Psalm 109 opens with, "for wicked and deceitful men have opened their mouths against me; they have spoken against me with lying tongues. With words of hatred they surround me; they attack me without cause. In return for my friendship they accuse me, but I am a man of prayer. They repay me evil for good, and hatred for my friendship...But you, O Sovereign LORD, deal well with me for Your name's sake; out of the goodness of Your love, deliver me."
This Psalm lets us know that God's love will deliver us from lying words and accusations if we will pray. Psalm 23 assures us the LORD is our Shepherd; we will not be in want, that He restores our soul and guides our paths. Even though we walk through the valley of the shadow of death, we will fear no evil, for He is there to comfort us. God prepares a table before us in the presence of our enemies. He anoints and causes us to overflow with His goodness, love and mercy. God will bring us into the bond of the covenant in the coming days, when He fulfills the gracious promises He has made to us. God will keep us safe as we dwell in His presence. He will hide us from the days of trouble and exalt us over our enemies. We will rejoice for the days of testing, trouble, and trials because they perfect us as fine, pure gold. The favor of the Lord will rest upon His golden vessels and He will establish the works of our hands.Sin, doubt and disobedience keep us from the promise of entering God's rest. When we rest in Christ He will find His resting place in us. It is the Christ in us that gives us power to demonstrate the "greater works" of the Gospel.
I received the following from Joel Rosenberg. The items in parentheses are my comments. (ABC, NBC & CBS news are abject failures when it comes to reporting news. I highly recommend CBN.com to my readers. CBN will give you the truth, not state run propaganda.)
The story in the epicenter is moving quickly. Defense Secretary Bob Gates says there is now no question Iran is pursuing nuclear weapons. (Wow, I am shocked, that is major surprise Secretary Gates.) U.S. military analysts are looking carefully at how Israel might attack Iran, if need be. Iraq's President Jalal Talabani says Israel has not been given permission to use Iraqi airspace for such an attack. Talks between Iran and the Western powers begins on Thursday. I don't expect much from them, except more delays. Much hinges on the thinking of the Iranian regime. What do they want? What drives them? Are they willing to give up their nuclear ambitions, given their religious beliefs?
Since September 2006, I have been urging Western journalists to ask Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on the record about his beliefs in the “Twelfth Imam” and about the implications of his annual prayer at the U.N. asking for Allah to “hasten” the arrival of the Islamic messiah, also known as the “Mahdi.” For years, no American or British journalist has asked such questions, despite the importance Ahmadinejad's eschatology plays in Iranian foreign policy. This year, with a nuclear showdown intensifying, journalists from Time, Newsweek, AP, CNN and NPR all were given lengthy sit-down interviews with the Iranian leader. But for yet another year, none of them asked questions about his religious beliefs. However, after scouring the transcripts of all these and many other Western news reports over the past few days, I found a surprise at the end of the full transcript of NBC's Ann Curry exclusive sit-down interview in Tehran last week. She actually did ask two important questions about the 12th Imam, becoming the first American reporter to do so. But NBC has thus far failed to report the story. (We all know how leftward NBC has tilted in its news reorting so that doesn't surprise anyone really.) Neither NBC Nightly News nor the Today Show included Curry's questions or Ahmadinejad's answers in their respective reports on Thursday night and Friday morning. Nor have NBC publicists highlighted the eschatology questions and answers for other reporters or the public. Did NBC's producers and editors not find the exchange interesting? Why haven't they asked experts to analyze Ahmadinejad's answers, and to explore his religious beliefs more in-depth? I commend Ann Curry for the asking these questions. What's more, I encourage her to follow the story. It's an important one, and she is ahead of the pack on this. I've posted the key excerpts from Curry's interview on the weblog. There's also a link to the full transcript, and a link so you can watch the video online. [Note: On Sunday at 1pm eastern, MSNBC aired the full interview.] On the weblog, I've also posted the full transcripts of Ahmadinejad's speech to the U.N. -- he began the speech by praying for Allah to hasten the coming of the Twelfth Imam.
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