Tough Questions Week 11

Using the PRAY acrostic, we took time to pray about several of the topics discussed throughout this quarter

You can read more about what we discussed and learned by clicking on the link.
Here are the prayer requests that we shared 

POLITICS  (Part 1)  (Part 2)

• Praise and Thanking God
• God is sovereign over all.
• For the country we live in
• For the freedom of worship we have in the United States
• Repent
• of trusting man and politics more than God
• Indifference
• Selfishness and pride
• Identifying ourselves and others by political party rather than image bearers in need of a Savior
• Ask & Yield
• The people of our country would look to Jesus Christ as their savior
• Ongoing freedom of worship here and a growing passion for God
• For the ongoing passion for God in countries where the church faces persecution - India, Uzbekistan, China, and other places

ABORTION

• Praise and Thanking God
• Strategically placed pregnancy centers
• God is the author of life
• God is compassionate and holy
• Repentance
• Indifference - nationally and individually
• Wrongly representing Christ
• Ask & Yield
• Jesus Christ would change people's hearts
• Jesus Christ would change the laws of this land

LGBTQIA2S+

• Praise and Thanking God
• God is the creator of sex and marriage.
• Opportunities to reach people who need Jesus Christ as their Savior, including those in LGBTQIA2S+ community
• People who share the truth of the Gospel
• People who have been saved
• Repent
• Indifference 
• Compromise 
• Not loving and sharing with people who need Jesus
• Identifying people by the sexuality 
• Ask & Yield
• Show me where I need to caring for and talking to family, friends, and others.
• Work in our minds and hearts as it relates to our attitudes
• Remember the great, life-changing power of the Gospel

CHILDREN (these prayer points are for parents and anyone in a church that desires to minister to parents and children)

• Praise and Thanking God
• God has brought children into our lives as parents and as a church family
• Children are a gift from the Lord
•  Repent
• Making our children an idol
• Thinking that we can save our children and forgetting that it is Jesus who saves
• Ask & Yield
• Plead with God to work in our children's live
• We would point our children to Jesus

At the end of class, I said I would share some resources about Christian Nationalism.
Here are some of those links:

• G3 Podcast on Christian Nationalism - https://open.spotify.com/episode/0N68dMTJdvJLpYicHLBTQX
• Christian Faithfulness:  The Biblical Alternative to Christian Nationalism - https://g3min.org/christian-faithfulness-the-biblical-alternative-to-christian-nationalism/

Christian Nationalism appears to have begun as a slam or a put-down, but over time, it seems to have been embraced by some.  It is a confusing term because people have differing ideas about it. 
The bottom line is that true, eternal life change comes only through the gospel of Jesus Christ, and we cannot make laws to make people worship God. Life change and worship are not political issues.

The Christian Faithfulness article makes the distinction between Christian Faithfuness and Christian Nationalism.