Sunday, October 5, 2014

#1019 (10/5) SUNDAY SPECIAL: "Commit to Vote 2014"; "Americans Have a Civic Duty To Vote Intelligently"

The Bulletin Board:(Please SCROLL DOWN this page to find the article titled on this post in LARGE CAPITAL LETTERS. Thank you.)
PRAY FOR AMERICATHANK 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)

U.S. Supreme Court to Reconvene THIS week: Let's be praying WHENEVER the Court is in session as their decisions can have impact on GENERATIONS TO COME. The fact that they may have an opportunity this session to actually vote on same-sex "marriage" where it has the same impact on this country that Roe v. Wade did should be motivating enough!

ELECTION DAY, NOV. 4th.  Let's begin praying that the American people will have wisdom in voting into office those who will lead our communities and nation with integrity and wisdom from God and DO NO HARM!.

WORLD-WDE PRAYER REQUESTS:

Pastor Saeed Abedini (Photo: CitizenGo via Twitter)
Friday, Sept. 26th - Two Year Anniversary of  Pastor Saeed Abedini's Imprisonment in Iran! - [NOTE TODAY'S POST!]
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

"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/  "..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

UPDATE: "Second US Doctor Sick with Ebola; Crisis 'Out of Control'- CBNNews.com, Sept. 02, 2014;
http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/healthscience/2014/September/A-Losing-Battle-Ebola-Going-to-Get-Worse-CDC-Says/ "Another American doctor in Liberia has tested positive for the Ebola virus, according to the international Christian mission organization, SIM. SIM leaders report the American doctor was treating obstetrics patients at the organization's ELWA Hospital in Monrovia and not treating Ebola patients..."The epidemic is going faster than we are," he warned. 'We need to scale up our response. We can hope for new tools and maybe they'll come, but we can't count on them.' So far, the West African outbreak has killed more than 1,500 people in Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Nigeria."
Of course, let's CONTINUE PRAYING FOR AN END TO THE EBOLA CRISIS IN WEST AFRICA AND THE HEALING OF ALL THOSE WHO HAVE BEEN INFECTED.

PRAY FOR THE CRISIS HAPPENING NOW IN IRAQ (see post #907) Pray that allied forces will be able to drive the group ISIS back (see post #964)

LATEST:"Christians in the Middle East Arm Themselves As Genocide Comes to Their Front Door" - Katie Pavlich | Sep 05, 2014;
http://townhall.com/tipsheet/katiepavlich/2014/09/05/christians-in-the-middle-east-arm-themselves-as-violence-rages-around-them-n1887849" Earlier this week the BBC and Al Jazeera both reported on armed Iraqi citizen volunteers who helped government forces fight off ISIS in Amerli. Today, the AP is out with a story about Christians in the Middle East who are arming themselves, carrying weapons with them during daily tasks and heading to the hills at night to defend their communities as violence continues to rage around them. Genocide is at their front door and they're doing everything they can to stop it from coming in... So far, the terror army ISIS has slaughtered and tortured thousands of Christians in Iraq and Syria."

/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.
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.]

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"Commit to Vote 2014" - http://www.commit2vote2014.com/?utm_source=update&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=230302&refcd=230302&tvar=n&crmlink=content-ctv-image#about [AS IT SEE IT: On a day that I usually post articles that have a clearer spiritual thrust, some might see this as out of place. To the contrary, I believe that believers are placed in our society to have an impact for Christ, and that includes fulfilling our responsibilities as citizens. Some may be called to have a direct influence in the direction of our government by being privileged to serve as the peoples' representative in public office. But ALL who are eligible to vote have a responsibility to be registered, to be informed, and to vote as God leads them to. It's become too easy for too many who call themselves followers of Christ to dismiss voting as being "just politics" and not voting and thereby forfeiting the voice they are CALLED to have in our society. When we could have placed in positions of leadership those who would give wise and even Biblical leadership to our communities and nation and fail to, I believe we essentially surrender our society to those who will steer it wrongly. If YOU are eligible to vote, YOU have a responsibility to be registered, educated, and then actually vote. - Stan (P.S. - Please go to the website where the following article can be found in order to learn more.)]]

Imagine the impact Americans of faith can have on the future of our nation, the character of its leadership, and the health of its families if we all applied biblical principles to every aspect of our lives — including committing to vote. Americans are blessed to have the right to be involved in our system of government — but that right comes with a responsibility: participation.For millions of people in other parts of the world, voting is just a dream. Still, many Americans with the right to vote are not acting on that right.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, as many as 29 percent of citizens were not registered to vote in 2008 — that’s 60 million people! More than one-third of eligible voting citizens did not vote in the last presidential election.[It is said that for a number of years now, only 1/2 of believers eligible to vote have actually registered, and that on Election Day only about 1/2 of them actually vote. That means that about 1/4 of the total number of believers eligible to vote actually do!]

As Christ’s representatives here on earth, Christians have a mandate to be the “salt and light” in our culture (Matthew 5:13-16, ESV). We have the opportunity to positively impact the direction of our country, the men and women who lead it, and the policies they enact.

Will you commit to register — and to vote — your values on Tuesday, Nov. 4?

Bonhoeffer quote

"Americans Have a Civic Duty To Vote Intelligently" Dr. Ben Carson | Oct 01, 2014; http://townhall.com/columnists/drbencarson/2014/10/01/americans-have-a-civic-duty-to-vote-intelligently-n1898942?utm_source=thdaily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl

Many recent surveys indicate that the vast majority of Americans feel our country is moving in the wrong direction.This country was intentionally designed to be different from others in which a monarch or strong central government controlled almost every aspect of the lives of its citizens. In most other nations, the lives of the populace conform to the will of the government. In America, the government is supposed to conform to the will of the people. Also in most other countries, it was declared that the rights of the people were conferred by the government; whereas, our founding documents indicate a belief that our rights derive from our Creator, a.k.a. God.

It is critical that the people of our country understand that we the people are at the pinnacle of power in a nation created of, by and for the people. In order to exercise that power in a responsible manner, the people must be informed voters. To cast votes for people or issues about which one knows little or nothing is akin to taking unlabeled medicine from an unknown source simply because someone told you to do so.

It is also unfortunate that many schools no longer offer civics courses and that students are not taught the fundamentals of how our government works. This partly explains the incredibly uninformed answers to basic questions on some televised "man on the street" interviews. The founders of our nation were huge advocates of education and felt that our freedoms and system of government would be jeopardized by an uninformed populace that could be easily manipulated by dishonest politicians or a biased press.

I hate to complain without offering solutions. Thus, my wife and I have just released a new e-book (soon to be a paperback) titled, "One Vote: Make Your Voice Heard." Thousands of free copies are being distributed, and the purchase price is less than that of a simple sandwich. It is completely nonpartisan and was written for people who, for whatever reason, missed out on important information with respect to becoming an informed voter. There are electronic links to websites that not only identify your representatives, but also tell you how they voted, as opposed to how they said they voted, on a variety of issues. It provides access to links that help you clearly identify your own beliefs and compare them with those of political figures and parties. This kind of information will make it easier for people to think for themselves, rather than being herded and manipulated by those in various political organizations who hunger for power, not liberty and fairness.

In 2012, 93 million Americans who could have voted failed to do so. That's more votes than either presidential candidate received. We must all realize that we have no right to complain about the direction of our nation if we are unwilling to grasp the importance of our civic duty to vote intelligently.

There are those who are much more interested in having blind followers than informed voters. They will not embrace this publication. I also fully realize that detractors will say Ben Carson is just engaging in self-promotion and trying to make more money. Some people ascribe to others what their motives would be and are incapable of thinking otherwise. In the meantime, we the people must, through our collective wisdom and power, alter the course of our beloved nation through the wise use of our votes.

[bold and italics emphasis mine]

Dr. Carson is an emeritus professor of neurosurgery, oncology, plastic surgery and pediatrics at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. In 1984, he was named director of pediatric neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins Children’s Center, a position he retired from on June 30, 2013...Dr. Carson writes a weekly syndicated column and has written five best-selling books. His fifth book, "America The Beautiful," was released early in 2012 and made The New York Times bestseller list.

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