National Day of Prayer

Today, Thursday, May 5, 2011, is the National Day of Prayer.

It is so by official proclamation of the President of the United States of America.

That is a good thing.

Every Bible reader should support the National Day of Prayer.

Prayer is a major subject in the Bible. One of the important methods of Bible study is Topical Study. There are several ways to do a topical Bible study. There are study Bibles designed to make the study of Bible topics easier. One such study Bible which I highly recommend is The Thompson Chain Reference Bible. If you don’t have this resource, I suggest that you get it.

There are several ways to “get into” the resources of the Thompson Chain Reference Bible. One way is to go to a verse that contains the subject you want to study further, and look for the topic number given in the margin of the Thompson Chain Reference Bible. You may from there move forward and backward in the Bible verse by verse by turning to the Scripture reference that was previous or is next in the “chain,” given with the topic number in the margin.

If you don’t recall a specific verse about the topic you wish to study, you may consult a Bible concordance and search for the word pertaining to the subject to find a verse. You may also consult the index to all the chain references found immediately after the last book in the Bible, the book of Revelation. The index is very thorough, and it will lead to the topic number for the subject of your interest. Turn to that number in the Text Cyclopedia which immediately follows the index. In the case of the subject Prayer, you will find 21 numbered categories for this subject, beginning with “(1) Gen. Ref.. to, 2816.” You will find Topic 2816 starts at the bottom of page 108, which has the verses presented in full text format under a helpful outline with five subtopics.

To expand your findings beyond what is given in The Thompson Chain Reference Bible for any topic or subtopic, simply consult the same Scripture passages, using Nelson’s Cross Reference Guide to the Bible for those verses.

If you are fortunate enough to own a printed copy of The New Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, you can find far more on the subject of prayer in the Bible than you will find in any other resource by consulting the Subject Index, the Topic Number Index, and the very extensive Prayer Index.

The software version of The New Treasury of Scripture Knowledge is still available, the printed book is not. Unfortunately, the software version does not contain the Topic Number Index, which index contains important entries for the subject of prayer not found elsewhere in the indexes.

I learned from an email message from Jay Sekulow today that there is an atheist group, the Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF), which objects to the National Day of Prayer. Mr. Sekulow has written about that in a post on BeliefNet which is most informative.

I find it very strange that atheists and agnostics refuse to have any discussions with me here at Real Bible Study. The invitation is still open.

Apparently, atheists and agnostics are not willing to be challenged in return by someone who has answers to their questions.

I hope they will attempt to prove me wrong about their recalcitrance. They are certainly welcome to do so here.

In the meantime, surely those of us who believe the Bible support the National Day of Prayer, the phrase “under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance, and the First Amendment to the Constitution, the whole Bill of Rights, and the Constitution as well.

It is clear to me that the Mayor of Dearborn, Michigan, by his exercise of unlawful prior restraint of the right to Freedom of Speech and the Free Exercise of Religion guaranteed by the First Amendment, is in grave and I hope what will prove to be very expensive error for him and his fine city.

The Dearborn Mayor and the Dearborn Police Department have absolutely no right and no business in restricting the rights of Christians to share their faith with others vocally or in printed form on the public streets and areas of the City of Dearborn, Michigan.

On Good Friday, Pastor Terry Jones was prevented from exercising his free speech rights by being tied up in court most of the day. During the Arab Festival the Christian missionary group, I think it is called “Acts 17” was prevented from exercising their free speech and freedom of religion rights under the First Amendment by authorities in Dearborn, Michigan.

The Mayor seems to be supporting the followers of Islam but restricting the rights of Christians. I mean no offense against Islam or their Holy Book, the Koran, but it is obvious that Islam is a false religion, because it asserts truth claims contrary to what is taught in the Bible. Since the Bible has been proven true beyond any reasonable question or doubt, that proves, by the rule in logic called “the law of non-contradiction,” that Islam must be false. Islam claims God cannot have a Son. The Bible, New Testament (John 3:16) and Old Testament (Psalms 2:12. Proverbs 30:4) clearly teaches otherwise. The New Testament claims our Lord Jesus Christ died on the Cross, and rose bodily from the dead. Followers of Islam mistakenly claim otherwise.

In this country you have a right to be wrong. Those who choose to follow Islam have the right to practice their religion here. Unfortunately, their failure to grant equal rights to freedom of religion in their countries (Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia) shows they are unwilling to practice reciprocity. This, of course, is a direct violation of Scripture.

I find it a real problem when the Mayor of Dearborn, Michigan, and those who support him, are unwilling to permit absolute freedom of practice of the Christian religion, especially the faith of Bible believing Christians, who desire to be in obedience to the commands of our Lord Jesus Christ to share the Good News of the Gospel with every creature (Matthew 28:19. Acts 1:8).

On this Day of Prayer, and every day, we need to be in earnest prayer for our civic and political leaders (1 Timothy 2:1-4). We need to pray for the conversion of all followers of Islam to the true Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ (2 Peter 3:9).

If followers of Islam happen to disagree, I firmly recommend they return to their own country of origin, and leave the rest of us here free to practice our faith without prior restraint, and without so-called “free speech zones,” like those apparently in force in Dearborn, Michigan.

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One Response to National Day of Prayer

  1. ken sagely says:

    thank you jerry for your post on the national day of prayer! it is blessing to know that jesus christ came to this earth show his love for lost sinners rom 5/8. lk 17/11-19 10 lepers came to the lord to ask for him to heal them and he healed all 10!! how many came back to thank him? 1 just one!! lk 17/17 and jeus answering,said,were there not 10 cleansed? but where are the nine? one of the characteristics of this age today is a lack of thanksgiving rom 1/21″ neither were they thankful” thanksgiving is a important part of prayer and as believers we need to heed what paul said in i thess 5/18 “in everything give thanks:for this is the will of god in christ jesus concerning you. appreciate you post brother!

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