Remembering 9/11: Faith, Unity & Hope in the Midst of Tragedy
FULL TRANSCRIPT
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He's just a regular guy with a cool job that God loves for some reason. Welcome to The Steve Marston Show, a daily journey in learning how to live more like Jesus, conversations with those that God is working through, and dad jokes. It's the most unique show you'll hear today. Now, here's Steve. And away we go. It's a thrill and a delight to be with you. The Steve Marston Show is back. Thank you to our amazing radio stations.
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that continue to have us on the air weekdays at 3 p.m. Central. It started out the OG station, it's 99.5 The Word in Little Rock. And then a few months later came AM 630 The Word in San Antonio. And that has been the foundation of this program. And then the podcast kind of took off and it started blossoming. And here we are. So thank you for being a part of today's festivities. Now, it's September 11th.
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The remembrance has been going on all day and I'm sure you've been bombarded with it. And we have reached a point now where there is so many people who don't remember September 11th, 2001. They were not born or if they were, they were very young and they don't remember what it was like. See, there's always a handful of moments, just seminal moments that you know exactly where you were and exactly what you were doing and who you were with.
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when tragedy struck. For an older generation, they remember JFK's assassination. Some of them, and Martin Luther King's assassination. Then my generation, Generation X, our seminal moment like that was when the Space Shuttle Challenger blew up. It was such a heartbreaking thing. But that was a tragic and horrible accident.
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And it was, you know, seven people, I think, that lost their lives. And one of them was the school teacher. And it was just so sickening. That pit in your stomach was just like, oh my gosh, this is awful. And for the longest time, that was Gen X's moment that we know exactly where we were when it happened. And then of course, September 11th, 2001 came along and our country literally changed.
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everything changed. We were a different nation after that. It was an attack on our homeland. And being as far away from New York and Pennsylvania and Washington, D.C. as I was, it was so surreal to think that this is actually going on and that we're not watching some kind of reality movie or something, you know? It was just horrible. And again,
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So much time has passed now that so many people don't remember September 11th. I know where exactly where I was. And in fact, I can base my son's age on September 11th, 2001, because, you know, my son Tyler that's on the program from time to time talking about his YouTube channel, he was six weeks old when that event happened. And I remember
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getting up six or so 30 or so in the morning, he was kind of fussy and had woken up my wife. I said, I'll take care of him. I'll let her sleep. So I picked him up, started rocking him and for about an hour, he just continued to not want to go to sleep. And I decided, okay, he's going to be awake. So I'm going to be awake. And I turned the TV on and it turned on to ESPN, the sports channel. Right. And I noticed.
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at the bottom of the screen was a crawl that said, Wrigley Field is closed. That's where the Chicago Cubs play. And Yankee Stadium is closed. And I thought to myself, okay, closed, it just didn't compute with me. Because, okay, if there's a game that's gonna be postponed, why would they postpone it this early in the morning? I mean, it must've had some kind of massive...
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weather event come through in both of those cities, that seemed odd. Again, I just couldn't figure it out. And it just, and again, it just kept showing it over and over. And I'm thinking, why? That just doesn't add up to me. And then I started surfing channels and saw what had happened. And like, like everyone else, we were just glued to the TV screens for the remainder of the day. And I remember talking with some people at
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the workplace after the days and so after it happened and people were scared to death. People were thinking it's the end of the world. And I was able to say as bad as it was and as much as I didn't understand everything, I did know that's not the end of the world. I know how the end of the world is gonna happen. And this isn't it. This is bad, this is horrible, but this isn't how.
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it's all going to finish up. And I remember the Sunday after September 11th when churches were packed. Our church was packed. We were overfilled with capacity. A lot of us that are, you know, active members and in leadership and stuff, we gave up our seats and we were having people come in and sit, you know.
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in the front of the auditorium because you know normally especially at a Baptist church everybody wants to sit in the back but because of the massive size of the crowd people had to sit more closer to the front and there was we brought in chairs and we and we just had literally a standing room only that Sunday and we were all praying that not only would God heal our nation and would God give us strength and wisdom to
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know how to handle the situation that had come upon us out of the blue, but that people would see this as an opportunity to come back to Christ and that God would be magnified in this horrible tragedy. But then it went on and life kind of got back to normal. I was talking with my son Tyler and my daughter
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Amber who is younger than he is about the anniversary and about the situation and again, they have no idea what it was like and they have seen the pictures they've seen the videos but that can only go so far that can only bring you to the brink of finding out what happened but not really having
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really experienced it. And again, so many commentators and so many people are telling us now what happened and why and not having that as a point of reference when we were actually going through it, when it was happening in real time, made it very hard to watch, made it very strange and surreal. And there were so many stories that came out of September 11th, 2001.
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that were of heroes from the New York City firefighters and police and first responders to those people who were at churches and synagogues that were doing what they could to triage people and to even pass out just cups of water. All of those people were heroes that day. And then you think about the heroes that were on that United flight that was supposedly
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headed toward either Capitol Hill or to the White House. Not sure which because a group of those passengers had heard what had happened in New York City and had heard what happened in the Pentagon and realized that their flight was headed somewhere to do some more damage as a suicide mission. And they took over the plane and they kept it from whatever its final destination was supposed to be.
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All 44 of the people on board died in that Pennsylvania field serving our country and protecting our country, whether they realized it or not. And then maybe the brightest spot of that entire tragedy was September 12th, 2001. Do you remember? We were all unified. It didn't matter what your skin color was. It didn't matter how rich you were, how poor you were.
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It didn't matter what your political affiliation was, your sexual orientation or any of that, we were all united as one people. We were hurting, we were grieving, we were asking God why, we were giving our blood at blood banks and on and on and on and we were solidified and unified as a people. And I don't know that we've been that way since. God hastened a day that we could get back to that.
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where America is one again. Steve Marston Show continues. It's where faith and fun are both taken seriously. And on Fridays, one of the things we like to do is to review the Babylon Bee. It's my favorite news source on the interwebs. I say, wait a minute, Steve, the bee is not a news source. It's all parody. It's all satire.
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Yes, but there's lots of truth in those pages of the Bee, and we like to bring them to you here every single week. So let's get to it, shall we? All right, here we go. Ladies, you're going to love this. Here, according to the Babylon Bee, is 10 great benefits of being a pastor's wife. The Bee says life in ministry is one of the greatest gifts anyone can experience.
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And that extends to pastors wives as well. So what's so great about being a pastor's wife? The Babylon B asks. Well, the benefits are abundant. Here we go at number 10. You get plenty of free advice on how to raise your kids from all 250 church members. That's awesome.
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Number nine, you get to bat clean up on the church's softball team. Hey, after all pays to know the boss. It's good. The number eight, you get to hear withering criticism about your husband and you cannot react or get upset in any way. Just keep on storing up those treasures in heaven, sweetheart.
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Number seven on the Babylon Bee's list of ten great benefits of being a pastor's wife. You're the only person who can picture the pastor in his underwear without it being a sin. Not that you have to, but you can, says the Babylon Bee. Number six, you get a bonus sneak peek at each week's sermon. It's like an advanced screening of a movie.
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Only instead of a movie, it's your husband's epic biblical mastery. Who wouldn't love that, am I right?
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Number five, you can serve the Lord as a wife, mother, receptionist, piano player, Sunday school teacher, women's brunch organizer, Christmas stage poinsettia arranger, janitor and marital counselor. And that's just on a Tuesday. Did I mispronounce, is it poinsettia or is it poinsetta? I know, I always get tripped up on that. But you know what I'm talking about, the little Christmas.
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We're up to number four on the list of ten great benefits of being a pastor's wife from the Babylon Bee.
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You have stopped smile. You haven't stopped smiling since 1998. Forced smiling has helped you. Frozen your cheek muscles into a joker like state. That's probably true more than we would care to know. Now to number three. You get to hang on to the pastors back like Yoda in all photographs. Enjoy it, you will.
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See a little Star Wars lingo there.
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We're up to the number two spot on the 10 great benefits of being a pastor's wife. You get mentioned in every sermon illustration. So just sit back and relax while the rest of the congregation learns a little more about you every single week.
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And now here we are, we have reached the apex, the top, the pinnacle of the Babylon Bee's list of 10 great benefits of being a pastor's wife. You get to run the women's ministry for free. Enjoy the excitement of working without being financially compensated in any way, matter, or form. Go.
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That's the Babylon Bee's list of 10 great benefits of being a pastor's wife.
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You know, I was talking to someone about the Babylon Bee and they were asking me, why do you always do that every week? Because, well, number one, it's fun. But number two, I have always been impressed with the bee. The bee is a sarcastic, satirical view of it started out being totally about the church bubble and kind of poking fun and kind of...
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making us look at the church life a little bit different. And having been involved in church life and church ministry practically since I was really all of my adult life, it was just music to my ears and to my eyes when I was able to come across the Babylon Bee for the first time years and years ago. And it kind of almost makes me a little jealous that I didn't come up with it myself because it's right up my alley. I mean, I'm a smart aleck at heart and
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writing these satirical pieces about the church life is just amazing and it's great. So that's why I do the Babylon Bee every single week. Okay, I want to let you know about our resource that we've got for you. It's at our website. It's called Five Tips for Bible Study, and I think it will really help you. It's just a free PDF available for digital download. mean, really quick, it doesn't take two seconds for you to be able to get this into your hands. And these are just strategies.
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to help you as you open God's Word. look, devotional books and workbooks, they all have their place. I'm not trying to poo-poo that at all. I love those. But there is something to be said for you to be able to grab your phone or to grab your physical copy of a Bible, open it up, and be able to read and be able to digest and rightly handle God's Word, knowing what it says.
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and being able to put it into practice and not have to worry about, am I getting it right? Am I on the right track? You can know that for sure. All you have to do, like I say, is use some of these strategies. And again, these strategies didn't originate with me. I've taken them from different places and I've kind of tailored them to myself, but I feel like I'm no different than you are. And I think because it helps me, I think really it will help you as well.
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So head to our website stevemarschdonshow.com. look for the free PDF. It's right there at the top of the page in the menu, or you could scroll down a little bit on the page and you'll see the big banner for it. But again, it's five tips for Bible study at stevemarschdonshow.com. And we've had people literally from all over the country download it. Of course, those in San Antonio and Little Rock and the surrounding areas with the radio stations. But really, I've had people from California and from Maine.
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even download it. So it's really good and I think it will help you. So go get it right now at SteveMarsdenShow.com. Coming up, we're going to be joined by our buddy Adam Holtz. He is from PluggedIn.com, which is a ministry of focus on the family. And we're going to be talking about all kinds of things, entertainment and technology with him. And we'll be doing that when we come back. It's the Steve Marsden Show. Fun Friday rolling on. Don't move. We'll be back before you know it.
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The Steve Marston Show continues. It's where faith and fun are both taken seriously. We're glad to be with you as always. And it's time for our special guest on Fridays, most every Friday. I mean, not not a hard and fast rule, but just about every Friday. Holtz from PlugedIn.com joins us. It's a ministry of focus on the family. And Adam, it's good to have you back, buddy. Steve, yeah, it's been a couple weeks.
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Had some COVID and some travel and life, but I am back and it's great to talk to you. It is as well for me to talk to you, my friend. And I know you were just talking before we went on air here. COVID seems like it hits you every single August, right? Yeah, no, I've had it. I just had it for the fifth time. So yeah, it's crazy. I get it like once a year. I had a, we don't need to go too far down this rabbit hole. I had an ex-
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extraordinarily bad reaction to the booster, the vaccine, the first round. Oh, wow. And so I've, I'm not judging one way or the other, but I'm not doing it for myself because I, it was bad the first time around, but yeah. Well, there's something to be said for consistency, isn't there? Exactly. Just put it on my calendar, get that out of the way.
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Absolutely. All right. Well, let's start with you and I were talking again off air just before we came on here about the memories of September 11th. And we've talked a lot about on the show about it as well. And I know it's a date that, you know, our generation before September 11th, I mean, I think it was the challenger.
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explosion that really, you know, that we all look back and go, man, I remember exactly where I was and who I was with and all of that. What are your memories of September 11th? You know, my memories of September 11th are really strange in that I was on a motorcycle trip with a friend of mine and we had ridden from Colorado up to Yellowstone and he was going to Seattle and I turned around and came back to Colorado Springs.
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And I was in the condo lodge in Casper, Wyoming, and I wasn't in a huge hurry. So I didn't get up till like 10 o'clock that day. And I came downstairs to get some coffee and everybody was gathered around the TV in the lobby. And, you know, I remember just the headline of the twin towers have fallen. I'm like, what twin towers are we, you know, is this like Lord of the Rings? What are we talking about? You know, I mean, I
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And then I looked at this gaping hole in the ground and smoking wreckage and I'm like, well, the only twin towers I know are the ones in New York city. They can't be talking about that. know, I mean, by the time I got around, it was all, it was all done. And, you know, I think as with, with all of us just trying to, to take it in and process something that seemed
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unthinkable and impossible, you know, and I remember sitting in the little restaurant next to the hotel and I called my parents. I'm like, you know, nothing's ever going to be the same again. And in many ways it hasn't been, you know, I mean, that was especially as it regards travel, but I think in terms of, you know, our ongoing cultural conversation about Islam and terrorism and all of those things.
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It was a dark watershed day. And yeah, how about you? Oh yeah, that was my thought too immediately when it was happening and we're watching it in real time. I'm like, nothing's ever going to be the same again. Our nation has been attacked and that's never happened before. For me, I mentioned a little earlier, my son, I can judge how old my son is by September 11th, 2001 because
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He was six weeks old and he had kind of gotten up and gotten fussy and I thought, well, I'll take him, let my wife sleep a little bit. And so I started walking, rocking him and he didn't really go back to sleep. So I thought, okay, let's turn the TV on. And it went to ESPN and the crawl at the bottom of the screen said, Wrigley field, which is the Chicago Cubs baseball field is closed. Then Yankee stadium is closed. I'm closed. It just didn't compute.
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closed. is it? Well, mean, you know, baseball games that can be postponed until closer to time, but it's closed. That just doesn't compute. And then I changed channels and saw everything. Yeah. Well, and I was, I had an eight hour motorcycle ride from Casper to Dent to Colorado Springs by myself. And I mean, if you think about it, this is before
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Facebook it's before all social media and it's really before smartphones and so I Mean as I was writing down I would stop at gas stations and there were just crazy rumors, you know, like oh I heard Denver was closed like Well, what do you mean Denver is closed right same thing and it and it wasn't but I remember driving by the air for riding by the Air Force Base in Cheyenne, Wyoming
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And you know, there was, everybody was out with their, with, you know, holding rifles and things you've never seen in America before. Right. I mean, so just so much uncertainty, fear, unanswered questions. We didn't know, uh, what we didn't know. Um, and that was one of the most surreal days I can ever remember. mean, not only was the event surreal, but then
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Traveling and getting on a motorcycle by myself without knowing okay. Am I even gonna be able to get home? I don't know We'll see when I had a co-worker who was in Canada on vacation and she got trapped there for three weeks, you know Wow, really? Yeah, there was plenty of stories about everything down, right? So yeah, and just to imagine that every airline Was grounded every plane
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I mean, you just can't even fathom that. the only thing, of course, where I live is relatively close to an air base. And the only thing you saw in the skies those days was fighter jets and big military planes just kind of patrolling the sky to see what would happen next. It was one of those crazy, uncertain things. You just didn't know how things were going to play out because it just didn't happen one time. It happened
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both times and then the Pentagon and then it was Pennsylvania and it's like, my goodness, what's coming next. Right. And we just didn't, we didn't know. And, um, you know, I, well, one of the controversies not too long after that was it wasn't very long before they started to have conversations about making movies about it. Right. Uh, and this is
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segueing a little bit into what we deal with at Plugged In. And I remember Oliver Stone was going to make his movie, The Twin Towers, and Flight 93 came out. I think that there was really, even though we make this statement jokingly sometimes, people were like, is it too soon? Are we somehow exploiting
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this horrific tragedy just a couple of years after it happened. And the interesting thing was I was kind of sympathetic to those arguments at the time, but now it feels like a blink and it's 25 years later. And I've had three kids and my, for my three kids, this is like what JFK or Martin Luther King or Pearl Harbor would have been for me. It's they don't have that memory. And so I think these movies actually become
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an opportunity to, uh, to help them understand a little bit. Well, that's where I wanted to go next because you and I are both fathers of three and you know, our oldest was not, uh, well, like I say, my oldest was six weeks old when it happened. So they have absolutely no memories of it. What have you had discussions with them about? How, did, how do you explain September 11th to them? Yeah, you know, it's, it's difficult because I don't think that there has been an event.
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sense them thankfully of that magnitude. And so it's trying to help them understand that these things that we take for granted as know quote unquote normal now they weren't like when we travel before 9-11 you could still go you know right to where your flight takes off and you know hang out there with your family until they got on the plane and then you would leave.
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And I think that was one of the biggest changes and so, you know trying to talk through things like that and I don't know that we have talked a lot about it actually this week I have been thinking about it that it's such a significant anniversary I think I actually want to take some time maybe even this weekend and just say hey Here's why this is is really significant because for them, it's just you know, it's a historical marker and I think
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both of those movies and then later on Zero Dark Thirty came out, which is about the hunt for Red Madden. I think that they provide opportunities to say, here's what it was like. And I don't even know, it's probably just worth asking your kids, if you have younger kids, what do you know about 9-11? Have you seen the footage of it? Do you want to?
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Right. I'm not even sure that that's necessarily a given. And so just sort of plumbing the depths of what they know about it, how they think about it, because I suspect for most of them, it's just kind of background noise. Right. I think so too. It's just social media. It's like, yeah, yeah, 9-11. What's on TikTok? Right. Right. You know, I was talking with Mike, an older two, about it.
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And they were having some of the kind of the same things, you know, again, they have no real point of reference. They've just heard about it all of their lives. But I told them about September 12th. Do you remember how everybody, it didn't matter what your, you know, what your skin color was, what your bank account said, what your level of education was, whether what your sexual orientation was. We were all Americans and we were all hurting and we were all grieving.
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But we just had this oneness that I don't think we've had really ever since. No, I don't think we have either. it hasn't, it didn't last very long. No, it didn't. And it, you know, I think it, can obviously litigate history backwards with what we know now, but you know, there was definitely a desire to, to strike back, you know, and that led to the war against Iraq and
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we could have a long conversation about whether that was necessary and whether it justified the cost involved. and, uh, but I think that when we're attacked, our, our, you know, natural impulse, especially as Americans is, what are you thinking? Coming after you, you know, you don't get to do that. Um, exactly. I'm not sure it was a great response in retrospect.
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No, I agree. I agree for sure, but I just remember the unity, I think probably most of all. unity, absolutely. But it was so fleeting. You're right, it just didn't last. Okay, we've got just a couple of It like a couple weeks, right? Yeah, exactly. And churches were full, remember, on that, especially the Sunday after September 11th. I you couldn't get people in the door. They were standing room only. And then it seemed like after they kind of realized our day...
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us as a society kind of realized that okay, everything is kind of calmed down and we're kind of getting used to this new normal. It just kind of went back to the almost the way things were in a lot of ways. It did. So before we let you go, we got about three, four minutes left. Let's talk a little bit about some movies that are coming out. And one is I still think the best movie, Christian movie ever made, Passion of the Christ, is hitting theaters again. And again, you talk about a whole new generation.
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that's never been exposed to it before. This is the same type of movie. Yeah, no, that's exactly right. And so The Passion of the Christ is getting a theatrical re-release. They're working in conjunction with Satham Event, so it's not necessarily going to be every theater, and it's going to be in theaters for a week. I believe it started on Wednesday this week, so we're about halfway through there.
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And it is at least partially in conjunction with promoting the fact that Mel Gibson's sequels, two of them, the resurrection of the Christ, are going to be out next year, 2027 and then 2028, two movies talking about what happened after The Passion. And so I think it's interesting to me that they're re-releasing it this far out. I would think maybe they would do it a little bit closer, but
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I am not on their marketing team, nor did they call me to ask what I saw. It's so they should have. They should. don't call. People don't ask me what I think. So but like with you, I think that I would describe the passion as the most epic, the most beautiful and the most horrific depiction of the life of Christ that's ever been put to film. And the brutal realism is just staggering.
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Yes it is. And we would probably have to say because of that realism, not necessarily for everybody in the family. Exactly. No, and I have such mixed feelings about it because I think we end up dialing down and sanitizing the crucifixion and what happened to Jesus because it's so horrific, but when you see it depicted the way Mel Gibson did, that's...
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probably pretty close to the way it was. It's so utterly searing and so difficult to watch. confess, I saw it once in the theater and that was enough for me. I haven't seen it since. And it's a level of violence that certainly, I would say with rare exceptions, kids are probably off limits here. And I think really
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thinking seriously about it for, you know, teens even. But I also think, like I said, I'm of two minds. There's incredible value in just seeing what Jesus willingly took on for us, but there are also images there that you can't ever unsee, right? And so I think it's worth asking the question, do we have to have that up close and personal glimpse?
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to understand the sacrifice that Jesus made for us. And some people are going to say, yes, there's value there. Others are going to say, I don't think we need to see that. And it's definitely an R-rated movie for a reason. This is one of the toughest films you'll ever see, I think. So... I couldn't agree more. I remember showing it to a group of fifth and sixth graders thinking...
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They could handle it and we had to turn it off there in the middle of the scene because it was too much. Yeah. And I was wrong for doing that. But, uh, but anyway, it is still a wonderfully done movie and we are, yeah, we're so thankful for Mel Gibson of all people, guess, putting this together and looking forward to seeing the sequels, man. are just out of time, Adam. This has been fun going down memory lane and talking about movies and talking about September 11th.
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Really appreciate you. We'll catch up again with you next week. Okay. Sounds good. Thanks Steve.
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Welcome back. It's the Steve Barstead Show. It's the Christian Radio Show and podcast that truly matters. And we're grateful that you're with us. And you know, I do this little segment called Stories You May Have Missed. And since we're looking back on the anniversary of September 11th, 2001, one of the things you may have missed or not remembered, or maybe you just aren't old enough to know, was Billy Graham's message.
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at the Washington National Cathedral just a couple of days after the massacre in New York City and in Washington DC and in Pennsylvania. It may have been his best message of his life and that's saying a lot. I don't know of anybody in this world that has brought more people to Christ through the preaching of the gospel than Billy Graham did in his lifetime. And like I say,
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This message was, I mean, not just a home run. It was a grand slam home run. He did such a marvelous job. Now it's 11 minutes long, so I'm not going to be able to play you the whole thing, but I am going to bring you some little highlights of it. And of course you can go find it. all over the internet, the whole thing. So here's Billy Graham from just a few days after September 11th, 2001. We especially come together.
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in this service to confess our need of God.
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We've always needed God from the very beginning of this nation. But today we need him especially. We're facing a new kind of enemy. We're involved in a new kind of warfare. And we need the help of the Spirit of God. The Bible words are our hope. God is our refuge and strength. An ever-present help in trouble. Therefore, we will not fear.
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Though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea. But how do we understand something like this? Why does God allow evil like this to take place? Perhaps that is what you are asking now. You may even be angry at God. I want to assure you that God understands these feelings that you may have. We've seen so much on our television, heard on our radio.
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stories that bring tears to our eyes and make us all feel a sense of anger.
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but God can be trusted even when life seems at its darkest. Here's more of the Reverend Billy Graham from just a couple of days after September 11th, 2001 as our nation was mourning, as our nation was trying to figure it out and pick up all the pieces as to what happened. Billy Graham gave this message to the nation and again, I think it was one of his best ones maybe of his entire life.
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Let's listen to a little bit more of it now. But what are some of the lessons we can learn? First, we're reminded of the mystery and reality of evil. I've been asked hundreds of times in my life why God allows tragedy and suffering. I have to confess that I really do not know the answer totally, even to my own satisfaction. I have to accept by faith that God is sovereign.
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and he's a God of love and mercy and compassion in the midst of suffering. The Bible says that God is not the author of evil. It speaks of evil as a mystery in 1 Thessalonians 2, 7. It talks about the mystery of iniquity. The Old Testament prophet Jeremiah said, the heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?
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He asked that question, who can understand it? And that's one reason we each need God in our lives. The lesson of this event is not only about the mystery of iniquity and evil, but secondly, it's a lesson about our need for each other. What an example New York and Washington have been to the world these past few days. None of us will ever forget.
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the pictures of our courageous firefighters and police, many of whom have lost friends and colleagues, or the hundreds of people attending or standing patiently in line to donate blood. A tragedy like this could have torn our country apart, but instead it has united us and we've become a family. So those perpetrators who took this on to tear us apart
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It has worked the other way. It's backlash. It's backfired. We are more united than ever before. I think this was exemplified in a very moving way when the members of our Congress stood shoulder to shoulder the other day and sang, bless America. I want you to pay a special attention to this clip where he talks about the people who passed away at 9-11 if they're going to be in heaven.
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as a Christian, I have hope not just for this life, but for heaven and the life to come. And many of those people who died this past week are in heaven right now. And they wouldn't want to come back. It's so glorious and so wonderful. And that's the hope for all of us who put our faith in God. I pray that you will have this hope in your heart.
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This event reminds us of the brevity and the uncertainty of life. We never know when we too will be called into eternity.
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I doubt if even one of those people who got on those planes or walked into the World Trade Center or the Pentagon last Tuesday morning thought it would be the last day of their lives. They didn't. It didn't occur to them. And that's why each of us needs to face our own spiritual need and commit ourselves to God and his will now. Isn't that powerful? I mean,
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How easy would it have been for Billy Graham at a time like September 11, 2001 to say, you know, those that perished because of the way they died would all enter into heaven. But he didn't do it. He told the gospel. And he did it in such a compassionate and thoughtful and meaningful way. Just a powerful message from the late Dr. Billy Graham.
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Again, that was from September 14th, 2001, immediately after the tragedies of September 11th. And he just did an amazing job that day at the Washington National Cathedral. It's a moment I'll never forget, but if somehow you don't remember it, I would encourage you go to YouTube and watch it today. It is so good from a man whose heart was broken just like all of ours was at that time.
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And yet he was able to lead us to the throne room. He just did an amazing job. That's the late Dr. Billy Graham. Okay. We've got more of the Steve Marston show coming your way. Don't go anywhere. Back in a flash.
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Here at the Steve Marston Show, we're serious about faith, but we love a good dad joke too. The dad joke of the day comes to us from the home office in beautiful San Antonio, Texas. And it's a classic today. Why did the bicycle fall over? Why did the bicycle fall over? Well, because it was too tired.
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Can't beat the classics, can you? The Steve Marston Show continues. As always, I'm thankful for you being here. And let me tell you really quickly about how you could be a part of the Steve Marston Show more so than you are right now. If you happen to be a business owner or maybe a ministry head or even a pastor of a local church, and you'd like to get your message here on the Steve Marston Show, you can absolutely do it. We've got...
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radio and digital assets for you. And let me just tell you, just between you and me, don't let this get out, but it's crazy inexpensive. I mean, you can get a wonderful deal on all kinds of marketing things for your business, church or ministry. I will hook you up with the persons you need to go to. If you're listening in San Antonio, if you're listening in Little Rock or you're listening anywhere else on the podcast, I can help you out.
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and you could be a part of this ever-growing audience in this little thing called the Steve Marston Show. So if you're so inclined, shoot me an email, steve at SalemMedia.com, steve at SalemMedia.com, and I will get you in touch with the person you need to talk to, okay? All right, let's get to faith between your ears. This is our weekly Bible verse that we learned. We start out on Monday, and then by the time we get to here on Friday,
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We hopefully have it there between our ears so that we have God's Word as a part of us. And I just firmly believe that this is one of the most important things we can do as believers is memorize and know His Word. And again, you can't say, I'm too old to do that. I just can't. That is such a lie from Satan. It may take you a little extra time to learn or maybe a different way, but you can. And I think it's a must.
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that you do it. And our verse this week has been 1 Peter 5 verse 5 that says, humble yourself under the mighty power of God, and at the right time He will lift you up in honor. It's a great verse to have between your ears for when life gets hard and life gets a mess and you're trying to figure things out, just know humbling yourself before and under the mighty hand of God.
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and He'll lift you up at due time on His timetable. I know that's not always our timetable, but it is His. So let's get 1 Peter 5 verse 5 in between our ears. We'll have another verse for you coming up next week here on The Steve Marston Show. And as we wrap up, what we like to do is give a little call to action. We call it your next step. And I really believe that your next step
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ought to be to find the Billy Graham message from 2001. Go back and listen to it and maybe it's the first time you ever heard it, but it's only 11 minutes long and it is powerful the way he addressed our nation and the way he healed and comforted and pointed people most importantly to Jesus. Okay, we're out of time. Finished for not only the day but the week as well. Back on the radio Monday at three o'clock.
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Everything else you can find at Steve Marston show.com. Adios.
