National Day of Prayer touched the hearts and souls of many inside the Marion County Courthouse May 2 with excellent testimonies from a superb host of speakers.
Columbia Academy history teacher Scott Oliver, who spoke on education, said we are in serious crisis in our nation, but he used 2 Samuel 22:32 as an example to remind everyone that God is ever faithful, His word is true and He can and will direct us on a true path.
“If we would only trust Him, He would be our shield and our protector,” Oliver said. “History is filled with once-great nations — nations that achieved the heights of greatness. But while being at the height of greatness, they lost their way. They departed from the very values they once had that gave them direction. When their decline and moral decay began, it went almost completely unnoticed by most people. … We’re only about one generation away, at any time, from losing the freedoms we hold so dear.
“Ensuring the values of our country are passed to the young through education is critically important.”
Marion County Sheriff’s Office Chief Deputy Jamie Singley, who was tasked with speaking about media, said his focus is solely on the truth and he’s worried about all the sin we’re becoming so desensitized to through media.
“I hold onto hope. My hope has a name, and it’s Jesus,” Singley said to a chorus of amens. “I want that hope and that truth comes from that hope. We continue to lift up all of the people in the media and continue to pray for them daily. We pray they can be a true example to the future generations.
“We think of media as social media and news anchors, but who else is in media? Actors. Athletes, huge. We want those to be good examples to our kids. We don’t want our kids looking up to the doom and gloom of (the news cycle and social media). I don’t want my (children) depressed. We’re exposed to so many dark things — look at the games that are put out, look at TV ratings. The things that are OK for my kids to watch, according to them, my momma would have beat the breaks off of me. Yet these things are allowed and are OK in our society now.”
New Hope Baptist Church Senior Pastor Jerry Watts, who spoke on the subject of families, said anybody paying attention today should realize we are suffering through two generations of a disintegrating home, which is having an extreme adverse effect on our society.
“The home is the building block of our culture. When the home is strong, our culture is strong. When the home is disintegrating, culture is disintegrates,” he said. “This is simple, but it’s not easy.”
After Hannah Newsome sang “God Bless America,” Owens Chapel Baptist Church member minister Corene Russell spoke on the state of churches in America and issued a challenge to the church to take God at His word by referencing 2 Chronicles 7:14: “If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.”
“The church is to take God’s challenge as fact. He said it, and He meant it,” she said. “So what do we need to do? Just what His word says. ‘If my people’ — we are his people — ‘which are called’ — we were called — we say to ourselves, ‘I am a child of God’ — you are God’s church. We are His hands, His feet, His voice, and it’s left up to us. So my challenge is to take God at His word. If we do that and take God at his word, we will do what’s necessary.”
Russell further challenged the church — God’s people — to unify, love, protect, expand, serve, instruct and submit.
Fifteenth Circuit Court District Attorney Hal Kittrell, who spoke on government, said if there’s any place in America that needs our prayers now more than ever, it’s the United States of America’s government. Kittrell referenced what Paul said in Romans 13:1-7 and said public officials are charged by God to do what is right.
“Being the government, we need prayer more than anyone. (Mayor) Justin (McKenzie) feels that, too. We need that prayer,” Kittrell explained. “What Paul says and what really resonates is, ‘For He is God’s servant to do you good.’ That’s a challenge and a charge to public officials to do good. … We’re at a point in time that I’ve never seen. We can’t agree that today is Thursday. We can’t.
“We, as a country and as a government, have lost a sense of ourselves. We have no moral compass. We need to find that moral compass. We need to pray for our leaders in our government — particularly in congress — that they find that moral compass and that centering that they need to discern God’s will for what this country is.”
Columbia Law Enforcement Training Academy Director Clint McMurray, who spoke on behalf of military/law enforcement, said since the numbers started being counted, the U.S. has lost 1.3-million service members in combat and more than 20,000 first responders. He referenced Matthew 5:9, which reads, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God,” and John 15:13 — “Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down his life for his friends.”
“That verse says it all about someone who wears a uniform,” McMurray said. “They go forth every day voluntarily to put themselves in the way of harm and the devil. They do this without asking for anything, so we must pray for them, each and every one.”
Owens Chapel Baptist Church Pastor Antonio Johnson issued the community challenge by referencing 2 Samuel 22:29-32 and said that we are fighting from a place of victory to crush Satan and enforce the victory Jesus has already won.
“This is a dark time that we’re living in, but guess what? The light that God is talking about is in you, in me. The power and the presence of God is in you, and it’s in me,” Johnson said. “Spiritual wickedness is in high places that is trying to control our region here. There are demons who want to control, but it only takes one somebody, filled with the Holy Ghost, standing in the gap praying effectual prayer of a righteous man.”
Johnson added we don’t have a society or government problem — we have a church problem. He said it takes a community of believers coming together and praying together to enforce that victory Jesus has already won for us.
Mayor McKenzie closed by saying it’s our duty to fill the kingdom of God and challenged everyone in the courtroom to start a conversation about Christ and invite them to church. He also prayed for God to infiltrate the halls of Washington D.C.
Hunter Nicholson issued the closing prayer, and Newsome led the congregation in one final song, “How Great is Our God.”
