AUSTRALIAN PRAYER NETWORK NEWSLETTER
* DAY OF PRAYER FOR THE WORLD’S ECONOMIES
* MARRIED PARENTS EXPECTED TO BE IN THE MINORITY IN BRITAIN BY 2031
* ATHEISTS SUE PRESIDENT BUSH OVER NATIONAL DAY OF PRAYER
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DAY OF PRAYER FOR THE WORLD’S ECONOMIES
“For thus says the Lord of hosts: ‘Once more (it is a little while) I will shake heaven and earth, the sea and dry land; and I will shake all nations, and they shall come to the Desire of All Nations, and I will fill this temple [house] with glory,’ says the Lord of hosts. ‘The silver is Mine, and the gold is Mine,’ says the Lord of Hosts.” Haggai 2:6-8. October 29th marks the anniversary of the stock market crash of 1929, after which the great depression ensued. For this reason, we are issuing a worldwide call for a Day of Prayer for the World’s Economies on October 29, 2008. We are calling for prayer for the stock markets, banks, and financial institutions of the world. The Reformation Prayer Network and The Global Day of Prayer in the United States will be joining us in this prayer initiative. Please rally your prayer group to join with us on October 29, 2008 to intercede for the economic systems of the world. Early in 2008, intercessors began to hear from the Lord that without divine intervention, a major shaking was coming to Wall Street. This would spread until there were food shortages. In fact, we heard that 2009 would be worse than 2008! During the same time period, a dream was given that showed 50 boxes of iniquity representing the economic systems in all 50 US states. The lid was off and the stench was terrible. God gave an instruction that we were to “put the lid back on the boxes” until a biblical economic structure could be built in its place. For this reason, we are meeting with intercessors at the New York Stock Exchange and the Federal Reserve Bank and its 12 principal branches around the U.S. on October 29, 2008. We are also going to intercede at the site of the statue of the bull on Wall Street to ask God to begin a shift from the bull and bear markets to what we feel will be the “Lion’s Market” or God’s control over the economic systems. While we do not have the full revelation of all this will entail, we do know that without intercession, economies will crumble. Please gather with your prayer groups and networks to intercede for the banks and financial institutions in your area. Here are a few suggested prayer points for the day: 1. Repent for any personal greed. Ask God to show you any personal connection that you have with mammon. 2. Repent for the economic sins of your nation. Ask God to forgive the greed, avarice, participation in mammon, etc., that has taken place in your nation’s economic system. 3. Repent for any excessive participation in debt and the use of credit. Ask God to give a strategy both to you, personally, and to your country to heal your economies. 4. Repent for a lack of love for the poor. Ask God to forgive any way in which you and your nation have not addressed the needs of the poor, either in the work force or through racism. 5. Cry out to God for mercy for your nation. Plead with Him according to 2 Chronicles 7:14 and tell the Lord that you will turn from your wicked ways. 6. Pray for wisdom for the leaders of your nation on how to deal with the current financial crisis. 7. Ask God to stabilize the nation’s economy, putting the lid back on the box as shown in the dream given. 8. Begin to intercede and ask God to establish righteousness in the stock exchange, expose corruption and bring to justice those who have sinned against God and the nation. Ask God to heal the economy. 9. Pray that God will raise up an economy based upon biblical principles. 10 Intercede that a great revival will break out in the marketplace as a result of the shaking. Pray that God will begin to give wisdom in the midst of the shaking to shift the wealth of nations into the hands of the righteous.
Source: Generals International
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MARRIED PARENTS EXPECTED TO BE IN THE MINORITY IN BRITAIN BY 2031
Married parents could be outnumbered by single mothers and cohabiting couples within a generation, with serious implications for the health and education of children. The report on family life by the Office for National Statistics suggests that Britain is only 24 years away from married couples being in the minority. The report said the number of couples who live together has increased 65 per cent to 2.3 million in the past 10 years, while married couple families fell by four per cent to 12.1 million. The number of single mums rose by eight per cent to 2.6 million over the decade.
The study, predicted a 250 per cent increase by 2031 among people aged 45-64 who cohabit. With people delaying marriage into their 30s and 40s, or choosing to cohabit or live alone, most children could be raised by single parents or couples who have never married. Currently seven in 10 of Britain’s 17 million families are married. The decline of the married family could have a negative impact on society because the offspring of married couples tend to be healthier than those of single mothers, and do better at school than those whose parents are separated or cohabiting. Married men and women are generally healthier than unmarried ones.
The trend against marriage could also have a damaging effect on the elderly. Married couples are more likely to look after parents, in-laws and other relatives than cohabiting couples because family cohesion is stronger. “Whereas 16 per cent of people who are married provide care for one hour a week or more, only nine per cent of people in cohabiting couples do,” the report said. People caring for sick or disabled relatives are currently saving the state £87 billion a year by providing unpaid support instead of relying on the NHS and social services.
Sociologists said politicians needed to do more to restore the primacy of marriage in modern life. Jill Kirby, of the Centre for Policy Studies, said: “There should no longer be any argument about the importance of marriage. It is not simply traditional, it protects children best and gives them the optimum start. “But Gordon Brown has consistently refused to admit the relationship between marriage and the welfare of children. His welfare policies penalise marriage and deepen trends towards more fragile family forms.” Robert Whelan of the Civitas think tank, said: “People say it makes no difference how you live but we have research now which shows it does. If you have a tax and benefit system which rewards cohabitation and living apart, this is what happens.” David Cameron, the Conservative leader, warned of the potential damages of ignoring the fact that “one in two cohabiting parents split up before their child’s fifth birthday, compared to one in 12 married parents. We need to recognise that family breakdown is the main factor in the social breakdown in our country today.”
Meanwhile, the Government is moving in favour of strengthening cohabitation rather than marriage. Its forthcoming “marriage lite” law is likely to give an estimated two million cohabitees the right to financial maintenance and a share in their partner’s property if they break up. Single mothers make up 22 per cent of all families in London, which has the largest proportion for any geographic region in Britain. Within London, the figure rises to 48 per cent in Lambeth, which also has the highest teenage pregnancy figures, followed by Islington. The other lone parent hotspots are: Manchester (46.8 pc), Glasgow city (46.4 pc), Southwark (45.7 pc), Liverpool (44.8 pc), Hackney (43.2 pc), Belfast (42.4 pc) and City of London (42.1 pc). Both men and women live happier and wealthier lives when they are married and children in two-parent families have the best health. Married women aged 40-64, says the report, have “significant health advantages” over those who are unmarried, and mothers are healthier than those without children.
Source: UK Telegraph
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ATHEISTS SUE PRESIDENT BUSH OVER NATIONAL DAY OF PRAYER
The latest attempt by the country’s largest atheist group, the Freedom from Religion Foundation, to banish reliance on God in America, is coming in the form of a lawsuit against President George W. Bush, among others, for their propagation of the National Day of Prayer. The intercessory day developed from America’s first official call to prayer in 1775 by the Continental Congress which included such members as: George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams and Benjamin Franklin. Subsequently President Abraham Lincoln issued a proclamation for a day of “humiliation, fasting, and prayer” in 1863; followed by a joint resolution by Congress in 1952, signed by President Truman; to the law amended and signed in 1988 by President Ronald Reagan, which permanently set an annual National Day of Prayer on the first Thursday in May. Apparently the atheist group maintains that the day of prayer creates a “hostile environment for nonbelievers, who are made to feel as if they are political outsiders.” Although this lawsuit may seem quite frivolous at best to many, news like this does warrant committing it to prayer, and action as the case may necessitate. After all, if we are in the midst of what many call “the last days,” this country will need all the prayer she can get.
Source: Breaking Christian News
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