There are many reasons why Christians should continue to remember Jerusalem in our prayers. First of all because I believe that we are commanded to pray for Jerusalem in Psalm 122:6. But beyond that we need to pray for the destiny of that land and people.

Those of us in America should be praying for Our President and his administration. VP Biden has been over to Israel recently and pretty much favored and was sympathetic to the Palestinian Muslims and their claim over the land. In fact he warned Israeli officials that their relationship with the US was in severe danger over settlements in Jerusalem.

It is my perspective that if this country does not support Israel and their right to Jerusalem then we are the ones that are ultimately in real trouble. So even for purely selfish reasons we do need to be praying. I just don’t understand why we would want to support violent dictatorial Islamic despots over the freely elected leaders of a democratic Israel. It doesn’t make sense to me on any level. Obviously we are battling against demonic powers here and spiritual blindness can be the only logical explanation. Prayer is essential for this situation.

Also while praying for that land we do need to remember to pray for the Palestinian Christians who are all but being ignored and constantly under persecution by everyone. Unless there is a major revival those folks are basically going to disappear.

Meanwhile, while the international community is sleeping an Islamic giant- Turkey is rising in the north and already challenging Israel having made recent pacts with Israeli neighbors Syria and Jordan and even more telling a reconciliation with Iran. For over 60 years Turkey has been one of the only friends of Israel in the Middle East, but no more.

Then there is the pretentious Ahmadinejad and the rise of Iran and their nuclear ambitions in the East. Recently Iranian officials had extensive talks with their allies in Syria along with the leaders of terrorist groups from Lebanon and the Palestinian Territory. All with a view towards coordinating attacks upon Israel particularly if the Israelis try to stop the Iranian nuclear program.

Yes folks, even though Israel seems so far away for many of us it is extremely important right now to pray for the peace and wholeness of Jerusalem and her people. Believe me, the effects of an escalation of war over there will be felt in this country. Many international experts believe that we have already passed the point of no return with Iran testing missiles last week that could carry a nuclear load and easily reach Israel.  Meanwhile, the American press is substantially ignoring many of these developments in the Middle East.

How will it affect us in our safe far away land? What about gas at $7 a gallon. What would that do to our already weak economy? If gas goes over $5 I am personally out of business. Many experts say that a confrontation between Israel and Iran would result in stopping the flow of oil from the Middle East for several months at least. In fact Iran has already said that they would intentionally stop and sink all oil shipments leaving the gulf in the event of war.

For these reasons and for the sake of regular folks who would be victims of any war let’s remember to keep Jerusalem in our prayers, particularly right now.

Here’s another good article to read about the importance of praying for: “The Peace of Jerusalem”                *Top

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I remember watching Oral Roberts on a 10” black and white TV screen as a kid in the 50’s and wanting to grow up as a preacher/healer just like him.

I get choked up all over again watching this video. Unless you lived in the early 50’s you really don’t have any idea how really terrifying polio was in those days. Thousands of kids were on crutches in America and there was no medical answers for it until the shots came along in the mid 50’s.

Oral was one of the last of the Pentecostal healing/revival evangelists that toured across America preaching in tents after WWII. He was the among first to take it to the next level with a regular program on the new TV media that soon was in every home across the country.

All the recent controversy with his son and all the stuff the media and late night comedians have said about him and a 900’ Jesus sort a makes us forget what a blessing his ministry was to millions of Americans in the 50’s and 60’s. Really the first major national TV evangelist and one which helped to take Pentecostalism from the other side of the tracks to the main street in America.

Here’s a statement made by Billy Graham in memory of Oral:

"Oral Roberts was a man of God, and a great friend in ministry. I loved him as a brother."

Graham also told reporters that he had spoken to Oral Roberts three weeks ago by phone, and that Roberts had told him then that his "life’s journey" was nearly over.

Over 151 Christian leaders from all sorts of different denominations and organizations have signed a document called the ‘Manhattan Declaration’ which is a call for Christians to stand together on a number of major moral issues that face America. The following three points summarize the key areas addressed by the document :

1. The sanctity of human life

2. The dignity of marriage as the conjugal union of husband and wife

3. The rights of conscience and religious liberty.

Here’s the final paragraph of the document which reflects these key areas of concern:

“Because we honor justice and the common good, we will not comply with any edict that purports to compel our institutions to participate in abortions, embryo-destructive research, assisted suicide and euthanasia, or any other anti-life act; nor will we bend to any rule purporting to force us to bless immoral sexual partnerships, treat them as marriages or the equivalent, or refrain from proclaiming the truth, as we know it, about morality and immorality and marriage and the family.

We will fully and ungrudgingly render to Caesar what is Caesar’s. But under no circumstances will we render to Caesar what is God’s.”

Response: <<Read my response on my AFTF blog>>

Here’s a link if you want to sign on to the document. Over 5,000 signatures so far.            *Top

Those who have read the legislation complain that the health plan as it is presently defined allows for taxpayer funding for abortion and also requires insurance companies to follow suit and also cover abortions. President Obama was recently asked about this issue and claimed that he was unaware one way or another whether abortion was included in ‘his’ health care plan. Some find that ignorance to be rather convenient considering his long standing support of abortion rights.

Also, 19 House Democrats wrote to Speaker Nancy Pelosi last month warning that they oppose any bill that would “mandate coverage for abortions, directly or indirectly.”

Of coarse, Planned Parenthood has also joined in the debate and takes an opposite view that any comprehensive healthcare plan needs to include all potential health services for women—including abortion.

Response: Now would be the time to let your Representative in Congress and your Senators know how you feel about this issue before it is too late.            *Top     (Cross-posted @ Answers For The Faith)       

(Dr. Tiller’s church by Getty Images via Daylife)

Over the weekend in Wichita, Kansas, late-term abortionist Dr. George Tiller was murdered while attending church. A terrible tragedy on so many different levels. Terrible first for the family of Dr. Tiller, that it would happen in a church is obviously beyond the pale.

Immediately the media went into full attack mode against the pro-life movement. Yet every organization and every church leader which is in the pro-life movement condemns the murder and stands for the sanctity of life. Not one Christian group will be celebrating over this (except maybe the nutso “Westboro Baptist Church” family), exactly the opposite—this is the worst possible thing to happen for the movement.

Notice that the word “terrorism” is all of a sudden in the government dictionary again—this time being applied to the pro-life movement—just like the Homeland Security recent bulletin suggests–the threat is no longer from radical Muslims, the real “terrorist” threat in this country comes from the ‘right’. The left wing bloggers are going ecstatic!

For years to come this murder will be cited as an hypocritical ‘terrorist’ action of the whole pro-life movement and its conservative Christian supporters.

A suspect has been arrested in Kansas City and already every effort is being made to tie him to some pro-life organization or church. One blog already found that the suspect posted a “creepy comment at the Operation Rescue website in 2007” about Dr. Tiller. So there you have it after one day the suspect is already being linked to Operation Rescue. Forget the fact that Operation Rescue organization officially condemns the murder.

The end result of this will be a collective demonization of pro-lifers and conservative Christians in particular—and an attempt to paint us all as hypocritical extremist haters that need to be better monitored and regulated by the government.

*UPDATE: It is already happening, National Organization for Women has released a statement which includes the following:

"Bringing the killers to justice is not enough – the Justice Department and the Department of Homeland Security must root out and prosecute as domestic terrorists and violent racketeers the criminal enterprise that has organized and funded criminal acts for decades. We call on the new attorney general, Eric Holder, and head of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano to treat these murders in the same way they would treat politically-motivated domestic terrorism of any other kind and put the full resources of their two departments behind that effort."

Who is “the criminal enterprise” they are referring to?—Pro-lifers like you and me. Also, Attorney General Eric Holder has already taken action, directing U.S. Marshals to protect "appropriate people and facilities around the nation," (ie: Abortion clinics and Doctors) according to a statement, in order to "help prevent any related acts of violence from occurring."

Wow, complete hysteria! Unbelievable.           *Top       (Cross-Posted @ Answers For The Faith)

In new survey just out today, Gallup finds that more Americans now consider themselves “pro-life” than “pro-choice, by a 51 percent-42 percent margin:

Response: Praise God—this is great news! Nearly every trend in the American culture has been negative for Biblical Christians in the last several years. An encouraging word for a change.            *Top

(Dr. Mohler via Wikipedia)

All sorts of articles, polls, and publications have sounded the warning trumpet lately—calling attention to the ‘decline of Christianity in America. What we really are experiencing is the death of ‘cultural Christianity’—the kind that I talked about before– in the 50’s growing up with everyone in my neighborhood identifying themselves as Christians except the Jewish family down the street but they believed in the same Biblical morality as every other American.

Times have changed indeed—the culture wars are basically over and the church has substantially lost—even among a whole lot of folk who identify themselves as ‘Christian’. Here is a recent quote of Dr. Albert Mohler addressing the new cultural environment that the American church could soon be facing:

"We are going to discover that cultural Christianity is what eventually disappears in a secularized age.

Cultural Christianity has been so much a part of the environment of our ministry and of the expectation of our churches that it’s going to be a very different situation for the pastor of the First Baptist Church to worry about being arrested rather than to worry about whether he’s going to get the first seat in the restaurant.

… When you start looking at a lot of the logic of what is becoming endemic in the culture toward the future, we’re going to be in a very different situation than we’ve ever faced before.

And we’re going to discover that we are not as many as we thought we were.

… We’ve got to prepare students to be ready for that and to be able to lead churches to be able to understand what it means to be the church when we no longer have the cultural supports that we had counted on, wrongly, I think, all these years."

—Southern Baptist Theological Seminary President Albert Mohler Jr. [Baptist Press, 4/23/09]

The judges started joking and Simon Cowell was snearing as Boyle took the stage with jeers and laughs from the audience. Then she began to sing and it all changed in a moment!   One week later she is an international sensation.

This was all in the natural–think of what could happen in a moment supernaturally!

"We live in a land where you can choose same-sex marriage or opposite. And you know what, I think in my country, in my family, I think that I believe that a marriage should be between a man and a woman. No offense to anybody out there, but that’s how I was raised."

Carrie Prejean did get ‘first runner up’ but quite a few folks believe that her support for traditional marriage may well have cost her the Miss USA crown. Her statement caused a media feeding frenzy that included all of the AM TV shows and was the topic of the day on many radio programs across America, particularly on the liberal coasts.

While under fire on the "Today Show" yesterday morning, Prejean defended her answer:

"I knew at that moment after I answered the question, I knew, I was not going to win because of my answer, because I had spoken from my heart, from my beliefs and for my God. I wouldn’t have answered it differently. The way I answered may have been offensive. With that question specifically, it’s not about being politically correct. For me it was being biblically correct."

Response: The persecution of conservative traditional Christian perspectives is already a reality in the main stream media. It is really shocking how the press has been rather one-sided and biased towards the homosexual agenda.

Since the passage of Proposition 8- ‘The traditional Marriage’ amendment in California, the media has been particularly active in putting down Christians and pastors who support traditional marriage. 20 year ago and even maybe 10, the statements of Miss Prejean would have been considered normal—then again that question would have never even been asked!

We now live in times when that which is ‘Biblically correct’ is considered evil and controversial and that which use to be hidden and immoral is now called good. Nevertheless, ‘for such a time as this’ we are called to stand up for the truth.           *Top   (Cross-Posted on ANSWERS For the Faith)

Praise God! Captain Phillips had his family and church back home praying for him on Resurrection Day–the pirates didn’t have a chance!

For those who haven’t been following the story, Richard Phillip was the Captain of the American ship that was being held hostage for ransom by Somali pirates. Navy Seal sharpshooters rescued the Captain yesterday afternoon.         *Top