Category Archives: prayer

Churches support “Fifth Friday” prayer on January 30

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A number of churches are responding to Connecticut House of Prayer’s call for united prayer for revival on the “Fifth Fridays” of 2009, the first of which occurs on January 30. Meetings will be held at the following locations:

Ashford: United Baptist Church, 38 Pompey Hollow Rd (Rt 44) (1-3pm)

Bridgeport: United Kingdom Church, 1589 Stratford Avenue (Call 203-579-1579)

Danielson: Gospel Light Fellowship, 132 Wauregan Road (9-11am)

Darien: St. Paul’s Darien, 471 Mansfield Avenue (7-11pm)

Enfield: Calvary Presbyterian Church, 1518 King Street (7:30-9pm )

Hartford: Connecticut House of Prayer, Inc., 320 Brown Street (7-9pm)

New Britain: Calvary Christian Center, 265 West Main Street (9am-12pm)

Tolland: First Baptist Church, 75 Cider Mill Road (Call 860-871-0592)

Wallingford: Good News Christian Center, 46 John Street (6-7pm)

State deficit deepens

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I guess that’s a good way to put it… after all, chasms are deep! This one is over $900 million deep.

Whatever people may think about Mrs. Rell, it doesn’t look like she’s one to candy-coat things. From the Republican-American:

“It is grim and it is getting grimmer,” Rell said.

On Jan. 1, State Comptroller Nancy Wyman reported the adopted $18.4 billion budget was running a $343 million deficit.

Wyman will upgrade her official estimate on Feb. 1 based on the latest figures from the governor’s budget office.

Robert L. Genuario, the governor’s budget director, said income tax collections are $665 million below projections.

Rell and the legislature budgeted more than $7.6 billion in income tax revenues this year.

Genuario also reported the revenues from the corporation tax are $100 million below projections and sales and use taxes are off $15 million.

The corporation tax is budgeted to raise $791.5 million this year and the sales and use tax is budgeted to raise $3.7 billion.

“The economic tempest that has already ravaged so much of the nation has now made landfall in Connecticut with all of its fury,” Rell said.

Please watch and pray for all those affected by layoffs, foreclosures, etc.

Connecticut job cuts continue

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Job cuts continue in Connecticut; here are some of the latest:

Big Y has cut about 100 jobs in East Hartford from a store closing. (Journal Inquirer)

Waterbury Hospital will reduce staff by as many as 160. (WTNH)

Some employees were seen packing desks as more weekly newspapers announced they are going out of business. (News-Times)

Of course, Circuit City is going out of business entirely, which will eliminate 34,000 jobs entirely and that will certainly include many here in the Provision State, where there are ten stores – not to mention what it what will do to the real estate market.

And Lower Fairfield County may face another severe blow as GE Capital announces deep cuts of as many as 11,000 positions worldwide:

GE’s international finance operation is based in Norwalk.

GE Capital employs more than 1,200 people at offices on Long Ridge and High Ridge roads in Stamford, and several hundred more in Norwalk, which is also home to its commercial real estate operations. The division, which accounts for about 40 percent of General Electric’s revenues, has its equipment leasing operations in Danbury.

GE said Friday the finance business has informed employees of layoffs, following up on previous statements that it would restructure the battered financial unit.

GE Spokesman Russell Wilkerson said GE Capital is informing workers of the job cuts, though he would not say how many employees will lose their jobs.

I could probably go on a bit but you get the point. Let’s continue to pray for the local economy!

John Paul Jackson’s “Perfect Storm” prophecy

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John Paul Jackson released a word recently about a “perfect storm” of crises coming against our nation. Although not all our readers believe in the present-day ministry of prophecy, I have always had respect for Jackson’s ministry and wanted to pass along this new video in which explains what he believes God has shown him is about to happen. Even those who are committed cessationists sometimes acknowledge that there is a prophesied time of Holy Spirit activity at the end of the age. Fans of Paul Washer’s preaching ministry may recognize the same tone of urgency. There are interesting discussions on natural disasters, the economy, abortion, Islam, etc. So I ask you to view this with prayerful consideration.

A written synopsis of the teaching can be found here.

Praying for peace in the Middle East

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middle_east_geographic-300x268

It’s out of fashion to say it out loud but nonetheless true that there will be no permanent peace in the Middle East (or anywhere else) until we have the actual presence of the Prince of Peace with us. We believe that a king, Messiah Jesus, will reign in righteousness and that this reign will be personal, literal, and physical. (Acts 1:11) Having said this, I want to be quick to say that Christians are called to be at peace with others (Romans 12:18) and to make peace. Christians should imitate God by upholding and working for justice for all people. This being the case, how should we assess the current conflict between Israel and the Palestinians of Gaza?

In Connecticut, we have a blog, which I won’t dignify with a link, which refers to Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni as Israel’s “Blond Bitch of Belsen.” Besides being crude, the moral equation between the Holocaust and Israel’s own right of self-defense is offensive in the extreme.

The Arab-Israeli wars have long been a David-and-Goliath scenario, but the Left has skillfully transformed the public’s perception such that Israel, vastly outmanned and tiny in territory has been transformed into the Goliath. The issues are of course complex, but the simplistic thinking is not to be found among Biblical Christians, as the media would have us believe.

How should we begin to think about Gaza?

First, it would be irrational to separate this conflict from the larger context of the Jihad which is being waged against Israel and other Western nations by Muslim radicals. To say this is not to agree with or support everything that the Bush Administration has done, but it would be foolhardy not to take the statements of the jihadists at face value – something the U. S. has seldom done, at least publicly. Christians must recognize that radical Muslims do not believe their own apocalyptic vision can unfold properly until there is effective war against the Jews. Not enough people understand that Muslims are expecting their own Messiah, called the Mahdi, whom they believe will subjugate the world with the help of none other than Jesus, called Isa by Muslims. Many are now noting that the Muslim “end times” seems to present us with a dark mirror of the biblical apocalypse in which their Messiah seems to fulfill the deeds and functions of the Biblical Antichrist. In any event, there can be little doubt of coordination between Hamas, Hezbollah, Iran and others.

Second, the world’s prejudices are never more on display than when Israel makes a military move. Someone has cleverly pointed out that if Israel were to make a “proportional response,” it would have to fire off 2,000 rockets unannounced into Gaza and rejoice by handing out candies when there were casualties. Only Israel is held to such a standard, which is designed solely to hamstring it, pure and simple. When Jews are killed for being Jews, no one cares.

Third, Christians are no longer in agreement that the land of Israel belongs to Israel by Divine grant. The persistent, malicious name-calling of the Left has ensured that anyone holding such a position is referred to as a “Christian Zionist” and his opinions are therefore to be dismissed out of hand. Yet Christians do well to remember the anger of God against those who divide the land, and would deny Israel even a sliver of the Middle East.

If ever in doubt as to how to pray, Christians should pray for his Kingdom to come, and His Will to be done!

Calls for quarterly prayer meetings in 2009 echo that of Jonathan Edwards

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Jonathan Edwards

Jonathan Edwards

From the Connecticut House of Prayer comes this notice:

The New Hampshire Alliance is a coalition of pastors who covenant to pray together for revival in their state on a regular basis, similar to the Connecticut Pastors’ Alliance Rick McKinniss coordinates. They are part of the New England Alliance. For the past few years they’ve agreed to hold prayer meetings in their churches across the state on the FIFTH FRIDAY OF EVERY MONTH, which would be about every quarter. This is patterned after the quarterly prayer meetings Jonathan Edwards organized in the 1700s that ushered in the first Great Awakening.

The New Hampshire Alliance is now challenging the rest of the New England states to coordinate and hold FIFTH FRIDAY PRAYER MEETINGS. We at the CT House of Prayer have agreed to facilitate this.Would you hold community-wide prayer meetings on the FIFTH FRIDAY of every month throughout 2009? The dates would be as follows:

January 30

May 29

July 31

October 30

We encourage everyone in Connecticut to observe these dates as days of fasting and prayer for our State. This method of quarterly fasting for revival was the same method popularized by Jonathan Edwards in 1747 when he wrote his work, “An Humble Attempt to Promote Explicit Agreement and Visible Union of God’s People in Extraordinary Prayer for the Revival of Religion and the Advancement of Christ’s Kingdom on Earth.“

Danbury takes crown as state’s safest city

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Good news for Danburians – you live in Connecticut’s safest city:

Danbury tops the list of the safest cities in the state, according to a ranking of the safest — and most dangerous — cities in the nation.

The rankings of cities with populations greater than 75,000 were recently released as part of the “City Crime Ratings” book published annually by CQ Press. Danbury came in at No. 55 of all cities in the nation and first in Connecticut.

“Danbury is fortunate to employ some of the best police officers in our area, who show a deep commitment to the safety of our city’s citizens and visitors,” Mayor Mark Boughton said.

“Our city is proud of this ranking, and we will continue focusing our efforts and commitment to our officers and their needs.”

Stamford came in second of Connecticut cities and No. 71 in the nation. Hartford brought up the rear as the most dangerous city in the state; its national rank is 359 of 385.

Police Chief Al Baker said Danbury has consistently done well on the rankings over the years and often fell in one of the top two spots for the state. Stamford, however, has come out ahead of Danbury in past years.

Read more here.  Continue to pray for Hartford and New Haven, which reportedly was not ranked because it does not report certain categories of crime to the FBI.

Connecticut “Moms in Touch” profiled

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A great profile of Moms in Touch International from today’s Courant:

They pray for safe classrooms. They pray that bullies will be caught. They pray for an end to the illnesses that sweep through schools, and the homework tantrums their kids throw.

They even pray for Mastery Test scores.

“We pray for anything and everything that’s affecting our schools,” said Mary Beth Lawrence, a Marlborough resident with five children who has been the state coordinator of Moms In Touch International for the last three years.

The organization, which operates groups in every state and in 120 countries around the world, was founded by a Canadian mother in 1984. In Connecticut, Lawrence said, there are 107 weekly prayer groups covering about 10 percent of the state’s schools.

Read more here, and visit the Moms in Touch site here to find a Connecticut group.

Mr. Lincoln’s Thanksgiving

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Perhaps the most beautiful Thanksgiving Proclamation was that of Lincoln in 1863. How natural it was for men of that day to view and speak of God publicly as a real actor in the life of the nation.

The year that is drawing towards its close, has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added, which are of so extraordinary a nature, that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever watchful providence of Almighty God. In the midst of a civil war of unequaled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign States to invite and to provoke their aggression, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere except in the theatre of military conflict; while that theatre has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union. Needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the national defence, have not arrested the plough, the shuttle or the ship; the axe has enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well of iron and coal as of the precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore. Population has steadily increased, notwithstanding the waste that has been made in the camp, the siege and the battle-field; and the country, rejoicing in the consiousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect continuance of years with large increase of freedom.

No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy. It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and one voice by the whole American People. I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens. And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquillity and Union.

May we always, as Lincoln counseled, gratefully acknowledge our national blessings as the gift of God.

Dutch Sheets and the election

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Popular author and teacher Dutch Sheets is one of the best-known proponents of governmental intercession in the US and, along with others such as Cindy Jacobs and Lou Engle helped popularize and promote spiritual warfare concepts in the 90′s and the beginning of this century. So I was interested to see Sheets’s take on the election of Mr. Obama. Sheets definitely places himself among those who believe it is great for America to have a black President – just not this particular black President. America, he believes, is being seduced and faces judgment – following the error of the Israelites who begged Samuel for a king.  Sheets says:

I have heard the argument that God cares as much about social justice issues (such as poverty and racism) as He does abortion, making a vote for Obama OK. I certainly believe God puts a very high priority on caring for the poor and I, too, have wanted to see equality demonstrated through a “minority” president. But to equate having a better income or the desire for a first black president, regardless of his positions on abortion and morality, to the issue of killing 50 million babies is not justice-it is a gross distortion of justice and great deception. I fear that we have been desensitized to this issue of abortion. I believe it kills babies and takes innocent life. I also believe it is blood sacrifice that empowers demons. Let’s not forget this in our noble attempts to be kind and conciliatory.

For African Americans I can easily see how it could bring healing to have a first black president, just as it would be for Native Americans to achieve this or for women if a woman were elected president. Again, I have wanted to see justice in this way. I am only saddened that the price for this healing ended up being Barak Obama [sic], a man that will set the cause of life and, most-likely, our God-given destiny as a nation back so drastically. (I also realize there are some who interpret any criticism of Obama as racism. Racism is so NOT what I am about nor what I live, that I will not even dignify any such accusations with a response.)

What does Sheets think we can expect as a result?

• More economic woes
• More violence in an already violent nation
• Disease and death (satan, who is responsible for these things will have greater inroads to our nation.)
• Natural disasters (weather-tornadoes, hurricanes, floods, drought; fires; earthquakes; etc.)
• Terrorism (they will fear us much less now)
• War, perhaps on our own soil
• Judgments relating to the Court. The stacking of the Supreme Court against the sanctity of life and God’s influence on America will occur, which will in turn cause the shedding of more innocent blood, more rejection of God’s laws and the stealing from us of our godly heritage-all of which will perpetuate a cycle of even more judgment.

You can read the whole thing here.