A 9/11 Warning

To my readers: As we approach the anniversary of September 11, 2001, with its horrific attacks on the Twin Towers in Manhattan and on the Pentagon, our thoughts and prayers are with all whose lives were forever changed by this unimaginable event. I am reposting this from the archives in hopes that it may be a reminder to follow God's Word and seek His guidance at all times.

As I was walking toward our front door about two weeks ago, I noticed three long, thin, dried up oleander leaves lying on the walkway in a distinct formation. As regular readers of this blog know, I am intrigued by patterns of three, in Scripture and in nature, as reflections of the Trinity (Matthew 28:19). So these leaves caught my eye, especially since they were aligned to form the Roman numeral for “9” – one leaf vertically by itself, to the left of two leaves crossed in an “X” pattern, the three leaves clearly displaying “IX.”

Odd, I thought, and wondered if God might be sending me a message, although I had no idea what it could be, until I stepped inside the house and turned around to shut the door. At that point, I was viewing the leaves upside down from my original vantage point, so I now saw them as “XI,” or the Roman numeral for “11.”

9-11: the telephone number to call in case of emergency. Since September 11, 2001, these numbers have always evoked even more dire warnings of terrorism, death, and destruction. I also felt that the oleander leaves spelling out 9-11 may have had additional significance. The oleander is a beautiful evergreen tree with colorful, attractive blossoms, but all parts of the plant are highly poisonous. What seems attractive at first glance is often not what is best for us (Proverbs 23:31-32; 31:30; 1 John 2:16).

So I thought God was sending me a warning, but about what? I had a sense of restlessness in my spirit, and although I prayed about it, I had no clear answer. But God, Who is not the author of confusion but of peace (1 Corinthians 14:33; Isaiah 26:3) kept getting my attention with various other references to warnings.

At a Bible study one night at our church, the Pastor’s message was about those who disobeyed God’s law and pursued their own will instead, at their own peril. Because they did not “observe to do” His commandments, He removed His blessings and allowed curses instead (Deuteronomy 5:32; 6:25; 27:8-26; 28).  

God’s Word serves to “admonish,” or warn us (1 Corinthians 10:1-14) by giving us examples of those who disobeyed God and succumbed to idolatry, meaning not just worshiping statues, but having anything stand between us and our relationship with God. The devil can trap us and destroy our testimony and ministry (1 Peter 5:8) even when we are saved and want to fulfill God’s perfect plan for our life (Jeremiah 29:11; 33:3). However, Satan’s power is limited by what God allows (Job 1:10), and once saved, we can never lose our salvation (John 10:28-29; Romans 8:39).

Later that week I heard a Charles Stanley sermon about listening for God’s voice so that we can hear Him and obey. Most often He speaks to us through our reading or hearing of His Word (Psalm 119:105), which can correct, instruct, and encourage us (2 Timothy 3:16-17; 4:2-4),

If we take time to be still (Psalm 46:10), He may speak to us in our quiet time (Jeremiah 29:12-14), or even through dreams (Daniel 2:19; 7:13; Matthew 2:12,22; etc.) or nature (Psalm 19:1). Sometimes God speaks to us through fellow Christians who warn us of behavior that displeases God (1 Corinthians 4:14; Colossians 1:28; 1 Thessalonians 5:14).

When Dr. Stanley said that sometimes God wants to give us a warning, that surely caught my attention! He related an incident in his own life when he was a seminary student and had planned to spend the summer working in his church’s missions’ office. One day he tripped, hitting his head, and he felt God was sending him a warning. He became restless in his desire to know what God had planned for his life, when one day in prayer He clearly felt God telling him not to work in the missions’ office that summer, but to vacation in a small town in the mountains instead.

At first he dismissed this idea, thinking it was just his own selfish desire to relax over the summer rather than providing needed service to his church. But he also clearly felt God asking him to trust and obey Him (1 Samuel 15:22; Isaiah 50:10). So he did, and the first week he was there, the church where he had visited asked him if he could fill in the following week by preaching for the pastor who was unexpectedly called out of town. After he had preached there several times, the church invited him to be their new pastor and was even willing to wait for him to complete his final year at seminary!

He ultimately accepted the position; the church grew; and his ministry expanded astronomically to the point that his sermons and messages are now broadcast on television, radio, and online around the world. None of this would have happened, and he would have fallen short of this amazing plan God had for his life (Ephesians 3:20; 1 Timothy 1:14), had he not listened to and followed God’s call to do something that made no earthly sense at the time (Isaiah 55:9).

God often works that way, with miraculous results when we obey! Servants poured water into pots at Christ’s command and watched it drawn forth as the best wine (John 2:7-10), and armies marched silently around Jericho and then saw the walls come tumbling down at the sound of the trumpet! (Joshua 6:1-11)

In my own quiet time, I had been asking for God’s guidance about financial issues, and how to balance these with time and resources to be spent in ministry and in fulfilling His perfect plan. Soon I sensed that the warning God had for me was in that vein, that our earthly life is but a vapor (James 4:14), and that it will soon be the time when we can no longer use it to serve Him (John 9:4).

He does not want us to waste our mental energy on worry (Philippians 4:6), for perfect love casts out fear (1 John 4:18), and we can cast our cares on Him (1 Peter 5:7). Rather, He wants us to find joy in Him and in our salvation (Nehemiah 8:10; Psalm 21:1; 35:9; 51:12). Every day is a gift from Him, and He wants us to rejoice in it (Psalm 118:24), for we are not promised tomorrow (James 4:14).

As we left our house one morning a few days later, we heard sirens, then spotted an ambulance at a neighbor’s house, followed by two police cars, and soon thereafter by a medical examiner’s car and hearse. This neighbor had worked very hard for many years to take an early retirement. He had purchased the vacant lot next to his property, built his dream house there to live in, and gave the house where he had been living to his son, so that he could watch his grandchildren grow up.

But he had lived there only a few short months when he unexpectedly died in his sleep, and he could no longer enjoy all that he had worked so hard to achieve.

So now I feel I understand the warning – our time here is short; we can’t take our earthly possessions with us; and only those rewards we have stored up in Heaven will have eternal value (Luke 12:15-34). Work is necessary to provide for our families (2 Thessalonians 3:10), but overemphasis on wealth, albeit admired by the world, is a distraction that can keep us from God’s best (Proverbs 23:4-5). 

Sadly, I don’t know whether or not our neighbor was saved, and now the opportunity is forever gone to witness to him. I’m ashamed that I never took the time to knock on his door and tell him that we are saved only by our faith in the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ (1 Corinthians 15:1-4) as the only Way to Heaven (John 14:6). But it’s not too late to give his widow a copy of God’s Word, a plan of salvation, and an invitation to visit our church.

May we always heed God’s warnings before it is too late, for the night is fast approaching when no man can work. The numbers 9-11 in my special warning may have had yet another meaning: if we commit our lives to God, He will give us more time to serve Him in joy, peace and love. 

Proverbs 9:11: For by me thy days shall be multiplied, and the years of thy life shall be increased.

© 2016 Laurie Collett

Reposted from the archives

Watch Your Back!

I recently had a dream in which my husband and I were asleep in the bedroom of the house we moved from several years ago. Suddenly a loud commotion by the front door startled us from sound slumber, and we rushed out to see what had happened.

A gang of teenagers wielding knives were strutting through our foyer. Our son, who is now grown, but appeared to be about 12 years old in the dream, stood by apologetically. 

“I thought I recognized them from school, so I let them in,” he said sheepishly.

“Get out of here before we call the police,” my husband commanded the angry teens. 

“We’re just here to tell you, watch your back!” the ringleader threatened before skulking out with the others. 

Surprisingly, I was not frightened by this confrontation, but rather puzzled as to its meaning. Nonetheless, we decided to leave the house for the time being, so our family checked into a nearby hotel.

Upon reaching our room, there was a message that we had been entered into a prize drawing held in the hotel ballroom, and that we had won a takeout meal. So we went down to the lobby and checked with the manager, who asked if we had received the flowers that someone had attempted to deliver to us. We said that we hadn’t, but asked her about the food we had won, and she brought it to us in several shopping bags. 

Since it was already very late, we decided to take the food to the car so that we could enjoy it once we returned home the next day. But as I opened the car door and crawled in to position the bags on the seat, the door of the car parked next to us in the garage opened and a middle-aged, silver-haired man in a well-tailored business suit was pointing a gun at me.

“Hand over the food,” he said calmly but sternly. Of course I did so, shocked that an apparently wealthy and distinguished man would use a weapon to demand a bag of food, and thankful that he appeared to have no designs on my wallet or my life. 

“Watch your back!” he uttered before closing the door of his Lexus and driving away. 

As I awakened from the dream and contemplated its warning, I was struck by the very benign outcomes of what could have been horrific, life-changing tragedies, and also by the unexpected sources of the threats. 

It had been my son who had unwisely opened the door to a gang of intruders, having been deceived into thinking they were his classmates. Thankfully, in real life, my son is a wise, responsible, thoughtful, and caring young man. I believe that his uncharacteristic behavior in the dream was a warning that sometimes those close to us can unwittingly endanger us, even with the best of intentions. 

It reminded me that as the coronavirus pandemic progresses, we all need to take responsibility for one another, and not to be duped into thinking that the virus is harmless or even a hoax. We have all dealt with colds or other respiratory infections at one time or another, and our familiarity with these relatively minor disruptions to our daily life may allow us to let down our guard to the greater danger, and even mortality, of COVID-19 infection. 

No one likes being on lockdown, or refraining from hugs and even handshakes, social distancing, or wearing masks, particularly if we feel we are in good health, but in these perilous times, loving one another requires these measures. Studies have shown that people infected with COVID-19 can spread it to others even before they have any symptoms, and that the virus may even be most infectious during this time.

In the dream, my son’s welcoming gesture of hospitality led to an imminent threat to our family’s safety. In reality, many COVID-19 outbreaks have started in social gatherings and even in churches, where doors were opened with the best of intentions. I recently heard of a church that had carefully reopened with seats 6 feet apart and social distancing measures, which were undone by a loving, elderly saint who embraced everyone as they came through the door! 

Yet despite the potentially explosive situation in the dream of an armed crowd gathered in our entryway, the danger was quickly defused by my husband invoking the police, which I believe was a reference to God’s appointed and anointed authority figures here on earth (Romans 13:1-7), and by extension, to the protection of God Himself (Isaiah 41:10). 

Like all mankind under the curse of sin (Genesis 3:16-19), those in authority battle their demons (Romans 7:14-25), and some give way to Satan’s temptation for sin to reign in their lives and manifest as evil toward others (Romans 6:12). Yet God has appointed them for a reason, and it is His role, not ours, to carry out judgment (Romans 2; Ecclesiastes 12:14). 

Knowing that He is in control, even and especially when we seem to be in imminent danger, gives us peace that passes all understanding (Philippians 4:7), once we are saved by trusting in the death, burial and resurrection of His Son (1 Corinthians 15:1-4) as the onlyWay to Heaven (John 14:6). 

The ensuing events in the dream seemed to be a series of acts of bad judgment – leaving our home unprotected in the middle of the night; venturing forth from the security of the hotel room to claim a “prize” of takeout food; not realizing that it would spoil anyway if not refrigerated; and taking it to the car in an unsecured garage at an hour when criminals could easily be lurking about. 

And yet God once again showed His hand of protection and mercy by allowing me to escape being shot simply by handing over the food I wouldn’t be able to use anyway. Each potentially fatal threat in the dream resulted in no harm to me or to my family, but only in the warning, “Watch your back.” 

I believe the message of the dream is one of avoiding errors of bad judgment by being sober and vigilant, for our enemy the devil prowls about like a roaring lion, seeking to devour us (1 Peter 5:8). It is true that no harm can befall us unless God allows it for our good and His glory (Job 1:10; Romans 8:28), and yet we are not to test Him by deliberately stepping into harm’s way (Deuteronomy 6:16). 

Even knowing that an angel would rescue Him, Jesus refused to follow Satan’s instruction to jump off the highest point of the temple (Matthew 4:5-7). We would not run in front of a moving vehicle just to give God an opportunity to show His strength and His love by saving us. Rather, Scripture says that the prudent see danger coming and hide themselves, but the foolish ignore it and are punished (Proverbs 22:3; 27:12). 

There are times when following God’s will requires not only trust in His protection, but a willingness to lay down one’s life for his friends (John 15:13), as Jesus epitomized when He died on the cross to pay for all our sins so that we could be allowed into Heaven (1 John 3:16). Soldiers who risk their life for their country, health care workers in the frontline of the pandemic, and Christian martyrs who die to spread the Gospel, are human examples of this type of agape love. They deserve our utmost gratitude, praise, honor and respect. 

Yet placing our personal freedoms ahead of public safety during the coronavirus pandemic seems to be a very different type of choice and of risk. By choosing to participate in large gatherings, not social distancing, and not wearing masks we may be endangering not only ourselves, but those in our community (ultimately, the world!) and those we claim to love. 

While it may not be a popular decision, as for me and my family, we will serve the Lord (Joshua 24:15), which at this time we believe includes not putting others in harm’s way, to the extent possible. We will not test Him, and yet we have faith that He Himself will watch our back! He is our Commander and Rear Guard (Joshua 6:9,13) Who goes before us and behind us and Who encompasses us with His loving power (Psalm 5:12; 32:7; 139). 

He has equipped His children with the whole armor of God (Ephesians 6:10-18), including the shield of faith, the breastplate of righteousness, the girdle of truth, the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. No armor to protect our back is needed, for He Himself is there, guiding and guarding us wherever we go!   

© 2020 Laurie Collett

Warning!

Photo by Kenny Louie 2012

As I was walking toward our front door about two weeks ago, I noticed three long, thin, dried up oleander leaves lying on the walkway in a distinct formation. As regular readers of this blog know, I am intrigued by patterns of three, in Scripture and in nature, as reflections of the Trinity (Matthew 28:19). So these leaves caught my eye, especially since they were aligned to form the Roman numeral for “9” – one leaf vertically by itself, to the left of two leaves crossed in an “X” pattern, the three leaves clearly displaying “IX.”

Odd, I thought, and wondered if God might be sending me a message, although I had no idea what it could be, until I stepped inside the house and turned around to shut the door. At that point, I was viewing the leaves upside down from my original vantage point, so I now saw them as “XI,” or the Roman numeral for “11.”

9-11: the telephone number to call in case of emergency. Since September 11, 2001, these numbers have always evoked even more dire warnings of terrorism, death, and destruction. I also felt that the oleander leaves spelling out 9-11 may have had additional significance. The oleander is a beautiful evergreen tree with colorful, attractive blossoms, but all parts of the plant are highly poisonous. What seems attractive at first glance is often not what is best for us (Proverbs 23:31-32; 31:30; 1 John 2:16).

So I thought God was sending me a warning, but about what? I had a sense of restlessness in my spirit, and although I prayed about it, I had no clear answer. But God, Who is not the author of confusion but of peace (1 Corinthians 14:33; Isaiah 26:3) kept getting my attention with various other references to warnings.

At a Bible study one night at our church, the Pastor’s message was about those who disobeyed God’s law and pursued their own will instead, at their own peril. Because they did not “observe to do” His commandments, He removed His blessings and allowed curses instead (Deuteronomy 5:32; 6:25; 27:8-26; 28).  

God’s Word serves to “admonish,” or warn us (1 Corinthians 10:1-14) by giving us examples of those who disobeyed God and succumbed to idolatry, meaning not just worshiping statues, but having anything stand between us and our relationship with God. The devil can trap us and destroy our testimony and ministry (1 Peter 5:8) even when we are saved and want to fulfill God’s perfect plan for our life (Jeremiah 29:11; 33:3). However, Satan’s power is limited by what God allows (Job 1:10), and once saved, we can never lose our salvation (John 10:28-29; Romans 8:39).

Later that week I heard a Charles Stanley sermon about listening for God’s voice so that we can hear Him and obey. Most often He speaks to us through our reading or hearing of His Word (Psalm 119:105), which can correct, instruct, and encourage us (2 Timothy 3:16-17; 4:2-4),

If we take time to be still (Psalm 46:10), He may speak to us in our quiet time (Jeremiah 29:12-14), or even through dreams (Daniel 2:19; 7:13; Matthew 2:12,22; etc.) or nature (Psalm 19:1). Sometimes God speaks to us through fellow Christians who warn us of behavior that displeases God (1 Corinthians 4:14; Colossians 1:28; 1 Thessalonians 5:14).

When Dr. Stanley said that sometimes God wants to give us a warning, that surely caught my attention! He related an incident in his own life when he was a seminary student and had planned to spend the summer working in his church’s missions’ office. One day he tripped, hitting his head, and he felt God was sending him a warning. He became restless in his desire to know what God had planned for his life, when one day in prayer He clearly felt God telling him not to work in the missions’ office that summer, but to vacation in a small town in the mountains instead.

At first he dismissed this idea, thinking it was just his own selfish desire to relax over the summer rather than providing needed service to his church. But he also clearly felt God asking him to trust and obey Him (1 Samuel 15:22; Isaiah 50:10). So he did, and the first week he was there, the church where he had visited asked him if he could fill in the following week by preaching for the pastor who was unexpectedly called out of town. After he had preached there several times, the church invited him to be their new pastor and was even willing to wait for him to complete his final year at seminary!

He ultimately accepted the position; the church grew; and his ministry expanded astronomically to the point that his sermons and messages are now broadcast on television, radio, and online around the world. None of this would have happened, and he would have fallen short of this amazing plan God had for his life (Ephesians 3:20; 1 Timothy 1:14), had he not listened to and followed God’s call to do something that made no earthly sense at the time (Isaiah 55:9).

God often works that way, with miraculous results when we obey! Servants poured water into pots at Christ’s command and watched it drawn forth as the best wine (John 2:7-10), and armies marched silently around Jericho and then saw the walls come tumbling down at the sound of the trumpet! (Joshua 6:1-11)

In my own quiet time, I had been asking for God’s guidance about financial issues, and how to balance these with time and resources to be spent in ministry and in fulfilling His perfect plan. Soon I sensed that the warning God had for me was in that vein, that our earthly life is but a vapor (James 4:14), and that it will soon be the time when we can no longer use it to serve Him (John 9:4).

He does not want us to waste our mental energy on worry (Philippians 4:6), for perfect love casts out fear (1 John 4:18), and we can cast our cares on Him (1 Peter 5:7). Rather, He wants us to find joy in Him and in our salvation (Nehemiah 8:10; Psalm 21:1; 35:9; 51:12). Every day is a gift from Him, and He wants us to rejoice in it (Psalm 118:24), for we are not promised tomorrow (James 4:14).

As we left our house one morning a few days later, we heard sirens, then spotted an ambulance at a neighbor’s house, followed by two police cars, and soon thereafter by a medical examiner’s car and hearse. This neighbor had worked very hard for many years to take an early retirement. He had purchased the vacant lot next to his property, built his dream house there to live in, and gave the house where he had been living to his son, so that he could watch his grandchildren grow up.

But he had lived there only a few short months when he unexpectedly died in his sleep, and he could no longer enjoy all that he had worked so hard to achieve.

So now I feel I understand the warning – our time here is short; we can’t take our earthly possessions with us; and only those rewards we have stored up in Heaven will have eternal value (Luke 12:15-34). Work is necessary to provide for our families (2 Thessalonians 3:10), but overemphasis on wealth, albeit admired by the world, is a distraction that can keep us from God’s best (Proverbs 23:4-5). 

Sadly, I don’t know whether or not our neighbor was saved, and now the opportunity is forever gone to witness to him. I’m ashamed that I never took the time to knock on his door and tell him that we are saved only by our faith in the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ (1 Corinthians 15:1-4) as the only Way to Heaven (John 14:6). But it’s not too late to give his widow a copy of God’s Word, a plan of salvation, and an invitation to visit our church.

May we always heed God’s warnings before it is too late, for the night is fast approaching when no man can work. The numbers 9-11 in my special warning may have had yet another meaning: if we commit our lives to God, He will give us more time to serve Him in joy, peace and love. 

Proverbs 9:11: For by me thy days shall be multiplied, and the years of thy life shall be increased.

© 2016 Laurie Collett