I want to bring your attention to the two prayer events that took place on Saturday (Sept. 26) in Washington, D.C.  You might have watched on line or even attended.  I watched on line. This was a “kairos” moment in time (ancient Greek for “opportune” or “critical”) for our divided nation. 

Jonathan Cahn, the organizer of “The Return,” described  the spiritual condition of our nation when he said, “We drove God out of our hearts, out of our government, out of our ways, out of laws, out of the education of our children, out of the public squares…out of our businesses, out of our media, out of our culture, out of our lives.  And as we drove Him out, we opened up a vacuum into which came a flood of other gods.”

What are we to do?  His answer :”Repent and return.”  This theme is what moved me as I took part in front of my computer.  Again and again participants from around the country kept crying out to God for mercy, repenting of their sins, while asking God to send His Holy Spirit to heal our land.  

At the same time Franklin Graham was leading a Prayer March starting at The Lincoln Memorial and going down the entire 1.8 mile long National Mall.  Before the prayer march began he said, “I’m asking people to join me and let’s exalt the name of Jesus Christ.  Let’s call upon the name of Almighty God, repent of our sins and ask God to heal our land… that he would work in the hearts of our politicians.”

There were many thousands of believers, focusing on the same purpose: bringing America back to its first love and repenting before a holy God.  Here are some things that impressed me with the many thousands who were there.  By the way, none of the media gave it any attention, except for a few of the Christian outlets.  This again shows the bias of the dominant, secular media.

The behavior of such a large crowd?   No reports of mayhem.  No looting.  No vandalism.  No calls to “burn it down.”  The speakers did not call for violence and destruction.  Rather one could see families and groups huddled in earnest prayer for America.

The earnestness of prayer.  “We’re in a real Nineveh moment,” declared one leader.  “We have 40 days and all we know could be over.  And so we need God to hear the cries of the righteous remnant.”

It was a Sacred, Solemn Assembly.  “This is not a presentation, a concert or a glorified prayer meeting. This is a sacred, solemn assembly- where we come, the church comes, and we bow before a holy God in reverent fear” noted an organizer.

It was challenging.  Many spoke about a return to God, calling us to repentance.  The focus was on believers, rather than placing blame or complaining how bad things have.  “We deserve your judgment, Father, but we ask for Your grace.  We ask for Your mercy,” prayed a participant.

Finally, the universality of prayer.  “The Return” simulcast went out to 150 nations across six continents in 90 languages.  Can you imagine such a large prayer meeting.  This is, in my opinion, an event unique in the history of the church.  It is the book of Acts all over again.  Praise God!!

 “Lord, I have heard of your fame; I stand in awe of your deeds, O Lord.  Renew them in our day, in our time make them known; in wrath remember mercy (Hab. 3:2).  Men, at my age I can still “rise up” and pray.  Open your heart to the Lord and cry out to him in these days.   

I read Glenn Stanton’s recent article in The Daily Citizen (Focus on the Family) entitled “Atlantic Magazine Science Writer: Men Don’t Have to Menstruate.”  It got my attention.  The article was “about how suffering through the end of their monthly cycle might now be a thing of the past for women.”  But the shocker was, “that men need no longer to have their period either.”  Stanton calls this confusion “a significant cultural indicator.”  

The article demonstrated how an influential magazine like the Atlantic has in Stanton’s words bowed, “low to the new gender theory orthodoxy that yes, both men and women do indeed have periods and no one should think otherwise.”  

The article  highlights how menstruation is becoming an elective bodily process. One expert believes, “We now have the technology to make periods optional.”  While reporting on a personal health issue for women, Stanton points out “the astonishing editorial choices” used in writing the article.  “Her” is avoided, with the use of the gender-neutral “their.”

In order maintain that menses are not solely a female issue, phrases such as “people who have periods” is used,  along with “people who have periods spend an average of 2,300 days of their lives menstruating.”   Then their is this curious statement, “The cost of so-called feminine products can add up to thousand of dollars over a person’s lifetime.”  Why not just say women or female.   Because as Stanton point out the Atlantic, “is following a……wholly novel theory that a man can be as legitimately a woman as any other woman merely by declaring himself one.”

Stanton wonders why “the otherwise fine Atlantic piece didn’t specify whether ‘men’ were included in their analysis.  He replies “it had to do with the difference between doing actual science and pushing a wholly creative ideology that is directly at odds with one of the most fundamental realities of what it means to be a human.”

You know there is confusion when Facebook has listed over 50 gender options to choose from when filling out a personal profile.  This is sure proof that “gender” has become untethered from reality.  The remedy is to go back to the original design, at the beginning, found in the book of Genesis. 

Jesus was definite in telling us, “at the beginning the Creator ‘made them male and female'” (Matt. 19:4), going on the say that the two in marriage cannot be separated.  The Pharisees questioned Jesus  stand on marriage, saying Moses allowed for divorce.  Jesus was saying in effect, “this is not the way God created it to be.  Something has gone terribly wrong. This was not the way in was in the beginning.” 

Christopher West uses the analogue of  people driving with a flat tire as being normal when it comes to our sexuality.  But Jesus is telling the pharisees that “in the beginning, they had air in their tires.”  We need to go back to the beginning to see how distorted of view of sexuality has become.

Jesus came into the world not to condemn those with flat tires, but rather to re-inflate their flat tires.  West observes, “We cannot actually return to the state of innocence; we’ve left that behind.  But by following Christ we can receive God’s original plan for our sexuality and live it with Christ’s help.” 

I love the analogue of “flat tires.”  Men, turn to Jesus in humble dependence, asking him to fill the deep caverns of your soul, so that you might be affirmed in your fully alive masculine soul.  Jesus can inflate your tires, giving you all the passion and energy you need to be “one” with your bride.