Don't you wish everyone knew about "9/30" this year—the Feast of Trumpets—and could join us that day to commemorate the future, when God begins the process of restoring humanity's relationship with Him? Sept. 11 has become more than just an event. It has become a powerful symbol of hatred, strife and division. As we are now planning for the last cycle of Holy Days for the year, we consider that God's festivals, too, are not just events, but powerful symbols. Trumpets, Atonement, the Feast of Tabernacles and the Last Great Day represent that upon which we stake so much of our faith and hope and calling. Everything ranging from understanding what will happen after we die, to judgment, to Satan's fate, to God's intervention in world affairs, to His spiritual reconciliation with His creation, is wrapped up in the meaning of these feasts. What a contrast of times: Sept. 11 representing the ultimate insecurity; Sept. 30 the ultimate assurance! What a contrast of predictions: Security experts warning us that terrorists will come again; God's Word assuring us that Christ will come again! What a contrast of worlds: The world today, versus what we call, based on the prophetic visions, "the world tomorrow"! Commentators have observed that "the world changed forever" on Sept. 11, 2001. But in the most critically important arena—the spiritual—there is no evidence that humanity is changing for the better. Our world changed forever, too, when God called us. But we face a spiritual terrorist, Satan, and the ways of his world are our spiritual enemies. God's feasts help us immensely, though, to guard against this threat to our lives. God gave us His festivals, not only to understand the future, but to change our lives now by deepening our knowledge, faith, love and commitment to Him. How so? Consider the following. The Barna Research Group, which surveys cultural and religious trends in the United States, published an astonishing report a few years ago identifying "Seven Paradoxes Regarding America's Faith." Among these seven indicators of a weakening spiritual state, it stated that only 7 percent of people attribute a successful life to spiritual faith and wholeness. Instead, they define "success" by issues such as "individual achievement" and "emotional fulfillment." The concept of commitment, Barna found, offers another inconsistency in our spiritual condition. While the large majority of Americans claim faith is important, even describing themselves as "deeply spiritual," less than half said they were absolutely committed to Christianity. Furthermore, 9/11 did not result in a lasting change in "spiritual practices" such as going to church services, Bible study or prayer. The report noted that less than half of Americans said their faith played a significant part in helping them deal with the 9/11 tragedy. Perhaps the most disturbing segment of the report is the discovery that while nearly all Americans believe that truth exists, the great majority does not believe in absolute moral truth. Over two thirds of adults and four fifths of teens buy into relativism, the philosophy that truth is relative to the situation or person. And these are mostly self-professing Christians who declare belief in the Bible! When determining right and wrong, however, they rely on their feelings, emotions or experience. Barna also observed: "Americans are more likely to buy simple sayings than a system of truth that takes time and concentration to grasp. People are more prone to embrace diversity, tolerance and feeling good than judgment, discernment, righteousness and limitations. People are more focused on temporal security than eternal security and its temporal implications." What does that portend for God's people? It means we have to thrive spiritually in a world that offers little in the way of spiritual sustenance and offers a lot of deception and shallow values. Thank God that He has given us His feasts, not only to inspire us with a vision of the future, but also to feed and strengthen us spiritually! Let's prepare well for 9/30, and the following 21 days of God's festival season, to gain the most spiritually that we possibly can! UN