STAND UP FOR YOUR CONVICTIONS 

This is a different type of Prayer Focus Day as head towards the end of the designated 14 Days of Prayer, originally called by the US Conference of Catholic Bishops for Religious Liberty. Since then, several major conservative Protestant organizations, including myself, have joined in as there is always a great time to pray and obey.

As we come to the final Five Days, for this specific period, we have to resolve to NEVER stop praying! This is the main takeaway from what we are doing. The Bible says to “pray without ceasing” (1 Thess 5:17). This LITERALLY means (in the Greek) – LEAVE NO INTERVAL BETWEEN THE TIME YOU PRAY (for example NOW) AND THE NEXT TIME! It doesn’t mean you pull over every five minutes on the Interstate Highway, kneel down and pray. The key is to be in constant and repentant fellowship with the One Who created you and sent His Son to be the Bridge back to Him, so we can have that uniquely close relationship with our Father.
If you and I wish to see our children and families and therefore our local communities and towns do better, we must never cease from praying. We should never stop because the enemies of God – the devil – will not stop until he destroys our peace, our love for the Savior and each other and our children and their futures. Christ was NOT kidding when He said in John 10:10 “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly”.

Many Christians are now fearful since the US Supreme Court, in a stunning decision decided to legitimize a life-altering governmental decree which affects every single American. With or without knowing it, the decision has repercussions for Religious Liberty, Individual Freedom and personal choice. There is confusion in the Body of Christ about how to react to this and if we should really even want to pray God’s blessings to the people who do this kind of thing.

Again – yes, we have to, because God commanded us to. But several questions and concerns have come up in the past couple of days, which are worth considering and taking to the Lord in prayer:

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What if we had more time in a day to git ‘er done, would we?
What if we had one more dime in the parking meter, would we have gotten that parking ticket?
What if we had one more mime on the street corner in July, would we welcome the sound of jackhammers?
What if?

What if we had filled up the tank on the way to work, right before Sheik Abdul sneezed and gas shot up 45 cents a gallon?
What if we had just been cussed out by a guy named Frank, but still gave the cashier a credit card-sized tract which looked like a “Facebook” logo with a Friend Request that reminded her “What a Friend we have in Jesus”?
What if we had just gotten that one last prayer in for uncle Joe, who was in Hospice Care but thinks he was good enough to get into Heaven because he never killed anyone….well except for that bridge he blew up in Viet Nam…and the er…secret mission to Cambodia…???!!!
What if?

You get the point!
Life is sometimes a series of missed opportunities. It happens to everyone at the most crucial moment. How many times have we said “aw man…I should have said…..” or “why didn’t I mention……” or “if I get the chance to tell….I will….” ad nauseum!

2011, THE YEAR THAT’S NO MORE:
This past year was no different. Looking back on what ain’t no more, we see:
– Blizzard on Groundhog Day (February 2, 2011) which shut down the Midwest and took the life of a 55 year old friend of mine, who went shovelling two feet of snow with a bad heart.
– Tidal Wave shown live on worldwide TV in March….as many of us watched in horror as thousands died lost forever to eternity in a split second, because they did not know the One True God.
– A monster mile-wide tornado took out Tuscaloosa, Alabama  in April which they still have not recovered from.
– A similar set of violent tornadoes almost completely destroyed Joplin, Mo, about 6 hours from where we live. But unlike the other natural disasters, we were able to mobilize truckloads of food, water, clothing and money to help love on these dear people, who lost everything except their Hope!
– The St. Louis Cardinals, hot on the heels of one of the biggest Christian Days at the Ball Park in August, win the 2011 Baseball World Series in some of the best baseball ever played.
– Yet we had spectacles of spoiled rich kids armed with Apple iPads, iPhones and more electronics you can shake a stick at, “OCCUPYING” every major city in America, causing havoc, lost of income and disease by living in 1960’s styled communes…complete with illicit sex and violence!

But then we had the Tim Tebow phenomenon!

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