9/11.  The very mention of that date causes the minds of many to go back to the fateful day of September 11, 2001 when terrorists attacked several points in the United States, including the World Trade Towers in Lower Manhattan.

From the ashes of the South Tower, another hero has been memorialized.  His name was Rick Rescorla.  Here is part of his story…

Rescorla was a retired Army Colonel and a Vietnam veteran who was working as the director for security for Morgan Stanley, headquartered in the South Tower of the World Trade Center.  After the bomb attack on the Trade Center in 1993, Rescorla designed and implemented evacuation drills to prepare employees for another attack.  On 9/11/2001, he had to issue the evacuation order.

After the first plane hit the North Tower on 9/11, Rescorla ignored building announcements telling people to stay at their desks and ordered the Morgan Stanley employees to get out of the South Tower.  He directed the employees to the stairwells to evacuate.  As he directed them to safety, Rescorla sang Cornish and Welsh hymns as he had done in times of crisis during the Vietnam War.

A conference center in Fort Hood, Texas, was dedicated in Rescorla’s name in 2015.  During the dedication ceremony that day, Lt. Col. Andrew Watson told of Rescorla’s heroic actions on 9/11.  “Everybody said, ‘Rick your folks are out.  You've done what you need to do,’ but he pointed up the stairwell and said, ‘You hear those screams?  There's more people up there.  I have to help get them out,’” (as reported by Military.com).  Rescorla said he would run to safety only once he had gotten everyone in the building out.

Rescorla wasn’t able to get everyone out.  He also perished when the building collapsed.  He was last seen climbing up the stairs on the 10th floor.  He is credited with saving nearly 2,700 people that day.  He died at the age of 62.

“On behalf of the entire nation, I pledge we will forever and ever memorialize this American hero," said President Trump as he awarded a posthumous Presidential Citizens Medal to Rescorla’s family on Thursday, November 7, 2019. *

As Jesus Christ, the Son of God, was hanging in agony on the cross, some “who passed by hurled insults at Him, shaking their heads and saying, ‘You who are going to destroy the temple and build it in three days, save Yourself!  Come down from the cross, if you are the Son of God!’  In the same way the chief priests, the teachers of the law and the elders mocked Him… ‘He's the King of Israel!  Let Him come down now from the cross, and we will believe in Him.  He trusts in God.  Let God rescue Him now if He wants Him, for He said, 'I am the Son of God’” (Matthew 27:39-43).

Jesus could have ordered twelve legions of angels to come to His rescue (cf. Matthew 26:52-54), but He didn’t.  Why not?  Because in essence, Jesus heard the cries of those who are lost in sin – past, present, and future – and He knew that the only way to accomplish their salvation was for Him to die on the cross for their (and our) sins.

God will save and give eternal life to those who place their faith and trust in Jesus (Acts 16:30-31), turn from their sins in repentance (Acts 17:30-31), confess Jesus before men (Romans 10:9-10), and are baptized (immersed) into Christ for the forgiveness of sins (Acts 2:38).  Those who continue to walk in the light of His Word will continue to be cleansed by Jesus’ atoning blood (1 John 1:7-9).

Jesus died to get “everybody out” of sin and into heaven.  He will save YOU if you will accept His offer on His terms.

-- David A. Sargent

* Information gleaned from “Trump awards posthumous Presidential Citizens Medal to Sept. 11 hero Rick Rescorla” by Morgan Phillips of Fox News, www.foxnews.com.

David A. Sargent, Minister

Church of Christ at Creekwood 
1901 Schillinger Rd. S.
Mobile, Alabama  36695

Archived issues of Living Water can be viewed and accessed from our website at: www.creekwoodcc.org