A Hard Hitting World Prayer Expose'

As we go deeper into 2016 (now half way through 2017) we are seeing more and more problems emerging from every country in this beautiful world of ours with spreading discontent, violence, disruption, corruption, hate, racism, war, factionalism, tribalism, nationalism to separatism and general non agreement on anything. We are seeing more aggressive responses to refugees, to Governments, to anything that could possibly change our lifestyle and the way we live.

We see the Syrian conflict with all its add on problems throughout Europe – We see Britain voting itself out of the European Union (voted and on the books) – We see the mudslinging in the US build up to the elections (done and dusted) – We see the State corruption in South Africa to the impending genocide possibilities in a few African and Eastern countries. – We see the people in just about every country rebelling against their own Governments. Last but not least, we see the rise of extremist and radical groups perpetrating acts of terror, violence and mindless killings in the name of religion, yes a specific religion but non-the-less by a religion. When this affects us personally to any degree we then begin to ask why, ‘Why is this happening to me/us?’ - ‘Why is this happening now?’ – ‘This should not be happening but it is, why?’ to a host of other questions that really need answering but unfortunately will never truly be answered.

Good questions and an easily seen answer, although for non-religious people, not what they want to hear or are interested in hearing. My wife got a Whatsapp from a friend of a prayer that was said by one Pastor Joe Wright at the opening of the Kansas Senate and although he is not from my religion, must be given the kudos for hitting the nail on the head and calling a spade………. a spade.

For anyone professing to acknowledge the bible as the truth of God’s word, then this prayer ‘should’ be a wake up call for you, me and everyone worldwide ………..and more than likely be the answer for all the above problems. Even for those who do not acknowledge the bible, the basic principles of what he says in this prayer needs to be seen in the context of what is happening all over the world and take heed. Here is that prayer.

* Heavenly Father, we come before you today to ask forgiveness and to seek your direction and guidance. We know your word says ‘Woe to those who call evil good’ but that is exactly what we have done.

We have lost our spiritual equilibrium and reversed our values, we have ridiculed the absolute truth of your word and called it pluralism, we have worshiped other god’s and called it multi-culturalism, we have endorsed perversion and called it alternative lifestyle, we have exploited the poor and called it the lottery, we have rewarded laziness and called it welfare, we have killed our unborn and called it choice, we have shot abortionists and called it justification, we have neglected to discipline our children and called it building self-esteem, we have abused power and called it politics, we have embezzled public funds and called it essential expenses, we have institutionalized bribery and called it sweets of office, we have coveted our neighbors possessions and called it ambition, we have polluted the air with profanity and pornography and called it freedom of expression, we have ridiculed the time honored values of our forefathers and called it enlightenment. Search us oh God and know us today, cleanse us from every sin and set us free. Amen.

I am sure that this prayer will upset and anger many who fall into any of the categories above but even if you do, stop and really think for one moment. How many of the ‘things’ mentioned above make sense to you, clarify certain happenings in the world and show how different people are from one another and how those differences are causing things to happen throughout the world that maybe should not be happening. How many people are affected and marginalized by any of the above. As said, even if one or two of the above reflects who you are, what about the other twelve???

Here are a few things that have happened that show us this degradation of these laws and that there will always be two sides to every story. As the writer I obviously have my own ideas on the following but do not side with any one faction as all I am doing is pointing out the facts and leaving you, the reader to figure out the implication and the truths, as to how they could or do affect you.

Take for instance the LGBT shooting in Florida…….. the LGBT side will say that they have the ‘right’ to do as they please and on the other side, those that will say ‘you sow what you reap’ and possibly some more aggressive types would say ‘got what you deserved’. From any angle what happened cannot be condoned because ‘thou shalt not kill’ comes into play regardless of how you feel about the situation and if you are religious, know that God has said he will sort out those that do bad and do it in his own time. The problem here is that most people do not follow any of the above bible ‘rules’ or follow just those that suit or that work for them.

We go to the USA where we have two sides of the coming election (now done and dusted). One side we have Donald Trump who advocates throwing all unregistered ethnic and a particular religious group out of the country and imposing a ban on Muslims entering the US and he has his followers who agree with him wholeheartedly (and still trying to do it) – the question asked by the Hillary side is ‘Why?’

The simple answer to this is that people are scared of what could happen to their way of life and be affected by ‘these so called multi-cultural radical people’, so the Hilary side would say Trump’s marginalizing of certain people is now justified as long as it does not hurt us? Again both sides would argue their set of values, which if one really looked and scrutinized the constitution properly (which the courts have now done), there is a possibility that both sides would be deviating from those and moving away from what the forefathers laid out, and all in the name of justification and biased politics.

In South Africa we have the abuse of power taken to the next level. Here we have an elected head of State that is facing 786 odd charges of corruption, fraud and money laundering to among others and the country cannot get him into court to face those charges because his own party is blocking all attempts to do so and putting 'elected' or more correctly 'selected' people into office to do that blocking for him. We had a regime in this country until 1994 that allowed for a racial bias called apartheid which was defeated when Mandela came out of prison and took this country into democracy. Since then we have gone back to apartheid but this time with the black Government enforcing it, and specifically through a system called BBEEE again showing the total abuse of power but with the supposed 'justification' of bringing things back into alignment and solving the problems of old. They have stripped the economy of funds, they have caused the countries economy to be lowered to junk status, they have put the 'buddy buddy' system into place and also allowed people who are not even South Africans to dictate certain Government moves bring in what most know as 'State capture'. From where most stand this is purely revenge for their past humiliation of their economic hardships.......... but 22 years into so called democracy........ hard to fathom???

We have (at last count) over 6,000 so called ‘Christian’ religions whose teachings are so far removed from the bibles teachings, that the scriptures as seen by them are basically not valid anymore and as some would say are outdated, old fashioned and not ‘with the new norms of society’. The fact that the scriptures are supposed to show God’s ways and not man’s ‘new’ ways, has now been made irrelevant and not the final say on things. Religion is now BIG business with millions being scooped in by unscrupulous Pastors, Ministers and the new wave religions……. The fact that the bible says ‘You receive freely, give freely’ does not mean anything to these new so called Christian ‘denominations and sects’ thereby nullifying the word of God. Another scripture says ‘It is by your traditions you make the word of God invalid’............... spot on!!!

Last but certainly not least, is the disintegration of parental control and the neglect of disciplining our children to their detriment and the detriment of society in general. We can all see the results of this by the way kids talk to and behave towards their elders, teachers, others and the profanity and aggression used in doing so……… the total disintegration of morals and social norms that should be keeping our kids safe and yet today does not (school shootings, drug use, violence and bullying). The question why, can now be summed up by the new set of laws and norms that deviate from those found in the bible and allowing kids to basically do anything they want without the supervision of their parents who now may not (under threat of law) discipline their children. Again we deviate from the bibles law of ‘do not be withholding the rod’ (but disciplining in love) which will lead to ungovernable adults who think they have the right to do as they please and that the laws of their country do not have to be followed. This is the start of a dangerous situation that will only escalate as everything is taken to the extremes with no one giving a damn. Unfortunately when people do take things to these extremes, you will always get a response to it............. Good or bad but here I can guarantee you, that it is going to be to someone’s detriment and heartache.

Do you think this prayer should be heard worldwide or at least the principles governing it? Do you think we as citizens of this world, as parents, as neighbors should put a bit more thought to possibly adhering to the bibles laws or not? How far does the world have to go into total collapse to convince you we are headed down a very slippery, dangerous and unpredictable road? Only one person can answer this for you and your family - YOU!!!! Choose wisely...........

Graham Riley

@TSETGOLFING 

[email protected]