Prayer

Dr. Charles Swindoll referenced this prayer in a radio sermon on Friday. I wrote and received permission from Central Christian Church in Wichita KS to post this prayer on my blog. This prayer was given by Pastor Joe Wright, the guest chaplain to the opening session of the Kansas House in Topeka KS, on January 23, 1996.

Here it is:

Heavenly Father,

We come before You today to ask Your Forgiveness and seek Your direction and guidance. We know Your Word says, ''Woe to those who call evil good,'' but that's exactly what we have done.

We have lost our Spiritual equilibrium and inverted our values.

We confess that we have ridiculed the absolute truth of Your Word and called it pluralism.

We have worshipped other gods and called it multiculturalism.

We have endorsed perversion and called it an alternative lifestyle.

We have exploited the poor and called it the lottery.

We have neglected the needy and called it self preservation.

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 political savvy.

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, O God, and know our hearts today. Try us and see if there be some wicked way in us; cleanse us from every sin and set us free. Guide and bless these men and women who have been sent here by the people of this state and who have been ordained by You, to govern this great state of Kansas. Grant them your wisdom to rule and may their decisions direct us to the center of Your Will.

I ask in in the name of your Son, The Living Savior, Jesus Christ

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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 (who just died Saturday) aired this prayer on "The Rest of the Story" on the radio and received a larger response to this program than any other he has ever aired.

Election is Nigh

My dear friends, we stand on the cusp of great changes in this country, changes that may last for generations, and may affect this country in a profoundly negative way.

America is founded on great and true principles: that all men are created equal, that the government derives its power from the people rather than people receiving *rights* from the government. Yes, we have blemishes and incidences of hypocrisy in our history, starting with the ownership of slaves by some of the Founders (an evil, BTW, fought and finally excised with the blood of many more than half a million men). What other country offers the freedom, the generosity, the *City on a Hill* that so many peoples from other countries run to? What other country has liberated so many others, not to keep but to help and guide to become free, independent?

Read again the words of Emma Lazarus, whose poem is engraven on the Statue of Liberty:

The New Colossus

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame,
"Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she
With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore,
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"
by Emma Lazarus, New York City, 1883

Our God-given freedoms have been eroding for awhile, but this election seems to have the potential of putting in place a great acceleration in the process. Please, dear friends, don't let our blood-bought freedoms go so easily. We need to turn back to God. Pray for His mercy on our land.

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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 will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land. (NIV)