Capitol Hill Prayer Partners
P.O. Box 5152
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The Daily Brief Thursday, October 17, 2013
Praying the Word of God . . .
in the Will of God . . .
over the Issues of the Day
(Isaiah 55:11)
Thursday, October 17, 2013
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The Daily Brief
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1. Obama signs bill to end shutdown - CNN
President Barack Obama signed a bill that ends the 16-day partial government shutdown and raises the debt ceiling, the White House said early Thursday morning.
- Lord, we know that this bill is not optimum for the American people. We see that the nation is rapidly sliding into an anger that may not be stopped. So we ask that You begin to touch hearts in a mighty wave across the country, to bring a fresh wave of life to our nation.
- "In the world you shall have tribulation, but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world." [John 16:33b]
2. Obama Secretly Signing Away U.S. Sovereignty - WND
Despite the government shutdown, the Obama administration has continued secret negotiations to complete what is known as the Trans-Pacific Partnership, or TPP. The expansive plan is a proposed free-trade agreement between the U.S., Australia, Brunei, Chile, Canada, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam.
The agreement would create new guidelines for everything from food safety to fracking, financial markets, medical prices, copyright rules and Internet freedom.
The TPP negotiations have been criticized by politicians and advocacy groups alike for their secrecy. The few aspects of the partnership leaked to the public indicate an expansive agenda with highly limited congressional oversight. (Read more)
- Ask our Lord to move upon the hearts of many members of Congress to call for hearings on this action by the president. Stand in the gap for our nation, and ask our Lord to forgive Mr. Obama, for he knows not what he does. Praise God for the nation He has given us, founded by men and women of God, and birthed in the blood of the Huguenot martyrs of Fort Caroline, Florida in 1565. Amen.
- "And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death." (Rev. 12:11)
3. Supreme Court takes on affirmative action in Michigan ban case - NBC News
Demonstrators crowded the sidewalk outside the U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday as the justices took on the hot-button issue of affirmative action, hearing oral arguments in a case about Michigan's voter-backed ban on using race as a criterion in college admissions.
- Father, this issue has been a most divisive one since the first time it came into public view. We ask for wisdom on the part of the Supreme Court Justices, and that arguments would be clear.
- "But he who hates his brother is in darkness and walks in darkness, and does not know where he is going . . ." [1 John 2:11]
4. Weapons inspectors check 11 sites in Syria - USA Today
International inspectors have visited 11 sites linked to Syria's chemical weapons program and destroyed "critical equipment" at six, the agency overseeing the elimination of the country's stockpile said Wednesday.
- Lord, while we know that this is a good thing at least on the surface, we ask that You will destroy the evil in the regions of the world that cause men to seek after these weapons.
- "Then I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within them, and take the stony heart out of their flesh, and give them a heart of flesh." [Ezekiel 11:19]
5. The damage done to 'Syria's oldest church' seen first hand - UK Telegraph
The Syrian government has damaged one of the oldest churches in the world in a shelling attack that, residents say, was designed to deepen sectarian divisions.
- Father, Your people in Syria have suffered great harm. We ask for Your grace and protection, Your anointing and Power to touch them.
- "For You have broken the yoke of his burden and the staff of his shoulder, the rod of his oppressor . . ." [Isaiah 9:4]
6. Central African Republic Descends into Chaos - Worthy News
Violent and unrestrained Islamist militants have caused the Central African Republic to descend into chaos, according to BarnabasAid.
- Lord we pray for Your Spirit to move in this region. Let not those of a false religion triumph over the people of Africa.
- "For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work . . ." [2 Thess 2:7]
7. Strong earthquake strikes off Papua New Guinea: USGS - Reuters
An earthquake with a magnitude of 7.1 struck off the coast of Papua New Guinea on Wednesday, the USGS reported.
- Lord, with earthquakes, typhoons, blizzards, and the loss of lives, property, livestock . . . we pray for Your mercy over the earth. We know that we have sinned and are standing on the precipice of Your return.
"For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. And there will be famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in various places . . ." [Matt 24:7]
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The Middle East in Focus
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The Middle East in Focus
This week, for all the headlines cited below, please join us in proclaiming THIS DECREE:
"Our help is in the name of the Lord, who made heaven and earth."
(Psalm 124:8)
1. Israel Army: 2nd Tunnel From Gaza Found, Destroyed - AP
Israel's military says it has found and destroyed a second tunnel dug from the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip into Israel.
2. Netanyahu: I need a partner to make peace - Jerusalem Post
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu called Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas on Tuesday with good wishes for Id al- Adha, even as he bemoaned the PA leader's absence as a peace partner.
3. Netanyahu makes a case for a preemptive strike - Times of Israel
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu offered a thinly veiled defense of a possible Israeli preemptive strike on Iran during a Knesset commemoration Tuesday of the 40th anniversary of the Yom Kippur War.
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The Persecuted Church
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Today's Focus: The Persecuted Church
For the Scripture says, "Whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame." (Romans 10:11)
50,000 Syrian Christians Look to Russia for Refugee from the Violence - Voice of Russia
Some 50,000 Syrian Christians fearing that the West-backed terrorists seek to eliminate the centuries-old Christian presence in Syria are planning to apply for Russian citizenship, the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement posted on its website on Wednesday.
"As the Syrian laws allow dual citizenship, we chose to apply for the citizenship of the Russian Federation, if it's possible. This would be an honor to every Syrian Christian seeking to obtain it," a group of Christians from the Kalamoun area near Damascus wrote in a letter to the Russian Foreign Ministry.
"Of the 50,000 people - medics, engineers, lawyers and businessmen - ready to put their signatures under this address, no one wants to flee their homes. We have everything necessary, we are not begging for money," the letter says.
For more news about the Persecuted Church, and how you can be more involved in intercession for these precious saints, go here.
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The Daily Jot
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Getting a trophy when you didn't win
Thursday, October 17, 2013
I remember one year my son's little league baseball team didn't win much. At the end of the season, they all got trophies. My son, only about 9 years old at the time, says to me, "Dad, why did we all get trophies when we were really a bad team? Aren't trophies for winners?" When I was growing up, you won, you got a trophy. You lost, you didn't get anything. And I was all right with that. It taught me to be competitive and to strive for excellence if I wanted to win. This carried over to most every aspect of my life. I am not much into fighting the good fight and receiving accolades when I lose--especially if the good fight was winnable. The Republicans in the House of Representatives should get no accolades.
They picked a good fight. Constitutionally, the House is the body charged with originating spending bills. So they sought to defund socialized healthcare by refusing to raise the debt ceiling if socialism was mandated. This is flawed logic from the beginning, but a good fight nonetheless. It is flawed logic because the House has the authority to defund socialized healthcare on its own merit. Also, the House should hold its ground and make the government spend only what it has, paying off the debt and balancing the budget. But the logic of politicians is not tantamount to common sense or even logic at all. So the Republicans made a stand that resulted in the White House taking a stand by "shutting down" the government.
The White House then twisted the entire debate to its favor by picking out the government programs that would be most visible in inflicting pain upon the American people. This alone, should be an impeachable offense. But put that in the long line of impeachable offenses beginning with not enforcing border security laws through Benghazi through aiding and abetting terrorist groups like the Muslim Brotherhood and al Qaeda with your and my tax money. These are just a list of impeachable offenses that the House will never act on because it does not have the will to fight a real fight and win. And that is exactly what happened with this whole battle over the budget.
This is Biblical. We need to fire them all, even the ones who tried to do the right thing, but gave up in the end rather than being labeled obstructionists. It is not like they stormed the castle and led men to the walls and died in the process. They are not heroes. They have succumbed to probably the most evil of evil leaders we have ever had in America. I am told that when the House passed this white flag compromise, the Speaker received a standing ovation. That should tell us all what the real score in Washington is. At the risk of being cynical, they are all part of the problem. As I oft quote our Savior, Jesus said in Matthew 24:4, "Take heed that no man deceive you." Washington, DC is where deception thrives. Don't give them a trophy. The people didn't win.
Have a Blessed and Powerful Day!
Bill Wilson
www.dailyjot.com
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The Day After
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The Day After
House conservatives were not happy with the final deal that ended the government shutdown. Indeed, 62% of House Republicans voted against it. Nevertheless, there is widespread recognition that Speaker John Boehner did everything conservatives wanted. National Review reports that Boehner received a standing ovation from the GOP caucus at its last meeting before the vote.
All day yesterday, Senator Ted Cruz effusively praised House Republicans. During a press conference he said, "The House of Representatives deserves to be commended. They have taken a bold stance and listened to the American people." But he had harsh words for his Senate colleagues. Cruz continued, "Unfortunately, the United States Senate has taken the traditional approach of protecting the status quo."
The months ahead will be important. Last night's deal included an agreement to get a budget conference between House and Senate negotiators underway. Those talks will be led by Rep. Paul Ryan and Sen. Patty Murray.
No doubt Republicans will come under pressure to raise revenues yet again in exchange for reforms in entitlement spending. I trust conservatives will resist the siren song of immediate tax hikes for the promise of future spending cuts.
More importantly, we must remain focused on the bigger picture. This morning, I had a number of email messages from folks ready to throw in the towel. That would be a terrible mistake. This battle began as fight to stop Obamacare and that fight will continue as long as Obamacare continues to hurt our economy and hardworking families.
In all the back and forth of Washington's blame game, we must not lose sight of who is bringing America down. It's not Ted Cruz. It's not John Boehner. It isn't Mitch McConnell either.
It is Barack Obama, Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi and the radical left that controls the Democrat Party. Unfortunately, a significant percentage of the country doesn't realize the damage that is being done by their radical agenda.
Obamacare's continued horrendous rollout will likely cause the scales to fall from many eyes. Even some liberals are questioning Obamacare. We need to make sure that friends and family members who bought into the hype about hope and change know that it doesn't have to be this way. We can do better.
I want to share with you this excerpt of Senator Marco Rubio's speech on the Senate floor last night. As the son of Cuban refugees, Sen. Rubio has a unique perspective on American exceptionalism and why we must continue to fight the good fight.
"Over the last few months, I have been startled by the number of people who have told me they are ready to give up. . . They are ready to give up on the idea that things will ever get better. But we cannot give up on America. And we cannot give up on the American Dream.
"We cannot give up, because where are we going to go? If this country declines, if we lose what makes it special, what is going to replace it? And so, no matter how long it takes, no matter how many disappointments lie ahead, we must never give up. And we must never accept that this way of life today is the new normal." (Gary Bauer)
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Update: Women as Terrorists
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The Growing Terror Threat From Radical Women Converts
In a photograph, the girl looks back with casual curiosity, her face scrubbed, her hair pulled a bit untidily behind her ears, her collar crisp, her tie askew, a charming and timeless portrait of the young Catholic schoolgirl in her teens.
Barely more than a decade later, she is called the world's most dangerous woman, the Muslim terrorist known as the "white widow," thought to have helped mastermind last month's terrorist attacks in Nairobi in which 72 people, including several children, were massacred in a popular shopping mall. Some reports placed her at the scene, commanding others as they gunned down dozens off non-Muslims over a three-day period.
If the allegations are true, then Irish-born Samantha Lewthwaite, whose husband Germaine Lindsay was among the suicide bombers responsible for the July 7, 2005 terrorist attacks in London, is by no means alone among violent women converts to Islam. Last May, Michigan-born Muslim convert Nicole Lynn Mansfield became the first American to die fighting with the Syrian rebels opposing the Bashar al-Assad regime. And in 2005, Belgian convert Muriel Degauque blew herself up in a suicide bombing outside of Baghdad. Other examples include Jamie Paulin-Ramirez and Colleen La Rose, better known as Jihad Jane - American converts convicted in 2010 in connection with a plot to murder Swedish cartoonist Lars Vilks for "insulting Islam" in his drawings of the prophet Mohammed as a dog; and Canadian Amanda Korody, charged with her partner John Stewart Nuttail, with "conspiracy, facilitating a terrorist activity and making an explosive device" in a failed attack on the British Columbia legislature on Canada Day last July.
This is just a sampling. . . (Read more here.)
Note: article includes links, documenting all data.
Source: Steve Emerson, The Investigative Project on Terrorism)
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Trouble at NATO
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NATO Ally Reportedly Exposed Israeli Spies in Iran
Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Recep Erdoğan's hostility toward Israel and embrace of Hamas terrorists is well established. He has called Zionism, the belief in a Jewish state, "a crime against humanity."
But a report published Wednesday evening by Washington Post columnist David Ignatius raises the question of whether Erdoğan, head of a NATO state, deliberately sabotaged efforts to stop Iran's nuclear weapons program out of spite for Israel.
Erdoğan's government reportedly gave the Islamic Republic the names of up to 10 Iranians who were meeting Mossad officers inside Turkey last year.
"Knowledgeable sources describe the Turkish action as a 'significant' loss of intelligence and 'an effort to slap the Israelis,'" Ignatius reports. "The incident, disclosed here for the first time, illustrates the bitter, multi-dimensional spy wars that lie behind the current negotiations between Iran and Western nations over a deal to limit the Iranian nuclear program. A Turkish Embassy spokesman had no comment."
Other Turkish officials have expressed anger about the report, casting themselves as the aggrieved party in an effort to discredit the country.
Israeli officials have not commented. (Read more here.)
(Source: Steve Emerson, The Investigative Project on Terrorism)
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The Good News Corner
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The Good News Corner:
House Republicans Sing 'Amazing Grace' Together to Open Debt Limit Meeting
House Republicans opened a debt limit meeting Tuesday morning with a group singing of "Amazing Grace."
"All three verses, without the words written out," Rep. Michael Burgess (R-TX) told a New York Times reporter. "Isn't that impressive?"
Rep. Steve Southerland (R-IL), who was in charge of leading the morning prayer, broke out in song, and slowly the entire group began to sing along, a LA Times writer reported. (Christian Post) Read more.
- Father, we so desire that our legislators would all heed the words and intent of "Amazing Grace." We thank you that this occurred, but we ask for a deep work of Your Spirit in the hearts of the men and women who lead this nation.
- "Your watchmen shall lift up their voices, with their voices they shall sing together, for they shall see eye to eye when the Lord brings back Zion . . ." [Isaiah 52:8]
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Worship With Us Today!
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Worship With Us Today
Come, Let's Go Up to the Mountain of The Lord
Paul Wilbur
Come let's go up to the mountain
Come let's Go up to the Lord
Come let's go up to the mountain
He will teach us His ways
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Pray for the Harvest!
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Pray for the Harvest!
"Do you not say, 'Four months more and then the harvest'? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest." (John 4:35)
Every day, in every nation on earth, tens of thousands of men and women are making decisions for Christ. Now, you can monitor this amazing fact online by literally "watching" as these souls are born again into the Kingdom.
Of course, the identities of those who are coming to the Lord are never revealed, but our God knows who they are! Join us as we monitor these "names" daily, praying over each one to be mentored and to grow in his or her faith . . . even in these perilous times. You may visit either or both of the sites below, to pray for fields that are ripe for harvest.
> > > OPTION ONE: AboutJesus.net
Go here!
> > > OPTION TWO: The Great Commission Map!
Go here!
