Through the Bible - 1 Kings 4-5, Luke 13:26-43
Good morning,
If you are paying any attention to the presidential race you've heard it said that many Americans are "clinging to religion" in response to the troubles with the economy and other issues. People have responded that their faith is at the core of who they are.
The thought is significant for today. Today's verse is
2 Chron 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. NKJV
As Christians, we are not "clinging to religion". We cling to the cross of Christ. But it is not only in tough times, it is to be at all times.
Our nation faces challenges in the economy, with having soldiers in a foreign land. But these are not the real problems.
We have been preserved, these many years, in peace and prosperity. We have grown in numbers, wealth and power, as no other nation has ever grown. But we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace, and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us; and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us!
I'm sure that most of you recognize this statement. It came from Abraham Lincoln's call for a national day of prayer.
Senator James Harlan of Iowa, whose daughter later married President Lincoln's son Robert, introduced this Resolution in the Senate on March 2, 1863. The Resolution asked President Lincoln to proclaim a national day of prayer and fasting. The Resolution was adopted on March 3, and signed by Lincoln on March 30, one month before the fast day was observed
There was a lot going on in the country then with civil war over slavery and many other problems related to it.
But instead of saying that the people were clinging to religion, there was a call for prayer.
The problem today would more likely be that we are "clinging to our idols", while trying to remove God from schools, public buildings, and the name of Jesus Christ in public prayers.
Read the passage below. Pray for the conditions of forgiveness outlined in this verse - humility, that more would turn to God in prayer, longing for God, and repentance.
The Old Rugged Cross
On a hill far away stood an old rugged cross,
The emblem of suffering and shame;
And I love that old cross where the dearest and best
For a world of lost sinners was slain.
Refrain
So I'll cherish the old rugged cross,
Till my trophies at last I lay down;
I will cling to the old rugged cross,
And exchange it some day for a crown.
O that old rugged cross, so despised by the world,
Has a wondrous attraction for me;
For the dear Lamb of God left His glory above
To bear it to dark Calvary.
Refrain
In that old rugged cross, stained with blood so divine,
A wondrous beauty I see,
For 'twas on that old cross Jesus suffered and died,
To pardon and sanctify me.
Refrain
To the old rugged cross I will ever be true;
Its shame and reproach gladly bear;
Then He'll call me some day to my home far away,
Where His glory forever I'll share.Pray that our nation would be willing to put down their trophies and crowns and turn to Jesus who died to "pardon and sanctify". Think of what is involved in those last words. Pardon involves forgiveness and grace, sanctification involves growing in grace and being set apart for Him.
In Christ,
Mike
mikevw@bellsouth.net
2 Chron 7:12-21
God's Second Appearance to Solomon
(1 Kings 9:1-9)
12 Then the Lord appeared to Solomon by night, and said to him: "I have heard your prayer, and have chosen this place for Myself as a house of sacrifice. 13 When I shut up heaven and there is no rain, or command the locusts to devour the land, or send pestilence among My people, 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. 15 Now My eyes will be open and My ears attentive to prayer made in this place. 16 For now I have chosen and sanctified this house, that My name may be there forever; and My eyes and My heart will be there perpetually. 17 As for you, if you walk before Me as your father David walked, and do according to all that I have commanded you, and if you keep My statutes and My judgments, 18 then I will establish the throne of your kingdom, as I covenanted with David your father, saying,'You shall not fail to have a man as ruler in Israel.'
19 "But if you turn away and forsake My statutes and My commandments which I have set before you, and go and serve other gods, and worship them, 20 then I will uproot them from My land which I have given them; and this house which I have sanctified for My name I will cast out of My sight, and will make it a proverb and a byword among all peoples.
NKJV
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