"Prayer is the pulse of life; by it the doctor can tell what is the condition of the heart. The sin of prayerlessness is a proof for the ordinary Christian or minister that the life of God in the soul is in deadly sickness and weakness." - Andrew Murray "praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints" - Ephesians 6:18 VOM-USA Prayer Update for October 12, 2012 On Thu. Oct 11 2012 at 03:47 PM Moderator wrote: Central Asia--Sewing Machines Help Make Gospel Outreach Possible Source: VOM Contacts James 1:17 Ten Christian women in a Central Asian country received sewing machines that will help them generate an income for their families. "Thank you for your blessing," wrote one of the sewing machine recipients. "We wanted to buy a good sewing machine for a long time, but we didn't have funds. It will help us to earn money and to bless other church members." Nearly all the sewing machine recipients mentioned that they will also use the machines to bless other church members with clothing and linens. These families live in an area where potential employers first ask if job applicants are Christians. If the job applicants say they are, they will not be hired. Each of these families is involved in ministry. The sewing businesses will also allow them to be flexible with their work hours so they have more opportunity for ministry. One mother of four who received a sewing machine wrote, "I will teach my children, and we will serve our church and neighbors with a practical gospel." Thank you for your part in blessing these women with sewing machines. Praise God for his work in Central Asia. Kenya--Boy Dies in Al-Shabaab Attack on Church Sources: VOM Contacts, Release International 1 Peter 1:6–7 A grenade tossed near the Sunday school area of ACK Polycarp Church in Nairobi on Sunday, Sept. 30 took the life of a 9-year-old boy and injured several more severely. John Ian Maina suffered fatal injuries in the explosion that happened as he waited around 10:25 a.m. with a group of other children for Sunday school to start. Police had just warned the previous day that al-Shabaab was planning retaliatory attacks in the country following the capture of Kismayu port by the Kenya Defense Forces in southern Somalia. St. Polycarp's is near Eastleigh, a district of Nairobi popularly known as "Little Mogadishu" due to its many Somali immigrants. The bomb left a six-inch deep, 12-inch wide hole in the floor. Pray for Christians in Kenya, who are increasingly subject to harm at the hands of al-Shabaab militants from Somalia. Nigeria--Students Shot to Death in Apparent Boko Haram Attack Source: BBC News, Release International Mark 13:24 Twenty-two students were shot dead or stabbed at a Federal Polytechnic University in northeastern Nigeria in Adamawa state Oct. 2 by suspected Boko Haram militants. Just after midnight, men in military uniform entered a residence hall and called some students by name. The students were marched out of their rooms and lined up outside the building. Some were shot, and others were knifed. Their bodies were left lying in lines. Some of the dead were Muslims, while others were Christians. Police aren't sure why the 22 students and three security guards were killed, though the military arrested dozens of people suspected of Boko Haram links days earlier. Cell towers in the area were recently attacked by Boko Haram, making getting information out of the area difficult. One of the students told BBC News, "Everybody is scared." Pray God will show his power in defeating Boko Haram and that members of the group will turn to Christ. China--VOM Project Pray for those involved in a digital Bible project. Digital music players are loaded with audio New Testaments, portions of the Old Testament, VOM books and hymns.
Friday, October 12, 2012
Wednesday, October 10, 2012
Meet the Blind on the 16th Street Mall
Meet and Greet on 16th Street! Monday October 15th 7:30am-6:00pm As many of you are aware, October is Meet the Blind Month. This is OUR opportunity to show the community that we are CONFIDENT, COMPITENT, AND INDEPENDENT individuals who share way more similarities with our peers than differences! In order to show off our AWESOMENESS to the downtown dwellers of Denver, the Mile High and Denver chapters are working with the NFB of Colorado state affiliate to have an ALL DAY Meet and Greet on the 16th street mall. On Monday, October 15th, we will be meeting at 16th Street. and Stout at 7:30am and will be set up until 6:00pm. During this time, we will have a booth where we will hand out NFB of Colorado and Colorado Center for the blind literature, Brailing names, giving away candy, and may even have some fun tasks for folks to try out under sleep shades. People who are not working the booth will be sent with literature to nearby light rail stations where they can work the crowd and spread the GOOD word about blindness! This will be a WONDERFUL opportunity for members in the community to learn more about our organization and most importantly learn more about US! This is such a fantastic event, but it will only work if we have CONFIDENT, COMPITENT, and INDEPENDENT members available to represent our organization. Please consider signing up for one of the following shifts 7:30am-10:30am 10:00am-1:00pm 12:30pm-3:30pm 3:00pm-6:00pm Your support will make a HUGE impact on our ability to share the message that blindness is not a tragedy and that with the proper tools and training, blindness can be reduced to a mere physical nuisance. If you will be able to assist, please contact Jessica Beecham at jbeecham@cocenter.org or by phone at 303-778-1130 extension 223. In your correspondence, please be sure to include your name and the shift or shifts that you will be able to cover. LET’S MAKE THIS MEET AND GREET ON 16TH STREET THE BEST MEET THE BLIND EVENT IN THE NATION!!!
Wednesday, October 3, 2012
A Blown Call and the Battle for Truth
Great entry from Crown. Had to share.
Blown Call Illustrates Battle for Truth If you think that truth is irrelevant and unwelcome in our culture today, consider this modern-day parable from professional football. Fans of America’s largest and most lucrative sport struggled with poor officiating through the first three Sundays of the 2012 season. But the faithful finally had enough of the “replacement referees” last week when the poorly trained fill-ins blew a game-changing last call on Monday Night Football. Packer defensive back M.D. Jennings clearly made a heroic interception in the end zone as time ran out, but the replacement refs awarded Seattle with a phantom touchdown and the win. It was the second, observable bad call in the play that should have favored the Packers. Game over. But not forgotten. With that single event, the sub-par officiating that had been evident across the league during the union referee lockout, suddenly mattered. For the league, the financial stakes were no longer limited to the union refs’ compensation demands. The dispute was causing even the most devoted fans to walk away, putting at risk the estimated $9 billion the NFL earns in annual revenue. Even President Barack Obama found time during his busy schedule to weigh in on the issue saying, “We’ve got to get our refs back.” Just three days after the infamous bad call, now referred to by pundits as “the Inaccurate Reception,” the regular referees were back on the job. All was considered right again in the world of big sports—fans happy, players happy, advertisers happy, owners happy. It is almost refreshing to be reminded on such a grand stage that the American people, and certainly NFL fans, appreciate truth when it counts. Christians can learn something from this. First: Consider the recent challenge to Chick-Fil-A owner Dan Cathy’s right to operate his business according to his personal religious beliefs. The Constitution protects Dan Cathy’s right to free speech and the freedom to practice his religion. Customers who are offended by his statements are free to eat lunch elsewhere. These freedoms should be championed and defended because they are derived from standards given to us by God. And if Dan Cathy can be attacked for his views and bullied, then so can any one of us. Media elites and even some politicians justified their trampling of Cathy’s Constitutional rights in the name of “tolerance,” defined and practiced as intolerance of faith. Yet the rule of law is the cornerstone of a free and orderly society. Without standards that are consistently and fairly applied, order becomes chaos. Leviticus 19:15 warns, “Do not pervert justice; do not show partiality to the poor or favoritism to the great, but judge your neighbor fairly.” When there are no longer common standards to determine right or wrong, might makes right and the freedoms we all enjoy are threatened. Second: Consider the difficulties that are arising as biblical standards of righteousness are removed from our schools, our courts, our businesses and our public policy and replaced with new standards of “tolerance” for everything but biblical values. Without reliable standards of right and wrong moderating our choices, we are vulnerable to the whims of political correctness. We can clearly see that inept referees calling an interception a touchdown is not good, and we can all understand the far greater threat to society if evil is celebrated as good and good punished as evil. That bad call cost replacement referees their temporary jobs. Will making man the central authority for moral judgments permanently cost us our nation that was founded on Judeo-Christian values? Isaiah wrote, “Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter.” This past weekend, I experienced a wake-up call. My wife, Ann, and I with our two youngest sons attended a conference on Creation at an evangelical church. The talk was interrupted repeatedly by a man and woman who appeared to be there solely to mock the presenter, and throughout the course of the event they would applaud references to atheists, as self-appointed referees against biblical truths. Earlier, this couple even deceived the speaker into having his picture taken with them so they could boast about their exploits on social media. They were cheerleaders for a culture attempting to deconstruct our national basis for Truth, the Bible. As believers, we have a choice—to remain apathetic to these attacks or to become active. I, for one, am choosing to step up my game. My heart has been quickened to do more, to fight for what is worth dying for and to take a clear stand. I ask you to join me. Put on your spiritual armor and together let’s stand for God’s truth. To become active, we must be wise as serpents and gentle as doves. This is a call to combine courage, humility and love, but we must all use our voices. But make no mistake; if you take on this challenge and speak up, you will be putting a target on your back. Prepare to be labeled intolerant, hater, fundamentalist, idiot, bigot, racist—the other side uses the powerful tool of embarrassment and humiliation to discourage and defeat you. Upholding a standard for Truth is an issue far more important than the outcome of a football game. If we lose the battle to preserve Truth as our common standard, we not only lose America, we lose everything. It is not time to wave the white flag of surrender. This is not a game; it’s a battle that demands our all, and we are on the winning team.
Monday, October 1, 2012
Meet the Blind Month 2012
Please Join Us for an OPEN HOUSE as we celebrate National Meet the Blind Month! Thursday October 11th, 3pm to 6 pm at the Colorado Center for the Blind Please come and see how we spend the day learning and practicing blindness skills at the Colorado Center for the Blind • Learn about Braille and even how to write your name. Pick up Braille alphabet cards to share with friends, family, co-workers • See the latest technology that is used: Braille displays, screen readers, iPhones and much more • Step in to our woodshop where blind students will show you their projects and talk about how they use power tools • Learn why you always see us wearing sleep shades (black blindfolds) • Talk to our students about independent travel; find out how they cross complex intersections and much more • Meet our blind seniors and let them show you how they handle everything in their lives now that they are blind • Stop by the kitchen for some delicious light refreshments and discover how our blind students prepare all kinds of foods • See our plans for the future and learn about our upcoming capital campaign Our Open House will be filled with demonstrations and provide you with a whole new understanding on the abilities of blind people. The Center is located at 2233 W. Shepperd Ave. Littleton, 80120. For information or directions please call 303.778.1130 or visit www.cocenter.org
What To Do?
I think the below needs an answer. Any of my Liberal friends care to have a crack at it? What do you do when someone doesn't want to help out the little guy or the poor? How do you deal with those who disagree with you that government is the solution to all man's ills and it is our duty to contribute to the effort? How do you respond to the idea that if we should be able to have porn published freely we should also be able to discuss Jesus in the public square? Questions and thoughts that deserve a serious answer IMO.
"Liberals have never answered the question: what of those who do not choose to join in a 'common end' that government has chosen for them? What of those who refuse to 'belong to government'? These unfortunate souls must be dealt with, as Obama's departments and agencies are dealing with them: by silencing them, litigating against them, jailing them, and ruining their businesses and reputations. Those tactics, and more, were exactly what European leftists from Mussolini to Stalin resorted to. ... Obama's rationale for a second term is that he wants to govern, and that should be enough. Or as Jay Carney suggested, just shut up. ... George Washington called government 'a dangerous servant and a fearful master.' Thomas Paine called it 'a necessary evil.' For Obama, government is the thing we all belong to, the thing that 'made this country great.' Four more years of Obama will not make this country great, but it will ensure that we belong to government to an unimaginable extent. Obama's message is: 'You and everything you own belong to me.'" --columnist Jeffrey Folks
Tuesday, September 18, 2012
Will Your Church Pray?
I was unaware that 11-11-12 was the International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church, so thought I'd share the below.
Will Your Church Pray on Nov. 11?
Dear Friends:
When we ask persecuted Christians in hostile and restricted nations how we can help and bless them, their first response is, “Pray for us!” The International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church, on the second Sunday in November, is an important way of answering their request. It is a day for the worldwide Body of Christ to unite in prayer for members of the Body who suffer for their faith. To assist your church in praying effectively on IDOP Sunday, The Voice of the Martyrs is offering the 2012 IDOP Church Resource Kit. The kit includes a 5-minute DVD that shares the story of Bounchan, who was imprisoned in Laos for almost 13 years because of his Christian faith. It also includes a variety of other resources to help your church “Remember those in bonds” (Heb. 13:3) on this important day. CLICK HERE TO ORDER YOUR CHURCH RESOURCE KIT FOR ONLY $9 While IDOP is set aside as a special day of prayer for the persecuted, it is vital that we remember our persecuted family throughout the year. A VOM prayer banner is available to help remind your church family to pray for the persecuted throughout the year. CLICK HERE TO ORDER THE 2012 PRAYER BANNER Our brothers and sisters of the persecuted church ask that we pray for them. Will you and your church answer their request this November? For those in bonds, The Voice of the Martyrs
Thursday, September 13, 2012
The Twin Towers
I received the below from Crown, and thought I'd share. The thoughts are valid and worth considering.
America's Next "Twin Towers"
I just finished Joel Rosenberg’s excellent new book, Implosion: Can America Recover From Its Economic & Spiritual Challenges In Time? Rosenberg’s sobering work is filled with data to support the very real decline of America’s spiritual and economic strength—what I’m calling our next “Twin Towers”—both of which are under attack. The greatest threat to our economic tower is self-inflicted—our national debt. The U.S. government now officially owes $16 trillion, much of it to unfriendly nations. Remember, the Bible tells us that the borrower is slave to the lender. We hit that woeful mark at the end of August with surprisingly little fanfare, save for a few items in news outlets like The Wall Street Journal: Total U.S. government debt eclipsed $16 trillion for the first time Friday [Aug. 31], new government data show, as total federal borrowing continues marching toward the $16.394 trillion borrowing limit…The government is projected to run a deficit of between $1.1 trillion and $1.2 trillion in the fiscal year that ends Sept. 30, meaning that spending will outpace tax revenue by that amount over 12 months…The government is currently running an average monthly deficit of $100 billion and is likely to hit the debt ceiling sometime in late December. We often complain that politicians in Washington don’t know what they’re doing, but that’s a myth. They know exactly what they’re doing. The $16.394 trillion debt ceiling passed in the last “compromise” agreement isn’t exactly a round number. And both parties are responsible for it. That number was skillfully chosen to kick the issue just past the coming election, so politicians of either party wouldn’t be forced to take a stand on raising the debt ceiling in the current campaign. Of course, the issue is not going away. The debt ceiling mess will hit again right at the end of a lame duck session of Congress. Expect little, if anything, to be done about it. The Treasury Department can juggle the books for several months to keep the bills paid, but sometime next spring, the federal government will be legally constrained from borrowing unless the debt limit is raised yet again. Sixteen trillion is just too big a number for the average person to comprehend. So let’s break it down into a more manageable amount. The 2010 Census showed that we have a residential population of roughly 309,000,000. Divide the $16 trillion that we now owe by that number and you’ll discover your individual share of our national debt—$52,000. For the average family, the share is $135,000. Now ask yourself, what exactly did you get for taking on that kind of liability? We’re told by politicians not to worry. The liberals believe that the solution to this debt is to get the rich to pay their “fair share,” but this is a straw man argument at best. The idea that we can solve our problems by getting the so-called rich to pay their fair share, whatever that means, is a complete fraud designed to get the votes of the uninformed. President Obama’s defines “rich” as anyone making over $250,000 a year. He wants us to believe that raising taxes on these people will solve our deficit problem. But according to Kevin D. Williamson, writing for National Review Online, the numbers just don’t add up: In fact, in 2006, the Census Bureau found only 2.2 million households earning more than $250,000…The 2012 deficit is forecast to hit $1.1 trillion under Obama’s budget. (Thanks, Mr. President!) Spread that deficit over all the households in Club 250K and you have to jack up their taxes by an average of $500,000. Which you simply can’t do, since a lot of them don’t have $500,000 in income to seize: Most of them are making $250,000 to $450,000 and paying about half in taxes already. You can squeeze that goose all day, but that’s not going to make it push out a golden egg. Believing that raising taxes on “the rich” is the solution to our deficit and debt problem means you have to ignore cold, hard facts. As Williamson points, out, we’re going to need an awful lot more rich people to tax our way out of a deficit hole this deep. And that’s just to break even this year—never mind making a dent in the $16 trillion debt. Any politician who tells you that taxing Americans more will solve our problem is simply wrong. If you still believe that the federal government has a revenue problem and not a spending problem, perhaps this thought might change your mind. After they tax everything from the rich and still can’t balance our dangerously bloated federal budget, who do you think they’ll come after next? Remember, you already owe a $52,000 share of that $16 trillion national debt. For that kind of money, you’d expect to get a “free” college education, or “free” health care for life, or maybe half of your house paid for. Last time I checked, those things weren’t free. Students are still graduating with tens of thousands of dollars’ worth of student loan debt, Obamacare is loaded with new taxes, and millions of Americans are still underwater on their mortgages. Meanwhile, Christianity is under siege in the western world, even right here in America. While we see events unfold in Libya and Egypt, mobs attacking our consulates and killing our diplomats, all purportedly because of an affront to Islam, our State Department apologizes for something we haven’t done. At the same time, it’s open season on Christian beliefs. God is booed at one of our own party’s national conventions. Our spiritual tower is becoming as wobbly as our economic tower. It seems their fates are entwined, just as the World Trade Center Towers were 11 years ago. So what exactly do we need to avoid a spiritual and economic collapse? Joel Rosenberg argues that there is still good reason to hope for America’s recovery. Many times in our short history we have pulled out of a downward spiral, evidencing God’s grace on this nation. The New York Times bestselling author advocates that we need a revival or the Third Great Awakening to change the self-destructive course of our nation. Rosenberg cites the definition of a revival by Charles Finney who was himself a part of the Second Great Awakening to sweep America at the dawn of the 19th century. It was “the renewal of the first love of Christians, resulting in the awakening and conversion of sinners to God.” Yes, we need to see Christians returning to their first love. Perhaps our misplaced dependency upon our money and wealth is being destroyed for that very purpose, to get our attention and to move our hearts back to the Giver and off the gifts. Rosenberg also notes that we have a voice in the political process. While we should never place our hope in government or the next President or the next election, we should speak up and expect a return to fiscal sanity in Washington. We need real cuts in federal spending or we will have those cuts forced upon us by our lenders. In two months, we’ll have the opportunity to choose new leaders. I pray you’ll use your vote wisely to elect men and women who are prepared to make the tough choices we need to solve this crisis. Regardless of the outcome of the election, join me in praying with Joel Rosenberg for the Third Great Awakening to sweep our nation before our next “Twin Towers” collapse.