Our nation is in a mess! I realize that is not a news flash, especially in a presidential election year. Politicians all claim they want to unite our nation while at the same time they are busy dividing it up into special interest groups. The upper class is caused to resent the poor. The poor are caused to resent the upper class. The middle class are caused to resent both the rich and the poor. It depends on where each candidate thinks most of his votes will come from and it often changes depending upon where that same candidate is speaking at the moment. The television graphic of the “red states” and the “blue states” is a great oversimplification of our divided nation, but it is the most visible picture of the situation.
The president of the Southern Baptist Convention, Ronnie Floyd, has devoted most of his two years of service to promoting the need of intensive prayer for revival in America. He has challenged all 46,000+ S.B.C. churches to “extraordinary prayer”.
The little book of James may do the best job of confronting us with this need. 2:2c-3 addresses our motives;
“You do not have, because you do not ask God. When you ask, you do not receive, because you as with wrong motives, that you mayspend it on your pleasures”.
1:5-6 addresses our faith;
“But when he asks, he must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. That man should not think he will receive anything from the Lord”.
Our Deacons have recognized the desperate condition in which we live, and how much worse those conditions may become during the lifetime of our children and grandchildren. In response to this urgency they have asked that we form a special prayer team which we are calling a Target Prayer Team. People are asked to sign-up and give us the exact time when they can best remember to pray each day. The “target” of our special prayer time is our Community and our Nation. You may sign-up at the church, or by sending an e-mail to fbcbells@bellsouth.net and giving us your Target Time. You do not have to be a member of our church to join this special prayer team!
Bro. Dennis