114th U.S. CONGRESS: HERE COME THE FRESHMEN
Congress' approval rating hovers around 15 percent, but there's one group of people excited about the institution: the newly elected lawmakers who are about to join its ranks.


The House will welcome 58 freshmen this coming week, including 43 Republicans and 15 Democrats, pushing the GOP majority to 246 members, the most since the Great Depression.

 

Pray for both House and Senate members, especially your own senators and your district's representative. Pray that so-called "freshman idealism" will not give way to the cynicism and quest for power known as "Potomac fever." Pray that the Christian prayer caucus and Christian witness on Capitol Hill will grow. The Apostle Paul knew believers in "Caesar's household." Pray that Christians will find each other and stand strong for the founders' convictions on constitutional government.  

 

"Greet every saint in Christ Jesus. The brethren who are with me greet you. All the saints greet you, but especially those who are of Caesar's household." (Phil. 4:21-22)

 

"Therefore I exhort first of all that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men, for kings and all who are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence. For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth." (1 Tim. 2:1-4)  

       


NETANYAHU VOWS ACTION OVER PALESTINIAN ICC MOVE

Israeli leaders on Sunday threatened to take tougher action against the Palestinians over their decision to join the International Criminal Court, a day after freezing the transfer of more than $100 million in tax funds.

Last week's Palestinian decision to seek membership in the international court has infuriated Israel. The Palestinians have said they intend on using their new membership in the Hague-based tribunal to press war crimes cases against Israel.

 

Intercessors know the precarious state of Israel in today's global structure. Hated and threatened on every side, Israel's major world ally has been the United States. However, statements in 2014 by President Obama, along with his evident disrespect for Prime Minister Netanyahu, indicate a growing rift between the two countries. Pray for Israel's protection and for the spiritual veil to be lifted so more Jewish people worldwide will recognize Jesus Christ as their Messiah.

 

"Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they may be saved. For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and seeking to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted to the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes. (Rom. 10:1-4)  

       




National Weekend of Prayer to End Slavery and Trafficking

January 9-11, 2015  

 

Visit National Weekend of Prayer to End Slavery and Trafficking and learn how you can be involved in other opportunities towards ending modern day slavery of human trafficking.  

 


RINGING IN LOWER TAXES


Further good news is coming next year. State legislators in Missouri and Oklahoma trimmed certain taxes that will take place in 2016 and 2017. The American Legislative Exchange Council calculates that no state made more significant tax cuts than Wisconsin, where an average working-class family will pay about $680 less in taxes in 2015 than it paid last year. Gov. Scott Walker, a Republican, continues to be the tax slasher in a state where cutting taxes was long thought to be unfashionable. He has presided over tax cuts now worth $800 million, including the largest property tax cut in Wisconsin history and a reduction of the state's income tax.

 

Give God thanks for this good news. Cutting taxes takes wisdom and courage and need not result in the sacrifice of essential services to taxpayers. Pray that the leaders in these various states will, instead, root out waste and fraud that consumes far too much revenue. Pray that business will be attracted to these lower-cost states, thus providing more jobs. The result, for Christians, will mean increased wages and more opportunity to give into God's kingdom and mission enterprises for the spread of the gospel.  

 

"... And [Jesus] said to them, 'Render therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's.'"(Matt. 22:21)  

 


THE SHARP RISE AND PERILS OF SINGLE MOTHERHOOD

Few institutions in America have evolved over the last 50 years quite like motherhood. More women are having their children later in life. Or they're doing so in less traditional ways: before marriage, without marriage, or with unmarried partners. Single motherhood has grown so common in America that demographers now believe half of all children will live with a single mom at some point before the age of 18.

The implications of this seismic shift in family structure are broad and deeply debated. Research suggests that children with two parents fare better in many ways - in school, in their own relationships - than children with only one at home. And those implications are unevenly distributed in society: A black child today is much more likely to be born to a single mom than a white child, or the child of a mom with a college degree.

 

Professors McLanahan and Jencks have produced an important report summarizing a 50-year trend among black families, single mothers, and children since the late Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan wrote in 1965. As intercessors read and absorb these grim statistics and predictions, they will know how to pray as the Holy Spirit guides. Pray for the healing of homes and lives through the gospel. This is not the plight of the family in some far distant nation but here at home. Pray for the Church to experience revival that will once again elevate the family and see sex within marriage as sacred and exclusive.

 

[Jesus answered,] "But from the beginning of the creation, God 'made them male and female.' 'For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh'; so then they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let not man separate." (Mark 10:6-9)

 

 "Marriage is honorable among all, and the bed undefiled ..." (Heb. 13:4a)

            


ARMY CHAPLAIN REBUKED FOR CITING CHRISTIAN FAITH

Traditional values groups are rallying around an Army chaplain who was rebuked by his commander for distributing information on Christianity during mandatory suicide prevention training.

Twenty nonprofit organizations dedicated to religious freedom have signed a letter to Army Secretary John McHugh, urging him to overturn action against Capt. Joseph Lawhorn, an evangelical and onetime infantryman.

His commander, Col. David Fivecoat, who heads the brigade at Fort Benning, Georgia, that molds new Rangers, issued a "letter of concern" on Thanksgiving. He took action after one soldier complained to the website MilitaryAtheists.org, which posted an article.

 

Pray for Capt. Lawhorn who was rebuked for doing his job. Whether he will be further penalized remains to be seen. None of this should surprise Christians with a biblical worldview. Did not our Lord Jesus promise His followers that they would be persecuted and worse for carrying His name? Pray, too, with compassion against the rise in atheist influence. The devil is using these people who are, as of yet, blinded to the truth of the gospel. Atheism is a non-entity, the absence of belief. Where are atheist hospitals or atheist children's homes? We do not see them, as they do not exist.  

 

"Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you." (Matt; 5:10-12)  

            







 HERE COME
THE FRESHMEN


 NETANYAHU VOWS
MORE ACTION


RINGING IN
LOWER TAXES


 PERILS OF SINGLE
MOTHERHOOD


ARMY CHAPLAIN
REBUKED


 FED JUDGE ON
GAY UNIONS


U.S. NAVY: MORE SONOBUOYS

POLL: REP VOTERS
DISSATISFIED WITH GOP


WRITERS FEEL
CENSORED