On the National Day of Prayer

-
Almighty and ever-living God, ruler of all things in heaven and earth, hear our prayers for your church and the United States of America.  Forgive us of our many and grievous sins that this prayer might be heard.  Thank you that we can be forgiven because of what Jesus Christ did in his perfect life in this world and in his sacrificial death on the cross.

By your word you created all we see and know.  By your word, you made us in your image.  By your word, Christ is raised from the tomb, death is overcome, and we are given new life by the power of your Spirit.  Help us to boldly proclaim this good news, rejoicing always in your powerful presence.  Let us go forward without fear of poverty, derision, or even death in order to glorify your great name.

Thank you for life, health, food, and opportunity.  Thank you for work to do and for strength to do that work.  Thank you for our homes, our families, our churches, and our friends.

For our country, grant our President and all leaders at the local, state, and national levels wisdom and courage to govern according to your moral law as described in the Bible.  Grant wisdom for our judges.  Protect our freedoms, especially our freedom of religion, and give us the courage to use those freedoms for the advance of your kingdom. 

Let our police protect us with strength and justice; and guard their lives as they fulfill their duties. Give firefighters and all other public servants safety and strength.

For our military we ask safety and success as they defend our country.  We pray that our enemies would turn to you as the salvation of their souls so that peace might reign. 

Grant that we as a nation would turn to you from our many sins, especially the scourge of abortion, that your glory might be displayed for the entire world to see.  Let our sexuality no longer be a source of sinful departure from your perfect will for us.  Let the rest of the world glorify your name because of what they see in our marriages and in our chaste, single brothers and sisters.

For all Christians who are enduring persecution for their faith in this world; especially those who are being persecuted by ISIS; grant health, safety, dignity, and; if necessary; strength to endure to the very end.  Give them a vision of your glory to sustain them in the midst of the suffering to which you have called them.  Grant their persecutors true faith and genuine repentance or, if not, intervene in your justice on behalf of your people, so that their suffering might end.

Strengthen those who stand firm in the faith, encourage the fainthearted, and help those who fall to rise and try again.  Restrain the attacks of Satan and his demons that we might triumph in this world for the glory of your Son, Jesus Christ.

Loving God, you want us to give thanks for all things, to fear nothing except losing you, and to lay all our cares on you, knowing that you care for us. Protect us from faithless fears and worldly anxieties, and grant that nothing in this mortal life may cause us to doubt your great love that Christ has bought for us.   

Be with your servants who make art and music, that with joy we on earth may glimpse great beauty.  Let the heart of this nation sing praise to your name once again as it has in the past.

Give us an accurate and healthy regard for our history, and help us to be thankful for the many things that our nation has done right.  Let us hold up the form of government that has served us so well for so long.  Do not let this grand form of government, this great experiment in representative democracy, perish from this earth.  Do not let it change into something that our founding fathers would not recognize.

Heal those who are sick in body or mind, and give skill and compassion to all who care for them.  Strengthen and preserve all women who are in childbirth, and all young children. 

Come to the help of all who are in danger; protect all who travel by land, air, or water; and show your pity on all prisoners and captives.  Comfort the aged, the bereaved, and the lonely.  Defend and provide for the widowed and the orphaned, the refugee, the homeless, and the unemployed.


Fulfill now, O Lord, our desires and petitions as is best for us; for we pray these things in the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Face of Terror

-
Osama Bin laden is dead. Since the rest of the internet is buzzing with opinions on that death, I thought I would weigh in. First, this is not the end of global terrorism. Like the Hydra of old, when one head is chopped off, two more take its place. We still need diligence in our fight against global terror. U. S. and allied Armed Forces still need our prayers. We still need a strong military and intelligence community. We have not yet cut off the Hydra’s immortal head. Second, the way to get to the ‘heart of the matter’ is with Christian missionary efforts. We must reach the people who make up those societies and population segments that produce terrorists . To tell a story I have told here before : Early in the twentieth century, Baptist evangelists preached through rural Mississippi and Alabama with such effectiveness that moonshiners could no longer sell their whiskey: All their customers were getting converted! In desperation, the whiskey sellers hired two men to murder on
Read more

The Canons of Dort

-
I believe that the Canons of Dort are true. This is a statement that came out the Synod of Dort, held from 1618-1619. The Canons of Dort outline the system of theology known today as the “five points of Calvinism.” The problem I have with most “five-point Calvinists” is that the Canons of Dort contain much more than five points. Many explanations of the TULIP (total depravity, unconditional election, limited atonement, irresistible grace and the perseverance of the saints) are gross simplifications of the Canons of Dort. [This is especially true of explanations given by those who oppose Calvinism. It is easier to knock down a straw man than it is to knock down a real man, and so it is easier to criticize an oversimplified Calvinism that the more robust form.] Some of those who teach the “five points” leave out some of the quotes below: This death of God's Son is the only and entirely complete sacrifice and satisfaction for sins; it is of infinite value and worth, more than
Read more

Intelligent Design

-
The Intelligent Design (ID) movement makes much of the argument from irreducible complexity. Dr. Michael Behe has become famous for a simple example, the mousetrap. He points out that the mousetrap will not perform its function without all of its parts. The wooden base, the metal hammer, a spring, a catch and a metal bar to hold back the hammer are all necessary parts. One component by itself will not catch a mouse. Mainstream evolutionary science has a counter-argument. To paraphrase Dr. Kenneth Miller, if you disassemble the mousetrap, each component can serve as something useful on its own. If we take away the catch and metal bar, we have something left that can serve as a paper clip. The spring could make a simple two-section key chain. The wooden base makes a paperweight. Evolutionary processes like random mutation and natural selection can combine and retain the useful parts as the complicated evolves to perform the complex function. The useful parts are combined into the mousetr
Read more