#PrayForThem?

“Therefore do not pray for this people, nor lift up a cry nor prayer for them, nor make intercession to Me; for I will not hear you.”  Jeremiah 7:16

 

Another tragedy hits America and this time a mass shooting.  The media is dubbing it the biggest terror attack since 9/11 in America, others talk about it being the biggest mass shooting in the United States history and of course Obama is adding the term hate crime to the ordeal.  To further complicate things, the man responsible for the murder of 50+ people, plus the further injuring of 50+ people claimed ties to ISIS before he was killed by the police. 

 

Panic ensued at the nightclub where the shooting took place and everyone was screaming and crying as a hostage situation unfolded and the shooter was taking life after life.  A terrible situation that will undoubtedly cause much more ‘debate’ about gun control and push for more liberties to be taken away from Americans.  To top it off there are (as of this writing) also reports of a man with a cache of guns and weapons who police stopped.  He was apparently on his way to a LBGTQ (lesbian, bi-sexual, gay, transgender, queer) ‘parade’ in Los Angeles, with intent to do harm.

 

This is being wrote on a Sunday afternoon, just hours after the shooting.  While I am sure other details will emerge, as I read a couple of news articles today about the situation, I noticed a common theme.  The twitter handles were being pushed in the media, #prayForOrlando #prayForPulse.  What is Pulse?

 

Pulse is the nightclub where the shooting happened in Orlando.  The nightclub caters to the gay community.  It was here, as people were reveling in sin, that a man walked in and made the nightclub a slaughterhouse.  Herein lies the problem.  Would people be so daring to pray to their Creator for a gay nightclub?  Would they dare pray that things would be well once more for a nightclub that promotes, hosts and is a center of sexual perversion, drunkenness, full of sodomites and abominations before the Most High?  Is God really going to look down from Heaven and bless Pulse or look upon Orlando and somehow provide comforting and blessings to those who walk contrary to His teaching, without them first crying out to Him in repentance?

 

“Were they ashamed when they had committed abominations? No, they were not at all ashamed, nor did they know how to blush. Therefore they shall fall among those who fall; in the time of their punishment they shall be cast down, says Jehovah.”  Jeremiah 8:12

 

“And if you say in your heart, Why have these things come upon me? It is because of the greatness of your iniquity; your skirts have been uncovered, and your heels have suffered violence.  Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard its spots? Then you also may do good, who are accustomed to doing evil.”  Jeremiah 13:22-23

 

“The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it?  I Jehovah search the heart, I examine the soul, even to give to each man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his doings.”  Jeremiah 17:9-10

 

Here are verses from God’s Word to mankind regarding such sexual perversion that takes place? 

 

“You shall not lie with a male as with a female. It is an abomination.”  Leviticus 18:22

 

“Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be led astray. Neither prostitutes, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God.”  1st Corinthians 6:9-10

 

“Therefore God also gives them up to uncleanness, in the lusts of their hearts, to dishonor their bodies among themselves, who change the truth of God into the lie, and fear and serve the created things more than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.  For this reason God gives them up to vile passions. For even their women change the natural use for what is contrary to nature.  Likewise also the men, abandoning the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust toward one another, men with men performing what is shameful, and receiving the retribution within themselves, the penalty which is fitting for their error.  And even as they do not like to have God in their full true knowledge, God gives them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not fitting; being filled with every unrighteousness, sexual perversion, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, depravity; whisperers, defamers, haters of God, insolent, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, without understanding, untrustworthy, without natural affection, unforgiving, unmerciful; who, knowing the righteous judgment of God, that those who practice such things are deserving of death, not only do them, but also approve of those who practice them.”  Romans 1:24-32

 

Is God really going to bless the LBGTQ community?  What did God do to Sodom and Gomorrah? 

 

“And Jehovah said, The outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and their sin is exceedingly heavy.  I will go down now and see whether they have done altogether according to the outcry against it that has come to Me; and if not, I will know.”  Genesis 18:20-21

 

“And the two angels came to Sodom at evening, and Lot was sitting in the gate of Sodom. When Lot saw them, he rose to meet them, and he bowed himself with his face to the earth.  And he said, Here now, my lords, please turn in to your servant’s house and spend the night, and wash your feet; then you may rise early and go on your way. And they said, No, but we will spend the night in the open square.  But he insisted strongly; so they turned in to him and entered his house. And he made them a feast, and baked unleavened bread, and they ate.  But before they lay down, the men of the city, the men of Sodom, both old and young, all the people from every quarter, surrounded the house.  And they called to Lot and said to him, Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us that we may know them.  And Lot went out to them at the entrance and shut the door behind him, and said, Please, my brethren, do not do so wickedly.  See now, I have two daughters who have not known a man; please, let me bring them out to you, and do to them as is good in your eyes; only do nothing to these men, since this is the reason they have come under the shadow of my roof.  And they said, Stand back! And they said, This one came in to sojourn, and he acts as a judge to condemn; now we will deal worse with you than with them. And they pressed hard against the man Lot, and came near to break down the door.  But the men reached out their hands and brought Lot into the house with them, and shut the door.  And they struck the men who were at the entrance of the house with blindness, both small and great, so that they became weary trying to find the door.  And the men said to Lot, Have you anyone else here? Son-in-law, your sons, your daughters, and whomever you have in the city; bring them out of this place!  For we are destroying this place, because the outcry against them has grown great before the face of Jehovah, and Jehovah has sent us to destroy it.  And Lot went out and spoke to his sons-in-law, who had married his daughters, and said, Get up, get out of this place; for Jehovah is destroying this city! But to his sons-in-law he seemed to be joking.  And when dawn had risen, the angels urged Lot, saying, Arise, take your wife and your two daughters who are found here, that you not be consumed in the punishment of the city.  And while he lingered, the men took hold of his hand, his wife’s hand, and the hands of his two daughters, Jehovah being merciful to him, and they brought him out and set him down outside the city.  And it came to pass, when they had brought them outside, that he said, Escape for your lives! Do not look behind you nor stay anywhere in the plain. Escape to the mountains, lest you be destroyed.  And Lot said to them, Please, no, my lords!  Behold now, your servant has found favor in your eyes, and you have increased your mercy which you have shown me by saving my life; but I cannot escape to the mountains, lest some evil overtake me and I die.  See now, this city is near enough to flee to, and it is a little one; please let me escape there (is it not a little one?) and my soul shall live.  And he said to him, See, I have favored you concerning this thing also, in that I will not overthrow this city for which you have spoken.   Hurry, escape there! For I cannot do anything until you arrive there. Therefore the name of the city was called Zoar.  The sun had risen upon the earth when Lot entered Zoar.  Then Jehovah rained brimstone and fire upon Sodom and Gomorrah, from Jehovah out of the heavens.  And He overthrew those cities, all the plain, all the inhabitants of the cities, and the plants of the ground.  But his wife looked back from behind him, and she became a pillar of salt.  And Abraham went early in the morning to the place where he had stood before Jehovah.  And he looked toward Sodom and Gomorrah, and toward all the land of the plain; and he saw, and behold, the smoke of the land went up like the smoke of a furnace.”  Genesis 19:1-28

 

…”as Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities around them in a similar manner to these, having given themselves over to sexual immorality and gone after other flesh, are set forth as an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.”  Judas 1:7

 

Rather instead of praying for such evil, man would be better if he instead looked at his ways and how he stands before an Almighty God.  A repentant heart and crying out for His mercy, believing into His Son Jesus Christ as your Savior is certainly the biggest blessing provided to sinners who yield unto Him.

 

“Repent therefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that He may send Jesus Christ, who was preached to you before, whom Heaven must receive until the times of restoration of all things, of which God has spoken through the mouth of all His holy prophets since the past ages.”  Acts 3:19-21

 

Jesus said, “I tell you, no; but unless you repent you will all likewise perish.”  Luke 13:3

 

“He who covers his sins shall not prosper; but he who confesses and forsakes them shall have mercy.”  Proverbs 28:13

 

“Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded.  Lament and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to shame.”  Jacob 4:8-9

 

“For godly sorrow produces repentance leading to salvation, not to be regretted; but the sorrow of the world produces death.”  2nd Corinthians 7:10

 

“But what does it say? The Word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart (that is, the Word of Faith which we preach): that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.  For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.”  Romans 10:8-10

 

“The Lord is not slow concerning His promise, as some count slowness, but is longsuffering toward us, not purposing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.”  2nd Peter 3:9

 

“Truly, truly, I say to you, We speak what We know and bear witness to what We have seen, and you do not receive Our testimony.  If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you Heavenly things?  No one has ascended to Heaven but He who came down from Heaven, that is, the Son of Man who is in Heaven.  And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that everyone believing into Him should not perish but have eternal life.  For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that everyone believing into Him should not perish but have eternal life.  For God did not send His Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.  The one believing into Him is not judged; but the one not believing is judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.  And this is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil.  For everyone practicing evil hates the Light and does not come to the Light, lest his deeds should be reproved.  But the one doing the truth comes to the Light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been worked in God.”  John 3:11-21

 

“Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under Heaven given among men that is required for us to be saved.”  Acts 4:12

 

Do not be mistaken!

 

“The soul who sins shall die. The son shall not bear the guilt of the father, nor the father bear the guilt of the son. The righteousness of the righteous shall be upon himself, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon himself.  But if a wicked man turns from all his sins which he has done, keeps all My statutes, and does what is lawful and right, he shall live life; he shall not die.  None of the transgressions which he has done shall be remembered against him; because of the righteousness which he has done, he shall live.  Do I delight with pleasure in the death of the wicked? says the Lord Jehovah, and not that he should turn back from his ways and live?”  Ezekiel 18:20-23

 

“And in that day Jehovah of Hosts called for weeping and mourning, and for baldness, and for girding with sackcloth.  But behold, joy and gladness, slaying oxen and killing sheep, eating flesh and drinking wine, saying, Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die!”  Isaiah 22:12-13

 

“But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a loud noise, and the elements will be dissolved with intense burning; both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up.”  2nd Peter 3:10

 

“And I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God. And books were opened. And another book was opened, which is the Book of Life. And the dead were judged according to their works, out of the things which were written in the books.  And the sea gave up the dead who were in it, and Death and Hades delivered up the dead who were in them. And they were judged, each one, according to their works.  And Death and Hades were cast into the Lake of Fire. This is the second death.  And anyone not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the Lake of Fire.”  Revelation 20:12-15

 

“But the cowardly, unbelieving, abominable, murderers, prostitutes, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.”  Revelation 21:8

 

“Let death seize them, and let them go down alive into Sheol; for evil is among them and in their dwellings.  As for me, I will call upon God, and Jehovah will deliver me.”  Psalms 55:15-16

 

Amen!