In This Issue• The Daily Brief
• The Middle East in Focus
• The Daily Jot
• Here Comes Polygamy
• Iran in the News
• Syria in the News
• The Good News Corner
• Worship with Us Today!
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The Daily Brief - Wednesday, July 13, 2011
"Now may the Lord of peace himself give you peace at all times and in every way. The Lord be with all of you." (2 Thessalonians 3:16)
The Daily Brief
1. Quartet struggles on way forward for Mideast peace - Associated Press
U.S. and other Mideast peace envoys scrambled Tuesday to salvage fading hopes of a breakthrough in Israeli-Palestinian talks, a day after their bosses couldn't even agree among themselves how to arm-twist the two sides back into negotiation. Diplomats from the United States, United Nations, European Union and Russia were meeting in Washington, trying to make some sort of headway. A highly-anticipated gathering hosted Monday by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and attended by U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, EU top diplomat Catherine Ashton and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov failed to produce a unified statement on the way ahead.
"There are still significant gaps between these parties," said State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland, referring to the mediators and the Israelis and Palestinians. She said the "quartet" of Mideast peacemakers had nothing to announce that might nudge Israelis and Palestinians back into direct talks after nine months of inaction.
- God, we ask that You dispatch a powerful archangel to attend every Quartet meeting. Oversee every action and every word. Bring confusion where satan abounds and defeat every cohort that sides with evil. Bring down and harness every effort that disagrees with the Word of God concerning the entire nation of Israel and the dividing of Jerusalem. God, You put Your name in Jerusalem and Jesus will return to an undivided Jerusalem to rule and reign. We claim this in the Name of Jesus. Amen.
- "And He said unto me, These sayings are faithful and true: and the Lord God of the holy prophets sent His angel to show unto His servants the things which must shortly be done. 'Behold I come quickly:' blessed is he that keeps the saying of the prophecy of this book." (Revelation 22:6-7)
2. Explosion at Islamic School in Indonesia Kills 1 - Fox News
A man reportedly trying to show students how to make explosives was killed by a homemade bomb inside an Islamic boarding school in Indonesia, police said Tuesday.
- God, be with the families of the deceased and draw their hearts to call out to the Lord. We thank you that this exercise of showing students to make explosives was not completed and the children were spared this knowledge. Put Your arms of protection around them and save their souls. In Jesus' Name.
- "Because the spoiler is come upon them, and the mighty men are taken, every one of their bows is broken: for the Lord God of recompenses shall surely requite." (Jeremiah 51:56)
3. Afghan President's Brother Assassinated by Bodyguard - Fox News
President Hamid Karzai's half brother, the most powerful man in southern Afghanistan and a lightning rod for criticism of corruption in the government, was assassinated Tuesday by a close associate. His death leaves a dangerous power vacuum in the south just as the government has begun peace talks with insurgents ahead of a U.S. withdrawal.
- God, we pray for repentance and salvation through the blood of Jesus to spread across Afghanistan, and bring massive changes to the government and its people. Pour out the Holy Spirit upon them and transform this country. In Jesus' Name.
- "Repent and be baptized every one of you in the Name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call." (Acts 2:38-39)
4. Administration Urges a Reluctant Congress to Continue Funding the Palestinian Government - CNS News
Facing strong bipartisan support in Congress for defunding a Palestinian government that includes the terrorist group Hamas, the Obama administration on Tuesday stressed the importance of continuing the funding, arguing that the Fatah-Hamas power-sharing deal has changed nothing on the ground.
- God, our government is divided, each serving different gods, but we ask that the Lord God of heaven prevail over all decisions made on this issue. We, as a nation, are blessed when we follow God, so may Congress hold a high standard of action and deny terrorists any support. In Jesus Name.
- "You shall therefore obey the voice of the Lord your God, and do His commandments and His statutes, which I command you this day." (Deuteronomy 27:10)
5. America in Weakest Economic Recovery Since 1948, New Report Documents - CNS News
The United States is facing the weakest economic recovery in the post-World War II era -- the worst in over 62 years -- and this is happening despite the fact that the recession officially ended in June 2009, according to a new report from the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank.
- Father, when our country honors God we are blessed; when we forget God, the door is blocked for the Lord to intervene because we go our own way, feeling no need for divine leading. We repent of our sins and return to God, and ask that healing be restored to our economy and our lives. Bring transformation to our country, that we turn from our wicked ways and follow the Lord. In Jesus Name.
- "Let God's work appear unto Your servants, and Your glory unto their children. And let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us: and establish the work of our hands upon us; yea, the work of our hands establish it." (Psalm 90:16-17)
6. Durbin Urges Churches to Get Involved in DREAM Act Debate - Fox News
Sen. Dick Durbin is calling on churches, synagogues and mosques to carve out time this fall to discuss the so-called DREAM Act with their congregations, despite federal restrictions on lobbying that often apply to religious institutions.
- God, we cry out to You regarding this deceptive Dream Act proposal. The ramifications are countless and destructive to the United States. Father, we ask that You put the blood of Jesus on this Act and it fall to the ground and die. Save us from massive confusion that would come through this proposal. Close off the enemy of our nation in and by the Name of Jesus.
- "These six things does the Lord hate; yea, seven are an abomination unto Him; a proud look, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked imaginations, feet that be swift in running to mischief, a false witness that speaks lies, and he that sows discord among brethren." (Proverbs 5:16-19)
7. Obama, lawmakers fall short on US debt deal - Reuters
Obama and top U.S. lawmakers fell short on Monday of finding enough spending cuts for a deal to avoid an Aug. 2 debt default and Republicans came under fresh pressure to agree to tax hikes.
- Father, dispatch angels to stand in the midst of those involved in this debt deal and steer them in the direction God wants them to take. Prevail over deception, evil intent, and those siding with the enemy of America. In Jesus Name.
- "And as soon as we had heard these things, our hearts did melt, neither did there remain any more courage in any man, because of you: for the Lord your God He is God in heaven above, and in earth beneath." (Joshua 2:11)
8. Americans Split on Debt Ceiling Fix - Fox News
A Pew Research Center poll, conducted with The Washington Post last week, found Americans roughly split between those who view the raising of the debt ceiling with greater concern, and those more alarmed by a failure to increase it. As well, the number of Americans worried about the prospect of Uncle Sam defaulting on his bills grew by 7 percent over the last two months.
The question of whether to add to America's $14.2 trillion borrowing authority is growing more intense, with Obama now leading negotiations with congressional Republicans that stalled under the supervision of Vice President Biden, as an Aug. 2 deadline nears. On that date, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner has said, the federal government will likely exceed its statutory borrowing limit.
If that happens, Geithner and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke have warned of catastrophic consequences for the U.S. economy, including a loss of faith among foreign creditors and a downgrading of America's credit ratings. This would in turn translate into higher interest rates for banks and ordinary borrowers alike, Obama administration officials have said, producing adverse effects for virtually all Americans. Read more.
- America's debt situation is very dire, but God can make a way where there is no way to deliver us from this crisis. He did it before in Israel, and He can do it again now, if we trust Him.
Offer prayers of repentance for our foolishness in days past, and our lack of correct stewardship of the funds that have been entrusted to us. Then stand, and watch the LORD intervene, on our behalf! AMEN!
- "Taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, he gave thanks and broke the loaves. Then he gave them to his disciples to set before the people. He also divided the two fish among them all. They all ate and were satisfied . . ." (Mark 6:41,42)
The Middle East in Focus
This week, for all the headlines cited below, please join us in proclaiming THIS DECREE:
"The LORD has prepared His throne in the heavens, and His kingdom rules over all." (Psalm 103:19)
1. Bolton: Obama worst president for Israel -- ever - Jerusalem Post
Obama is "the most anti-Israel president in the history of the state, without any question," John Bolton, the former US envoy to the UN and a man considering entering the presidential race against Obama, told The Jerusalem Post on Tuesday.
2. IDF shoots, kills Palestinian during Nablus raid - Jerusalem Post
IDF soldiers shot and killed a Palestinian man on Wednesday morning during an arrest raid in the West Bank city of Nablus.
3. Israel and Palestinian sources to Haaretz: U.S. peace efforts have failed - Ha'aretz
The intensive U.S. efforts to create an agreed outline for renewed negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians have failed, Israeli and Palestinian sources have told Haaretz. The sources said the Palestinian leadership is more determined than ever to pursue the recognition of an independent Palestinian state at the United Nations in September.
4. 81% of Israelis support EU membership, BGU poll finds - Jerusalem Post
Sixty-four percent of Israelis would support a NATO deployment of peacekeeping troops to the West Bank and Gaza, according to a survey published by the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev on Monday.
5. Quartet succumbed to Israeli pressure, PA says - Jerusalem Post
Erekat: Int'l community should support UN Palestinian state bid in light of Quartet failure to call for renewed peace negotiations; Abbas disappointed Quartet did not push for settlement freeze.
The Daily Jot
Obama holds seniors for ransom in debt talks
The president of the United States is threatening to withhold Social Security checks from senior citizens if he does not get his way on raising taxes as part of a deal to allow his government to borrow billions, if not trillions, of dollars beyond the debt limits set by Congress. He told CBS Evening News, "I cannot guarantee that those checks go out on August 3rd if we haven't resolved this issue. Because there may simply not be the money in the coffers to do it." That a president would hold senior citizens for ransom is beyond belief and shows a lack of compassion and character. Of course, he will try to blame his position on Republicans, but there are many other ways to ensure that seniors get their checks.
The money can come from many other sources within the government--from shutting down agencies or departments to staff reductions on a burgeoning government that has become so large that it is a burden to all Americans. But threatening to cut off senior citizens? Really? As a young Capitol Hill staffer in the 1980s, all I heard was how the Republicans were going to take away social security from seniors. The Democratic Party ran ad after ad saying that the Republicans wanted to take social security from those who worked so hard all their years to deserve even a meager retirement provided by the government. Republicans wanted to take away what seniors paid into all those years. Elections were won or lost on this.
Politicians know they cannot win elections without senior citizens. And the biggest sacred cow in all of government is Social Security. It is the perfect example of what the Founding Fathers warned against. In 1794 James Madison objected to benevolence spending on the House floor, saying, "I cannot undertake to lay my finger on that article of the Constitution which granted a right to Congress of expending, on objects of benevolence, the money of their constituents." Benjamin Franklin said, " When the people find that they can vote themselves money, that will herald the end of the Republic." When government makes people depend on it, people are beholden to those who can grant them their needs.
This is exactly what happens when a significant voting block becomes so dependent that many, if not most, could not survive without government payments--they become pawns on a political chessboard. Let it be known that it is the president himself who heartlessly is using senior citizens as pawns because he wants to spend more money and raise taxes and Congress is not giving him what he wants. Agree or disagree with Social Security, millions of hard working Americans have grown dependent on it. And it morally cannot be pulled from them without transition. This president is threatening just that. He surely will blame it on someone else. Jesus said in Matthew 7:16, "Ye shall know them by their fruits."
Have a Blessed and Powerful Day!
Bill Wilson
www.dailyjot.com
Here Comes Polygamy
As I noted yesterday Archbishop Timothy Dolan recently warned that New York's "latest dilution of the authentic understanding of marriage" would inevitably lead to "another redefinition to justify multiple partners and infidelity." He was right to be concerned, and his warning was prophetic.
Those of us who have been fighting the militant homosexual rights movement have warned for years that polygamy is the next logical step in the battle to redefine marriage. Liberals were quick to accuse us of hyperbole and scare tactics. But none of them could adequately answer the question posed in yesterday's report: If society can no longer limit marriage to the union of one and one woman, on what legal basis can it justify discriminating against the love of one man and three women?
We're about to learn the answer to that very question. Today's New York Times reports that a "proud polygamist," and the subject of the reality show "Sister Wives," is taking his case to federal court, arguing that consenting adults have a right to engage in whatever "intimate conduct" they choose. He is relying on the Supreme Court's 2003 ruling in Lawrence v. Texas. That case has been frequently cited by legal scholars as the foundation for the judicial imposition of same-sex "marriage" on all 50 states. In fact, in his dissenting opinion in Lawrence, Justice Scalia warned that if Texas was prohibited from basing laws on "moral choices," then laws against same-sex marriage and bigamy would inevitably be called into question. Well, here we are.
When the left insists that we cannot legislate morality, it is lying. All law is someone's interpretation of morality -- someone's decision that THIS is right and THAT is wrong. The question is: Whose morality will prevail? The left has every intention of imposing its morality on society. Senate Democrats have announced hearings on legislation that would repeal the Defense of Marriage Act and legalize same-sex "marriage."
This is why it is so important for men and women of faith to be involved in the political arena. Yes, prayer is important, but action is necessary too. David didn't just pray that God would defeat Goliath; he picked up stones and fought.
I promise that with your prayers and continued support, we will do everything in our power to make sure our values prevail in November 2012! (Gary Bauer)
Iran in the News
Top al-Qaeda ranks keep footholds in Iran
Iranian weapons allegedly used against U.S. troops
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) - On a cold March morning last year, an Iranian diplomat was flown home nearly 15 months after being kidnapped by gunmen in an ambush on the Pakistani side of the Khyber Pass. Iran hailed the release as a victory for its intelligence agents, who they claimed staged a rescue mission into the tribal areas along the Afghan-Pakistan border. Western officials and others saw it differently: A turning point in Iran's dealings with al-Qaeda. Negotiations to free the captive diplomat are believed to have reached high-level al-Qaeda figures, Western officials say. In return for its help, al-Qaeda demanded better conditions for dozens of people close to Osama bin Laden who have been held under tight security in Iran, including some of the terror chief's children and the network's most senior military strategist Saif al-Adel. (USA Today) Read more.
BAGHDAD (AP) - The United States will not "walk away" from the challenge of Iran's stepped-up arming of Iraqi insurgents who are targeting and killing American troops as they prepare to leave Iraq, U.S. Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta said Monday . Mr. Panetta and the top U.S. "commander in Iraq, Army Gen. Lloyd Austin, expressed worry about increasingly deadly attacks on U.S. troops by Shiite militias using weapons that Mr. Panetta and others assert are supplied by Iran . . . Mr. Panetta said Iraq more aggressively must go after the Shiite militias that are using what he called Iranian-supplied weapons. And he said the U.S. is determined to act on its own to "go after those threats" from Iranian weapons. (Washington Times) Read more. [Source: Investigative Project on Terrorism]
Syria in the News
U.S. investigates Syrian diplomats for spying on protesters
The State Department is investigating charges that Syrian diplomats are spying on Syrian anti-government demonstrators in Washington and other U.S. cities in order to intimidate their relatives in the restive Middle Eastern nation. Eric Boswell, assistant secretary for diplomatic security, last week summoned Syrian Ambassador Imad Moustapha to air "concerns with the reported actions of certain Syrian Embassy staff in the United States," the State Department said Friday evening. "We received reports that Syrian mission personnel under Ambassador Moustapha's authority have been conducting video and photographic surveillance of people participating in peaceful demonstrations in the United States," the department said. The charges could spur the State Department to restrict the travel of the ambassador and other Syrian diplomats. (Washington Times) Read more. [Source: Investigative Project on Terrorism]
The Good News Corner
Moscow Summit Demands Governments Adopt Pro-Family Policy
(Moscow, Russia)-"The Moscow Demographic Summit: Family and the Future of Humankind" concluded with the adoption of a Declaration demanding that governments everywhere adopt pro-family demographic policies. The Declaration was adopted by participants at the June 29-30 Summit held at the Russian State Social University, Russia's largest university.
Translated from Russian, The Declaration states in part:
"We, participants of the Moscow Demographic Summit, representing families from various social, ethnic and religious communities, leading experts in the field of the family and demography, public activists, NGOs, leaders of parents associations, representatives of the leading business, educational and diplomatic institutions, members of national Governments and Parliaments and other responsible forces of the civil society, representing 65 countries of the world, hereby declare that the Natural Family is the basic unit of society and the fundamental social value, that is a necessary prerequisite for the very existence of world civilizations and the whole humankind.
"We express our deep concern about the dangers of the approaching worldwide depopulation. "
Despite wrong and biased information about 'overpopulation' threat promoted by some mass media and international institutions, in reality already for several decades in a row we have been witnessing a global process of demographic degradation. In the nearest historical period, the negative demographic trends can bring about extinction of whole peoples, destruction of States, and disappearance of unique cultures and civilizations. Even according to conservative estimates by the UN, within the next three decades, the total fertility rate will go down below the population replacement level all over the world. In reality, it can happen much earlier, thus making the whole world community face the unprecedented social and historical problem of humankind survival.
"We call on the governments of all nations and on international institutions to develop immediately a pro-family demographic policy and to adopt a special international pro-family strategy and action plan aimed at consolidating family and marriage, protecting human life from conception to natural death, increasing birth rates, and averting the menace of depopulation."
NOTE: Click on the link provided to read more about the Declaration.
[Source: World Congress of Families]
Worship with Us Today!
You are My All in All - Nicole Nordeman
You are my strength when I am weak.
You are the treasure that I seek.
You are my all in all.
Seeking You as a precious jewel,
Lord, to give up I'd be a fool.
You are my all in all.
Taking my sin, my cross, my shame,
rising up again I bless Your name.
You are my all in all.
When I fall down, You pick me up.
When I am dry, You fill my cup.
You are my all in all.
Jesus, Lamb of God, worthy is Your name.
Worship with us now . . . You are my all in all . . .
