The Burrinjuck Dam - Christmas 2006 - getting lower and lowerThe following email, dear Reader, was in Miss Eagle's inbox this morning, forwarded by my friend K. Please note: Crossway is Australia's largest Baptist congregation.
This is a message that Stuart Robinson Senior Pastor of Crossway Central shared with the congregation this morning.
Dear Family in Christ,
While at the garage getting my car fixed, I received a call from Pastor Danny [Nahlia] stating that as he and his wife were having a time of prayer this morning, the Lord revealed that it's time for the Nation of Australia to once again come together and pray for rain in response to Prime Minister John Howard's call to pray for rain! (just like Old Testament Biblical days when the King and the Prophet worked together to call the nation and people to prayerfully return to the Lord God of Israel)
In immediate obedience to the voice of God, Ps. Danny and Catch the Fire Ministries are calling on the church and nation of Australia on Wednesday 25th April (Anzac Day) from 3:00pm - 4:30pm to gather together wherever you are to prayerfully seek the Father in heaven for rain! "If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn away from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land." 2 Chronicles 7:14
If you live in Melbourne, we encourage you to join with us on Wednesday 25th April at Fitzroy Gardens (next to Captain Cook's Cottage) from 3:00pm - 4:30pm as Catch the Fire Ministries will lead a gathering of repentance and prayer for rain across Australia!
Most amazingly, 1 hour after I received the call from Ps. Danny, he was contacted and interviewed for 30 minutes by the editor of the Age Newspaper who asked him, "Have you thought of responding to the Prime Minister's call for prayer and what are you going to do?" Tomorrow's (Sunday 22nd April)edition of the Age Newspaper will carry an article about calling the church and nation to pray for rain.
Please forward this email and spread the Word to everyone you know across
our nation!
Let's unceasingly seek the Lord in prayer, fasting and repentance for Him to send the early and latter rains across this Great Southland of the Holy Spirit!
Thanking and Blessing You,
Jason Golden
Catch the Fire Ministries
PO Box 7427
Dandenong
VIC 3175 Australia
Tel: 613 9794 8211 Fax: 613 9794 9311
www.catchthefire.com.au
Dear Family in Christ,
While at the garage getting my car fixed, I received a call from Pastor Danny [Nahlia] stating that as he and his wife were having a time of prayer this morning, the Lord revealed that it's time for the Nation of Australia to once again come together and pray for rain in response to Prime Minister John Howard's call to pray for rain! (just like Old Testament Biblical days when the King and the Prophet worked together to call the nation and people to prayerfully return to the Lord God of Israel)
In immediate obedience to the voice of God, Ps. Danny and Catch the Fire Ministries are calling on the church and nation of Australia on Wednesday 25th April (Anzac Day) from 3:00pm - 4:30pm to gather together wherever you are to prayerfully seek the Father in heaven for rain! "If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn away from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land." 2 Chronicles 7:14
If you live in Melbourne, we encourage you to join with us on Wednesday 25th April at Fitzroy Gardens (next to Captain Cook's Cottage) from 3:00pm - 4:30pm as Catch the Fire Ministries will lead a gathering of repentance and prayer for rain across Australia!
Most amazingly, 1 hour after I received the call from Ps. Danny, he was contacted and interviewed for 30 minutes by the editor of the Age Newspaper who asked him, "Have you thought of responding to the Prime Minister's call for prayer and what are you going to do?" Tomorrow's (Sunday 22nd April)edition of the Age Newspaper will carry an article about calling the church and nation to pray for rain.
Please forward this email and spread the Word to everyone you know across
our nation!
Let's unceasingly seek the Lord in prayer, fasting and repentance for Him to send the early and latter rains across this Great Southland of the Holy Spirit!
Thanking and Blessing You,
Jason Golden
Catch the Fire Ministries
PO Box 7427
Dandenong
VIC 3175 Australia
Tel: 613 9794 8211 Fax: 613 9794 9311
www.catchthefire.com.au
Miss Eagle replied to K. as follows:
K., I don't altogether agree with this praying for rain stuff.
I think what we should be doing is praying for ourselves and the condition we are in. I am pleased to see this scripture quoted - "If my people,who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek myface and turn away from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heavenand will forgive their sin and heal their land." 2 Chronicles 7:14
But an hour of prayer at Capt Cook's cottage won't do it.We have to reflect openly on what we have done and have a national discussion about this.We have wrecked this continent in just over two hundred years. We have turned large tracts of land to salt, we have polluted the rivers, and the oceans. We have denuded the land and now there is a word heard in this country which I had never heard before - desertification. There is a company in Queensland, Cubby Station, that no one does anything about - perhaps they don't have the power but I also wonder if they don't have the will - which has diverted water for itself. This water used to flow into the Murray-Darling Basin. Now it doesn't. Australia is losing animal species to extinction faster than anywhere else on earth. So that's what we are doing to the land, the trees, the water, and the animals. And this prime minister says pray!
Then lets look at what we have done in the last few years to people. We have concentration camps on Australian soil. We have deported our own citizens away from their country and locked up our own in these concentration camps. We are turning away to other countries humanity in need - in spite of the bible's injunction on how to treat sojourners....because, as Yahweh reminds us, you were once sojourners. Jesus, Mary and Joseph fleeing from a murderous Herod would not make it into this country! Australia has supported a prime minister who does this. A prime minister who writes letters of support for Danny Nahlia and whose support Danny Nahlia welcomes. And this prime minister says pray!
Let's take a look at our society - we pay sportsmen small fortunes, idolise them and tolerate their abuse of human beings, their rape of women, and their drug habits. Our country rushes to wars they have no business to be in and oversees large scale bribery in the sale of wheat. And this prime minister says pray!
Every day of my life I look out my windows at the Dandenong Ranges National Park - a very beautiful God-blessed part of the world. Last week, in a part of the Ranges I look at often, two young women took their lives in what is believed to be a suicide pact. Suicide and depression in Australia is a major issue. In fact, it appears to be a significant barometer of ourselves.
John Howard came to power saying he wanted to make Australians feel comfortable. Look around. Some are comfortable and a lot of those who are comfortable are self-interested, self-seeking, greedy and ambitious. The needs of the poor are neglected. Ordinary people have their public schools de-funded to provide funds for schools who are so wealthy one would not think they needed more money. Our public facilities like hospitals are falling to pieces. Our national infrastructure - around which we build our economic well being - is in dire need of investment. No one seems to be able to figure out how to run a university system without hanging hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt around the necks of the young. Housing for rental and purchase is becoming out of reach. And the prime minister says pray!
The prime minister could do something about the significant problems listed above. And, if he had tried to do all this, and we had tried to get all this done and reformed ourselves, and then we had failed, I think we could then reflect and pray. But to throw prayers God-ward and yet not acknowledge our sins....I think that is blasphemy.
Let me know what you think, K.
Blessings and bliss
