PRAYER CALL TONIGHT! 9pm EST. Conference call number: 641-715-3605 access code 552-690. Use *6 to mute/unmute. Invite your friends to join us.

SCHOOL OF KINGS—NEW WEBSITE PAGE CLICK HERE. Coming this summer to Albany NY, Lancaster PA, Nashville TN, Aiken SC, Brunswick GA. Make plans now! 

June 16, 7pm, Home group ministry with Bill & Marlene Brubaker. Edmonds WA. To join us please email [email protected].

June 18, 10:30 am, Kingdom Praise Church with Steve & Jodi McMullin, Issaquah WA. More info at http://kingdompraisechurch.com 

DEAR VIGOROUS DEFENDERS,

“This could have been a massacre.” The investigation continues into the horrific shooting at a Republican congressional baseball practice this morning in Alexandria, VA. House Majority Whip Steve Scalise sustained the worst wound, and is now in stable condition after being shot in the hip. Others were shot as well. 

Dramatic actions by two heroic Capitol Hill Police officers took down the shooter before more leaders were taken down. Both Special Agent Crystal Griner and Special Agent David Bailey were apparently wounded even as they advanced towards the subject.

Miraculously, the victims of the shooting will all survive. Thank you for continuing to pray for full recovery for Rep. Scalise and the other victims. Please also join Jolene and me in continuing to fervently intercede for the security and protection of all our leaders, especially President Trump and Vice President Pence. 

Pray Psalm 91. And lets continue to keep watch! We look forward to praying with you on tonight’s call.

Political Intent by Shooter
“Are the players Republicans or Democrats?” The shooter’s question conveys how this shooting seems motivated neither by Islamic terrorism nor drug cartels or organized crime. Instead, political vitriol by an American citizen seems to be the clear intent. 

The Game Goes On
Lets ask God to take what the enemy meant for evil and turn it for good. In clear defiance of the gunman’s intentions, the annual Congressional baseball game between Democrats and Republicans WILL GO ON AS SCHEDULED at the Nationals ballpark. With all profits going to charity. 

The baseball game, with its bipartisan camaraderie, has become a highlight of each Congressional year.

Under God, Indivisible
I am grateful for renewed calls for unity by President Trump and our nation’s highest leaders. “We are united. An attack on one of us is an attack on all of us,” said House Speaker Paul Ryan to a standing ovation across the aisle. 

Minority Speaker Nancy Pelosi echoed these sentiments and called for a nation’s continued prayers. Poignantly, Rep. Pelosi noted her personal intercession for Congress has shifted dramatically over the past season. Instead of simply praying for success, she said, she now prays primarily for the protection of all Congressional leaders.

Rep. Rodney Davis was on the field when the shootings occurred. “Make today the day where we stand up against those who turn hate into violence,” he said. “We’re going to come together as Republicans and Democrats. We’re going to send a message that this isn’t going to happen in the United States of America.” 

Hostility Fueled by Unrestrained Media
Political hostility is clearly dividing and defiling our nation. It’s important to note this hostility is not just fueled by leaders or leakers, but by an unrestrained media generating millions of dollars by cultivating this vitriol. 

Within just the past two weeks alone we’ve seen a political commentator and comedian holding a likeness of the President’s severed head. CNN hailed as a masterpiece a rendition of Julius Caesar conveying the assassination of the President. 

I’m not sure what the solutions are, apart from direct intervention by the Lord. But imagery depicting violence against any of our leaders should never be tolerated. The media must absolutely be held to account. Enough is enough. 

He’ll Heal this Land—Pence Speech Proves Prophetic
I want to close yet again with the speech made by Vice President Mike Pence recently at a Catholic Prayer Breakfast. In light of today’s events the guidance offered is proving hauntingly prophetic. Jolene and I look forward to tonight’s prayer call. 

“And at this moment, I urge you to continue to stand up, to speak out, to continue to be that voice for the voiceless that the church has been throughout its history, continue to be the hands and feet of our Savior, reaching in with love and compassion, embracing the dignity of all people of every background and every experience. I urge you to continue to do the very things we celebrate here… and to stand for the change that this nation so desperately needs, a change back to a safer America, a more prosperous America, an America standing tall in the world again for our values and our ideals—standing with our allies and against our enemies.

But I ask you to do one more thing that I know that men and women of Catholic faith in this country do exceedingly well, and that is I ask you to remember to bow the head and bend the knee and to pray. In these challenging times, I encourage you to take time every day to pray.

And I don’t so much say to pray for a particular agenda. Although I will tell you that the sweetest words the President and I ever hear are when people reach out at an event to grab a hand and say, “I’m praying for you.”  And we hear it a lot. Men and women of the Catholic faith in this country and of every faith in this country are people of prayer.

I encourage you to redouble your efforts, but don’t so much pray for a cause as for country. I’ve always been drawn to what Abraham Lincoln said when he was asked once if he thought that God was on the side of the Union Army in our great Civil War. Abraham Lincoln responded, “I’d rather concern myself more with whether we were on God’s side than whether God is on our side.”

So just pray for America. Pray for this country because America matters.

And when you pray, pray with confidence. Because I truly do believe in these divided times where there is so much focus on what we disagree on, it seems, so much need for healing, that those ancient words inscribed millennia ago that Catholic Americans and all Christian Americans and all our Jewish friends have clung to throughout the thousands of years are still true today as the day they were expressed:  

That if His people who are called by His name will humble themselves and pray, He’ll do as He’s always done throughout the long and storied history of this church and this nation. As the Old Book says, He’ll hear from heaven and He’ll heal this land—this one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all…