Closing Prayer: March for Life, Billings, MT

Yellowstone Valley Christians for Life sponsored the local March for Life here in Billings on Sunday, January 19th. We gathered at Soup and Such and marched to the Court House, where Mike Rapkoch, member of YVCfL, provided a brief talk before keynote speaker Dr. R. C. Sproul, Jr. (RC Jr. also provided the opening prayer at the Court House.) I had the privilege of leading the crowd in a closing prayer.

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1:30 PM
Sunday, January 19, 2014
March for Life
Billings, MT

Our Father in Heaven, sanctify us through thy word; thy word is truth (John 17:17). We praise you for Jesus Christ, for having ransomed sinners like us from sin’s curse. We praise you for Jesus Christ, who prays for us and intercedes on our behalf right now at your right hand in Heaven. And we thank you for the gift of the Holy Ghost, who regenerated us—giving us new natures, making you our Heavenly Father.

O Lord, we are reminded of what Christ told his disciples: “In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world” (John 16:33). Lord, we know that tribulations occur according to your all good and wise providence, and that they are the means by which you cultivate our faith and craft our souls to desire you, our Triune Lord, more and more and more. And Lord, we do not fear tribulations; for You are our strength and defense (Psalm 59:9).

And Lord, because you are our strength and defense, we pray and ask and beseech that you would teach us how to be both a strength and defense for the innocents—teach us how to be penitent defenders of the unborn and of the downtrodden. We also pray for our prayers: fill us with your Holy Ghost, and in filling us make us powerful and diligent, make us humble and submissive before you in prayers-of-repentance and prayers-of-intercession on the behalf of children in the womb. And we pray for the salvation of men: we pray that you would give the gift of saving faith to the fathers and mothers whose hearts have turned away from their children; we pray that you would give the gift of saving faith to the butchers who perform abortions, that they might confess their sin, repent, and find salvation in the Redeemer-Jesus.
 
And Father, we pray to you corporately:

 

Prayer to End Abortion

 

Lord God, I thank you today for the gift

 

of my life,

 

and for the lives of all

 

my brothers and sisters.

 

I know there is nothing that destroys more life

 

than abortion,

 

yet I rejoice that you have conquered death

 

by the Resurrection of Your Son.

 

I am ready to do my part in ending abortion.

 

Today I commit myself

 

Never to be silent,

 

Never to be passive,

 

Never to be forgetful of the unborn.

 

I commit myself to be active

 

in the pro-life movement,

 

and never to stop defending life

 

until all my brothers and sisters are protected,

 

and our nation once again becomes

 

a nation with liberty and justice,

 

not just for some, but for all.

 

Through Christ our Lord, Amen!



40 Days for Life Kickoff Rally

Yellowstone Valley Christians for Life sponsors the local 40 Days for Life here in Billings. Last night was the Kickoff Rally, hosted at St. Bernard Catholic Church. I provided the opening prayer (see below), and Father John, Orthodox Priest at St. Nicholas, and Mike Rapkoch, member of YVCfL, provided a couple wonderful talks, and Dr. Bill Phillips, President Emeritus at Yellowstone Christian College, provided the closing prayer.

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7 PM
Tuesday, September 24, 2013
40 Days for Life Kickoff Rally
St. Bernard Catholic Church
Billings, MT

2 Chronicles 7:14  “If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.”

Our Father in Heaven: You are the Master and Blessed Creator of the Universe and Jesus Christ, your only Begotten Son, is the Savior and Redeemer of man. We are your covenant people, called by your name because You, the Father and the Son, have sent us your Holy Spirit, to fill and empower and communicate to us the righteousness and victory that Jesus Christ secured for us through his life, death, burial, and resurrection.

O Lord, because we have your Holy Spirit we have an unction and understanding, because now your Law has been written in our hearts, so that we might do all that Christ commands. And since we know that which Christ commands, we come before you this evening as faithful Christians; as brothers and sisters in the household of faith; as citizens in the Kingdom of God. We come before you this evening at this Kickoff Rally, O Triune Lord, as a members of the Culture-of-Life, and as a Witness against our Nation’s and the World’s Culture-of-Death.

In your Perfect Law you condemn murder: to Moses you said , “Thou shalt not kill.”

Our society, O Lord, has scoffed at your Law. Truly, our Nation is a country of sinners and scoffers. And because of this, we, your people - those who are called by your name - we come now before you in humility and prayer, interceding on the behalf of our nation.

Lord, we confess and acknowledge that we live in a society that has built prosperity and a culture, economies and our cities upon the blood of the Aborted. Blood flows from the operation tables in the abortion facilities, out doors, over sidewalks, and into the streets. This blood is mixed with the mortar that is our Nation’s progress and growth, and thus, Lord, we come before you and confess that we live in a Nation of bloody-city-builders.

Lord, we thank you that we can be witnesses against the culture of death and against the vain raging of a Nation that builds cities with the blood of the unborn: their voices have been silenced, but we will not be silenced by the power of your Spirit. So, O Lord, we ask that you would do a mighty work through the 40 Days for Life in our Valley. Protect the many who in the days to come will offer up the sacrifice of prayer to you on the behalf of the unborn; and we rejoice knowing that you have promised through your Word, which never returns void, that “The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.“

We ask that the hearts of fathers and mothers would be turned to their children through our witness. We ask that you would save babies here in Billings! We ask that you would prevent mother’s from committing the sin of aborting their children here in Billings! We ask that you would close the Abortion Facility that is here in Billings -- in our midst, in our city, just up the road -- and we ask that you would do all this in order that you might be Glorified!  We pray these things in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.