December 2017 Articles

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Just Rambling December 2017:

Just Rambling: For this “Just Rambling” I thought I would look back at writings I had received in the past but very much apply today—even more so today. It is titled “The Prayer”. This Minister has guts!! Thought you might enjoy this interesting prayer given in Kansas at the opening session of their Senate in 1999. It seems prayer still upsets some people. When Minister Joe Wright was asked to open the new session of the Kansas Senate, everyone was expecting the usual generalities, but this is what they heard: “Heavenly Father, we come before you today to ask your forgiveness and to seek your direction and guidance. We know Your Word says, ‘Woe to those who call evil good,’ but that is exactly what we have done. We have lost our spiritual equilibrium and reversed our values. We have exploited the poor and called It the lottery. We have rewarded laziness and called It welfare. We have killed our unborn and called It choice. We have shot abortionists and called It justifiable. We have neglected to discipline our children and called It building self esteem. We have abused power and called It politics. We have coveted our neighbor's possessions and called It ambition. We have polluted the air with profanity and pornography and called It freedom of expression. We have ridiculed the time-honored values of our forefathers and called It enlightenment. Search us, Oh God, and know our hearts today; cleanse us from every sin and set us free. Amen!” The response was immediate. A number of legislators walked out during the prayer in protest. In 6 short weeks, Central Christian Church, where Rev. Wright is pastor, logged more than 5,000 phone calls with only 47 of those calls responding negatively. The church is now receiving International requests for copies of this prayer from India, Africa and Korea. Commentator Paul Harvey aired this prayer on his radio program!, “The Rest of the Story,” and received a larger response to this program than any other he has ever aired. With the Lord’s help, may this prayer sweep over our nation and wholeheartedly become our desire so that we again can be called “one nation under God.”
As stated above this prayer was given in 1999. This was 18 years ago—are we more of “One Nation Under God” now than we were then? I think not. In so many ways our nation has continued to drift away from God’s Word. Edmond Burke stated, “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” We, in America, that follow God’s Word must continue to proclaim His Word without hesitation or we will allow evil to triumph. In 1778, James Madison stated “We have staked the whole future of American civilization, not upon the power of government, far from it. We have staked the future of all of our political institutions… upon the capacity of each and all of us to govern ourselves, to control ourselves, to sustain ourselves according to the Ten Commandments of God.” Amen! May we follow the advice of James Madison. Van Bennett