Genexit

Lately our local newspaper, which is a puppet of the New York Times, has been running articles on the aging of the Baby Boomer generation. They have been calling the series "Genexit". I can't help but see prophetic truth in it. Given the present world status laid against God's timeline, it would be perfect to lump Boomers, Gen-X, Y, and Z into one new category. Since they'll all be leaving at the same time, Genexit is the perfect name.
Scene for the Final Act
Aria plays loudly. Humanity moves stage left, some looking dumbfounded, some terrified as the curtain begins to close, others fight the curtain. Martyrs stand in front of the curtain with joyous smiles, bright bright lights come up! Music changes to trumpets flourish

Quote of note from Nov.2008

"When confronted by the stories of those who live their faith among people who hate them for it, I am inspired, saddened, thankful, and convicted all at once. The death and murder of Gayle Williams startles those at ease to reflection. The pervasive opposition in the lives of believing university students awakens even seasoned believers to their own apathy. How courageous is the believer who follows Christ among those who hurl insults and hostility? How treasured is the Bible that must be buried in the backyard for protection? How sacred is the faith of one who is willing to die for it?"
Jill Carattini
from the RZIM emails 'A Slice of Infinity' 10/22/08 titled "Surprised by Suffering"

Put the Christ back in CHRISTmas

republished from Dec 2005:

Put CHRIST back in CHRISTmas

Santa lives at the North Pole ...JESUS is everywhere.
Santa rides in a sleigh ...JESUS rides on the wind and walks on the water.
Santa comes but once a year...JESUS is an ever present help.
Santa fills your stockings with goodies...JESUS supplies all your needs.
Santa comes down your chimney uninvited...JESUS stands at your door and knocks, and then enters your heart when invited.
You have to wait in line to see Santa...JESUS is as close as the mention of His name.
Santa lets you sit on his lap...JESUS lets you rest in His arms.
Santa doesn’t know your name, all he can say is “Hi little boy or girl, what’s your name?”...JESUS knew our name before we did.Not only does He know our name,He knows our address too.He knows our history and future andHe even knows how many hairs are on our heads.
Santa has a belly like a bowl full of jelly...JESUS has a heart full of love.
All Santa can offer is HO HO HO...JESUS offers health, help and hope.
Santa says “You better not cry”...JESUS says “Cast all your cares on me for I care for you.”
Santa’s little helpers make toys...JESUS makes! new life, mends wounded hearts, repairs broken homes and builds mansions.
Santa may make you chuckle but...JESUS gives you joy that is your strength.
While Santa puts gifts under your tree...JESUS became our gift and died on a tree.
Yes, Jesus is better, he is even better than Santa Claus.
It’s obvious there is really no comparison. We need to remember WHO Christmas is all about. We need to put Christ back in CHRISTmas, Jesus is still the reason for the season.!!!!

Billy Graham's Prayer For Our Nation

I received this in a Email, and thought it was worth sharing.

Billy Graham's Prayer For Our Nation
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: THIS GUY SURE HAS A GOOD VIEW OF WHAT'S HAPPENING TO THIS COUNTRY!
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: 'Heavenly Father, we come before you today to ask your forgiveness and to
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: seek your direction and guidance. We know Your Word says, 'Woe to those who
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: call evil good,' but that is exactly what we have done. We have lost our
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: spiritual equilibrium and reversed our values. We have exploited the poor and
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: called it the lottery. We have rewarded laziness and called it welfare. We
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: have killed our unborn and called it choice. We have shot abortionists and
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: called it justifiable. We have neglected to discipline our children and called
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: it building self esteem. We have abused power and called it p olitics.
: We have coveted our neighbor's possessions
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: and called it ambition. We have polluted the air with profanity and
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: pornography and called it freedom of expression. We have ridiculed the
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: time-honored values of our forefathers and called it enlightenment. Search us,
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: Oh God, and know our hearts today; cleanse us from every sin and Set us free.
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: Amen!'
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: Commentator Paul Harvey aired this prayer on his radio program, 'The Rest of
: the Story,' and received a larger response to this program than any other he
: has ever aired.

A Days Wages for a Loaf of Bread

I've worked in a grocery store for, going on, 18 years now. Since 1996-97 I have noticed that price increases have been running about 25% a year. This year however, has been 35%-50%, depending on the primary ingredients (wheat, tomato, and dairy are among the highest).
It is true that the profit margins for grocery companies were very low in the 1990's most were between .5% and 1.5%. It was a dangerous time for the industry. Any negative impact that came their way put them in the red. Times have changed the industry average is more like 3%-6% now. Its a fairly recession proof industry. People have to eat! That means that in the present economic downturn the grocery companies are among the healthiest.
This years' price increases began with the usual January increases. Very shortly we added the specter of rice shortages and shortages/famines in India, Africa, and many third world countries. India took the step of banning exports of rice. The next step was the rise in fuel/transportation costs. By summer we had already hit our yearly 25% increase and were headed for more. The next step in the price increase pressure was the fall of the dollar and the demand from the United Nations for our food surplus.
Surpluses are an interesting price factor. Some of you may remember in the summer of 2007, the Bush administration talked the Saudis into increasing production of oil to relieve some of oil's price pressure. Almost instantly oil prices shot up and remained high for most of the 2007 summer. The reason was that with the Saudis pumping at capacity there was no more surplus to counter act any potential geopolitical upheaval. When the reduced production at the end of summer prices for oil actually fell. Its all a fear factor.
During the same time period, of 1996 to present, personal wages have risen an average of 1.5% - 3%! This means that a larger and larger portion of your personal budget is going to feed your family.
Here is my point in all of this: at the current rate of increase, with no MAJOR famine, the prophecy of Revelation 6:6 will be fulfilled in 4 years time!!!!

REV 6:5 When the Lamb opened the third seal, I heard the third living creature say, "Come!" I looked, and there before me was a black horse! Its rider was holding a pair of scales in his hand. 6 Then I heard what sounded like a voice among the four living creatures, saying, "A quart of wheat for a day's wages, and three quarts of barley for a day's wages, and do not damage the oil and the wine!"

This passage is often quoted as "a days wages for a loaf of bread", because it takes about a quart of barley to make a loaf of bread. Most of the end times writers, that I have read, interpret this to mean that all of your take home pay will be used just to feed your family. If, the average family of 4 spends $250 per week on all food (groceries, take out pizza, and restaurants) then, in four years it will be $610.35!!!! If that family now makes $50,000 a year in four years it will make about $53,068 four years from now. Take home pay should be about $622.52, if the tax rate remains at 39% for all governments, and no increase in health deductions!!

Pieces of the Puzzle

These are some exciting times we live in! Have you ever thought about having been born in a different time? Do you ever wonder what your life would have been like, or what your faith would have been like? As news events were broadcast, this week, I couldn't help but think of Paul Simon's song, "your were born at the right time".
In the past two weeks we have seen an election in America that ushers in a government that is in line with the majority of the left leaning socialist governments of the world. The World's bankers came together to try to solves a global economic crisis of their own making! leaders everywhere are saying things like, "no country is an island, we are all interdependent, we must work together globally to solve the problems that confront us". (This is not a real quote, but it sounds like everything we've been hearing, doesn't it? The difference from the past is that they are actually doing it!)
At the beginning of summer I received a link in an email to a man named Lindsey Williams. Clicking on the link gives you the option of watching several different lengths YouTube videos of Lindsey's pitch. Lindsey is a missionary with the Baptist Missionary Board. He went to Alaska during the building of the Alaskan Pipeline and the Prudhoe Bay Oil Fields. There he served the spiritual needs of the workmen and also oil executives. When first watching the video you are wondering, "if this stuff is true"? It is difficult not to trust one of our own! The information is also upheld by recent world events. He makes the statement over a year ago that, "it was decided, that we would be paying +$100 a barrel for Oil, and +$4.00 a gal. for gas this past summer! "it was decided" is a key phrase here.
Is there anything that so derailed the fragile U.S. economy, and the rest of the world with it, as $4.00 gas this past spring and summer. People gave up trying to keep up with mortgage payments, and all "discretionary" pocket money went into the gas tank. Food producers and grocery stores were more than happy to tack on and extra 25-30% to their prices, as margins could be easily expanded by a couple of percent.
You can watch for yourself but here are Lindsey's primary assertions. He claims to have gotten the information from oil executives, one of which was fired, wrote the forward to Lindsey's book, and then was rehired. http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3340274697167011147
1)In the 1970's, when Henry Kissinger was working on a Middle East peace deal, "it was decided" that oil would be the means of controlling the World. Kissinger promised the Arabs that we would give them more for their oil that they had ever imagined, but they had to buy our Bonds. Therefore the price of oil becomes a hidden tax when we overspend. Our increased budget deficit is bought up by the Arabs oil $$, keeping interest rates low. (The deficits of the last 5-8 years should have sent interest rates soaring and the dollar plummeting. behind the Chinese, which also opened up during the Kissinger years, the Arabs bought most of our bonds!)
2) The World Bank controls the price of Oil! I remember the talking heads on CNBC this past summer asking the question, "who was buying up the oil futures contracts, that set the price of oil?" Amazingly as a global financial crises took hold the price of oil futures began to plummet! (Some of you might have noticed, about two weeks ago, Prime Minister Brown, of England, told the Arabs, "they needed to contibute some of their newly gotten oil $$ to the World Bank, for lending to troubled countries, such as Iceland.")
3) There were oil strikes, huge finds, in Alaska, Russia, South China Sea, and Brazil.(the Brazilian oil strike is still hush hush. I learned of it from a Brazilian co-worker whose brother is drilling along the Amazon. they announced finding oil off the coast of Rio, but keep quite about the Amazon.) These oil finds are very large, as large as the Saudis, but are kept off the market.

Basically it all looks like this Global economic downturn was "created" by the World Bank. The purpose: create global cooperation and move us closer to a global government!

We can wax nostalgic for a "simpler time" while looking at a Thomas Kinkade, Norman Rockwell, or historical movie. Would our lives or faith really have been better in those times? Isn't that what we are really considering during moments of nostalgic meditation? Now here we are having been given birth in a time such as this where the unfulfilled prophecies of time are all coming together. It is a time not unlike the time of Jesus birth, death, and Resurrection, when all of the prophecies of the promised Messiah were being revealed and falling into place. These are exciting times.
1PE 1:3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade--kept in heaven for you, 5 who through faith are shielded by God's power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. 6 In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. 7 These have come so that your faith--of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire--may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. 8 Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, 9 for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

1PE 1:10 Concerning this salvation, the prophets, who spoke of the grace that was to come to you, searched intently and with the greatest care, 11 trying to find out the time and circumstances to which the Spirit of Christ in them was pointing when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the glories that would follow. 12 It was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves but you, when they spoke of the things that have now been told you by those who have preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven. Even angels long to look into these things.

1PE 1:13 Therefore, prepare your minds for action; be self-controlled; set your hope fully on the grace to be given you when Jesus Christ is revealed. 14 As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance. 15 But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; 16 for it is written: "Be holy, because I am holy."

As the pieces of the puzzle of God's plan are fit into place, and the World of Revelation, becomes visible, I can't help but feel, "I was born at the right time"!

"One Nation Under God..."

The image is from http://pledge-of-allegiance.blogspot.com

I received the following email back on Sept. 28th. It is a testament to how far we have fallen as a nation. I have made the statement in the past that we, as a nation, have disagreed politically in the past, but were unified by our Christianity. "One nation under God, indivisible" and "all men are granted inalienable rights, bestowed upon men, by the creator" has been the glue and purpose of this nation. We have walked away from God and are now a house divided. Our political divisions, are now, a direct result of our spiritual condition! As in my last pictorial post, of the candidates signs on the front lawn, "a house divided against itself cannot stand". Our only hope is a sweeping spiritual "great awakening"
We now have a President that is in favor of Global socialism, and a world eager to gorge themselves on our God given blessings of plenty. As a nation fallen we can no longer lead the rest of the world in obtaining their own god given blessing. We will no longer be lifting others up to our level. We will be descending to theirs, so that all can be equal. If there is a global average wage, and a global average energy consumption, and a global average G.D.P., and a global average food consumption, it will not be where we are now. Get ready to find out that Jesus is all we ever needed, because, soon, he will be all we've got!

This article came from a gentleman in his 80's (and a DEMOCRAT!) who actually lived thru those (and these) times. Whether you agree or disagree, this is a powerful statement!!!
: Everyone has a different opinion on the war, and our current President. But this article probably makes sense to those who remember. Read it and give it some thought. What a
: difference 60 years makes!!!
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: President Bush did make a bad mistake in the war on terrorism. But the mistake was not his decision to go to war in Iraq . Bush's mistake came in his belief that this country is the same one his father fought for in WWII. It is not!!!
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: Back then they had just come out of a vicious depression. The country was steeled by the hardship of that depression, but they still believed fervently in this country. They knew that the people had elected their leaders, so it was the people's duty to back those leaders. Therefore, when the war broke out the people came together, rallied behind, and stuck with their leaders, whether they had voted for them or not or whether the war was going badly or not. And war was just as distasteful..... and the anguish just as great then as it is today. Often there were more casualties in one day in WWII than we have had in the entire Iraq war. But that did not matter. The people stuck with the President because it was their patriotic duty. Americans put aside their differences in WWII and worked together to win that war.
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: Everyone from every strata of society, from young to old pitched in. Small children pulled little wagons around to gather scrap metal for the war effort. Grade school students saved their pennies to buy stamps for war bonds to help the effort. Men who were too old or medically 4F lied about their age or condition trying their best to join the military. Women doubled their work to keep things going at home. Harsh rationing of everything from gasoline, to soap, to butter, was imposed, yet there was very little complaining.
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: You never heard prominent people on the radio belittling the President. Interestingly enough in those days there were no fat cat actors and entertainers who ran off to visit and fawn over dictators of hostile countries and complain to them about our President. Instead, they made upbeat films and entertained our troops to help the troops' morale. And a bunch even enlisted.
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: And imagine this: Teachers in schools actually started the day off with a Pledge of Allegiance, and with prayers for our country and our troops!!!
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: Back then, no newspaper would have dared to point out certain weak spots in our cities where bombs could be set off to cause the maximum damage. No newspaper would have dared complain about what we were doing to catch spies. A newspaper would have been laughed out of existence if it had complained that German or Japanese soldiers were being 'tortured' by being forced to wear women's underwear, or subjected to interrogation by a woman, or being scared by a dog.
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: There were a lot of things different back then. We were not subjected to a constant bombardment of pornography, perversion and promiscuity in movies or on radio. We did not have legions of crack heads, dope pushers and armed gangs roaming our streets.
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: No, President Bush did not make a mistake in his handling of terrorism. He made the mistake of believing that we still had the courage and fortitude of our fathers. He believed that this was still the country that our fathers fought so dearly to preserve!!
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: It is not the same country. It is now a cross between Sodom and Gomorrah and the land of Oz. We did unite for a short while after 9/11, but our attitude changed when we found out that defending our country would require some sacrifices.
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: We are in great danger!! The terrorists are fanatic Muslims. They believe that it is okay, even their duty, to kill anyone who will not convert to Islam. It has been estimated that about one third, or over three hundred million Muslims, are sympathetic to the terrorists cause ... Hitler and Tojo combined did not have nearly that many potential recruits.
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: So...we either win it - or lose it - and you ain't gonna like losing!!!
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: Today, for many folks, America is not at war...the military is at war...................... America is at the mall!!!!!!!!!
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: NO LONGER A CHRISTIAN NATION
: ~ Author Unknown ~
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: As I was listening to a news program last night, I watched in horror as Barack Obama made the statement with pride. . 'We are no longer a Christian nation; we are now a nation of Christians, Jews, Muslims, Buddhists '. . . As with so many other statements I've heard him (and his wife) make, I never thought I'd see the day that I'd hear something like that from a presidential candidate in this nation!!!
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: To think that our forefathers fought and died for the right for our nation to be a Christian nation - and to have this man say with pride that we are no longer that. How far this nation has come from what our founding fathers intended it to be!
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: I hope that each of you will do what I'm doing now - send your concerns, written simply and sincerely, to the Christians on your email list. With God's help ...and He is still in control of this nation and all else, we can show this man and the world in November that we are, indeed, still a Christian nation!
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: Please pray for our nation!