TERROR IN NEW ORLEANS

2 Tim.3:1 – But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come….

The last thing anyone wanted as we started a Happy New Year was the news that greeted us early yesterday morning, terrorist attack in New Orleans on Bourbon Street on New Years Day; what are the odds? Who would have thought that an Islamic terrorist would run over a crowd of people on the streets of NOLA? I feel like my words from preaching at Beyond the Grave hundreds of times for twenty five years are ringing in my ears.

“What if today was the last day of your life? Our lives are fragile, each of us one heart beat from eternity. No one thinks it would happen to them but all it takes is some angry person to show up with a gun, an unexpected disease, or a sudden car crash and suddenly you leave one life and enter into your real life that will last forever. Are you ready for life beyond the Grave?”

No one ever thinks this could be the day of their death but each of us have an appointment with eternity. Eternity, tragedies like this, bring us all face to face with exactly that, eternity. So what should our response be when we hear about tragedies like today, especially when they happen so near to us? The first way this effects all of us is that it forces us to check our own hearts; how is it with our soul today? Are there things in our lives that we aren’t happy about? Maybe its time to just come to the Lord and call upon His mercy, maybe its time to yield ourselves totally to the Lord. Secondly, check your relationship with your Christian community. Go to Church! We all need to cling to our spiritual friends in times like this. There is nothing worse that being alone spiritually when trouble strikes. Next, I believe it is time for all of us to pray. Just by divine coincidence our church has scheduled prayer meetings at 7am and 7pm for the next three weeks. I believe we are living in a God moment, its not an accident that the Lord had put it on our hearts to begin three weeks of fasting and prayer beginning the day after this terrorist attack. Commit yourself to private prayer and corporate prayer, I really believe we will see extraordinary answers as we enter into a season of extraordinary prayer. As Jonathan Edwards said, “Prayer is as natural an expression of faith as breathing is of life”. Maybe its time for all of us to take a breath, take a breath of God as we begin to pray.