The Bulletin Board:(Please SCROLL DOWN this page to find the article titled on this post in LARGE CAPITAL LETTERS. Thank you.)
PRAY FOR AMERICA: THANK GOD for His many blessings on America throughout it's history. May we then ask that AMERICA once again be a blessing TO GOD, by once again submitting to HIS will in our affairs - both personal and national - that He may truly "heal our land." (2 Chron. 7:14)
Please pray for Dr. Kent Brantly and Nancy Writebol from Samaritan’s Purse:
Two Americans working for Samaritan’s Purse to battle the deadly Ebola virus plaguing Liberia, unfortunately have both tested positive for the this terrible virus and are fighting for their lives.
Dr. Kent Brantly, medical director for the Samaritan’s Purse care center serving the Liberian capital of Monrovia, and Nancy Writebol, part of the joint Serving In Mission/ Samaritan’s Purse team, are currently undergoing intensive treatment at an isolation center in ELWA Hospital.
Please join us by praying for both of these heroic individuals and their families at this time. For more information please visit their website at www.samaritanspurse.org. [from Crosswalk.com]
"Keeping Faith: Missionary 'Refused' to Flee Liberia" - By Heather Sells,August 06, 2014;http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/us/2014/August/Keeping-Faith-Missionary-Refused-to-Flee-Liberia/ "The faith of David and Nancy shows a maturity that is teaching all of us," Cashwell said. "They know that God can move in at any time and heal Nancy." "But they also recognize that if God chooses to call her home, that He's going to bring a healing there as well," he added. "And that's the healing that we all hope for." .
"Not Everyone Happy with Religious Ambassador Pick," Caitlin Burke,July 29, 2014;
http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/world/2014/July/Obama-Taps-Rabbi-for-Religious-Freedom-Ambassador/ "President Barack Obama's decision to nominate Rabbi David Saperstein to the post of Ambassador for International Religious Freedom is drawing mixed reactions. Saperstein has spent his career in Washington focusing on social justice and religious freedom issues as an activist in the liberal reform branch of Judaism .... An estimated 76 percent of the world's population live in countries where religious freedom is restricted. Secretary of State John Kerry said the United States must take a strong stand against those violations. "Around the world repressive governments and extremists groups have been crystal clear about what they stand against, so we have to be equally clear about what we must stand for," Kerry said. "We stand for greater freedom, for greater tolerance, greater respect, for rights of freedom of expression and freedom of conscience," he said A key development in the 2013 report is the large number of displaced members of religious communities, including entire Christian communities in Syria and Iraq that have been forced to flee their homes because of persecution."
SIGN A PETITION TO THE UN FOR THE PROTECTION OF CHRISTIANS :" The church in Syria has shone brightly for 2,000 years. But today violence and persecution threatens its survival. Thanks to an incredible response, Open Doors is helping 8,000 families in Syria survive each month. We believe the signatures and prayers of 500,000 people will encourage the UN to act and protect the rights and lives of all Syrians, especially the vulnerable Christian community." Go to: http://lp.opendoorsusa.org/emails/nov-13-action/save-syria.html?utm_source=action&utm_medium=email&utm_content=button&utm_campaign=november
WORLD-WDE PRAYER REQUESTS:
7/18 - PRAY FOR THE PRESENT CONFLICT BETWEEN ISRAEL AND HAMAS TO END SOON BEFORE MORE INNOCENT LIVES ARE LOST ON BOTH SIDES.
6/13 - PRAY FOR THE CRISIS HAPPENING NOW IN IRAQ (see post #907)
LATEST SAHEED NEWS! May 22 - "Pastor Saeed Forcibly Returned to Prison after Beating" - By Caitlin Burke,CBN News, May 22, 2014;
http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/world/2014/May/Pastor-Saeed-Beaten-Sent-Back-to-Iran-Prison/ "Saeed Abedini, a U.S. pastor imprisoned for his faith, was severely beaten at an Iranian hospital before being returned to the brutal Rajai Shahr prison. His Iranian family claims the transfer was unexpected and the reason is unclear. But one of the guards involved in the transfer suggested recent Iranian nuclear talks could be a motive, the family said...""
We need to continue to pray for Pastor Saeed - that his health will improve and that he will be re-united with his wife and two young children who live in the United States. We also remain hopeful that in addition to getting the medical care he so desperately needs, that Iranian officials display the kind of humanitarian treatment that often accompanies the start of the Iranian New Year which began on March 21st. This is the time of year when the Iranian government frequently offers clemency to prisoners of conscience. [If you have not yet, please sign the petition for his clemency- http://beheardproject.com/saeed#sign]
/PRAYER ALERT- UKRAINE: As the Lord leads, please pray:
*For God to suppress President Putin’s ambitions to "restore" the Soviet empire.
*For the people of Ukrainen [esp. for the church 'to be THE church'] as they wait to see if the Russian troops will advance.
*About President Obama and to use wisdom in crafting our foreign policy, and wisdom for his advisers.
PRAYER ALERT!"Kim Jong-un Calls for Execution of 33 Christians" - 3/7/2014; http://www.presidentialprayerteam.com/Prayerwatch?pw=3651 "North Korea tyrant Kim Jong-un has reportedly ordered that 33 Christians believed to be working alongside South Korean Baptist missionary Kim Jung-wook be put to death. The South Korean missionary - who was arrested last year - and his accomplices have reportedly started 500 or so underground churches..."[PRAY that the plans for execution would be rescinded, and these believers released.] [Che\ck out: They'll Be Dead By Morning (What Difference Will It Make) http://loristanleyroeleveld.blogspot.com/2014/03/theyll-be-dead-by-morning-what.html
NEWS ALERT/PRAISE! "Iran Allows Surgery on Ailing, Imprisoned Pastor" - CBNNews.com,March 07, 2014;http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/world/2014/March/Iran-Allows-Dire-Surgery-on-Ailing-Imprisoned-Pastor-/ The Iranian government has finally allowed doctors to perform surgery on imprisoned Pastor Benham Irani.Irani suffered from a herniated disc and bleeding intestines and urgently needed medical care. PRAY for the final release of Pastor Irani and others imprisoned for their faith.
"Hamas' Propaganda Victory" - Linda Chavez | Aug 01, 2014;
http://townhall.com/columnists/lindachavez/2014/08/01/hamas-propaganda-victory-n1873279/page/full
The pictures are horrific: schoolroom walls covered in blood, parents running with injured children against a backdrop of bombed-out rubble, women with outstretched arms imploring Heaven. But they do not tell the full story of what is happening in Gaza any more than the casualty or rocket tallies printed daily in The New York Times and elsewhere do.
Midweek, the Times reported that 1,410 Palestinians have died and only 59 Israelis, while Israel had launched 3,577 rockets into Gaza compared to 2,753 fired by Hamas at Israel. But these figures are grotesquely dishonest, implying a moral equivalence that simply does not exist.
The escalating bloodshed could cease at any point. But Hamas chooses to keep the blood flowing, rivers of it meant to drown the resolve of Israel to dismantle the terrorist network that has impoverished Gaza and seeks to destroy the Jewish state. Shedding innocent blood has always been the preferred tool of Hamas -- preferably the blood of Jews. But if it serves its propaganda purposes, Hamas is happy to sacrifice Muslim women and children by using them as human shields.
This point seems to be lost on UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who has blamed Israel for the deaths of 20 Palestinians at a UN school allegedly hit by Israeli rockets. Never mind that the UN has found weapons hidden in three of its own schools since the beginning of the conflict, and Israel Defense Forces have discovered weapons hidden in mosques and hospitals in Gaza, as well.
The technique seems to be working -- at least in rousing anti-Israel sentiment around the world, including among certain segments of the U.S. population. While more Americans believe Hamas is to blame for the bloodshed in Gaza, 40 percent to 19 percent, Democrats are nearly equally divided on the issue, with 29 percent blaming Hamas and 26 percent blaming Israel, according to a new Pew Research poll. Republicans, on the other hand, overwhelmingly say Hamas bears the burden of guilt for innocent lives lost, 60 to 13 percent.
Israel, which once enjoyed nearly universal respect and support in the West, has suddenly become the villain in all too many eyes. The shift in public opinion didn't begin with Operation Protective Edge, the Israel Defense Forces' move into Gaza earlier this month. As Joshua Muravchik outlines in his meticulously researched book "Making David into Goliath: How the World Turned Against Israel" (Encounter Books 2014), the tide began to turn decades ago, especially on the left.
Muravchik details the crumbling of support for Israel in Europe, which began early with French President Charles de Gaulle's infamous tirade against Jews as "an elite people, self-assured and domineering" after Israel's triumph in the 1967 Six-Day War. Anti-Semitic demonstrations and attacks in France, Germany and elsewhere in Europe have become commonplace today with the influx of Muslim immigrants to the continent. And the UN itself has become the favored forum for attacks on the legitimacy of Israel.
Muravchik's beautifully written book describes the confluence of events that helped undermine support for Israel, from the West's dependence on Arab oil to the left's adoption of a new paradigm that replaced class struggle with the conflict against "racism" that pitted "the rest against the West." Muravchik spends a whole chapter describing the ascendance of scholars in American universities whose worldview envisioned a perennial demographic conflict between young and old, male and female and, especially, white and non-white -- one in which Israel's very existence is seen as the triumph of "white people competing for land with people of color."
Muravchik details how these views have seeped in diluted form into the mainstream. He warns: "The anti-Israel camp does not need to win America fully to its side. Merely to neutralize it would radically alter the balance of power and put Israel in great jeopardy."
It is little wonder that Hamas relishes the pictures of dead and wounded Palestinians. Hamas is willing to sacrifice countless Palestinian lives in the quest for a gullible audience in the West ready to blame Israel. Only in this way can Hamas win its war.
Muravchik's book sounds the alarm for why Americans cannot let this happen."For all its might, Israel remains a David, struggling against the odds to secure its small foothold in a violent and hostile region," he says. We must stand with Israel if it is to survive.
[bold, italics, and colored emphasis mine]
Linda Chavez is chairman of the Center for Equal Opportunity and author of Betrayal: How Union Bosses Shake Down Their Members and Corrupt American Politics .
PRAY FOR AMERICA: THANK GOD for His many blessings on America throughout it's history. May we then ask that AMERICA once again be a blessing TO GOD, by once again submitting to HIS will in our affairs - both personal and national - that He may truly "heal our land." (2 Chron. 7:14)
Please pray for Dr. Kent Brantly and Nancy Writebol from Samaritan’s Purse:
Two Americans working for Samaritan’s Purse to battle the deadly Ebola virus plaguing Liberia, unfortunately have both tested positive for the this terrible virus and are fighting for their lives.
Dr. Kent Brantly, medical director for the Samaritan’s Purse care center serving the Liberian capital of Monrovia, and Nancy Writebol, part of the joint Serving In Mission/ Samaritan’s Purse team, are currently undergoing intensive treatment at an isolation center in ELWA Hospital.
Please join us by praying for both of these heroic individuals and their families at this time. For more information please visit their website at www.samaritanspurse.org. [from Crosswalk.com]
"Keeping Faith: Missionary 'Refused' to Flee Liberia" - By Heather Sells,August 06, 2014;http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/us/2014/August/Keeping-Faith-Missionary-Refused-to-Flee-Liberia/ "The faith of David and Nancy shows a maturity that is teaching all of us," Cashwell said. "They know that God can move in at any time and heal Nancy." "But they also recognize that if God chooses to call her home, that He's going to bring a healing there as well," he added. "And that's the healing that we all hope for." .
"Not Everyone Happy with Religious Ambassador Pick," Caitlin Burke,July 29, 2014;
http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/world/2014/July/Obama-Taps-Rabbi-for-Religious-Freedom-Ambassador/ "President Barack Obama's decision to nominate Rabbi David Saperstein to the post of Ambassador for International Religious Freedom is drawing mixed reactions. Saperstein has spent his career in Washington focusing on social justice and religious freedom issues as an activist in the liberal reform branch of Judaism .... An estimated 76 percent of the world's population live in countries where religious freedom is restricted. Secretary of State John Kerry said the United States must take a strong stand against those violations. "Around the world repressive governments and extremists groups have been crystal clear about what they stand against, so we have to be equally clear about what we must stand for," Kerry said. "We stand for greater freedom, for greater tolerance, greater respect, for rights of freedom of expression and freedom of conscience," he said A key development in the 2013 report is the large number of displaced members of religious communities, including entire Christian communities in Syria and Iraq that have been forced to flee their homes because of persecution."
SIGN A PETITION TO THE UN FOR THE PROTECTION OF CHRISTIANS :" The church in Syria has shone brightly for 2,000 years. But today violence and persecution threatens its survival. Thanks to an incredible response, Open Doors is helping 8,000 families in Syria survive each month. We believe the signatures and prayers of 500,000 people will encourage the UN to act and protect the rights and lives of all Syrians, especially the vulnerable Christian community." Go to: http://lp.opendoorsusa.org/emails/nov-13-action/save-syria.html?utm_source=action&utm_medium=email&utm_content=button&utm_campaign=november
WORLD-WDE PRAYER REQUESTS:
7/18 - PRAY FOR THE PRESENT CONFLICT BETWEEN ISRAEL AND HAMAS TO END SOON BEFORE MORE INNOCENT LIVES ARE LOST ON BOTH SIDES.
6/13 - PRAY FOR THE CRISIS HAPPENING NOW IN IRAQ (see post #907)
LATEST SAHEED NEWS! May 22 - "Pastor Saeed Forcibly Returned to Prison after Beating" - By Caitlin Burke,CBN News, May 22, 2014;
http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/world/2014/May/Pastor-Saeed-Beaten-Sent-Back-to-Iran-Prison/ "Saeed Abedini, a U.S. pastor imprisoned for his faith, was severely beaten at an Iranian hospital before being returned to the brutal Rajai Shahr prison. His Iranian family claims the transfer was unexpected and the reason is unclear. But one of the guards involved in the transfer suggested recent Iranian nuclear talks could be a motive, the family said...""
We need to continue to pray for Pastor Saeed - that his health will improve and that he will be re-united with his wife and two young children who live in the United States. We also remain hopeful that in addition to getting the medical care he so desperately needs, that Iranian officials display the kind of humanitarian treatment that often accompanies the start of the Iranian New Year which began on March 21st. This is the time of year when the Iranian government frequently offers clemency to prisoners of conscience. [If you have not yet, please sign the petition for his clemency- http://beheardproject.com/saeed#sign]
PRAY ALSO : - For comfort and peace for Saeed’s wife and children here in the U.S.\
- For a strong witness and testimony from Pastor Abedini in the prison where God has placed him
- For Christians around the world who are being persecuted for their faith in Christ
- For leadership from the White House and State Department in defending the freedoms of Abedini and other Americans
- GO TO SaveSaeed.org to sign a petition over 600,000 others asking for his immediate release
*For God to suppress President Putin’s ambitions to "restore" the Soviet empire.
*For the people of Ukrainen [esp. for the church 'to be THE church'] as they wait to see if the Russian troops will advance.
*About President Obama and to use wisdom in crafting our foreign policy, and wisdom for his advisers.
PRAYER ALERT!"Kim Jong-un Calls for Execution of 33 Christians" - 3/7/2014; http://www.presidentialprayerteam.com/Prayerwatch?pw=3651 "North Korea tyrant Kim Jong-un has reportedly ordered that 33 Christians believed to be working alongside South Korean Baptist missionary Kim Jung-wook be put to death. The South Korean missionary - who was arrested last year - and his accomplices have reportedly started 500 or so underground churches..."[PRAY that the plans for execution would be rescinded, and these believers released.] [Che\ck out: They'll Be Dead By Morning (What Difference Will It Make) http://loristanleyroeleveld.blogspot.com/2014/03/theyll-be-dead-by-morning-what.html
NEWS ALERT/PRAISE! "Iran Allows Surgery on Ailing, Imprisoned Pastor" - CBNNews.com,March 07, 2014;http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/world/2014/March/Iran-Allows-Dire-Surgery-on-Ailing-Imprisoned-Pastor-/ The Iranian government has finally allowed doctors to perform surgery on imprisoned Pastor Benham Irani.Irani suffered from a herniated disc and bleeding intestines and urgently needed medical care. PRAY for the final release of Pastor Irani and others imprisoned for their faith.
Continue to Pray for EGYPT - Continue to pray for the tense situation in Egypt and especially for the Christian believers who are being targeted with violence by Muslim Brotherhood members.] ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Hamas' Propaganda Victory" - Linda Chavez | Aug 01, 2014;
Continue to Pray for EGYPT - Continue to pray for the tense situation in Egypt and especially for the Christian believers who are being targeted with violence by Muslim Brotherhood members.] ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
http://townhall.com/columnists/lindachavez/2014/08/01/hamas-propaganda-victory-n1873279/page/full
The pictures are horrific: schoolroom walls covered in blood, parents running with injured children against a backdrop of bombed-out rubble, women with outstretched arms imploring Heaven. But they do not tell the full story of what is happening in Gaza any more than the casualty or rocket tallies printed daily in The New York Times and elsewhere do.
Midweek, the Times reported that 1,410 Palestinians have died and only 59 Israelis, while Israel had launched 3,577 rockets into Gaza compared to 2,753 fired by Hamas at Israel. But these figures are grotesquely dishonest, implying a moral equivalence that simply does not exist.
The escalating bloodshed could cease at any point. But Hamas chooses to keep the blood flowing, rivers of it meant to drown the resolve of Israel to dismantle the terrorist network that has impoverished Gaza and seeks to destroy the Jewish state. Shedding innocent blood has always been the preferred tool of Hamas -- preferably the blood of Jews. But if it serves its propaganda purposes, Hamas is happy to sacrifice Muslim women and children by using them as human shields.
This point seems to be lost on UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who has blamed Israel for the deaths of 20 Palestinians at a UN school allegedly hit by Israeli rockets. Never mind that the UN has found weapons hidden in three of its own schools since the beginning of the conflict, and Israel Defense Forces have discovered weapons hidden in mosques and hospitals in Gaza, as well.
The technique seems to be working -- at least in rousing anti-Israel sentiment around the world, including among certain segments of the U.S. population. While more Americans believe Hamas is to blame for the bloodshed in Gaza, 40 percent to 19 percent, Democrats are nearly equally divided on the issue, with 29 percent blaming Hamas and 26 percent blaming Israel, according to a new Pew Research poll. Republicans, on the other hand, overwhelmingly say Hamas bears the burden of guilt for innocent lives lost, 60 to 13 percent.
Israel, which once enjoyed nearly universal respect and support in the West, has suddenly become the villain in all too many eyes. The shift in public opinion didn't begin with Operation Protective Edge, the Israel Defense Forces' move into Gaza earlier this month. As Joshua Muravchik outlines in his meticulously researched book "Making David into Goliath: How the World Turned Against Israel" (Encounter Books 2014), the tide began to turn decades ago, especially on the left.
Muravchik details the crumbling of support for Israel in Europe, which began early with French President Charles de Gaulle's infamous tirade against Jews as "an elite people, self-assured and domineering" after Israel's triumph in the 1967 Six-Day War. Anti-Semitic demonstrations and attacks in France, Germany and elsewhere in Europe have become commonplace today with the influx of Muslim immigrants to the continent. And the UN itself has become the favored forum for attacks on the legitimacy of Israel.
Muravchik's beautifully written book describes the confluence of events that helped undermine support for Israel, from the West's dependence on Arab oil to the left's adoption of a new paradigm that replaced class struggle with the conflict against "racism" that pitted "the rest against the West." Muravchik spends a whole chapter describing the ascendance of scholars in American universities whose worldview envisioned a perennial demographic conflict between young and old, male and female and, especially, white and non-white -- one in which Israel's very existence is seen as the triumph of "white people competing for land with people of color."
Muravchik details how these views have seeped in diluted form into the mainstream. He warns: "The anti-Israel camp does not need to win America fully to its side. Merely to neutralize it would radically alter the balance of power and put Israel in great jeopardy."
It is little wonder that Hamas relishes the pictures of dead and wounded Palestinians. Hamas is willing to sacrifice countless Palestinian lives in the quest for a gullible audience in the West ready to blame Israel. Only in this way can Hamas win its war.
Muravchik's book sounds the alarm for why Americans cannot let this happen."For all its might, Israel remains a David, struggling against the odds to secure its small foothold in a violent and hostile region," he says. We must stand with Israel if it is to survive.
[bold, italics, and colored emphasis mine]
Linda Chavez is chairman of the Center for Equal Opportunity and author of Betrayal: How Union Bosses Shake Down Their Members and Corrupt American Politics .
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