Show Me How to Share Christ in the Workplace

When I worked for Pulse ministries, we put together a lot of evangelism training events for young people, so I definitely believe that there is a place for training in evangelism.  On the other hand, I also think that it’s the Spirit that leads in any evangelistic opportunity, not training per se: kind of like when the Spirit brings back to remembrance what we’ve read in the Bible when we need it.  We still should read it, but it’s the Spirit that makes it ready for us.

So, I was a little trepid about what Larry Moyer would have to say about how to share Christ in the workplace in his new book.  Would he go the “here’s some step-by-steps route?”  Or would he go the “stand back and let God work route?”

I was relieved to see that the first chapter of the book was all about prayer, continual prayer.  He says, “prayer ought to come from our lips like a dripping faucet” when it comes to the topic of evangelism.  Praying for boldness, opportunity, a strong witness, and even the words to say.”

Later he confronts a lot of the crazy evangelism techniques that are out there like “just letting my life be the witness, so I don’t have to say anything” and “a prayer is all it takes to be saved,” which are big plusses.

He also makes sure to emphasize that it’s Christ alone that saves, not works, not baptism, not anything else, while still maintaining that when we come to Christ the evidence is that we are saved from sin, and our lives change.

There wasn’t a whole lot to critique negatively in the book.  And I highly recommend it to anyone looking for some solid evangelism training material for the work place.  And since according to recent pew studies, only 1% of so-called evangelical Christians actually evangelize, I think a lot of us need something like this to wake us up.

Buy the Book for $11.04

I received this book from the publisher for review.  All opinions are my own.

Too Much To Do

Have you ever known someone who has gone on a mission trip who came back talking about how long the worship services went?  I’ve heard of worship services ranging from four hours to the whole day on Sunday.

When I was a younger Christian in college, I even got to experience some of those hours long worship sessions with some of my closest friends.  We used to meet out in an old barn loft and just worship Jesus and pray, every night, for hours. 

How do you sustain this kind of marathon worship?  The truth is it’s because people in third world countries and college kids just don’t have much else to do.

And therein lies our problem.  The typical American Christian has their proverbial plate filled with French fry football, mashed potato movies, whole-wheat work, sugar-coated shopping, and not much room left over for the Bread of Life.  But without Jesus we’re starving.

The Christmas season is infamously busy.  There’s a lot to do over the next 20 days, but don’t let the cares of the season choke out the life of Christ within you.  And certainly don’t add to your already too full plate, when you should be scraping some of the fillers off.

Be sure that you don’t just make room for Christ this Christmas; fill your life with Him.  He’ll help you through the holidays much better than going at it without Him anyway.

Featured Non-Profit

This December with every post till Christmas, I'm featuring a non-profit worthy of support.  You can see a complete list here.

Today’s non-profit is 24-7 Prayer.

One of the greatest aspects of the 24-7 Prayer group is that they see prayer as mission.  In other words, prayer is a catalyst for mission.  Whenever you approach the throne of God, He will inevitably share His heart and a message for someone with you, and you will be directed to share it accordingly.  They have prayer/mission groups all over the world in some of the most needed of areas, where most Christians would never even go because they wouldn’t want to be associated with the people there, like the island of Ibiza.

They serve the Church as a catalyst to spark movements and communities of Christ-centered, mission-minded prayer, network with people in like-minded movements and communities to encourage and equip each other for prayer, mission and justice, provide resources on 24-7 Prayer and the building of praying communities, and gather and train emerging leaders to be catalysts for 24-7 Prayer, mission and justice.

You can give via their U.S. website:  24-7 Prayer US or via their international website: 24-7 Prayer International.

Watch the video below to get a glimpse of this ministry’s work in the name of Jesus Christ:

Come On! (Director's Cut) from 24-7 Prayer USA on Vimeo.

The Amen is the End

Have you ever stopped to wonder why we always end our prayers with “In Jesus’ name, amen?” The phrase has become this trite little farewell to God after prayer that I doubt many of us have given much thought.  It’s like saying goodbye after we get off the phone. 

“Uh God, I gotta go.  Dinner is getting cold.  
In Jesus’ name, amen.” Click.

Jesus said, “if you ask anything in my name, I will do it” (John 14:14), so we ask everything in His name.  “Bless our food”, “Bless my dog”, “Bless grandma”, “Bless the president”, etcetera, all in Jesus’ name. 

Yet do we ever stop to think about the name we’re whipping out like a no-limit credit card on Heavenstore.com? 

Are we so quick to forget that at the name of Jesus EVERY KNEE WILL BOW, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father? (Philippians 2:10-11)

Where is the respect due our Lord in using His name so arbitrarily?  I’m not saying not to ask in the name of Jesus, just don’t throw it out in vain without a second thought about who’s name you're using.

And as far as the “Amen” goes, if you’ve done a word-study on “amen” or have ever heard a sermon on it before, you probably already know it means “truly, surely, or it is so.”  But have you ever looked at the word in context?  It never comes after “In the name of Jesus” at the end of a prayer.  The word is sometimes used as an agreement, but it is almost exclusively found after blessing or praising God, like in the Lord’s Prayer: “For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.” (Matthew 6:13) 

This use of the word is something I just discovered while writing this post, which is very different then what I intended to write, and in discovering this use of the word, it seems very nearly blasphemous to say it after blessing our food, our dog, our grandmas, even our president.  In fact in Revelation, Jesus says, “To the angel of the church in Laodicea write: The Amen, the faithful and true Witness, the Beginning of the creation of God, says this . . .” (Revelation 3:14).

He calls Himself “the Amen”, which shouldn’t be that shocking since He calls Himself “the Truth” in John 14:6, but it’s like the double whammy of using the Lord’s name in vain at the end of our trite little prayers.  Amen isn’t the end of a prayer; the “Amen” is the End, as in the “Beginning and the End.”

Here’s what I propose.  Let’s stop praying like the God we speak to isn’t real and doesn’t care how we talk to Him, and let’s start praying with fear and trembling, awe and respect, and most of all love for Jesus Christ and the Father who loved us enough to send His Son.

To God Almighty be all glory and honor forever and ever, Amen.

Discipline or Desperation?

I recently listened to an interview with Paul Miller called the Doctrine of Prayer.  His position on prayer is that prayer should increasingly come from a point of desperation rather than discipline.

He clarifies what he means by desperation: “it is an increasing acknowledgement that we cannot do this life alone.”  But he doesn’t really say what he means by discipline.  I assume he’s talking about some denominational practices of using prayer books and rhythmic prayer.

I can’t disagree with the need to pray in our moments of desperation, but I don’t think God intended us to be in desperation so that we would pray.  When you read about some of the most powerful examples of prayerful people in the Bible, they didn’t always pray in desperation.  There were four other reasons for prayer that I can think of right off the top of my head:  praise, friendship, discipline, and kinship. 

Here’s some scriptural evidence for these reasons for prayer:

David prayed in praise:  “I will bless the LORD at all times; His praise shall continually be in my mouth.” (Psalm 34:1)

Moses prayed in friendship: “Thus the LORD used to speak to Moses face to face, just as a man speaks to his friend.” (Exodus 33:11)

Daniel prayed with discipline: “Now when Daniel knew that the document was signed, he entered his house (now in his roof chamber he had windows open toward Jerusalem); and he continued kneeling on his knees three times a day, praying and giving thanks before his God, as he had been doing previously.” (Daniel 6:10)

Jesus prayed in kinship: “Jesus spoke these things; and lifting up His eyes to heaven, He said, ‘Father . . .’” (John 17:1)

God refers to Himself in a lot of earthly paradigms so that we can understand our relationship with Him: Lord, Friend, Father, Bridegroom.  Think of these relationships with people in your life.  Do you only talk to your boss, your friends, your family, or your spouse when you’re in trouble?  Do you set aside time for them?  Do you have topics that you like to talk about with them?  Do your conversations tend to repeat themselves?  These are signs of comfortable relationship.

Another paradigm God reveals Himself in is savior, and when we’re desperate, He should be the only one we turn to, but talking to Him includes so much more than salvation, just as it does with anyone that we have relationship with. 

Prayer is as much about listening as it is about speaking. Prayer entails conversing with God about every topic.  Prayer includes involving God in the rhythms of your life at every level.   

Pray without ceasing.  (1 Thessalonians 5:17)

The Response USA

A while back I posted about Governor Rick Perry's call to the nation to repent in prayer and fasting.  The Response USA begins tomorrow at 9:00 AM.  You can live stream it at http://theresponseusa.com/. 

I would encourage anyone reading this blog to participate in prayer and fasting wherever you may be.

I'd also like to point you to Joel Rosenberg's response as I think he sums up the need for such an event pretty well:

A CALL TO PRAYER & FASTING FOR OUR COUNTRY: The politicians don’t have any answers, but where is the Church?

Posted: August 5, 2011 by joelcrosenberg in Uncategorized

(Denver, Colorado) –Here’s one sobering headline that caught my eye this morning: “Global stocks tumble amid recession fears: Market panic spreads across globe as investors fear double-dip recession.”  Here’s another:“Dow’s losing streak now in ninth day; Dow’s losing streak unmatched since 1978.”

U.S. and global markets have been severely rattled in recent weeks by the inability or unwillingness of politicians in Washington to make the truly serious and dramatic reforms necessary to move our country back from the brink of bankruptcy. Our national debt now equals 100% of our GDP. That is, we will produce about $14.5 trillion in goods and services as a nation in 2011. Yet we have just hit $14.5 trillion in federal debt. We now owe to our creditors every single penny that we will make this year., yet we have no real plan to ever pay this deb down. It just keeps going up and up. America hasn’t faced a debt crisis this serious since we were fighting for our lives against the Nazis in World War II. Meanwhile, millions of Americans remain out of work. Millions are losing their homes. Nearly 46 millionAmericans are now on government food stamps.  No wonder a stunning 73% of Americans say our country is on the “wrong track.” We certainly are.

America is in trouble, morally, spiritually and financially. Yet no one seems to have any answers. The politicians seem clueless. The media certainly doesn’t have any answers. Academia seems more out of touch than ever. Sadly, far too many Church leaders are asleep, as well — or too timid, or drifting off course spiritually and theologically — just at the time they could and should be powerfully proclaiming the gospel of Jesus Christ as the only real hope of mankind. God hasn’t failed us. We have failed God. Christ is ready to come help us, care for us, get us back on the right track, if we would only turn to Him en masse. The Church’s job is to be a light to the nations, ours and the world. But too much of the Church is sleeping. We need a wake up call.

America needs a revival — a dramatic spiritual renewal like the “Great Awakening” of the early 1700s, and the “Second Great Awakening” of the mid-1800s. But such a revival has to begin first and foremost with the Church waking up and asking the Lord to purify us, heal us, and re-inspire us with the life-changing truths of His Word. Only then can we truly love our neighbors with Christ’s love and be a blessing to our country in a time of severe crisis. The Hebrew Prophet Joel told us to, “Wake up, drunkards!” (Joel 1:5). He called us to “lament, O priests” and “wail, O ministers.” (Joel 1:13)  He urged us to “consecrate a fast, proclaim a solemn assembly; gather the elders and all the inhabitants of the land to the house of the Lord your God” because “the day of the Lord is near.” (Joel 1:14-15). He told us to “blow a trumpet in Zion and sound an alarm on My holy mountain” because “the day of the Lord is coming; surely it is near.” (Joel 2:1). This was the message I shared last night at an event in Denver last night. The Day of the Lord is coming, and as that day approaches, the Lord is shaking America, Israel and the nations to get our attention and persuade us to let go of anything and everything we are holding onto for peace and security other than faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Yes, this was the theme of our Epicenter Conference in Jerusalem in May. But it needs to be shared not just in Jerusalem but to the ends of the Earth.

Today, I’m flying to Houston to participate in tomorrow’s day of prayer & fasting for our country. The event was called by Texas Governor Rick Perry. It’s based on the Book of Joel. And despite enormous opposition from liberal groups and atheist organizations, I believe this is exactly what we need right now. We need to take a day out from our normal lives and stop everything we’re doing — stop working, stop playing, stop entertaining ourselves, stop texting, stop emailing, stop Facebooking, stop eating — and just spend it with the Lord. In His Word. With His people. In praise and worship. In prayer and fasting. Asking Him to show mercy to us….before it’s too late.

If you’re anywhere near Reliant Stadium in Houston tomorrow, I hope you’ll join us. If not, may I encourage you to take time out of your busy schedules to pray and fast tomorrow for a true, deep and powerful revival in America, beginning in the Church?

“‘Yet even now,’ declares the Lord, ‘return to Me with all your heart, and with fasting, weeping, and mourning; and rend your heart and not your garments.’ Now return to the Lord your God, for He is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in lovingkindness and relenting of evil. Who knows whether He will not turn and relent and leave a blessing behind Him?” (Joel 2:12-14)

Were Jesus' Prayers Answered: Sanctification

Part 3 in a 5 Part Series

In this series, we’ve been looking at Jesus’ prayer in John 17 and whether certain parts of it were answered because it doesn’t really seem like they were, or at least not in the ways we imagine they ought to be.  Isn’t that always the case?

In this post I want to look at verses 17-19: “Sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth. As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world. For their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they themselves also may be sanctified in truth.”

I once heard a pastor tell a story that went something like this, “Every morning I get up and shower and shave, then I have a cup of Sanka coffee, and my wife toasts some cinnamon raisin bread.  I don’t care much for raisins, so I spend a few moments poking them out of my toast before slathering on some butter and eating my breakfast.  I guess you could say that I’m shaved, sankafied, and filled with the holy toast.”

Humor aside, a lot of times the word “sanctification” is used to describe the process by which we are continually conformed into the image of Christ.  We sin less and less until we die, and then when we see Him face-to-face, we become fully sanctified and don’t sin anymore. If this is what sanctification is, why does Jesus say, “for their sakes I sanctify Myself”?

Why would Jesus, the One who never sinned, need to be sanctified if sanctification is a process of perfecting the saints?  Wouldn’t He already have been sanctified?  Also why would He pray that the Father sanctify us in the Truth of His word as we’re sent into the world if our finished sanctification only comes at death?

 A little digging shows that the word sanctification is never used in this context, at least not that I can find.  In fact the word is really just the verb form of holy, which means “to be set apart for God’s work.”  In that context, Jesus’ sanctification of Himself through obedience even to death on the cross makes perfect sense.  Our complete sanctification as saints through belief in Christ makes complete sense; we are set apart for God’s work:

“For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men, instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously and godly in the present age, looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus, who gave Himself for us to redeem us from every lawless deed, and to purify for Himself a people for His own possession, zealous for good deeds. (Titus 2:11-15)

When we sin as believers, we are not showing that our sanctification is incomplete; boo hoo for us; rather we are quite literally dragging the holiness of God through the mud.  His Truth has set us free, His Truth has sanctified us, and His Son Sanctified Himself and us through the cross.  Sin is not a bad habit that sneaks up on us; it’s a slap in the face to God Himself. 

Why do you think Paul says, “Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own?

For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body” (1 Corinthians 6:18-20).

Jesus’ prayer was answered just as He prayed, not as a process.  Sin ought to be viewed more seriously than a process of sanctification allows for.  If we are sanctified, our response to sin can’t be, “oh well someday I’ll stop even if it’s in eternity.”  We must strive to protect the holiness of God within us that Christ’s sanctification made possible.  Flee from sin, and repent with tears when it catches you unawares, but don’t be flippant about God’s holiness.

Next in the series: Joy

Were Jesus' Prayers Answered: Protection

Part 2 in a 5 Part Series

In the previous post in this series, we started looking at Jesus’ prayer in John 17.  I cannot imagine that Jesus’ prayers would ever go unanswered, and yet some of the things He prayed over the disciples and us as believers according to verse 20 don’t seem to be so, but like many of our prayers, I think Jesus’ prayers were answered, just not the way we’d expect.

One of those prayers is in verse 15: “My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one.” (John 17:15)

Do you feel like you’re being protected from the evil one?  Or do you keep reading Job over and over telling yourself God is trying to prove something about you to Satan by letting him have his way with you?

But what we overlook a lot of the time is that Job was never in any danger from Satan.  God is the one who brings him up in conversation with Satan: "Have you considered my servant Job? There is no one on earth like him; he is blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil" (Job 1:8), and after Satan’s initial onslaught, God again says, “"Have you considered my servant Job? There is no one on earth like him; he is blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil. And he still maintains his integrity, though you incited me against him to ruin him without any reason." (Job 2:3)

God never had any intention of giving Job up or letting Satan do anything that was going to endanger him. 

How can I say that?  I promise I’ve read Job and know all about the horrible things that happened to him, but I don’t think God’s protection is all about having a comfortable life with no suffering.  I think God’s protection is summed up in what Jesus prays a couple of verses earlier in John 17: “While I was with them, I protected them and kept them safe by that name you gave me. None has been lost except the one doomed to destruction so that Scripture would be fulfilled.” (John 17:12)

Judas was considered as “unprotected” and lost to the evil one.  Satan’s greatest weapon against us has nothing to do with suffering or hard circumstances in life.  Even with Job, the enemy wasn’t trying to make him miserable; he was trying to make Job curse God and die.  Satan’s only weapon against us is to get us to sin.  And you can bet he will use suffering and pain to do it.

But Jesus prayed that we would be protected from falling into Satan’s hands.  The disciples said and did some things that Jesus called them out on as sin, but He said that He had protected them by the name God gave Him—Yeshua or Yahweh Saves—and it is by that name that we are protected too, not because of any measure of perfectness on our part; rather we are protected by the perfectness of Yahweh who saves us: our strong tower, our shield, our deliverer.

Praise God!

Were Jesus' Prayers Answered: Unity

Part 1 of a 5 part series

In John 17, Jesus prays over the disciples, and in verse 17:20 He makes it clear that the things He is praying not for them alone, but for all those that come after them who believe in Jesus, in other words us.

As I read this passage, I began to notice that the things Jesus prayed don’t seem to be so.  Is it possible that Jesus’ prayers weren’t answered? He is the Son of God.  If His prayers weren’t answered, then how can we have any hope?  They must have been answered, but how? 

Here’s an example:

That they may all be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me. The glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, just as We are one; I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that You sent Me, and loved them, even as You have loved Me.” (John 17:21-23)

I don’t know about you, but in the past 2,000 years, I haven’t seen much unity in the so-called followers of Christ.  There have been denominational splits after denominational splits after denominational splits, and they started almost immediately.  Paul talks about these issues in the first chapter of first Corinthians:

Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and [that] there be no divisions among you; but [that] ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment. For it hath been declared unto me of you, my brethren, by them [which are of the house] of Chloe, that there are contentions among you. Now this I say, that every one of you saith, I am of Paul; and I of Apollos; and I of Cephas; and I of Christ. Is Christ divided? was Paul crucified for you? or were ye baptized in the name of Paul? (1 Corinthians 1:10-14)

Why all the divisions? 

The answer is pretty easy actually.  They’ve taken their eyes of Jesus.  A.W. Tozer puts it this way:

Has it ever occurred to you that one hundred pianos all tuned to the same [tuning] fork are automatically tuned to each other? They are of one accord by being tuned, not to each other, but to another standard to which each one must individually bow. So one hundred worshippers met together, each one looking away to Christ, are in heart nearer to each other than they could possibly be were they to become "unity" conscious and turn their eyes away from God to strive for closer fellowship.”

~ A. W. Tozer, The Pursuit of God (1948), p. 97

And if they’ve taken their eyes off Jesus, I don’t believe they aren’t part of the group Jesus is praying for here. He is not praying for Catholics, Orthodox, or Protestants.  He is not praying for Baptists, Methodists, Lutherans, Episcopalians, Presbyterians, Pentecostals, Non-Denominationalists, or any of the other hundreds of denominations out there.  

He is praying for those who believe in and follow Jesus.  They may have come to that belief through a denomination, but their denomination doesn’t define them.  They don’t say, “I’m a Baptist”, “I’m a Catholic”, “I’m a Lutheran,” etc.  They say, “I love Jesus!” 

In my experience if you take a bunch of Jesus lovers from all the different denominations and gather them together what you get isn’t discordant arguments about doctrine and dogma, what you get is unified worship of the only One worthy of worship, God Almighty! I’ve seen it many, many times. 

Yes, Jesus’ prayers for unity were answered, but those prayers only apply to those who have believed on Jesus and not an organization of men.  You won’t see a Baptist in heaven, and you won’t see a Catholic in heaven, nor a Presbyterian, nor a Methodist, nor an Orthodox believer. 

There is only one way to the Father and His name is Jesus. And the only people you will see in heaven are those who chose to follow Him, and they will be unified in their worship of God in the next age just as they were in this one.

Next in the series: Protection

Why Doesn't God Speak to Us More?

A couple of weeks ago, I posted a survey titled: If You Could Experience God . . . The question was “If you could experience God physically one way, which would you rather do”, and the following options were given:

Feel God

See God

Hear God

Taste God

Smell God

The results of the survey were

9%    Feel God

18%  See God

73%  Hear God

It’s encouraging to see so many wanting to hear God’s voice over any other physical encounter with God, but why aren’t more hearing the voice of God.  I think it has to do with our prayer lives.

Most Christians have a very shallow personal prayer life.  We pray in church, and we pray over our meals, and sometimes when struggles come up in life or if we really, really want something, we pray for help.  Our corporate prayer life is even more dismal, in that we might have a Sunday school prayer and a prayer during service, but there’s not much beyond that.  And the average duration for any of these prayers?  Less than 5 minutes.  According to a recent Gallup poll, the average Christian in America spends one hour a week praying.  One hour a week for the Almighty God, that’s all we can spare.

Let’s compare that to some of the other world religions:

Muslims are required to pray five times a day facing Mecca, each of these prayers are 10 – 15 minutes in duration.  So that’s about an hour a day. 

Hindus pray and meditate at least three times a day, usually lasting several minutes, hours, or days.

Buddhists meditate for hours, days, and sometimes months at a time. 

It doesn’t really matter which direction you turn all the other religions spend more time in devotion to their deities then average Christians do.  Why?

Exodus 20:18-19 has the answer.  God has just called all the Israelites to meet Him on the mountain.  He’s delivered the ten commandments audibly with a visual display of His glory, and it says, “All the people perceived the thunder and the lightning flashes and the sound of the trumpet and the mountain smoking; and when the people saw it, they trembled and stood at a distance. Then they said to Moses, "Speak to us yourself and we will listen; but let not God speak to us, or we will die."  God is offering to be their God and offering a relationship with them unlike any other in history since the fall, where He will talk to them audibly, and they reject it out of fear.

Just like the Israelite’s on the mountain, God has offered us a personal relationship with Himself unlike anything offered before.  To have Him dwell within us and redeem us, yet we don’t pray as often as these other religions. Why?

It’s because we have a living God who will answer us.  It’s easy to pray or meditate all day when nothing is going to answer.  But we know He’s going to answer, and we’re afraid of hearing His voice.  We’re afraid of feeling His presence.  We know that when He comes near, He’ll point out all those things that we do wrong, and He’ll require change.  We know that He’s going to turn our comfortable little worlds upside down, so we stay silent.  We approach quickly and nimbly with trite empty prayers and run away before He can reply, and we say, “Pastor, you talk to God and tell us what He says.”  

Texas Governor Calls Nation to Prayer and Fasting

Rick Perry the current and longest-serving governor of Texas issued a call for repentance in prayer and fasting for our nation.  He says, “Some problems are beyond our power to solve, and according to the Book of Joel, Chapter 2, this historic hour demands a historic response. Therefore, on August 6, thousands will gather to pray for a historic breakthrough for our country and a renewed sense of moral purpose.” (The Response: A Call to Prayer for a Nation in Crisis)

Obviously Gov. Perry’s call for prayer was not met with much agreement from the rest of the country.  The Secular Coalition for America issued a statement urging the other leaders of the nation to reject and condemn Perry’s invitation as an “explicitly Christian platform for theocratic grandstanding that does nothing to offer substantive solutions to our country’s problems. By its own description, this event privileges Christianity over other religions and beliefs.”

The prayer summit is co-hosted by the American Family Association, which was labeled a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center on their 18 Anti-Gay Groups and Their Propaganda list because of its stance against gay marriage.  Of course all of the groups listed are Christian, even though several other groups are against the idea including The Islamic Society of America, but that’s a topic for a different post.

The reaction of these groups to Perry’s call really just cements why such a call is needed.  As a nation we have turned from God.  We have rejected Jesus Christ.  So, today as we celebrate the foundation of our nation, may we do it in a spirit of repentance and prayer.  God save America!

P.S. It’s things like this that make me love living in Texas.

Gov. Perry's Invitation to The Response from The Response USA on Vimeo.