[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 159 (2013), Part 7]
[House]
[Page 9392]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

                                 PRAYER

  Reverend Brad Hales, Reformation Lutheran Church, Culpeper, Virginia, 
offered the following prayer:
  Lord God, maker of Heaven and Earth, I thank You and praise You for 
the blessing of this day. I thank You for our country. I thank You for 
the laws and government which You instituted for order and honor, and I 
thank you for our active military and veterans who have sacrificed over 
and over to make us free.
  Father, as a Nation, as individuals, and as a government, we must 
repent and always come back to You for truth, wisdom, forgiveness, and 
hope. Let us follow Your words from the Prophet Joel: ``Return to the 
Lord Your God, for He is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and 
abounding in steadfast love.''
  I pray all these things in the powerful and the authority-filled name 
of Jesus Christ of Nazareth.
  Amen.

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