Timed to coincide with his 95th birthday, Graham is calling people in the United States and Canada to repentance as part of the “My Hope with Billy Graham” evangelistic outreach set for the week of Nov. 7, 2013.Unlike his famous stadium crusades over the past six decades, Graham is asking Christians to invite family, friends and neighbors to their homes to watch the “Living Room Crusade” on their televisions, tablets or smartphones as part of a massive grassroots effort to ignite a spiritual awakening in North America.In what is expected to be the largest undertaking in its 60-plus year history, the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association hopes to mobilize millions of Christians to register as host “Matthews” atwww.myhopewithbillygraham.org and undergo training to learn how to share their faith with others.The announcement comes as Graham – whom Parrish described as “very sharp and keen mentally” at age 93 – released a letter last month entitled, “My Heart Aches for America.” In the letter, Graham recalled how his late wife Ruth once expressed concerns about the “terrible downward spiral of our nation’s moral standards” – exclaiming, “If God doesn’t punish America, He’ll have to apologize to Sodom and Gomorrah.”“The wonderful news is that our Lord is a God of mercy, and He responds to repentance. In Jonah’s day, Nineveh was the lone world superpower – wealthy, unconcerned and self-centered. When the prophet Jonah finally traveled to Nineveh and proclaimed God’s warning, people heard and repented. I believe the same thing can happen once again, this time in our nation.”
Graham’s letter comes as a growing number of spiritual and political leaders have made similar calls for repentance, stressing that the nation is in a downward spiral of economic decline, corruption, immorality, secular humanism and attacks on religious liberty.“The other thing that’s striking about Billy Graham’s warning is that it comes at the same time when believers across the nation are sensing this very same thing and when leaders are increasingly calling for prayer and intercession for America. ‘The Harbinger’ ends with a call for prayer, repentance, and revival among God’s people. That all these things are converging at the same time is significant.”
Syrian President Bashar Assad made his first appearance on state TV in nearly three weeks Tuesday in a show of solidarity with a senior Iranian envoy even as the U.S. secretary of state urged stepped up international planning for the regime’s collapse.Jalili, the secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, promised Iran would stand by Syria against its international “enemies” — a clear reference to the rebels’ Western backers and others such as Saudi Arabia and Qatar.A post-Assad Syria presents a host of worrisome scenarios, including a bloody cycle of revenge and power grabs by the country’s patchwork of factions. They include the Sunni-led rebels and Assad’s minority Alawite community, an offshoot of Shiite Islam and part of its close bonds with Shiite power Iran.
A growing humanitarian crisis is already taking hold.
An Israeli organization, whose name cannot be disclosed, infiltrates enemy lines in an attempt to provide people with everything from food, clothes, hygiene, and other essentials, to medical help and psychological assistance. Such activists are in technical violation of an Israeli law that bans citizens from visiting countries like Syria that are at war with Israel. Their work is also forbidden by the Syrian authorities, which effectively means that these humanitarian relief activists are risking their lives to help, because capture by the Syrian authorities or army will mean certain death.“We have some 200 Israelis – both Jews and Muslims – currently working on the project along with a network of local contacts,” said the architect of the organization. “These people – comprised of highly trained doctors, trauma personnel, aid convoy and other professions, most of whom speak Arabic – are ready to risk their lives, even though some of them are not even trade-able,” she continued, referring to swap deals between various terrorist organizations and the Jewish state.
The group's leader, Sarah (not her real name), explains her motivations: “I am guided by my consciousness. Even though the Holocaust of the Jewish people is over, massacres are still taking place and Syria is no exception,” she told Israel Today, stressing that the prevention of humanitarian aid should be considered as a crime.
Apart from saving lives, the organization is also improving Israel’s reputation in the eyes of the Arab world, shattering the myths and propaganda that they had been fed about the “cruel Israeli enemy”. “Though it has been more of a side effect than a top priority, people’s stance towards Israel did change,” said the woman, pointing out that most Syrians were shocked after learning about the true identity of those helping them. Others, however, promised to spread the word about the good-natured Israelis.
Jordan's King Abduallah on Tuesday warned that the escalating civil war in Syria could result in a break-up along sectarian lines, a result that Iran and others say would engulf Israel in fresh cross-border violence.While calling it a "worst case scenario," Abdullah nevertheless urged the West to take seriously the possibility that Syrian dictator Bashar Assad may entrench himself in an Alawite enclave in Western Syria, safe among his ethnic minority.
Abdullah told CBS's This Morning program that should Assad go that route it would lead to "the break-up of greater Syria" and a land-grab by the various ethnic and religious sects that make up Syria's population of 22 million.
And the fall of a unified Syria would be a nightmare for Israel. The situation would likely resemble that in Lebanon, where heavily-armed militias like Hizballah are free to antagonize the "Zionist enemy" with little concern for state and international politics. Only with Syria, we are talking about a much larger population than Lebanon, and one that has direct access to weapons of mass destruction.That may have been what Iranian Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani was referring to when he told reporters on Sunday that "the fire that has been ignited in Syria will take the fearful [Israelis] with it."
Iran and Hizballah are said to already have considerable assets on the ground in Syria, and would be certain to establish their own local base of power should Assad fall or retreat to the Alawite ancestral stronghold.
The Muslim Brotherhood is reportedly establishing its own rebel force that is both battling Assad and trying to take the lead from the FSA as it strives to create another Islamist regime like that recently secured in Egypt.
The benefits of a chaos-ruled Syrian territory to Al Qaeda should be obvious, and the movement's leader, Ayman al-Zawahiri, recently released a video statement urging Muslim forces from neighboring countries to get involved in Syria's civil war.
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