Posted on 12/31/2016 5:02:22 AM PST by BlessedBeGod
The Reverend Franklin Graham will offer the invocation, benediction and several readings at the swearing-in ceremony of Donald Trump. “I think maybe God has allowed Donald Trump to win this election to protect this nation for the next few years," he said.
WASHINGTON — The Reverend Franklin Graham isn’t sure which Scripture he’ll read at the January 20 inauguration of President-elect Donald Trump.The evangelist and head of both the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association and international relief organization Samaritan’s Purse won’t get to make remarks at the event, but he will get to pick his own Bible passage, which could say a lot.
Will it be something hopeful to heal a divided nation? Something pointed about the importance of praying for leaders?
Graham was praying about that Thursday (December 29), he told RNS, the day after it was announced he is one of six clergy chosen to offer the invocation, benediction and several readings at the swearing-in ceremony.
“You want it to be meaningful not only to your president-elect, but you want it to be meaningful also to the nation,” Graham said.“I’m taking time just to pray and ask God to give me wisdom and guidance because it’s a responsibility that I take very seriously.”
This is the third inauguration Graham will have attended, he noted. The first was to assist his father Billy Graham at the second inauguration of President Bill Clinton in 1997; the second, to offer the invocation at the first inauguration of President George W. Bush in 2001.
It follows his Decision America Tour, during which he held rallies in each of the 50 U.S. state capitals to urge evangelical Christians to pray about the upcoming election and vote for candidates of any party who agree with their values.
Weeks before launching the tour, Graham announced he had resigned from the Republican Party and declared himself an independent. And he was careful to note throughout the campaign that he endorsed neither Trump, a Republican, or Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton.
But, he said, he got the sense “God was going to do something in our country — just from the people coming early in the day, standing in hot sun, standing in freezing cold, standing in snow, standing in rain, and they came to pray. They didn’t come to hear me. They came to pray for their nation.”
Graham has had some supportive words for Trump, noting the president-elect has surrounded himself from the start with a number of evangelical Christians in a way he said Clinton didn’t.
That included Vice President-elect Mike Pence; his choice to lead the Department of Housing and Urban Development, Ben Carson; Liberty University President Jerry Falwell Jr.; and former Arkansas governor and Baptist minister Mike Huckabee.
“Even though Donald Trump has some rough edges, there’s something inside of him that desires the counsel of Christian men and women, and I don’t know one Christian on Hillary Clinton’s team,” he said.
Clinton has spoken openly about her United Methodist faith. And asked about her choice of running mate, Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine, who volunteered with Jesuit missionaries in Honduras as a young man, Graham said the Democrat had difficulty connecting with evangelical Christians in the same way because he was Catholic and because of his party’s support for abortion rights and same-sex marriage.
He also pointed to the list of potential Supreme Court justices the Trump campaign had released, saying, as he had before the election, “It’s not about her emails. It’s not about his bad language. It’s about the Supreme Court … and who do you trust to appoint judges that are going to be in favor of Christian liberty?”
“I think maybe God has allowed Donald Trump to win this election to protect this nation for the next few years by giving maybe an opportunity to have some good judges,” he said.
Do you think the Russians interfered with the outcome of the U.S. election or was it God?
— Franklin Graham (@Franklin_Graham) December 14, 2016
It’s not the first time Graham expressed his belief God had played a role in the results of the November election. He had tweeted earlier this month suggesting it was God, not Russia, that had interfered with the outcome.
In an interview Thursday, he said he doesn’t know if Russia hacked the election, and he doesn’t presume to know how God works. But he knows God answers prayers.
And, Graham said, “All I know is Donald Trump was supposed to lose the election,” according to projections of the results.
“For these states to go the way they did, in my opinion, I think it was the hand of God,” he said. “It wasn’t hacking. It wasn’t Wiki-leaky or whatever. It was God, in my opinion, and I believe his hand was at work, and I think he’s given Christians an opportunity.”
LOL - good point.
The cats are upset that we’re thawing out the freezer. It smells like rot.
The “Octave Day of Christmas” is the date of the Circumcision of Christ, but January 1 is currently observed as the Feast of Mary, Mother of God. The Orthodox, who never update, probably still have the 8th day of Christmas as the Feast of the Circumcision.
Some of my boys were given a tiny piece of candy at the time.
Thanks for that info. HNY!
“Same,” as my kids say. Is it bedtime yet?
Nope. I guess I have to play Candy Land with Kathleen. She always tries to cheat, as one would expect of Tom’s protegee.
My grandson beat my wife so regularly—without cheating—at both CandyLand and Chutes’n’Ladders that I offered to hire her a coach.
Bad Karma! Kathleen does not like Chutes and Ladders, but she has a “Princess Sofia” game that incorporates concepts from both that and Candy Land.
Amen.
God's ways: good for some, bad for others.
Isaiah 43:16, 18-19
Thus saith the Lord, which maketh a way in the sea, and a path in the mighty waters; Remember ye not the former things, neither consider the things of old. Behold, I will do a new thing; now it shall spring forth; shall ye not know it? I will even make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert.
Maybe to expose the depth of sin and sickness in this nation and world of nations to people willing to see it against the back drop of God’s holiness.
David Prays in the Assembly
1 Chronicles 29:10-22
10 Therefore David blessed the LORD in the presence of all the assembly. And David said: “Blessed are you, O LORD, the God of Israel our father, forever and ever. 11 Yours, O LORD, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the victory and the majesty, for all that is in the heavens and in the earth is yours. Yours is the kingdom, O LORD, and you are exalted as head above all. 12 Both riches and honor come from you, and you rule over all. In your hand are power and might, and in your hand it is to make great and to give strength to all. 13 And now we thank you, our God, and praise your glorious name.
14“But who am I, and what is my people, that we should be able thus to offer willingly? For all things come from you, and of your own have we given you. 15 For we are strangers before you and sojourners, as all our fathers were. Our days on the earth are like a shadow, and there is no abiding. 16 O LORD our God, all this abundance that we have provided for building you a house for your holy name comes from your hand and is all your own. 17 I know, my God, that you test the heart and have pleasure in uprightness. In the uprightness of my heart I have freely offered all these things, and now I have seen your people, who are present here, offering freely and joyously to you. 18 O LORD, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, our fathers, keep forever such purposes and thoughts in the hearts of your people, and direct their hearts toward you. 19 Grant to Solomon my son a whole heart that he may keep your commandments, your testimonies, and your statutes, performing all, and that he may build the palace for which I have made provision.”
20 Then David said to all the assembly, “Bless the LORD your God.” And all the assembly blessed the LORD, the God of their fathers, and bowed their heads and paid homage to the LORD and to the king. 21 And they offered sacrifices to the LORD, and on the next day offered burnt offerings to the LORD, 1,000 bulls, 1,000 rams, and 1,000 lambs, with their drink offerings, and sacrifices in abundance for all Israel. 22 And they ate and drank before the LORD on that day with great gladness.
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