HEZEKIAH'S PRAYER

Hezekiah prayed before the LORD and said, "O LORD, the God of Israel, who are enthroned above the cherubim, You are the God, You alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth. You have made heaven and earth.

“Incline Your ear, O LORD, and hear; open Your eyes, O LORD, and see; and listen to the words of Sennacherib, which he has sent to reproach the living God.

"Truly, O LORD, the kings of Assyria have devastated the nations and their lands and have cast their gods into the fire, for they were not gods but the work of men's hands, wood and stone. So they have destroyed them.

"Now, O LORD our God, I pray, deliver us from his hand that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that You alone, O LORD, are God."

— 2 Kings 19:15-19

We read in 2 Kings about the city of Lachish being desimated by the army of Sennacherib. God allowed this because of their unimaginable immorality. What is unimaginable immorality? They worshipped idols, like we do (ref. the recent funeral of pop musician and child predator Michael Jackson, the TV program "American Idol,"). They shed innocent blood, like we do (ref. Roe v. Wade). They engaged in sexual promiscuity, like we do (ref. sitcoms, movies, music, and the divorce rate). They denied the existence of God Almighty, like we do (ref. myths of global warming, Darwin's theory taught as truth, increase of cults, and anything the ACLU undertakes).

We should be praying this prayer for our nation with the same fervency as Hezekiah did, if we want to be delivered from God's wrath. God allowed the faithful believers to suffer the atrocities alongside the paganists. Do we want to suffer the coming destruction, or do our part in bringing our nation back to its roots of worshipping God, our creator. Yes, He loves us. Yes, He is long-suffering. But how long will He abide us?

Please send this prayer to your representatives, senators (local & federal), and to the president, as well!

Higher Hope - Robert Whitlow

This novel, set in Savannah, didn't have the hook I expected. Perhaps it's because this is Book Two in The Tides of Truth series. If I'd read Book One, Deeper Water, the characters might have grabbed my interest. I think I found myself somewhat invested in the story by Chapter Eight. The overuse of the word "was" annoyed me like a pesky fly buzzing around my head. And here's another published author who uses verbs as speaker attributes. When I'm not selling real estate, I work for a law firm. I found it hard to believe that this Christian girl, Tami, could find two Christian men (two SINGLE Christian men) working for the same firm. Most of the story seemed unrealistic to me, and the resolution in the end left me hanging in a fog of vagueness. I had no idea which of the two young men she chose, and really didn't care. Being a glass-is-half-full person, I always look for the sunshine that follows the rain. The one redeeming feature of Higher Hope is toward the end of the book when Sister Dabney explains what higher hope means: "It's hope that can't be destroyed by what happens on earth. Circumstances of life will challenge it, voices will deny it, but its walls can't be breached unless we open the gate." Absolutely true and an encouragement to me, personally. The realistic elements of the book are the subtle ways God intervenes for His purposes. God worked through the elderly lady with whom Tami lives and works as caregiver to show Tami He wants us to fellowship with Him, no matter our age or circumstances. He can heal us, as Tami saw when she visited a family friend in her home town. And He will defend His workers when we are persecuted, but it will always be in His time and His M.O. I would give this book two and a half stars. Others might enjoy it, but it didn't float my boat.