Happy Saturday

Continue in Prayer

"And there was Anna, a prophetess . . . which departed not from the temple, but served God with fastings and prayers night and day" (Luke 2:36, 37).

No doubt by praying we learn to pray, and the more we pray the oftener we can pray, and the better we can pray. He who prays in fits and starts is never likely to attain to that effectual, fervent prayer which availeth much.

Great power in prayer is within our reach, but we must go to work to obtain it. Let us never imagine that Abraham could have interceded so successfully for Sodom if he had not been all his lifetime in the practice of communion with God.

Jacob's all-night at Peniel was not the first occasion upon which he had met his God. We may even look upon our Lord's most choice and wonderful prayer with his disciples before His Passion as the flower and fruit of His many nights of devotion, and of His often rising up a great while before day to pray.

If a man dreams that he can become mighty in prayer just as he pleases, he labors under a great mistake. The prayer of Elias which shut up heaven and afterwards opened its floodgates, was one of long series of mighty prevailings with God. Oh, that Christian men would remember this! Perseverance in prayer is necessary to prevalence in prayer.

Those great intercessors, who are not so often mentioned as they ought to be in connection with confessors and martyrs, were nevertheless the grandest benefactors of the Church; but it was only by abiding at the mercy-seat that they attained to be such channels of mercy to men. We must pray to pray, and continue in prayer that our prayers may continue. --G. H.. Spurgeon

Daily Smile: 
A husband and wife were at a party chatting with some friends when the subject of marriage counseling came up. "Oh! We’ll never need that. My husband and I have a great relationship," the wife explained. "He was a communications major in college, and I majored in theater arts.

He communicates really well, and I just act like I'm listening."

In The News:
Military to Begin Women Combat Training by 2015

The U.S. military is making plans to integrate women into combat roles, including special operations, CBN News reports. Under the new rules, women could start training as Army Rangers by mid-2015 and Navy SEALs a year later. Women and men would be required to meet the same physical and mental standards to qualify for certain infantry, armor, commando and other front-line positions. The Navy intends to open up its Riverine force and begin training women in July. Women make up about 14 percent of the 1.4 million active U.S. military personnel; more than 280,000 women have been sent to the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan or neighboring nations.

Syria: Conditions for Christians in Aleppo Continue to Deteriorate

After the opposition fighters in Syria in the beginning of June lost their stronghold in the city of Al Qusayr, many in Aleppo fear that this biggest city of Syria will be the next battlefield, World Watch Monitor reports. "Aleppo is under siege by gangs and fanatic rebels," an Open Doors USA contact says. Churches partnering with Open Doors continue to help the neediest people in the city, but face challenges in supplying the internally displaced people and the needy families of their congregations with food. Samir, a volunteer in a church in Aleppo, explains: "There are times that the opposition fighters are not allowing food or vegetables to enter the parts of the city where the government forces are ruling. They only let food pass when taxes are paid. This means an extreme rise of the prices of food and the daily needs of the people." Open Doors contact Samuel adds: "The situation doesn’t improve. People talk a lot about the war and expect more war is coming." He says that Christians "are not in a good mood. We pray for a solution, but it seems it is going to be very bad. People are afraid. Especially now the head of church isn’t here; there is still no news about our kidnapped bishop. People want to leave, but there is no way out. People are afraid of being kidnapped when they think of leaving the city by car or bus."

Pew Report: U.S. Media Heavily Support Gay Marriage View

A new report by the Pew Research Center found that U.S. media largely focused on publishing stories with more supportive views of same-sex marriage than the opposing position between the period of March 18 to May 12, according to the Christian Post. "The findings show how same-sex marriage supporters have had a clear message and succeeded in getting that message across all sectors of mainstream media," Pew summarized. As many as 47 percent of the 500 stories examined from March -- which was a week prior to the Supreme Court hearings on the issue -- had more supportive statements on same-sex marriage than opposing views by at least a 2-to-1 margin. Another 44 percent had roughly an equal mix of both viewpoints, while only 9 percent focused more on statements supporting traditional marriage. In total, news stories with more statements in support of gay marriage exceeded those supporting traditional marriage by a margin close to 5-to-1. Pew identified that most arguments in favor of same-sex marriage tried to paint it as a civil rights issue, while those opposing a change in the definition of marriage noted that it could lead to negative consequences for society. The Huffington Post was identified as one of the news sites that featured a large number of gay-marriage-supporting stories, with 62 percent of its 365 stories filled with statements of support for same-sex marriage, which Pew says is close to the level of support reported on LGBT sites. Social networking outlets like Twitter, on the other hand, displayed a more fair public debate on the issue. Twitter postings on gay marriage were almost evenly split between support and opposition, which Pew says is more closely reflective of public opinion than what the news media suggests.

Marriage Keeps Kids Out of Poverty
In 1965, the U.S. Department of Labor produced a report arguing that "the decline of the black nuclear family would significantly impede blacks' progress toward economic and social equality." The document, known as the Moynihan Report, stirred heated controversy. This year, The Urban Institute revisited the subject, WORLD reports. The new study again focused on the African-American community and its disproportionately high poverty rate, and once again, it found that increasing single-parent households lead to poverty -- but now the percentage of black children born to unmarried mothers is three times higher than it was in the 1960s. The share of white children living without fathers has also increased, but rates remain significantly higher among blacks. In 2009, nearly three-quarters of African-American children were born outside of marriage, resulting in 40 percent of black children living below the poverty line. Regardless of race, single-parent families are far more likely to live in poverty, with four of every 10 single-mother families in poverty, and only one of 12 two-parent homes in poverty. Another study by the Heritage Foundation found that most poor children are from single-parent families. The new Urban Institute study gives a sobering perspective: "Over the past five decades, the statistics that so alarmed Moynihan in the 1960s have only grown worse, not only for blacks, but for whites and Hispanics as well." Things are bad, but they don’t have to stay that way: marriage, which is available to everyone, drops the probability of child poverty by 82 percent.