In This Issue• The Daily Brief
• The Middle East in Focus
• Day-by-Day Calendar of Sotomayor Hearings
• How to Visit the Hearings
• Hate Crimes vote this week!
• Update: Health Care Hearings
• Repentance: Step Five
• The Good News Corner
Greetings!
Capitol Hill Prayer Partners
P.O. Box 5152
Herndon, VA 20172-1970
chpp@patriot.net
The Daily Brief - Tuesday, July 14. 2009
"For the LORD is our judge, the LORD is our lawgiver, the LORD is our king; he will save us." (Isaiah 33:22)
EMERGENCY APPEAL!
Dear Friends,
"Oh, give thanks to the LORD, for He is good! For His mercy endures forever." (Psalm 136:1)
We come to you today, as our family in Christ, to share our situation with you at this time. We have been so blessed by your faithful giving over the years, that we have never had to share an emergency appeal for help . . . until now.
This summer has been unusual, both because the severity of the battle to see righteousness prevail on Capitol Hill has intensified; and because at the same time we have seen a severe drop in normal giving.
But tonight we have GOOD NEWS for you! As we shared our need today with a dear friend of many years, he immediately offered to MATCH ANY GIFT, dollar-for-dollar, that will be given to CHPP from now through the end of August! Isn't God good??
That means, for example, if the Lord would have you send in, say $10.00 -- it becomes $20.00!! $25.00 would equal $50.00, and so on.
As of this writing, there are 2,458 of you out there; and the numbers increase greatly when you forward our alerts to your own friends. Just think what GOD can do, if each one of us does our part?
So, would you please take a minute now, and pause and ask our Lord how HE would have you respond to this appeal? Thank you all, so much.
Capitol Hill Prayer Partners (CHPP) is a 501(c)(3), tax- exempt, faith-based, ministry, dedicated to praying for our leaders (1 Tim. 2:1,2). CHPP relies solely on the gifts of our readers to continue this work; thus we greatly appreciate your help in supporting this publication. Contributions may be sent to: Capitol Hill Prayer Partners, P.O. Box 5152, Herndon, VA 20172-1970. Please make checks payable to: CHPP. THANK YOU!
The Daily Brief
1. Obama Wants Health Bill Now - AP
Democratic officials say Obama told key lawmaker he wants a bill in Senate Finance Committee by week's end.
• Lord, Obama knows it's now or never, if he waits until the fall or next year for the health bill to pass, he will be defeated. We pray that it will be so. Let people rise up from their stupor and let them restrain him from carrying out his plans.
• For You are my rock and my fortress; Therefore, for Your name's sake, lead me and guide me. Pull me out of the net which they have secretly laid for me, for You are my strength.. (Psalms 31: 3, 4)
2. Homeland Security Revises Immigration Plan, Limits Officers' Power to Arrest Illegals - Fox News
The Department of Homeland Security said it was revising a program that authorized local police to enforce federal immigration law - a controversial aspect of U.S. border policy.
• Father God, we pray that those who are lowering the security of this nation will be removed from their posts. Replace them with vigilant people who are loyal to this nation and to You, and understand the times we live in.
• Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. (1 Peter 5:6)
3. Supreme Court Justice Makes Startling Claims about Roe v. Wade - CNS News
In an interview to be published in Sunday's New York Times Magazine, Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg said she thought the landmark Roe v. Wade decision on abortion was predicated on the Supreme Court.
• Lord, as these hidden plans of the eugenics program of abortion and genocide is revealed, we pray that people will be incensed and that only righteous leaders, judges, and Supreme Court Justices will be allowed to sit on the Supreme Court, or be in any position of authority. Reveal evil plans and stop them before they are carried out.
• "You shall appoint judges and officers in all your gates, which the Lord your God gives you, according to your tribes, and they shall judge the people with just judgment. (Deuteronomy 16:18)
4. Poll: 86 Percent of U.S. Wants Abortion Restrictions - NewsMax
The American people continue to move to the pro-life perspective on abortion according to the latest Moral Compass survey by the Knights of Columbus and Marist Poll.
• As more time goes by, and more technology allows people to see that life begins at fertilization or conception, we pray that there will be more voices speaking out against abortion. Let abortion laws be overturned.
• These six things the Lord hates, yes, seven are an abomination to Him . . . hands that shed Innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that are swift in running to evil, ((Proverbs 6:16, 18)
5. Attorney General: May Appoint Prosecutor to Investigate Bush Administration - NewsWeek
Four knowledgeable sources tell NEWSWEEK that he is now leaning toward appointing a prosecutor to investigate the Bush administration's brutal interrogation practices, something the president has been reluctant to do.
While no final decision has been made, an announcement could come in a matter of weeks, say these sources, who decline to be identified discussing a sensitive law-enforcement matter.
• Lord, we pray that there will be a strong outcry against this action to investigate and prosecute the Bush Administration. We pray that no plans will succeed except plans to bring our economy under control.
• Whoever digs a pit will fall into it, And he who rolls a stone will have it roll back on him. (Proverbs 26:27)
6. Gore: U.S. Climate Bill Will Help Bring About 'Global Governance' - Climate Depot
Former Vice President Al Gore declared that the Congressional climate bill will help bring about "global governance."
• We ask You, God, to delay these plans to bring about world governance and plans to socialize our society, until the fullness of time has come. We pray that leaders emerge with biblical, conservative ideas, and bring our nation back from rebellion.
• Whoever exalts himself shall be humbled; and whoever humbles himself shall be exalted. (Proverbs 22:29)
7. Just 96 months to save world, says Prince Charles - UK Independent
Capitalism and consumerism have brought the world to the brink of economic and environmental collapse, the Prince of Wales has warned in a grandstand speech which set out his concerns for the future of the planet.
• Father God, We pray that these people who do not have your vision for this world will be ignored, and those who have an agenda against personal freedoms will be bound from spreading their ideas.
• A fool also multiplies words. No man knows what is to be; Who can tell him what will be after him? (Ecclesiastes 10:14)
8. 4 killed, 32 wounded as 6 Baghdad churches bombed - CNN
At least four people were killed and 32 wounded as six Baghdad-area churches were bombed within 24 hours, officials told CNN.
• Lord, we pray that You will intervene to help these Christian churches in Iraq to be safe and to grow in spreading the gospel. Let those who are against them be stopped. Let the churches flourish greatly.
• The Lord is my Rock and my fortress and my Deliverer; my God, my strength, in whom I will trust; my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold. I will call upon the Lord, Who is worthy to be praised; So shall I be saved from my enemies. (Psalms 18:2, 3)
The Middle East in Focus
This week, for all the headlines cited below, please join us in proclaiming THIS DECREE:
"O do not remember against us the iniquities and guilt of our forefathers! Let Your compassion and tender mercy speedily come to meet us, for we are brought very low. Help us, O God of our salvation, for the glory of Your name! Deliver us, forgive us, and purge away our sins for Your name's sake." (Psalm 79:8,9)
1. Netanyahu: Palestinians could achieve more if they cooperated - Ha'aretz
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with the Quartet's Middle East envoy Tony Blair on Monday to discuss ways to improve the Palestinian economy. Netanyahu told Blair that the Palestinian residents of the West Bank could reach greater achievements if only they were to increase their cooperation with Israel.
2. Court criticizes State over illegal outposts - Ynet News
The High Court of Justice on Monday harshly criticized the State's failure to evacuate 18 buildings in two illegal West Bank outposts.
3. Obama meets with Jewish leaders on Israel, Iran - Ynet News
US President Barack Obama told Jewish leaders Monday that eight years of US-Israeli unison in demanding Palestinian concessions has produced no results and asked leaders to give him time to try his tactics for a Middle East peace.
4. Hamas: Israel distributes libido-increasing gum in Gaza - Ynet News
Is Israel targeting the Palestinian population in Gaza by distributing libido-increasing chewing gum in the Strip? A Hamas police spokesman in the Gaza Strip Islam Shahwan claimed Monday that Israeli intelligence operatives are attempting to "destroy" the young generation by distributing such materials in the coastal enclave.
Day-by-Day Calendar of Sotomayor Hearings
Provided by: Christian Coalition of America
For those of you who are viewing, and praying over, the hearings in the Senate Judicial Committee this week, as they weigh the nomination of Judge Sonia Sotomayor to serve on the Supreme Court, here are the details for the rest of the week:
Wednesday, July 15: The Sotomayor hearings continue with the first round of questioning expected to be completed by late morning or early afternoon. A routine closed session hearing with Judge Sotomayor will occur at this time. The second round of questioning will then begin with each Member being allowed 20 minutes of questioning.
Thursday, July 16: If the questioning of Judge Sotomayor is not finished on Wednesday, the questioning will be completed on Thursday. The panels of outside witnesses invited by the Majority and the Minority of the Senate Judiciary Committee will then commence.
Friday, July 17: If the Senate Judiciary Committee is unable to receive all of the testimony on Thursday from the Majority and Minority's witnesses, this will be accomplished on Friday. At some point, the full committee will vote on whether or not to send Judge Sotomayor's nomination to the full Senate.
A vote is expected by the full Senate before the Senate recesses for its summer break at the end of the first week of August. If something unexpected occurs during the Sotomayor hearings of the Senate Judiciary Committee, the Senate floor vote could even be put off until September.
• More and more information is now coming to light from "behind the scenes" about Judge Sotomayor's experience as a judge -- information which still must be presented to this committee. On the one hand, the Obama administration seems bent on rushing this candidate through the Senate; on the other hand, the Word of the Lord is to wait upon Him for truth to be revealed. Ask our Lord to delay this vote until at least September; there is still time to gather and present all the evidence about this candidate before this very important vote should be taken. Pray!
• "God will bring to judgment both the righteous and the wicked, for there will be a time for every activity, a time for every deed." (Ecclesiastes 3:17)
How to Visit the Hearings
How to Visit the Hearings of the Senate Judiciary Committee
This Week on the Hill
If you are coming in town this week to attend the hearings of the Senate Judiciary Committee for the confirmation of Judge Sonia Sotomayor to serve on the Supreme Court, you will need to follow special procedures set in place by the Capitol Hill Police.
Here are the steps you will take:
1. Go to the corner of 1st and C Streets NE where a line will be forming to get tickets for the hearings. You will need to arrive early in the day in order to get a ticket.
2. Your ticket will be "timed." You are to show up at the designated site, ticket in hand, at the time shown on your ticket.
3. The Capitol Hill Police will escort you into the hearing room of the Senate Judiciary Committee, where you will be allowed to stay for 20 minutes, only.
4. At the end of your 20-minute stay, you will be escorted out, and another group will come in behind you.
May our faithful Lord bless you and keep you, as you witness this historic occasion! Amen!
Hate Crimes vote this week!
Call your Senators NOW! (From: Family Research Council)
Now is the time to take a stand against a clear and present danger to our first amendment freedoms of speech and religion - Hate Crimes legislation. We have confirmation that a vote on Hate Crimes will happen this week. Senate Armed Services Chairman Carl Levin confirmed he will support an effort to attach an expansion of Hate Crimes to a defense appropriations bill. If the Senate approves the Hate Crimes amendment, President Obama will sign it into law.
Here's why it matters: If passed, this Hate Crimes law will eventually result in efforts to silence pastors like you, churches like yours, and other faith-based organizations you agree with just because we publicly but peacefully oppose homosexuality on biblical grounds.
If approved by the Senate, and absent other controversies over defense spending issues (yes, Congress does sometimes use bill titles that refer to the actual content of the legislation), President Obama is expected to sign the bill into law. What can you do? First, watch this brief video, which explains the dangers vastly expanded federal hate crimes laws pose to people of faith. Then pass the link on to your pastor and to your friends. Finally, call your Senator today (202) 224-3121 and voice your opposition to this inappropriate amendment to an important national defense bill.
• Whether the Lord chooses to see this amendment stripped from the Defense Appropriations bill by the whole Senate, or (see last night's OCAP for details) to have the president veto it entirely, pray that the Hate Crimes bill be stopped in its tracks -- null and void and never to return to Congress this year.
• "Devise your strategy, but it will be thwarted; propose your plan, but it will not stand, for God is with us." (Isaiah 8:10)
Update: Health Care Hearings
HELP Needed, Apply Within
The Senate HELP Committee continued its markup of the Kennedy healthcare legislation yesterday. Several amendments were offered to protect conscience rights and to prevent funding or mandating of abortion. Sen. Orrin Hatch's (R-Utah) amendment to prevent funding of abortion failed. Sen. Michael Enzi's (R-Wy.) amendment to prevent the healthcare bill from mandating abortion coverage was defeated. Since there is nothing in this legislation to prevent mandating abortion as a covered service, it would be mandated--the Obama Administration health bureaucracy will see to that.
Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) also offered several amendments to the Kennedy legislation. His amendment to codify the Hyde/Weldon conscience protection law was defeated. His amendment to prevent the healthcare bill from preempting state laws on abortion was defeated. With the exception of Sen. Bob Casey (D-Pa.), the HELP Democrats voted against it. They opposed preventing this legislation from trumping various state laws, such as parental consent laws. One bright note, Sen. Coburn's amendment to protect healthcare workers' conscience rights with regard to euthanasia passed by a voice vote. The amendment ensures that doctors, nurses, and other healthcare workers, including healthcare plans, are not forced to violate their conscience on the issue of euthanasia.
Sen. Ted Kennedy's (D-Mass.) amendment supposedly protecting conscience rights on abortion passed by a voice vote. This amendment says that no one should lose a contract with the healthcare Gateways because they refuse to perform abortion except in the case of emergencies. Given that the Democrats voted against the Coburn conscience amendment on abortion, which mirrors current conscience law, this amendment is a deceptive and even dangerous substitute for real conscience protections on abortion. Click here for FRC's in-depth analysis of the HELP Committee votes. (Family Research Council)
Repentance: Step Five
"PREPARING OUR HEARTS TO ENTER IN"
Ten steps of Repentance, Redirection and Renewal in Christ
Step Five: CEASE FROM STRUGGLING
"Be anxious for nothing, but in every thing by prayer and supplication, let your needs be made known to the Father. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, shall guard your mind and your heart in Christ Jesus." (Phil. 4:6,7 NAS)
Don't try to do this yourself; let Him do it. After having consented to surrender, you will be tempted to struggle and try instead of relax and trust and receive. "When I gave all trying over, simply trusting was blest." There is a profound truth in this simple statement. For as long as you are trying, you are on the basis of yourself; but the moment you begin to trust, you are on the basis of Christ. He becomes the center, not you.
"But as many as received Him, to them He gave power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name: which were born not of blood [you do not receive this new life through being born of Christian parents], nor of the will of the flesh [you do not receive it by whipping up your will, by trying], nor of the will of man [no man can bestow it on you through rite or ceremony or institution], but of God." (John 1:12,13)
It is quite clear. This new birth which leads to a new life is a gift accepted by faith, by those who "believe on His name." But that belief is not mere intellectual assent; it is believing with your life, self-committal to Another. It means letting down the barriers of your inmost being and letting Him come in and take over, take over as the Sole Owner.
The two laws of life are receptivity and response. But first receptivity. Many reverse this and try to respond, respond, to try, to do. No, first receive -- receive by a quiet appropriating faith. Then you will respond, naturally and out of the resources which receptivity brings. But if you try to respond before you receive, you will be responding out of emptiness. Your religious life will be strain, hence drain.
A theological student was tense and trying, striving hard to be good. His jaw was set, his nerves tense; he would be good at any cost. When I showed him the possibility of accepting the Gift, he seemed incredulous. But he relaxed and received, and rejoiced! He kept saying over and over, "Why it's too good to be true! All my life I've been fighting; now I'm receiving!" He was free, released, and happy -- overflowingly so. Faith is pure receptivity.
"O Christ, I come. In my hands no price I bring. I come claiming no worthiness. I have no right to anything, except grace. I have no right to that, except that Thou dost offer it to me. I take -- humbly, joyously take. Now. Amen."
The Good News Corner
Obama Nominates Well-Known Scientist - a Strong Believer - to Head National Institutes of Health
(Source: Aimee Herd; Breaking Christian News; July 11, 2009)
According to a CBN report, President Barack Obama recently chose Dr. Francis Collins, the mastermind of the Human Genome Project, to lead the National Institutes of Health. Dr. Collins is an outspoken Christian.
Described by research director of the Van Andel Institute, Dr. Jeffrey Trent, as having "inherent brilliance," Dr. Collins is credited with cracking the genetic code. An article on MLive.com states that he "developed a technique . . . that allowed researchers to scan large segments of the human genome in search of disease-producing genes."
Later on, he and his team of researchers used that same technique to identify genes for Huntington's disease, among others, including those of the "M4 type of adult acute leukemia." Dr. Trent, who worked with Collins on the Human Genome Project, noted that Collins-in his new position-would be a voice of reason when it comes to the issue of Health Care.
"Francis will play a major role in the development of aspects related to the health care debate," said Trent. "He will be one of those unique individuals to usher out the one-size-fits-all medicine and usher in the 'putting the patient first in our treatment' decisions."
In an interview several years ago with CBN News, Collins said, "Would not God who gave us this glorious creation of His, and who gave us the intelligence to be able to try and understand it, would He not be worshipped by our applying those tools to appreciate what He has done for us? That draws me closer to Him in a way I really can't quite put into words. But it gives me a sense of just how grand and awesome His mind must be."
Collins' appointment must still be confirmed by the US Senate.
• Rejoice and praise God that the President has chosen a Christian Doctor of Science to lead The National Institutes of Health. Please pray that Dr. Trent, being dedicated to conducting groundbreaking research with life changing results, will form strong relationships with colleagues within the Institute who will be a catalyst to godly influence on the future of American health and science. Ask the Father for His wisdom to be mixed with His power in Dr. Trent to stamp out disease and a host of other genetic complexities that were not originally intended to invade the lives of the inhabitants of the earth. Intercede for and bless Dr. Trent going forward regarding his hard work and the full release of his gifts, talents, knowledge, and ability in greater degrees to the glory of God and the benefit of people everywhere.
• "Because of the hope which is laid up for you in heaven, of which you heard before in the word of the truth of the gospel, which has come to you, as it has also in all the world, and is bringing forth fruit, as it is also among you since the day you heard and knew the grace of God in truth." (Colossians 1:5-6)
