Joe Wright to the Kansas Senate
by
Minister Joe Wright
Central Christian Church in Wichita, Kansas
A Pastor With Guts
When Minister Joe Wright was asked to open the new session of the Kansas Senate, everyone was expecting the usual generalities, but this is what they heard:
Heavenly Father,
We come before you today to ask Your forgiveness and seek Your directions and guidance.
We know Your Word says, "Woe to those who call evil good," but that's exactly what we have done.
We have lost our spiritual equilibrium and inverted our values.
We confess that:
We have ridiculed the absolute truth of Your Word and called it moral pluralism;
We have worshipped other gods and called it multi-culturalism;
We have endorsed perversion and called it an alternative lifestyle;
We have exploited the poor and called it the lottery;
We have neglected the needy and called it self-preservation;
We have rewarded laziness and called it welfare;
We have killed our unborn and called it choice;
We have shot abortionists and called it justifiable;
We have neglected to discipline our children and called it building esteem;
We have abused power and called it political savvy;
We have coveted our neighbors' possessions and called it ambition;
We have polluted the air with profanity and pornography and called it freedom of expression;
We have ridiculed the time-honored values of our forefathers and called it enlightenment.
Search us, O God, and know our hearts today; try us and see if there be some wicked way in us; cleanse us from every sin and set us free.
Guide and bless these men and women who have been sent here by the people of Kansas, and who have been ordained by You, to govern this great state.
Grant them Your wisdom to rule and may their decisions direct us to the center of Your will.
I ask it in the name of your son, the Living Saviour, Jesus Christ.
Amen."
The response was immediate. A number of legislators walked out during the prayer in protest. In 6 short weeks, Central Christian Church, where Rev. Wright is pastor, logged more than 5,000 phone calls with only 47 of those calls responding negatively. The church is now receiving international requests from India, Africa and Korea for copies of this prayer.
Commentator Paul Harvey aired this prayer on his radio program, 'The Rest of the Story,' and received a larger response to this program than any other he has ever aired.
May this prayer sweep over our nation and wholeheartedly become our desire, so that we again can be called 'one nation under God.'
Many of you have been introduced to Pastor Wright (Senior Pastor for nearly 20 years at Central Christian Church in Wichita, Kansas) by way of the internet or through an e-mail with these words, “This pastor has GUTS!” He received this title due to the “Prayer Of Repentance” he prayed in 1996 before the Kansas State Legislature where a number of politicians walked out on him, in protest. The next day, radio broadcaster Paul Harvey featured the story on his radio program heard around the nation and most of you know “the rest of the story.” He had the largest positive response in his, then, 32-year broadcast history. Many now call it “the prayer that won’t die,” perhaps because it is more relevant today than it was back then! Even now, hardly a week passes that Brother Joe (as he is known to most) doesn’t receive inquiries concerning the prayer. forgivingloveministries.com
Contact Brother Joe: mailto:brojoeflm@gmail.com
Disclaimer:
Some material presented will contain links, quotes, ideologies, etc., the contents of which should be understood to first, in their whole, reflect the views or opinions of their editors, and second, are used in my personal research as "fair use" sources only, and not espousement one way or the other. Researching for 'truth' leads one all over the place...a piece here, a piece there. As a researcher, I hunt, gather and disassemble resources, trying to put all the pieces into a coherent and logical whole. I encourage you to do the same. And please remember, these pages are only my effort to collect all the pieces I can find and see if they properly fit into the 'reality aggregate'.
Personal Position:
I've come to realize that 'truth' boils down to what we 'believe' the facts we've gathered point to. We only 'know' what we've 'experienced' firsthand. Everything else - what we read, what we watch, what we hear - is what someone else's gathered facts point to and 'they' 'believe' is 'truth', so that 'truth' seems to change in direct proportion to newly gathered facts divided by applied plausibility. Though I believe there is 'truth', until someone representing the celestial realm visibly appears and presents the heavenly records of Facts And Lies In The Order They Happened, I can't know for sure exactly what "the whole truth' on any given subject is, and what applies to me applies to everyone. Until then I'll continue to ask, "what does The Urantia Book say on the subject?"
~Gail Bird Allen
