Prayer List for March 1-7, 2009

Sunday, please pray for the Christians of Iraq. Iraq has been listed as the world’s number 2 worst persecutor of Christians. In some areas radical Muslims have been demanding identity papers at gunpoint and sometimes shooting Christians for no offense other than being Christian. However, God is moving among Muslims in Iraq. Pray that His Spirit will continue to move, that He will place His people under His wing of protection, and that He will bring to repentance or justice those who wantonly murder His people. (International Christian Concern)

Monday, please praise God for and pray for a Christian evangelist named Philip who feels compelled to take the Gospel to a refugee camp in Darfur, Sudan, that holds 22,000 desperate people, primarily women and children. At least two babies a day die of lack of clean water. The people face attacks by the Muslim Janjaweed. Both Muslims and a few Christians live in desperation in this camp. Philip is now in Kenya gathering medicine and aide. Please pray for him and these poor, desperate people. (Make Way Partners)

Tuesday, please praise God that “In one valley that was laid to waste by the Burma Army, two villages have been re-established, as well as a clinic, school and two churches. The KNU (Karen National Union, the ethnic pro-democracy resistance in this area) has built a sprawling community of homes, bamboo offices, sports fields, barracks, and food depots. Almost every organization that assists the Karen people has offices here. Everywhere we went we met hopeful people who continued to work their fields, and, as soon as the Burma Army slows down its operations, they move back into their own villages. While it is true that at any moment the Burma Army could mass enough troops to push the people out, in many areas the Burma Army have yet to do this. THIS IS DUE TO THE TENACITY AND RESILIENCE OF THE PEOPLE AND THE EFFECTIVENESS OF THE RESISTANCE.” (Free Burma Rangers)

Wednesday, please pray for the state of Orissa, India, where the government took four months to quell anti-Christian violence committed by radical Hindus. “Since August, more than 60 Christians have been killed; 18,000, wounded; 181 churches, razed or destroyed; 4,500 Christian homes, burned; and more than 50,000 Christians, displaced, of whom more than 30,000 remain in refugee camps or in hiding in the jungle, according to media reports.” The Catholic Archbishop of Orissa charges that the government turned its back on the violence because the people of the area were poor. Archbishop “Cheenath, frustrated over the lack of concern for Orissa, wrote a letter to the Indian prime minister saying that he does not understand how the government can stop the Mumbai attacks in three days, Karnataka in five days, but couldn’t stop the attacks on Christians in Orissa after more than four months.” Some reports also claim that discrimination against Christians occurs in the refugee camps. (Michael Vu, Christian Post, Open Doors, International Christian Concern)

Thursday, please pray for the Christians of Afghanistan. Although the Taliban is not in power, becoming a Christian is dangerous. “Christian groups estimate the number of Afghan Christians ranges between 500 and 8,000—in a country of 30 million Muslims.”(Christian Science Monitor, International Christian Concern)

Friday, please pray for the church in Libya which is so oppressed that the few Christians there do not dare meet in private. “Libya remains one of the world's least reached nations. Among 6,000,000 Libyans live only a handful of known believers….Opportunities for outreach are rare.” (Arab World Ministries)

Saturday, please pray for Arab women who live in repressive and abusive situations. “Christian women are creating these safe environments for Arab women to explore their emotional health. Pray that these meetings would be led by the Holy Spirit. Many times counselors must address demonic influences in Muslim women's lives due to the mingling of Islam with animistic and occult practices. Pray that Christian women would discern such activity and pray with power in Jesus' name to see these women set free. Pray that Muslim women would find peace through the Prince of Peace. Pray for training in counseling for Christian women who are reaching out to Arab women.” (Arab World Ministries)

Prayer List for February 22-28, 2009

Sunday, please pray for Rev. Walter Hoye and his family. “A pro-life African-American pastor has been sentenced to 30 days in jail for sharing a pro-life message outside local abortion centers. Walter Hoye was previously found guilty of violating what pro-life attorneys call an unconstitutional city law designed specifically to target him.” (Debbie’s emphasis) The sign he held said, “God loves you & your baby, Let us help you.” “Oakland officials had enacted the law, which has been heavily criticized as an unconstitutional limit on free speech. The ordinance prohibits contact within eight feet of women entering abortion businesses without their consent.(Thursday), Hoye was sentenced by Judge Hing of the Alameda Superior Court to serve 30 days in county jail . The court will allow Hoye to serve his time by an alternative method such as community service. However, Hoye will be forced to pay a $1,130 fine and has been ordered to stay away from the abortion business and no longer help women find abortion alternatives. Allison Aranda, a staff attorney with the Life Legal Defense Foundation, a pro-life law firm representing Hoye in the case, says an appeal is forthcoming.” (LifeNews, http://townhall.com/columnists/StarParker/2009/02/16/root_of_nations_economic_crisis_is_moral_crisis)

Monday, please pray for the Christians of Sri Lanka. “The Jathika Hela Urumaya (National Heritage Party), which is led by Buddhist monks, introduced the (anti-conversion) bill under the title "Prohibition of ForcibleConversion of Religion Bill" on Tuesday, January 6. Though proponents claim that the bill would only restrict "fundamentalist" groups from using monetary rewards or coercive methods to convert people, the language is so broad that it would criminalize any form of humanitarian assistance from religious groups.” In India similar bills have precipitated attacks on Christians. (International Christian Concern)

Tuesday, please pray for the Christians of China. “As public anger mounts due to unemployment and government corruption, Chinese authorities are reacting with increased social and political control, Compass Direct News sources report. Concerned by the growth of unregistered house church groups, the government is ramping up its efforts to identify Christians and to publicly portray Christianity to the public eye as a subversive foreign force. Despite this situation, growth of the Christian church continues. One Beijing pastor reports more than 1,000 new converts were baptized last year in his church alone.” (Open Doors, Compass Direct)

Wednesday, please pray that the new Awami League-led Grand Alliance which has come to power in Bangladesh will reopen investigations into a bomb blast against a Catholic church. The party includes no radical Muslims and has given non-Muslims hopes for justice. (Open Doors)

Thursday, please pray that justice will be done in the heinous murder of 3 Christians in Turkey. “A Turkish court has charged two more men for instigating the murder of three Christians in Malatya in 2007 Huseyin Yelki, a former employee of the Christian publishing house where the Christians were killed, and Varol Bulent Aral an ex-journalist suspected of ties to a group that tried to engineer a political coup.” Others hope that these men will turn informant and lead them to those who ordered the murder. (Open Doors)

Friday, please praise God that “(c)hurches in Northern Iraq have reported that nearly 300 new believers from various non-Christian backgrounds were recently baptized.” (Open Doors)

Saturday, please pray for the Christians of Jos, Nigeria. “Christians in Jos are traumatised by the religious riot of November 28. The Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) reports that 129 Christians, including five pastors, were killed. About 45 churches were torched and looted, and more than 30,000 people were displaced during the violence.” Open Doors is providing aid. (Open Doors)

Tax Fraud in High Places

Caroline Kennedy

Nancy Killifer

Hilda Solis

Tom Daschle

Timothy Geitner

Charlie Rangel

What do these people have in common?

They have all failed to pay their taxes. None of them is in jail. They are either in government (Representative Rangel), have volunteered to be in government (Caroline Kennedy), or have been named by President Obama for major posts in his administration. They are all Democrats. The Washington Press Corps thinks these Democrats not paying their taxes is not news for you to get upset about.

Would you or I still be free if we had avoided paying $128,000 in taxes like former Speaker of the House Tom Daschle? He is now a special advisor for a company that lobbies for powerful medical interests. President Obama nominated him to be the head of Health and Human Services. He pioneered the section of the stimulus bill that turns your health records over to HHS. Hmm, some cynics might think there’s a little conflict of interest when one goes from earning $16 million in a lobbying agency to heading the governmental bureau that his company was lobbying. The Washington Press Corps doesn’t notice any ethical problems in this. However, Daschle’s tax fraud problems caused him to bow out of the nomination in spite of the president’s public backing.

Then there’s Timothy Geitner, the only man in Washington who understands the bank rescue program that Congress passed a few months ago, or so we’re told. (As an aside, why would Congress pass a bill they couldn’t understand?) Geitner apparently understands TARP but didn’t understand that he owed income taxes. Now he heads up the Treasury Department which includes the IRS. He recently paid $34,000 in late taxes and $8000 in interest so that he could be voted into office by the senate, which saw no problem with confirming him. At least, Senator Bayh, who will be up for reelection in 2010, saw no problem with a tax fraud heading the IRS. But, then, the press corps informed us that it was just a little oversight, a little mistake. Would they have said that of an industrialist or major business owner? Would they have said it of you?

In most of the world throughout history most politicians have exempted themselves and their friends from living under the laws they make. Our nation has been different in that it established equality under the law as a goal and ideal, though as a nation we blew this in our treatment of minorities. We have tried to rectify that in my lifetime. Now the laws apply to politicians as well as the people. At least they are supposed to.

When laws apply to all equally, more of us willingly comply. When government leaders ignore their own laws, they undermine civic compliance and morale. This is one of the problems with both the illegal immigration issue and the global warming issue. Those laws apply not to the politicians or former politicians with their illegal immigrant chauffeurs or their super computers that use more energy than our homes do in a year, but to us, the little guys, the working stiffs, the small business owners.

The double standard makes us think, “If they can do it, why can’t we? What other laws are only jokes?”

President Obama promised us a change. He promised us transparency and ethics. Is open tax fraud the transparent change he meant?

Prayer List for February 15-21, 2009

Sunday, please pray for the Christians of North Korea, the world’s worst abuser of Christians, and of almost everyone else. North Korea requires its citizens to worship its ruthless dictator, Kim Jung-Il.(Open Doors)

Monday, please pray for six Christian brothers in Egypt. “On Jan. 22 a judge sentenced six Christian brothers to three years in prison with hard labor for resisting arrest and assaulting authorities. Last September, police officers raided a café in Port Sa’id, because they were open for business during Ramadan, the Muslim month of fasting. When they tried to defend their café, the brothers were arrested and charged with resisting arrest and assaulting authorities. There is no law inEgypt under which the brothers could be prosecuted for opening their café during Ramadan.” (Open Doors)

Tuesday, please pray that Christian relief efforts in Gaza will result in the turning of the people against their radical government and to the Lord. “The Bible Societies in Israel and Palestinian Areas launched a joint initiative called “Standing in the Gap,” offering practical as well as spiritual relief for the suffering Gazan people. Open Doors is co-supporting a part of the program which is called “Love your Neighbor/Comfort my People.” It is not for Christian families only but also will be used in reaching out to Muslim neighbors in Gaza.” (Open Doors)

Wednesday, please pray for Christians in Bangladesh. “A gang of Muslim extremists armed with machetes attacked a Christian family, leaving them with serious wounds. The attackers later filed charges of assault against the injured believers.” (Open Doors)

Thursday, please pray for Somali Christians in Kenya. “Jailed for defending his family against Islamists, Somali Christian Salat Sekondo Mbwerba was freed after Christians paid a fine. Following his release, the extremists shot him, leaving him for dead.” It is not clear whether he survived or not from the report. (Open Doors, me)

Friday, please pray for the Christians of Colombia. “Not only are they caught in the crossfire between the country’s warring guerrilla factions, but believers are often also singled out as prime targets.” (Open Doors)

Saturday, please praise God that the Democratic conference committee of the House and Senate removed a controversial clause from the Obama-Reid-Pelosi Stimulus Package. That clause refused stimulus money for renovation for buildings that allowed religious worship. This was obviously an attack on the freedom of students to worship on college campuses and would have resulted in colleges restricting the First Amendment rights of students to worship. I cannot help compare it to most Islamic countries that do not allow Christians to repair churches so that they will look shabby and fall into disrepair while the mosques are allowed to prosper. Was this a secular version of that? (Jay Sekulow, me )

Prayer List for February 8-14, 2009

Sunday, please pray for the church of Eritrea and especially for the families of two Christians. “Mogos Hagos Kiflom (37) died as the alleged result of the continued physical torture he endured for his refusal to recant his faith. Mehari Gebreneguse Asgedom (42) died in solitary confinement. Sources say he died as a result of ongoing physical torture and complications from diabetes. Late November, 34 members of the Kale-Hiwot Church in Dekemhare were arrested. Shortly before Christmas, at least 49 key leaders of underground churches in Asmara were rounded up over a two week period. The government arrested 15 members of the Kale-Hiwot Church in Keren on January 11 and around the same time closed down a printing press while arresting the owner.” (Open Doors)

Monday, please pray for the Kachin and Karen peoples of Burma. The Burman overlords forcibly transfer them out of their home villages into other ones and work them as unpaid laborers. (Free Burma Rangers)

Tuesday, please pray for Iranian Christians, Jamal Ghalishorani, his wife Nadereh Jamali, and Hamik Khachikian. They “were arrested on January 21st and are being held without charges by Iranian authorities. Arrests and pressure on Christians from authorities have ramped up even further in the past few months, the source said. The arrests are particularly disturbing in light of the Iranian parliament’s approval last September of a new penal code calling for a mandatory death sentence for ‘apostates,’ or anyone who leaves Islam for another faith (i.e. followers of Jesus Christ). Under the new penal code, male ‘apostates’ would be executed, while females would receive life sentences.” (Open Doors)

Wednesday, please praise God for the acquittal of several Pakistani Christians on blasphemy charges. “Nearly two years ago in March of 2007, during a religious holiday celebrating Muhammad’s birthday, Salamat Masih, his son Rashid, Ishfaq, Saba and Dao Masih were arrested and charged with ‘blasphemy’ against Islam. The Islamic clergymen agreed to issue a fatwa (religious edict) declaring the accused men innocent of blasphemy.” An acquittal for blasphemy is rare. Christians mark this as historic and hope that it marks a change in policy. Blasphemy charges have been a tool for revenge on one’s enemies. Muslims have suffered more under the blasphemy law than Christians. (Open Doors, me)

Thursday, please pray for peace between the Palestinians of Gaza and the Israelis. Please pray that God would fill His children in the area with power and use them to win precious souls. (Arab World Ministries)

Friday, please praise God that a former Islamic history teacher in the Middle East has come to the Lord at 84. Please pray that his life will have an impact on other Muslims. (Arab World Ministries)

Saturday, please pray for a Saudi Christian, Hamoud Bin Saleh. “On Jan. 13, Saudi police arrested Hamoud Bin Saleh ‘because of his testimony that he converted from Islam to Christianity,’ according to the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information (ANHRI). His journey to Christ began after witnessing the public beheading of three Pakistanis convicted of drug charges. Shaken, he began an extensive study of Islamic history and law, as well as Saudi justice. His research led him to an exploration of other faiths and of the Bible. After reading how Jesus forgave rather than stoned a woman condemned for adultery, Bin Saleh prayed to receive Christ as his Savior.” (Open Doors)