Let's Roll! (No Greater Love Than This ...)
Preaching
Windows For Life
Inspirational And Devotional Illustrations
The last words of Todd Beamer of Cranbury, New Jersey, from United Airlines flight 93 to his wife may well take their place in time, along with "Remember Pearl Harbor," and "Remember the Alamo."
It was the morning of September 11, 2001, when hijackers had taken over this jet plane. The only contacts to the country below were being made by passengers to relatives by cell phones. Passengers called loved ones and spoke nervously, some more than once. The hijackers didn't stop them.
Aboard Flight 93 there were forty passengers including the crew, besides the three hijackers. At 9:45 a.m. Todd had talked by Airphone with a phone supervisor in Oak Brook, Illinois. He explained that three hijackers were in control of the plane: two had gone into the cockpit, while the other one was seen wearing a bomb fastened to his waist.
Tom Burnett, a passenger, had a conversation with his wife Deena, in San Ramon, California, reporting the knifing of a passenger. Later on, Deena told Tom about a plane hitting the World Trade Center.
He answered, "Oh, my God! It's a suicide mission!" Deena called 911 in the interim and reported to authorities, who did not know anything about Flight 93. Tom told Deena some of the passengers were going to do something.
There was no talk about ransom money. The plane had changed direction and was flying faster than normal and at a lower altitude. The news media, later, had enough information to believe that at least Todd Beamer and Tom Burnett, with other passengers, planned either to recover control of the plane or divert its directions. Todd's last words heard by the phone supervisor, Lisa Jefferson at Oak Brook, Illinois, were to someone on the plane: "Okay. Let's roll."
An Al Qaeda manual, obtained by the Associated Press after the tragic day, recommended hitting buildings with a high number of persons inside. It is now believed the intended target was the nation's Capitol building.
So the passengers, by their own concerted effort, were able to keep the jet plane from reaching Washington, D.C. It flew over U.S. Highway 30 southeast of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and finally crashed outside Shanksville, in an open field.
What can we say about the heroism of those passengers who knew what their destiny would be? -- Sure death!
We think of this Bible verse: "Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends" (John 15:13 NRSV).
It certainly was proved that day in rural Pennsylvania.
It was the morning of September 11, 2001, when hijackers had taken over this jet plane. The only contacts to the country below were being made by passengers to relatives by cell phones. Passengers called loved ones and spoke nervously, some more than once. The hijackers didn't stop them.
Aboard Flight 93 there were forty passengers including the crew, besides the three hijackers. At 9:45 a.m. Todd had talked by Airphone with a phone supervisor in Oak Brook, Illinois. He explained that three hijackers were in control of the plane: two had gone into the cockpit, while the other one was seen wearing a bomb fastened to his waist.
Tom Burnett, a passenger, had a conversation with his wife Deena, in San Ramon, California, reporting the knifing of a passenger. Later on, Deena told Tom about a plane hitting the World Trade Center.
He answered, "Oh, my God! It's a suicide mission!" Deena called 911 in the interim and reported to authorities, who did not know anything about Flight 93. Tom told Deena some of the passengers were going to do something.
There was no talk about ransom money. The plane had changed direction and was flying faster than normal and at a lower altitude. The news media, later, had enough information to believe that at least Todd Beamer and Tom Burnett, with other passengers, planned either to recover control of the plane or divert its directions. Todd's last words heard by the phone supervisor, Lisa Jefferson at Oak Brook, Illinois, were to someone on the plane: "Okay. Let's roll."
An Al Qaeda manual, obtained by the Associated Press after the tragic day, recommended hitting buildings with a high number of persons inside. It is now believed the intended target was the nation's Capitol building.
So the passengers, by their own concerted effort, were able to keep the jet plane from reaching Washington, D.C. It flew over U.S. Highway 30 southeast of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and finally crashed outside Shanksville, in an open field.
What can we say about the heroism of those passengers who knew what their destiny would be? -- Sure death!
We think of this Bible verse: "Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends" (John 15:13 NRSV).
It certainly was proved that day in rural Pennsylvania.
