Ways to pray
Believers should be praying for the salvation of American
soldiers, Oliver North told Baptist Press. "[W]e all know guys and gals who don't know Him," he said.
by Kent Harville
Posted on 09/29/2003 4:08:23 PM PDT by Dubya
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (BP)--As believers look to pray for those in the military who are still in harm's way in Iraq each day, Lt. Col. Oliver North has identified three main prayer requests, drawn from his experience on today's battlefield.
North, who spoke at the Sept. 26 chapel service at LifeWay Christian Resources in Nashville, Tenn., told Baptist Press that Christians should pray for the soldiers' spiritual safety, for their physical safety and for the leaders of the United States.
"I want people to know how extraordinary these youngsters are," he said. "That's why I talk about them the way I do and that's why I write about them the way I do. And there are a lot of folks who are going to give a lot of credit to the generals and the colonels and the folks that led the operation, and they deserve a lot of credit, ... but the guys who carried it out ... are just extraordinary."
Prayer for the spiritual safety of the soldiers who were collectively successful in the toppling of Saddam Hussein's government is of utmost importance, North said.
"There are none of us who are believers who don't know folks who don't know Jesus," he told Baptist Press. "So my prayer in all I do is that as a consequence of my behavior -- the words that I've written or the things that I do, the way I act -- that someone else will come to know my Savior, Jesus."
The most important prayer is for a soldier's salvation, North said. They need to know where they're going and why they're going there, and they need to have no fear of getting lost on the way, North said.
"I think the most important thing for those of us who are believers, those of us who know the salvation that Jesus Christ offers us, is to pray for the salvation of others because we all know guys and gals who don't know Him," he said.
And the need to pray for their salvation is all the more vital when they're in danger, he said.
"And they're in harm's way," he said.
Second, believers should pray for the soldiers' physical safety and pray that godly men and women would surround them, North said.
"I'm telling youngsters all the time [that] an awful lot of life is who you hang around with, and one of the great things in my life is I'm surrounded by godly men," he told Baptist Press. "... We can encourage each other, we can admonish each other, we can confront one another with first of all the Word ... when we need a little bucking up, as we say in the Marines."
So as people pray for the soldiers to be out of the direct path of danger, they can also pray for them to be surrounded by people who will keep them on track.
"The temptations of life are such that the more you're surrounded by people who know the Lord the better your chance of getting through it without" messing it up, North said.
Third, because the military is directly impacted by the decisions made by leaders of the United States, North believes people should pray for those leaders.
"Quite frankly, I worked for a president that I revered and who was attacked a lot by the media -- they called him lazy, they called him a cowboy, all that kind of stuff -- but I've never seen anyone attacked as viciously as this president," said North, who served on President Ronald Reagan's National Security Council staff.
He believes the criticism of President Bush in part goes back to a presidential debate when a moderator asked Bush who his heroes were.
"And instantly he responded, 'Jesus Christ,'" North recalled. "And I can remember the moderator being a little stunned and saying, 'Why?' And his answer was very simple and it was, 'Because He changed my heart.'"
North said most Americans probably don't understand that concept, although he thinks people in the media who have attacked President Bush do understand it, and they're afraid of it.
"They understand that that was a very simple profession of his faith, and they know he means it," North said. "They know it's absolute sincerity. And that scares them because they don't share that belief."
He said in large part, the attack on the current commander in chief can be traced back to the words of Jesus, "Before they hated you, they hated Me."
North is working on an upcoming book which will be a compilation of what people have observed of the men and women serving in the Armed Forces today and of the victories achieved in Iraq and Afghanistan. He said he thinks the book will be a reassurance to the American people in some respects.
"When you see things like the professions of faith that I saw over there, guys just sitting down in a fighting hole or a trench line or their back up against the wall of a building they've just captured, you know they get a break and they break out the Word," he said. "It's very, very reassuring."
Ways to pray
Believers should be praying for the salvation of American
soldiers, Oliver North told Baptist Press. "[W]e all know guys and gals who don't know Him," he said.
by Kent Harville
Advocating for soldiers
Lt. Col. Oliver North identified three main prayer
requests for today’s military: prayer for their
spiritual safety, prayer for their physical safety and
prayer for the leaders of the United States.
by Morris Abernathy
Christians should pray for the soldiers' spiritual safety, for their physical safety and for the leaders of the United States.
"I want people to know how extraordinary these youngsters are," he said. "That's why I talk about them the way I do and that's why I write about them the way I do."
Ollie North, American hero, giving up national secrets to strengthen our national security.
If you want on or off my Pro-Coalition ping list, please Freepmail me. Warning: it is a high volume ping list on good days. (Most days are good days).
I am impressed with this generation. They have really stepped up and made a difference. I recently heard of one young soldier who was on an unmounted patrol when they came upon an IED:
"Yesterday morning my squad was doing a dismounted patrol and we found an IED. We called the EOD guys out to take care of it and we controlled the traffic. I was moving a car back when a Land Rover with 9 occupants came screaming down the road we were controlling. I stood in front of the Land Rover about 75 meters out and he kept coming. My team leader fired a couple of warning shots but that didn’t slow him down any. I put my SAW on ‘fire’ and let loose. Shot the engine block up pretty good The driver falls out of the vehicle and all I see is blood on his upper chest. The seven guys in the back seat didn’t get hit. We did what we could do to stop him but he wouldn’t comply so I reacted with deadly force. Because of his injuries, there was no way he could have survived, and he didn’t."
The image of that single soldier coolly standing in the middle of the road in front of a charging Land Rover really sticks in my mind. This country has a good future in those young people.
Ollie and US Troops BUMP!!!
"And instantly he responded, 'Jesus Christ,'" North recalled. "And I can remember the moderator being a little stunned and saying, 'Why?' And his answer was very simple and it was, 'Because He changed my heart.'"
North said most Americans probably don't understand that concept, although he thinks people in the media who have attacked President Bush do understand it, and they're afraid of it.
"They understand that that was a very simple profession of his faith, and they know he means it," North said. "They know it's absolute sincerity. And that scares them because they don't share that belief."
He said in large part, the attack on the current commander in chief can be traced back to the words of Jesus, "Before they hated you, they hated Me."
Our President will stay the course. He is tough.
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