[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 83 (Tuesday, June 23, 1998)]
[House]
[Page H4971]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                                 PRAYER

  Reverend Mike Coleman, Pastor, Park Methodist Church, Hannibal, 
Missouri, offered the following prayer:
  Let us pray.
  Almighty God, who governs the world in righteousness and whose 
judgments are true and righteous altogether, grant that those who rule 
over our land and who legislate for us, its citizens, may be of one 
mind in order to establish true justice and to truly promote the 
general welfare of all our people.
  As You, God of Eternity, anointed leaders and called-forth prophets 
of old, bring to us again Your spirit which makes holy, and call forth 
from this august assembly today newly-dedicated prophets and newly-
determined leaders who will deliver Your message of truth and not just 
their own.
  Lead us to recognize those true representatives and authentic leaders 
as men and women who walk with You, who love Your people and can walk 
with them, who empathize their pain and share their joys, who dream 
their dreams and strive to accompany them in their common goal.
  In Your fire and with Your spirit embolden and commission we the 
people to empower these, our nationally-elected officials, to serve in 
ways that bring real glory to Your name.
  Endow each of these, our representatives, with a right understanding, 
a pure purpose and a sound speech. Enable them to rise above all self-
seeking and party zeal to the nobler concerns of public good and human 
brother- and sisterhood.
  Cleanse our public life of every evil, subdue in our country all that 
is harmful, and make us to be a disciplined and devoted people, that we 
may do Your will on Earth, as it is done in heaven.
  We ask these things, O God, in the name of Jesus, Your Son, the 
Christ. Amen.

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