YOU CAN HELP!

First, a word of apology for giving you the wrong title to Mark Twain’s book last week. The correct title is “Innocents Abroad” and the prophesy God gave about a stranger from a far away land proclaiming Israel’s poverty and desolation to the world is found in Deuteronomy 29:22. Mark Twain was that stranger and his book prepared the way for the return of Israel as a nation. God always keeps His Word. I don’t often use other people’s texts, but this was helpful to me and hopefully to you. We can be effective in this age of turmoil, viruses, and uprisings. With an election thrown in for good measure.

#1. No matter how many messes the politicians may have made, God can straighten them all out! (Matthew 19:26)

#2 God simply needs us to pray and believe He will do it. (2 Corinthians 7:14).

#3 When you don’t know exactly what to pray for, pray in the Spirit. (Romans 8:26)

#4 After you pray in the Spirit, ask God to reveal to you any new insights about our nation. (1 Corinthians 14:13-14)

#5 There is no limit what God can do for this nation through people of faith. (Mark 9:23)

God has blessed us because we are a nation under covenant with Him just as Israel was. Every Christian is bound by that covenant to keep faith with the God Who blessed us with founding fathers who based our nation on the Word of God – the Bible – and so far we have done many things as a nation to break that covenant and tried to establish laws and covenants that go against the Word of God.

We need to fight to get back to our heritage, our roots as ‘one nation under God’. He still wants us. That is always remarkable to me especially when I see the way some people treat other people. The Bible says that ‘while we were yet sinners Christ died for us’. That is one amazing statement. People say, ‘clean up your act, then we will accept you’. Jesus said,’I will clean you up and then continue to make you in right standing with My Father and your Father”. What an amazing God we serve!! All of us who name the name of ‘Christian’ (little Christs) need to be in constant prayer for our nation, our leaders, our lawmakers, our peacekeepers, our healers, our servants in this trying day and age. Things seem to get worse, not better and only the great Creator Who knows everything from the beginning to the end is able to figure this out. Yes, He uses people most of the time, but sometimes He just steps in Himself and acts. That’s what He did when He sent Jesus to us. He used Mary because there is only one doorway to get into earth as a human and that is through the body of a woman. (John 10:1-2) He entered the door of the sheepfold to become our Shepherd so that we could follow Him and know that He is the Truth and the Life. What a joy to be His friend, His sheep, His follower. He only leads us to green pastures and good waters. (Psalm 23)

Rev. Joyce Kaplan, M.Div., Retired United Church of Christ Pastor