40 Days for Life, Fall 2017, GETTING READY!~Matthew

Wow! It is hard to believe that the fall 40 Days for Life campaign is upon us. It begins on September 27th and goes through November 5th!  For those of you who don’t know, here’s a brief summary of what this  ministry is about from their website: “40 Days for Life is a focused pro-life campaign with a vision to access God’s power through prayer, fasting, and peaceful vigil to end abortion.” To read more about the campaign in the Tri-Cities, CLICK HERE. To learn more about the international ministry of 40 Days for Life, visit the website www.40daysforlife.com.

This past Sunday afternoon, we had a rally preceding the campaign. Instead of gathering in Johnson City (as we have done in years past), we gathered across from the Bristol Regional Women’s Center, the abortion clinic we pray in front of for the ending of abortion during the campaign.

Linda, our fearless leader, had asked me to share about the subject of solemn assemblies in regard to 40 Days for Life and this fall campaign, even calling those gathered there to the solemn assembly gathering that the 40 Days for Life Rally in Bristol is. A solemn assembly is a time of serious gathering for God’s people, to humble themselves and cry out to the Lord to have mercy in the face of His judgments. A clear picture of this is in the book of Joel. In Joel, the people of God have turned from the Lord and are under His judgments. They are experiencing great economic crisis and are under the threat of an invading army. The instruction God gives His people through the prophet is to blow the trumpet, sound the alarm, gather the people, return to the Lord, rending their hearts and not their garments. It is a call to repent and seek the Lord. If they respond, then there is hope God will restore the land and protection.

We as a nation are in great crisis. Abortion alone has claimed the lives of over 60 million innocent babies. We have embraced and celebrated immorality. We have issues of hatred and racism. We have gone against God’s purposes for Israel. We have turned to greed, self-reliance, pride, compromise and covetousness. We have abandoned God for idols of pleasure, entertainment, comfort, possessions and money.

We have stepped out from under God’s protection and we have turned from God. Because of that we have faced current race riots, natural disasters of hurricanes and flooding, wildfires ravishing the west, not to mention the effects of the sins we have committed.

Many have opinions about what we should do in the face of crisis but God gives us a prescription for what we are to do first when we are in crisis: gather and turn to Him.

With this upcoming 40 Days for Life, we are gathering on the streets with this understanding. We want God’s mercy (specifically the ending of abortion) and so we will humble ourselves before the Almighty God and appeal to His mercy. We will make a conscious effort to seek His face and turn from our wicked ways. Please join with us in this prayer movement/solemn assembly. Contact us if you would like to be involved.

Psalm 86:15
But You, O Lord, are a God full of compassion, and gracious,
Longsuffering and abundant in mercy and truth.
 
Joel 1:14
Consecrate a fast,
Call a sacred assembly;
Gather the elders
And all the inhabitants of the land
Into the house of the Lord your God,
And cry out to the Lord.
 
2 Chronicles 7:13-14
When I shut up heaven and there is no rain, or command the locusts to devour the land, or send pestilence among My people, 14 if My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.
 
 

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