New Suit For Preacher

The Christmas season is over except for the exchanging of unwanted gifts, spending of gift money, gift certificates, and taking advantage of sales. Over and over during the Christmas holidays, we heard the refrain, “sales will be down because of the unprecedented recession, the greatest since the great depression.”

This recent recession in no way compares to the great depression, I was there, I lived through it. My folks did not stop talking about it until their dying day. It is like religion, you know the real from the false. When your Christianity is real, you cannot hide it, one can tell if you are His workmanship (Ephesians 2:10), you are anxious to share it with others.

My father came from two of North Carolina's first families: the Lucas family, prominent in Eastern North Carolina, and the Morris family who had founded Morristown, New Jersey, but all were just hardworking, landed people. My father, a dirt farmer, farmed during the week, cut hair in a barbershop on weekends and on holidays, built houses during the winter, non-crop months. He was not ashamed to tell anyone about his Christ, even a politician. he cut the hair of one state senator, and had presented the gospel to him. I once said, “Daddy you have to be careful who you talk with, some get offended.” Significant, one of the pastors who helped preach my father's funeral had pastored the church through the great depression. One of the nicer memorial wreaths had a card from the senator which read, “in memory of the only man who was ever concerned about my soul.”

I was driven to this pastor's funeral, dying at 95 after pastoring for 75 years. He had told me that my great grandfather took him and his trunk on his buggy to the train station, leaving for college, a college which today would not be that many miles by car, but at that time a good distance by train.

It is significant that the young preacher, following college, was the pastor of this family church. It was the depths of the great depression, 1930-1940. His suit was so patched that the women of the church raised money for a new suit from their sale of chickens and eggs. I could not help but think about that, and many other things at his funeral, as well as my own father's funeral, when he talked about the number of hair cuts for ten cents each.

I was just a child, but I remember this pastor on his knees in the pulpit, I remember the old men of the church and the community on their knees around the pulpit. Times were desperate, I can still see relatives, children who today are prospering, wealthy citizens arriving at the church on a wagon pulled by a mule, wrapped in quilts to keep out the cold.

I have talked and written about these things many times, my highfalutin, stuck up relatives tell me they do not want to hear about it, they are from outstanding ancestry, educated in great colleges, members of country clubs. They do not want the memory of such long-ago poverty which so affected their families and community. Such times did not defeat anyone, it only made them stronger, better. Fire strengthens and purifies the metal. June 24 was the day in Ireland that Christians would run through the fire, proving that they were chosen of God. In New Guinea, I have seen men walk through the fire. Every thing that may abide the fire, ye shall make it go through the fire, and it shall be clean. (Numbers 31:23)

We all need to watch the potter, what he can do with fire, he never takes his eyes of the wheel. God, the supreme potter, never takes his eyes off the earth, those who are His, who He is fashioning to do His work.

How well I remember the hand cranked corn sheller, the buckets of grains of corn which my mother cooked in an outside iron pot, making hominy grits for the hungry people of the community. I remember the sweet potato hills, where potatoes were stored for the hungry of the community. I remember the “rabbit boxes”. Hungry people were anxious to eat anything edible. The butter churn, the buttermilk, the dried beans planted along every fence.

Some books have published pictures of eastern North Carolina towns, just carts pulled by mules, or one-horse wagons, my grandparents were better off, they had horses and surreys (a two-seated horse-drawn buggy). This was a depression, not a today's recession when perhaps a family may be limited to one color television.

Most of the world's poverty is below the 30th parallel. 80% of the world's population lives on less than $10 a day, most on less than $1. If you live in a house, have an automobile, you live better than 95% of the world's population. God wanted me to see the world, to see conditions in the world, every continent, I traveled through 157 countries. The poorest countries are those with the Islamic religion (47). Those that live in communist countries, countries without any type of religion, if fortunate, have one pair of shoes and perhaps a change of clothing.

The moral character of any country can be determined by the treatment of it's citizens: abortion of it's youngest, euthanasia of it's oldest. A country as blessed as America will not escape the abortion holocaust, nor the treatment of old people in nursing homes. God knows what is happening in His universe. It is much too expensive to keep watch of the entire sky, but meteorites are slipping through, we usually just see those at night because of the light they cause. The financial status of our nation, the world, the individual, makes little difference when we consider our eternal destiny

Good News & Bad News

This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, truce-breakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, traitors, heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away. For of this sort are they which creep into houses, and lead captive silly women laden with sins, led away with divers lusts, ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. (2 Timothy 3:1-7)

This morning we awakened to the news that in the election of Tuesday, November 2nd, 2010, political changes have been made in this nation. Even in North Carolina, where Democrats have ruthlessly ruled the state for over 100 years, the Republicans will have a majority in both houses of the legislature. Even though President Obama is leaving for India tomorrow, using 40 transport planes, taking with him 3,000 people, renting entire five-star hotels, costing the taxpayers $200 million a day, and even though Pelosi will be turning in the keys to her air force jets, degenerate Democrats still voted for such Democrats.

Much like the Mexican found in Phoenix, Arizona, his killers were not satisfied just to shoot him, but cut off his head as well. The mystery of the ages: why does it take people so long to recognize evil? I have used the above scripture in speaking, many times, reminding people of what the world will be like before the end of time. Any person with nominal intelligence would recognize that this is the condition of the world at present. But, with the Baptist smile of indifference, more interested in eating at the cafeteria than any scripture or worship service, the apathy has continued.

The black liberation theology and nationalistic churches have become centers of political action; the white churches, country clubs with a steeple, have become centers of societal evolution. Republicans Bushs (41 and 43) showed little difference from Clinton (42) and Obama (44), regardless of what they professed, we saw what they possessed, an attitude of getting the most possible out of the office with little regard for the people who pay the bill.

The term “robber baron” started in Europe as applied to royalty; in this country, unscrupulous industrialists, starting around 1880, railroad magnates and shipping conglomerates, “mopping up” after the great depression following the Civil War (one of America's greatest depressions followed the Civil war and lasted for many years. In fact, it was much disputed during the 1896 presidential election between Bryant and McKinley.) Could any robber baron of industry compare to the robber baron politicians who have ruled this nation for the past 100 years? Living in opulence, rewarding their guarantors, socking away treasury for their benefit.

America has never been out of a depression, my great grandparents after the Civil War, my grandparents during the early part of the 20th century, my parents, the Great Depression beginning in mid-20th century, and I have never known anything but hard times. It is only the political “hacks”, who have prospered through these depressions, it is the politicians and their supporters (the bankers and elitists who finance their election) who have known prosperity.

Particularly with the initiation of the income tax of 1913, increased taxation of real estate, the taxation of pay checks before you, the worker, gets any money, has kept the general public in slavery.

For many years, the only thing we had left was our vote. Many gave up on voting, knowing that their voting contributed to treason. The two dominant political parties, Republican and Democrat, rotten at the top with corruption. The lowly political activist, thinking he is doing his patriotic duty for his country by voting and persuading others to vote, by studying the issues, by promoting certain candidates, does not realize that the real power is a shadow government of people from both parties. These people who socialize and together control everything; class warfare, racial antagonism, deception on every level is promoted by this elitist group, their only loyalty is to one another, old families who have always controlled everything.

Now, since it is obvious that many of these political ghosts have been identified, Democrats voting for certain Republicans, Republicans supporting certain Democrats, it has become a matter of vote control. The old fashioned way of marking a ballot was not as easily adaptable to fraud. The voting machine is an answer to their prayer, getting their person into office has become easier than ever. Joesph Stalin said long ago, “it is not who votes, but who controls the voting.”

I am totally blind, 100% disabled, service-connected medical officer veteran of the Korean war era. I would walk through red hot coals to vote, but I doubt that my vote has ever been counted, such as what I have encountered, myself, at the voting booth, controlled by political hacks. Since I cannot see to use a machine, one of these political appointees (in North Carolina, the governor's mansion controls all elections) operates the machine for me. Not until recently (curb-side voting) could my driver assist me; I am not sure my vote is counted, even then.

In the basement of the old courthouse, Wilmington, NC, I was treated with disdain, even worse at the new election's office. I have talked about the treatment of disabled citizens (the country's largest minority), trying to vote, on talk radio. Many have called me about the situation, I have written letters, made complaints to the state office and the Republican headquarters, state and county. I have sent letters to media, believe me when I tell you, they do not care. Now it is affecting everyone.


At the top of every voting ballot should be these words : Do you trust your government? If “Yes” is checked, that ballot should be thrown out, they do not have enough sense to vote. Pray for deadlock, deadlock in all government transaction, this is our only hope. A great preacher said, “our greatest 'revival' in a Christian church is a back-door revival: getting rid of some pretenders.” The greatest need in our democratic republic is a cleansing of election offices, getting rid of political hacks appointed to them whose main interest is in preserving their own party's interests and survival. The captain of the Titanic tried to miss the iceberg, America, evidently, wants to sink.

There are two ways to deal with pain: you can deny it, or you can face it. 95% of our illness originates with stress, most of us are tired of the stress on our lives resulting from decadent politicians. The good news, election integrity; bad news, the rotten core of human nature.

Financial Stress

#534

I was born during the height of the Great Depression. I could easily have titled this commentary “Canning Jars and Potato Hills”. The thing that kept most farm families from starving to death during this horrendous drought or desert was self preservation. City people were hungry. My grandparents told of visiting one of their relatives in town. They were embarrassed...just how hungry they were...how little food they had on the table...even for company. The children of this family, my grandfathers brother, became some of the wealthiest people in Eastern North Carolina. The husband of one, chairman of the board, one of the largest state's utilities.

On the farm, when the potatoes were dug, they were put into potato hills (potatoes piled in a pyramid, pine straw and other insulation over the potatoes and then soil packed over the entire mound with an opening at the top, covered, to keep weather out). Then, anyone could retrieve potatoes from the hill. All garden excess was canned or dried and then, there were farm animals and wild animals used for cooking. Farm people, other than not having any cash, were able to survive because they had few other expenses. They heated their houses with cut wood, they knew how to raise a window in the summer. I have here in my office a kerosene table lamp which we use for light and by which I studied at night. FDR, like Obama, typical liberal democrats, (FDR actually had several of vowed communist in his cabinet, even Henry Wallace, vice president) tried to solve the nations problems by digging the hole deeper. Mr. Obama, destroyed perfectly good automobiles and then loaned money to the owners of the clunkers in order for them to buy new cars...they could not pay for the old ones. With Roosevelt, 1933, after he had chopped down growing crops of corn, tobacco, cotton, and had killed and buried 50 million pigs in his agriculture stabilization program, first started “parity” in which each family got two dollars then, 1935, he started social security which is now broke. Likewise, liberal, communist tinged democrats started, 1965, medicare and medicaid...now both broke. Carter, 1980, started the housing debacle “Fannie and Freddie” whereby people who could not pay their rent, many without any means of paying, were put into houses in which they could not afford. ALL government housing programs are broke. The postal service is broke, the veterans administration is broke. Every government program is broke. Now, your only last freedom, your last privacy, your choice of health care is under government control with all the warts of the insurance companies, now will be a disaster and soon broke. ON THIS YOU CAN DEPEND.

The question now, what you can depend for financial success?

1.Humbleness: Several generations have been spoiled, watching television constantly, seeing nothing but the good life, lives of “the rich and famous” thinking that everyone should live that way. Children are spoiled into thinking they must have “designer clothing” top notch “stardom” athletic shoes...new expensive car to drive to school, everything they want...”taste buds” for only the most expensive foods regardless of nutrition. I went through eight years of university training to become a Doctor, medical officer in the US Army where I lost all eyesight, living on one dollar a day, never wearing anything but second hand clothes. Now a multi-millionaire, I still live very much the same way. So, this depression will not bother me very much. Frugal living, a Christ inspired existence, has enabled me to give much of my income to charity...particularly disabled student scholarships who have been ignored by the government, the public, everyone else. “The largest minority in the country are the disabled...estimate thirty two percent. The black population is only thirteen percent.” THERE ARE NO CIVIL RIGHTS FOR THE DISABLED. Next to slavery, the greatest shame of this nation is its treatment of disabled veterans and handicapped citizens. “I am a totally blind, 100% disabled, service connected, decorated, medical officer veteran, of the Korean era.” I have a right to speak. The disabled veteran gets less pension than the college ROTC student for maintenance. William Manchester (biographer of General Douglas MacArthur), a 100% disabled veteran, said, “no one cares, least of all your country.”

2. Connectedness: Keep in touch with your family and friends, your church, your community. Let me warn you, of all people, your family cares least. Animals travel in packs. It is only when one wanders off from the group that he is most easily attacked by the world, the flesh, the devil. Someone may be able to help you. In the Great depression of the thirties when some of my relatives lost their farms, they moved their possessions into family barns and lived with family members. In each small town, mules with carts would line the streets. Even those who owned vehicles could not afford to drive them. I remember, at my grandfathers great and beautiful farm, the old tractor, rare in that time, sat idle...so did the old truck. My grandmother could afford to drive her car on desperate missions. The pastor rode a horse to church. Church yards were full of buggies and surreys but, the church houses were full, people at the front on their knees pleading to a merciful God for help. Twenty seven times in the book of Psalms, “the mercies of the Lord endure forever”. Your greatest help, in time of need, always available, Gods promise to never leave nor forsake those who trust in Him.

3. Mind-set: Without God, you cannot know God. When God permeates the trillions of cells in your mortal body you will have the survival skills necessary to overcome anything. God wanted me to see the poverty of the world, most of it below the 30th parallel. (I have traveled around the world 8 times, had my passport stamped in 157 countries) I have seen poverty such as this country has not experienced, YET. Mind you, God is still in control of everything...even the hairs on your head are numbered. Can you imagine what it would be like to have ten to twenty airliners crash each day in the world? This is how many babies are killed each day in this country (3000 each day, 1,452 black). God has not forgotten, nor should we his wrath, for the killing of his chief creation. The pagans in Washington, particularly the White House, may not believe or care. Conservatism is a mind set. We have heard that “only the strong will survive”. I assure you, conservation will help you survive.

4. Perseverance: At the time of the Great Depression of the 1930s, the rest of the world was not in depression. Most of the world's other nations are worse off than America. (UK, Iceland, Dubai, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Spain, Portugal) At the time of the Great Depression, America had 90% of the worlds gold which backed up our money. Today, our money is backed up by thin air, the world considers our fiat dollars worthless. I'm told, in Hong Kong, people laugh when you try to pay for anything with dollars. Persevere in your patriotism. (what else can you do?) Persevere in your faith (what else can you do?) Persevere in your saving and conservation habits. (what else can you do?) Persevere in your decency, your Christ like witness to the world around you. (What else can you do?) God's love is unconditional. He loves us in good times and in bad times. “Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ: By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. And not only [so], but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience; And patience, experience; and experience, hope: And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us”. (Rom 5:1-5)

This very morning, I sent a message to my only child, my son, long time foreign missionary, now professor at a leading seminary. “Can you imagine what it was like, for Christ, during his ministry, living and working among the tyrants of the occupying Roman Empire?” Your writer lives by faith, not sight. Most of you will learn to live not knowing what the future holds. Learn, the one who holds the future. I'm told that the definition of faith is the security found in the cleft of a rock or under a mother bird's wing. Faith, is a verb. Faith, is action, based on belief, sustained by confidence. Opening the Bible is like looking into the mind of God. The verse exactly half way between the 1189 chapters of the Bible, God tells us to trust in him, and put no confidence in men. Surely, by now, you should have learned not to put any confidence in politicians. In the whims and wiles of the Satanic forces which want to cripple you in your race toward life's goal. Life in good times or bad times is more than a destination. Don't get trapped by looking at distractions along the highway.

Barack Stew

#532

Barack Stew

Not since FDR's funeral was held in the East room of the White House have I been aware of so much death, the death of the Constitution.

Our founding fathers left the tyranny of Europe looking for freedom and opportunity. They were willing to go through the harshness of existence here but died never realizing the abundance of this land. Most, like my fore-bearers, ate many meals of just stew...anything they could get together...wild animals such as rabbits, birds...wild fruits and vegetables, eggs...they did whatever they had to do in order to keep body and soul together. They went to church or other meetings carrying Blackstone's Law Book and their Bible under one arm and their musket over the other shoulder.

After bribery never before seen in this country, threats, lying, cheating, thieving, the last great freedom of this republic melted away like the snows of this harsh winter with the liberal Democrat majority and their hero communist organizer, Barack Obama. The new legislation controlling the last freedom we have...freedom of healthcare, is now controlled by the government, the IRS, the control freaks produced by this “Barackracy” and totalitarianism never seen before in the world. In just 14 months, the “Barack stew” has resulted in the greatest expenditure of money we have ever known. More debt than George Washington and George W. Bush and all the presidents in between combined.

In a depression that makes the Great Depression look nominal the joblessness continues. The government is a job killing machine. Congress legislated 150 billion on jobs this week and yet joblessness increases. 40 percent of all people out of work have been out of work for six months, a never before seen figure. Even in the depths of the Great Depression, and I was living then, and there was not only financial depression but psychological depression of unbelievable depth, most people just hanging on to the rim of a great black hole.

The 2700 pages of legislation is nothing but tyranny. If you can be fined for not buying something which the government demands, then there is no limit to how much fine the government can put on you. It is as simple as that, government totally out of control.

There was a great migration to this land of opportunity from Italy, Ireland, Poland and particularly China and Japan. In most large cities with ports of entry of migrants, there were entire areas of the city perhaps known as “China-town” or “the Italian section”. There is no doubt that the children and grandchildren of the immigrants who flooded this country will now seek to return to the country from which their grandparents fled a century or so ago. Most still have a certain allegiance to their heritage, their genetics, Chinese-Americans, Italian-Americans, Polish-Americans etc. In fact, I understand, that many Chinese-Americans are returning to China where they find they have a better chance at a job and progress.

In this time of depression, financial insecurity, where Wall Street can get a bail out from the government but the business man on Main Street must have a “sell out” of his business, we find that the businessman must make clear, responsible, daily decisions. Politicians just have to make one decision, “how to get re-elected”. In this time of depression, vacant offices, empty stores are just another sign that there are many people not only looking for jobs but unable to buy anything. The only way you cure joblessness is by manufacturing or selling something. Using this as the criteria, most of the people out of work will not find a new job unless it is a job working for the government which just creates more depression because those who are working, those who own property, must pay greater and greater taxes to support the federal, state, local “Barackracrats” who just shift papers.

Most of us who believe in justice believe that the third branch of government will come to their senses and correct this corruption of the Constitution. In recent years, the judicial, particularly the Supreme Court has been unwilling to correct the mistakes of the two other branches of government, congressional and administrative. Two aging, ill Supremes will probably resign and it is a known fact that two very liberal justices are lined up to take their places. Besides, what need is there for the Constitution when it is no more than just a piece of paper which neither branch respects?

At the time of the Great Depression, our Fiat dollars were backed up with gold. America owned 90% of the world's gold. Dollars are now backed up by thin air. Americans are working for dollars that don't buy anything. China controls most of the gold in the world. China and Russia have hoarded most of the world's gold reserves and China mines more gold than any other country.

My parents, grandparents, great grandparents and most citizens of my age have never known anything about leisure or vacation. I understand that most contracts entered into by workers have more agreements concerning time off for holidays and vacation than anything else. “Barack's stew”, the “Barackracy”, seeks to enslave doctors, nurses and other healthcare employees while legally enabling federal enforcers to keep them in line. I found in the hospitals of communist totalitarian states that the bureaucrats in charge of the hospital had more power over patient care than those educated to give patient care. It has already been decided that, as in the case with the military, a number will be assigned to each illness and a certain medical procedure will be assigned to each number (DD 2807). In other words, treating the human body will be very much like working on a vehicle...”one size fits all”. If a certain Rx does not work...too bad...as with the Veterans Administration...deny, delay, go home and die.

For most of American history, married women did not work outside the home. She stayed at home, raised her children, cared for her family. With ever increasing taxation and regulations, it has become necessary for both husband and wife to work in order to pay the bills. Books have been written on what this has done to family life and to children. At least mothers had the option of working. As government has steadily increased in size everyone must work. Soon, children will be employed as soon as some type of job is available in order for a family to survive.

Too ridiculous for words, in California, hard hit by the depression, the federal government is giving $8,000 trying to sell the excess houses on the market. Now the weakest, strangest governor to ever take office, the prideful, pretty Mr. Arnold Schwarzenegger is giving $10,000 to each California home buyer. Where is California or the government getting this money? They are both broke. And, it is the usual lie, whether $18,000 or 18 dollars, it does not go to the buyer but to the seller.

When we think of the word traitor we think of Benedict Arnold. When you think of the one man who has done more than any other to destroy your country you should think of “Barack stew”...the inedible, corrupt mess he has whipped up during the past 14 months.

Ozymandias

#492


"My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!"
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.

Keats


The Obama Phenomenon is a new book by Ray Coleman, political leader from Illinois. The electoral victory has caused this Baptist, working behind the scenes, to obtain knowledge of President Barrack Hussein Obama’s political trail to victory. He pronounces him a “prophet and the chosen one”. So, as Keats in his poem Ozymandias, Obama can be proclaimed “king of kings”.

Obama thinks himself an emperor...the one without clothes...but, believe me, he is stark naked in spite of the cloak of decency given to him by Coleman and others of ilk. Most men spend the first half of their life building habits which enable them to live their second half with a degree of credibility. Obama's life, to this point, is more a mystery than mastery. Speaking fluent Farsi, reared as a Muslim, little is known of his activities in college or elsewhere. Since no one has been able to prove his place of birth and he has spent millions to protect the truth of his birthplace, he involved himself in Reverend Jeremiah Wright's church in Chicago where he married Michelle Robinson in order to ensure his citizenship. The Wright church and Reverend Wright are in no manner Christian. The church is a nationalistic, political, activist center. In the vestibule of the “church” is the portrait of Harriet Tubman, early black agitator. Obama supposedly spent time at Columbia University but no one there or in the black community around Columbia remembers him. It is believed the Columbia University cover provided him CIA operative expediency in Pakistan.

With the assistance of Communist/social types, commonly called Czars, without congressional approval, he and these political newcomers have presented the country with a budget of 3.8 trillion, exactly double the budget of ten years ago. Strange beyond words to explain officials such as Secretary of the Treasury Geithner, House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Rangel, former Senator Daschle, and others do not pay the taxes for which they hold others responsible. Catholics such as Pelosi, Biden and Kennedy support his pro abortion policies. The country only collects 2 trillion in taxes so 1.8 trillion must be borrowed, mostly from China, Japan, and other world governments. His impetus during campaign was putting people back to work. The only jobs created to date have been government jobs. Government employees received 60% more pay for the same work than those in private jobs. When you consider the benefits, there is no way that private industry can keep up with government employment, just the reverse of what it was a few years ago. The private sector cannot pay enough tax to support this new generation of government workers. Civil service at one time was a sacrifice. Civil servants have now become civil masters. A parasite or a cancer on a host will suck out all the blood and eventually kill the host...the American tax payer.

It was the private sector which built the country...railroads, subways, the campuses on which colleges and universities stand, the holy dedicated ground first occupied by hospitals.

Obama said we dare not bless those who curse God. Was he speaking of his friends, most of whom are Atheist? Most of us cannot comprehend voters who will support a killer of babies. For a long time now, any time any person tells me he is a Democrat and a Christian I say, “you need to re-evaluate yourself”. One cannot support the Democrat party which promotes the greatest sins of our time, abortion and homosexuality, and still believe that he or she is Christian. I cannot, in good faith, support Baptists in North Carolina who outnumber all other denominations (SBC, FWB etc.) because if it were not for the votes of these Baptists supporting the Democrat party the corruption in Raleigh from over 100 years of Democrat rule, the corruption in the state alcohol beverage control system, the added corruption of the lottery, the embarrassment of such politicians as RC. Soles (longest serving NC Senator), Julia Boseman (self advertised lesbian), Black, Decker, Wright, M. Scott Phipps, and others...all Democrats, would not have been possible.

The federal government now admits that we are in a double dipped depression...that unemployment is over 20%...worse than the great depression. We know the car is heading for the cliff. Get ready, we are about to go over the cliff.

The only winning hand, any time, anywhere, is not to play the game. The Christian church has lost it's way. Smiling and comfortable on padded pews, corrupt politicians like their unconcerned neighbors, feel perfectly at home with the world inside the church. With the cloak of decency provided by Obama the church feels it is courageous enough to face the future without God. Education, like carbon tax science and the health care fiasco is a mockery. Prevention Magazine said recently, “just being positive will add seven years to your life”. I wish I could be more positive and add those years to you. But, we learn to live with our worst fears.

Your “king of kings” is thought to be bi-sexual, we know he speaks from both sides of his mouth, will say anything to get elected, will do anything to stay in power.

New Year's Thoughts on Prosperity

On a plane, crossing the ocean, you reach the point of no return, a matter of not having enough fuel to retrace your flight path, just enough to continue to your destination. One plane, the Model 76 Voyager went completely around the world without refueling. On crossing anything, it becomes a matter of mathematically determining whether to retreat or proceed... a point of no return. We have already passed the point of no return, in our nation's present financial dilemma.

Our nation faces an economic storm, brought on by growing federal, personal, and corporate debt. There are too little savings and the dollar has declined to just a few cents. In 1987, Peter Grace of the Grace Commission told President Reagan that a dollar barred in 1987 would be worth just a few pennies by the year 2000. We certainly know this to be true. There is no way that the national debt can ever be repaid. If the United States goes under, so will the rest of the world because unlike the Great Depression, the entire world is in depression. Some nations like Iceland and Greece are already in bankruptcy. Obama has put our nation into more debt in his first 8 months of presidency than all previous 43 presidents, from George Washington to George W Bush combined. Get ready for many years of economic uncertainty.

I speak only to Christians, God does not need friends. In his sovereignty, he owns everything. We, as Christians, are involved in the stewardship of trust. We think we can bring God into our lives on our terms. It may scare you to know that God makes the decision... On His terms... He makes the choice... You can walk the aisle of every church in the community... Sign every card of church membership... You may think you receive Jesus but be concerned that Jesus receives you. The New Testament, gives the good news that we are not operating under law. The early sophisticates could not understand the paradoxes with which Christ talked, that we must die in order to live. That we must go down in order to go up. That we must be weak in order to be strong. That we must forgive in order to be forgiven. We must give in order to receive. If you do not have the desire to give, there is something wrong with your faith. You can give without love but you cannot love without giving. (Matthew 16:24-28) He tell us through our faithfulness, that He will take care of our enemies (Psalm 109). We are a peculiar people.

The surest way I know for prosperity in the new year, and it makes no difference when your year starts, is the giving to God of your first fruits, the first money that comes into your possession. The first of the first fruits of thy land thou shalt bring into the house of the Lord thy God (Exodus 34:26, Leviticus 23:10, Numbers 18:12-13, Deuteronomy. 26:10, 18:4). This pertains to our material blessings. God also demands the first fruits of our lives.

God gave His people a symbol of their peculiar nature... A circle with a dot in the center, separated, the world could not get to them, and cannot get to us. The world will fuss and fume about finances, but God has complete control of the needs of His own. When God knows you will not steal from Him (Malachi 3:8), he knows that he can trust you with His blessings in the way you handle your material things. Christ talked about material things more than anything else, even heaven and hell.

The verse of scripture which completely changed my life, which lead me into the financial success which I enjoy today, I first heard from a missionary in Samoa. She made sure I understood Psalm 84:5, Blessed is the man whose strength is in thee; in whose heart are the ways of them. Here you have the secret for surviving the greed, corruption, and decadence of today's world. It is our national motto, you find it on every piece of currency, and our forefather's believed it, “In God We Trust”.

Remember, the tithe is the Lord's whether you give it to not. One seventh of your time is the Lord's whether you give it or not. We were made in his image whether we want to recognize it or not, the greatest gift anyone can give me, these words: “you are in my prayers.” I have a prayer list which I refresh every week, when you are on my prayer list, you can be assured that you have someone praying for you. I do not put the names of many of my family, relatives, friends because I know they do not want God involved in their lives, their business.