Prayer Topic, "Great Grace"

Join Us in Prayer for our Nation, our Leaders and Topics of Concern for the week of 5/29/15 - 6/4/15

 

 

Great Grace

In The Ragamuffin Gospel, Brennan Manning wrote, “Suffering, failure, loneliness, sorrow, discouragement and death will be part of your journey, but the Kingdom of God will conquer all these horrors. No evil can resist grace forever.”

The days of the years…are 130 years. Few and evil have been the days of the years of my life. Genesis 47:9

In Genesis 47, Joseph brought his father Jacob before Pharaoh. Pharaoh asked him how old he was. In his answer in today’s verse, Jacob surely remembers many bad events: his brother Esau wanting to kill him for his trickery; being tricked himself by Laban into serving extra time for his wives; his daughter being raped; his wife Rachel dying and his son Joseph supposedly being killed but sold into slavery. Through all this evil, Jacob trusted God – and because of God’s grace, he was blessed.

Though suffering, sorrow and evil may be great on your life’s journey, know God’s grace is greater. As you pray today, thank Him for His grace, and ask that He would continue to shed His blessings on you and your nation.

Recommended Reading: I John 5:1-5, 13-15  

A.W. - Your Prayer Team writing staff

 

Prayer Topics:

Santorum Joins a Crowded GOP Field for 2016

Rick Santorum, who was the runner-up in the Republican primary race four years ago but has never been considered his party’s heir apparent, announced his second presidential bid Wednesday.

Drought in Western U.S. Might Raise Food Prices

While disastrous flooding and tornadoes ravage Texas and Oklahoma, California is enduring the worst drought on record.

IRS Says Thieves Stole Tax Info from 100,000

Sophisticated criminals used an online service run by the IRS to access personal tax information from more than 100,000 taxpayers, part of an elaborate scheme to steal identities and claim fraudulent tax refunds.

 

John Holdren, White House Director of Science and Technology The Obama Administration hopes to save the bees by feeding them better. A new federal plan aims to reverse America’s declining honeybee and monarch butterfly populations by making millions of acres of federal land more bee-friendly, spending millions of dollars more on research and considering the use of fewer pesticides. “Pollinators are struggling,” said Dr. John Holden, the president’s Director of Science and Technology and a White House adviser.

 

Sheldon Whitehouse, United States Senator from Rhode Island Senator Sheldon Whitehouse has been a familiar sight in the past few years standing on the Senate floor beside a “Time to Wake Up” placard and talking to a nearly empty chamber. It happened again last Monday when the Rhode Island Senator delivered his one hundredth weekly floor speech on climate change.

 

Christine Wormuth, Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Christine E. Wormuth met with Greece’s Minister of Defense Panos Karmenos at the Pentagon to discuss security and defense issues of mutual concern. Those issues included trans-Mediterranean migration, terrorism, and Russia’s aggressive actions in Ukraine, the Balkans, Libya, and the Middle East. Wormuth thanked Greece for hosting U.S. forces at Souda Bay, Crete, and for its participation in operations in Afghanistan and Kosovo.

 

Judge David Hamilton, Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals A federal appeals court rejected the University of Notre Dame’s request to temporarily be exempt from a provision in the Affordable Care Act that requires the Catholic school’s insurance providers to cover the costs of contraceptives for students and staff. The three-judge panel didn’t rule on the merits of the case; it only refused to allow the university to opt out of the provision as its lawsuit makes its way through the courts. “What this case needs now is a trial on the merits where the relevant factual issues can be explored in depth,” Judge David Hamilton wrote.

 

Emergency Rooms Face Great Expectations Hospitals, doctors, patients, Obamacare…and some perspective By Nikolas Grosfield Major national newspapers tend to avoid repeating their own headlines. But the widest-read daily in the country, USA Today, nearly duplicated itself eleven months apart. On June 8, 2014, an article appeared entitled “More patients flocking to ERs under Obamacare.” Then two weeks ago, USA Today ran this article as well: “Contrary to goals, ER visits rise under Obamacare.” Both stories cited American College of Emergency Physicians polls of Emergency Room doctors. A simple Google search—ER visits and Obamacare—shows nine of the top ten results saying the same thing during the past year. Most of the sources are leading news sites, and at least two—the Huffington Post and CNBC—are often sympathetic toward President Obama. Only CBS gave a positive spin on the issue, saying 19-25-year-olds have made fewer emergency room visits since the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) came into effect in January 2014. Young adults, however, probably need less medical care than most other age groups in America. Discernment of the press is always prudent—especially for far right or far left sources. But if the above stories are correct, then two new problems have entered the American healthcare system.

 

Disillusionment and Dead Voters How 2016 will make or break the Republican Party By Jim Ray Sam Walton had a novel idea—back in 1980 when his Walmart chain was a little-known regional outfit. The late founder of what would become the world’s largest company dreamed up the idea of hiring senior citizens to stand at entrances and hail every incoming shopper with a welcome and a smile. For decades, the retiree-aged, blue-vested “Walmart Greeter” was a reliable icon of the discount store. Have you noticed they’ve mostly disappeared? In 2012, Walmart decided to assign “new duties” to their greeters, ostensibly so the chain could better focus on boosting profit margins and sales. It’s a sign of the times, perhaps, and one that has an interesting corollary as America prepares for the 2016 presidential election. Senior citizens are disappearing from the ranks of the Republican Party as surely as they have disappeared from Walmart entrances—and they are not being replaced by equal numbers of younger voters. Now some analysts are suggesting the Republicans may never win the White House again. A stalemate in the Senate is on the verge of handicapping American national security officers, Attorney General Loretta Lynch warned, who said “without action, we will experience a serious lapse” in protecting Americans. The White House stood by Defense Secretary Ashton Carter’s criticism of Iraqi military forces who were routed by Islamic State in Ramadi. Press Secretary Josh Earnest said there was a “breakdown in military command and plans.” Pray for President Obama, his Cabinet and staff as they work to defend American interests at home and abroad.   The Senate voted unanimously to add a religious freedom amendment to the trade Promotion Authority legislation, which could be the first time that Congress asked a president to take religious liberties into account on trade matters. Democrats in Congress are in open warfare with President Obama over his pitch for fast-track authority to negotiate trade deals, but conservative dissenters are conducting their fight quietly behind closed doors. Pray about the President’s request for authority to negotiate the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal.   A federal appeals court refused to allow one of President Obama’s signature immigration proposals to go forward, throwing into doubt whether the executive action program will even begin before the President leaves office. The Supreme Court agreed to decide whether state legislative districts must have roughly equal numbers of legal voters rather than overall populations in a case brought by Texas where many areas are filled with illegal immigrants. Pray about the issues of illegal immigration which are before America’s courts and for wisdom for the jurists.   WARS AND TERRORISM As tensions mount between the Obama Administration and Baghdad over the quality of Iraqi security forces, Vice President Joe Biden tried to reassure Iraq’s prime minister that the U.S. stands behind Iraq and against Islamic State. Facing a fierce Taliban offensive across a corridor of northern Afghanistan, the government in Kabul is turning to forming local militias and beseeching old warlords for military assistance, a strategy fraught with risk. Pray for the safety of American troops as U.S. forces continue to have a presence in both Iraq and Afghanistan. FOREIGN INTERESTS & CONFLICTS An Iran nuclear deal is not likely by June 30 because technical details remain to be defined and Iran will not get sanctions relief before the end of the year in the best of cases, Western diplomats revealed this week. President Obama accused Russia of toughening its “increasingly aggressive posture” battlefield stance as he met Tuesday with the NATO secretary general to discuss the rolling crisis in Ukraine. Pray about the diplomatic efforts being made to find a deal with Iran and also to dissuade Russian actions. ISRAEL AND THE MIDDLE EAST The Palestinian Authority refuses to resume peace negotiations with Israel without Israel recognizing the pre-1967 borders as the basis for talks and East Jerusalem as a future Palestinian capital, a PA spokesman said on Tuesday. Alarms went off in Ashkelon, Ashdod and Lachish regions outside Gaza, breaking several months of calm; five (perhaps experimental) rockers were reportedly launched by Hamas, however no damage or injuries were reported. Pray for the peace of Jerusalem (Psalm 122:6), and for any further negotiations between Israel and Palestinians. THE ECONOMY The lack of affordable housing in places like New York City, San Francisco and the Silicon Valley costs the U.S. economy about $1.6 trillion a year in lost wages and productivity according to a new analysis. Gallup’s U.S. Economic Confidence index fell two points to -9 from the prior week, now lower than the first four months of 2015 but still higher than most of the prior seven years but still consistently below zero. Pray about the many issues that are keeping America from returning to economic growth. HEALTH CARE The rate of Parkinson’s disease among people with depression is almost three times that of people without it, suggesting the more depression, the greater the risk, according to a new study published in Neurology. The proposed ObamaCare rates for 2016 have been filed in many states. Market leaders are requesting double-digit increases in many of the states. Many others await the ruling of the Supreme Court on subsidies. Pray about the health of America’s aging population; and for the Supreme Court as it rules on ObamaCare.   Court-Martial Or Hero? U.S. general publicly praises God for career By Bill Noles Jr. A United States Air Force general who recently spoke at a public event about how God has guided his career should be court-martialed, a civil liberties group is saying. Speaking to a capacity crowd at a National Day of Prayer Task Force event on May 7, Major General Craig Olson credited God for his accomplishments in the military while referring to himself as a “redeemed believer in Christ.” Olson, a master navigator, is the program executive officer at Hanscom Air Force Base in Massachusetts, where he is responsible for more than 2,200 personnel. The Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF) has taken issue with Olson’s remarks and is calling for the two-star general to be court-martialed and “aggressively and very visibly brought to justice for his unforgivable crimes and transgressions,” according to Fox News and the Air Force Times. Mikey Weinstein, president and founder of MRFF, sent a scathing letter to Chief of Staff General Mark Welsh, arguing that Olson’s comments violate Air Force Instruction 1-1, which prohibits airmen from endorsing a particular faith or belief and demanding that Olson be court-martialed.

Our Next Bible Study Topic is:

 “Sacrifice your Life unto the Perfect Will of God”

 Date: June 2, 2015

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