Prayer for our Churches.....

Prayer for our Churches and Country.
On the Institution of Government …
and its total dependence on the people of God for its right functioning
________________________


This prayer is a prayer of Confession and Repentance



Our prayer today will be based on two sections of Scripture

… Our First Scripture speaks to our problem …

It is the Lord Jesus Christ speaking to His church in Revelation 3:15-16 …
"I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I could wish you were cold or hot. So then, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold not hot, I will vomit you out of my mouth."



Our Second Scripture speaks to the solution to our problem …

It is God the Father speaking to His people in 2 Chronicles 7:14 …
"If My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land." (2 Chronicles 7:14)

Let me also say that I very seriously direct the words of this prayer to myself
… as much as to anybody else …


Father … You have commanded us
"You shall have no other gods before me."

Yet our government seeks to eradicate You from every aspect of public life
… our media makes a laughingstock of Your people …
… virulent God-haters rule in our Universities …
And we Your people …
for the most part sit by and watch and do nothing … we make no protest at all

Instead, we ourselves also put other things "before" You …
… we want, above all else, to be happy and filled in all our personal desires …
… and we want to have our self-image stroked and nourished …

Our Lord Jesus said … "You shall love the LORD your God, with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and great commandment." (Matthew 22:37-38)

BUT … We spend very little personal time in prayer and in Your word …
… because we are so self-indulgent
… and have much more important things to do …
"Moments for Christ … Hours for the world!"

Many of us will not go to any of our church prayer meetings …
many of us will not attend bible study meetings
… to learn more about You and Your word
Indeed … some of us will not even come back for your evening Worship Service …
We beg you Father … Please forgive our sin and heal our land.



Father … You have commanded us
"You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain."

Yet many of our media and our comedians make a laughingstock of Your name …
… and we Your people not only sit by …
… but often watch and laugh along with them
We beg you Father … Please forgive our sin and heal our land.


Father … You have commanded us
"Remember the Sabbath Day, to keep it holy."

Yet our Government and Society will purposely schedule events on your Sabbath
To us, your people … it is as if the 4th Commandment no longer exists …
Sunday is the 2nd biggest retail day of the week …
how many of us will eat out today …
how many of us will go shopping today …
how many of us will watch paid sporting events on TV today …
how many of us will sit here and get angry about this even being brought up …

You know, LORD … You know
We beg you Father … Please forgive our sin and heal our land.


Father … You have commanded us
"You shall not murder."

Yet … Our government has presided over a holocaust of over one hundred thousand abortions each year …
The prime minister of our land …proclaims his apathy and unwillingness to work for eradicating
one of the greatest, cruelest and vilest evils of our time
late-term … partial-birth abortions, as well as “normal” abortions
and he has multitudes backing him up …

O Lord, change such leaders, or deliver us from leaders who hold such evil beliefs
And all the while, Father, we Your people, for the most part
are so weak in our response to these great evils …
We beg you Father … Please forgive our sin and heal our land.


Father … You have commanded us
"You shall not commit adultery."

Yet we are a sex-crazed nation …
… Promiscuous open sex is ever before us in all the media
Arrogant Sodomite perversion and blatant homosexuality stalk our land
and are becoming firmly entrenched in our educational institutions
… even at the elementary level …
… both Soft and Hard-core pornography abound
… almost half of our marriages fail …
And what do we Your people do?

We largely go to movies and watch TV programs …
that we know beforehand contain such things …
… and then, to show just how much we really do care,
we mildly protest "Oh, Why do they have to do that" …
and then, we Your people go right back to the slop trough for more …
and, worst of all, we bring it into our homes and parade it before our children
And we let our children listen to decadent and psychotic filth on the radio and TV …
And we, Your people, often let our own daughters dress and act immodestly …
At church… at the beach … at the pool … at sporting events …
We beg you Father … Please forgive our sin and heal our land.


Father … You have commanded us
"You shall not steal"

YET … Our government wastes our hard-earned money on perverse art …
But LORD … we do as we should … as Jesus commanded, we pay our taxes …
We protest and chaff about it …
But, then … we Your people turn right around and rob You of Your tithe …
We beg you Father … Please forgive our sin and heal our land.


LORD … it is no wonder that our civilization
… is rift with moral decay and economic collapse
The TRUE WONDER is that it is not worse
LORD … You have commanded us all these things …
"You shall have no other gods before me."
"You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain."
"Remember the Sabbath Day, to keep it holy."
"Your shall not murder."
"Your shall not steal."
But, we your people, have done very little about the UNGODLINESS and UNRIGHTEOUSNESS that stalks our land …
Indeed … we have participated in much of it ourselves …
We keep one foot in heaven and the other firmly planted on the earth …
And our Lord Jesus continues to say …
"I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I could wish you were cold or hot. So then, because You are lukewarm, and neither cold not hot, I will vomit you out of my mouth."
Father … You have told us exactly what should we do about all this … YOU HAVE SAID …
"If My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land." (2 Chronicles 7:14)


Father … WE BEG YOU … By Your grace, help us to humble ourselves
… and pray
… and seek Your face …
… and confess our wicked ways and our lukewarmness …
Knowing that You in Your mercy
will forgive our sin and heal our land …
It is all our fault, Father … ours and none others …
… the wicked do but what their father bids them do …
… it is us, Your children, that do not do what You, our Father, bids us do.
Again we beg you Father …
Please forgive our sin and heal our land.

Have mercy on us … and do not give us what we so richly deserve
But Please … by your grace and mercy
… send revival among Your people at the St. Thomas FRC
Please … Help us to leave our lukewarmness
Please … help us to "love the LORD our God" …
… with all our heart,
and with all our soul,
and with all our mind.

It is in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ that we pray our prayer.

Amen.

________________________________

This prayer was used at Woodruf Road Presbyterian Church in Greenville, SC., on November 2, 2008, and amended to Canadian context by CVD.

Considering Moving to Washington state? Think again.......

OLYMPIA, Washington, November 5, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) –

"The state of Washington voted to allow legal assisted suicide according to the Oregon model in yesterday’s ballot. Initiative 1000, the Washington “Death with Dignity Act,”

which allows physicians to prescribe a fatal dose of medication to patients whom a doctor feels is likely to die

within six months,

passed in the state 59% to 41%."

Comment: Can anyone know who is likely to, or who is going to die in six months time?

US rejects "gay" "marriage" articles by Timothy Bloedow and Lifesite News

Timothy Bloedow:
From his newsletter:
November 5, 2008

Americans crush homosexual "marriage" and adoption agenda in U.S. election

Yesterday black Americans revealed their strong opposition to abusive and fraudulent attempts to link homosexual "sex" with the civil rights movement.

Voters turned out at levels not seen in 100 years, said some media. Most people credited this turn-out primarily to Barak Obama, which means that more of these voters were Democrats and a disproportionate number were black people. It was these people who demonstrated yesterday the broad-based contempt that thoughtful Americans have for the bigoted and perverse agenda of the radical homosexualist movement.

What the results show is that opposition to sexual perversion extends across the political spectrum and is a true bi-partisan position. The results also demonstrate that the more Americans who vote, the greater the demonstrated opposition is to homosexual "marriage" and adoption.

The homosexual "marriage" agenda was decimated in Florida. A ballot measure to ban the practice was passed with a huge majority of 62% to 38% (with 99% of precincts reporting as of this writing). Even easy-going Floridians want nothing to do with the ideological construct of "gay marriage."

Even in America's ghetto of rabid liberalism, California, the measure to ban homosexual "marriage" is winning with 52% over 48% (with 91% of precincts reporting). If the sexually perverse notion of same-sex "marriage" can't pass in California, that's as much evidence one needs that the idea is a political liability, a noose around a politician's neck - certainly not something of benefit.

Homosexual activists and their secular-fundamentalist fellow-travelers put millions and millions of dollars into this fight. The psychological impact of this defeat - especially knowing that this defeat came largely at the hand of Democrat voters - must be devastating.

How are conservatives going to take advantage of these results to press home their advantage - despite a Barak Obama presidency? Will conservatives take advantage of these results?

Americans in Arizona also voted against homosexual "marriage" by voting in favour of their ballot to ban homosexual "marriage" by 56% to 44% (with 99% of precincts reporting).

And in Arkansas, Americans showed their disgust for homosexual adoption. A ballot measure banning homosexual adoption won in Arkansas by 57% to 43% (with 96% of precincts reporting). Congratulations Arkansas for protecting your children from this proven risk to healthy upbringing. You voted with reason instead of siding with anti-rational homosexualist fundamentalism.

LIFESITE NEWS REPORTS THE FOLLOWING TODAY:

November 5, 2008

Victory: California Marriage Proposition 8 Passes in Historic Battle

By John Jalsevac

November 5, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The homosexualist lobby received one of its stiffest blows in years, and one which may ultimately serve as a permanent setback for same-sex “marriage” in the US, after California’s Proposition 8, the ballot measure to define marriage as being exclusively between a man and a woman, is projected to pass by a narrow majority vote.

The proposition was ahead by margin of 52% to 48% with 95% of precincts reporting as of 8am today. The referendum called for the California constitution to be amended by adding the phrase: "Only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California."

The vote marks the second time that Californian voters have voted to protect natural marriage in the state. In a 2000 referendum Californians overwhelmingly voted for marriage, passing Proposition 22 with a 61% to 38% majority.

Proposition 8 proponents emerged victorious despite a difficult uphill battle that pitted grassroots Californians against a hostile political establishment, judiciary, and Hollywood elite that pulled out all the stops in the fight to defeat the initiative.

The battle for marriage was given a seemingly insurmountable setback earlier in the year after the California Supreme Court decided in a 4-3 vote on May 15 to ignore the 2000 referendum, and to force same-sex “marriage” on the state. Since then thousands of homosexual couples have been “married” under the court decision. Those “marriages,” however, will now be invalidated.

The strategically timed Supreme Court decision had numerous far reaching effects for the Yes on 8 campaign, one of which is that it permitted the Attorney General to alter the language of the initiative as it would appear on the ballot, so that, rather than positively defining marriage as between a man and a woman, the ballot read that Proposition 8 “eliminates (the) right of same-sex couples to marry."

Despite the high-level opposition, however, "we caused Californians to rethink this issue," Proposition 8 strategist Jeff Flint said last night, according to the LA Times.

In the beginning, he said, "I think the voters were thinking, well, if it makes them happy, why shouldn't we let gay couples get married. And I think we made them realize that there are broader implications to society and particularly the children when you make that fundamental change that's at the core of how society is organized, which is marriage.”

The victory is significant not only for California, but for the whole country, and for the West as a whole. The $70 million battle over Proposition 8 was one of the most heated battles of the 2008 election, even at times appearing to eclipse the presidential campaign in the state.

California, as the largest, and one of the most influential and liberal states in the Union, was perceived as being a key state for homosexualists bent on forcing same-sex “marriage” throughout the country. Opponents and supporters of Proposition 8 both recognized that if homosexual “marriage” was allowed to stay in California, the state would serve as an effective platform to spread this radical social engineering throughout the US, setting off a domino effect.

"No one can underestimate the impact of the largest state in the nation treating all of its citizens equally," said Lorri Jean, head of the Los Angeles Gay & Lesbian Center, and head of the No on 8 campaign.

Despite early polls showing that Proposition 8 would lose, in the final weeks leading up to the vote, thanks to an effective ad campaign, the Yes on 8 campaign was able to warn Californians about the far-reaching effects of permitting same-sex “marriage.” In particular, Prop. 8 supporters focused on educating voters on the effects that same-sex “marriage” would have on the school systems, pointing to the experiences of parents in Massachusetts as a prime example.

The No campaign, despite repeated attempts to paint marriage supporters as liars for warning that same-sex “marriage” will have a profound impact on public schools, suffered significant setbacks after two embarrassing high profile cases emerged one after another in the news in the final few weeks: one of a kindergarten teacher who was found to be holding a “gay day” in her class, and another in which a whole class of grade school students attended their teacher’s same-sex “wedding” at the San Francisco City Hall. The latter case was particularly embarrassing since the minister at the wedding was none other the mayor of San Francisco, Gavin Newsom.

While the final votes continue to be tallied in California, most major networks have declared that Proposition 8 is victorious. "Thanks be to God! Marriage won in California," wrote Brian Brown, executive director of the National Organization for Marriage, in an e-mail to supporters this morning.

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