As I write today I am listening to the singing of hymns of praise to Jesus Christ and God the Father taking place in the Reliant Stadium in Houston Texas at the Response prayer and fasting assembly organized by Texas Governor, Rick Perry, and many other concerned governmental and religious leaders. This event is one of the most inspiring Christian gatherings I have ever witnessed.
Quite different than the church I grew up in. My former church was an inwardly focused cult. The Worldwide Church of God (WCG) where most of the prayers were for the church members and "the work of the church" which was the preaching of the gospel. What was woefully lacking was outward prayer for the sins and transgressions of the nation. The concentration was on a warning to the nations, mostly Brittan and America, for their sins and the impending punishment that God was going to send upon them. We warned and preached of wars, pestilence, famine, droughts, captivity by foreign nations. We were not encouraged to pray for forgiveness of the nation just waiting for God to smite those evil "pagans." How wrong that was, what sick thinking. I no longer embrace that way of thinking about others. Grace has been extended to me in turn I extend the same toward others.
The Worldwide Church of God was not that at all, not the church of God. Jesus Christ was essentially left out and the New Covenant blasphemed. The teaching of the founder, Herbert W. Armstrong (HWA), was the WCG was the only true Church of God on earth and was directly descendant from the original church of Jerusalem founded on Pentecost 31 A.D. Which was patently false on so many levels.
An assembly like the Response would have been disparaged by HWA as "pagan" or "unconverted" people gathering deceived by Satan, the god of this world that has blinded all men except those in the WCG.
The only time I can ever remember a prayer meeting during my 45 years in the WCG was when the founder and pastor general Armstrong's wife Loma Armstrong was seriously ill. One Sabbath, during services, all of the congregations around the world got on their knees in front of their chairs while the local Pastor led the congregation in prayer for Loma's healing by HWA's directive. She died a couple days later. No other prayer meetings have ever been called since then that I am aware of. There have been days for personal fasting and prayer called but not as an assembly of church members where all participated in public prayers.
Is there any precedent in the Bible for such an occasion for the Response where all of Judeo-Christian belief came together in prayer? Absolutely! The Prayer of Jesus Christ, an intercessory prayer for those who would believe in Him in coming generations found in John 17. Christ prayed for those who God had given Him and He had sent into the world as God had sent Him. Christ prayed thus, "..I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word." That includes Christians everywhere today.
In the Old Testament book of Joel, one of the minor prophets, in chapter two God gives us the solution to all of our problems. One of the themes of the Response is fasting. Joel two verse twelve has been referenced by several speakers today. 12 "Now therefore," says the Lord, Turn to Me with all your heart, With fasting, with weeping, and with mourning." 13 So rend your heart, and not your garments; Return to the Lord your God, For He is gracious and merciful, Slow to anger and of great kindness; And He relents from doing harm. 14 Who knows if He will turn and relent, And leave a blessing behind Him - A grain offering For the Lord your God. 15 Blow the trumpet in Zion, Consecrate a fast..."
How much more effective could the WCG or splinter groups have been if we followed the example of Rick Perry, and Dr. James and Shirley Dobson, and the many other organizers and endorsers of this even. Instead the WCG spend multiple millions of dollars observing obsolete Old Testament Feasts doing nothing spiritually for the church, the community or the nation as a whole.
As I looked through the list of Honorary Co-Chairs and Endorsers of the Response I found no participants from the Worldwide Church of God, the United Church of God, the Living Church of God, the Church of God, AWA the Reformed Church of God, or any of the hundreds of WCG splinters who claim they are the "true church of God." I guess it is the Sabbath for most of them and they were busy, too busy to join in and pray an intercessory or two for their fellow citizens. I may be proven wrong later if there were some Church of God groups I listed actually linked to the streaming video and participating in that way...but for some reason, I doubt it, and I hope I am wrong!
Good job Governor Perry! I admire your standing up in spite of your detractors and persecutors and recognizing the need for a return to Christ as our savior. A special time of prayer and fasting for the nations sins and transgressions and for God's mercy is long overdue.
It is just too bad that the President of the United States or the Congress of the United States that opens their sessions each day with a prayer to God could not have seen this was the only answer in light of so many unsolvable problems our nation is facing. With all of the greed, confusion, ineptitude, and corruption in Washington, only God can change men's hearts. To hear Him and to reinstate the Ten Commandments as the foundation of American society is the only solution...
...to love your neighbor as yourself.
