Jude 2

I couldn't cut and paste the article because of the embedded links. If you are interesed, here is the link. I've heard about the 1 year depression in 1921, which lasted only one year because the economy was allowed to correct itself. This article mentions that.



http://blog.beliefnet.com/crunchycon/20 ... on-co.html

Certainly no one knows what is going to happen, but it is wise, I think, to stay informed. Your thoughts?

People have called Ron Paul a nut but he has hit it dead on when it comes to our economy.

People NEED TO LISTEN TO HIM.

Is anyone here really worried about the overall direction of the world? I'll own up to it. I am. There's the old saying about not knowing whether to(expletive) or go blind. Seems to me like no one in the world really knows after all. All the really, really smart people are just as lost and in the dark as the least informed of us. For all their elevated talk, highbrow educated sophistication, and their immersion into "terms of art" (like when you watch CNBC and don't really know what the technical terms mean, but you feel okay about it because the anchors are all smirking or nodding and you think that because they evidently do know, it'll all be okay), these people are really not all that brilliant. They really can't tell us what will happen next. None of them. Of course, the record of guesses is all over the place, so somebody's bound to be right or at least close. But, overall, it's like watching mushrooms explain light to fiddle worms --- it just doesn't add up.

So, that's the what-in-the-world-is-going-on side of things.

Then, there's this other side of things that makes me go "hmmm." Is it reactionary and knee-jerk to second guess my own self and say, "You know what, study be hanged, this place is getting exponentially nuttier by the week and maybe these rapture/dispensationalists are onto something after all"? Or, is that just emotion-driven retreat to the comfort zones of old beliefs? And, there are about 25 other related questions zooming in my head. So, that, in turn, is what I'm picturing as the "what-in-heaven-is-going-on" side of things.

This is troubling to me. All this time, all the consideration, the reading, the parsing, even the preaching, even the evangelizing, the praying. For what? Don't get me wrong. I'm not suggesting it is for anything less that it should be, but I do confess that I'm just flummoxed by all of this.

Surprised? No, not really. I mean, I expected things to go into the proverbial downward bound handbasket. I guess the utter speed and scope of it is having a shock effect. And, it makes me think in practical ways about what Jesus said about having a hand on the plow and looking back, how that makes us unfit servants. Looking back at what? Everything up to now seems to be pretty much a flub. I can see where He meant that if you look back, you're not looking at where you're going. Crooked paths and all that. But, I also think that looking back at where we've been, what we've known up until now, what we've worked to accomplish up to this point in time, is also kind of useless.

The Gulf Coast after Katrina looked more hopeful than things look now what with all of this global ..... mess .... that's going on. At least the people in southern Mississippi and Louisiana knew what it would take to go on: move, buy stuff and rebuild, put skilled people into putting up new buildings, etc. They may have wondered where they would get the means to do it, but they had no real question as to how, when it got right down to it, it would get done. Blood, sweat and tears is how it would get done, just like everything else until now. Now, though, things look vastly worse. There's no real reason for people to think that they will have the property, the wealth, the motivation even, to rebuild. Every single thing about our way of life is on a burning woodpile.

So, what are we left with? What particular hope or expectation should we have? For a sweeping skyrocketing shot out of here before it gets "too bad"? Or, for something quite different. Maybe we limp into a certain disaster of time and can only expect to scrape by poorly and somehow hope that we are shaped into the character of Christ by suffering. Maybe that IS the hope, maybe that is exactly what we should expect and want. I don't know.

dolfan wrote:So, what are we left with? What particular hope or expectation should we have?

My hope is built on nothing less
Than Jesus’ blood and righteousness.
I dare not trust the sweetest frame,
But wholly trust in Jesus’ Name.

Refrain
On Christ the solid Rock I stand,
All other ground is sinking sand;
All other ground is sinking sand.

When darkness seems to hide His face,
I rest on His unchanging grace.
In every high and stormy gale,
My anchor holds within the veil.

Refrain

His oath, His covenant, His blood,
Support me in the whelming flood.
When all around my soul gives way,
He then is all my Hope and Stay.

Refrain

When He shall come with trumpet sound,
Oh may I then in Him be found.
Dressed in His righteousness alone,
Faultless to stand before the throne.

Refrain

“Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the Lord our God.”
Psalm 20:7

I like this.

http://www.hollywoodpastor.com/

Thanks for posting that song. I needed that today

This song which I have sung hundreds of times, was a blessing to me today. Thanks.

Excellent time for Christians to demonstrate that peace.

It's also an excellent time to stand on principles... yet cast the greater goals and put things in perspective. Reshuffle our Christian priorities.

The amazing thing is that if we are wise.. we can confidently stand on the previous work of other saints before us and not be isolated.

The enemy attempts to separate, isolate and destroy. This will only happen if we willingly participate with him.

Work with ALL your brothers and sisters in Christ to accomplish the coming tasks ahead. Be effective.

Interesting. A man shared with me just yesterday that his relative just completed the best gun show ever in Birmingham, AL, selling 10 guns in one day. He also stated that ammunition is going up by 500%.

His point in sharing was to caution me to take notice of our world's landscape. He said that people are preparing themselves for something? Hmmm.

pa

Thank you, Pastor Gary, for posting the lyrics to "The Solid Rock." A song that has stood the test of time (many, many decades) ministers in its own unique way, and I personally feel that worship is most always enhanced by the periodic interweaving of a classic hymn or gospel standard into praise and worship.

Perilous times tend to bring to remembrance past blessings and victories from an ever-faithful God, from which we draw present strength.

These are perilous times - troublesome times, but Jesus said, "Let not your heart be troubled."

Here are lyrics to another song, relevant to these days, that merits being revived:



In Times Like These
Words and Music by Ruth Caye Jones


In times like these you need a Savior
In times like these you need an anchor;
Be very sure, be very sure
Your anchor holds and grips the Solid Rock!

Chorus
This Rock is Jesus, Yes, He's the One;
This Rock is Jesus, the only One!
Be very sure, be very sure
Your anchor holds and grips the Solid Rock!

In times like these you need the Bible,
In times like these O be not idle;
Be very sure, be very sure
Your anchor holds and grips the Solid Rock!


Chorus
This Rock is Jesus, Yes, He's the One;
This Rock is Jesus, the only One!
Be very sure, be very sure
Your anchor holds and grips the Solid Rock!

In times like these I have a Savior,
In times like these I have an anchor;
I'm very sure, I'm very sure
My anchor holds and grips the Solid Rock!


Chorus
This Rock is Jesus, Yes, He's the One;
This Rock is Jesus, the only One!
Be very sure, be very sure
Your anchor holds and grips the Solid Rock!

I read the words to this blessed hymn, I think of George Beverly Shea. Watching some of those reruns of the billy Graham Crusades.

How true the words of this Hymn are.

15 year depression? Shoot, I've been depressed since 1991! And that includes financially...

serve the Lord and do all you can to win the Lost and he will supply our needs!

I never feared in 2000 when it was said everything would shut down.

Do I get nervous from time to time with this economy? sure!! But I am reminded that the Great God who created us and feeds us is still on the throne!

Tracy wrote:Certainly no one knows what is going to happen, but it is wise, I think, to stay informed. Your thoughts?

Well, yesterday I bought $1000 each of Goldman Sachs (GS), Atwood Oceanics (ATW), and Lindsay Corp (LNN), so that must be what I really believe about it. It's intuition, not prediction. While I believe that Ron Paul is fundamentally correct in terms of the monetary system, I think it more likely than not that we have at least a cycle or two before utter collapse, and I also think there is some chance that smart, strategically placed companies can survive whatever transition comes in collapse's aftermath. That's a rationalization, but it seems to me to be a good one. I also think that putting that money into gold would have been a sure bet against inflation, but I'm willing to take the risk that we're somewhere in a trough, leaking like a sieve though it is.