In This IssueToday's Daily Brief
The Middle East in Focus
The Good News Corner
Greetings!
Capitol Hill Prayer Partners
P.O. Box 5152
Herndon, VA 20172-1970
chpp@patriot.net
The Daily Brief - Tuesday, December 8, 2009
"Those who are with us are more than those who are with them." (2 Kings 6:16)
Today's Daily Brief
1. Bernanke Says Recovery Fragile, Signals Rates on Hold - AFP
Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke tamped down speculation that essentially zero interest rates were set to rise, saying the US recovery from recession remains fragile. In the near term, Bernanke said, elevated unemployment and stable inflation expectations should keep inflation "subdued," adding: "Inflation could move lower from here."
· Heavenly Father, we pray for Bernanke to have wisdom about all areas of the economy, especially how to control the inflation. We pray that he will not weaken the dollar.
· The blessing of the Lord brings wealth, and He adds no trouble to it. (Proverbs 10:22)
2. Food Banks Adapting for Record Demand - USA Today
Feeding America, the nation's largest network of food banks, is logging record donations - $75 million in the fiscal year that ended in June, compared with $56.1 million the year before. Its food banks distributed a record 2.6 billion pounds of food, compared with 2.2 billion pounds the previous year. The food bank is distributing food "at disaster-relief levels," Krepcho says, as if responding to a devastating hurricane. "It's a tsunami."
· Father God, we thank you that even in this tough economy, you are providing for your children. We pray for more people to respond to your Spirit during this time and come to salvation.
· "Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes?" (Matthew 6:25)
3. Time running out for House Dems to move major jobs measure in '09 - The Hill
House Democratic leaders have made passing a jobs bill their top priority for the end of the year, but time is running out to move major legislation. A looming question for Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) is whether she will bypass the many committees - Ways and Means, Transportation and Energy and Commerce, to name a few - and subcommittees that might want to take a stab at marking up the legislation.
· Lord, we pray that the Democrats who are in charge will not rush any legislation or programs through quickly, without sufficient examination and discussion with the Republicans and Blue Dogs. Let the Blue Dogs and Republicans not weaken but remain strong against pressure from the Left.
· Do not grant, O Lord, the desires of the wicked; Do not further his wicked scheme, Lest they be exalted. Selah (Psalm 140:8)
4. Business Fumes Over Carbon Dioxide Rule - Wall Street Journal
Officials gather in Copenhagen this week for an international climate summit, but business leaders are focusing even more on Washington, where the Obama administration is expected as early as Monday to formally declare carbon dioxide a dangerous pollutant.
· Lord, we bind any attempt to force legislation that is restrictive and takes away the voice of the citizens on what is being passed. We pray especially for talks in Copenhagen that Obama will not sign any treaty which would jeopardize our sovereignty.
· "Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other." (Genesis 11:7)
5. Supreme Court to Decide in Christian Club Case - CBN News
The Supreme Court said, Monday, it will decide if a California law school can force a Christian group to allow homosexuals and non-believers into their organization. Members argued that all students are welcome at the meetings and only voting members and officers must share their religious beliefs, which they feel is in line with university policy.
· Father God, we pray these attempts to intimidate all Christian organizations will come to nothing. What they meant for evil, please turn it to good.
· You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives. (Genesis 50:20 NIV)
6. Cost-benefit analysis of jobs stimulus - Reuters
The Obama Administration is touting that their stimulus program has saved or created 640,329 jobs since it was enacted back in February through the end of October. This number is updated and posted on the Administration's recovery.gov web site. That amounts to $246,436 per job based on the $157.8bn that has been awarded so far! Total compensation earned by the average payroll employee during October, on an annualized basis, was $59,867. If the government had simply used the funds awarded so far to pay for a year's worth of labor, that would have paid for 2.6mn jobs!
· Thank you Lord, that the truth is being revealed about the job numbers and how much is actually being spent per job. Lord, let a loud voice rise up from the citizens against these deceptive practices. Restrain them from continuing their evil plans.
· You shall seek them and not find them - Those who contended with you. Those who war against you Shall be as nothing, As a nonexistent thing. (Isaiah 41:12)
7. Vote Nears on Abortion Amendment - AP
The abortion issue has emerged as an obstacle to Senate passage of President Barack Obama's health care overhaul. Other Democrats said Nelson's amendment goes too far by making it difficult for patients to use their own money to purchase coverage for a legal medical procedure, since few if any plans might offer the coverage.
The amendment does let insurance companies set up separate plans with abortion coverage if they are supported solely by private money, but abortion-rights supporters say companies would be unlikely to do so since there would be little market for them, as most potential customers would be shopping with federal dollars. Nelson's defection could force Reid to look instead for support from one or two Republicans, such as moderate Maine senators Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins.
· Heavenly Father, we thank you that these plans to pass this healthcare has been stymied over the abortion issue. We pray for the Blue Dogs and all Republicans to stand strong and not agree to any compromise about this bill. Let it fail.
· Keep me, O Lord, from the hands of the wicked; Preserve me from violent men, Who have purposed to make my steps stumble. (Psalm 140:4)
The Middle East in Focus
This week, for all the headlines cited below, please join us in proclaiming THIS DECREE:
" For ever, O LORD, Your Word is settled in heaven." (Psalm 119:89)
1. Abbas 'keen' on reconciling with Hamas - Jerusalem Post
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said on Monday that he is "keen" for a reconciliation with his Hamas rivals so that Palestinians can hold new elections by June 2010.
2. Netanyahu: Syria willing to renew talks without conditions - Ha'aretz
Syria is now willing to negotiate without preconditions, having retracted its earlier insistence that talks could not begin unless Israel first agreed to withdraw from the entire Golan Heights, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee on Monday.
3. Settlers say will fight freeze with all their might - Ynet News
Settler leaders on Monday night expressed their reservations over a remark made by Motti Yogev, deputy head of the Mateh Binyamin Regional Council, who said that his fellow settlers must accept the construction freeze and understand that it is needed in light of the growing Iranian threat and the need to recruit an international coalition to fight it.
4. Knesset passes biometric database bill - Ynet News
The Knesset on Monday adopted a bill establishing a biometric database in Israel, which will eventually lead to the replacement of regular identification with electronic IDs. Forty Mks supported the bill, 11 opposed it, and three abstained.
The Good News Corner
Nazi Archive Made Public
[A report from CBS News]
Documents of Nazi atrocities during the Holocaust were kept locked for decades. Now that the archive is being made public, Scott Pelley brought three Holocaust survivors to examine their records.
To view this video, go here.
Even though the atrocities of the Holocaust are almost too painful to bear, nevertheless, it is good news that these hidden records have been revealed, so that no one, ever again, can deny there ever was a Holocaust of the Jewish people (and others) in Nazi Germany.
Ask our Lord, Hashem, to continue to bring comfort to these three men, and others, who lived through the horrors of that time in history. Amen.
