Fast and Pray

Our church will be fasting and praying tomorrow. I'd like to invite all of you to take part, no

matter where you are in the world.

This is an email from an elder at our church that may encourage you:

Dear Families of Christ Church, As we prepare for the Day of Fasting and Prayer (Wednesday, Oct 22),

below are a few thoughts on the purpose of this spiritual discipline and the means of accomplishing it.

The purpose of this fasting and prayer is to humble ourselves before God and express our dependency

on Him, imploring His mercy on our nation, and to bring us to repentance and reformation as a people.

This is a voluntary fast for those who are able and old enough to take part. Some may not be able

to participate due to pregnancy, nursing, a medical condition, or even events of the day. During the

fast, drink plenty of water and try to spend time in prayer that you would normally spend eating.

Also, let hunger be a reminder to pray without ceasing. Some helpful Scripture passages to read and

pray through are:

Psalm 33, 51, 67

Deuteronomy 8:6-20

Daniel 9:3-19

Ezra 9:5-15

Isaiah 58

The Prayer Service will begin at 6:30 p.m. at the church.

Please bring some hors devours for refreshments to break the fast after the service.

For example: fruit, yogurt, crackers, etc. May His face shine upon you all.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Also, here is a prayer of repentace from Lincoln:

National Day of Prayer Proclamation

PROCLAMATION APPOINTING A NATIONAL FAST DAY

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 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.

Abraham Lincoln

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Kathy

writer, video producer, wife and mother at Teaching Good Things

Titus 2:3 says that we are to be "...teachers of good things...". We believe that part of these good things are practical skills that we all need in every day life to care for our family and neighbors. One of our primary responsibilities as parents is equip our children with the skills and tools to one day be productive, well rounded adults. Children need to be exposed to many different areas of work. Not only should they know how to work, but they should want to work. May the favor of the Lord our God rest upon us; establish the work of our hands for us- yes, establish the work of our hands. Psalm 90:17