Today's verse

Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.

James 1:27 (KJV)

Today's verse

And he went out from thence, and came into his own country; and his disciples follow him. And when the sabbath day was come, he began to teach in the synagogue: and many hearing him were astonished, saying, From whence hath this man these things? and what wisdom is this which is given unto him, that even such mighty works are wrought by his hands? Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary, the brother of James, and Joses, and of Juda, and Simon? and are not his sisters here with us? And they were offended at him. But Jesus, said unto them, A prophet is not without honour, but in his own country, and among his own kin, and in his own house. And he could there do no mighty work, save that he laid his hands upon a few sick folk, and healed them. And he marvelled because of their unbelief. And he went round about the villages, teaching.

Mark 6:1-6 (KJV)

Today's verse

For this commandment which I command thee this day, it is not hidden from thee, neither is it far off. It is not in heaven, that thou shouldest say, Who shall go up for us to heaven, and bring it unto us, that we may hear it, and do it? Neither is it beyond the sea, that thou shouldest say, Who shall go over the sea for us, and bring it unto us, that we may hear it, and do it? But the word is very nigh unto thee, in thy mouth, and in thy heart, that thou mayest do it. See, I have set before thee this day life and good, and death and evil; in that I command thee this day to love the Lord thy God, to walk in his ways, and to keep his commandments and his statutes and his judgments, that thou mayest live and multiply: and the Lord thy God shall bless thee in the land whither thou goest to possess it. But if thine heart turn away, so that thou wilt not hear, but shalt be drawn away, and worship other gods, and serve them; I denounce unto you this day, that ye shall surely perish, and that ye shall not prolong your days upon the land, whither thou passest over Jordan to go to possess it. I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live: that thou mayest love the Lord thy God, and that thou mayest obey his voice, and that thou mayest cleave unto him: for he is thy life, and the length of thy days: that thou mayest dwell in the land which the Lord sware unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them.

Deuteronomy 30:11-20 (KJV)

Today's verse

But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.

Matthew 6:33 (KJV)

Today's verse

When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.

1 Corinthians 13:11 (KJV)

Interview with Mariam Yahia Ibrahim Ishag

Over at Mission Netrwork News Julie Oosterhouse has an article about Mariam Yahia Ibrahim Ishag, who was released by Sudanese authorities this past summer after she and her two children (one of them a newborn infant) were held in prison. Mariam was sentenced to death for the crime of being Christian.

Here is the interview on Fox News:

Give thanks to God for Mariam's release, and please pray for our oppressed Christian brothers and sisters worldwide.

Update on Asia Bibi

At Mission Network News, Ruth Kramer has an article about the plight of Christians in Pakistan.

Read Asia Bibi's own words.

The online petition calling for mercy for Asia Bibi can still be found here.

For those who do not know who she is, here is the story about Asia Bibi's unjust imprisonment and death sentence for "blasphemy" against the Prophet Muhammad.

Please pray for Asia Bibi and her family. Also, please pray for those who are risking their lives to free her.

Today's verse

The Lord is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer; my God, my strength, in whom I will trust; my buckler, and the horn of my salvation, and my high tower.

Psalm 18:2 (KJV)

Today's verse

Cast not away therefore your confidence, which hath great recompence of reward. For ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise.

Hebrews 10:35-36 (KJV)

Today's verse

In God we boast all the day long, and praise thy name for ever. Selah.

Psalm 44:8 (KJV)

Today's verse

For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith.

Romans 12:3 (KJV)

Today's verse

For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect. For then would they not have ceased to be offered? because that the worshippers once purged should have had no more conscience of sins.

Hebrews 10:1-2 (KJV)

Today's verse

Behold, the days come, saith the Lord God, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord: and they shall wander from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east, they shall run to and fro to seek the word of the Lord, and shall not find it.

Amos 8:11-12 (KJV)

Today's verse

Bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ.

Galatians 6:2 (KJV)

Today's verse

Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves. Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others.

Philippians 2:3-4 (KJV)

Today's verse

The Lord trieth the righteous: but the wicked and him that loveth violence his soul hateth.

Psalm 11:5 (KJV)

Today's verse

For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away: but the word of the Lord endureth for ever. And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you.

1 Peter 1:24-25 (KJV)

Today's verse

And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him.

1 John 4:16 (KJV)

Today's verse

Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness; but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

1 Corinthians 5:8 (KJV)

Today's verse

Therefore thou shalt love the Lord thy God, and keep his charge, and his statutes, and his judgments, and his commandments, alway.

Deuteronomy 11:1 (KJV)

Update on Asia Bibi

Asia Bibi's appeal set for October 16.

Read Asia Bibi's own words.

The online petition calling for mercy for Asia Bibi can still be found here.

For those who do not know who she is, here is the story about Asia Bibi's unjust imprisonment and death sentence for "blasphemy" against the Prophet Muhammad.

Please pray for Asia Bibi and her family. Also, please pray for those who are risking their lives to free her.

Today's verse

Hearken, my beloved brethren, Hath not God chosen the poor of this world rich in faith, and heirs of the kingdom which he hath promised to them that love him?

James 2:5 (KJV)

Today's verse

I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help. My help cometh from the Lord, which made heaven and earth.

Psalms 121:1-2 (KJV)

Reading list

God's Undertaker, by John C. Lennox.

Today's verse

Plead my cause, O Lord, with them that strive with me: fight against them that fight against me.

Psalm 35:1 (KJV)

Today's verse

Let thy mercies come also unto me, O Lord, even thy salvation, according to thy word.

Psalm 119:41 (KJV)

Today's verse

What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's.

1 Corinthians 6:19-20 (KJV)

Prayers for Mandy Nagy

Mandy Nagy, who writes for Legal Insurrection, has suffered a stroke.

Please pray for Mandy and her family.

Today's verse

Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ: by whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.

Romans 5:1-2 (KJV)

Today's verse

He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.

John 3:36 (KJV)

Father Hugo?!

A version of the Lord's Prayer - except it is for Hugo Chávez.

“Our Chávez who art in heaven, the earth, the sea and in us delegates,” red-shirted delegate [Venezuela Socialist Party] María Estrella Uribe read in front of a vast image of the former president.

“Lead us not into the temptation of capitalism, deliver us from the evil of the oligarchy, like the crime of contraband, because ours is the homeland, the peace and life – forever and ever. Amen. Viva Chávez!” she exclaimed to applause.

The comments in the above link are worth reading, since some lamely try to pass it off as satire (perhaps they also think Mein Kampf was a harmless laff riot). Unfortunately, it is far more likely that Ms. Uribe was being deadly serious. Socialists are not exactly what you would call deep thinkers, but this group in Venezuela seems to be more than a few French Fries short of a Happy Meal.

At any rate, I suspect that Ms. Uribe will be disappointed to learn that Chávez is not currently brushing wings with the archangels in Heaven, but has had to settle for, er, sweltering eternal accommodations. Curse those filthy capitalist pigs!

Today's verse

I will open rivers in high places, and fountains in the midst of the valleys: I will make the wilderness a pool of water, and the dry land springs of water.

Isaiah 41:18 (KJV)

Today's verse

Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. But his delight is in the law of the Lord; and in his law doth he meditate day and night.

Psalm 1:1-2 (KJV)

Today's verse

If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do?

Psalm 11:3 (KJV)

Today's verse

God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds; who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high: being made so much better than the angels, as he hath by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they.

Hebrews 1:1-4 (KJV)