AWAKEN THE SLEEPING GIANT

Conference Call #12

Dedication to Prayer

Philip Burley

March 8 and 9, 2006

Conference Call Number: 712-432-3000

Bridge Number: 261644
[no longer active]

Good evening and welcome everyone! This is Philip Burley speaking. This is our twelfth Awaken the Sleeping Giant conference call. Our next conference calls will be on Wednesday, March 15 and Thursday, March 16, 2006.

In order to establish unity and oneness in spirit, let us begin by speaking out our names and cities in unison. On the count of three, please speak out your name and city three times: One, two, three…

Thank you.

Opening Prayer

Dearest Heavenly Father, we come to you in our hearts, ready to hear and follow your guidance. You are the one unchanging reality in our life, whether we know it or not. You have willed and purposed all of life, including our own. The world around us may change, as we experience that it often does, but you do not change. You are as consistent as the moving of the earth around the sun and the moon around the earth.

Dearest Father, you are steadfast and unfailing. People around us may change and even we may change, causing confusion and even suffering for all involved. But you do not change. Like gold, you are the same, yesterday, today, and tomorrow. Dear God, you placed yourself in us that we may, in times like these in America, turn inside and find you there with solace, hope, peace, and promise to carry us on when everyone and all have could seemingly fail us.

Throughout eternity, your steadfast love will never change. Herein lies our hope and the hope of all people and all nations. Whatever the reality outside, inside you are there to lead us on in our individual and collective existence with a vision suffused with unbelievable love, whose outcome will be only holy and good. It is only a matter of time.

In you, Father, we can rest and hope and live when all else has failed us. Thank you, Father, for the reality of yourself and your ever-present, ever-caring love for us all.

All this I pray in the Christ Spirit and in the spirit of all those holy ones who have given their life to loving the world unconditionally. Amen.

Quote

Peace and friendship with all mankind is our wisest policy, and I wish we may be permitted to pursue it.

Opening Talk—Dedication to Prayer

We are in our 12th week or at the end of a three-month period of continuous prayer to Awaken the Sleeping Giant of the United States of America, as asked for by Jesus. This week I am keeping things very simple and am only going to read an article sent to me by one of you. You may have already read it, but it deserves to be read a number of times. It speaks for itself. Afterward, I will have a few remarks to make.

To Kill an American

You probably missed it in the rush of news last week, but there was actually a report that someone in Pakistan had published in a newspaper an offer of a reward to anyone who killed an American, any American.

So an Australian dentist wrote an editorial the following day to let everyone know what an American is, so they would know when they found one.

An American is English, or French, or Italian, Irish, German, Spanish, Polish, Russian or Greek. An American may also be Canadian, Mexican, African, Indian, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Australian, Iranian, Asian, or Arab, Pakistani, or Afghan.

An American may also be a Comanche, Cherokee, Osage, Blackfoot, Navaho, Apache, Seminole or one of the many other tribes known as Native Americans.

An American is Christian, or he could be Jewish, or Buddhist, or Muslim. In fact, there are more Muslims in America than in Afghanistan. The only difference is that in America, they are free to worship as each of them chooses.

An American is also free to believe in no religion. For that, he will answer only to God, not to the government, or to armed thugs claiming to speak for the government and for God.

An American lives in the most prosperous land in the history of the world. The root of that prosperity can be found in the Declaration of Independence, which recognizes the God Given Right of each person to the pursuit of happiness.

An American is generous. Americans have helped out just about every other nation in the world in their time of need, never asking a thing in return.

When Afghanistan was over-run by the Soviet army 20 years ago, Americans came with arms and supplies to enable the people to win back their country!

As of the morning of September 11, Americans had given more than any other nation to the poor in Afghanistan. Americans welcome the best of everything...the best products, the best books, the best music, the best food, the best services. But they also welcome the least.

The national symbol of America, The Statue of Liberty, welcomes your tired and your poor, the wretched refuse of your teeming shores, the homeless, tempest tossed. These in fact are the people who built America.

Some of them were working in the Twin Towers the morning of September 11, 2001 earning a better life for their families. It's been told that the World Trade Center victims were from at least 30 different countries, cultures, and first languages, including those that aided and abetted the terrorists.

So you can try to kill an American if you must. Hitler did. So did General Tojo, and Stalin, and Mao tse Tung, and other bloodthirsty tyrants in the world. But, in doing so you would just be killing yourself. Because Americans are not a particular people from a particular place. They are the embodiment of the Human Spirit of Freedom. Everyone who holds to that spirit, everywhere, is an American.

The dentist who wrote and published this article is not a part of our Awaken the Sleeping Giant prayer group. Yet, he has the same heart for this country that you and I do, and he has gone a long way in defending and taking care of this precious place called America.

To pray as we have is not easy. To care beyond self and to be on task each day for something as large as the needs of our land is commendable, but not easy. To keep one’s imagination alive so as to visit and revisit the vision that Jesus must have for our land, is not something the average person can and will do. No, it takes fortitude combined with imagination, and a love that is persistent, universal, and unconditional to again and again say a prayer for our people.

I commend each one of you for your faithfulness and service to this cause of awakening a sleeping but worthy giant. In line with this idea, I want to close this portion of tonight’s conference call with a poem written by Brooke Astor, philanthropist and author:

Brooke’s poem says it all: To accomplish anything in life takes concentration—focus—and consistency toward purpose. It takes, as she tell us, discipline. If our country is to rise in unity of purpose and responsibility, then it must discipline itself to bring about the needed changes so that love rules instead of money; intelligence instead of ignorance; generosity instead of greed; hope and not despair, and so that everyone having what they need becomes reality, not a vague promise unfulfilled. These things and more—the things you are praying daily for America—is what the U.S.A. needs. Someone, not truly knowing us, in some far off country may want to kill us. If he knew us—we real Americans—he would not want to kill us but would want very much to embrace us. That I believe and know is how good most Americans are, much like all of you participating in this work.

Thank you for being here with me. If our country comes out of these times, you will be able to take some rightful credit for having given your energies to a cause and making its fulfillment come to pass. You will have helped to avert a disaster by calling down the angels from heaven to protect, defend, and awaken the sleeping giant.

Prayer to Awaken the Sleeping Giant

Closing Comments

Thank you all for attending this twelfth in a series of prayers for our country. Let us all keep the promise and remember to remember to attend to our sacred prayer duty, first for ourselves and secondly for others and our country of the United States of America.

God bless and good night.