Palestinians and Israelis Will Talk Again This Week
Palestinian and Israeli negotiators will meet again for the first time in more than a year in an effort to revive stalled peace talks. They will meet in Jordan along with the Jordanian officials and representatives from the U.S., Russia, the E.U. and the U.N. There is no expectation on any side of significant progress because of the issue of Israeli settlement building in the West Bank as well as in East Jerusalem and Palestinian demands for a settlement freeze. King Abdullah of Jordan has intervened in the process over the last few months because of his interest in a moderate Palestinian state being established in the West Bank and the Gaza and does not want to encourage any thoughts of a Palestinian state being established in Jordan instead. Prime Minister Netanyahu and his administration fear that any Palestinian state in the West Bank would ultimately be taken over by Islamists.
Such talks are crucial to the wellbeing not only of the Middle East but of the whole world. Please pray for all those involved in these peace talks and that they will be guided and helped by the Lord into a process of real reconciliation and healing of this longstanding feud between the two peoples.
Pray for Syria
The United Nations says more than 5,000 people have died as the Syrian government tries to crush the 9-month-old uprising there. Now, a pan-Arab body is calling for the immediate withdrawal of Arab League Monitors in Syria because the government has continued to kill opponents in spite of the monitors’ presence. The monitors are supposed to be ensuring that Syria complies with the Arab League’s plan to end Syria’s bloody suppression of dissent—a plan that the Syrian government agreed to already. Advocates said more than 150 people have been killed since the observers began their mission on last week.
Please pray that the Syrian government will heed the calls of the Arab League and the others in the international community “to remove its security forces and heavy weapons from cities, start talks with the opposition, allow human rights wrokers and journalists into the counrty, and release all political prisoners.” Pray for Christ’s peace and transformation of this important nation in a tumultuous region.
2012 A Year of Profound Change and Untold Possibility
January 2012
Earlier this year, American Christian radio host Harold Camping stated that the Rapture and Judgment Day would take place on May 21, 2011, and that the end of the world would take place five months later on October 21, 2011. Obviously this didn’t happen, and he was wrong to try and predict it. However, 2011 was full of an intensifying number of catastrophic natural disasters such as the Japan tsunami and nuclear meltdown, the massive Thailand floods and the famine in East Africa. It was also a year of unsettling socio-political and economic changes like the “Arab Spring” of popular uprisings in the Middle East or the worldwide economic recession. Such developments do compel us to wonder if they might represent some of those “signs” of the end of the age and the return of the Lord Jesus Christ.
2012 is also being hailed as a time of profound change. Though professional Mayan scholars and astronomers dispute this, some adhere to the Mayan calendar and December 21, 2012, as the end-date of a 5,125-year-long cycle in which the sun’s alignment with the center of the Milky Way will bring about the end of our world. One thing we can be sure of is that we are living in a time in which God is shaking the nations as foretold by Haggai the prophet. The good news is that the Lord ties this shaking to the coming of the “Desired of All Nations” (Hag. 2:6-7) and the filling of His house with greater glory. Another minor prophet with a major message says that indeed the whole earth will be filled with the glory of His presence (Hab. 2:14).
Jesus told us that when the nations give way to anguish and perplexity, with men fainting with terror over what is coming on the world as even the heavenly bodies are being shaken, we who believe in Him are to lift up our heads in expectation because our redemption is drawing near. He repeatedly warned that our posture should be prayerful watchfulness to be ready to respond to Him and also presumably, as urged elsewhere, to be His instruments in bringing transformation. For example, through Isaiah, the Lord said that the prayers of the watchmen/intercessors are critical to His transformation of the world (Is. 62:6-7).
The Apostle Peter echoes a similar theme when he writes: “The end of all things is near. Therefore, be clear minded and self-controlled so that you can pray.” Even husbands are urged to be considerate and respectful of their wives so “your prayers will not be hindered” (I Peter 4:7, 3:7). Prayer is so important that nothing must be allowed to distract us from it even in the midst of the tumult and terror of a world that seems to be coming undone. Indeed, that is the reason we need to watch in prayer and partner with the Lord for the fulfillment of His purposes in it all.
Fortunately, the World Prayer Assembly is happening several months before the doomsday scenario of December 21, and you are invited to be there! Please see the attached invitation. Most importantly, the WPA will be a once-in-a-generation convergence of praying leaders, networks and movements from both church and marketplace along with a rising force of on-fire youth and children in prayer. It will be a time of deep encounter with the Lord and strategic planning for the future. Those of us in the IPC as well as our colleagues from the Indonesian and Korean prayer movements who are co-hosting the WPA believe that the Lord is bringing us all together in Jakarta to connect and expand a global, interactive movement of watching in prayer that He will use to reveal His glory to the nations.
Please use this issue of Connections to watch and pray for our world, and also we would appreciate your interceding for the arrangements and for the people from around the world that should be part of the World Prayer Assembly. If you haven’t seen it, check out the new video about the WPA and how it will reflect the pivotal time in which we live and respond to Christ’s global agenda.
Let not your heart be troubled and have an extraordinary 2012!
John Robb
IPC Chairman
Put Morality First
Writing a New Year message in Yorkshire Post, The Archbishop of York said that morality must come first. He said, ‘I am not one for unattainable New Year’s Resolutions. They can only be temporary fixes, based on blind optimism rather than on what is sustainable.... after a few days the promises are broken. Personal good intentions and national well-being should go together. A strong society needs decent ideals, too. We need strong morals and a shared purpose which is grounded in more than what is on the bottom line of a balance sheet in Whitehall. If we want to build a strong country, we need to ensure the foundations are solid. Candidates for election should ‘put morality ahead of politics, science, and economics’ and that ‘the only genuine core of all our actions – if they are to be moral – is responsibility......Our country was built on Christian faith and morals, and we should not only be grateful for this, but also celebrate this fact.’
Pray: for a reclaiming of Christian morality by a society that finds itself victim of amoral greed and violence. (Ps.25:9)
More: http://www.archbishopofyork.org/articles.php/2307/archbishops-new-year-message
