Confession’s Consequences 1
Pastor Joe Wright delivered this prayer (written by Pastor Bob Russell) January 23, 1996 to open the Kansas House of Representatives session.
“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 inverted our values.
-We confess that we have ridiculed the absolute truth of Your Word and called it moral pluralism.
-We have worshipped other gods and called it multiculturalism.
-We have endorsed perversion and called it 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 Kansas, and who have been ordained by You, to govern this great state.
Grant them Your wisdom to rule and may their decisions direct us to the center of Your will. I ask it in the name of Your Son, the living Savior, Jesus Christ.
Amen”
When presented by Pastor Wright, this prayer caused uproar. Repeated by Paul Harvey twice, it gained further attention, and notoriety (generating the most mail in his program’s history - 98% positive). A search of the internet finds over a thousand copies of the prayer. Urban Legends (Snopes.com) has articles about it, as does ‘About.com’. This month it is in “Lamplighter”, the magazine from Lamb & Lion Ministries.
This prayer is a decade old.
Think about it, this prayer is a decade old. Over ten years have passed since Joe Wright prayed in the Kansas Congress.
What has changed since then? This prayer makes the email circuit at least once a year with admonitions to ‘keep it going’ or ‘send this to your elected officials’.
Sorry, but this is a NIMBY (Not In My Back Yard) prayer. This prayer will have no affect - as long as it is traveling around the Internet.
God’s Ultimate Purpose for Christians we now know (from previous articles). That we become more Christ-like so our example brings more into the family.
How about this: Are WE willing to pray this prayer for our own lives? Are WE willing to look deeply into our own hearts:
-are we calling evil good
-have we inverted our values
-have we compromised moral absolutes
-do we worship other gods (like money)
-are we nodding to perversion, unwilling to call ‘alternative lifestyles’ sin
-do we ignore those in need
-have we endorsed welfare as bad, but ‘someone else’s problem’
-do we turn away from a stand on abortion
-are we mitigating evil as a social responsibility
-are we neglecting our children period - not just their discipline
-do we abuse power, what little we have - at home or in the work place
-do we envy our neighbors, are we ‘keeping up with the Jones’
-are we profane (do we cuss) or ‘secretly’ look at pornography
-do we embrace the ideals of today and forget the values of yesterday?
Are we really willing to pray, “Search ME O God and know MY heart today; TRY ME and see if there be some wicked way in ME; cleanse ME from every sin and set ME free”?
“And why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye, but do not consider the plank in your own eye?” Matthew 7:3
This prayer will never affect America, our society, our government local, state, and federal - UNTIL it affects OUR LIVES.
“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 inverted our values.
-We confess that we have ridiculed the absolute truth of Your Word and called it moral pluralism.
-We have worshipped other gods and called it multiculturalism.
-We have endorsed perversion and called it 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 Kansas, and who have been ordained by You, to govern this great state.
Grant them Your wisdom to rule and may their decisions direct us to the center of Your will. I ask it in the name of Your Son, the living Savior, Jesus Christ.
Amen”
When presented by Pastor Wright, this prayer caused uproar. Repeated by Paul Harvey twice, it gained further attention, and notoriety (generating the most mail in his program’s history - 98% positive). A search of the internet finds over a thousand copies of the prayer. Urban Legends (Snopes.com) has articles about it, as does ‘About.com’. This month it is in “Lamplighter”, the magazine from Lamb & Lion Ministries.
This prayer is a decade old.
Think about it, this prayer is a decade old. Over ten years have passed since Joe Wright prayed in the Kansas Congress.
What has changed since then? This prayer makes the email circuit at least once a year with admonitions to ‘keep it going’ or ‘send this to your elected officials’.
Sorry, but this is a NIMBY (Not In My Back Yard) prayer. This prayer will have no affect - as long as it is traveling around the Internet.
God’s Ultimate Purpose for Christians we now know (from previous articles). That we become more Christ-like so our example brings more into the family.
How about this: Are WE willing to pray this prayer for our own lives? Are WE willing to look deeply into our own hearts:
-are we calling evil good
-have we inverted our values
-have we compromised moral absolutes
-do we worship other gods (like money)
-are we nodding to perversion, unwilling to call ‘alternative lifestyles’ sin
-do we ignore those in need
-have we endorsed welfare as bad, but ‘someone else’s problem’
-do we turn away from a stand on abortion
-are we mitigating evil as a social responsibility
-are we neglecting our children period - not just their discipline
-do we abuse power, what little we have - at home or in the work place
-do we envy our neighbors, are we ‘keeping up with the Jones’
-are we profane (do we cuss) or ‘secretly’ look at pornography
-do we embrace the ideals of today and forget the values of yesterday?
Are we really willing to pray, “Search ME O God and know MY heart today; TRY ME and see if there be some wicked way in ME; cleanse ME from every sin and set ME free”?
“And why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye, but do not consider the plank in your own eye?” Matthew 7:3
This prayer will never affect America, our society, our government local, state, and federal - UNTIL it affects OUR LIVES.
posted by Unchained Slave at 12:01 PM
1 Comments:
President John F Kennedy said, "Ask not what your country can do for you - Ask what you can do for your country."
The absolute best thing we can do for our country - is start acting like the Christians we claim to be.
The second best to pray faithfully for our leaders - whether we like them or not...
In Christ
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