Nation Prayer Days Service Disappointment
 

A prayer service for National Prayer Day is such a great idea and as a first timer I wondered why more villagers didn't attend. It didn't take long to figure out why; it felt like a political rally or a revival and rarely touched upon the importance of prayer especially in light of a struggling government. This service could have been aired on fox. The concentration should have been on prayer not on the dislike and distress of our current government, bad parenting, and kids that are just not being brought up properly. Shame on these organizers. We are so blessed to be living in our nation. There are good government servers, great parents and wonderful kids to celebrate. What could have been an uplifting experience turned into a real downer. Can we not pray for our government as it stands today instead of praying for change? The changes take place every four years and we can't ignore who needs prayer right now.

Boy howdy!!!!

Boy Howdy..it's not an easy feat to get two boy howdies on your first post.

Make that another Boy, Howdy.

There is no reason to use what was billed a National Prayer Day as a bashing on the government day and things wrong with our country.

Politics should have been kept out of the agenda completely.

this is a touchy subject....was it bashing? I don't know...who was there?

Touchy subject indeed, Kitty, I agree. If the moral landscape of the country is not that good and people of faith criticize certain aspects of it, is that automatically political?

Direct political agendas should not be in a prayer day, but, is the purpose to praise government? That could imply satisfaction and acceptance and endorsement, no?

It boils down to this:

Some subordinate their politics to their religion and what God has said in Scripture, putting God in the highest position.

Others filter God and their religion thru their own politics and agenda, which for them are in first place.

Worshiping God means being subordinate to Him and His Ten Commands.

I knew at the service yesterday that, as one example, the mention of 53 million unborn babes being killed since 1973--stated as a major reason to pray for the nation--would bring anger in some political minds there.

But I think the point was to remind people of the anger there should be for innocents who didn't get a chance at their right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

It's going to be a stand-off for a long time to come. It will be talked about, as it should be.

For those not there, much of it was about returning to God for His renewed blessings on the nation, with readings from Deuteronomy 6 and 7:
http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/...07&version=NIV

Sounds like an uber-conservative convention to me. Sure glad I was not there.

Not really. Much was said to pray for our military, whom most people respect despite their obedience to those who send them to war when none of the choices is a good choice.

I agree. Sure sounds like a conservative agenda to me, not appropriate for Prayer day.

I wasn't there. Here is the theme from the organizing task force:

To further highlight our theme, we’ve chosen Romans 15:6 as our Scripture for this year: “So that with one mind and one voice you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

You can't go wrong if you stick to that. I view askance when the OT is relied on. Some of it establishes law to propound the need for grace (crucifixion.) Those passages are not to be achieved currently, as they have already been fulfilled and surpassed, or one could say, superceded.

"They" are shameless. :doh:

Actually being present gives insights that contradict this generalizing and stereotyping.

The quoting from the Old Testament ( "For those not there, much of it was about returning to God for His renewed blessings on the nation, with readings from Deuteronomy 6 and 7") sounds pretty drastic - and in a way sounds similar to the Koran, doesn't it?

"and when the Lord your God has delivered them over to you and you have defeated them, then you must destroy them totally.[a] Make no treaty with them, and show them no mercy."

Those words should not be used at a Day of Prayer.

It's not always a good idea to quote isolated passages without citation, identification and some contextual basis. Many scholars without a bias or an agenda will explain that the 'destroy' (it's 'destruction in my ESV Bible) refers to the total dispossession and eviction of the various Canaanite peoples from the Promised Land. This taking away of their identifiable land would lead to their destruction as a people - not the 'genocide' so many anti-religious wish it to be. Read about the 'poor' Canaanites who sacrificed their little children.