September 11th Returns..and the Prodigal Returns Home

July 12, 2007

September 11th Returns
…and a Prodigal returns home

Prodigal Story

My wife and I were recounting exactly what we remember going on in our lives at the time that September 11th happened. I remember very vividly as I had just found Christ and was baptized July 2000 (although he walked beside me my whole life – long story). That I was quite a prodigal, didn’t escape my memory at all.

Somewhere between the years 2000 – 2002 I had hit the pinnacle of my secular career. God had allowed me to obtain all my goals and even surpass them. When I first had some of these opportunities I acknowledged him and he richly blessed me. Along the way I got way off track and pride took over. I remember distinctly someone marveling and asking me how I accomplished what I had at a relatively young age. Unfortunately I remember the scope of my answer “Well I…” and I had lots of reasons for whatever I did. I did not acknowledge God as I should have.

I can remember the day September 11th happened because God allowed me to take my prodigal path. I was moving from one opportunity at the company I was currently working at and moving on to another. As I was heading to this interview the day and events known as September 11th began. Considering these dramatic events secondary, I was going to an interview and on to my next career move. As I was driving on the highway I remember Air Force One flying above me. It struck me at first because I knew I had heard on the radio that all flights had been shut down. It took me a few minutes to realize, living in Omaha/Bellevue Nebraska where Offut Air Force base is located, that this was likely some sort of military flight. Later on the radio identified this plane as Air Force One (I believe, anyway it marked the time for me). I made it to my interview and made the decision to move jobs. During the next year, 2002 I made the most money I have made in my career.

America’s & My Revival

I remember this time (September 11th) as well because I was about two years into my significant and rapid transformation Jesus had me going through. I was drawing from much of my life experience and God was bringing it all home. I was very familiar with the Bible and had read it several times through as well as a significant amount of other supporting material. I also had sowed quite a sinful life and God was changing me, lifting out impurities and refining me by fire. He was “downloading” (to use a term from our dotcom era) a significant amount of “deep” spiritual truths. I knew that I have lived my whole life designed for spiritual warfare, prophecy and end times, and he was putting it all together. As it says in Jeremiah, “I have knit you in the womb…”

During this period of metamorphosis, I was at just about any Church service they had and Evangelizing at every chance. At my new workplace I had a co-worker who was a fellow Christian. He invited me to a prayer group that had just started because of the impact of the September 11th events. I decided to attend and it became a weekly event for myself and various other people at our workplace and others for over three years. I remember going to some September 11th memorial services at Churches – They were filled!!! Many who were there were not even persons, who would consider themselves religious. But with the tragic events, it has a way of showing us all just how human we are and that even in the United States of America we are not untouchable. Many attended Church for a while, but as a whole it would not last.

A Dog Returns to his Vomit

There are two reasons I find myself really thinking deeply about September 11th and I’ll get to the second one below. The first is that I really could not believe, and know that it’s spiritually significant that the United States Senate today opened with a Hindu prayer. From the articles I read this has not happened for the 200 years the Senate has been operating. I also find it interesting that this same day, the Dow Jones Industrial Average hit an all time high. Something is deeply wrong here. With our country Trillions of dollars in debt and virtually all the persons I know really struggling financially, how in Heaven’s name is “consumer confidence high” and the stock market at an all time high???

Our country has left the Churches, and more importantly God. Let me make sure you know which God I’m talking about. This would be the God of the Bible whose son Jesus came and died for our sins and rose again to sit at the right hand of God - And yes he is coming back. I can’t even find anything on the news media that is truly news worthy. Somehow Jerry Springer took over all of television and our news as well. I don’t think it takes a wealth of prophetic insight to see that we have completely forgotten the events of September 11th and what they were supposed to mean to our country, and what God will do to bring us to our senses. Like Israel, we were supposed to be a light to the Nations. Yes, America has done great things through our history “In Jesus’ name”, but also like Israel we are rejecting our Messiah who is coming.

In humility, this reminds me of my “high” before God would bring me crashing down and through a difficult period of refinement.

Prodigal Returns

For some reason God seems to be bringing my life full circle back to some of these events that happened on September 11th 2001. I have been lead to write a letter to the owner of the company I left at that time (see testimony above) letting him know how much I took for granted his kindness and provision. It is my personal “Prodigal letter” and God’s test of faith and courage in my life. Like the Prodigal son, I know I have to face the towering giants in my life and also walk back and ask the Father’s forgiveness hoping he will welcome me back home. It’s so easy when we read it as a Parable in the Gospel of Luke, but to walk it out ourselves it is a very dark, scary and lonesome road.

September 11th and the events that happened that day were a witness to us all. I feel called to write this because I know that I can’t be the only one with this story. Maybe you were a longtime Christian on September 11th, but it is in Hebrews where God’s word says that he disciplines his sons first, and it is in Romans where it says there is no one righteous, not even one. So, we all have a Prodigal story staring back at us from the mirror. What is yours? And are you sure its finished?

The Time is Near

As I see worldwide and personal testimony in harmony signaling the end of this age is upon us, I am compelled to witness. What are we to do? I’ve learned that it’s okay to say “I don’t know”? Only God can tell you in your heart what it is you need to do to walk out your faith. Maybe you are already doing so. I am trying to do the same and God tells us not to forsake the gathering of ourselves together, and we build each other up by sharing trials and testimony.

One of God’ greatest lessons to me is that he is both Sovereign and Love. He is Sovereign meaning that he has a right and the power to rule. He knows and has known about each hair on our head – he is the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. I also know that he is love. Even when I am destroyed, or at a complete loss he is there with me and directing my steps. Somehow, even though I may not understand, he is lovingly taking me through a situation. I have some very, very difficult things to accept in my testimony and maybe you do too, but I have learned in retrospect how gentle and wise our Loving Father is. I suspect I don’t know the half of it.

The Peg I Hang my Hat on…

About seven years ago I wrote a contract with God. I didn’t even know I was doing it at the time. I was on a business trip to Providence, Rhode Island and on my way back I simply took out a piece of notebook paper. I wrote down and made a commitment in my heart that I would put God first in my life. I had been baptized a few months earlier, but I look at that as the ceremony and this paper as the legal contract. Later on, I realized as God testified into my heart the deep significance of this commitment and now have this paper framed on my wall where I can see it everyday.

It is through this commitment and God’s kind teaching into my heart that He has shown me an important passage in the Bible. It is now one of my favorite passages and I consider it a promise I can “hang my hat on”.


Exodus 21:1-6
1 "These are the laws you are to set before them:
Hebrew Servants

2 "If you buy a Hebrew servant, he is to serve you for six years. But in the seventh year, he shall go free, without paying anything. 3 If he comes alone, he is to go free alone; but if he has a wife when he comes, she is to go with him. 4 If his master gives him a wife and she bears him sons or daughters, the woman and her children shall belong to her master, and only the man shall go free.

5 "But if the servant declares, 'I love my master and my wife and children and do not want to go free,' 6 then his master must take him before the judges. [a] He shall take him to the door or the doorpost and pierce his ear with an awl. Then he will be his servant for life.

In case you didn’t catch the simple math, you serve six full years when you finally come upon the seventh. It has been nearly seven years since I made my personal commitment to God in this contract. Like the loving Father he is, he is willing to let me go free. I can tell you I have no question in my heart that I love my master, my wife and my children and I certainly do not want to go free. I believe that this is one area we have been lead astray by one of the supposed ideals of American Freedom.

There is freedom through submission and not rebellion.

In any close relationship you come to know one another. Familiarity breeds personal insights and sharing idiosyncrasies. I have a lot of personal sayings between God and I. No, I don’t hear God’s audible voice, but I know he knows what I mean when I say “I am putting all my marbles on you Father”.

If you have not already done so, I encourage you to move forward in faith. If you have, please share – Iron Sharpens Iron.

Blessings,

Tony Ellsworth