This morning, even as we remember another September 11 day, a beautiful morning that became a nightmare of a day that left a wound in our country’s heart and a fight for liberty that will likely go on beyond our lifetimes, my heart is filled with prayers for our nation. I am praying for new seasons in America.
It is glorious here in beautiful North Carolina, and my thoughts about 9/11 are mixed with thinking about a new season at our home. Mae has put out her autumn decorations. I love it when she does that. Our door now greets you with wreaths of fall foliage. It is a new season and there are signs of it in our home and in our garden. In fact, this time marks the start of planting again for a late harvest. This is my prayer for the Church. This is my prayer for America: a new harvest, even in late season.
New seasons are a gift of God in cycles of grace. Each seems to signify a new opportunity, a new start, a new possibility for good.
“All occasions invite his mercies, and all times are his seasons,” preached Donne (St. Paul’s, Christmas Day, 1640).
So, welcome this season. Welcome this autumn! Welcome new seasons of life and ministry. Even on 9/11. We remember, we are somber, but we also see new seasons of life and we have no other course of action but to move forward into this season. It calls us to come or forever miss the open door of what could be.
On another note, but in a similar thought about seasons, I want to thank you all who helped us through this past week of the beginning of transition at RTS with my friends Ric and Rachel Cannada and our Chairman, Mr. Jim Moore . We remain stunned by the honor and privilege of preaching the unsearchable riches of Christ here at RTS, and equipping a new generation of pastors and missionaries to reach into the hearts and lives of our post 9/11 nation, as the Chancellor/CEO Elect. Thank you Lord, and help us all to walk into this season with both proper, prayerful humility and Christ-surrendered courage. Let us be a part of healing a wounded heart and casting a vision for a new season of national life, with God as our Head.
So, then, God bless the Church in our generation. God bless RTS. God bless and stir every God honoring ministry unto instruments for revival. And may God continue to bless America. Let a new season of life and genuine spiritual revival, an Autumn wreath for an open door of ministry, be hung with care upon this day. Let us begin, again, in a new season of life and ministry on this day, for our nation and for the Church of Jesus Christ.
Come autumn. Come new season. Come Christ.