Tuesday, February 4, 2014

Bold Prayers


Hello friends.

Imagination is a powerful tool that God has given human beings, but like most other things that God has given us imagination is, for some, energized by evil passions and corruptions of the human heart.  The godly also have use of imagination, and this is a wonderful tool God has given us. From a pure heart and with a mind structured by God’s truth, we can understand the times, the impact of ideas and actions on people’s lives, and help the church engage the world to preserve all that is truly of God and good to the world.  This is a monumental task, one that we are not sufficient ourselves to accomplish. But we know from history, and we sense in our own spirits, that times for Christians to rise up and engage wickedness and corruption do come. There are people who will rise up and offer themselves to God for that job.

Beloved, such a time is our time.  As Christians, we know humanity does not progress with any sort of evolutionary dynamic leading to some idealistic superman or divine like race to rule the world in purity and goodness.  Observation, and God’s word, say humanity is on a steady decline, dehumanizing itself and taking societies across the world down with it.  Corruption, injustice, godlessness, wickedness, greed, self-interest, unrestricted power to plunder, pressing people down instead of building them up into all they can be, mandating people serve the state over freely serving God, all these man-based demands by the godless on the world are damning the world (people) to the effects of God’s judgment for rebellion and sin.  I’m sure we could fill pages with the effects of a world gone mad under the rule of sinful man left to his own devices. But enough on our foe. We know he is here.

In May 2013, I pondered Psalm 94 and the Spirit of God opened my eyes to understand how humanity has not changed over the centuries and God’s word applies today as it did when this Psalm was penned.  The world external to man changes in many ways, but man stays man. This observation was nothing new, but it was different.  I found a new passion in my heart: The desire to speak, to say publicly what I found in my heart on these matters; which was fashioned and tuned by the Spirit of God.  The wickedness of our nation, other nations, and what I call the Religion of Death, are on a steady march to destroy and eliminate what is good, holy, upright, true, and all that is from the only True and Living God. I must engage this massive foe as yet I have never done. I know I’m not alone in seeing and understanding our world’s condition. I know I am not alone in carrying a heavy heart and a sense of helplessness to alter what is happening.  Most of us are aware of citizens groups, many having individuals with no prior involvement in politics or anything of the sort, who are coming together to try to do their part to stop this flood of destruction across our land. Christians all across the world are calling on God to intervene as we never have before. We know our strength is not sufficient, and we know His is sufficient. So we seek Him fully, daily, yielding ourselves to His wisdom and righteous judgments, moving toward our foe in confidence and with boldness.

By the end of my meditative reading on Psalm 94, I asked our Lord that I be able to pray this Psalm publically one day and that people would hear God’s word applied to this crooked and perverse generation. That request He granted last week.  My prayer based on Psalm 94 follows. I had the opportunity to give it at a meeting of veterans and others assembled with the united purpose of protecting liberty in our country. May this prayer be an encouragement to you, and may you petition God to direct your mind and heart, and hands and feet, your time and resources, and your very life for the good of people, the good of our nation, and the glory of God.  Be bold! Ask our Lord and our Father to strengthen your spirit, stand firm in the gospel, and engage the ungodly where they are found with the Truth and Love of God. This is our time, and the Church of God must rise up in the spirit and power of God Almighty! Ecclesiastes 3:1 states there is a time for every purpose. In verse 3, we are told there is a time for war. There is a purpose to war. Often it is to rid the earth of evil. While not condoning or implying anything, every one of us, I believe it reasonable to say, should put this issue and our current national condition before the Lord and wrestle with this and similar realities, which have littered human history, on the assumption that we too may be caught up in such a time and purpose.

God’s best to all.

Carl
 

LORD God, to whom vengeance belongs,
 
O God, to whom vengeance belongs, show Yourself.
Lift up Yourself, O Judge of the earth.
Reveal Your strong arm of truth and justice upon this world. Open people’s eyes!
Make known Your truth, righteousness and justice in this our country and in every land.
Let not the wicked cause the innocent and the godly to perish. Strengthen us, O Lord.
Find the godless and the wicked who pervert Your truth,
who exalt corruption and greed, who fuel self-interest, and who exploit people for gain.
 These spew lies. They cannot speak truth, yet they govern nations! They live in darkness and fashion corrupt systems which deliver harm, perpetuate discrimination, divide peoples, and destroy the very foundation of this our own special and blessed country, The United States of America.
LORD God, tonight, we, these people here, and countless others across the country, have had enough of men exalting themselves as if they were God! They expect us, who are a free people, to turn from the liberty we know so well, which was obtained by and known through Your Son Jesus Christ, they expect us to submit to their attacks on the free worship of God simply because men rule it evil. We pursue what is holy, just and good. We want to help others and not hinder. This country’s foundations and structures from the beginning are solid and good and we pray once again this nation would be governed by them. Lord, wicked and corrupt people seek to force us to live as unto them! And that we will not do!
Find them LORD. Lead them into their own traps. Give the proud and boastful of the world a fitting reward. Their rebellion is against You! Fill their mouths with gravel!
We assemble tonight as one in spirit. Many a time in this country’s history, men, women, and children have sought You, O Gracious and Merciful God, to guide minds and hearts and actions, to know the way, and to know how to go on that way.
We are no different. It is our time to stand for truth, justice, and goodness.
It is our time to humble ourselves unto You and enter the battle to preserve all that is good,
to protect it and promote it. We cannot and dare not attempt to accomplish such a task as this from our own imaginations and powers, but we call on You, The Sovereign of all Life, Order, Creation, and Judgment.
Tonight, we ask that through Your Spirit’s work and our lives this nation would repent, leaders would be removed by Your divine hand or repent of their wicked ways and live and govern as accountable to You.
We ask for wisdom, O Lord. We ask for counsel. We ask for strength, endurance, special connections with others we don’t know yet who can make a difference for good later.
We ask the religions of death suffer their own death and people be set free!
God, be near to us, and may we draw near to You.
Be with us now, as we move through the evening and consider who we are and how we can best save this country and its people. Give each of us wisdom on levels of protection we may one day need to apply to protect the innocent from evil people.
Thank you, Father, for hearing and answering our prayers. You are faithful and true.
We offer this to You through your Son, Jesus Christ, the name above all names.
 Amen.


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