Sons of Issachar Newsletter: May 13, 2026
"The LORD brings the counsel of the nations to nothing; he frustrates the plans of the peoples. The counsel of the LORD stands forever, the plans of his heart to all generations." Psalm 33:10-11, ESV
The past week has been a week of devices and counsels falling short. The Iran ceasefire is now described by the President himself as "on life support", but since the nation has already been defeated and completely obliterated that may not mean much. Israeli intelligence reports Hamas rearming inside Gaza while the Board of Peace envoy insists disarmament is non-negotiable. Israeli strikes killed twelve in Lebanon on the very day talks were scheduled to resume. The Knesset is moving toward dissolution. The President flew to Beijing to ask Xi Jinping for help on a strait the U.S. cannot reopen alone. At home, surveillance authorities were quietly extended, a major health system handed sensitive patient data to private contractors, and a senator pledged support for legislation that would tighten state oversight of childhood online life. Through all of it, the heavens preached with solar flares, the earth shook beneath California and Tehran, and the church should keep its lamps trimmed and filled with oil. We do not set dates. We watch, we pray, we work, and we wait.
Reuters: Trump says Iran ceasefire on 'life support' after rejecting Tehran's response (May 11, 2026) Reuters: Israel steps up attacks on Gaza since Iran truce, as military says Hamas rearming (May 13, 2026) AP: Trump arrives in Beijing for high-stakes summit with Xi Jinping (May 13, 2026)
1. Iran ceasefire on life support, Hormuz still contested
The fragile April 8 ceasefire between the United States and Iran entered this week under severe strain. President Trump rejected Tehran's latest proposal and described the truce as being "on life support." Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told a congressional hearing the administration has plans to "escalate, if necessary." A New York Times report this week, drawing on U.S. intelligence assessments, found that Iran retains roughly seventy percent of its prewar missile stockpile and has operational access to thirty of its thirty-three missile sites along the Strait of Hormuz, undercutting months of public assurances about the success of the February strikes. Acting Pentagon comptroller Jules Hurst told appropriators the cost of the Iran war has now risen to twenty-nine billion dollars, up from twenty-five billion a month earlier.
On the water, the contest continued. A Chinese supertanker carrying roughly two million barrels of Iraqi crude moved through the strait on May 13 after weeks of delay. The shipping data company Kpler reported earlier this month that Iran has now created a government agency to vet and tax vessels seeking passage, an effort to convert wartime closure into peacetime control. Reuters reported on May 12 that Saudi Arabia launched covert strikes against Iran in late March as the regional war widened, a disclosure that reframes how broad the conflict has actually been beneath the public front lines. Inside Iran, human rights lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh was released on bail on May 13, and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Narges Mohammadi was moved to a Tehran hospital on May 10 after a heart attack, her sentence suspended on heavy bail.
The Lord is not blind to chokepoints, missile counts, or hospital transfers. He sees the Iranian believer, the displaced Gulf laborer, the Saudi pilot, and the American sailor. Twenty-nine billion dollars buys a great deal of bombs, but it cannot buy one repentant heart. The believer's confidence does not rise or fall with shipping lane traffic or congressional testimony. It rests on The King whose throne is not on Air Force One and whose word is not pending Senate review.
"No wisdom, no understanding, no counsel can avail against the LORD. The horse is made ready for the day of battle, but the victory belongs to the LORD." Proverbs 21:30-31, ESV
"Behold, the nations are like a drop from a bucket, and are accounted as the dust on the scales; behold, he takes up the coastlands like fine dust. All the nations are as nothing before him, they are accounted by him as less than nothing and emptiness." Isaiah 40:15, 17, ESV
Sources: Reuters: Trump says Iran ceasefire on 'life support' (May 11, 2026) New York Times: Iran retains operational access to 30 of 33 missile sites, U.S. intelligence finds (May 12, 2026) NPR: U.S. intercepts Iranian attacks on three Navy ships in Strait of Hormuz (May 7, 2026) Reuters: Saudi Arabia launched covert attacks on Iran as regional war widened (May 12, 2026) Jerusalem Post: Chinese supertanker breaks through U.S.-Iran war blockade in Hormuz (May 13, 2026) Reuters: Iran frees prominent rights lawyer Sotoudeh on bail (May 13, 2026)
2. The president flies to Beijing
President Trump arrived in Beijing on May 13 for his first state visit to China since 2017. The trip had been rescheduled from March because of the Iran war. He was accompanied by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, and a delegation of corporate executives including Tim Cook of Apple, Elon Musk of Tesla, and Jensen Huang of Nvidia. The bilateral meeting with Xi Jinping is scheduled for Thursday, followed by a banquet and a visit to the Temple of Heaven, where Chinese emperors once prayed for harvests.
The agenda is unusually heavy. Iran will sit at the table whether the President wishes it or not. China is the largest buyer of Iranian oil, purchasing more than eighty percent of Tehran's shipped crude exports, and Iran's foreign minister Abbas Araghchi visited Beijing last week. Taiwan will also be present, with an eleven billion dollar U.S. weapons package on the table and Beijing predictably displeased. Artificial intelligence, tariffs, rare earth minerals, and a possible nuclear arms framework round out the discussion. Trump told reporters before departing that trade would remain the central focus and that Iran was "very much under control," even as analysts noted that Xi enters the meeting from what one think tank scholar described as "a much stronger place."
There is something fitting about a president and a premier meeting in a temple where emperors once asked the heavens for bread. The nations still bow somewhere. The question is whether the bowing is honest and whether it is offered to the One who actually feeds the world. The church should pray for these talks soberly. A deal that lowers oil prices is not the gospel. A failed summit is not the final battle. Either outcome leaves men still hungry for what only Christ provides.
"Blessed be the name of God forever and ever, to whom belong wisdom and might. He changes times and seasons; he removes kings and sets up kings; he gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to those who have understanding." Daniel 2:20-21, ESV
"Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD and against his Anointed. He who sits in the heavens laughs; the Lord holds them in derision." Psalm 2:1-2, 4, ESV
Sources: AP: Trump arrives in Beijing for talks with Xi on Iran, trade and Taiwan (May 13, 2026) CNN: Trump arrives in China for summit with Xi Jinping (May 13, 2026) Al Jazeera: Trump and Xi to meet in Beijing as Iran war dominates summit agenda (May 13, 2026) PBS NewsHour: Trump and Xi hold meeting as China state visit begins (May 13, 2026)
3. Gaza: a ceasefire held together by armed lines
Gaza remains the open wound the world keeps trying to bandage. A May 13 Reuters report describes Israel stepping up attacks in Gaza in the weeks following the Iran truce, even as Israeli defense officials warn that Hamas is rearming. A highly classified document reportedly reaching Israeli leadership last week indicates Hamas is adding dozens of fighters to each of its battalions, manufacturing hundreds of mortar shells, improvised explosive devices, and anti-tank missiles each month, conducting training exercises, and performing maintenance on its tunnel network. The document warns that Hamas's rehabilitation could over time produce a "significant leap" in its military capabilities.
The diplomatic side is no less strained. Board of Peace envoy Nickolay Mladenov returned to Jerusalem on May 13 and met with Prime Minister Netanyahu, reaffirming both sides' commitment to the twenty-point postwar framework. Mladenov has said publicly that the truce hinges on Hamas disarmament, an issue the Board described as non-negotiable. Hamas has so far refused, submitting a counteroffer that conditions any discussion of weapons on a fuller political settlement. The Jerusalem Post reported this week that Hamas is also blocking Board-approved rebuilding work in Rafah, placing reconstruction itself inside the contest over governance, and that the IDF Southern Command has prepared a plan for a return to active fighting depending on how the Iran ceasefire and the Gaza process resolve.
A ceasefire is not peace. Peace is righteousness, truth, restraint, and the fear of the Lord. Where those are absent, a ceasefire is simply the pause between weapons reloading. We pray for the families on both sides of every line, for the children who have known nothing but war, and for the believers in the region who must love their enemies under fire.
"Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God." Matthew 5:9, ESV
"Pray for the peace of Jerusalem! 'May they be secure who love you! Peace be within your walls and security within your towers!'" Psalm 122:6-7, ESV
Sources: Reuters: Israel steps up attacks on Gaza since Iran truce, as military says Hamas rearming (May 13, 2026) AP: Board of Peace envoy Mladenov says ceasefire hinges on Hamas disarmament (May 13, 2026) Jerusalem Post: IDF preparing plan to return to Gaza fighting (May 13, 2026) Jerusalem Post: Hamas preventing Gazan contractors from rebuilding Rafah (May 13, 2026) Times of Israel: Hamas commander killed in Nahal Oz strike (May 13, 2026)
4. Lebanon strikes, a demolished monastery, and the persecuted church
On May 13, the day U.S.-mediated talks between Israel and Lebanon were set to resume in Washington, Israeli strikes killed twelve people in Lebanon, including two children. A separate drone strike near the town of Jiyeh, south of Beirut, targeted a vehicle the same day. The strikes followed weeks of low-level cross-border activity even as both governments publicly affirmed their interest in continuing diplomatic talks. International Christian Concern reported on May 8 that the Israeli military demolished a Catholic monastery and a nuns' school in a southern Lebanese border village last week, according to Lebanon's National News Agency.
The wider picture of persecution did not pause for the news cycle. In Pakistan, Shabbir Masih, a thirty-three-year-old Christian sanitation worker, died on May 7 after his supervisors forced him into a sewer where he inhaled toxic gases, the latest in a long pattern of dangerous work imposed on Christian sanitation workers in that country. On April 29, four Christians were fined in Kazan, Russia, for "illegal missionary work," each ordered to pay fifteen thousand rubles. In eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, the Allied Democratic Forces resumed attacks on May 5, striking the villages of Katerrain and Mangambo where Christians had recently resettled after earlier displacement. The Open Doors World Watch List released earlier this year recorded three hundred eighty-eight million Christians facing high persecution worldwide, an increase of eight million over the prior reporting period.
The church in Lebanon, Pakistan, Russia, and Congo is not a footnote. It is part of the same body to which we belong. When a monastery is leveled or a sanitation worker is sent to his death, the same Spirit grieves who grieves with us. We are commanded to remember those in prison as if we were in prison with them. That remembering is not sentimental. It includes prayer, advocacy, financial support where possible, and a refusal to let our comfortable distance dull our love.
"Remember those who are in prison, as though in prison with them, and those who are mistreated, since you also are in the body." Hebrews 13:3, ESV
"I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the witness they had borne. They cried out with a loud voice, 'O Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before you will judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?'" Revelation 6:9-10, ESV
Sources: Reuters: Israeli strikes kill 12 in Lebanon ahead of U.S.-mediated talks (May 13, 2026) Times of Israel: Israeli drone strike targets vehicle on highway near Jiyeh, south of Beirut (May 13, 2026) International Christian Concern: Israeli military demolishes Catholic monastery and nuns' school in southern Lebanon (May 8, 2026) International Christian Concern: Christian sanitation worker dies in Pakistan after forced toxic exposure (May 11, 2026) International Christian Concern: Russian court fines four Christians for missionary work (May 8, 2026) Open Doors: World Watch List 2026
5. Israel's coalition is collapsing toward early elections
While the cameras pointed at Gaza and Lebanon, the Israeli government itself moved toward collapse. United Torah Judaism's Degel HaTorah faction, led by Rabbi Dov Lando, called on May 12 for the rapid dissolution of the Knesset over the coalition's failure to pass a bill exempting yeshiva students from military service. Lando met with the faction's MKs at his home in Bnei Brak before issuing the call. Opposition Leader Yair Lapid, addressing the first joint rally of his Yesh Atid faction and former prime minister Naftali Bennett's "Together" party in Tel Aviv, announced that his faction will bring a motion to dissolve the Knesset next week. Coalition lawmakers were reported on May 13 to be preparing their own bill to dissolve the body and trigger elections.
The fight is not really about yeshiva students. It is about who governs Israel in the aftermath of the longest war in the country's modern history, who answers for October 7, who sets the terms of any post-Gaza order, and what role the religious parties will play. Former hostage Rom Braslavski stood at a Knesset press conference on May 11 and called on every member, "from the extreme left to the extreme right," to resign, telling them "the blood of everyone murdered on October 7 is on your hands."
The believer who reads these headlines without grief has missed something. A nation can survive lost battles, but it cannot survive lost truth. We are not called to romanticize any modern government, including Israel's, nor to despise her. We are called to pray for the salvation of Israel and for righteous leaders in every nation, knowing that the King who matters most was already crowned at Calvary.
"Brothers, my heart's desire and prayer to God for them is that they may be saved. For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge." Romans 10:1-2, ESV
"When the righteous increase, the people rejoice, but when the wicked rule, the people groan." Proverbs 29:2, ESV
6. America's restless public square
The United States did not escape its share of unrest. On May 7, a man pleaded guilty in federal court to assaulting Representative Ilhan Omar at a January town hall, having admitted he sprayed her with apple cider vinegar from a syringe because he disagreed with her political views. She was not injured, but the case stands as another example of disagreement translated into physical action. In Tennessee, demonstrators interrupted a redistricting debate inside the state Capitol on May 7, and on May 12 the Republican speaker stripped Democratic lawmakers of their committee assignments over their role in the disruption. The redistricting fight centers on a new congressional map redrawing a Black-majority district near Memphis.
A separate concern surfaced from inside the Federal Communications Commission. The only Democratic commissioner alleged on May 11 that the administration is conducting a broad regulatory campaign against Disney and ABC, citing an early license review and other actions. Because that claim is one commissioner's allegation rather than a confirmed program, it belongs in the watch column rather than the conclusion column. But the combination of speech, licensing, political retaliation, and media power is a familiar pattern, and the church should pay attention. With that said, the amount of vile and perverted content on those and other networks probably should have resulted in reviews, fines, and other action long ago. The issue is selective enforcement of laws and regulation isn’t justice.
The Apostle Paul wrote that we ought to pray for kings and all in authority, that we may lead peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and dignity. He wrote that under Nero, an emperor who persecuted christians mercilessly. The instruction was not partisan, and neither were the rulers honorable. Our calling is to speak truth without becoming full of rage, to honor lawful authority without sanctifying it, and to remember that no nation, including ours, is the kingdom of God.
"First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way." 1 Timothy 2:1-2, ESV
"He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?" Micah 6:8, ESV
7. Surveillance and identity infrastructure keep expanding, and the spy agencies want AI
May 7 marked the one-year anniversary of full REAL ID enforcement at TSA checkpoints. As of February 1 of this year, travelers without a compliant ID who still wish to fly are referred to TSA's Confirm.ID system, where they pay a forty-five dollar non-refundable fee and submit biographic and biometric information for verification. Successful verification grants a ten-day clearance, not permanent compliance. Twenty-five states have now enacted age verification laws targeting various categories of online content, and the Department of Homeland Security continues to push toward expanded use of digital identity at federal checkpoints.
Two other pieces of the architecture moved this week. Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which permits warrantless collection of communications data involving U.S. persons under certain conditions, received a forty-five day extension at the end of April after Congress failed to reach agreement on broader reform. Twelve House Republicans had crossed party lines to oppose the speaker's proposal because it lacked limits on so-called backdoor searches. In London, the Financial Times reported on May 11 that Britain's National Health Service is preparing to grant contractors, including Palantir-linked workers, what was described as unlimited access to identifiable patient data while building a national data platform. Health records are among the most sensitive data a person carries, and when those records pass through private contractors, citizens are asked to trust every administrator, vendor, and future breach response. Meta employees in the United States launched a protest on May 12 against mouse-tracking software the company says is used to train AI agents on real human computer use. Workers viewed the program as both surveillance and as training data for systems that may eventually replace them.
The Washington Post reported on May 11 that the Trump administration is sharply split over a plan to give U.S. intelligence agencies more authority over artificial intelligence regulation. Former White House AI czar David Sacks remains active in those discussions even after leaving the post. National security officials are pushing for greater control of frontier AI models as cybersecurity threats from advanced systems multiply, while commerce-side officials prefer a lighter touch. Foreign Policy argued the same week that international AI governance has stalled in part because nations cannot agree on what AI even is. Meanwhile, the Senate Banking Committee unveiled text for the Clarity Act, a long-awaited crypto regulation bill that would treat digital commodity exchanges, brokers, and dealers as financial institutions under the Bank Secrecy Act, applying anti-money-laundering, customer identification, and due diligence rules across much of the crypto sector.
No single piece of this is the mark of the beast. Identity verification, communications surveillance, health data integration, workplace monitoring, AI regulation, and financial compliance are each pursued in the name of safety, efficiency, or security. The accumulated effect, however, is an infrastructure in which participation in ordinary life increasingly requires identification, and identification increasingly requires compliance. The church does not flee into the woods over this, but neither does the church pretend it is not happening. We keep physical copies of the Word of God. We disciple our children with our voices and our prayers. We remember that the believer's true citizenship is not registered at the Department of Homeland Security.
"Also it causes all, both small and great, both rich and poor, both free and slave, to be marked on the right hand or the forehead, so that no one can buy or sell unless he has the mark, that is, the name of the beast or the number of its name." Revelation 13:16-17, ESV
"But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body." Philippians 3:20-21, ESV
"O LORD, you have searched me and known me! You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from afar. Where shall I go from your Spirit? Or where shall I flee from your presence?" Psalm 139:1-2, 7, ESV
Sources: TSA: REAL ID enforcement and Confirm.ID program ABC News: What to know about REAL ID requirements as new TSA fee goes into effect Biometric Update: U.S. bill would require warrants for digital surveillance, biometric searches Reuters: Britain's NHS to grant Palantir contractors unlimited access to patient data, FT reports (May 11, 2026) Reuters: Meta employees launch protest against mouse-tracking tech at U.S. offices (May 12, 2026) Washington Post: In Trump administration battle over AI, U.S. spy agencies seek more power (May 11, 2026) Foreign Policy: Governments can't agree on what AI actually is (May 11, 2026) Reuters: Explainer: What is in the U.S. Senate's landmark crypto bill (May 12, 2026)
8. Children, age gates, and platform controls
The push to regulate online life for minors gained another step this week. On May 12, Senator Ted Cruz pledged his support for the Kids Online Safety Act, which would require platforms to exercise what the bill calls reasonable care in designing features that contribute to harms to minors, including depression, eating disorders, and sexual harassment. The bill has been reintroduced in Congress multiple times and has provoked sustained debate over whether its duty-of-care language would in practice push platforms toward universal age verification systems. Internationally, the same trend continues. Australia is moving forward with rules that will block under-sixteen users from major platforms. The European Union announced on May 12 that it is targeting addictive design features used by TikTok and Meta, including endless scrolling, autoplay, and aggressive push notifications, particularly where children are concerned. Texas filed suit against Netflix on May 11, alleging the company collects data on and addicts children through manipulative design, an allegation Netflix denies.
Protecting children is a righteous concern. The question is not whether children should be protected from exploitative design but who does the protecting and through what mechanisms. When the answer is always more identity verification, more device-level age checks, and more state oversight of speech, parents must ask whether they are trading one form of harm for another. The unchanging answer is that discipleship begins in the home. Law cannot raise a child to fear the Lord. Code cannot teach a heart to love God and neighbor. Platform policy cannot replace family worship and parental guidance.
"And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise." Deuteronomy 6:6-7, ESV
"But whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened around his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea." Matthew 18:6, ESV
"Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it." Proverbs 22:6, ESV
9. The earth shook and the sun spoke
This was not a week of one catastrophic earthquake, but the ground still moved in notable ways. The U.S. Geological Survey recorded a magnitude 4.7 event west-southwest of Brawley, California, on May 10, a magnitude 4.8 event west-southwest of Crescent City, California, on May 9, and a magnitude 5.0 event southeast of Pondaguitan in the Philippines on May 12. The largest event of the week was a magnitude 6.1 near the Rat Islands in the Aleutians on May 9. A cluster of nine small earthquakes, including one of magnitude 4.6, struck the Pardis area east of Tehran overnight on May 13. Iranian state media reported no casualties or material damage, but the cluster drew renewed expert attention to Tehran's vulnerability given active faults, dense urban development, and limited preparedness.
The sun also spoke. NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Center recorded an M5.7 flare from Active Region 4436 on May 10 and a stronger M5.8 flare on May 11. The bulk of the associated coronal mass ejection was directed away from Earth, but a glancing blow is expected to reach the planet today, producing the possibility of a minor G1 geomagnetic storm and auroras visible as far south as Minneapolis and Seattle. R1 minor radio blackouts were observed during the week, with brief degradation of high-frequency radio and low-frequency navigation signals on the sunlit side of the planet.
The Lord Jesus warned that in the last days there would be earthquakes in various places and signs in the sun, moon, and stars. He did not invite us to set dates from these events. He invited us to lift our heads. Preparedness is not fear when it is governed by faith. A wise believer keeps water, food, and a printed Bible. A wiser believer keeps a heart fixed on the One who appointed the sun for signs and who holds the foundations of the earth in His hand.
"And there will be signs in sun and moon and stars, and on the earth distress of nations in perplexity because of the roaring of the sea and the waves. Now when these things begin to take place, straighten up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near." Luke 21:25, 28, ESV
"God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear though the earth gives way, though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea." Psalm 46:1-2, ESV
"And God said, 'Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night. And let them be for signs and for seasons, and for days and years.'" Genesis 1:14, ESV
Sources: USGS: M 4.7, 3 km WSW of Brawley, California (May 10, 2026) USGS: M 4.8, WSW of Crescent City, California (May 9, 2026) USGS: M 5.0, SE of Pondaguitan, Philippines (May 12, 2026) USGS: M 6.1, Rat Islands, Aleutian Islands, Alaska (May 9, 2026) Reuters: Series of tremors near Tehran renew concerns over major quake risk (May 13, 2026) EarthSky: Sun news for May 11, 2026, pair of fiery simultaneous eruptions NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center: Alerts, Watches and Warnings
Watch and Pray
Pray for the Iran ceasefire and the nations entangled with it. Ask the Lord to restrain escalation, to protect those who labor on the shipping lanes, to comfort those imprisoned for their convictions inside Iran, and to bring honest leaders to negotiating tables that have so far produced little but life support. May the Lord be glorified whether peace comes through diplomacy or in spite of it.
"The king's heart is a stream of water in the hand of the LORD; he turns it wherever he will." Proverbs 21:1, ESV
Pray for the Beijing summit. Two of the most powerful men on earth will sit across from one another over tea this week and discuss war, weapons, trade, and intelligence. Ask the Lord to overrule pride, to expose deception, and to use even the deliberations of unbelieving leaders to preserve a window for the gospel in both nations.
"The Most High rules the kingdom of men and gives it to whom he will." Daniel 4:17, ESV
Pray for Gaza. Pray that disarmament would be honest and that rebuilding would reach families rather than fighters. Pray for hostage families still grieving, for displaced Palestinian children, for the IDF soldiers stationed far from home, and for the believers in Christ who quietly minister inside Gaza without the protection of any government.
"The LORD is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit." Psalm 34:18, ESV
Pray for Lebanon and for the global persecuted church. Comfort the families of the twelve killed on May 13, including the two children. Strengthen the Catholic and evangelical believers in southern Lebanon whose buildings have been reduced to rubble. Sustain Christian families in Pakistan, Russia, Nigeria, Congo, and every place where confessing Christ is costly. Remind us in the comfortable West that they are our family.
"Remember those who are in prison, as though in prison with them, and those who are mistreated, since you also are in the body." Hebrews 13:3, ESV
Pray for Israel as her government moves toward dissolution and a new election. Ask the Lord to raise up leaders who will tell the truth about October 7, who will deal justly with the Palestinian people, and who will not despise the Prince of Peace. Pray for the salvation of Israel, that the veil would be lifted and that many would call on the name of Jesus.
"Brothers, my heart's desire and prayer to God for them is that they may be saved." Romans 10:1, ESV
Pray for the United States in this restless season. Ask the Lord to restrain political violence in both directions, to give judges and juries integrity, to protect lawmakers from harm, and to protect citizens from leaders who would use the law as a weapon. May the church speak truth without cruelty and live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and dignity.
"He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?" Micah 6:8, ESV
Pray for discernment as the surveillance and identity architecture continues to expand. Ask the Lord to make His people wise, neither paranoid nor naive. Help us steward our health records, our communications, our finances, and our online presence with care, while remembering that no system of man can erase a soul written in the Lamb's book of life.
"You have kept count of my tossings; put my tears in your bottle. Are they not in your book?" Psalm 56:8, ESV
Pray for parents, grandparents, and youth pastors as children grow up under screens, algorithms, age gates, AI companions, and design choices intended to capture their attention. Restore family worship in our homes. Restore Scripture memory in our children. Give our young people the courage to log off and the wisdom to know the difference between communion and consumption.
"We will not hide them from their children, but tell to the coming generation the glorious deeds of the LORD, and his might, and the wonders that he has done." Psalm 78:4, ESV
Pray that the shaking earth and the speaking sky would drive the church to soberness rather than spectacle. Use the tremors, the flares, the radio blackouts, and the foreign policy crises to draw lost neighbors into conversations about eternity. May we be ready to give a defense for the hope that is in us, with gentleness and respect.
"But in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect." 1 Peter 3:15, ESV
Maranatha,
Sims Corner Church