Saturday, July 11, 2020

#3073 (7/11) PRO-LIFE SAT: "Abortion Industry Quiter Of the Month: Keysha"

"ABORTION INDUSTRY QUITTER OF THE MONTH: KEYSHA" - Keysha Lockett with Dave Franco; July 3, 2020; https://abortionworker.com/2020/07/01/abortion-industry-quitter-of-the-month-keysha
  “Oh, Keysha, no!” my mother said into the phone when I told her I had just taken a job at Planned Parenthood. “They kill babies!”

   But Mom really had nothing to worry about. The particular branch where I had just accepted a job didn’t even offer abortions. Their emphasis was on “women’s health,” and that made me more than a little excited about taking the job. I really wanted to be a part of something that was doing so much good; something so needed in our area.
   Right away, I enjoyed my day to day tasks, working alongside other diligent and well-meaning ladies who also had the best interest of women in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, in mind. Sure there were a few things that I didn’t like, like the fact that a nearby clinic where abortions were performed would drop off pamphlets (I threw them away) and my office wanted me to offer information about abortions to women who tested positive for pregnancy (I refused and left that to a clinician). But I knew I didn’t want to cross the line into being complicit to the abortions and with my mom’s voice ringing in my head, I felt good about where I was and how I was handling it. My hands were clean and my conscience was clear.

   But there came a day when I realized that, like a distant drum grows louder as it approaches, something was happening around me that gave me a slight, nearly imperceptible ache. It was when I noticed that management was constantly pushing our numbers to be higher. I had just assumed all along that the health of the ladies who came in our doors was our primary goal, but the more I let it come into focus, the more I could see we were hungry, even insatiable for more women, more visits, more tests, and more dollars. On our busiest days, the quality of care would necessarily drop as we offered each patient less and less time. Was it a concern to management? Not at all. They were giddy about the money.

   Then I began to notice how often management tried to get me to manipulate test results to keep the state from bothering us. If we were all about women’s health, why was there so much lying?

   Then came the pressure to make sure that women for whom we had given tests allowed their results to be used in research. I dutifully told the ladies that the use of their information would earn them a 50-dollar gift card, but when they said they weren’t interested, I saw no reason to press any further. Management, however, did not agree. “Ask them again!” they said. “Press the issue!”
   “Are they kidding me?” I thought to myself. “They want me to strong-arm women into letting their most private information out of their control and into the hands of some no-name researcher? Doesn’t their no mean no in this Me Too Movement era?”
   “We’re paid quite a bit for that information,” a coworker said when I asked. I began to wonder if the clinic had much to do with women’s health at all. Was it just a ruse?

   Soon after, a Planned Parenthood memo, sent from headquarters, was distributed that warned us of a woman named Abby Johnson and a movie that was coming out about her experience as a Planned Parenthood clinic manager. I figured she had to be quite a threat to warrant such a sharp reaction from on high. I intended to go home that night and look her up to find out more. I had no way of knowing, but everything was about to change for me. I was about to learn the truth—courtesy of that memo. Because, as soon as I got home, I searched Abby’s speeches and testimonies and learned about the scourge that is Planned Parenthood. Its central focus, it’s reason for existing is abortion. All encounters and relationships made in the clinic serve the purpose of creating abortion clients later on. Affiliates like mine only feed the beast.

   “Dear God,” I thought. “What am I a part of?” The more I searched the more women I found who had stories to tell about the institutional lying and push for death going on in Planned Parenthood.
   I thought about what I was really doing every time I refused to tell a woman about abortion resources at our PP affiliate and passed them off to the clinician who came in the room after me. I knew what she was telling them. My hands weren’t clean, not at all. I was, in fact, complicit in the very thing I didn’t want to let myself think about.

   Combined with the guilt I had been stuffing down over having an abortion several years prior, it was more than I could take. I came undone. Along with regular bouts of crying in the days and weeks ahead, I spent many sleepless nights with the wide-eyed fear that I was going to pay for being a part of this.
   The days and weeks that followed as I continued to go to work were almost impossible to endure. My smile left my face. I questioned procedures a little more often than they were comfortable with. I felt my body start to react. I seemed to always be sick. Soon after I arrived to work with pink eye and laryngitis and my supervisor sent me home to get me away from the patients. Somehow, I knew that that was my final day. I didn’t know how or why. I just knew my time there was up. As I drove home, I was an emotional wreck. I fell into such a state of weeping I nearly couldn’t drive.
   The next day I got a call. They said that when I was sent home it was a firing. I knew that wasn’t true, but what did I care? I just needed to be gone. Perhaps they did me a favor.

    In a day or two, I picked up the phone and called Abby Johnson’s organization, AND THEN THERE WERE NONE. “We are here for you,” Nichola said. “We’re going to get you all the help you need.” All?
   I wasn’t expecting that. But it was as if the organization shifted to give me their total attention. They offered time, programs, advice, prayer, resources, even financial help to get me by now that I was without a job—and lots of love. “Whenever you need us, just pick up the phone,” Nichola said. They became my emotional infrastructure and helped me see that God was eager to forgive someone like me, someone who had found themselves a part of something so sinister.

   The support I have received from AND THEN THERE WERE NONE cannot be measured. I pray that God continues to bless and empower ladies to stand up to the abortion industry and tell the truth, and I know, with an advocate like AND THEN THERE WERE NONE beside them, many more will. They are not just a catalyst for the spiritual health of women like me, but for real change.

[italics and colored emphasis mine]



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PRAYER MATTERS:

"To clasp the hands in prayer is the beginning of an uprising against 
the disorder of the world. -  Karl Barth
"Prayer is inviting God into a seemingly impossible situation and trusting/resting in His love and grace to accomplish His perfect will in His perfect time and for His greatest glory. Intercession is  one of the great privileges AND responsibilities for EVERY believer."- Stan
----------------------------------------------------------------------
World-Wide Prayer Requests:
------------------------------------------------------------
Praying Through the Open Doors World Watch List for persecuted believers:https://www.opendoorsusa.org/take-action/pray/monthly-prayer-calendar/
Young people worship Jesus in Laos despite persecution. Ouk* grew up angry, wanting to be a gangster so he could get revenge for his father, who was in jail for his faith until Ouk was 7. But when he was 8 or 9, God caught ahold of Ouk’s heart. “Instead of being a gangster, He told me to be a better guy who shares the gospel,” Ouk shares. “God does not want me to be a gangster but to be a leader.” Now, Ouk’s dream is to be a worship leader. Recently, Ouk and others got to attend a Music and Worship Training conducted by partners of Open Doors like Naomi*, a local coordinator. Naomi shares: “This worship training is intended for the youth. We teach music to them, its theory and the right discipline of worship through music.”
July 11 - Pray for Naomi’s family and their ministry in Laos and the difficulties they face.
*Representative name or photo used to protect identity.

Friday, July 10, 2020

#3072 (7/10) "SCOTUS Delivers Wins for Religious Liberty"

"SCOTUS DELIVERS WIN FOR RELIGIOUS LIBERTY" - Tony Perkins, Washington Updte, July 9, 2020; https://www.frc.org/updatearticle/20200709/scotus-delivers


   Wednesday, the Supreme Court delivered two noteworthy victories for religious liberty. In Little Sisters of the Poor v. Pennsylvania, the court upheld a Trump administration policy protecting conscience and religious freedom in the context of the Affordable Care Act ("ACA"). In Our Lady of Guadalupe School v. Morrissey-Berru, the court robustly defined the First Amendment rights of religious schools and institutions to determine who will teach and defend the tenets of their faith.

   The first case is a saga that stretches back nearly a decade. Under the ACA, employers had been required to provide "preventative care and screening," which had been interpreted by the Obama administration to include some abortion-causing drugs and services. As a religious organization, the Little Sisters of the Poor raised a conscientious objection to this mandate on the grounds that it contradicted the religious beliefs of the group. Threatened by tens of millions of crushing fines and harassed by those who desired to destroy the right to freely live out one's faith and moral beliefs, the group received a victory in 2017 when the Trump administration decided that it would reverse the oppressive policies of the previous administration and not force entities to cover abortion-causing drugs and related services in violation of their consciences.
   As the court observed, "for the past seven years," the Little Sisters, "like many other religious objectors who have participated in the litigation and rulemakings leading up to [this] decision -- have had to fight for the ability to continue in their noble work without violating their sincerely held religious beliefs." Wednesday, the court vindicated their fight. In the 7-2 opinion written by Justice Clarence Thomas, the majority ruled that, "[...] the plain language of the statute clearly allows" the Trump administration to do this and promulgate protections under "religious and moral exemptions." As FRC's Travis Weber told me on Washington Watch, the "opinion said basically the government had the statutory authority to issue this rule under the Affordable Care Act and related regulations and related laws." Further, the administration properly followed the Administrative Procedure Act. In addition to delivering a substantial win for religious liberty, the fact that seven justices agreed the administration acted properly affirms the legitimacy of the religious freedom policies the administration had advanced here.

   In Our Lady of Guadalupe School, the court outlined First Amendment protections for religious liberty that will have important implications in the years ahead. The case arose because a teacher claimed she was improperly fired from a religious school. Yet as the court noted in an opinion joined by seven justices, religious entities must be the ones to determine who transmits their religious beliefs -- the government cannot meddle here. As Justice Samuel Alito wrote, "[s]tate interference in that sphere would obviously violate the free exercise of religion, and any attempt by government to dictate or even to influence such matters would constitute one of the central attributes of an establishment of religion. The First Amendment outlaws such intrusion."
   But which employees carry on the faith of such institutions? As Travis observed, rather than just look at their titles, "the court quite rightly digs down deep, more deeply and says you have to look at what the person does, what the employee does for the institution, whether their role is one in which they're entrusted with carrying forth the doctrines of the institution or the school and says, look, if they are, the school can determine or the religious institution can determine to fire them."

   Exactly right. More of such protections will be needed in the years ahead. In this case, as well as the first, the Trump administration's policies and positions advanced through the Department of Justice were vindicated at the court. Both of President Trump's appointments to the court were on the right side of the cases, and Justice Gorsuch joined strong concurrences in both cases (one authored by Justice Alito and the other by Justice Thomas). Alarmingly, Justices Ginsburg and Sotomayor offered words of disdain and hostility to religious belief and dissented in both cases.

   Even in the courts, religious liberty hangs in the balance. For those who say elections don't matter in such cases, they need to think again.

[italics and colored emphasis mine]


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PRAYER MATTERS:

"To clasp the hands in prayer is the beginning of an uprising against 
the disorder of the world. -  Karl Barth
"Prayer is inviting God into a seemingly impossible situation and trusting/resting in His love and grace to accomplish His perfect will in His perfect time and for His greatest glory. Intercession is  one of the great privileges AND responsibilities for EVERY believer."- Stan
----------------------------------------------------------------------
World-Wide Prayer Requests:
------------------------------------------------------------
Praying Through the Open Doors World Watch List for persecuted believers:https://www.opendoorsusa.org/take-action/pray/monthly-prayer-calendar/
Young people worship Jesus in Laos despite persecution. Ouk* grew up angry, wanting to be a gangster so he could get revenge for his father, who was in jail for his faith until Ouk was 7. But when he was 8 or 9, God caught ahold of Ouk’s heart. “Instead of being a gangster, He told me to be a better guy who shares the gospel,” Ouk shares. “God does not want me to be a gangster but to be a leader.” Now, Ouk’s dream is to be a worship leader. Recently, Ouk and others got to attend a Music and Worship Training conducted by partners of Open Doors like Naomi*, a local coordinator. Naomi shares: “This worship training is intended for the youth. We teach music to them, its theory and the right discipline of worship through music.”
July 10 - Pray for the young leaders like Ouk, that they would be encouraged to stand for Jesus, despite the situation in Laos.
*Representative name or photo used to protect identity.



Thursday, July 9, 2020

#3071 (7/9) "A 100% American"

"A 100% AMERICAN" - Emmett Tyrrell: Jul 09, 2020, https://townhall.com/columnists/emmetttyrrell/2020/07/09/a-100-american-n2572095 [AS I SEE IT: This is about as accurate a  statement of President Trump as I have heard, though nothing he has ever said makes me consider him anything but a conservative. - Stan]
Source: AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana
    Washington -- Many Americans, after they have been in Washington, D.C., for a few years, become less fervent about their beliefs. President Donald Trump has become (SET ITAL)more(END ITAL) fervent about the things he believes. After this past weekend and Donald's solemnly expressed indignation about the shredding of our shared values and beliefs, he is being excoriated by the media -- the Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, The Washington Post -- for being divisive, racist and provocative.

   For some reason, Americans both on the left and the right have taken a pass on defending American values and beliefs. Trump is not taking a pass. He is indignant. If he has to stand alone, he will stand alone for American values. He did not come to Washington to get along with the establishment. He came to defend our values and to use the American system of capitalism and democratic values to assure our prosperity. He is doing just that. Did you note this past week's economic news? Or how about the good economic news of the month before? My guess is that Donald will not be standing alone this Election Day. That is my prophecy. He will have the American people with him, and Official Washington will again be without a clue.

   His two speeches, one at Mount Rushmore on Friday and a second at the White House on Saturday, outlined what he believes and what he thinks the American people believe. It is not just capitalism or the rule of law. It is also the ordinary stuff: family, religious services, freedom of association, saluting the flag, unions for union folk, nonunions for nonunion folk, the great outdoors for some Americans, the environment for others. After watching him -- unimpeded by the Trump-haters or even by the Trump-lovers -- I have come to the belief that the president is a practical American who understands how to get things done. He is neither a conservative nor a leftist. He is just an American. I wish I could report that he was a hardcore conservative, but I cannot, and that is OK by me.
    He trusts capitalism, though he is aware of its vulnerability to excess. He trusts government, though he wants to keep it limited. He believes in the American spirit at work and at play. He would not be embarrassed to be reminded that he loves America -- and he hates those who would belittle America. Most of us Americans do, too.

  When he spoke out against defiling monuments, he saw it all coming. First, you tear down statues to Gens. Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson, the president said, and what comes next? As the president said, next will be George Washington, the father of our country, and Thomas Jefferson. That sounded extreme, but it has happened.
   Now we have assaults against Christopher Columbus and St. Junipero Serra.
   But wait, it gets worse. There are threats to statues raised for the Great Emancipator himself, Abraham Lincoln. He was assassinated for freeing the slaves and saving the Union by the first of a long line of public-spirited actors, reaching right up to Jane Fonda and Alec Baldwin. The cowardly killer was John Wilkes Boothe. And forget not the defilement of a statue raised by the great sculptor, Augustus Saint-Gaudens, to America's first all-Black regiment, the historic 54th Massachusetts Regiment in Boston. 
   And now the ignoramuses are threatening the great -- and, need I say, Black -- Frederick Douglass. 
   Finally, the mob, in its ignorance, has attacked a statue in San Francisco to Ulysses S. Grant, the general who beat the Confederate armies and, as president, sent our army repeatedly into the South to protect the recently freed Blacks. Grant was Trump's kind of guy. He was greater than all the generals of the South or the North, and there would be no defiling of monuments if he were alive today.


[itaics and colored emphasis mine]

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PRAYER MATTERS:

"To clasp the hands in prayer is the beginning of an uprising against 
the disorder of the world. -  Karl Barth
"Prayer is inviting God into a seemingly impossible situation and trusting/resting in His love and grace to accomplish His perfect will in His perfect time and for His greatest glory. Intercession is  one of the great privileges AND responsibilities for EVERY believer."- Stan
----------------------------------------------------------------------
World-Wide Prayer Requests:
------------------------------------------------------------
Praying Through the Open Doors World Watch List for persecuted believers:https://www.opendoorsusa.org/take-action/pray/monthly-prayer-calendar/
Young people worship Jesus in Laos despite persecution. Ouk* grew up angry, wanting to be a gangster so he could get revenge for his father, who was in jail for his faith until Ouk was 7. But when he was 8 or 9, God caught ahold of Ouk’s heart. “Instead of being a gangster, He told me to be a better guy who shares the gospel,” Ouk shares. “God does not want me to be a gangster but to be a leader.” Now, Ouk’s dream is to be a worship leader. Recently, Ouk and others got to attend a Music and Worship Training conducted by partners of Open Doors like Naomi*, a local coordinator. Naomi shares: “This worship training is intended for the youth. We teach music to them, its theory and the right discipline of worship through music.”
July 9 - Pray training coordinators will have renewed energy for teaching
and sharing their gifts.
*Representative name or photo used to protect identity.

Wednesday, July 8, 2020

#3070 (7/8) "Children, the Church, and the Culture War - God’s Blessings Ain’t (Just) a Strategy"

"CHILDREN, THE CHURCH, AND THE CULTURE WAR - GOD AIN'T (JUST) A STRATEGY" -John Stonestreet and Shane Morris, Breakpoint.org, -07/6/20; https://www.breakpoint.org/children-the-church-and-the-culture-war/

   A few days ago, a colleague shared comments he and his wife get when people find out they have seven kids: “Are they all yours?” “Were they all planned?” “What are you, Mormon?” And, most awkward of all: “You know what causes that, right?” This kind of reaction to large families, which I’ve gotten with only four kids, reveals the assumptions about children that largely go unquestioned in our culture, even in the Church.

   It is widely assumed, for example, that children are a choice. This was not always so. The introduction of reliable contraception, especially the pill, made it possible to divorce the inherent connection between sex, marriage, and procreation. The cultural journey through the sexual revolution went something like this: First, we wanted sex outside of marriage. That required having sex without the threat of babies. Then we wanted babies outside of marriage, and today, even babies without sex. Somewhere along the way, the idea of marriage without children, intentionally I mean, became common too. Even among Christian couples, the idea of not only delaying children but choosing to not have them at all is, in many circles, non-controversial.

   In previous generations, an intentionally childless marriage would have been unthinkable. Infertility, as so many couples are painfully aware, is tragic. Intentional infertility is considered a choice today. 
   Another assumption that controls our cultural thinking is that we have children in order to fulfill adult longings. This shift goes hand in hand with seeing marriage as fundamentally an institution of adult happiness, rather than as an institution to protect and enable the next generation. When kids are thought of in terms of personal fulfillments, how we go about “obtaining” them becomes less important. Or not at all. 
   And so, the sexual revolution is punctuated by ethically problematic reproductive technologies and intentionally single-parent households, not to mention same-sex households who want children even after entering an intrinsically sterile sexual union.

   In short, after seeking the moral acceptance of sex without marriage or sex without children for so long, we now seek moral acceptance of having children without marriage or even without sex. Left out of our moral calculations is what happens to children who primarily exist to fulfill adult longings.
   We will soon know. According to a new report from the U.S. Census Bureau, America has gotten older faster over the last ten years than at any other time in history. Since 2010, Americans over 65 have become the fastest-growing segment of the population. Meanwhile, the number of those under 18 actually shrank between 2010 and 2019. If this continues, by 2035, senior citizens will outnumber minors in America in an unprecedented “top-heavy” arrangement with all sorts of social, economic, and political instability.

   This news comes at a moment many Christians are already wondering what America their children will inherit. No matter what we do or how we vote or even who is appointed to the Supreme Court, it seems, our culture and country continue to drift in an anti-Christian direction. In response to a recent disappointing opinion from the Supreme Court, Pastor Kevin DeYoung proposed a new “culture war strategy.” Writing at The Gospel Coalition, DeYoung urged Christians to “have more children and disciple them like crazy.” As my Tennessee friend might say, it’s not rocket-surgery. The heated reactions to DeYoung’s blog post, especially from other Christians, shows just how counter-cultural it has become to embrace the inherent created connection between sex, marriage, and children, even within the Church.

   Of course, the reason Christians of all people should welcome children into our lives and even into our troubled times is not ultimately to win a culture war.  As DeYoung acknowledged, children are a blessing from the Lord. Full stop. They aren’t means. They are ends: They are signs of living hope, votes of confidence in God’s sovereignty, and the most basic and constant opportunity to love others as Christ loves us.

   Jesus told his disciples: “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.” Ours is a culture that hinders children, instead of welcoming them. That we look at God’s blessings as mere lifestyle choices, even as punchlines for wisecracks and mockery, marks that we are a dying culture. And maybe a dying Church. Christians of all people should have no hesitation challenging our culture’s bad assumptions about children and welcoming them as blessings. But to do so, tragically, we’ll have to start with the household of God.

[italics and colored emphasis mine]

RESOURCES:
"U.S. 65 and Older Population Grows Rapidly as Baby Boomers Age" - Gary Price | Info Docket | June 25, 2020; https://www.infodocket.com/2020/06/25/new-data-u-s-65-and-older-population-grows-rapidly-as-baby-boomers-age/
"It’s Time for a New Culture War Strategy" - Kevin DeYoung | The Gospel Coalition | June 17, 2020; https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/kevin-deyoung/its-time-for-a-new-culture-war-strategy/

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PRAYER MATTERS:

"To clasp the hands in prayer is the beginning of an uprising against 
the disorder of the world. -  Karl Barth
"Prayer is inviting God into a seemingly impossible situation and trusting/resting in His love and grace to accomplish His perfect will in His perfect time and for His greatest glory. Intercession is  one of the great privileges AND responsibilities for EVERY believer."- Stan
----------------------------------------------------------------------
“INTERCESSORS ARE THE RUDDER” – A WORD OF ENCOURAGEMENT - Wanda Alger, June 28th, 2017; https://www.getamericapraying.com/blog/I was recently given a word by my good friend, Bill Yount. His word greatly encouraged me as an intercessor. Working for Intercessors for America, I soon realized it was not just a word for me, but for all who have been praying for our nation, wondering if their prayers are truly making any difference. Bill told me, “I kept seeing you as a small rudder on a huge ship. Hidden, but giving guidance. Although it seemed slow it was turning the whole ship. Patience was needed to see the impact of your…ministry. I sense the Lord saying, ‘Don’t jump ship! I’ve made you the rudder!’ ” I was immediately touched in my spirit by this encouragement, knowing that our seemingly small place in prayer was having a great impact.
James 3:4 talks about the power of a small rudder to steer a large ship. In this scripture about the power of our tongue, consider the power of prophetic intercession! In the Forerunner Commentary on this verse we read, “…rudders manipulate the course of immense ocean vessels with a slight movement of a pilot’s hand. Since it is underwater and aft, the rudder of a ship does its work UNSEEN. A passenger is ignorant of its movements most of the time. Yet, when it is in proper working order, the rudder holds more power over the ship than the wind. The wind will blow, toss, even destroy the ship’s rigging, but the rudder guides the ship exactly where it directs.”
This is God’s promise to the intercessors in this hour of national turbulence. Don’t stop praying! Your prayers have great power to turn the ship! Continue praying, interceding, and discerning the workings and movements of the Holy Spirit, being faithful to God’s commands. As we come together to declare God’s faithfulness, this nation will, once again, head in the direction that God intends. Don’t give up and don’t give in. Regardless of the winds of adversity and the fires of the enemy, God’s people have a power that cannot be matched. Let us join in faith and continue to pray and speak of God’s faithfulness in order to bring God’s people and this nation into the fullness of God’s plans. Note this additional encouragement from God’s word:
Colossians 2:15 – “He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him” (ESV). 
Psalm 33:8-11 – “Let all the earth fear the Lord; let all the people of the world revere him. For he spoke, and it came to be; he commanded, and it stood firm. The Lord foils the plans of the nations; He thwarts the purposes of the peoples. But the plans of the Lord stand firm forever, the purposes of his heart through all generations.” 
Wanda Alger, IFA Field Correspondent

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) Short of that, we should not be saying "God Bless America"but instead "God be merciful towards America!"
PRAY FOR OUR LEADERS:  1) Pray for President Trump and his advisers, that they would select Godly leaders at the federal level who will be accountable to do an excellent job (or be fired!) ; that he would seek God's wisdom and be enabled to lead our country effectively in the years ahead; and 2) Pray our leaders at every level of government will Spirit-filled, leading us with Godly wisdom and integrity; that they will  only pass legislation and enact policies that will benefit Americans today as well as future generations and NOT do any lasting harm.
SUPREME COURT: PRAY that the justices will only hand down decisions that are Constitutionally sound and in the best interests of our country now and for future generations.

World-Wide Prayer Requests:

 PRAISE GOD for the continuing recent successes against ISIS! P
ray that coalition forces will be able to  fully destroy the leadership and infrastructure of ISIS.
*For believers in Syria and in this region as they navigate so much uncertainty. May they remain faithful to God through these most difficult times as He sustains them with peace and His Spirit's strength.
------------------------------------------------------------
Praying Through the Open Doors World Watch List for persecuted believers:https://www.opendoorsusa.org/take-action/pray/monthly-prayer-calendar/
Young people worship Jesus in Laos despite persecution. Ouk* grew up angry, wanting to be a gangster so he could get revenge for his father, who was in jail for his faith until Ouk was 7. But when he was 8 or 9, God caught ahold of Ouk’s heart. “Instead of being a gangster, He told me to be a better guy who shares the gospel,” Ouk shares. “God does not want me to be a gangster but to be a leader.” Now, Ouk’s dream is to be a worship leader. Recently, Ouk and others got to attend a Music and Worship Training conducted by partners of Open Doors like Naomi*, a local coordinator. Naomi shares: “This worship training is intended for the youth. We teach music to them, its theory and the right discipline of worship through music.”
July 8 - Pray with Naomi that these young people will grow more in their faith. Pray that when they grow up, they will also teach new leaders.
*Representative name or photo used to protect identity.

Tuesday, July 7, 2020

#3069 (7/7) "Nation’s Values Under Attack—We Must Do This to Stop the Left’s Socialist Agenda"

"NATION'S VALUES UNDER ATTACK-WE MUST DO THIS TO STOP THE LEFT'S SOCIALIST AGENDA" - Kay Coles James,  Jul 3rd, 2020; https://www.heritage.org/civil-society/commentary/nations-values-under-attack-we-must-do-stop-the-lefts-socialist-agenda
     Protesters attempt to pull down the statue of Andrew Jackson in Lafayette Square near the White House on June 22, 2020. Drew Angerer / Staff / Getty Images

KEY TAKEAWAYS
1. One look at the BLM organization’s website shows that the idea of protecting black lives and seeking justice is merely a vehicle to advance a radical set of ideas.
2. Groups like Antifa and the BLM organization want to impose an ideology on America that would only bring greater poverty.
3. America is a land of promise, and conservative policies can make those promises ring true for all Americans.

     Our country is under attack from radical leftists. Mobs rampage through our streets, monuments are being destroyed, and the very law and order that ensures our communities’ peace and security is being undermined. In far too many instances, those bent on destruction have hijacked protests, creating violence and division and ultimately attacking the very foundation of our nation. For them, it’s not about resolving race issues; it’s about using racial discontent to forward their anarchist agenda.

   One such group is Antifa. While it is widely recognized as a far-left fringe group, another organization—just as radical—has managed to drape itself in more mainstream clothes, gaining significant support with the public, politicians and the business community. While Americans of every color agree with the sentiment that black lives matter, Black Lives Matter (BLM) the organization actually advocates an agenda that is completely out of step with American values. One look at the BLM organization’s website shows that the idea of protecting black lives and seeking justice is merely a vehicle to advance a different, radical set of ideas. The organization is more dedicated to gaining political power and remaking America according to Marxist ideology. Two of the group’s three co-founders are even “trained Marxists,” according to one of them.

   And it shows. The group’s platform includes planks unrelated to improving black lives, like trying to get the U.S. to divest from Israel, which it calls an “apartheid state” while accusing Jews of committing genocide against Palestinians.
   The organization also has called for dismantling the family, saying, “We disrupt the Western-prescribed nuclear family structure.” The breakdown of the black family and the rise of single-parent households is one of the root causes of poverty, crime, drug abuse and poor educational achievement in many black communities. Why would anyone who’s supposedly working for black progress want to tear down the very thing that helps to achieve it?

   Just as disturbing is the fact that some of America’s biggest corporations are giving hundreds of thousands and even millions of dollars to this organization and others whose misleading names conceal a more expansive and dangerous agenda.

   Groups like Antifa and the BLM organization want to impose an ideology on America that would only bring greater poverty, a loss of freedom, destruction to churches and civil society, and violent law enforcement tactics to enforce compliance—exactly what we’ve seen in places like Venezuela, Cuba and North Korea.

   In fact, we’ve already seen a vision of what their America would look like. We’ve seen videos of leftist protesters physically and verbally attacking police officers. We’ve seen an entire neighborhood turned into a violent "autonomous zone” with spineless politicians telling the police to stand down and let anarchists rule over innocent residents.
   We’ve seen violent mobs defacing and toppling statues of historical figures such as soldiers and abolitionists. Some are even calling for the removal of images of Jesus in which he is perceived as “too white.”

   We must stop the violence and destruction and bring those committing criminal acts to justice while protecting the rights of good people to protest peacefully.
  We must support our police officers who risk their lives every day to protect us no matter our color, religion, sex or nationality—while also making needed reforms to weed out bad cops and end unacceptable policing procedures. Calls to defund the police are calls for chaos, and calls to disarm them are lunacy. We’ve seen what happens in Seattle, Minneapolis and other cities when criminals are allowed free rein.
   Finally, we must combat the Marxist agenda. This agenda has wrought destruction on nations for generations. It expands government control and takes every opportunity to limit freedom—and it must not take root in the United States.

   The most desperate communities in America have been run by the left for a generation or more. We’ve seen what that leadership has brought: generational poverty, fatherless families, worse educational outcomes, more disparity and higher crime rates. Lurching even further left would be even more disastrous.

   Instead, we must implement policies to ensure America’s promise of liberty and opportunity is a promise for all Americans. Conservatives have always had the policies that can help solve many of the difficult issues that Americans face. We know how to create jobs, end poverty, provide better access to health care, improve education and strengthen families better than anyone. And our fundamental belief in the inherent dignity of every human being can help bring about the healing our nation so desperately needs.

   America is a land of promise, and conservative policies can make those promises ring true for all Americans. It is time for conservatives to take a message of hope to every American to end the racial strife and build an America where freedom, opportunity, prosperity and civil society flourish for all.

[italics and colored emphasis mine]

Kay Coles James, President of The Heritage Foundation, is a leader in government, academia and the conservative movement. [This piece originally appeared in Fox News.]
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"A Deeper Look at Black Lives Matter and Its Impact" - Kevin Mooney / July 02, 2020; https://www.dailysignal.com/2020/07/02/a-deeper-look-at-black-lives-matter-and-its-impact/
"Agenda of Black Lives Matter Is Far Different From Slogan" - Andrew Olivastro / Mike Gonzalez / @Gundisalvus / July 07, 2020; https://www.dailysignal.com/2020/07/07/the-agenda-of-black-lives-matter-is-far-different-from-the-slogan/

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PRAYER MATTERS:

"To clasp the hands in prayer is the beginning of an uprising against 
the disorder of the world. -  Karl Barth
"Prayer is inviting God into a seemingly impossible situation and trusting/resting in His love and grace to accomplish His perfect will in His perfect time and for His greatest glory. Intercession is  one of the great privileges AND responsibilities for EVERY believer."- Stan
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World-Wide Prayer Requests:
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Praying Through the Open Doors World Watch List for persecuted believers:https://www.opendoorsusa.org/take-action/pray/monthly-prayer-calendar/
 Church burned to ashes in INDIA. In India, Pastor Sameer* and other believers in his village faced brutal persecution from their community. As the number of believers in the village grew, so did the opposition; Christians were told to renounce their faith … or else. Finally, Hindu extremists accused the Christians of opposing Hindu tradition and the culture of India by embracing Christianity; the extremists burned the small hut used for church fellowship.
Sameer’s immediate concern was to find a safe place for the believers to continue their regular prayer meetings. When partners of Open Doors heard about the situation, they arranged to assist the Christians in the area by constructing a hall where they could once again meet for worship and prayer.
July 7 - Pray Pastor Sameer would have wisdom and discernment in leading. 
*Representative name or photo used to protect identity.