The terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, were a wake-up call from God, says the Rev. Billy Graham\u2019s daughter, Anne Graham Lotz.<\/p>\n
She recalls how she was at home by herself on the day of the terrorist attack. \u201cMy daughter called and told me to turn on the TV. A plane had hit one of the towers. I thought it was a little Piper Cub. But then I turned on the TV just as the second airliner hit. It was horrible.<\/p>\n
\u201cI watched,\u201d she recalls. \u201cAs the first tower came down \u2013 then the second, God woke me up and set my heart on fire.\u201d<\/p>\n
The attacks were meant to be a wake-up call to all Christians to start a revival within the church, she says. She remembers how September 11 personally transformed her own faith and instilled in her a passion to share her convictions with others.<\/p>\n
\u201cOn that day, God woke me up and set my heart on fire to tell other people the glorious good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt made me more focused. As I watched the towers fall, I thought I was watching 50,000 people die, but many people had gotten out. It was less than 3,000, but it was still shattering. I asked myself how many were not ready to step into eternity. I remember that very day sharing the Gospel with strangers. I came out bolder. It was a time not to be silent.<\/p>\n
\u201cI still have that,\u201d she says. \u201cI still don\u2019t want anybody to die without Jesus.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is time for the church to look up, look within ourselves, stop blaming other people. The church is sleeping.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs a country we have pushed God farther and farther out of our government, businesses, marketplace and schools. It\u2019s time to repent and invite Him back.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe may very well be living in the most strategic and critical generation since the first coming of Jesus Christ to Earth,\u201d she says. \u201cBut people in general are oblivious to what time it is! We are fanatical about sports, we are consumed with eating and exercise and entertainment, we mob the shopping malls, we are preoccupied with the lifestyles of the rich and famous, and we zealously pursue greater heights on the corporate ladder.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe fight over the style of church music, argue over political candidates, dream of bigger houses and cars and portfolios \u2013 totally unaware that we are all living on the brink of what?<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are living on the brink of radical inside-out, upside-down, never-be-the-same-again change! We are teetering on the edge of a giant abyss where time stops and eternity begins, yet we live our lives as though this life is all there is or ever will be.<\/p>\n
\u201cGod allowed September 11 and used it. If we don\u2019t wake up, what is going to come next?<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a wake-up call for you! America, are you listening?\u201d<\/p>\n
She realizes such words may spark criticism, even derision.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou know, everybody wants to be accepted,\u201d she says. \u201cBut that\u2019s not why I do what I do. Even when Jesus stepped out into public ministry, people loved Him, and then turned on Him. I want to speak the truth in love \u2013 to be as clear and simple as I can be.<\/p>\n
\u201cI really don\u2019t live my life for other people\u2019s approval. I feel compelled to do this. I believe that the primary problem in America is not economic or healthcare reform, I believe the primary problem is that we need to get right with God.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the message that I have given ever since September 11, I tell how God showed me the sin in my life. He revealed it to me as I spent seven days on my face. It was one of the hardest things I ever went through.<\/p>\n
\u201cI emerged with a freshness in my ministry and my presentation \u2013 to tell other people that God has given us hope even on September 11 \u2013 the most horrific of days.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn a world where political correctness seems to deny truth, where moral relativism seems to deny standards, and where religious pluralism seems to deny God, it\u2019s vital to know what we believe and why we believe it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ten years later, she still feels a special urgency, she says. September 11 was just the beginning.<\/p>\n
\u201cJust as human history had a beginning, the Bible makes it very clear that it also has an end. People are not cosmic accidents wandering through time and space. Our existence has a purpose that is forever entwined with the God who created us for Himself,\u201d she says \u2013 and mankind\u2019s time on earth is coming to an end.<\/p>\n
\u201cWithin my lifetime, I have seen the fulfillment of every sign Jesus gave His disciples 2,000 years ago,\u201d she says. \u201cNot only have I seen the signs, but I have observed the local, national and global \u2018birth pains\u2019 increase in astonishing frequency and intensity.\u201d<\/p>\n
She says those signs point to Jesus\u2019 imminent return. He could return at any moment. What should we expect?<\/p>\n
She cites two signs that tell her that time is short. One is the rebirth of the nation of Israel. She says she was born the same month and year that the Jewish nation \u201creclaimed their land, their language and their place among the nations. The Bible says that the generation which sees that will be the last.<\/p>\n
\u201cThen Jesus said we would see a second sign,\u201d she says, \u201cworldwide evangelism. This is the first time in human history that the Gospel is being preached throughout the entire world.\u201d<\/p>\n
Then, she says, there are the natural disasters that seem to be unfolding with increasing regularity.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen we see these disasters happening, God has told us exactly what we are to do \u2013 we are to cry out to Him. And He will use us to make a difference to our generation.\u201d<\/p>\n
She writes in her new book Expecting to See Jesus: A Wake-Up Call for God\u2019s People,<\/em> that the signs will be like childbirth.<\/p>\n \u201cJesus said they would be like a birthing,\u201d she says. \u201cWhen I gave birth, the contractions were five minutes apart, then two, then one after the other. Now, we see disasters happening more and more frequently and they are record-breaking.<\/p>\n \u201cToday\u2019s record breaks last week\u2019s record \u2013 droughts, fires, earthquakes, tornados, hurricanes, snowstorms \u2013 and not just in America, but in England, Australia, Somalia all around the globe, such as the earthquake and tsunami in Japan. They are birth pains. They are happening now.\u201d<\/p>\n What should we expect?<\/p>\n \u201cI believe that Jesus\u2019 return will cover at least seven years. I am not that dogmatic about how long it will be since the Scriptures are not that clear. I believe at one time, Christ will take the faithful.\u201d<\/p>\n The Rapture? As in the Left Behind<\/em> books and movies?<\/p>\n \u201cThe word \u2018rapture\u2019 isn\u2019t in the Bible,\u201d she notes. \u201cBut I believe that we Christians will not have to live through the worst. Jesus will have taken us to heaven.\u201d<\/p>\n That will get people\u2019s attention \u2013 as millions vanish or rise to meet Jesus in the sky. Then what happens when the Christians are gone?<\/p>\n \u201cThat triggers all sorts of things, such as worldwide revival,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n But, if all the Christians are gone, who will preach?<\/p>\n \u201cThere won\u2019t be anybody,\u201d she admits. However, a great deal of Christian literature will be left behind. \u201cThey will learn from what we leave them. I realized some time ago that God was calling me to write down things for the generation after me, when there are no teachers, no preachers.\u201d<\/p>\n That\u2019s why in her books, she says, she tries to write so anybody can grasp the message \u2013 just as her father, Billy Graham, did throughout his years of ministry.<\/p>\n \u201cDaddy took the Gospel and made it so simple that anybody could understand it –and it had a huge impact,\u201d she says. \u201cIt is a simple message that we are sinners and if we turn to Him, we can be born again.\u201d<\/p>\n But why is she so convinced that Jesus is coming \u2013 and very soon?<\/p>\n \u201cMy faith is not based on my hopeful thinking, not on dreams and wishes and feelings, not on hearsay or doom, not on gloomy economic forecasts, not on the dramatic political, social, cultural, medical, environmental and moral cataclysmic changes taking place in our world today \u2013 not on environmental disasters of biblical proportion like Hurricane Katrina. I base my deep inner conviction on what the Bible says.\u201d<\/p>\n What will happen during the final seven years of life on earth?<\/p>\n She says there will be \u201cthree and a half years of bad things \u2013 man doing bad things to man. Then the last three and half years, God\u2019s wrath will be unleashed upon the earth.<\/p>\n \u201cI do not believe God would put His people through that,\u201d she says \u2013 hence her conviction that the Christians will already have been taken into heaven.<\/p>\n So, her message \u201cis one of hope, that we do not have to go through that. We can escape both judgment for our sins and the eternal consequences of it \u2013 as well as the period of His wrath upon the world.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe signs that Jesus said would characterize the last generation were given to His disciples who recorded them in the Bible,\u201d she says. \u201cJesus said these signs would be like birth pains that increase in frequency and in intensity.<\/p>\n \u201cThese are now taking place all around us. While we have always experienced wars, famines, earthquakes, and the persecution of God\u2019s people, these signs are occurring much more frequently and with record-breaking intensity.<\/p>\n \u201cThe biblical signs and the news headlines are coming together in a dramatically sobering way, giving every indication that it\u2019s five minutes to midnight on the time clock of history, and yet so many people are sleeping!<\/p>\n \u201cThe attack on September 11 was a wake-up call for the nation, as well as the church.<\/p>\n \u201cYet, ten years later we\u2019re still sleeping!\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, were a wake-up call from God, says the Rev. Billy Graham\u2019s daughter, Anne Graham Lotz. She recalls how she was at home by herself on the day of the terrorist attack. \u201cMy daughter called and told me to turn on the TV. 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