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 humiliation; 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, insomuch as we know that by His divine law nations, like individuals, are subjected to punishments and chastisements 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, and 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 views 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 blessings 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.
Done at the city of Washington, this 30th day of March, A. D. 1863, and of the Independence of the United States the eighty-seventh.
ABRAHAM LINCOLN.
By the President:
WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State .
Quotes from the founding Fathers of the
United States of America
We have been assured in the sacred writings that except “The Lord build the house they labor in vain that build it.
“I firmly believe this”
Benjamin Franklin
God who gave us life, Gave us liberty.
Can the liberties of a nation be secure when we have removed a conviction that these liberties are a gift from God?
Thomas Jefferson
God commands you to choose for Rulers
Just men, Who will rule in the fear of God.
If the citizens neglect their duty and place unprincipled men in the office the government will soon be corrupted.
Noah Webster
What students should learn in American Schools above all is the religion of “Jesus Christ”
George Washington
Our Founding Fathers saw it right to call upon Almighty God, to ask for His mercy concerning the unrighteous acts of our society and national sins. They brought stern warnings that a nation which removes God from its national conscience will result in destruction from within.
Many of the population, and leadership of this great nation has lost its way. In the arena of civil law, and the personal lives of our citizens. We are calling what is right, WRONG, and what is wrong RIGHT.
We have succeeded in many ways to cast God out of the public workings of our government and our personal lives due to an unholy agenda originates from the very pits of hell. This has been transmitted to our national mindset under the guise of political correctness, tolerance, progressive thinking, and sensitivity. Yes, we do want to be correct, we want to have tolerance, we want forward thinking, we want to be sensitive and compassionate towards our fellow man. But this can only be done when the Prince of peace “Jesus Christ” has shed his love abroad in our hearts. Any other attempt will result in a legislative quagmire of laws which are contraindicatory at best, and secular social services that gives handouts not hand ups.
The fruit of this trend is evident. The breakdown of the family, Rampant drug addiction, and laws that promote drug use. Mindsets of entitlement, sexual depravity at all levels, greed, murder, human trafficking, slavery. Exploitation of children. And the list goes on. “Something is broken America” We know that there has always been evil. But when it increases, it is time for man to humble himself before God. And cry out for His Intervention.
This National Day of prayer is this time!
God states thru the Holy Scriptures in 2 Chronicles 7:14
“And My People who are called by my name humble themselves and pray and seek My face and Turn from their wicked ways, Then I will hear from heaven, Will forgive their sin, and heal their land.”
You are those people! Your very presence is the hope of our Nation, our leaders, and our families.
Scripture says in James 5:16 “Therefore confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, so that you may be healed. The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish.”
As we Pray today, Let us remember The work of Jesus Christ on the cross, His blood shed for all of mankind, To set us free from the tyranny of enslaving sin. And as we confess him to be our Lord we will find salvation for our nation.
-Pastor Doug Bliss
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