9 After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.
10 Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.
11 Give us this day our daily bread.
12 And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.
13 And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen. Matthew 6:9-13
Yesterday, October 2, 2017, was perhaps the hardest day to wake up with the news coming out of Las Vegas that a shooter holed up on the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay hotel and resort firing machine guns at an outdoor country western concert until encroaching law enforcement either killed him, or he took his own life, but not until he killed over 58 concertgoers and injured over 400.
As word drifted out we learned of the identity of the shooter- a 64-year-old retired ex-accountant with a sketchy work history who made the vast majority of his money in real estate A little while longer we learned that he had a personality that you either loved or hated. We also learned that he considered himself a frequent gambler in Vegas and in the words of one reporter, a 'professional' gambler. A little while longer we learned that his own father had a notorious past of being on the FBI most wanted list.
Sigh.
I began to speculate the misery this dad left on his own family with his 'colorful past. Then I began speculating the misery that is wrecked on all other families when fathers no longer play a part in the upbringing of their children.Many of these children grow up lost and bewildered- the boys grow up wondering how to be a man and the girls grow up how to be treated by a man.
The lack of decent fathering has sent adrift girls and boys as though they were on a life raft heading into a dangerous storm without a clue of how to survive it. My eyes glanced at some disheartening statistics about the low percentage of people who actually go to church on a weekly basis, and I could not help wondering if there is a connection between the lack of quality fathering and that statistic.
Every time one of these tragedies occur in our society, people are quick to point fingers at God.
Instead of looking at the breakdown of the American family, they choose to turn from God by hiding behind every humanistic study that attempts to prove that God is a made up 'fairy tale' and the word of God from Genesis to Revelation was nothing more than a set of mumble-jumble words.
Their lack of faith in God causes anger to slowly seep into their bodies until cancer cells begin growing at a rampant pace. The brokenness in our culture is a reflection of the breakdown of the American family.
What I see in God's scriptures is not a bunch of fairy tales, but a chronological record of God's people surviving some difficult times by leaning on their faith in God.
I began wondering, 'what if the people in America decided to stop listening to humanism and turn to God by reading His scriptures over and over again until they became so ingrained they could recite the word and passage from memory? What if they began praying to Him for guidance with everyday situations?
What if we in America decided to declare the words from Joshua 24:15 as our personal and family mantra, " But as for me and my family, we will serve the LORD."? What if we declared it everytime we hear about another national tragedy?
Our children need moms and dads willing to stand up and declare God as central to their existence. They need to see us modeling God's love and simply how to do life in a tumultuous world.
For anyone who never had a positive experience with their own father, there is hope. Over 2000 years ago, God sent his son Jesus Christ to live among us, to show us the way and tell us about God's love for humankind, until Jesus took the blows on the cross ( which were meant for us) that took his earthly existence until 3 days later he rose from that grave with the marks of the painful death on his hands and feet and reminded us just before his ascension to heaven that He will give us the gift of the holy spirit to speak wisdom and truth into us and when we take our final breath we too will come into God's presence because of His promises.
While you may not have had the ideal earthly father, you do have a Father in heaven that very much loves and cares for you. What if every man woman and child took an oath and came back to God and attended a Church and made it their mission to grow in Christ like a mighty Oak tree with deeply embedded roots?
Just maybe revival would be possible in our land.
Our children need moms and dads willing to stand up and declare God as central to their existence. They need to see us modeling God's love and simply how to do life in a tumultuous world.
For anyone who never had a positive experience with their own father, there is hope. Over 2000 years ago, God sent his son Jesus Christ to live among us, to show us the way and tell us about God's love for humankind, until Jesus took the blows on the cross ( which were meant for us) that took his earthly existence until 3 days later he rose from that grave with the marks of the painful death on his hands and feet and reminded us just before his ascension to heaven that He will give us the gift of the holy spirit to speak wisdom and truth into us and when we take our final breath we too will come into God's presence because of His promises.
While you may not have had the ideal earthly father, you do have a Father in heaven that very much loves and cares for you. What if every man woman and child took an oath and came back to God and attended a Church and made it their mission to grow in Christ like a mighty Oak tree with deeply embedded roots?
Just maybe revival would be possible in our land.
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