Americans have always been a “Stay awake, be prepared” people. I think of our forefathers and what they went through, the trials and tribulations of pioneering from Europe, Africa and Asia to America and surviving the wild and tumultuous circumstances of the times. They had a special something we don’t seem to have today. We have been so content with what the world has to offer, we have neglected to keep in mind the warnings of the Word of God that challenge us and our forefathers back then. “So stay awake and be prepared, because you do not know the day or hour of my return.” Matt. 25:13

The boat trips over the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans our ancestors endured reminds me of the people of Syria today, refugees of their own home country, knowing the challenges of boarding a boat leaving their shores not knowing if they will ever find freedom or peace.

I think about our native people of this great land of America who by all standards of modern day living today really had it hard, tough and challenging in their ancient times. Surviving from day to day was never easy for the native people in America a hundred, two hundred years ago. They were always faced with daily challenges of staying alive and preparing for survival in times of tribulation. The indigenous people here in Alaska had it hard too. Preparing for long hard winters was a year around ordeal. Gathering food, fuel for heat, repairing their dwellings, making clothing to keep warm was an ongoing affair. Besides preparing for survival in hard times, the normal everyday challenges of childbearing, death and illnesses were things they handled on a daily basis.

Fast forward … September 11, 2001. Where were you on that day? What steps of preparedness had you taken to survive any unexpected catastrophic event that could suddenly come upon you? On this day, in the eyes of most Americans over the age of 12 years old was a shock that would be a reminder even to this day of what could suddenly happen. It was nothing new to others around the world to have the rug pulled out from underneath them, but for Americans, it was something we had never prepared for. It was an invasion on our own soil that we as a nation had fought so hard to protect from outside forces in years past.

The bombing of the World Trade Center by enemy forces within our nation was the first sign of a breach in our own defenses to protect our nation. Where was God? Where was His protection? Many of us are still asking this question today, “Where is God, where is His protection today?” What sins have we as a nation done to have God turn against us? Has God forsaken America?

I don’t think so. God has spoken, “I will not be mocked, for what so ever a man shall sow, so shall he reap.” Galatians 6:7, Proverbs 22:8 If we have turned our backs on God, given our allegiance to ourselves, made our own false gods, lived for our own pleasures instead of for God, then God’s hands are tied behind His back. His word will always remain true, we will always pay the consequences for ignoring Him.

When our trust is in the Lord God of the Heaven’s and the Earth, we have His protection from evil.

When we live apart from God, apart from considering Him daily, we then fall under judgment and we are without His protection. God’s Word gives us the manual for living right with God and with each other. The books of the prophets warned us how God punished Israel time and again for turning their backs on Him and allowing and following the practices of worshiping false gods and living without Him.

On the evening of September 11, 2001, I was distraught over the events of the day praying to the Lord for something, for an answer to what had happened. The Lord put on my heart to read Amos 3:3-7. I had never read this scripture before. Basically it said that, “if disaster comes to a city, isn’t it because the Lord has planned it? But always, first of all, I warn you through my servants the prophets, I the Sovereign Lord, have now done this.”

God’s word holds all the secrets of life for us. The enemy of God, satan, the god of this evil world, has vowed to destroy God’s children for millennial. That’s why God did not spare His Son, but sent Jesus Christ to defeat the works of satan once and for all at the Cross, to demonstrate to us His great love for us while we were still sinners. In doing so, God the Almighty Father of All, fulfilled His promise to all creation and to Himself, that those who believe in the one true God and Jesus Christ whom He has sent, who confess with their mouth and believe in their hearts that Jesus Christ is Lord, will pass from death into life. This is and was God’s plan from the foundations of the world for all mankind.

Do we need God to be our Savior and Lord today? That’s a question we all need to ask ourselves. When you look at the big picture in the world today, there are no longer many certainties. We are in need of a

Savior, a Supernatural God to help catapult us into a Heavenly realm where all things are new, both in Heaven and on Earth.

“Watchman, how much longer until morning? When will the night be over?” Isa. 21:11

We have a choice to make. Stay awake, pray, and be prepared. The lesson of the fig tree is now at hand. Jesus is our answer for today.

Mark Conway is a Christian evangelist living in Sterling with his wife Maryna. You can reach him by email at akmark50@hotmail.com.