In times of distress and hardship, man turns to God, regardless of who they call upon as their God. War is one of the most horrible types of human made distress, and it is a time that we turn to God.

America has taken on a needless war in which our young are dying and killing others, and the nation is in a time of distress and somberness; a time that we turn to God. But we should have turned to God long before the leadership of this nation propelled us into this war. Our leadership should have sought God for guidance, instead of turning to men.

The scriptures indicate that when Jonah diverted himself off God's way to his own way, he endangered all those within the ship he traveled. God had told him to go to Nineveh, and he went toward Joppa instead. [Jonah 1] When God brought destruction upon that ship in which Jonah traveled, the captain called upon everyone to arise and call upon his God. They turned to their gods in an effort to bring their distress to an end.

Furthermore, when Jonah repented and corrected his directions to the will of God, he went on into Nineveh and preached that God would destroy that city. The people there, hearing his preaching, rose up, seeing their soon doom, and called upon God for deliverance. [Jonah 3] And God delivered.

And to a nation and a people, God has advice to such a nation. When Solomon was crowned king of Israel, God appeared unto him and said, If I shut up heaven that there is no rain, or if I command the locusts to devour the land, or if I send pestilence among the people; If my people who 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. [2 Chron. 7:13-14]

God has said that regardless of the distress of the people, the conditions of the people, the pain of the people, if His people would look to him, would turn to Him, would humble themselves, would pray and turn from their wicked way, God would hear them and change the conditions they are in if they change their sinful conditions and ways.

Clearly, this nation has turned wholly away from God--from the very leadership of the most fundamentalist religions to the leadership of the most liberal religions. Americans have a mouth love of God but a whole love of this world. We have given ourselves over to pleasure and the things of this world so much that our religious leaders are attempting to make God conform to their versions of the righteousness, instead of curbing their behavior and vision to God's word.

And because our leadership does not know God, they have taken us into wars that are needless and not for any other reason than avarice and pride. This president and our religious leaders claim to know God with their mouths, but their hearts are far from the living God. Therefore, we send our young boys and also our young girls out to a foreign land to die a needless death. There are and were other ways to achieve the objective this administration claimed was the reason for this nation invading Iraq, an old biblical land. These other options are more effective, more practical, and more human valuing than war. The way of peace, we have not known!

But during times of distress and war, we call upon our God. You, my brothers and sisters, along with us can touch the Throne of Grace; let us call upon our God to bring this conflict to an end, to bring our children home, to stop the killing of others whom we have needlessly demonized, and to bring morality to the decision-making process in this Bush White House and in our churches.

If my people who 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. []

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