked.  Listen to some of the laughing of the lost:

“You don’t really believe a man spent three days and nights in the belly of a great fish and was spit out on the shore alive do you?” 

“You’re not serious about the parting of the Red Sea and the Israelites walking across on dry land are you?” 

“Surely you don’t believe Noah spent more than 100 years building a boat in the middle of dry ground and then proceeded to get two of every kind of animal to join him for the first recorded cruise . . . do you?”

“Do you mean to tell me you actually believe the walls of Jericho—if there even was such a place—came tumbling down because people walked around the city for a week, blew some horns, and yelled at the top of their lungs?” 

What we need to remember is the fact that there is nothing “cutting edge” about mocking and laughing at the truth claims of the Bible and the Christian faith.  That tired act goes all the way back to the Garden!

Nobody likes to be ridiculed for what they believe.  Nobody likes to be the object of scoffing and scorn.  In fact, so deep is our fear of being mocked, whenever we hear people laughing when we are in the same area we immediately wonder if it is directed at us!  Let me give you a great nugget of comfort: you wouldn’t care what others thought of you if you realized how little they did! 

What we need to remember about the laughing of the lost is that our God is in control of all things—and that includes the laughing of the lost!

He who sits in the heavens laughs; the Lord holds them in derision.  (Psalm 2:4)

But you, O Lord, laugh at them; you hold all the nations in derision.  (Psalm 59:8) 

In the process of God making all things new, He is also making all things right, and in the end He will be the one laughing.  When we are on the receiving end of the laughing of the lost, we need to lift them to the throne of grace and pray that God would give them eyes to see, ears to hear, minds to understand, and hearts to beat for the glory of the King. 

This is the Gospel.  This is grace for your race.  NEVER FORGET THAT . . . AMEN!

l to r: Danny Kahr, Joe Shadowens, Scotty Smith, Tullian Tchividjian, Tommy Boland

On September 9, 10, and 11, a group of nearly 150 men gathered in Marco Island for the 2010 Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church Men’s Retreat under the leadership of our pastor, Tullian Tchividjian. Our special guest speaker was Pastor Scotty Smith, the founding pastor of Christ Community Church in Franklin, Tennessee.

I was first exposed to Scotty and his grace-saturated, Christ-centered message when I was invited to be a part of the Presbyterian Church of America (PCA) Men’s Council in 2006. While attending the PCA General Assembly that year, my friend Harvey Kilpatrick told me about Scotty and I was instantly hooked. As raw as he is real, Scotty both encourages and equips us to move “further up and further in” to the soul-stirring, life-changing implications of the Gospel—not only for eternal life, but for everyday life as well. I highly recommend all of his books and especially these two that have not found their way back to my bookshelf; Objects of His Affections and The Reign of Grace.

During out retreat I held two early morning fitness training sessions. Scotty asked me about it on Thursday evening and said he would join us in the morning. Now, many men said they would join us for the training, but because this was a time of relaxation, many chose to return to their slumber after their wake up call. So I was surprised when Scotty showed up at 6:30 am on both Friday and Saturday mornings.

What an incredible blessing for all of us who were there! At the end of each fitness session, I led a short devotion for the men. I brought some of Scotty’s daily blogs as our material, never in a million years thinking he would be in attendance. If you have not visited his blog, I encourage you to do so immediately. You can click on his link, located on the right of this page. Scotty simply takes a Scripture verse and prays through it. And when I say “pray,” I mean pray. You’ll be richly blessed by a heart that has been transformed by the grace of God, pouring forth words that are as penetrating as they are profound, all aimed directly at the reader’s heart. Anyway, as I said, at the end of our training, I read through one of these fabulous blog entries with Scotty sitting among us. Then I simply asked if he had any comments and invited him to close us in prayer.

Here is where Serendipity intersected with Scotty Smith. Serendipity can be defined as a profound discovery made while looking for something totally unrelated. I was simply looking for a time of devotion with material from a man I have grown to love and respect, without having ever met him, and on this day he was sitting among our group of exhausted early morning exercisers, live and in person! Perhaps you can imagine my excitement. As a martial artist for more than 30 years, it would have been like having Chuck Norris show up!

Scotty has been one of my Gospel heroes for years; he has been discipling me through his books and teachings. And now, for these two mornings, a small group of men and I were sitting on the floor in our designated fitness room, exhausted and excited, listening to a man whose life has been shaped and transformed by the Gospel. During these informal sessions, as well as throughout his scheduled times of teaching, Scotty shared his story as it intersected with God’s story. We all came away from our time with him impacted by his Gospel-saturated authenticity, transparency, and vulnerability.

On Sunday Scotty came to our church to preach the message in our worship service. Our entire congregation caught a glimpse of his passion for proclaiming the Gospel of grace. When the service was over and sanctuary had emptied, Kim and I went up to say hello. As we approached, Scotty spotted us and reached his hand out and said these words: “Good morning Tommy, my new friend.”

Wow! Here was one of the Gospel teachers, who has wrecked me afresh with his message of grace, calling me his friend! I know a man who likes to speak of receiving “hugs from God.” I felt like I got just such a hug that morning—another serendipitous blessing from the hand of God.

This is the Gospel. This is grace for your race. NEVER FORGET THAT . . . AMEN!

We have all heard the idiomatic admonition against, “Putting all of your eggs into one basket.”  In essence, this phrase reminds us not to put all of our hope into only one thing.  To be sure, this is wise advice when it comes to our time, talent, and treasure.  It is always best to store our “eggs” in a variety of different baskets, just in case something happens to our basket.  Pinning all of our hopes on one thing and seeing that one thing fail leads to a place of despair.  No more basket.  No more eggs.

As good as this phrase is in matters of time, talent, and treasure, it is NOT good advice when it comes to matters of faith.  There is only one hope in both life and death…there is only one reliable object on which to place your faith…and His name is Jesus Christ.   Jesus is the only solid Rock upon which hope can ever stand.  Make no mistake, all other “hopeful” ground is sinking sand.

When our hope is Christ-centered we no longer have to base our existence on pretending or performing.  In 1 Peter 3:15 we read, “But set apart Christ as Lord in your hearts, always being ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you…”.

Apart from Christ, life is utterly hopeless.  We wander through a never-ending maze of manipulation, pretending and performing our way into God’s approval and acceptance and the applause of man.  When our hope is in anything smaller than God, we shrink the size of our lives down to the size of our lives.  And we were created to live for so much more than ourselves.  Our lives are to be shaped by the hope we have in Jesus.  In a word, this is hope for the hopeless.

• The hope of His presence is to shape our lives
• The hope of His peace is to shape our lives
• The hope of His protection
• The hope of His provision is to shape our lives
• The hope of His punishment

Only when our hope is in Jesus Christ are we liberated from the bondage of self-protection, self-focus, and self-centeredness.  The Gospel frees us to shift our hope from the self to the Savior…from self-rule to Savior-rule.  When the Savior is sitting on the throne of our lives, our hearts are captured and compelled to seek out the only hope we will ever have in both life and death.

Isaiah put it this way in the 18^th verse of the very first chapter, “Come now, let us reason together, says the Lord: though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool.”  This is a holy hope that can only be found in Jesus and it is a hope that sings, “Jesus paid it all, all to Him I owe; Sin had left a crimson stain, He washed it white as snow.”  That was our punishment He nailed to that dirty tree.  He who knew no sin, became sin for us.  Have you put all of your “eggs” into this one basket of unimaginable blessings?  This is the Gospel.  This is grace for your race.  NEVER FORGET THAT…AMEN!

Have you ever wondered why there was that one forbidden tree in the center of the Garden of Eden?  It’s not as if God stumbled upon this Garden Paradise and then decided to place man in it.  God was the One who created the Garden and everything in it.  So why in the world would there be that one forbidden tree in the center of Paradise?

And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”  (Genesis 2:16-17).

In a word, that one forbidden tree was a test for Adam and Eve.  Would they be ruled by their love for God or their love for themselves?  Would they continue to live their “dependent-upon-God-divine-design” or would they choose the way of self-sufficiency and self-rule?

God had graciously given them everything they needed to live lives of unimaginable freedom, joy, and faithfulness to the One who had created them (vertical relationship) and to each other (horizontal relationship).  Life in the Garden was absent of everything bad we experience on this side of their cosmic rebellion.

• Selfish ambition was absent
• Self-centeredness was absent
• Self-focus was absent
• Self-reliance was absent
• Self-rule was absent

Because God had granted Adam and Eve rule and dominion over all of the creation, they needed to be reminded that they were still under the rule and authority of their Creator.  And therein lies the purpose behind that “one forbidden tree” in the center of their Paradise.  They were never meant to live apart from God.  Living a life of autonomous rule was to be as far as from their thinking as the east is from the west.  The great 16^th century theologian John Calvin wrote:

Abstinence from the fruit of one tree was a kind of first lesson of obedience that man might know he had a Director and Lord of his life, on whose will he ought to depend, and in whose commands he ought to acquiesce.  And this truly is the only rule of living well and rationally, that men should exercise themselves in obeying God.

So, where in your life right now has God been testing your obedience?  Who has been directing the areas in your life that matter most?  Whose will have you been depending upon?  We simply were never designed to live our lives apart from God and His life-giving, life-changing Word.  We find our identity in Him; we find our direction in Him; we find our purpose in Him; we find our understanding of everything in Him.  It was only when Adam and Eve chose to find their identity, direction, purpose, and understanding outside of God that Paradise was lost.  But not forever!

You see, a better Paradise was promised through the life and death of Jesus Christ—the Second Adam.  God, in His amazing grace, refused to leave mankind forever trapped in bondage to sin and death.  He promised in Genesis 3:15 to send our Redeemer.

The Lord God told the serpent, “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.”  Our Redeemer lived the perfect life we refused to live and paid the debt we could never pay.  His victory on the cross paid the price for all of our sins—past, present, and to come.  And when Jesus Christ returns, He will make all things new . . . and that includes you!

This is the Gospel.  This is grace for your race.  NEVER FORGET THAT . . . AMEN!

I still vividly remember breaking four toes on my right foot during a karate tournament back in 1984.  I was in a competition and attempted a jump-up front snap kick to break a 4-inch-thick piece of wood.  I either jumped higher than I meant to or the boards were held a little lower than expected.  Either way, I was unable to fully flex my foot prior to hitting the boards with the ball of my foot.  Instead, I hit my intended target with the tips of my toes.  OUCH!  The wood did break, but so did my toes.  The next few months were miserable, as I moved around on crutches and rewound the mental “instant replay” over and over, wishing I had another opportunity to do it over again. 

Years later, when God had raised me from death to life, I was brought up short when I read Psalm 51 for the first time.  My attention fixed on verse 8—“Let the bones that you have broken rejoice.”  I remember thinking how counterintuitive it was to find blessing in broken bones!  But when God is the one doing the bone breaking, we can be assured that it will result in blessings multiplied.  When David speaks of “broken bones,” he is turning our attention to the pain associated with our redemption.  This physical metaphor for the painful process of our salvation is quite instructive.  How self-centered, self-reliant, self-righteous, and self-absorbed David must have been to have painted such a picture of pain as he related his redemption, wrought by the hands of his Redeemer! 

Over the years I have found the secret of being able to receive with great joy this blessing of broken bones.  The key is found in the understanding that David’s story is my story . . . and it’s your story too.  This was very difficult for me to understand and receive early in my Christian life.  I had not committed adultery.  I never fathered a child with a woman who was not my wife.  I never committed murder to try to hide my sin.  How naive I was, until God took the blinders from my eyes so I could see myself for what I truly was—a great sinner in need of an even greater Savior.  This season of David’s life was the proverbial “train wreck,” and my train was moving steadily down the tracks of total truth toward its intended destination. 

There are two reasons why we cannot see ourselves playing the lead role in David’s story.  The first is a distorted self image; we simply think we are better than we actually are!  The second is a distorted image of God and His holiness.  We either raise ourselves up too high or bring God down too low.  Either way, we view ourselves as those looking into a carnival mirror, who see an imprecise reflection that looks nothing like the real person.  But God refuses to leave us this way.  And in the process of our redemption, He often finds it necessary to break a few bones along the way.  As much as we don’t like it, it is better to suffer a broken bone or two than to be left alone to wallow in our distorted unbelief or disillusioned unwillingness. 

The Great Physician knows what is best for His patients and is committed to breaking however many bones as it takes to eradicate every idol our sinful heart manufactures and to bring us back into the loving arms of our Savior.  He will break us free from our comfortable existence.  He will break us free from our addictions.  He will break us free from our self-protection, self-absorption, and self-reliance.  This is the blessing of “broken bones.”  This is the Gospel.  This is grace for your race.  NEVER FORGET THAT . . . AMEN!       

Tomorrow is the 9^th anniversary of that infamous day when three planes were intentionally piloted into the World Trade Center towers and the Pentagon. A fourth plane was wrestled to the ground in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, by a group of ordinary individuals who decided to do something extraordinary that day.  19 misguided and lost souls took over those four planes, and their collective actions resulted in the deaths of more than 3,500 people. 

As with the assassination of JFK in 1963, most people remember exactly what they were doing when they heard the appalling news and glued themselves to the television for the next few days.  Over and over again we saw the ghastly images of those planes streaking toward the towers and then disappearing in a ball of flame.  It all seemed so surreal, especially in light of the incredibly beautiful backdrop of a clear, sunny fall day. 

Having served 9 ½ years in the Hollywood Fire Rescue Department prior to my call into ministry, my heart was especially grieved for the New York City Fire Fighters who gave their all that day.  Over the years, many people continue to ask me two penetrating questions:

Why?

Where was God?

The why question can be answered with a single word—SIN!  All of the bad things that happen in this world are the direct result of the cosmic rebellion of Adam and Eve, the first two human beings ever created by God.  When they fell in the Garden, we all fell with them, and we now live in a fallen and broken world filled with fallen and broken people. 

The where question can also be answered with a single word—EVERYWHERE!  Omnipresence was everywhere.  He was on those flights providing strength to passengers in the middle of the unimaginable final moments of their final storm in life.  In all the reports of flight crews and passengers on those doomed planes who were able to call loved ones, not once did we hear about panic-stricken people.  The passengers on Flight 93 had learned about planes that had been turned into flying bombs that morning; instead of going to their graves like sheep led to the slaughter, they decided to make a stand and fight back.  Todd Beamer and other heroes on Flight 93 gave us the battle cry that defined the war on terror for every American: “Let’s roll!” 

God was also busy limiting the number of passengers on those flights.  All four planes could have accommodated more than 1,000 passengers, but there were only 266 aboard.  God likewise limited the number of workers in the Twin Towers from the more than 50,000 who could have been there to just over 20,000.  For those caught in the middle of this incredible tragedy, God sent countless highly trained professionals to rescue those trapped and tend to the injured.  God was in traffic jams, delayed trains, and changed plans.  He was also on every floor and in each stairwell of the Twin Towers. 

In the middle of all that God was doing that day, we found a nation driven to its knees in utter desperation.  Churches across America were filled with hurting, grieving, and confused people, all seeking comfort in the storm.  Countless lives were saved through this incredible tragedy because our God will use all things ultimately for His glory and the good of His children.

So if someone asks you “Where was God?” tell them this:  He was EVERYWHERE, and He still is EVERYWHERE, working all things, even the unspeakably evil acts of man, to accomplish His perfect purposes.  Remember, in God’s economy, desperation always precedes deliverance. 

This is the Gospel.  This is grace for your race.  NEVER FORGET THAT . . . AMEN!