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May
5th, 2009
Genuine
Repentance
Will Lead to Mercy...
This
Thursday, May 7th
is the National
Day of Prayer, and
many in our nation
will be gathering
to pray for America.
At this time we
believe God would
have us once again
share Abraham
Lincoln’s
proclamation
from 1863.
It is amazing to
see how unashamedly
this famous President
called our nation
to prayer and repentance.
To this very
day, God is honoring
Abraham Lincoln
because this President
used
his high position
to honor God before
the whole nation,
not only in word,
but in deed.
God will not forget
Abraham Lincoln
and neither will
we! |
Ponder the fact that
all men, including presidents,
will one day stand before
a Holy and Just God and
give an account. This
is a sobering thought.
Today, I sincerely pray
from depths of my heart
that our current President
would have an encounter
with a holy God that would
change him and help change
the course of our nation
forever. Please pray for
this, because only God
can open up the blind
eyes and change the heart
of man. Satan is called
the great deceiver, and
scripture tells us that
he blinds the minds of
men, and is set out to
deceive the whole world.
Therefore,
it is our duty as God’s
people to pray, crying
out night and day for
the souls of mankind and
for our leaders.
May our prayers
pour forth like rain until
we see the hearts of our
leaders and the course
of this nation change.
Where Should Repentance
and Change Begin?
Repentance must begin
in the house of God. We
must have a sweeping move
of God among our churches
in America,
beginning with the spiritual
leaders of God’s
house. I could
share pages of statistics
and links to church websites
that would cause you to
be in an absolute state
of disbelief as to the
condition of many churches
across our nation. We
have not influenced our
culture being salt and
light, but instead we
have conformed to their
ways.
Please do not get me wrong
here, there are some great
leaders in the house of
God who have not bowed
their knee or compromised,
but at the same time there
are many who have compromised
the word of truth, and
are living in hidden sin.
All of these things cause
the hand of God to be
lifted from our churches
and our nation. We
see this pattern throughout
scripture, when sin and
compromise were among
the leaders in the temple
of God, God always
sent the prophets to confront
and call them to repentance.
God is neither silent
today, He will move in
the same way – as
He does not change! He
will warn, and
if repentance does not
come, God will chastise
and bring judgment.
Sin in the Leadership
of God's House Devastates
a Nation
1 Corinthians 10:11 explains
how the Old Testament
examples are for us to
learn from today. "Now
all these things happened
unto them for examples:
and they were written
for our admonition, upon
whom the ends of the world
are come." Today,
I share two accounts of
this from God’s
word as an example.
It is clear in scripture
that sin
in leadership in God’s
house was taken very seriously,
and always brought God’s
judgment, if not repented
of. God will always
send warnings to make
it clear, so we are without
excuse. For example, we
see the warnings of the
prophets Jeremiah and
Ezekiel. The sad fact
is that the sins
of the priests brought
a curse on the whole nation.
We need to learn
the lessons of biblical
history.
BIblical
Examples
1)
In 1 Samuel: We see the
devastating result of
the sins of the priests
Hophni & Phinehas
– Eli’s
sons (adultery, temple
prostitution, greed, irreverence,
etc.) caused judgment
to come on all of Israel.
The Ark of the Covenant
was taken and the Glory
of God departed from their
midst. This resulted in
the 1000s being killed.
Eli’s sons were
killed and Eli himself
at the news fell from
his chair and broke his
neck. His daughter in-law
went into labor and gave
birth to a son, calling
him "Ichabod"
– meaning the Glory
of God has departed. The
whole nation of Israel
suffered because of the
sins of the priests in
God’s house. We
must take notice of these
examples in the Old Testament.
God has not changed and
He still feels the same
about sin in His house,
and those in leadership.
It
is time for judgment and
repentance to begin in
the house of God.
God’s pattern of
sending warnings was consistent,
the prophet Samuel warned
them of judgment, but
it was ignored and Samuel
made it clear that no
atonement or sacrifice
was sufficient, as the
line had been drawn and
it was time for the sin
to be dealt with.
1 Samuel 3:13-14 –
"For I have told
him that I am about to
judge his house forever
for the iniquity which
he knew, because his sons
brought a curse on themselves
and he did not rebuke
them. And therefore I
have sworn to the house
of Eli that the iniquity
of Eli's house shall not
be atoned for by sacrifice
or offering forever."
2)
In Ezekiel 8 – We
see Ezekiel's vision of
the Glory of God departing
from the temple. When
you read the account of
this, you can’t
help but notice that it
was a
progressive departure.
This again was a result
of the sins and abominations
of the priests. Resulting
once again in God's judgment
and eventual destruction
on the nation.
Presidential
Proclamation: Appointing
a National Day of Prayer
By the Abraham Lincoln,
President of the United
States of America.
Washington, D.C.
March 30, 1863
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 "Whereas,
the Senate of the
United States, devoutly
recognizing
the Supreme
Authority and just
Government of Almighty
God, in
all the affairs
of men and of nations,
has, by a resolution,
requested the President
to designate and
set apart a day
for National prayer
and humiliation.
And
whereas it is
the duty of nations
as well as of men,
to own their dependence
upon the overruling
power of God, to
confess their sins
and transgressions,
in humble sorrow,
yet with
assured hope that
genuine repentance
will lead to mercy
and pardon;
and to recognize
the sublime truth,
announced in the
Holy Scriptures
and proven by all
history, that those
nations only are
blessed whose God
is the Lord.
And,
insomuch as we know
that, by
His divine law,
nations like individuals
are subjected to
punishments and
chastisements in
this world,
may we not justly
fear that the awful
calamity of civil
war, which now desolates
the land, may be
but a punishment,
inflicted upon us,
for our presumptuous
sins, to
the needful end
of our national
reformation as a
whole People?
We
have been the recipients
of the choicest
bounties of Heaven.
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!
It
behooves us then,
to humble ourselves
before the offended
Power, to confess
our national sins,
and to pray for
clemency and forgiveness.
Now,
therefore, in
compliance with
the request, and
fully concurring
in the views of
the Senate,
I do, by this my
proclamation, designate
and set apart Thursday,
the 30th. day of
April, 1863, as
a day of national
humiliation, fasting
and prayer. And
I do hereby request
all the People to
abstain, on that
day, from their
ordinary secular
pursuits, and to
unite, at their
several places of
public worship and
their respective
homes, in keeping
the day holy to
the Lord, and devoted
to the humble discharge
of the religious
duties proper to
that solemn occasion.
All
this being done,
in sincerity and
truth, let us then
rest humbly in the
hope authorized
by the Divine teachings,
that the united
cry of the Nation
will be heard on
high,
and answered with
blessings, no less
than the pardon
of our national
sins, and the restoration
of our now divided
and suffering Country,
to its former happy
condition of unity
and peace.
In
witness whereof,
I have hereunto
set my hand and
caused the seal
of the United States
to be affixed."
Done
at the City of Washington,
this thirtieth day
of March, in the
year of our Lord
one thousand eight
hundred and sixty-three,
and of the Independence
of the United States
the eighty seventh.
By
the President: Abraham
Lincoln
William H. Seward,
Secretary of State.
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We
as the Church and a Nation
must follow this great
example for our nation
to have any chance of
restoration or reformation.
2
Chronicles 7:14
"If MY people
will...humble
themselves, and pray
and seek
My face, AND...TURN
from THEIR Wicked Ways...THEN
I will hear
from Heaven, forgive
their sin, and heal
your land."
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