1. ABC 7 Chicago – Leaders of black churches, businesses and foundations launched Monday a new anti-violence movement in Chicago’s South Loop. The philosophy of the new anti-violence partnership can be summed up like this: Nothing can stop a bullet like a job. At a Monday morning news conference, leaders of the movement talked about stopping violence in Chicago through creating jobs. The LIVE FREE campaign and the Solomon Group will kick off Monday a ten-city tour to help launch 1,000 black businesses that would generate an estimated $5 million in new revenue in cities across the country, including Chicago, Detroit, Cleveland and Memphis, Tenn.
2. Reuters – U.S. House Republicans are working on changes to their healthcare overhaul bill to provide more generous tax credits for older Americans and add a work requirement for the Medicaid program for the poor, House Speaker Paul Ryan said on Sunday. Ryan said Republican leaders still planned to bring the healthcare bill to a vote on the House of Representatives floor on Thursday. Speaking on the “Fox News Sunday” television program, he said leaders were working to address concerns that had been raised by rank-and-file Republicans to the legislation. Republicans remain deeply divided over the healthcare overhaul, which is President Donald Trump’s first major legislative initiative.
3. AP – Pope Francis begged forgiveness Monday for the “sins and failings of the church and its members” during Rwanda’s 1994 genocide and told Rwanda’s president that he hoped his apology would help the country heal. In an extraordinary statement after Francis’ meeting with Rwandan President Paul Kagame, the Vatican acknowledged that some Catholic priests and nuns “succumbed to hatred and violence, betraying their own evangelical mission” by participating in the genocide. During the 100-day genocide, over 800,000 ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutus were killed by Hutu extremists.
4. Reuters – Donald Trump’s U.S. Supreme Court nominee will face tough scrutiny at a Senate confirmation hearing starting on Monday, with Democrats seeking to make the case that Neil Gorsuch is a pro-business, social conservative insufficiently independent of the Republican president. Gorsuch, a cool-headed and amiable conservative federal appeals court judge from Colorado, likely will try to engage members of the Senate Judiciary Committee without being pinned down on specifics that could trip up his nomination to the lifetime post. The court’s ideological balance is at stake. If Gorsuch, nominated by Trump on Jan. 31, is confirmed by the Senate, as expected, he would restore a narrow 5-4 conservative majority on the court.
5. Premier UK – Rev Prebandary Dr Woyin Karowei Dorgu has been consecrated as the thirteenth Bishop of Woolwich in London. Dr Karowei is the first black bishop to be consecrated in the Church of England for 21 years. The service took place at Southwark Cathedral on Friday. The Archbishop of Canterbury, Most Rev Justin Welby presided at the service and the Archbishop of York, Dr John Sentamu, preached.
6. Reuters – The chairman of the U.S. House of Representatives Intelligence Committee flatly denied on Monday that there had been a wiretap on President Donald Trump’s Trump Tower in New York, but said it was possible other surveillance was used against Trump. “Let me be clear: We know there was not a wiretap on Trump Tower. However, it’s still possible that other surveillance activities were used against President Trump and his associates,” Republican Representative Devin Nunes said in his opening statement at a hearing on Russia’s involvement in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.
7. Reuters – A plane belonging to a small South Sudanese airline crash-landed at the airport in the northwestern town of Wau on Monday, injuring several passengers. “No one died but there are a number of injured people right now,” one of the local aid workers near the scene of the crash told Reuters. Forty-four passengers were on board the plane belonging to South Supreme Airlines. “About 17 to 18 people injured in the incident were taken to hospital,” said journalist James Dimo Deng told Reuters. Officials could not immediately be reached for further information.
As you go throughout this day, keep this word in mind: Psalm 32:6 says, “For this shall every one that is godly pray unto thee in a time when thou mayest be found: surely in the floods of great waters they shall not come nigh unto him.”
John Piper said, “Every hope of the gospel succeeds because of Jesus’s reverent earnestness in prayer [in the Garden of Gethsemane], and the answer of the Father.”
God loves you. He always has and He always will. John 3:16, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” If you don’t know Jesus as your Saviour, today is a good day to get to know Him. Just believe in your heart that Jesus Christ died, was buried, and rose from the dead for you. Pray and ask Him to come into your heart and He will. Romans 10:13 says, “For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.”
Thanks so much for listening and remember God’s got you!
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