COMPASSIONATE CALL TO PRAYER FOR MINNEAPOLIS FROM BUDAPEST
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COMPASSIONATE CALL TO PRAYER FOR MINNEAPOLIS
FROM BUDAPEST
JOIN HANDS IN PRAYER! WITH PRAYERFULNESS AGAINST EVIL
Written by Rev. Dr. Lajos Békefy
the prayer servant of the Lord and the people
"DEATH HAS COME TO OUR WINDOWS"
Today I am writing again about the horror that awakened in Minneapolis yesterday. After what happened, I prayed all night for the unidentified two young children, 8 and 10 years old, who were victims of devastating human evil. And for the others, the utterly devastated parents... Over and over again in my prayers, the lines of the prophet Jeremiah's lament (Jer 9:21) were repeated:
DEATH IS COME UP INTO OUR WINDOWS, AND IS ENTERED INTO OUR PALACES, TO CUT OFF THE CHILDREN FROM OUTSIDE, AND THE YOUNG MEN FROM THE STREETS
This is literally what happened. The Bible's Word described a dramatic situation nearly 3,000 years ago. And what has changed since then? The historical scene has changed, but not the human depravity, the Christless, inhuman, Cainite bloodlust of fallen man. In this not only Wild West real story and history, but in our exposure to the unpredictability of man's sin-boiling, this or similar horror can happen anywhere, anytime. Sin can break through our windows into private and public spaces, into gleaming palaces and simple homes.
We have two options for self-defence: even greater protection of our schools and prayer. Prayer is the vigilance that can make us walk in the world without fear or panic, with our eyes open and our eyes alert for any suspicious signs. Vigilance of prayer is an inner defensive readiness that nothing and no one can replace. Everyone can do it for free, can teach it to themselves, to their children.
Practice is needed every day. We should not only focus on exercise, but also on the soul! The churches can distribute the gentle, always bloodless weapon of prayerfulness in their Sunday school classes and children's activities. Today it is still true that prayer is our only true spiritual weapon.
Prima et ultima ratio - oratio.
Our only first and final instrument. There are those who know this very well, for in more than one place on our planet children are born in prayer, and in more than one place those who pass away. Let us now take this treasure of grace, this holy, effective instrument, sanctified by the Lord Jesus, even in the difficult hours, and let us exercise ourselves now and in the more peaceful days, lest we fall asleep like the bad watchmen on the watch.
Albert Schweitzer, the wonderful doctor, pastor and Bach organist, the conscience of the world in Gabon, taught the world that was still a little attentive to him: the First and Second World Wars were fought because philosophers, thinkers and even those called to prayer had grown quiet, had fallen asleep in anticipation. There was a real crisis, not caused by war, but by sleepiness, a loss of vigilance, indifference and carelessness that led to wars.
The spiritual crisis is the real cause of the physical, historical crisis.
It would be good to understand this great warning, interpret it and apply its conclusions today. The great white doctor's warning of a hundred years ago could be a Minneapolis wail, a requiem motif.
The prayer chain is a public witness and manifestation of our spiritual alertness, our awakening, our spiritual responsibility.
Anyone, anywhere can start. And can continue. With this article, I am addressing primarily my Hungarian Reformed brothers and sisters living in the USA, the members and leaders of their churches. Since we have had such a prayer meeting before.
I cordially invite the Most Reverend Bishop Zoltán Lizik and the Senior Pastor Zsolt Demeter, the spiritual leaders of the American and Canadian Reformed Churches: to proclaim a personal and communal, individual, group and congregational prayer action, a prayer chain, so that, hearing the prophetic warning, the training of the soul may be initiated in all of us, and effective support may be given to all those initiatives for the protection of children and human beings, which, with the help of the educational and law enforcement agencies assigned to them, may be able to increase protection.
This is the order of the hour.
I would say the old word: Kneel, pray! America, Hungary, Christians around the world. Because only a worldwide spiritual coalition can effectively combat worldwide evil! Again the word of warning, the prophetic Word:
DEATH IS COME UP INTO OUR WINDOWS, AND IS ENTERED INTO OUR PALACES, TO CUT OFF THE CHILDREN FROM OUTSIDE, AND THE YOUNG MEN FROM THE STREETS
The CNN news agency in the US and the BBC news agency in the UK interrupted their TV coverage. As of 10:30 a.m., the shooting had killed two children and seriously injured 14, including three adults, seven of whom are in critical condition. President Donald Trump, in a condolence message after receiving the news, expressed his deep shock, sympathy for all those affected and prayers for the families of the victims. Shocked parents immediately took their crying, frightened and bewildered children, most of them primary school children, home from school. At an impromptu press conference held in the street outside the building, the city authorities could barely formulate their official remarks. Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O'Hara said the gunman - armed with a rifle, shotgun and pistol - approached the side of the church and fired through the windows at children sitting in the pews during Mass at Annunciation Catholic School. The victims were two children, aged 8 and 10, who died sitting in the pews. Seventeen others were injured, 14 of them children. The shooter: authorities did not immediately release his name, but said he was a man in his 20s who fired dozens of shots through the windows on the side of the church and then committed suicide in the parking lot.
It is there today, but knowing the nature of evil from the Bible, who knows where and in what form it will continue to destroy tomorrow.
Pray up, then, people of Christ. Increasing our spiritual presence to holy vigilance. As we sing in our hymn of praise beginning "O Zion awake, fulfill your mission":
Pour your soul into victorious prayer for them!
By our first and ultimate means of action, prayer, let us pray individually, communally: May the Physician of human souls lift up the parents who have been struck down by the loss of their young school children; may our gracious God encourage the 390 young school children back to the classroom, and make their parents strong in the protection of their children; may the God of Life help those in crisis back to their families, and may He make the whole of shaken American society determined in the manifold struggle for the even more effective protection of children and human beings. We offer our compassion and our prayers of comfort and strength individually, communally, congregationally, ecclesiastically to our Lord Almighty. For Minneapolis, but also for Budapest, Debrecen, Pápa, Patak, Oradea, Cluj, Cluj-Napoca, Munkács, Losonc, Rév-Komárom, and wherever our souls may take us through our acquaintanceships: for schoolchildren, junior and senior high school students, adolescents, university students, and their parents and brothers and sisters, so that they may live in spiritual vigilance, but without fear, and to prepare for a world free of the horrors of Minneapolis. We take our Lord's encouragement seriously even in difficult hours:
I will not leave you orphans, I will come to you...I live and you will live (John 14:18-19)
Written by Rev. Dr. Lajos Békefy
the prayer servant of the Lord and the people
spiritual journalist
social scientist research theologian
Translation by Rev. Dr. Békefy-Röhrig Claudia
Budapest/Hungary
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