"The Word of God is filled with encouraging Bible verses, which is one reason why it would be well for us to spend time reading the Bible daily. By meditating on key Bible verses we can find comfort and hope to get us through trying times. With that said, you will find several encouraging Bible verses below that you can reflect on for encouragement, and even use as a means to encourage others who might be troubled at heart.
Encouraging Bible Verses
Bible Verses to Remember
"God is our refuge and strength, A very present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, Even though the earth be removed, And though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea; Though its waters roar and be troubled, Though the mountains shake with its swelling." (Psalms 46:1-3 NKJV)"
" A proposed law passed recently in the state House is intended to make the process more convenient, boost voter turnout and cut the state's costs to register voters, said its main sponsor, State Rep. Lesia Liss, D-Warren.
"You can register online for selective service, we pay our taxes online," she said. "So why not make online voter registration a priority as well?" (emphasis added)
Registering for selective service and paying taxes on line is a weak argument. No one is going to register an extra six times for selective service and no one is going pay taxes two or three times. However, people will try to vote more than once."
"The U.S. does not plan to open a new front in Yemen in the global fight against terrorism despite closing its embassy there in the face of Al Qaeda threats, President Obama's top counterterrorism adviser said Sunday.
"We're not talking about that at this point at all," White House aide John Brennan told Fox News when asked whether U.S. troops would be sent to Yemen.
"The Yemeni government has demonstrated their willingness to take the fight to Al Qaeda," he said. "They're willing to accept our support. We're providing them everything that they've asked for."
The comments came in the wake of the failed Christmas Day attack against a U.S. airliner by an accused 23-year-old Nigerian who says he received training and instructions from Al Qaeda operatives in Yemen.
President Obama plans to return from his holiday vacation in Hawaii for a Tuesday meeting at the White House about the airliner plot.
On Sunday, the U.S. and Britain shuttered their embassies in the Yemeni capital, San'a, citing security reasons.
"We're not going to take any chances" with the lives of American diplomats and others at the embassy in Yemen's capital, Brennan said, making the rounds of four Sunday television talk shows. "There are indications Al Qaeda is planning to carry out an attack against a target inside of San'a, possibly our embassy.""
"Britain and the US have agreed to intensify efforts to tackle the "evolving threat" from Islamist groups in Yemen, Downing Street has announced.
Officials said the UK and the US were funding a counter-terrorism police unit in Yemen. The news follows an alleged airline bomb attack over Detroit.
Barack Obama has sent his top Middle East general to meet Yemen's president.
The US president has alleged that the Christmas Day bomb suspect was trained by a Yemen-based al-Qaeda offshoot.
Gen David Petraeus - who is responsible for US Middle East and Central Asian operations - reportedly said the US was keen to support Yemen's fight against al-Qaeda.
On Saturday, Mr Obama for the first time publicly accused an offshoot of al-Qaeda, based in Yemen, over the alleged attempt by Nigerian Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab to blow up an airliner over Detroit. "
"The Obama administration says the internal unrest in Iran and signs of unexpected delays in their nuclear program make the Iranian government especially vulnerable to swift and serious sanctions, the New York Times reported on Sunday.
An administration official said current circumstances "give us a window to impose the first sanctions that may make the Iranians think the nuclear program isn't worth the price tag."
Despite the political unrest, Iran's political and military leaders are remaining steadfast in their determination to develop nuclear weapons, advisers to U.S. President Barack Obama said. But the unrest coupled with the Iranian government's internal turmoil has caused a deceleration in production of nuclear fuel in recent months.
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The White House is interested in focusing new sanctions on Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, which is thought to be the driving force behind the country's nuclear weapons program.
The Obama government believes that Iran's bomb making efforts were hurt following the exposure of a secret uranium enrichment plant three months ago in the city of Qum. The plant's exposure prevents Iran from enriching uranium at the high levels necessary for creating fuel for a nuclear weapon.
Nuclear inspectors report that in Iran's plant in Natanz, the operation of centrifuges has dropped by 20 percent since the summer, which experts attribute to technical problems.
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"A charity supporting oppressed believers around the world has warned that persecution against Christians is set to worsen in North Korea in 2010.
Practising Christianity is currently illegal in the reclusive communist country and Christians can face imprisonment, torture and even execution for their faith.
Release International works through local Christian partners to support North Korean refugees fleeing to China or South Korea, by providing pastoral care, safe houses, and Christian literature and Bibles.
Partner Tim Peters said North Korea was one of the world's worst trouble spots for Christians. In the latest edition of the Release magazine, he said he had received reports of worsening persecution against Christians as the North Korean economy continues to collapse.
"2010 is forecast to be a year of tremendous hardship and food shortages since the country's harvest in 2009 was a poor one," he said.
Kang Cheol Hwan is a former prisoner who converted to Christianity after finding refuge in South Korea. He told Release the situation was getting worse in North Korea.
"It is like a giant prison camp has crossed the land. Starvation spreads out over the entire nation; it has become the norm," he said.
"I lived in Yoduk prison camp for 10 years; I was treated like an animal there. I had watched many people die from starvation and beatings.
"I witnessed open executions and watched helplessly as people died miserably.
"These fearful scenes have not left my mind.""
"The leader of the Taizé Community last night urged 30,000 young Christians to tell their peers about the Gospel.
Young Christians from across Europe have spent the last week reflecting on their relationship with God at the European Meeting of Young Christians in Poznan, Poland, which ends today.
Brother Alois told the youths last night that it was important for them to remain rooted in the church.
"We have seen that in Poland, faith in Christ is inseparable from belonging to the church," he said. "So more than ever it is important not to run away but to go towards (the church), in order to express our love of this unique communion which is the church."
Brother Alois said a new thirst for spirituality and the beyond was emerging in the West, as well as the church in China, which he recently visited.
"This is a sign of hope," he said. "So the time has come for you, young people, to realise that it is up to you to transmit trust in God to others. Even if you have understood little of the Gospel, put it into practice; talk to your friends who do not know the faith, and accompany some children along the path of faith, too.
"You know all of your peers who, upon entering adulthood, are losing their links with the Christian community, not necessarily by a conscious decision but by a simple chain of circumstances. Will you go towards them and seek ways to renew a relationship with the faith?""
"Another year is ending with no tangible progress in scaling back North Korea's nuclear weapons programs. Pyongyang invested more in its weapons development as part of a broader effort to shore up power behind an ailing leader in 2009.
2009 began with a giant question mark about the health of Kim Jong Il.
The North Korean leader remained out of sight for a number of significant occasions, including the launch of a long-range rocket that angered the international community.
A few days after the launch, Mr. Kim appeared at a parliamentary session, looking gaunt and withered.
Experts say that supported the widespread belief Mr. Kim suffered a stroke.
"North Korea fed its version of the story to the people, saying the reason Kim looks this way is not because he's lost his health, but because he works day and night for the people, visiting work sites and so on," said Yang Moo-Jin, a scholar at Seoul's University of North Korean Studies.
Pyongyang also rallied public support behind the country's nuclear weapons program, and conducted its second nuclear test.
In South Korea, Donguk University professor Koh Yu-Hwan says the test was aimed at pressuring the United States."
"World Health Organization Director-General Margaret Chan says she is disappointed a deal on climate change was not struck in Copenhagen. But she says important steps were taken that, she believes, will ultimately result in an agreement to stop or retard climate change.
She says the relationship between climate change and health is obvious. For example, she says millions of people will suffer from either too much water or too little water under climate change.
Chan says extensive flooding may lead to loss of life from drowning and disease. She says contaminated floodwaters can cause fatal illnesses, such as diarrhea and cholera.
On the other hand, she says some areas will have too little water and prolonged drought will affect the kind of crops people normally grow.
"The prediction is that in the next 20 years to 30 years, if the situation continues to get worse, the productivity from the agricultural sector and from subsistence farming in Africa, the production would reduce by as much as 50 percent," she said. "If there is any truth to that, can you imagine the impact on hunger, on acute and chronic malnutrition?"
Scientists say the warming of the planet will be gradual, but that extreme weather events will increase in frequency and intensity.
They say the effects of more storms, floods, droughts and heat waves will be abrupt and profound.
The World Health Organization says the effects of so-called climate-sensitive diseases already are killing millions of people. WHO reports more than three-and-a-half million people die every year from malnutrition-related causes. It says diarrhea-related diseases kill nearly two million people and almost one million die from malaria."
"Iran warned on Saturday the West has until the end of the month to accept Tehran's counterproposal to a U.N.-drafted plan on a nuclear exchange, or they will start producing nuclear fuel on their own.
The warning from Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki showed a hardening in Iran's stance over its controversial nuclear program. While the West fears it shows Iran has nuclear ambitions, Tehran insists the program is only for peaceful, electricity production purposes.
The Iranian foreign minister's message was broadcast on Iranian TV.
He says that Iran gave [the West] an ultimatum, and they have one month left, giving them to the end of January [to accept]. He adds that [the West] must choose between one of the two proposals [that Iran has made], which is either to purchase uranium [directly from France or Russia] or to swap it [on Iranian soil]. Otherwise, he insists that Iran will go ahead and produce [high grade] enriched uranium fuel using its own talented experts.
Western powers, including the United States, have called on Tehran, under the draft U.N. nuclear deal worked out last November, to ship around 70 percent of its low-grade uranium abroad. That fuel would then be transformed into more highly enriched (20 percent grade) uranium and shipped back to Iran.
Iran, however, came up with a counterproposal insisting that its uranium stockpile be sent abroad in small batches, in quick transfers on Iranian soil, preferably on Iran's own Kish Island.
Iran's proposal is unacceptable to the West, because it allows Iran to keep significant quantities of enriched uranium to produce nuclear weapons. "
In the introduction Zawahiri stated that he had always heard from Pakistani scholars that the Pakistani constitution is indeed based on "true Islamic foundations," but that "the ruling class" is corrupt.
Challenging the claims, Zawahiri said he studied the Pakistan constitution to determine why the country is "the biggest U.S. ally."
He condemns those who do not make Islamic law the foundation for ruling society, and notes that in Pakistan the president can "pardon anyone he wishes," whereas the Muhammad, according to an Islamic saying, was not immune to punishment. He concluded "Pakistan is an un-Islamic country," and that "its constitution is un-Islamic" due to its "many grave contradictions with the Islamic shariah."
Pakistan's 23 million people are believed to include about 2.3 million or 10 percent who are viewed as sympathetic to Al Qaida's Islamist creeds.
Last week's foiled airline bombing plot by a Nigerian man who hid explosives in his clothing has renewed debate in the United States as to how extensive and invasive passenger screening should be at U.S. airports. A few major airports already possess machines that can take detailed, full-body images, but Congress has not mandated widespread use of the technology.
Air travelers worldwide are accustomed to passing through metal detectors. But in an era of plastic explosives and advanced chemical compounds, that system has proved lacking.
Kip Hawley is a former head of the U.S. Transportation Security Administration, or TSA, which is charged with screening airline passengers and luggage.
"The number one area we need to focus on, the biggest potential vulnerability, is a bomb on the body," said Hawley.
Dutch officials have ordered detailed, full body scans of all U.S.-bound air travelers.
Terrorism expert M.J. Gohel of the London-based Asia Pacific Foundation applauds the move.
"These scanners are, in fact, very effective," he said. "They actually show a person's body - any foreign object attached anywhere in the body, even if it is internally. That kind of x-ray scanner would have located the package that this individual [Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab] had on the flight to Detroit. They are on a trial basis at the moment."
"Conservative talk radio show host Rush Limbaugh said Friday that tests show nothing wrong with his heart after chest pains hospitalized him earlier this week. Limbaugh also commented on the quality of health care he received. (Jan. 1) "
Psalm 83
A Song or Psalm of Asapha.
1 Keep not thou silence, O God: hold not thy peace, and be not still, O God. 2 For, lo, thine enemies make a tumult: and they that hate thee have lifted up the head. 3 They have taken crafty counsel against thy people, and consulted against thy hidden ones. 4 They have said, Come, and let us cut them off from being a nation; that the name of Israel may be no more in remembrance. 5 For they have consulted together with one consentb: they are confederate against thee: 6 The tabernacles of Edom, and the Ishmaelites; of Moab, and the Hagarenes; 7 Gebal, and Ammon, and Amalek; the Philistines with the inhabitants of Tyre; 8 Assur also is joined with them: they have holpenc the children of Lot. Selah.
9 Do unto them as unto the Midianites; as to Sisera, as to Jabin, at the brook of Kison: 10 Which perished at Endor: they became as dung for the earth. 11 Make their nobles like Oreb, and like Zeeb: yea, all their princes as Zebah, and as Zalmunna: 12 Who said, Let us take to ourselves the houses of God in possession. 13 O my God, make them like a wheel; as the stubble before the wind. 14 As the fire burneth a wood, and as the flame setteth the mountains on fire; 15 So persecute them with thy tempest, and make them afraid with thy storm. 16 Fill their faces with shame; that they may seek thy name, O LORD. 17 Let them be confounded and troubled for ever; yea, let them be put to shame, and perish: 18 That men may know that thou, whose name alone is JEHOVAH, art the most high over all the earth.
"(CNN) -- Africa's most active volcano, Mount Nyamuragira in the Democratic Republic of Congo, erupted early Saturday, spewing lava off its southern flank, the Congolese Wildlife Authority reported.
Rangers in Virunga National Park reported hearing a loud explosion at 3:45 a.m. and then seeing lava flowing from the crater of the 10,333-foot volcano.
"I first thought (it) was the sound of war. I thought there was fighting again near our park station," said Innocent Mburanumwe, warden for the southern sector of Virunga National Park. "Then I saw the mountain was on fire with sparks flying. We could see that we were not in immediate danger here at Rumangabo, but there are many people who live to the south of the volcano, where the lava is heading as I speak.""
"RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) - Rescue crews on Saturday intensified the search for victims at a plush Brazilian beach resort ravaged by mudslides and flooding that have killed at least 64 people in three states.
World | Green Business | Brazil
Firefighters waded through mountains of mud and sifted through the remains of a lodge and homes that were destroyed in the early hours of Friday when a hillside collapsed in the luxury beach resort of Angra dos Reis, removing 35 bodies, authorities said.
Angra dos Reis, the nearby island of Ilha Grande and other towns on the southern coast of Rio de Janeiro state are a magnet for local and foreign tourists over the New Year's holiday.
Heavy rain also left several cities without power in the state of Sao Paulo, where six tourists died in a mudslide in the town of Cunha.
At least three people died because of mudslides in Juiz de Fora, a city in Minas Gerais state.
In Rio de Janeiro state, where Brazil has most of its oil reserves and has long been the nation's flagship tourist destination, the death toll climbed to 55, authorities said."
"That type of rocket launcher has been used in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The renter of the apartment didn't want to talk to KPRC Local 2.
"This is my house," the woman said. " Get away from here. I don't want to talk to nobody."
The woman did tell police that the rocket launcher belonged to Nabilaye I. Yansane, someone whom she allowed to store items at her apartment.
Police records show that she didn't want Yansane at her apartment, so she called them.
According to court documents, officers also found Jihadist writings that allegedly belonged to Yansane. The woman didn't want to talk to KPRC Local 2 about that, either.
"I don't know," she said. "You'll have to ask the police."
Yansane was charged with criminal trespassing and pleaded guilty. He was sentenced to three days in jail, which he has already served. No charges related to the rocket launcher or writings were filed.
"Other people could have had access to the apartment, so maybe if a rocket launcher was located there, as is stated in the offense report, maybe it belonged to somebody else," attorney Garl Polland said.
Prosecutors said there are no state charges for having the unarmed launcher or possessing Jihadist writings, unless they contain some type of threat.
The former director of Houston's FBI office said rocket launchers can be dangerous if they're in the wrong hands."
Cached
