The Gospel Coalition....thegospelcoalition.org....is gathering together in ministry of evangelicals in the Reformed tradition. They have announced this Saturday....the 4th of April....as a day to fast and pray. I read through their literature on the day. All of it is wonderful.....but what is not wonderful is what is missing. The day is divided into morning....midday....and evening prayer. There is not....that I saw....unless one reads around the scripture verses or goes further than the topics for prayer....even a hint of repentance for what America has become. It is nothing like what the Senate put together in 1863. Without any serious introspection....what a prayer day like this in essence might insinuate is...."O God.....heal us....so that we could go back to the very same as we were! For Thy Glory."
NATIONAL DAY OF PRAYER....AND HUMILIATION
"From the days of your fathers you have turned aside from my statutes and have not kept them. Return to me, and I will return to you, says the LORD of Hosts." Malachi 3:7 ESV
The following proclamation, taken from abrahamlincolnonline.org, was written by our Senate in 1863, and placed on the desk of President Lincoln to sign. I first posted it in July of 2014.
Proclamation Appointing a National Fast Day
Washington, D.C.
By the President of the United States of America. A Proclamation. Whereas, the Senate of the United States, devoutly recognizing the Supreme Authority and just Government of Almighty God, in all the affairs of men and of nations, has, by a resolution, requested the President to designate and set apart a day for National prayer and humiliation. And whereas it is the duty of nations as well as of men, to own their dependence upon the overruling power of God, to confess their sins and transgressions, in humble sorrow, yet with assured hope that genuine repentance will lead to mercy and pardon; and to recognize the sublime truth, announced in the Holy Scriptures and proven by all history, that those nations only are blessed whose God is the Lord. And, insomuch as we know that, by His divine law, nations like individuals are subjected to punishments and chastisements in this world, may we not justly fear that the awful calamity of civil war, which now desolates the land, may be but a punishment, inflicted upon us, for our presumptuous sins, to the needful end of our national reformation as a whole People? We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of Heaven. We have been preserved, these many years, in peace and prosperity. We have grown in numbers, wealth and power, as no other nation has ever grown. But we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace, and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us; and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us! It behooves us then, to humble ourselves before the offended Power, to confess our national sins, and to pray for clemency and forgiveness. Now, therefore, in compliance with the request, and fully concurring in the views of the Senate, I do, by this my proclamation, designate and set apart Thursday, the 30th. day of April, 1863, as a day of national humiliation, fasting and prayer. And I do hereby request all the People to abstain, on that day, from their ordinary secular pursuits, and to unite, at their several places of public worship and their respective homes, in keeping the day holy to the Lord, and devoted to the humble discharge of the religious duties proper to that solemn occasion. All this being done, in sincerity and truth, let us then rest humbly in the hope authorized by the Divine teachings, that the united cry of the Nation will be heard on high, and answered with blessings, no less than the pardon of our national sins, and the restoration of our now divided and suffering Country, to its former happy condition of unity and peace. In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed. Done at the City of Washington, this thirtieth day of March, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and of the Independence of the United States the eighty seventh. By the President: Abraham Lincoln
Note: Would this not be the perfect opportunity....having the time on our hands as we do....to Google YouTube sermons by Charles Spurgeon or Martyn Lloyd-Jones....or J. C. Ryle or George Whitefield?
Additional note: As our son passed this on to me....I'll pass it on to you....this from R. C. Sproul's ligonier.org...."As a result of the global health crisis, churches are cancelling Bible studies, small groups, and Sunday school classes......for the first time ever, we have made our entire library of hundreds of teaching series free to stream." You can take advantage of this by going to ligonier.org....and scrolling down to....All Teaching Series Now Free To Stream!
NATIONAL DAY OF PRAYER....AND HUMILIATION
"From the days of your fathers you have turned aside from my statutes and have not kept them. Return to me, and I will return to you, says the LORD of Hosts." Malachi 3:7 ESV
The following proclamation, taken from abrahamlincolnonline.org, was written by our Senate in 1863, and placed on the desk of President Lincoln to sign. I first posted it in July of 2014.
Proclamation Appointing a National Fast Day
Washington, D.C.
March 30, 1863 Senator James Harlan of Iowa, whose daughter later married President Lincoln's son Robert, introduced this Resolution in the Senate on March 2, 1863. The Resolution asked President Lincoln to proclaim a national day of prayer and fasting. The Resolution was adopted on March 3, and signed by Lincoln on March 30, one month before the fast day was observed.
By the President of the United States of America. A Proclamation. Whereas, the Senate of the United States, devoutly recognizing the Supreme Authority and just Government of Almighty God, in all the affairs of men and of nations, has, by a resolution, requested the President to designate and set apart a day for National prayer and humiliation. And whereas it is the duty of nations as well as of men, to own their dependence upon the overruling power of God, to confess their sins and transgressions, in humble sorrow, yet with assured hope that genuine repentance will lead to mercy and pardon; and to recognize the sublime truth, announced in the Holy Scriptures and proven by all history, that those nations only are blessed whose God is the Lord. And, insomuch as we know that, by His divine law, nations like individuals are subjected to punishments and chastisements in this world, may we not justly fear that the awful calamity of civil war, which now desolates the land, may be but a punishment, inflicted upon us, for our presumptuous sins, to the needful end of our national reformation as a whole People? We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of Heaven. We have been preserved, these many years, in peace and prosperity. We have grown in numbers, wealth and power, as no other nation has ever grown. But we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace, and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us; and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us! It behooves us then, to humble ourselves before the offended Power, to confess our national sins, and to pray for clemency and forgiveness. Now, therefore, in compliance with the request, and fully concurring in the views of the Senate, I do, by this my proclamation, designate and set apart Thursday, the 30th. day of April, 1863, as a day of national humiliation, fasting and prayer. And I do hereby request all the People to abstain, on that day, from their ordinary secular pursuits, and to unite, at their several places of public worship and their respective homes, in keeping the day holy to the Lord, and devoted to the humble discharge of the religious duties proper to that solemn occasion. All this being done, in sincerity and truth, let us then rest humbly in the hope authorized by the Divine teachings, that the united cry of the Nation will be heard on high, and answered with blessings, no less than the pardon of our national sins, and the restoration of our now divided and suffering Country, to its former happy condition of unity and peace. In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed. Done at the City of Washington, this thirtieth day of March, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and of the Independence of the United States the eighty seventh. By the President: Abraham Lincoln
William H. Seward, Secretary of State.
Note: Would this not be the perfect opportunity....having the time on our hands as we do....to Google YouTube sermons by Charles Spurgeon or Martyn Lloyd-Jones....or J. C. Ryle or George Whitefield?Additional note: As our son passed this on to me....I'll pass it on to you....this from R. C. Sproul's ligonier.org...."As a result of the global health crisis, churches are cancelling Bible studies, small groups, and Sunday school classes......for the first time ever, we have made our entire library of hundreds of teaching series free to stream." You can take advantage of this by going to ligonier.org....and scrolling down to....All Teaching Series Now Free To Stream!
