By Gordon Greene 9-01-2008
(Edited by Jo Nuvark)
http://www.donaldmillerwords.com/index.php
I don’t believe in any way that conservatives have cornered the market on prayers to God… not even close. When sinful man turns his heart to a Holy God and petitions Him for change or favor, that man treads upon shaky ground. By the same token, when sinful man fails to turn his heart to a Holy God, he is doomed to complete failure! It’s clear from the Bible that God wants us to talk with Him as with a Father and with Jesus as a friend, with all sincerity and candor knowing that He, the God and Creator of all things, already knows our heart.
That’s why I feel it so important to be careful about the words I write here and to measure them with the utmost care. My intention is not to cast aspersions on anyone’s prayers, but I also would be negligent in the calling I feel God has given me if I didn’t point out the appearance of one prayer in particular; that of Donald Miller at the Democrat National Convention.
I had a hard time finding anything about Donald Miller other than his website. It seems he is quite the prolific writer for his age. It seems, like many in the world, he’s had a hard time in life. His father left when he was young, which gave him a bad example of Who God might be, but searched for a savior and seems to have found one in Jesus Christ.
He’s the founder of The Belmont Foundation, a not-for-profit foundation, which recruits ten thousand mentors through one thousand churches as an answer to the crisis of fatherlessness in America. I can’t say enough good things about the concept of this ministry. What I do want to speak to is a public prayer he offered recently.
He was invited to pray the benediction, or closing prayer, at the Democrat National Convention. One of the first things I took notice of is that he kept his eyes open as he prayed. I don’t believe there is any one position of prayer honored over another by example or word in the Bible. We could bow our heads in prayer or lift our eyes to the Heavens and I don’t think it matters much to God as long as our hearts are in the right place. It’s just that we are accustomed to seeing someone close their eyes when they pray so I noticed it.
Since Mr. Miller closed the prayer "in the Name of Your Son, Jesus", I have to assume he honors the Word of God as his primary example. As I said, I do not want to question anyone’s prayer life, but this prayer was seemingly constructed for political impact and did not seem to be directed at God.
It seems as if Donald Miller truly believes the things about which he speaks. The more I read about him, the more I realized he is still searching, and that he champions those causes about which he speaks and writes. In that light, I believe he was just a willing tool and the Democrat leaders simply saw his message as a way to inflame their Party and the nations weak against the Republicans.
"Give us a passion to advance opportunities for the least of these, for widows and orphans,
for single moms and children whose fathers have left".
Donald knows what it is to lose a father and what it’s like to be raised by a single parent. He’s also very aware of the Bible’s command for pure religion. James 1:27 states that, "Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world." No one can argue that we, as Christians are commanded to take care of the widows and orphans, but it is a pure distortion of the Word, mostly promoted by the Democrat party that we should take from others who have at the point of a gun (in the form of taxation) and "redistribute to others as the government dictates. James was definitely not speaking to the government or "of the government in the Bible. He was speaking to the "twelve tribes of Israel "scattered among the nations". These were admonitions to the children of God, not to the government!
Donald Miller may know the Word of God, but he does not know his history. The government does not do the job of the Church efficiently or effectively. In fact, whenever government has gotten involved in the business of the Church, it has become bloated and arrogant, leading to abuse of both the Church and the work of the Church to its own ends!
Now, let me get this out of the way so I don’t feel the need to keep repeating it. The Bible has a lot of words in it and most all of them are directed at how we should act towards others or towards God as humans. Almost every problem I have with the prayer of Donald Miller at the DNC will be directed at the fact Jesus or God never looked at government for the redistribution of wealth. In fact, Jesus teaching was directed at focusing our own hearts on giving… learning what God wants from us and how we should respond to the needs of others. The only thing that happens when governments take and redistribute is there is less to spread, as they are continually and unrepentantly wasteful, therefore less actually makes it to the intended recipient. I cannot afford to assume that Donald Miller has travelled this far in life as a Republican, then a Democrat without taking note of this point!
"Give those in this room who have power, along with those who will meet next week,
the courage to work together to finally provide health care to those who don’t have any"
Other than this being a direct slam on a major point in which liberals and conservatives differ, where in Gods word is there a Biblical edict for government healthcare? Let me see chapter and verse and I will bow at the altar of political expediency! Show me where Jesus said, "Render unto Caesar so that he can distribute among the sick and downtrodden healthcare for the broken bodies.
"…and a living wage so families can thrive rather than struggle".
"A living wage that the speaker talks about is defined by the opportunities we have as Americans. I am so tired of hearing people whine that they cannot make enough to survive. We decided as a family to live on one income early in our marriage and have never looked back. At six dollars and seventy five cents an hour, I did not "make enough fifteen years ago to make that happen, but we survived. I worked extra jobs and proved myself on the job and, when necessary, looked for a job at which I could make more money. It is the "American way to claw one’s own way up from the bottom, and I admit God has blessed our family through hard work made possible by Him. That’s why I have no time for the endless arguments about minimum wage. Minimum wage is meant as nothing more than a springboard. Yet it is all too often used as an excuse not to strive. Between government assistance programs and minimum wage, families are able to scrape along and just make it, so they do nothing to move forward. What this does is break the will of individuals until they become nothing but slaves of the State. You cannot look at the beginnings of this country and the individuals who donated blood, sweat and many tears and think this is what they envisioned.
Again, I believe it is our duty as Christians to give to those in need and help those who struggle. But it is not the same when we are taxed so that the government can give it to those in need. What we are being told by the government is that we do not and will not choose the right thing, and, if given the choice we would just let everyone die in poverty. Time and again this country’s citizens have risen to the occasion when our fellow citizens were in need. Time and again we have helped in sickness, flood and famine to raise the weak. We can only be taxed so much before we lose the ability to help others and our sole support will be the government. Only so much wealth can be redistributed before we have to call it what it is… COMMUNISM!!!
"Help us figure out how to pay teachers what they deserve and give
children an equal opportunity to get a college education".
I have to admit… my head is about to explode!!! I cannot fool myself into believing this guy is anything more than a shill for the Democrat Party! Every single talking point right down the line plays right into the hands of the Party. Every word that drips from his mouth during this prayer is, has and will flow from the primed pumps of the liberal mouthpieces that make up the Democrat Party!!!
It started that the state government would teach our children… our education was largely based on the Word of God, but as the government became more involved and eventually the Federal Government took over, the needs of the few outweighed the needs of the many. We had to cater to every religious wind of doctrine, or atheistic leaning that came our way until not even the slightest hint of God could enter into education. Today it’s gone so far that there is no God and no education… and I want the government to help send my kids to colleges that have forsaken God as well?
It is not and never has been the Governments duty to educate our children. Education was not a "right set forth by our forefathers. That’s just another lie of the Democrat party that has filtered all through the political spectrum and has infected our society. Do you want to know why the education of our children is failing miserably? It’s because we have abdicated the responsibility to educate our children and given it over to the government. Do you want to know why we are losing our children to the world? It’s because we blame a woefully inadequate and ungodly government education system for failing our kids, when God gave those children to us and made them our responsibility!
If anyone has failed our children, we have no one to blame but ourselves!!!
"Help us figure out the balance between economic opportunity and corporate gluttony."
Nary a day goes by that we don’t hear some talking head on the television spewing their venom at the "corporate boogie-man that seeks to destroy us. These evil minions of Satan start corporations with the simple thought in mind that they will strip us of our homes, our dignity and any good thing in life. Yet I never worked for a poor man in my life. I was never offered a job by a homeless man. By and large, the wealthy are not that way because they sat on their backsides their entire life. Most people start businesses for two reasons
1. They feel they know a better way to do it.
2. They want to make a profit.
In either case, they at one time were an employee. You have to be pretty cynical to believe every corporation and every CEO is out to get those who they employ; who are making a profit for them. And you have to be pretty naïve to think these same entrepreneurs wouldn’t promote those who will benefit them and compensate them for their diligence. What the Democrat Party would have you believe is that they are the only ones who can be pure of heart and look out for the common good. Sure there will be abuses, but the companies that use their workers will eventually lose their workers. Things have a way of equalizing… that is if the government doesn’t continually intervene.
"A lot of people don’t like us but that’s because they don’t know the heart of the average American.
Will you give us favor and forgiveness, along with our allies around the world?"
If the people of the world do not like us and if it’s because they don’t know the "heart of the average American", why do you suppose that would be?
Maybe it’s because the face of America the world sees is our government! And maybe the face of that government has been at odds with itself for so long the world has nothing to show for it but contempt. As children, we did not love our parents until we respected them. Surely this is something Donald Miller has learned about the nature of God, Himself. A sure way to lose respect for a parent is to know, as a child, you can play one against the other. At the end of this prayer, Mr. Miller spends time asking God to unify us as a nation. This is one request I know for sure God will not answer. Contrary to the governments belief, we as individuals have been granted free will. We can choose to agree or disagree. We can choose right paths or wrong paths. We can choose unity, or we can choose chaos.
As there are those who will fight for the side of righteousness for God’s sake, there are those who will fight for power and selfish gain. We have showed a face of confusion and discord to the world and they have come to hate and distrust us. We have let politicians bait us one against the other for as long as there was office to be attained and money to be made… and this is where it has gotten us.
It’s time to stop wondering when the world will love us and just get back to doing what is right.
It’s time to stop asking the government to wipe your nose and wipe it yourself.
I cannot see the heart of Donald Miller any more than I can always define my own heart. I can only say that his words are offensive and wrong. I cannot say for sure that they are a stench to God, but I can say his words stink to me. I pray that the man is sincere, but I can’t care too much about that right now. I’m too worried that his message will further destroy this country. And don’t think for a minute that our enemies haven’t heard these words and the words of self-seeking politicians. Understand that the Putin’s and the Ahmadinajads of this world smell weakness… don’t think that every dictator and rogue state wouldn’t cast their vote for Barack Obama.
All you have to do is ask one.
As for me, I will keep praying that God will make me more aware of His perfect will for my life. I will pray God will show me how to lead my family and those I meet every day.
And I will pray God will make me a strong leader for this country, imperfect as I am.
That he will continue to lift up Godly leaders for this country.
That these leaders will instill into the people of this nation a willingness to love Him and love others
And the courage to fight so that we might return to our roots and, once again, make America a Christian Nation.
