- PPT Members Pray for President. The nation took note that The Presidential Prayer Team took the leadership to pray for the President during his "Ramadan celebration dinner" at the White House Tuesday evening. Charisma magazine reported on how PPT members from around the nation prayed during the time of the dinner. For the full article, please click here.
- Interfaith Service Week. Religious communities across the country are uniting in service projects this week to honor one of President Obama's faith-based initiatives. More than 3,000 interfaith projects have come out of the United We Serve Initiative, an interfaith effort of the White House Office of Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships, this summer. To recognize its accomplishments, President Obama designated Aug. 31-Sept. 6 as Interfaith Service Week during which Christians, Muslims, Jews, Hindus and people of other faiths are working together to overcome religious divides while strengthening local communities.
- Talks Between Israel and Palestinians Resume. Israel and the Palestinians on Wednesday held their first high-level talks since Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu took office in March, pledging to step up economic cooperation despite the absence of peace negotiations. The meeting came as experts said the West Bank economy could be on the brink of improvement at a time when most countries are treading water at best - if Israel eases restrictions. Palestinians said Israel must dismantle its system of roadblocks and checkpoints that are strangling their economy. In their meeting Wednesday, Israeli Vice Prime Minister Silvan Shalom and Palestinian Economics Minister Bassem Khoury shared ideas for improving trade, agreed to hold regular meetings and established lower-level working teams, participants said. Pray for peace in Israel.
- China Authorizes Attacks on House Churches. The Chinese government has reportedly issued a secret directive to crack down on at least several major house churches in Beijing, a U.S.-based group reported Tuesday. According to a religious freedom group, sources inside the country stated that the Chinese public security bureau has ordered the Beijing Huajie Plaza to terminate its rental contract with the Beijing Shouwang house church. The Shouwang house church is one of the largest house churches in the area with more than 1,000 members. For a few years now, it has rented two floors for worship service and Sunday school at the Huajie Plaza. Most of the members are intellects from nearby universities. Pray for our nation to stand by religious freedom for Christians in our foreign policy.
"I have sometimes thought there could not be a stronger testimony in favor of religion or against temporal enjoyments, even the most rational and manly, than for men who occupy the most honorable and gainful departments and [who] are rising in reputation and wealth, publicly to declare the unsatisfactoriness [of temportal enjoyments] by becoming fervent advocates in the cause of Christ; and I wish you may give in your evidence in this way."
Prove yourselves doers of the word, and not merely hearers who delude themselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks at his natural face in a mirror; for once he has looked at himself and gone away, he has immediately forgotten what kind of person he was.
— James 1:22-24 (NIV)
In January 1776, an English immigrant to Philadelphia named Thomas Paine published a series of newspaper essays titled "Com. mon Sense" that captured what many Americans were already thinking: "The king is not to be trusted," Paine warned, and "the authority of Great Britain over this continent, is a form of government, which sooner or later must have an end."
"It has been the error of the schools to teach astronomy, and all the other sciences, and subjects of natural philosophy, as accomplishments only; whereas they should be taught theologically, or with reference to the Being who is the author of them: for all the principles of science are of divine origin. Man cannot make, or invent, or contrive principles: he can only discover them; and he ought to look through the discovery to the Author."
"The evil that has resulted from the error of the schools, in teaching natural philosophy as an accomplishment only, has been that of generating in the pupils a species of atheism. Instead of looking through the works of creation to the Creator himself, they stop short, and employ the knowledge they acquire to create doubts of his existence. They labour with studied ingenuity to ascribe every thing they behold to innate properties of matter, and jump over all the rest by saying, that matter is eternal."
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The President's Schedule Today - Thursday. President Obama will deliver remarks on health insurance reform in the morning today, after receiving the Economic Daily Briefing. He will later meet with members of the Cabinet, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Secretary of the Treasury Geithner. He will also have lunch with Vice President Biden.
In the afternoon, Mr. Obama will meet with the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi in the Oval Office. In the evening, he will welcome the Pittsburgh Penguins to honor them for their 2009 Stanley Cup championship victory.
Here's the full schedule for the President (all times EST):
9:50AM President Obama receives the Economic Daily Briefing
10:15AM President Obama delivers remarks on health insurance reform
10:45AM President Obama meets with his Cabinet
12:30PM President Obama meets with Vice President Biden for lunch
1:45PM President Obama meets with the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi
2:45PM President Obama meets with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton
3:30PM President Obama meets with Secretary of the Treasury Tim Geithner
6:00PM President Obama welcomes the Pittsburgh Penguins to the White House
7:30PM President Obama chairs meeting with the Homeland Security Council on H1N1 preparations
Pray Live Tomorrow on 9/11. We ask for prayer for all of our major initiatives coming up tomorrow, September 11. We will be hosting our "Never Forget to Pray" event that will include live prayer rooms and comprehensive access to archives to honor those who died in the 9/11 terrorist attacks. We will also be announcing the kick-off of our American Heroes campaign where we will be asking the PPT membership to reach out and support at least 20,000 soldiers with prayer resources.
Presidential Prayer Team Launches New Website. Our team has been working on the design and development of a new website that will provide new resources and access to prayer tools to our members. You will find 24 hour prayer rooms so that we can host online prayer for our nation, our President, our leaders and our troops around the clock. New navigation will make everything conveniently accessible. Our mission is to pray, and to provide tools to encourage and inspire prayer, which will transform our nation by transforming one heart at a time. Please pray for our team as we finalize the details and launch this new tool tomorrow.
Unrest in the Middle East. With a deadline to cooperate or face tougher sanctions fast approaching, Iran has presented a new "proposal" relating to its nuclear program to a group of leading governments. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad sounded a defiant tone on Monday, saying the matter was closed. Two days later, however, the foreign minister distributed the proposal. The five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council - the United States, Russia, China, France and Britain - plus Germany (P5+1) are considering new sanctions if Iran does not respond by late this month to an offer, presented last April, to return to talks on its suspect nuclear activities. Pray for our foreign policy officials to navigate this sensitive situation for the peace of Israel and the Middle East.
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The Presidential Prayer Team will be launching a new campaign next week to support our troops in the field with Bibles and Prayer Journals. Watch for a special message from Colonel Oliver North soon launching this new prayer resource for soldiers that are protecting our freedoms.
PLAN NOW TO JOIN US ON 9/11
- Next Week!
The Presidential Prayer Team is planning a day of prayer and remembrance for our nation on September 11. We will be announcing new prayer opportunities and initiatives to support our collective efforts. Make plans today to join our special prayer events on September 11 at www.PresidentialPrayerTeam.org.
Our September prayer calendar is ready for you to download now. Let it encourage you to pray for an increase of Christian, godly influences in our rapidly secularized culture. Download HERE.
A Prayer for America from Stormie Omartian
“Lord, I pray that You will instill in every American the desire to be in unity with other Americans. May there be mutual respect, friendship and brotherly love among the people of this great land. Help us each to do our part to bring peace on earth. Give us a national conscience to clearly distinguish right from wrong with regard to how we treat one another and work in us a willingness to choose the right way. You have made America a large diverse family of many beautiful colors and a tapestry of cultures. I pray that in the family of our nation there will also arise appreciation and respect for the uniqueness of each individual. Help us to be unified with our leaders. Keep our leaders in a place of unity among themselves, and I pray that disunity will never be allowed to tear our country apart. Amen.”
— Stormie Omartian, author and PPT Honorary Committee member
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