Volume 11 Issue 9 - September 1996 SOLEMN
ASSEMBLY, "And rend your heart, and not your garments, and turn unto the Lord your God: for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repenteth him of the evil. Blow the trumpet in Zion sanctify a fast, call a solemn assembly." (Joel 2: 13, 15) AN
URGENT PROCLAMATION Whereas: Our Sovereign God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ has commanded all people everywhere to repent of sin. He requires all men and nations to believe the Gospel, worship Him and obey His eternal Law. He has promised to bless those nations which obey him but to curse those which do not. (Gen. 1: 1; Lev. 26; Dt. 28; Ps. 9:17; Is.45:5-7; 24:12; Acts 17:30-31). Our Forefathers shed their blood to leave us a heritage of faith, religious freedom, political liberty and material blessing (Lk. 12:48). God Himself has blessed our nation with every possible benefit. (Dt. 28:1-13; Josh 24:13; Ps 33:12) Our Generation has been entrusted to steward this heritage and pass it on, unsquandered, to our children. (Dt. 4:31; Neh. 4: 14; Pr. 13:22; Lam. 1: 16; Mall 4:6; 2Cor. 12:14). As God's people, the Church, we are called to be a peculiar people who love God with all our hearts, live distinctively holy lives, train families in Godliness, witness to our neighbors and disciple our countrymen in the ways of God. We "are the salt of the earth and the light of the world: (Dt. 6: 5-9; Mt. 5: 13-16). As a Prophetic People we are called to care for the spiritual condition of our country, to pray for all, to protect the weak, to seek justice for the innocent, to defend the poor; but equally to resist the oppressor, rebuke the disobedient and urgently warn the spiritually negligent (be they kings, priests or common men) of the dangers and judgments awaiting those who refuse to repent and to turn to the living God (Ps. 94:16; Is. 56:10-11; Ezek. 3:17-19; Dan. 11:32, Amos 3:7-8; 5:24). As a People of the Word we are called to build our nation and it's God-given institutions upon the righteous foundations of His eternal law lest we be overtaken by wicked ideologies and fall prey to the control of profane and depraved men (Ps 11:3; 33: 12, 127: 1; Pr. 14:34; Lk. 6:4749; 1 Cor. 3:11-13). As Free Christian Citizens we are called to establish righteous civil government: to pray, vote, boldly proclaim God's Word in the public square and openly support and elect Godly officials. We are charged to publicly denounce, withstand and defeat officials who despoil our Godly heritage or defy God's eternal law by their public actions or private behavior. (Ex 18:21 Dt 18: 15, 18-20; Pr. 28:4; 29:2; Is. 33:22; 59:14; Ezek. 33:1-11). However, we have forsaken our First Love. We, our families, our churches and our spiritual and political leaders have turned our backs on Him. We have grown lukewarm and indifferent to sin. We have tolerated and even participated in the dominant evils of our sin-filled age. We have disdained our Godly Forefathers by forfeiting their costly legacy and defrauded our children by wasting their inheritance. We have despised our Nation's Founders by passively permitting the true record of their faith, vision and sacrifice (History) to be maliciously rewritten and eradicated from the collective memory of our people. We have committed treason against God and our countrymen by apathetically permitting God's enemies systematically to remove His Law and Word from public life, thereby destroying the foundations of our society. We have betrayed ours and future generations by failing to be the "salt and light" God made us to be. We have not prayed, cared, protected, defended, nor sought justice for the needy as we ought. Neither have we resisted oppressors or warned the negligent and disobedient. We are guilty before God and man. (Judy. 2: 10, Ps. 11: 3; Prov. 29: 13, Jer. 2:19-32; Dan 9:3-l9; Rom. 1:28-32). Thus, Confusion has overtaken us, our families are broken and our communities are torn. Our civil servants and magistrates, ordained to protect the innocent and punish evildoers, have become corrupt lords and tyrants who shamelessly lie. crush us with confiscatory taxes suffocate us with oppressive regulation bankrupt our nation with profligate spending and control our thoughts with anti-Christ intimidation. Yet we affirm and reaffirm them. Our churches are impotent and our pastors are mute. Godlessness, pride, dishonesty, injustice, fornication, abortion, homosexuality, pornography, divorce, child abuse, parental neglect, violence, murder, suicide, drug abuse, greedy materialism, and covenant-breaking define our national character. God's curses for disobedience have progressively come upon us, yet we stubbornly refuse to repent (Ex 5:6-14; Dt. 28:14-68; Pr. 6:17; Rom. 13:3-4; Rev. 2:5, 16;3:3, 19). If We continue in this Path we will be utterly destroyed. No man can save us. But if we will meet God's conditions, there is still hope (Dt. 8:1920; Josh. 24:20; Ezra 10:1-3; Ps. 9:17; Is. 5:5-6; Jonah 3:8-10). Therefore: Considering the urgency of the hour, as believers in our Lord Jesus Christ, clearly instructed by God's word, we hereby Summon the Elders and All Who Live in the Land who are moved by God's Word and Spirit to come to our Nation's Capital to pray throughout the month of October of 1996, and to meet in Solemn Assembly before our God October 24-26, to Repent and Cry Out to Him on behalf of our Church and Nation that His forgiveness, favor and renewed blessing might be granted to America (I Kg 8:22-53, 2 Chr. 7:14; Neh. 4:14; Joel 1:14; 2:12-18). Brothers and sisters, I read this and God rent my heart. As a result, Flip and I plan on attending this historic Solemn Assembly in Washington DC. Daily services will be conducted at the White House, the Supreme Court, and the Capitol Building during this time of corporate fasting, repentance, and prayer for America. The "Proclamation," and event is sponsored by: The Capitol Hill Prayer Alert and the Christian Defense Coalition. For more information call (202) 547-1735. The vision is to pray for Revival in the Church, National Repentance and Awakening, the Election of Godly leaders in November, and a swift decisive end to Abortion in America. I hope to see you there! A Call to National Repentance Our September Newsletter seems to be inundated with Proclamations. Behold, two more are being sent to the President, Vice President, every Congressman, every Senator, and every Supreme Court Justice. The "Proclamation to America" along with Abraham Lincoln's "Proclamation Appointing A National Fast Day" are being sent requesting our Federal Government to humble itself under the mighty Hand of God and to officially request that they call our nation to a day of National Repentance. Please pray that God will use this to pierce and penetrate the hearts of our elected leaders. Pray that a courageous official will heed the call and will seek to implement this request. The following is the cover letter announcing the "Proclamations" to our civil leaders.
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 humiliations: 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, inasmuch as we know that, by His divine law, nations like individuals are subjected to punishments and chastisement 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 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 view of the Senate, I do, by this my 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 blessing 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. By the President: Abraham Lincoln. "COME ALIVE" "Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord." (Romans 6:11) Christ in Action, our local ministry of outreach, in conjunction with local churches, will present an anointed Christmas production as a gift to our city, Waco, Tx. We are calling all interested Christian artists in Waco to audition, Friday, September 27th, from 7-9pm and Saturday, September 28th, from 1-3pm at Church on the Rock located at 4720 N. 1 9th St. For more information on what you can do to be involved, please feel free to contact me at (817) 753-3017. "Come Alive" chronicles the desperate plight of one family's struggle against alcohol and abuse. It is a touching story that we pray will move audiences from laughter to tears as they witness the reconciliation of a divided home. The plot is filled with an unusual odyssey that reaches back into time to deliver the answer of the ages to address and heal our modern day dilemmas. The following is the vision I sent to the local churches to promote the event. Please pray over the four-fold goal that the Lord would do a marvelous work through the "Come Alive" production as we seek to unite God's people to advance the Kingdom of God. THE "COME ALIVE" VISION 1) To encourage and nurture the unity among the local churches in Waco as we work together as cast and crew to impact our city with the Gospel of the Kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ. 2) To reach the lost with the true meaning of Christmas by presenting the greatest gift of all, the Lord Jesus Christ, Himself. 3) To minister to devastated families trusting God to bring His healing touch of restoration and reconciliation to hurting homes. 4) To produce quality arts that combine skill and the anointing that will glorify the Lord and proclaim the truth that will set men free. IN KING JESUS’ SERVICE, Rusty Lee Thomas |