URGENT: Please pray that the Lord spares the life of Iranian Pastor Youcef Nadarkhani. He’s “the head of a network of Christian house churches in Iran” and “could be executed as soon as midnight Wednesday in Tehran for refusing to recant his religious beliefs and convert to Islam,” according to media reports. Please pray the Lord uses him to encourage Iranian believers and Muslim Background Believers (MBBs) in the Islamic world to stand strong for Jesus Christ. Pray, too, that the gospel message would spread throughout Iran and the epicenter as a result of the international pressure for Pastor Nadarkhani’s release and that many would be saved.
IRANIAN THREAT GROWS: New headline: “Iranian naval vessels to be deployed near U.S. sea borders.”
AMERICAN-BORN AL QAEDA TERRORIST KILLED — “Anwar al-Aulaqi, a radical U.S.-born Muslim cleric and one of the most influential al-Qaeda leaders wanted by the United States, was killed Friday in a U.S. drone strike in northern Yemen, Yemeni and American authorities said, eliminating a prominent terrorist recruiter who inspired attacks on U.S. soil,” reports the Washington Post. “The strike also killed a second U.S. citizen — Samir Khan, the co-editor of an al-Qaeda magazine — and two other unidentified al-Qaeda operatives, the Yemeni government said. In Washington, senior Obama administration officials confirmed that Aulaqi, 40, a dual national of the United States and Yemen, was killed in a drone strike on his convoy.”
JEWISH NEW YEAR: Shana Tova! Jews around the world just celebrated Rosh Hashana — New Year’s — this week. It’s going to be a very challenging year ahead for Jews in Israel and elsewhere as a storm is gathering in the epicenter. Please pray for the peace of Jerusalem. Please pray for the Lord to bless the Jewish people in Israel and all over the world in every possible way — and especially that He would draw more and more Jewish people to His heart and reveal Yeshua the Messiah to them. “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.” (Romans 1:16)