The hymn broke off with a flurry of sour notes and squeaking horns, and I looked up to see our minister of music being restrained by a uniformed police officer…Before Pastor Ron could get to the pulpit to ask what was going on, he, too, was forcibly restrained and hauled from the sanctuary by a team of officers. Fear and confusion rippled through the audience, and those who tried to run out the exits found them blocked by police…

…Do you see why I said it wasn’t my fault? Do you understand why I wanted to tell you the whole story of that awful week so that you wouldn’t get the wrong idea?

How could I have known that powerful people in the media and education and government were out to exclude God from every arena of life?

How could I have known that they intended to corrupt the morals of my children and lead them into a cesspool of debauched sex and drugs?

How could I have known that they would make evangelism a hate crime and declare Christians legally insane? How was I to know they’d take my kids away from me and put me in this mental institution? How could I have known?

It’s not my fault I tell you.

(Excerpt from Mind Siege by Tim LaHaye and David Noebel, pgs. 28-31)

How indeed?

I remember my grandparents and parents talking about how one day it would be illegal to pray in Jesus’ name in America. This was just a couple of years after they took prayer out of school. I don’t recall praying in school; I began the first grade in 1963 the year prayer in school was banned. But I clearly remember one of my relatives saying, “You mark my words, some day it will be illegal to pray in public!”

Some day is here.

We no longer have the luxury of looking to the future. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is working overtime to make prayer illegal.

I live and worship in Santa Rosa County, Florida. You may have heard of our county in the news lately. I asked my Sunday school class how many of us were born in Santa Rosa County. Not one of us raised our hands. I got close; I lived in Santa Rosa, California before, but none of us were born here. Did we all just end up here by chance?

Or could we be facing a time similar to that of Queen Esther:

And Mordecai told them to answer Esther: “Do not think in your heart that you will escape in the king’s palace any more than all the other Jews. For if you remain completely silent at this time, relief and deliverance will arise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father’s house will perish. Yet who knows whether you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this?” (Esther 4:13-14)

Have I and other Christians living in Santa Rosa County, Florida and other Christians living in neighboring counties found ourselves in the Florida Panhandle for a time such as this?

Two of our own are facing jail time for praying in Jesus’ name, during a luncheon, on school grounds. Pace High School Principal Frank Lay and Athletic Director Robert Freeman are set to face criminal contempt charges in federal court. You can read the particulars here, but my dear brothers and sisters in Christ, if we do not stand in the gap for God and our First Amendment rights, this fight will not end here.

The whole country’s eyes are upon us.

God is watching us from above to see if we will be found worthy.

The Lord Jesus Christ is watching to see if we will deny Him, to our own peril…

For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words, of him the Son of Man will be ashamed when He comes in His own glory, and in His Father’s, and of the holy angels. (Luke 9:26)

We have exactly one month before these two men have their day in court. We the Body need to get busy.

How can we help?

First and foremost, pray.

Second, let’s put our money where our mouths are. If we are truly tired of the ACLU picking on smaller school districts using their bullying tactics, we need to fight back.

Most of you know that I have been a loud critic of Mat Staver at the Liberty Counsel but Brothers Lay and Freeman have accepted legal representation from Liberty Counsel and I am willing to help support LC on this fight.

I pray that Liberty Counsel will not only work hard to keep these two men out of jail, but also will help to overturn the ridiculous and unconstitutional ruling of a consent order that brought this legal fiasco.

I also plan to be at the courthouse the day of the trial. If I cannot get inside of the courtroom, I intend to pray just outside the courtroom doors. If I am not allowed to pray outside the doors, I will pray outside the courthouse. I am hoping to see enough people in attendance that we can encircle the whole courthouse with prayer warriors calling down God’s mercies and will upon this preceding. I will provide the exact time and location later.

Some of you might be thinking they could have just had a time of silent prayer, praying silently is okay.

My pastor put it this in perspective yesterday in his sermon.

Praying silently is acceptable in Russia; this is America.

People are praying silently everywhere in the world and some of those prayers are for the liberties we enjoy as a nation.

And those are the very same liberties we as a nation are willingly watching being eroded every day.

No more.

It stops in my county.

If I don’t fight then…

…it will be my fault I tell you.

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