Almighty God,
Please help our nation in its time of extreme need. Please help us in this hour of danger. Please frustrate the efforts of those who seek to hurt, harm and impose their will on others. Please quiet the voices of those who would provoke hatred and violence. Please protect our public servants from hurt and harm and strengthen them to do the work which your people have placed in their hands. Please intervene in this moment of excess and foolhardiness and restore sanity and common sense. Please protect this republic from its enemies - both foreign and domestic.
Amen
....and Awoman!
ReplyDeleteReally
DeleteAll the major allies of the United States denounced the current and sitting President of the United States openly as disrespectful to established democratic principles.
ReplyDeleteWhat a horrible day in diplomatic history.
On a personal level I feel extremely sorry for the lady who died in the Capitol and the misguided low IQ individuals who stormed the Capitol under the spell of years of false narratives and blatant lies, fearing for conspiracies that do not exist and feel disenfranchised from normal society for whatever and maybe even valid reasons.
Nck
Will God answer this prayer? I don't expect Him to do so at this time. Why? As one of the people who still believe in the core doctrines of the "Armstrong churches" (as some refer to the Church of God groups in a dismissive way), God likely won't answer now because of this:
ReplyDelete“Alas, sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a brood of evildoers, children who are corrupters! They have forsaken the Lord, they have provoked to anger the Holy One of Israel, they have turned away backward.
Why should you be stricken again? You will revolt more and more. The whole head is sick, and the whole heart faints. From the sole of the foot even to the head, there is no soundness in it, but wounds and bruises and putrefying sores; They have not been closed or bound up, Or soothed with ointment.” (Isa. 1:4-6)
Our nation is seriously divided, as forces with opposing ideas and values, struggle for political and cultural influence. What happened at our Capitol was truly alarming and tragic. Is it the canary in the coalmine? It appears that it may be. America appears to be heading for another bad year in 2021. Is the belief of "Jacob's Trouble" a sound biblical understanding - or it is just a loony idea that the Armstrong churches believe and preach?
I believe that the time of Jacob's Trouble is part of biblical prophecy. Are we nearing that time? Only God knows.
But if those conditions described in Isa. 1 are coming true, should not prayers to God also include asking God to show America her need to repent of her national sins?
I don't expect God to answer the prayer above that this time. But, someday in the future, He will. After unprecedented national suffering through Jacob's Trouble and the Great Tribulation period - beleaguered Americans and the world will finally turn to God, when Christ comes to rule this earth - and answer the above prayer.
Dean
ReplyDeleteThat is a great summary of part of cog philosophy. On several blogs I annoy cog detractors by claiming hwa was right 100 percent, always. This means for instance that I support your notion of sin and its results.
I do however take issue with a defaitist attitude.
In the early eighties, at spokesmans club, I was confronted with a question on British soccer hooliganism which was rampant, deadly and a very destructive force in society.
I argued at the time that other nations did not have the same problems and their stadiums were better equipped to handle rowdy crowds and police was better trained.
Of course a member stepped in and argued according to the exact reasoning in your posting that the problem and solution was not better stadiums, but moral, that British society was sick and was soon (within 5 years) doomed to receive more curses and be destroyed.
Now what happened since 1982. The best years for Britain lay ahead. There have been great decades since.
Of course exactly today one could argue, England and the US are one step away from total annihilation, because of Covid and other facts on the ground.
However I refuse to concede.
Like Miller I believe, the best years may lay ahead, only if we disregard the naysayers and choose to regain a basic notion of civility and more.
In your manner of speech, one might regard that process as a type of repentance. And decades of good years may lay ahead.
I hope one day a force for good or God may set us all straight for ever. Until that time it is our obligation to teach peace, cooperation among man and teach it through our exemplary personal lives as examples to our and especially the next generation.
Nck
Hello Nck,
DeleteThanks for your reply. Yes, the WCG was too dogmatic about setting dates back when HWA was alive. I'm with UCG and we've learned not to do that. As I said above, only God knows His prophecy timeline. (Of course, many people who used to be members of the WCG and other COG groups no longer believe in the prophecy teachings of the "Armstrong churches" so of course their outlook on things would be different than mine.)
If prophecy is just a loony notion then perhaps there are many more good years ahead for Britain and America. I've never been to the UK, so I can't comment on how your cultural conditions are. But the storm clouds in America look ominous. The radical left here is highly hostile to America's traditional western values which were founded on the Bible. The BLM Marxist organization embedded within the radical left is dedicated to tearing down these values any way they can.
The direction America is going is highly dangerous, as millions of Americans sense that their right to freedom of speech, liberty and the pursuit of happiness is being threatened.
I don't know if America and Britain has decades of good years that may lay ahead. Only God knows that. What I do think is that God is not likely to answer the prayer that Miller Jones posted. It seems that America is in for another bad year in 2021. (I hope I'm wrong - but I don't think so.)
I do concur with your hope for "a force for good or God" to set us all straight for ever. I believe that time will come when Jesus Christ rules over this earth.
I wish to thank Dean and Nck for publicly posting their views here. The sharing of different perspectives helps other readers to formulate, shape or strengthen their own views. Moreover, this willingness to engage in civil discourse from the vantage of differing perspectives sets a good example for all of us.
ReplyDeleteI am reminded of those words from Abraham Lincoln's First Inaugural Address: "We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained it must not break our bonds of affection." We all have an obligation to appeal to "the better angels of our nature."
Judging by the story of God's reaction to Abraham's appeal on behalf of any righteous individuals still living in Sodom and Gomorrah, I do not believe that God would destroy an entire nation because of the sins of a portion of its population. Indeed, a majority of Americans do NOT support the moral values which religionists usually identify as being deserving of God's wrath. Hence, it is not inappropriate to wonder "Will thou also destroy the righteous with the wicked?" (see Genesis 18 and 19)
And, although I believe that Anglo-Israelism has been thoroughly discredited by biblical scholars, archaeology, genetic science and history, I share Dean's belief that God will "set us all straight" someday; and that Jesus Christ will someday return to this earth and establish God's Kingdom over the entire planet. May God speed that day, and may God answer my prayer for us now!
I heard some people have favorite stories from the bible. Perhaps because of personal experiences or personality type.
ReplyDeleteThe Jonah story is one of my favorites. Someone commissioned to deliver a message boldly and diplomatic to a people not known for being faint hearted. Then failing for refusing to take responsibility for his part.
I shared with Miller my apreciation for the Irish missionaries of the dark ages, speaking to the Saxon, Frisian and Frankish kings about a new world a new civilisation reaching beyond tribal affiliations alone, based on the rule of righteous law.
Humans tend to confuse partisanship with values. I hear people discussing that BLM would never have been allowed to breach the Capitol perimeter. This saddens me. It should be black, white, yellow, green, red or blue persons value to not even want to illegally breach the halls that celebrate the sovereign will of the people and house its representatives. No matter party affiliation. And it breaks my heart when a decorated female veteran is so misguided by her partisan affiliation that she believed she was doing the work of god, by desecrating the footprint or monument dedicated to the collective will of the people. (under God if you please)
I believe it was a good thing when Miller turned to God in prayer at a moment of duress beyond his control. It is Gods promise he will listen and also his prerogative to answer or not.
I know I prayed when in 2008 all the graphs on the computer showed that the world economy was hours from collapsing, Dubai went completely broke in hours and bankers in the City of London called their spouses to go to the countryside and take the guns.
Somehow Obama and the Central Bankers managed to at least survive the moment.
My point.
The Lord works in mysterious ways and one may hope and pray to be one of his tools, helpers or co workers.
Nck
Well said.
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