Newsgroups: bit.listserv.christia
Date:         Thu, 10 Sep 1992 23:32:24 EST
From:         Kerry Stephenson <KSTE@PURCCVM.BITNET>
Subject:      Prayer request

Hi all:

On Monday night, the City Council voted on a human relations ordinance,
including an amendment that would have inserted "sexual
orientation" in the list of protected classes.  The Amendment passed,
4 to 3, and the ordinance was defeated 5-3.  The ordinance will come
up again during the coming months, and the Councilwoman who switched
her vote on the ordinance did so because the Councilwoman who had
written the original ordinance was not present.

In addition, on Monday, the University Senate is expected to pass a
similar measure to change the code of conduct of the University.

This is an issue that is causing terrible divison, anger, hatred,
and confusion on all sides.  The tone of the debate is not
healthy for the community.  There is a great deal of hurt and
anxiety throughout the community.  As I have posted before, things
here are getting very unpleasant on many fronts, and this
level of heat is not making things any better.

I will not ask anyone to pray for or against the ordinance, the amend-
ment, or the conduct code.  What I am asking is for the prayers of
God's people that His love and His judgment be seen by all in this
situation.  This is a community in dire need of God's amazing peace
and a recognition in individuals and in the body of Christ of the
power and the joy that is found in Christ *alone*.  There are, I
have no doubt, demonic spirits playing on both sides of the aisle
in this situation.  Whether the sin is licentiousness, cruelty,
hedonism, self-righteousness, or merely (merely, ha!) the simple
rejection of Christ for the power or the love of "the world",
sin is everywhere evident here at the moment.  Satan's minions are
having a field day with Christians and non-Christians alike.

Please pray for a lifting of the principalities and powers of evil that
are becoming dominant here, whether you believe they are being expressed
by those who seek to impose these ordinances or by those whose opposition
to them are an occasion to demonstrate their own willingness to degrade
others.  My spirit grieves in this situation, as it did during the Gulf
War.  In both instances, I know in my heart that God's will says one
thing, but those who are speaking for His cause are not doing so in His
voice.  And, as with the war, the division of the community is the
price that will be paid for the arrogance on both sides.

It puts me in mind of God's condemnation of those who fast to show their
own righteousness.  For they are, in essence, following a command of
God (fasting, in that case), but their actions displease him.  From
Isaiah 58 (1-14):

(Warning:  this is long)

"Tell my people their transgressions,
And the house of Jacob their sins.
Yet they seek Me daily,
And delight to know My ways,
As a nation that did righteousness,
And did not forsake the ordinance of their God.
They ask of Me the ordinances of justice;
They take delight in approaching God.
'Why have we fasted,' they say, 'and
You have not seen?
Why have we afflicted our souls, and
You take no notice?'

"In fact, in the day of your fast you find pleasure,
And exploit all your laborers.
Indeed you fast for strife and debate,
And to strike with the fist of wickedness.
You will not fast as you do this day,
To make your voice heard on high.
Is it a fast that I have chosen,
A day for a man to afflict his soul?
Is it to bow down his head like a bulrush,
And to spread out sackcloth and ashes?
Would you call this a fast,
And an acceptable day to the LORD?

Is this not the fast that I have chosen:
To loose the bonds of wickedness,
To undo the heavy burdens,
To let the oppressed go free,
And that you break every yoke?
Is it not to share your bread with the hungry,
And that you bring to your house the poor who are cast out;
When you see the naked, that you cover him,
And not hide yourself from your own flesh?
Then your light shall break forth speedily,
And your righteousness shall go before you;
The glory of the LORD shall be your rear guard.
Then you shall call, and the LORD will answer;
You shall cry, and He will say, 'Here I am.'

"If you take away the yoke from your midst,
The pointing of the finger, and speaking wickedness,
If you extend your soul to the hungry
And satisfy the afflicted soul,
Then your light shall dawn in the darkness,
And your darkness shall be as the noonday.
The LORD will guide you continually,
And satisfy your soul in drought,
And strengthen your bones;
You shall be like a watered garden,
And like a spring of water, whose waters do not fail.
Those from among you
Shall build the old waste places;
You shall raise up the foundations of many generations;
And you shall be called the Repairer of the Breach,
The Restorer of Streets to Dwell In.

If you turn away your foot from the Sabbath,
From doing your pleasure on My holy day,
And call the Sabbath a delight,
The holy day of the LORD honorable,
And shall honor Him, not doing your own ways,
Nor finding your own pleasure,
Nor speaking your own words,
Then you shall delight yourself in the LORD;
And I will cause you to ride on the high hills of the earth,
And feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father.
The mouth of the LORD has spoken."

   God calls us to be faithful to Him, and to carry His Word throughout
the whole of the Earth.  But we do Him no honor by serving ourselves
and bringing the tactics of man to divide and destroy.  Our fight is
to be *spiritual*, and we are to hate the *sin* but love the sinner.
Speaking the truth of God in love, telling those who are in sin that
they must repent, is the command God gives us.  But to bring our own
anger and our fleshly hatred against those in sin is like fasting
falsely before the LORD.  The call is true, but the voice is driving
away those who most need to hear.

And Satan is giggling in the corner.

Please pray for my community.  God bless you all.

Love INC,

--Kerry
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