Last Friday, USA Today reported that Iran is now capable of producing enough weapons-grade uranium for a nuclear bomb in “as little as a month.” On Monday, Olli Heinonen, the former deputy director of the International Atomic Energy Association, issued an even more alarming assessment. He said that Iran could actually produce enough weapons-grade uranium for a nuclear weapon within “two weeks.”
Iran may have returned to the negotiating table. But while they are talking in Geneva, we need to watch what they’re doing back in Iran. And what they’re doing is accelerating their nuclear weapons program. Iran is still installing hundreds of new, advanced centrifuges every month.
The Senate is currently considering legislation to tighten the economic sanction on Iran. The White House is urging the Senate to postpone action on this bill. We disagree. So long as Iran continues to add to its uranium enrichment capabilities, we must – at the very least - continue to add to our sanctions.
"I really need to start ....!" Do you ever hear yourself think or say those words. Some say "exercising." Others say, "eating better," Others say "reading my Bible and praying." The list is endless.
God does create desires within our heart. Of course they are always godly desires and they are to help lead us on the path He has for our lives. Psalms 37:4 (NIV) says, "Delight yourself in the LORD and he will give you the desires of your heart."
Sometimes we have things stirring in us that have to do with changes we think are needed. Thinking about them and actually executing them are two different things. Thinking about them can be so easy and can continue for days, months and years. Executing those changes can be so frustrating – too often resulting in a track record of aborted attempts. Has God been stirring up desires in your life about something He wants you to do? Have you been struggling to get started? Is there something you need so that you can do what it is you feel God wants you to do? Is it motivation? Is it courage? Is it resources of some kind? Is it all these things?
God has made His grace (His supernatural help) available to you. If He is creating the desire within you, He wants to help you fulfill that desires. Hebrews 13:20-21 (NLT) says, "Now may the God of peace...equip you with all you need for doing His will. May He produce in you, through the power of Jesus Christ, every good thing that is pleasing to Him. All glory to him forever and ever!"
Hebrews 4:16 says, "Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need."Romans 5:2 says, "By whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God." Whatever it is, let God know and stand in faith for it.
I'll never forget one of these moments in Renee and my life. We had been talking about the need to get some strength building equipment in our home. We had an elliptical machine for cardio but wanted to work on building muscle. Ministry can create an unbelievable amount of stress. Exercise de-stresses and good health keeps us healthy so we can help others! We had been praying about it and both felt the Lord wanted us to ask and trust Him with this desire. The time had come to make the decision and put our faith and action to work. We felt like the Lord wanted us to make this change, so we quit talking about it and committed it to the Lord in prayer. We prayed and asked Him to help us get the equipping we needed so we could begin exercising like we felt we needed to.
I know we could have simply went out and bought what needed but Renee and I like to pray and have God lead us and equip us – especially when we think He is giving us the desire for the change He wants us to make. Not long after we had been praying about this, I ran into an old business acquaintance and friend. He manufactures this kind of equipment and had just developed a new home strength gym that they hadn't put out on the market yet. He wanted to get it in some homes to see how it worked for people and how they liked it. He sold it to us at a fraction of the price and it was an amazing piece of equipment – far beyond what we were thinking and the newest and greatest to hit the market. We could see God honoring our prayers and we were so glad we prayed and waited on God! This all started with something stirring in our hearts and deciding "Today is the day!"
Once you're sure it's God's desire stirring in your heart, it becomes time to take a bold step in faith believing it will be empowered by God’s grace. In the story of Joshua taking the people of God into the Promised Land, they came to the Jordon River. God told them to take a step into the river. As soon as they took that first step and touched the water, it parted and let them walk through as we see in Joshua 3:14-16. "When the people set out to cross the Jordan, the priests who were carrying the Ark of the Covenant went ahead of them. Now it was the harvest season, and the Jordan was overflowing its banks. But as soon as the feet of the priests who were carrying the Ark touched the water at the river's edge, the water began backing up and piling up at a town upstream… Then all the people crossed over near the city of Jericho."
Procrastination is a curse. Doing what God is leading you to do is a blessing. But don't fear. You are not on your own! If God is leading you, He will equip you! Your faith is the bridge to that equipping. By His grace He'll equip you with the motivation, with the courage, and with the resources you need. "Today is the day."First, know what it is God wants you to do. Second, ask Him for help praying and expecting God to lead you and guide you. Be patient and stand and pray until you see God's hand and help. Third, take action steps He leads you to take. You have a part to play and that is to obey! Thank Him every step of the way as His grace empowers you with everything you need to do His will! He will lead you and help you as you take the first steps of faith. His grace will help you keep moving forward until His desire is completed in you! Today is the day to take these steps! Declare for yourself,
Hebrews 13:21 "May God equip you with all you need for doing His will. May He produce in you, through the power of Jesus Christ, every good thing that is pleasing to Him. All glory to him forever and ever! Amen."
There are tens of thousands of elderly Jews and children in the former Soviet Union whose grinding poverty has pushed them to the brink of survival. And the number of destitute people in Israel who have nowhere to turn for help is nearing 25% of the population.
Please watch this important video with an update on the conditions in Israel and the former Soviet Union. It is only with the generosity and support of friends like you The Fellowship is able to provide a lifeline to so many people in need.
With your gift of life* – just $18 or multiples thereof, – you can help provide basic necessities such as food, shelter, medicine, and heating assistance to the poorest of the poor in Israel and the far reaches of the former Soviet Union.
I am encouraged by the prophet Isaiah’s words (Isaiah 40:1) and by whatever way God may lead and provide for you to help His people.
The Demonization of Israel from HonestReporting
Demonization of Israel is anti-Semitism according to the Working Definitions from the EU and the U.S. What is demonization? What are the Working Definitions? This slideshow answers those questions and features graphic examples from published media of political cartoons that demonize Israel.
Yesterday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu brought sanity back to the United Nations. He spoke candidly and courageously about Iranian President Rouhani and the threat that Iran's nuclear weapons program poses to the western world. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reminded the world that we must not focus on Rouhani 's words, but on Iran's actions.
We share Prime Minister Netanyahu's concern that the international community is falling for Rouhani's charm offensive. The new Iranian President may sound different than his predecessor, but his years of high level service to Tehran's radical Islamic regime tell a different story. Rouhani has American and Israeli blood on his hands. He was the head of Iran's Supreme National Security Council when Iran murdered 19 American soldiers in Saudi Arabia and 85 men, women, and children at the Buenos Aires Jewish community center.
Given his history and his own words, it is difficult to see Rouhani's charm offensive as anything other than an attempt to buy Iran time to pursue it's nuclear weapons program. We applaud Prime Minister Netanyahu for telling the world that "Israel will never acquiesce to nuclear arms in the hands of a rogue regime that repeatedly promises to wipe us out." We pray that the international community will listen to Prime Minister Netanyahu's wise words and clarion call to examine Rouhani's actions.
The lull in the chemical weapon crisis offers a chance to divert attention to the huge flow of refugees leaving Syria and rethink some misguided assumptions about their future.
About one-tenth of Syria's 22 million residents have fled across an international border, mostly to neighboring Lebanon, Jordan, and Turkey. Unable to cope, their governments are restricting entry, prompting international concern about the Syrians' plight. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, António Guterres, suggests that his agency (as the Guardian paraphrases him) "look to resettle tens of thousands of Syrian refugees in countries better able to afford to host them," recalling the post-2003 Iraqi resettlement program, when 100,000 Iraqis resettled in the West. Others also look instinctively to the West for a solution; the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, for example, has called on Western states "to do more" for Syrian refugees.
Syrian refugees at the Beirut airport on the way to Germany.
The appeal has been heard: Canada has offered to take 1,300 Syrian refugees and the United States 2,000. Italy has received 4,600 Syrian refugees by sea. Germany has offered to take (and has begun receiving) 5,000. Sweden has offered asylum to the 15,000 Syrians already in that country. Local groups are preparing for a substantial influx throughout the West.
But these numbers pale beside a population numbering in the millions, meaning that the West alone cannot solve the Syrian refugee problem. Further, many in Western countries (especially European ones such as the Netherlands and Switzerland) have wearied of taking in Muslim peoples who do not assimilate but instead seek to replace Western mores with the Islamic law code, the Shari'a. Both German chancellor Angela Merkel and British prime minister David Cameron have deemed multiculturalism, with its insistence on the equal value of all civilizations, a failure. Worse, fascist movements such as the Golden Dawn in Greece are growing.
And many more Muslim refugees are likely on their way. In addition to Syrians, these include Bangladeshis, Pakistanis, Afghans, Iranians, Iraqis, Lebanese, Palestinians, Egyptians, Somalis, and Algerians. Other nationals – for example, Yemenis and Tunisians – might soon join their ranks.
Happily, a solution lies at hand.
To place Syrians in "countries better able to afford to host them," as Guterres delicately puts it, one need simply divert attention from the Christian-majority West toward the vast, empty expanses of the fabulously wealthy Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, as well as the smaller but in some cases even richer states of Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates. For starters, these countries (which I will collectively call Arabia) are much more convenient to repatriate to Syria from than, say, New Zealand. Living there also means not enduring frozen climes (as in Sweden) or learning difficult languages spoken by few, such as Danish.
More importantly, Muslims of Arabia share deep religious ties with their Syrian brothers and sisters, so settling there avoids the strains of life in the West. Consider some of the haram (forbidden) elements that Muslim refugees avoid by living in Arabia:
Pet dogs (61 million of them alone in the United States).
A pork-infused cuisine and an alcohol-soaked social life.
State-sponsored lotteries and Las Vegas-style gambling emporia.
Immodestly dressed women, ballet, swimsuit beauty contests, single women living alone, mixed bathing, dating, and lawful prostitution.
Lesbian bars, homosexual-pride parades, and gay marriage.
A lax attitude toward hallucinogens, with some drugs legal in certain jurisdictions.
Blasphemous novels, anti-Koran politicians, organizations of apostate Muslims, and a pastor who repeatedly and publicly burns Korans.
No danger of running into a gay pride parade, such as this one, in Saudi Arabia.
Instead, Muslims living in Arabia can rejoice in a law code that (unlike Ireland) permits polygamy and (unlike Britain) allows child marriages. Unlike France, Arabia allows the advocacy of wife-beating and goes easy on female genital mutilation. Unlike the United States, slaveholding does not entail imprisonment and male relatives can honor killing their women-folk without fear of the death penalty.
An aerial picture of Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, displays the country's urban attractions.
The example of Syrians and Arabia suggests a far broader point: regardless of affluence, refugees should be allowed and encouraged to remain within their own cultural zone, where they most readily fit in, can best stay true to their traditions, least disrupt the host society, and from whence they might most easily return home. Thus, East Asians should generally resettle in East Asia, Middle Easterners in the Middle East, Africans in Africa, and Westerners in the West.
UN take note: Focus less on the West, more on the rest. As for Saudis: It's time to welcome Muslim coreligionists under stress with open arms.
Sep. 24, 2013 addenda:
(1) I am quite aware that the Saudis and others have no intention of allowing in Syrian or other refugees; that is the implicit premise of my analysis; why should they be rewarded for bad behavior? I am also aware that Syrian refugees have been maltreated in Middle Eastern countries; for example, they have become a handy scapegoat in Egypt.
(2) These broad cultural zones are provisional; their boundaries would need to be worked out. (3) Exceptions to these cultural zones exist. Middle East Christians, for instance, fit better in the West than in Arabia; and exceptional individuals always deserve special consideration.
(4) Some Middle Eastern economic refugees have discovered China and an increasing number go there on one- to five-year renewable residence permits.
(5) In a tentative list of perpetrators of the Nairobi mall attack, underway as this article was prepared for publication, 10 out of the 16 terrorists hail from the West - 6 from the United States and 1 each from Canada, Great Britain, and Sweden. Oct. 2, 2013 update: António Guterres, the United Nations high commissioner for refugees, has announced that 15 governments have accepted special quotas for Syrian refugees, including the American and many European ones. Kristalina Georgieva, the European Union's commissioner for humanitarian affairs and crisis response, said that "We in Europe must not only keep our hearts and wallets open, but also our borders." Comment: I await hearing her Saudi counterpart saying the same.
Source: http://www.danielpipes.org/
I agree in some points, but, majority of Syrian refugees are Christians, because they are persecuted by muslim rebels and the government is enable to protect the Christians. Many Israeli people are helping the Syrian (and Christian) refugees, watch:
If Israel is occupying her own capital, Jerusalem, so, United States is occupying Washington DC, England is occupying London, German is occupying Berlin, etc.
If Israel must deliver Jerusalem to the nonexistent Palestine, so, United States, England, German and all the nations must give example to Israel and deliver their own capitals to the nonexistent countries. Thus, the "illegal" occupations will finish in the world.
THINK ABOUT IT AND SHALOM!
