EU meeting to discuss UK proposals
11 Dec 2015On Thursday and Friday next week a meeting of the EU Council will be held in Brussels. David Cameron was warned that a central demand to curb immigration might be asking too much. Donald Tusk, president of the council, will chair the first detailed talks on the issue between Cameron and his 27 peers. He sent EU leaders a progress report after Cameron laid out the reforms he wants if he is to campaign for continued EU membership in a referendum due to take place in 2017. Mr Tusk said, ‘We have made good progress, but have to overcome substantial political differences on the issue of social benefits and free movement.’ Many governments are willing to make changes to keep Britain in the Union; however the main stumbling block is Cameron's pledge to cut immigration to Britain by denying benefits to workers from other EU states for four years after they arrive. The draft agenda for the meeting on 17-18 December 2015 can be seen on: http://www.consilium.europa.eu/en/meetings/european-council/2015/12/17-18/
EU says IS has chemical and biological weapons
11 Dec 2015Islamic State is armed with biological and chemical weapons but Europeans don’t take the existential threat seriously, according to a European Union parliament document. Also, Israeli experts say IS is armed with weapons forbidden by the Geneva Convention and that it is a state in every sense of the word, with its own currency, a university and even licence plates. The EU report said that chemical, biological, radiological or nuclear substances (CBRN) have been carried undetected into the European Union. Interpol’s monthly CBRN intelligence reports show numerous examples of attempts to acquire, smuggle or use such materials. The report also said, ‘At present, European citizens are not seriously contemplating extremist groups using chemical, biological, radiological or nuclear materials in Europe. Under these circumstances, should it occur, it would be even more destabilising. See: http://www.europarl.europa.eu/RegData/etudes/BRIE/2015/572806/EPRS_BRI(2015)572806_EN.pdf
.’
Dominican Republic: pro-life landmark victory
11 Dec 2015The constitutional tribunal of the Dominican Republic has issued a landmark ruling overturning a law pushed through by President Danilo Medina. The new law, which had been personally advocated by the president as part of a broader revision of the criminal code, introduced a paragraph that would have allowed abortion to be legalised in cases of rape or incest, or when doctors deemed the preborn child to be suffering from illnesses or disabilities which rendered them ‘incompatible with life.’ After the president signed the law, two non-profit organisations filed a lawsuit challenging its constitutionality, arguing that it violated the constitutional protection of Article 37 of the Dominican Republic's constitution, which guarantees the right to life as inviolable from conception to death.
112 people per second open a Bible app
11 Dec 2015Every second, the world conducts 40,000 Google searches, creates five new Facebook profiles, and opens YouVersion’s Bible App 112 times. In the app, three bookmarks are created, four verses are shared, and 18 verses are highlighted. More than fifty Bible chapters are listened to, and 342 chapters are read. YouVersion was launched in 2008 and now has 200 million installs, offering the Bible in 1,200 versions and 900 languages. Mobile devices are being changed into Bibles that people carry with them everywhere they go. 200 million installs represents countless moments of individuals transformed by their time in the Bible. The most popular Bible verse is Romans 12:2: ‘Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is - His good, pleasing, and perfect will.’
Call to prayer for the UK
09 Dec 2015World Prayer Centre believes there is an urgent call for God's people to stand in prayer for the United Kingdom. The nation has entered a new phase in our conflict with ISIS. We are particularly vulnerable to terrorist attacks and fear in the days leading up to Christmas and when there are large gatherings of people in the post-Christmas/News Year's Eve period. We feel this is part of a wider time of shaking for our nation and other nations.
We believe God is challenging His church. It is time for all God's people to pray – we are called to be alert, to protect, guard and bless our communities and nation.
Here is a prayer format you may wish to use in small groups and church meetings, or to help personal prayer. We want to pray for God's mercy for our communities and the United Kingdom, that we might turn our hearts to Jesus – the Prince of peace, Deliverer, source of hope and goodness and see many people discover a fresh revelation of Jesus across the nation this Christmas.
So let's unite in prayer.
We are asking people to pray on the 12 – 14 December in different prayer gatherings and church services.
- Join us at our WATCH + PRAY day on 14 December at WPC
- Support Community Watchman Ministries - Big PUSH in Liverpool on 12 December.
Pray daily between now and Christmas – and beyond:
- Lord have mercy and protect our nation
- Lord, fill us with Your perfect love so that we can walk with You and not in fear.
- Pour out your blessing on this nation so that thousands will have a revelation of Jesus in this Christmas period
Download our prayer guide to pray for the UK. Please share this with your friends, your bible study/home group, your church and across your networks.
Joel 2:1 'Blow the trumpet in Zion; sound the alarm on my holy hill. Let all who live in the land tremble, for the day of the LORD is coming. It is close at hand'.
Germans Opposed to Mass Migration are "Free to Leave"
by Soeren Kern • November 24, 2015
After factoring in family reunifications, the actual number of migrants could exceed 10 million, and some believe that Germany's Muslim population is on track to nearly quadruple to an astonishing 20 million by 2020.
N24 television news reports that up to 50% of the asylum seekers arriving in Germany have gone into hiding and their whereabouts are unknown by German authorities.
"It cannot be that offenders continue to fill the police files, hurt us physically... and there are no consequences. ... We are losing control of the streets." — Tania Kambouri, a German police officer.
"We are not excluding anyone, we are just trying to run a business. If we ignore the complaints of our female guests, we have to expect that many of our regular customers will stay away.... Financially, we do not know how long can we cope with this." — Thomas Greil, manager of the discotheque "Brucklyn," Bad Tölz, Bavaria.
"We are reproducing faster and faster. You Germans are not getting any children. In the best case you get two children. We make seven to eight children. Okay mate? And then we take four wives each, then we have 22 children. Maybe you Germans have one child and a dog. Huh? And that's it." — Video showing a Muslim threatening a German man openly on the street.
In Berlin, lawmakers are considering emergency legislation that would allow local authorities to seize private residences to accommodate asylum seekers. The proposal was kept secret from the public until November 9, when the leader of the Free Democrats (FDP) in Berlin warned the measure would violate the German Constitution. Berlin Mayor Michael Müller now wants to expand the scope for warrantless inspections to include "preventing homelessness."
"The same empathy we show for refugees we must show to our own people, the host society." — Mayor Ulrich Maly, Nuremberg.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel (left): "The Chancellor has the situation under control. I Have My Vision. I Will Fight For It."
Asylum seekers from Africa, Asia and the Middle East are continuing to pour into Germany in record numbers, despite freezing temperatures and snow.
More than 180,000 migrants arrived during the first three weeks of November, on track to surpass the previous monthly record of 181,000 migrants recorded in October.
With 300 newcomers now arriving every hour, Germany is expected to receive more than one million asylum seekers in 2015, and at least as many in 2016. After factoring in family reunifications, the actual number of migrants could exceed 10 million, and some believe that Germany's Muslim population is on track to nearly quadruple to an astonishing 20 million by 2020.
Please pray for Europe and its leaders trying to cope with the huge migrant exodus happening from Syria, other Middle Eastern countries as well as those from Africa and even Central Asia trying to seek a better life. Pray for the Christians and churches to know how to serve and share the Good News with these desperate people. It is a huge opportunity but also one fraught with the risk of the further export of Islamic terrorism. Pray for His protection too over these nations.
Repentance is greatly under valued in the modern church world. Identificational repentance even more so and yet repentance was the message that laid the foundation for the operation of the power of God in the New Testament.
The message of John the Baptist was "repent for the Kingdom of heaven is at hand."Jesus message was the same, repent for the Kingdom of heaven is at hand." Both of these messages were accompanied by open displays of the power of God.
Peter continued the call to repentance in the book of Acts chapter 2 when he said "Repent... and save yourselves from this perverse generation," hardly a message that would see him invited to speak in many modern day churches, and yet this message released the power of God for the salvation of 3,000 souls.
In the Book of Revelation Jesus Christ called five of the seven churches to repentance, which would indicate, looking at statistical odds, that you and I need to activate repentance in our lives 71% of the time. Certainly a sobering thought to say the least. Repentance literally means in the Greek to 'have a change of mind and turn around'. But it is not just a state of the mind but a state of the heart. It has a lot to do with humility.
Nowhere is this more exemplified than when the prophet Isaiah, who we understand was a righteous man, prophesying against the evil of his day, spoke out regarding his own state: "Woe is me for I am ruined, I am a man of unclean lips and I dwell amongst a people with unclean lips." In doing so he at the least identified with sinfulness of the people of his own generation and asked God for cleansing.
The prophet Daniel who is one of the few bible characters who had no known sin recorded against him took it one step further in identificational repentance when he prayed to God in Daniel 6:9, "I and my forefathers have sinned."
This was the thought at the forefront of my mind when I learned of the evil behaviour of Australian citizens in San Francisco who arguably laid the foundation of evil that San Francisco was built on in the early days of the gold rush in the 1850's. I learned this from two Australian prayer warriors Merv and Sharon Stevenson who had spent several weeks in July 2015 researching and repenting for Australia's contribution to organised crime, prostitution, sex trafficking, murder and mayhem in the early days of San Francisco.
The port area which was the hub of the city of San Francisco and the vice capital for the city was known as Sydney Town from 1850 -1865. It later became known as the Barbary Coast, but the continuing predominance of Australian immigrants in the criminal activities was a well known fact.
1. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sydney_Ducks
2. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbary_Coast,_San_Francisco
In the book "The Barbary Coast - An Informal History of the San Francisco Underworld", USA crime historian Herbert Asbury said "The villainous inhabitants of Sydney-Town were popularly called Sydney Ducks or Sydney Coves, but more often the former. It was a common saying in early San Francisco whenever a particularly atrocious crime was committed, that 'the Sydney Ducks were cackling in the pond'. Unquestionably, these foreign felons gave San Francisco's underworld its initial flavour; they were the pioneers in the viciousness and depravity for which the Barbary Coast became famous, and the echo of their unholy cackling was not stilled for more than half a century."
I was shocked, to say the least, as I had been one of those who had pointed my finger in judgement at San Francisco, but typically I now found three fingers of my hand pointing back at me and my forbears. I was born in Sydney Australia and I had always thought that Sydney, being a sister city of San Francisco since 1967, had influenced us in a bad way.
Imagine my surprise to learn that it was us in Australia that had laid the foundation for San Francisco to become the immorality capital of the world in the sixties and seventies. Knowing that we were on our way to speak at the World Congress of Families in Utah, Alison and I felt it was time to ask the people of San Francisco for forgiveness and repent on behalf of our fathers and say sorry for their sins, not to mention my own spiritual pride.
On 31st October another Australian, my wife Alison and I gathered with seven other local intercessors from the San Francisco House of Prayer, led by Anne Trumbo. We also had Ps Jeff Daly from the USA Day of Repentance and David Bereit the Director of 40 Days for Life representing Christian ministries from all over the USA.
We prayer-walked the downtown area and then met on the 11th floor of the Trans America Pyramid, overlooking San Francisco. A kind Christian businessman gave us access to an 'upper room'. We conducted a communion service together and we declared the forgiveness found in and through the blood of Jesus Christ the Lamb of God and jointly blessed San Francisco.
Our Australian brother, with Alison and I, washed an American brother's feet in heartfelt repentance and asked and received forgiveness from those present on behalf of Australia. We expected God to do something but we were truly caught by surprise by what God was about to do.
San Francisco, and California, has been gripped in a record breaking four year drought, but I did not have the faith to pray for an end to the drought. My belief in the unmerited favour found in the blood of Jesus Christ and the supernatural implication of true repentance was far too limited. Thankfully God's grace is bigger than my own judgemental attitudes.
We were to witness the first part of the miracle first hand when rain began to fall within 24 hours of our repentance service in what turned out to be the largest fall of rain in San Francisco for 9 months. The good news is that San Francisco has had several more showers of rain that would appear to herald the end of one of the worst droughts on record. 1.http://www.mercurynews.com/drought/ci_29061079/autumn-storm-prelude-but-not-yet-el-nino
Even more amazing is that at exactly the same date we were having our combined repentance service in San Francisco, Saturday 31st October, rain began to fall at Barcaldine in central Queensland in the northern part of Australia. This area was also the centre of a record breaking four year drought which has gripped central Queensland.
1. http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-11-02/weekend-storms-outback-queensland/6904972
2. http://www.bom.gov.au/jsp/watl/rainfall/pme.jsp
Over the next two days Barcaldine recorded its greatest monthly rainfall on record. Better still more rain has fallen since and more is forecast in short term forecasts. The same is the case in northern California. It would seem that in both areas the weather patterns have changed and all things point to an end of the drought in both locations.
We cannot yet say the drought is over as we need 6-12 months of good soaking rain for that to occur. What we can say authoritatively is that both regional areas of our respective nations received an extraordinary outpouring of the grace of God within 24 hours of a combined Australian and USA repentance service being held in San Francisco. The scripture says that we serve a merciful God who sends the rain on the just and the unjust. God is Good!!!!!
It is our conviction that this rain is a miraculous display of the power of God's love released as a consequence of heartfelt repentance between our respective nations as found in 2 Chronicles 7:14 As the scripture says, "Where sin abounds there does much more Grace bound."
We pray that this natural rain is a sign of the supernatural rains of revival that the USA and Australia so desperately need. Let's continue to covenant together to pray for revival and reformation for the USA and Australia. Soli Deo Gloria!
Much love Warwick & Alison Marsh
Australia
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I am emailing you today with a great deal of excitement about a very simple, but powerful social media campaign that we are calling "#ShareHope". This effort isn't about the Jesus Alliance or any individual ministry, but is instead an example of how we must work together to share Jesus with the world. People need HOPE and today we are each being given an opportunity to share it.
On December 1st we will begin sharing this video<https://vimeo.com/145255721> across the Internet and we are asking for your help in distributing it to as many people as possible. The video was made available to us by our friends at Word of Life. Our ask of each of you is simply that you use your social media network and email list to share this video multiple times during the week of December 1st and again during the week of January 11th.
What will the video do?
Each person is presented with a choice of needing hope or sharing hope. For those who "need hope", we direct them both in the video and from theJesusAlliance.org <http://thejesusalliance.org/> website to get involved in a conversation about Jesus through chat or text with JesusCares.com <http://jesuscares.com/> or NeedHim.org <http://needhim.org/>. For those who are willing to "share hope" we ask them to share the video and then take part in a simple social media campaign. The social campaign asks them to write down their favorite scripture on something creative (a mirror, in the sand, on a napkin, etc...), take a picture of it, and then post that picture using Twitter or Instagram to #ShareHope. Imagine how many people will see images of God's Word being shared. Our friends at the All In Movement will be working with us to send an automated response encouraging every person that participates to further participate by sharing the video with their friends.
Will you help us begin distributing this video on December 1st? Simply "reply all" with a YES, NO, or HAVE QUESTIONS and I'll have a member of my team either get you the final copy of the video or answer any questions you might have.
Thank you for your prayers and support!
Bob Williamson
Founder/Chairman
TheJesusalliance.org