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Speaker 1: Life Audio.

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Speaker 2: Welcome to the Crosswalk devotional. We're so glad to have

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Speaker 2: you listening. I'm Lynette Kittle, and today's topic is honoring

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Speaker 2: our Nation's Presidents. We'll be right back after a brief

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Speaker 2: message from our sponsor, Honoring our Nation's Presidents, written and

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Speaker 2: read by Lynette Kittle. He changes times and seasons, He

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Speaker 2: disposes kings and raises up others. He gives wisdom to

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Speaker 2: the wise and knowledge to the discerning. Daniel two twenty

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Speaker 2: one What does it take to be President of the

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Speaker 2: United States of America? As our nation prepares to celebrate

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Speaker 2: its two hundred and fiftieth birthday, we probably have a

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Speaker 2: broad variety of thoughts and answers to this question. Still,

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Speaker 2: through the centuries, many men of various backgrounds, political leanings,

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Speaker 2: religious beliefs, and stature have served as the President of

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Speaker 2: the United States. Although we hold elections in the United States,

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Speaker 2: we don't want to ignore what Daniel explains, that God

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Speaker 2: has a hand and who comes into leadership in our nation,

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Speaker 2: and how we really are not the ones in control.

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Speaker 2: As we commemorate yet another president's date, it's biblical to

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Speaker 2: set time aside to honor the many men who have

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Speaker 2: held the office regardless of our political leanings. Being the

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Speaker 2: president of the United States of America takes bravery and fortitude,

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Speaker 2: as it comes with serious caution and risk to both

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Speaker 2: the sitting president's life and career. In Prayers and Presidents,

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Speaker 2: author and historian William J. Fetterer offers some presidential statistics

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Speaker 2: on our nation's past leaders. Untimely demises not every United

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Speaker 2: States president left the White House on his own accord,

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Speaker 2: with some dying in office and others murdered while serving.

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Speaker 2: Four presidents left office due to assassination, with the most

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Speaker 2: famous and well known account being that of sixteenth President

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Speaker 2: Abraham Lincoln and thirty fifth President John F. Kennedy. Along

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Speaker 2: with them, lesser recognized presidents were murdered while in office,

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Speaker 2: including twentieth President James A. Garfield and twenty fifth President

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Speaker 2: William McKinley, as well fortieth President Ronald Reagan and soon

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Speaker 2: to be re elected Donald J. Trump survived assassination attempts

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Speaker 2: on their lives. Reagan while in office and Trump while

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Speaker 2: on the presidential campaign trail before taking office in his

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Speaker 2: second non consecutive term as our forty seventh president at

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Speaker 2: seventy eight years old, regardless of the risk. From the

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Speaker 2: very beginning of our nation's birth, prayer has been recognized

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Speaker 2: and encouraged by many of our presidents, including our very

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Speaker 2: first President, George Washington, who carried a well worn, pocket

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Speaker 2: sized edition of the Anglican Book of Common Prayer, referring

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Speaker 2: to it to call our troops and nation to days

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Speaker 2: of prayer. Providence Forum Executive Director doctor Jerry Newcombe describes

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Speaker 2: how General Washington, during the Revolutionary War, felt the odds

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Speaker 2: of winning were too great against us, so on July fourth,

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Speaker 2: seventeen seventy five, a year before independence, he sent the

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Speaker 2: following order to his troops. He requires and expects of

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Speaker 2: all officers and soldiers not engaged in actual duty, a

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Speaker 2: punctual attendance on divine service to implore the blessing of

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Speaker 2: Heaven upon the means used for our safety and defense.

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Speaker 2: Some doubt God's hand in America's history and on America's leaders,

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Speaker 2: but Proverbs twenty one one reveals that in the Lord's hand,

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Speaker 2: the king's heart is a stream of water that he

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Speaker 2: channels toward all who please him. As well, Proverbs eight

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Speaker 2: fifteen reassures us that God has a hand in who

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Speaker 2: reigns and rules on earth. By me king's reigns and

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Speaker 2: ruler's issue decrees that are just. God receives glory for directing.

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Speaker 2: Way's presidents have honored him, such as thirty third President

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Speaker 2: Harry S. Truman, who initiated the National Day of Prayer

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Speaker 2: as an annual observance in nineteen fifty two, stating, in

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Speaker 2: times of national crisis, when we are striving to strengthen

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Speaker 2: the foundation of peace, we stand in special need of

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Speaker 2: divine support. In April nineteen seventy, President Richard M. Nixon

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Speaker 2: urged Americans to pray for the Apollo thirteen astronauts who

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Speaker 2: were in crisis as well after their safe return. He

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Speaker 2: set aside Sunday, April nineteenth, nineteen seventy, as a national

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Speaker 2: Day of Prayer and Thanksgiving. President Ronald Reagan established the

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Speaker 2: National Day of Prayer on May fifth, nineteen eighty eight,

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Speaker 2: to be commemorated each year on the first Thursday in May, saying,

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Speaker 2: Americans in every generation have turned to their maker in prayer.

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Speaker 2: We have acknowledged our dependence on Almighty God. Following the

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Speaker 2: September eleventh, two thousand and one, terrorist attacks and Hurricane Katrina,

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Speaker 2: our forty third President, George W. Bush, declared days of

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Speaker 2: prayer intersecting faith in life. We are honoring God when

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Speaker 2: we honor His accomplishments achieved through the leaders he places

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Speaker 2: into office as our presidents. By recognizing their godly accomplishments,

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Speaker 2: we are expressing gratitude and glorifying God for his just decrees.

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Speaker 2: Further reading, seeing God's hand in America's freedom.

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Speaker 1: The Crosswalk Devotion is a production of Life Audio and

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