Adam Graham
A new fashioned prayer meeting
By Adam Graham
I'm not accustomed to getting up at 6:00 a.m. At 7:30, I'm generally just out of the shower. I'd been part of the Keep the Commandments Coalition prayer vigils off and on since January. After they went to Friday-only vigils and moved the time back half an hour, I found it increasingly hard to make it to these times of prayer.
But October 1st, the day our cause would go to state court, I made my way there. Boise residents collected more than 10,000 certified signatures to call for a public vote to replace the Ten Commandments monument the city removed in late March with a brand new one along with a portion from the Virginia Statute of Religious Freedom, and a statement acknowledging the secular influence of both documents. The city didn't want to put the justly certified initiative to the people, so they went to court.
As I arrived, I saw several people already there. There was an evangelist I'd seen at a meeting in February and several other people who had come for the last prayer vigil before the hearing. We took turns praying that day. I saw good people I'd gotten to know in the course of the last few months: Mindy, Pastor Fischer, and Anthony Harper, publisher of the Treasure Valley Christian News.
We stood there for nearly 50 minutes praying. Of course, the monument case was a huge focus of our prayers, but we also prayed for our city, for healing in broken homes and broken hearts. We prayed for our national leadership and upcoming elections. We all took turns and we prayed.
Hundreds of vigils like this have occurred since January 20, when the city council decided to remove the monument without even a public hearing. I sit and I think of the people I've met with good caring hearts, who joined with fellow Christians to pray for something that mattered. We prayed in the snow, in morning, noon, and in the evening. We soldiered on for what was right. When they moved the monument, the vigils stopped for a time but some were discerning enough to realize that our prayers were even more important than the monument we'd come to defend.
Near the end of our time of prayer together, as a lull had occurred I began to sing "Great is thy Faithfulness." Pretty soon, we were all singing a song of praise to God. Baptist, Pentecostal, Charismatic, and who knows what else, we were praising God together.
Some Christians have asked in letters to the Idaho Statesman what good the Keep the Commandments Coalition will achieve, particularly if the efforts to have the monument put back in the park fail. One finds the answer in these simple prayer vigils.
The legacy of the Keep the Commandments Coalition is this: Boise Christians were reminded that despite whatever doctrinal disagreements they have that they serve one Lord, one King, and we live in one good land. As Christians and churches, we will either hang together or we'll hang separately. Our land can be healed by the prayer of His people and regardless of denomination, we're all His people.
That's the legacy of the Keep the Commandments Coalition and regardless of what else happens, I'm honored to share in it.
More information on the Keep the Commandments Coalition is available at http://www.keepthecommandmentsboise.com
© Adam Graham
I'm not accustomed to getting up at 6:00 a.m. At 7:30, I'm generally just out of the shower. I'd been part of the Keep the Commandments Coalition prayer vigils off and on since January. After they went to Friday-only vigils and moved the time back half an hour, I found it increasingly hard to make it to these times of prayer.
But October 1st, the day our cause would go to state court, I made my way there. Boise residents collected more than 10,000 certified signatures to call for a public vote to replace the Ten Commandments monument the city removed in late March with a brand new one along with a portion from the Virginia Statute of Religious Freedom, and a statement acknowledging the secular influence of both documents. The city didn't want to put the justly certified initiative to the people, so they went to court.
As I arrived, I saw several people already there. There was an evangelist I'd seen at a meeting in February and several other people who had come for the last prayer vigil before the hearing. We took turns praying that day. I saw good people I'd gotten to know in the course of the last few months: Mindy, Pastor Fischer, and Anthony Harper, publisher of the Treasure Valley Christian News.
We stood there for nearly 50 minutes praying. Of course, the monument case was a huge focus of our prayers, but we also prayed for our city, for healing in broken homes and broken hearts. We prayed for our national leadership and upcoming elections. We all took turns and we prayed.
Hundreds of vigils like this have occurred since January 20, when the city council decided to remove the monument without even a public hearing. I sit and I think of the people I've met with good caring hearts, who joined with fellow Christians to pray for something that mattered. We prayed in the snow, in morning, noon, and in the evening. We soldiered on for what was right. When they moved the monument, the vigils stopped for a time but some were discerning enough to realize that our prayers were even more important than the monument we'd come to defend.
Near the end of our time of prayer together, as a lull had occurred I began to sing "Great is thy Faithfulness." Pretty soon, we were all singing a song of praise to God. Baptist, Pentecostal, Charismatic, and who knows what else, we were praising God together.
Some Christians have asked in letters to the Idaho Statesman what good the Keep the Commandments Coalition will achieve, particularly if the efforts to have the monument put back in the park fail. One finds the answer in these simple prayer vigils.
The legacy of the Keep the Commandments Coalition is this: Boise Christians were reminded that despite whatever doctrinal disagreements they have that they serve one Lord, one King, and we live in one good land. As Christians and churches, we will either hang together or we'll hang separately. Our land can be healed by the prayer of His people and regardless of denomination, we're all His people.
That's the legacy of the Keep the Commandments Coalition and regardless of what else happens, I'm honored to share in it.
More information on the Keep the Commandments Coalition is available at http://www.keepthecommandmentsboise.com
© Adam Graham
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