HOLIDAYS
Historical References and Anniversaries
February 12 – President Lincoln’s Birthday
February 20 – President’s Day
February 22 – Washington’s Birthday
This month, the majority of this Nation will be acknowledging the deeds of two former presidents, through the observance of President’s Day. This month as we ‘observe’ these holidays, I want to encourage you to take a peek at the “other side”. Not only were these men notable leaders and men of great faith, but they were known as Indian Fighters, too. Following are some websites with quotes and statistics. These may not be the most neutral websites or the most informative. However, combined they provide glimpses of both sides. It is not my purpose to speak ill or be unpatriotic. I’m merely bringing attention to the ‘other side’ – the side that our American Indian people have understood since the beginning. We have to be sensitive about celebrating ‘people’ who are public figures known for serving the dominate population during times of great conflict, particularly if we leave out significant information.
Lincoln and the Black Hawk War
http://americancowboy.com/culture/abe-lincoln-indian-fighter
A list of American Hero / Indian Fighters
http://www.greatdreams.com/lies.htm
February 15, 1931 ~ President Hoover Speaks of The Writings of George Washington
http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=22976&st=Indians&st1=Washington#axzz1jmVGH11D
The Writings of George Washington – 1732 – 1799 Vol. 1
http://etext.virginia.edu/toc/modeng/public/WasFi01.html
Scripture References
Scripture gives some great insight on how we can proceed in prayer.
“A time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance, … A time to love and a time to hate, a time for war and a time for peace. [Luke 14:26].” Ecclesiastes 3:4 & 8 (Amplified)
“Rejoice with those who rejoice [sharing others’ joy], and weep with those who weep [sharing others’ grief]”. Romans 12:15 (Amplified)
“Bear (endure, carry) one another’s burdens and troublesome moral faults, and in this way fulfill and observe perfectly the law of Christ (the Messiah) and complete what is lacking [in your obedience to it]”. Galatians 6:2 (Amplified)
“They tie up heavy loads, hard to bear, and place them on men’s shoulders, but they themselves will not lift a finger to help bear them.” Matthew 23:4 (Amplified)
“For they have healed the wound of the daughter of My people only lightly and slightingly, saying, Peace, peace, when there is no peace.” Jeremiah 8:11 (Amplified)
“Shall not all these [victims of his greed] take up a taunt against him and in scoffing derision of him say, Woe to him who piles up that which is not his! [how long will he possess it?] And [woe to him] who loads himself with promissory notes for usury! Shall [your debtors] not rise up suddenly who shall bite you, exacting usury of you, and those awake who will vex you [toss you to and fro and make you tremble violently]? Then you will be booty for them. Because you [king of Babylon] have plundered many nations, all who are left of the people shall plunder you — because of men’s blood and for the violence done to the earth, to the city and all the people who live in each city. Woe to him who obtains wicked gain for his house, [who thinks by so doing] to set his nest on high that he may be preserved from calamity and delivered from the power of evil! You have devised shame to your house by cutting off and putting an end to many peoples, and you have sinned against and forfeited you own life. For the stone shall cry out of the wall [built in sin, to accuse you], and the beam out of the woodwork will answer it [agreeing with its charge against you]. Woe to him who builds a town with blood and establishes a city by iniquity! Behold, is it not by appointment of the Lord of hosts that the nations toil only to satisfy the fire [that will consume their work], and the peoples weary themselves only for emptiness, falsity, and futility? But [the time is coming when] the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. [Isa.11:9] Woe to him who gives his neighbors drink, who pours our your bottle to them and adds to it your poisonous and blighting wrath and also makes them drunk, that you may look on their stripped condition and pour out foul shame [on their glory]! You [yourself] will be filled with shame and contempt instead of glory. Drink also and be like an uncircumcised [heathen]! The cup [of wrath] in the Lord’s right hand will come around to you [O destroyer], and foul shame shall be upon your own glory! [Rev. 16:19] For the violence done to Lebanon will cover and overwhelm you, the destruction of the animals [which the violence frightened away] will terrify you on account of men’s blood and the violence done to the land, to the city and all its inhabitants.” Habakkuk 2:6-17 (Amplified)
“Obey your spiritual leaders and submit to them [continually recognizing their authority over you], for they are constantly keeping watch over your souls and guarding your spiritual welfare, as men who will have to render an account [of their trust]. [Do your part to] let them do this with gladness and not with sighing and groaning, for that would not be profitable to you [either].” Hebrews 13:17 (Amplified)
“He changes the times and the seasons; He removes kings and sets up kings. He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to those who have understanding! [Dan. 4:35].” Daniel 2:21 (Amplified)
“Malicious and unrighteous witnesses rise up; they ask me of things that I know not. They reward me evil for good to my personal bereavement. But as for me, when they were sick, my clothing was sackcloth; I afflicted myself with fasting, and I prayed with head bowed on my breast, I behaved as if grieving for my friend or my brother; I bowed down in sorrow; as one who bewails his mother. But in my stumbling and limping they rejoiced and gathered together [against me]; the smiters (slanderers and revilers) gathered against me, and I knew them not; they ceased not to slander and revile me.” Psalms 35:11-15 (Amplified)
Prayer for Holidays:
“Abba Father, Creator of All, we thank You that You have blessed this continent and have not cursed it, or forsaken it’s people. We thank You, that You are the one who is in control of the outcomes of wars and the elections of leaders. As members of the Euro-American dominant society and descendents of many Immigrant cultures, it is easy for us to rejoice in the Colonization and “Founding” of North America. It is easy for us to celebrate its victorious leaders. Help us and help the peoples of Turtle Island (North America), to see the other side. To see and understand what it is like to have another people group wipe you out and celebrate the victory. As we observe these American and patriotic holidays, let us also have great compassion and sensitivity to those who suffered and who were considered the enemy, the savage, and a people to be conquered and controlled. For hundreds of years we have asked, dare I say demanded and expected, the indigenous peoples to respect and honor these holidays and leaders, using Biblical principle to justify ourselves. Father, forgive us. Show us Your way of repentance in this matter. Father, for those of us who are indigenous or have indigenous roots, thank You for seeing our broken hearts. Thank You for seeing our struggles and for hearing our prayers. Father, forgive us for feeding the resentment, anger and rebellion. Forgive us also for burying our true feelings and attitudes, as we’ve struggled to survive in these circumstances. Show us the way to true healing. Father we pray for a day, when all peoples of this land, can celebrate in unity, with our eyes and hearts on You and Your great works. Father, we pray for Your divine intervention and guidance, grace and mercy, asking that You spare us, all of us, from further sins and consequences rooted in this huge wound. In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.”
HEALED HEARTS
Historical References and Anniversaries
February 10, 1982 – Everett R. Rhoades, MD – First Indian Director of the Indian Health Service
http://www.ihs.gov/PublicAffairs/Bios/index.cfm?module=Everett_Rhoades_bio
Also referenced in Phil Konstantin’s book, This Day in North American Indian History, although not on his online timeline.
American Heart Month – Heart Disease leading Cause of Death
http://www.cdc.gov/Features/HeartMonth/
When you visit the website of the Indian Health Service, you will find a brief story about its history, including a note that the relationship between the Euro American Government and the Tribes began as early as 1787. This ‘relationship’ was necessary for negotiations. It wasn’t until 1955 that the Indian Health Service was created. You will find in many of the governmental letters, proclamations and reports of the past, that the Government was in charge of providing the health and wellbeing of the American Indians. That’s almost 200 hundred years before the IHS was created. That is a long time for one people group to steward the health and wellbeing of another. Now, keep in mind that the IHS is still a Federal health program. It was almost another 30 years before the IHS had an American Indian Director. Now consider the state of the health and wellbeing of the entire population in North America. Heart Disease is reported as the leading cause of death. In fact, February is American Heart Month.
Scripture References
According to Scripture, hopelessness and sin are huge contributors to Heart Disease. However, unfortunately, there has been a lot of misuse of Scripture over the last 500 years, also. People looking backwards at outcomes and placing judgments about God’s favor. So, let’s look at the Scripture with new eyes, forgetting for a moment, the outcomes of the wars and westward expansion, as was discussed in the prayer point before.
Is it possible that our Nation is suffering from heart disease because (1) one people group is controlling another people group’s health, and (2) there has been 500 years of misrepresenting and mis-receiving the Gospel, interfering with faith and divine healing. The mistreatment of American Indians, as a whole, by the Church has interfered with their relationship with Yahweh, as a whole. (Hope deferred). Likewise, the sins of the Church, as a whole, has interfered with their relationship with Yahweh, also. (Causing Others to Sin.)
“Hope deferred makes the heart sick, But when the desire if fulfilled, it is a tree of life.” Proverbs 13:12 (Amplified)
“So the king said to me, Why do you look sad, since you are not sick? This is nothing but sorrow of heart. Then I was very much afraid. And said to the king, Let the king live forever! Why should I not be sad faced when the city, the place of my fathers’ sepulchers, lies waste, and its [fortified] gates are consumed by fire? The king said to me, For what do you ask? So I prayed to the God of heaven. And I said to [him], If it pleases the king and if your servant has found favor in your sight, I ask that you will send me to Judah, to the city of my fathers’ sepulchers, that I may rebuild it. The king, beside whom the queen was sitting, asked me, How long will your journey take, and when will you return? So it pleased [him] to send me; and I set him a time. Also I said to the king, If it pleases the king, let letters be given me for the governors beyond the [Euphrates] River, that they may let me pass through to Judah. And a letter to Asaph, keeper of the king’s forest or park, that he may give me timber to make beams for the gates of the fortress of the temple and for the city wall and for the house that I shall occupy. And the king granted what I asked, for the good hand of my God was upon me. Then I came to the governors beyond the River and gave them the king’s letters. Now the king had sent captains of the army and horsemen with me.” Nehemiah 2:2-9 (Amplified)
“Be strong and let you heart take courage, all you who wait for and hope for and expect the Lord!” Psalm 31:24 (Amplified)
“The Lord is close to those who are of a broken heart and saves such as are crushed with sorrow for sin and are humbly and thoroughly penitent.” Psalm 34:18 (Amplified)
“The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.” Psalm 51:17 (Amplified)
“Insults and reproach have broken my heart; I am full of heaviness and I am distressingly sick. I looked for pity, but there was none, and for comforters, but I found none.” Psalm 69:20 (Amplified)
“But you deal with me and act for me, O God the Lord, for Your name’s sake; because Your mercy and loving-kindness are good, O deliver me. For I am poor and needy, and my heart is wounded and stricken within me. I am gone like the shadow when it lengthens and declines; I toss up and down and am shaken off as the locust. My knees are weak and totter from fasting; and my body is gaunt and has no fatness. I have become also a reproach and a taunt to others; when they see me, they shake their heads. [Matt. 26:39.] Help me, O Lord my God; O save me according to Your mercy and loving-kindness! –“ Psalm 109:21-26 (Amplified)
“He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds [curing their pains and their sorrows]”. [Ps. 34:18; Isa. 57:15; 61:1; Luke 4:18].” Psalm 147:3 (Amplified)
“The heart knows its own bitterness, and no stranger shares its joy”. Proverbs 14:10 (Amplified)
“A glad heart makes a cheerful countenance, but by sorrow of heart the spirit is broken.” Proverbs 15:13 (Amplified)
“A friend loves at all times, and is born, as is a brother, for adversity. … A happy heart is good medicine and a cheerful mind works healing, but a broken spirit dries up the bones. [Prov. 12:25; 15:13, 15.]” Proverbs 17:17 & 22 (Amplified)
“Oil and perfume rejoice the heart; so does the sweetness of a friend’s counsel that comes from the heart.” Proverbs 27:9 (Amplified)
“If there is famine in the land or pestilence, blight, mildew, locust, or caterpillar, if their enemy besieges them in the land of their cities, whatever plague, whatever sickness there is, Whatever prayer or supplication is made by any or all of Your people Israel — each man knowing the affliction of his own heart, and spreading forth his hands toward this house [and its pledge of Your presence] — Then hear in heaven, Your dwelling place, and forgive and act and give to every man according to his ways, whose heart You know, for You and You only know the hearts of all the children of men, That they may fear and revere You all the days that they live in the land which You gave to our fathers.” 1 Kings 8:37-40 (Amplified)
“Two are better than one, because they have a good [more satisfying] reward for their labor; For if they fall, the one will lift up his fellow. But woe to him who is alone when he falls and has not another to lift him up!” Ecclesiastes 4:9-10 (Amplified)
“For they have healed the wound of the daughter of My people only lightly and slightingly, saying, Peace, peace, when there is no peace.” Jeremiah 8:11 (Amplified)
“I am the Lord your God, Who brought you forth out of the land of Egypt, that you should no more be slaves; and I have broken the bars of your yoke and made you walk erect [as free men]. But if you will not hearken to Me and will not do all these commandments, And if you spurn and despise My statues, and if your soul despises and rejects My ordinances, so that you will not do all my commandments, but break My covenant, I will do this: I will appoint over you [sudden] terror (trembling, trouble), even consumption and fever that consume and waste the eyes and make the [physical] life pine away. You shall sow your seed in vain, for your enemies shall eat it. I [the Lord] will set My face against you and you shall be defeated and slain before you enemies; they who hate you shall rule over you; you shall flee when no one pursues you. [1 Sam. 4:10; 31:1.]” Leviticus 26:13-17 (Amplified)
“And [Jesus] said to His disciples, Temptations (snares, traps set to entice to sin) are sure to come, but woe to him by or through whom they come! It would be more profitable for him if a millstone were hung around his neck and he were hurled into the sea than that he should cause to sin or be a snare to one of these little ones [lowly in rank or influence].” Luke 17:1-2 (Amplified)
“[But] God raised Him up, liberating Him from the pangs of death, seeing that it was not possible for Him to continue to be controlled or retained by it. For David says in regard to Him, I saw the Lord constantly before me, for He is at my right hand that I may not be shaken or overthrown or cast down [from my secure and happy state]. Therefore my heart rejoiced and my tongue exulted exceedingly; moreover, my flesh also will dwell in hope [will encamp, pitch its tent, and dwell in hope in anticipation of the resurrection]. You have made known to me the ways of life; You will enrapture me [diffusing my soul with joy] with and in Your presence. [Ps. 16:8-11.] “ Acts 2:24-28 (Amplified)
Prayer For Healed Hearts
“Abba Father, Yahweh, thank You that You are ultimately in charge of our healing. You created our hearts, You purify our hearts, You hear our hearts and You heal our hearts. Father, since the beginning of time You have provided emotional, physical, spiritual, mental, natural and supernatural medicines. To each people, You have given instruction and provided solutions through nature, science, technology and divine impartation. We are so thankful that You continue to meet our needs, answer our prayers, and show us the way. Father, throughout the history in North American, since the first time You brought multiple peoples together for Your good purpose, there has been a struggle over health and healing. In that struggle, many people have been wounded and even destroyed. The indigenous peoples of North America lost their voice in matters concerning their own health and wellbeing. The conquering people treating their physical wounds (in new ways), while neglecting their spiritual, emotional, and community wounds. We thank You for your mercy and grace, through the many years, as we have all suffered through the consequences. We also thank You for the many people who never gave up in the fight to see positive changes. We thank You that North American governments have historically tried to meet their obligations of providing physical health to their indigenous wards, and we thank You for the progress through such departments as Indian Health Services, that has created door ways into the healing of the heart, mind and soul. We also pray for Your divine intervention in the areas where neglect, fear and ignorance have actually prevented healing and wholeness. We pray that You will continue to move Your people forward in this journey. We thank you for the victories in rising up indigenous leaders in the health industry. We thank you for the many people who fight to hold agencies accountable. Father, even with the great progresses, the people of our land suffer from Heart Disease. Father, we ask that You heal the hearts of your North American people. We pray that You correct the wrongs, forgive the many sins, set Your peoples feet on paths of repentance and reconciliation, and that these great wounds be healed. We pray that You will heal all those who suffer from ‘deferred hope’ and we pray that You deliver all those who are guilty of causing others to sin, through imposing judgment, control and pride. We pray Yahweh, that You will heal the hearts of Your people. In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.”
Rev. Jeny Running Brook Covill
First Nations Monday
(Note: This is Part 3 of a study that was originally prepared in February 2012 in partnership with NIAP Prayer Shield)
Books Used in this 12 Month Study
The Holy Bible in the following translations: KJV, NIV, Amplified, NASB, CEV and The Scriptures.
“Church History in Plain Language” by Bruce L. Shelley
“Encyclopedia of Native American Wars & Warfare”. General Editors William B. Kessel, Ph.D. and Robert Wooster, Ph.D.
“This Day In North American Indian History” by Phil Konstantin
As with the First Nations Monday prayer and Scripture studies, I like to study with 5 translations. As you go through these studies, I encourage you to do the same. “The Scriptures” is a translation that includes the original Hebrew names and has the books in chronological order. The Contemporary English Version (CEV) is a translation that is written for ‘oral tradition’ peoples and it flows well while reading it aloud. The Amplified version is one where meanings of words and phrases are ‘amplified’ for better understanding. The King James Version (KJV) is the translation that works well with Strong’s Concordance. The Complete Jewish Bible (CJB) is a great companion version that I find gives great insight.
In addition, consider the following:
First Nations Version Project
A retelling of the Sacred Scriptures for Native Americans and all English speaking Indigenous peoples.
http://www.firstnationsversion.com/
Cherokee Bible Project – ONLINE – New Testament
https://sites.google.com/site/cherokeebibleproject/new-testament
Cherokee Bible Project – ONLINE – Old Testament
https://sites.google.com/site/cherokeebibleproject/old-testament-verses
Cherokee Bible Project Titles in Book form:
(A joint mission of the Cherokee Bible Project and Four Rivers Native American Church)
http://tuscanyglobal.com/bible/
Genesis in Cherokee
Haggai in Cherokee
Jonah in Cherokee
100 Days Of Indigenous Wisdom
Cherokee New Testament
New Cherokee Hymnal
Matthew’s Gospel in Cherokee
Mark’s Gospel in Cherokee
Luke’s Gospel in Cherokee
John’s Gospel in Cherokee
The Acts of the Apostles in Cherokee
ROMANS in Cherokee
CORINTHIANS in Cherokee
GALATIANS to COLOSSIANS in Cherokee
THESSALONIANS to HEBREWS in Cherokee
JAMES to JUDE in Cherokee
John’s Revelation in Cherokee
Pastoral Epistles in Cherokee (coming)
General Epistles in Cherokee (coming)
First Nations Monday 
Reblogged this on First Nations Monday and commented:
February historical prayer focus, part 3.
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