DAY 36/40 DAYS OF PRAYER FOR AMERICA

PRAY FOR US MILITARY IN CRISIS

We are nearing the end of what has been a tough forty days of prayer and intercession. World and national events are breaking out all around us in rapid succession as the most important election to freedom and the future of the free enterprise system is just days away. We have kept up with the changing nature of these critical days by praying as the Spirit leads, in a timely fashion. We have no agenda here except God's agenda - which is Salvation; Holiness and Righteousness. It is also about justice, mercy and comforting the brokenhearted.

For the next five days, however, we are focusing primarily on prayer for the following: the US Military; Personal and Religious Freedom; the Economy: the Family and Culture and the Future.

In speaking and listening to recent and current US Military personnel and others in the defense industrial complex, the critical condition of the active duty soldier is the scariest ever. PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) is at its worst level. Over 85% (official figures) of soldiers who are being rotated constantly by the command now have PTSD. There is a suicide attempt DAILY! Over 75% of their marriages are ending in divorce due to forced separation, stress and even adultery. Now, comes an incident which, while being played down and/or covered up by the mainstream media, is sending real shockwaves through the ranks of both active and retired military. The incident is Benghazi and the loss of a heroic Navy Seal Ty Woods. Benghazi is fast becoming the biggest national headache since Watergate.

We will not judge or comment on, what is still an unfolding story. Our mission here is to pray for the families of heroes like Tyrone Woods and his dad Charles, who is on point to find the truth about how or why his son was killed. We also pray for those who have served in the long wars in Afghanistan and elsewhere, while no one in the civilian world of leadership is clearly on their side. In an increasingly more dangerous world, the greatest power ever in the history of the world, is at a crucial point....and boy, they can sure use some divine guidance.

So Father God, oh Mighty King and Lord of Heaven's armies....You, Who have set up world governments to represent You, and which man has so corrupted to the point that we need armies, navies and air force services to protect freedom, we cry out to you this day and from now on, for Your Divine Hand of Guidance, protection and mercy on those who serve in the United States military - the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, Coast Guard, Special Ops, Intelligence of all levels and for each member of their families - spouses; parents; children. We pray for their health - physical and emotional. We pray for their safety from the enemy, an enemy which cannot be distinguished from sometimes, so-called friendly forces and those whom the servicemen and women were sent to help, by an increasingly incompetent civilian leadership, which is more interested in politics than proper governance. Therefore, we also pray for that same civilian leadership who carries the burden of both administrative as well as command structure responsibilities. We pray for their ability to make the best decision for both the cause, the citizens and the lives of the military personnel involved. We pray they ignore political and personal biases and focus on doing the best job ever.

We pray for the families of these soldiers, engineers and other support personnel who are suffering back on with low income; declining quality of medical care and emotional distress. We pray for the Military Chaplains who are being forced by liberal politically correct to bow down to strange gods and conduct prayer services or other ceremonies while not praying in the Name of Jesus, as we expect real men and women of God to do! Give those Chaplains a boldness to obey God only while performing their duties, oh God. Father we pray for an end to the war in Afghanistan or at least our part in it, and for a re-evaluation as to the role and mission of future military actions. We pray for all the intelligence agencies to get their information right, from now on, so that future adventures will be based on facts and truth. We pray for the truth about Benghazi to emerge quickly so the families of the departed ones and the injured will find closure and healing. We pray for the Word of God to be allowed into the bases, and that it will be taught to our young people out there that they will come to know You as Lord and Savior, because they never know which day will be their last. Father, give direction, comfort and may Your Mighty Hand, as the Commander of Heaven's Armies be upon those who defend the cause of freedom for all mankind, in the Mighty Name of Jesus, I pray, amen.

DEBATE CONTINUES OVER MILITARY BIBLES ISSUE

UPDATE (July 13, 2012): "Holman Publishing was only asked to remove the military insignia's after they VIOLATED their agreement with the military branches. They were given permission to use the commercial versions of the military seals on the boxes the bibles came in, but the branches found out last year that he had since started putting the official seals on the bibles themselves, thus VIOLATING HIS AGREEMENT WITH THE MILITARY!"  (Informed Sources).

EDITOR'S NOTE:  Bibles are still sold on US Military Bases. This will continue. The only Bibles removed are these pictured here with the Military insignia

The US Chaplain Alliance for Religious Liberty has asked Congress to intervene over the removal of Holman Christian Standard Bibles from PX's and US Military base stores and restore the sale of these special designated Holman Bibles to the store shelves.  

The Christian Post has reported that due to just a few complaints from a small, but hostile atheist organization, the Pentagon policy makers have made this strange decision. This comes right on the heels of news from this same politicized Pentagon, that the rate of suicides among US Soldiers has now reached one suicide per day! There have been 154 US military personnel suicides from January 1 to June 3, 2012!  Retired US Chaplain Peter Sousa told the Christian Post in part "..."I am speaking from experiences in my perspective, but I do believe that the young people coming into the military today do not have the firm foundation in religious belief that previous generations had. More and more soldiers are saying they have no religious preference". 

This is the latest religious freedom issue involving US soldiers who need the Cleansing Power of the Blood of Christ and the Word of God to give them a hope and a future. It just came out that 1 in 5 returning service personnel face Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).They face divorce, separation from their families and unconventional warfare only to find their spiritual knees have been cut out from under them by their own superiors who sit behind desks. Here is a list of attacks on Christians and the Bible in the past two years....and a lot of it successfully instigated by a guy named Michael Weinstein, a confirmed atheist whose apparent main purpose in life is to dishonor our God; remove as many bibles from the US Military as possible and deny hurting servicemen and women true Spiritual counsel. Weinstein runs something called the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, which is about anything but religious freedom.
- Rev. Franklin Graham was kicked out and disinvited from a National Day of Prayer service inside the Pentagon in 2010 because of his solid stance for Christ!
-  Rev. Franklin Graham runs the worldwide charitable SAMARITAN'S PURSE, which gave over 8 million shoeboxes full of gifts to poor children of all races and religion around the world. This past December 2011, the US Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs kicked Samaritan's Purse off the Campus because two atheists complained!  Yet this same Air Force Academy has given witches some high ground to build and conduct their Pagan rituals!!!
-  US Chaplains are forbidden from praying in the Name of Jesus.

-  In the fall of 2011, the brass at Walter Reed Hospital, the largest military one where wounded military from Iraq and Afghanistan are treated, sent down a written memo banning ALL bibles from Reed! After it was discovered and some US congressman started condemning the ban from the floor of Capitol Hill, the US government took back their memo and allowed families to bring bibles for their wounded sons and daughters again.
-  This past February 2012, all Army chaplains were banned by the government from reading a letter from the Catholic bishops, where the bishops spoke against the church being made to buy and give employees contraception and pregnancy prevention pills for free...against the tenets of church teaching.


The answer to all of this is - PRAY for the brave men and women of the US Military and the people who send them to war.  PRAY for those suffering PTSD and families of those who are living in desperation due to the high rate of suicide among their loved ones, who have served.

US MILITARY CHAPLAINS CAN NOW PERFORM SAME-SEX RITUALS

WORD OF THE DAY: "OBEDIENCE"

Obedience fit right into this downward cultural shift, which occurred yesterday, when the Civilian leadership of the Pentagon said U.S. Military chaplains can now perform private 'same-sex' rituals, on or off base! In a fit of moral, legal and spiritual contradiction, the current political leadership of the Department of Defense (DOD) then proceeded to offer taxpayer-funded government buildings for these ceremonies.


The legality is unquestioned as the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) is still the law of the land. This is wrong. More importantly, this is a slap in the Face of Holy God by politicians who serve man more than God. Romans 1 comes into play as more and more, we see American leaders turning from God, forcing Him to remove His protection from this once-blessed country.


This is another layer of stress put on American Christian Chaplains, who were told a few years ago that they could not pray in the Name of Jesus! Therefore the question arises: to whom does a Chaplain owe his loyalty and obedience? Sure the DOD said Chaplains can "exercise" the conscience clause and "refuse to participate". How many expect this opt-out to last? Nobody!


Our Evangelical chaplains took an oath to defend and protect the Constitution of the United States when they signed up and especially if they are soldiers as well. There is nothing in that US Constitution restricting them from the free exercise of speech or religion. But their position is different from the enlisted man or the officer. He is a spiritual authority and while he is under the same orders and the Uniform Code of Military Justice, a Chaplain's REAL Commander in Chief is God, not the US President and his DOD flunkies.


Any order from high up in man's economy, which violates both God's and man's law can be rejected. Therefore, should a chaplain refuse to perform what's coming next under man's regime....and that is, same-sex marriage? Yes! A thousand times, yes!


A man of God, a licensed minister and chaplain is 100% accountable first to Almighty God, Who will not buy the answer that "the devil made me do it"! US Chaplains are meant to stay in there and defend the Faith as much as they minister to those who fight to defend the United States of America.


Our Hebrews 11 verses today - Saturday - as we go into Week 5 of this amazing Chapter and teaching are Verses 17-19. In context here they are:
By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises offered up his only begotten son, of whom it was said, “In Isaac your seed shall be called,” concluding that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead, from which he also received him in a figurative sense. 


Like these US Chaplains, our hero Abraham was tested...and even more so! Remember two things - God made Abraham a promise to cause many nations to literally be birth from an old man. Secondly, God asked Abraham to then sacrifice his own beloved son, Isaac!


After the miracle of the birth of Isaac when he was 100, Abraham did not doubt one second God will keep His Promises. The Bible says numerous times that "Abraham believed God and He counted it to him (Abe) as righteousness"! So while Abraham had to be scratching his head when God told him that Isaac was the sacrifice - ABRAHAM OBEYED!

Every saint mentioned in the Heroes Hall of Faith here in Hebrews 11, OBEYED GOD (rather than men) and stood on Faith - absolute, complete and obedient Faith to Almighty God. The result - a people whom Christ will call unto Him as His own one day soon! Should we expect our chaplains to be like-minded? Yes! But they will only be so if we individuals and ordinary folks, support them with prayer, encouragement, cards and more! Surely, we can do this!


In the Name of Jesus, amen.

(Image by Google Images)