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IN TODAY'S NEWSLETTER...
New Technologies and the End Times - Britt Gillette - http://www.end-times-bible-prophecy.com/new-technologies-and-the-end-times.html
Last week, an Israeli company named Aleph Farms announced it had successfully cultivated the world's first slaughter-free ribeye steak, using 3D bioprinting technology and living cow cells. Unlike traditional 3D printing, the 3D bioprinting Aleph Farms developed prints "actual living cells that are then incubated to acquire the texture and qualities of a real steak." According to its press release, Aleph Farms uses "a proprietary system, similar to the vascularization that occurs naturally in tissues," and this gives the steak a “similar shape and structure of its native form as found in livestock before and during cooking." Using this new technology, the company now has the ability to produce any type of steak. All this comes on the heels of a December announcement that 1880, a restaurant in Singapore, will become the world's first restaurant to serve cultured meat. Known for its innovative menus, 1880 debuted the lab-grown chicken made by U.S. start-up Eat Just, which takes a small amount of poultry cells and grows them into meat at a rapid rate using a bioreactor. From start to finish, the process takes about 14 days versus 45 days for traditional chicken. As these technologies mature, they offer the prospect of cheap and abundant food for the whole world. None of this should come as a surprise. In my 2017 book Racing Toward Armageddon, I wrote: "Did you know the dirt outside your door most likely contains every element necessary to create a loaf of bread or a piece of fish? With the blueprint for a piece of fish or a loaf of bread, nanofactories could rearrange the basic structure of those elements and do just that. You could literally create a fish or a loaf of bread from nothing but dirt." Revolutionary Technologies are on the Horizon These technologies are just a glimpse of what’s coming. The convergence of new printing technologies with artificial intelligence, quantum computing, and advanced manufacturing techniques will fundamentally transform the world in which we live. Bioprinting steaks and chicken is just the beginning. Such technologies foreshadow the arrival of a truly revolutionary technology known as molecular manufacturing. Below are some of the benefits we'll see in the near future: Clean, Renewable, and Inexpensive Energy – The most abundant source of energy on the earth is sunlight. The reason solar power only meets a small fraction of our energy needs is because the technology used to capture and store solar energy is expensive and inefficient relative to fossil fuels. Molecular manufacturing will change that. New technologies will make solar power the cheapest and most widely available source of energy. Increased Health and Wellness – Molecular manufacturing will also make clean water available to everyone. It will revolutionize medical treatments, prescription drugs, and surgery. The result will be dramatic increases in health, well being, and average lifespans. Material Abundance – Molecular manufacturing will bring a revolution in the production of goods, manufacturing objects where they’re needed and dramatically decreasing labor, energy, storage, and transportation costs. The result will be an explosion in material wealth. While all this sounds great, there’s a dark side to these new technologies as well... The Rise of Big Brother In George Orwell’s novel 1984, the world is introduced to “Big Brother” – an omnipresent, all-powerful and “well-intentioned” totalitarian regime. The book’s hero, Winston Smith, lives in a world where every citizen is under 24/7 surveillance. Personal privacy doesn’t exist. Government dominates every aspect of life. Monitors in Winston’s apartment spy on him at home. Other devices spy on him when he’s not at home. Hidden cameras and microphones capture his words, deeds, and even his facial expressions. His mail is opened, and “thought police” search for and arrest any citizen who dares to have thoughts or feelings outside of those sanctioned by Big Brother and the ruling elite. Winston’s world is a place of absolute government control. No conversation, movement, or transaction goes unnoticed. The government is watching – always. In the decades since Orwell first released 1984, people have marveled at what they see as great insight into our future. And they’re right to do so. 1984 is becoming our reality, and the arrival of molecular manufacturing and other advanced technologies will only serve to accelerate the process. Below are some of the undesirable (and I believe unavoidable) outcomes of advanced technology: Global Government – Technological innovations will soon upset nuclear deterrence and the balance of power built on the notion of mutually assured destruction (MAD). World-destroying nuclear war will become obsolete, replaced by new weapons of war. In a post-MAD world, many people see only two options: 1) An unstable arms race likely to end in global annihilation, or 2) Global government The world will choose global government. The first nation to develop advanced post-nuclear technologies will use its power to conquer all other nations before they develop similar technologies. This nation can then use its global monopoly to create a new world order. Think about it. If no nation is left to attack this global power, the world will be at peace. Unfortunately, the world will also be under the heavy hand of a global government. Global Surveillance – With advanced technology, the ability to see and hear everything will become even easier for government. Already, most people voluntarily reveal the most intimate details of their lives. They upload pictures of themselves and their friends to Facebook. They reveal personal information on Snapchat and Twitter. And they set up Siri- and Alexa-enabled devices in their homes. These devices respond to voice commands and make life easier. But they also spy on you. By definition, they’re always listening. If you have one, that means you voluntarily placed a listening device in your home. In some cases, you placed a camera in your home as well. As time goes by, devices like these will become smaller and cheaper. As they become smaller and cheaper, they’ll appear everywhere. Imagine trillions of HD cameras and microphones – each one the size of a dust particle. Some might be so small you can’t see them. These cameras and microphones will constantly record everything in the world. Like dust, they’ll spread across the earth and settle on every surface. They’ll be everywhere. They’ll settle on your clothes. They’ll come in through the ventilation in your house. They’ll stick to the bottoms of shoes, and they’ll blow through the streets. And this “nanodust” will send everything it sees and hears to the government. Artificial intelligence will sift through all the video and audio feeds. It will search for specific phrases and “undesirable” language. With such technology, the government will have the ability to “listen” to every conversation on earth. No one will escape the ever watchful eye of “Big Brother.” Global Government Cryptocurrency – A growing chorus of nations are now exploring the launch of government-backed cryptocurrencies. Among them are some of the world’s most oppressive regimes, including China, Iran, and North Korea. This is because the replacement of paper currency with government-sponsored cryptocurrency will put unlimited power at the fingertips of government leaders. Not only does cryptocurrency offer a way to permanently record every financial transaction, but it also tracks where you go and what you do. It tracks the websites you visit and makes note of who your friends are. While credit cards, debit cards, mobile phones, and social media profiles already track much of this information, a state-sponsored cryptocurrency will provide the government with 100% unfettered access to this information. It will create a closed, government-controlled economic system where you’ll be dependent on the government for every transaction you engage in. That means if the government decides they don’t like you, they can turn off your access and completely freeze you out of the economic system. They can dictate what you can and can’t buy. They can tell you where you can and can’t go. In essence, state-sponsored cryptocurrency gives government complete and total control over all commerce. How Will the World React? At first, it’s likely the world will focus only on the positive benefits of these advanced technologies. After a brief period of upheaval, global government will usher in a new era of peace – much like the Pax Romana of ancient Rome. Most people will be happy with the material abundance and increased standards of living, even if they have to sacrifice freedoms in exchange. If one man brings these benefits to the world, how will the world view him? Imagine if Satan came to earth and used promises of world peace and miracle healings to trick the world into following a false messiah. Do you think he would be effective? Jesus said he will. The Coming False Messiah After encounters with Jesus, miraculous events regularly took place. The mute could speak. The deaf could hear. The paralyzed could walk, and the blind could see. Because of these miracles, many believed in Jesus. But others refused to believe, even though these miracles verified His identity as the Messiah. What did Jesus say about these people? He said, "I have come in my Father's name, and you refused to receive me. But a day will come when another man comes in his own name, and him you will receive" (John 5:43-44). When the Antichrist arrives on the world scene, he’ll bring with him advanced technology that will: 1) Restore the vocal abilities of the mute. 2) Reverse paralysis for those with spinal cord injuries. 3) Restore sight for the blind. 4) Restore all sound and hearing for the deaf. and 5) Cure any physical disease now afflicting humans. The world will appear to be at peace, and the world will receive him as its savior. As the world looks forward to a “Great Reset” and new technologies transform the world, you can be sure the Antichrist is waiting in the wings. All the signs are present. Just look around you. The world is in the midst of a global pandemic (Luke 21:11). Israel is back in the land (Jeremiah 23:7-8). The Jewish people are back in Jerusalem (Luke 21:24-28). And the Gospel is being preached throughout the world (Matthew 24:14). We’re also on the verge of developing technologies which will bring about global government (Revelation 13:7) and a global monetary system capable of controlling the entire world (Revelation 13:16-17). Jesus said when you see all these signs, you can know His return is near (Luke 21:28). We can see those signs now. Jesus is coming soon. Five Ways President Biden Undermined Middle East Peace Last Week - https://georgiastarnews.com/2021/02/16/commentary-five-ways-biden-undermined-middle-east-peace-last-week/ Last week alone, the Biden administration has made at least five blunders that will set back prospects for Middle East peace. These unforced errors will only serve to isolate our traditional allies in the region (Israel and the Gulf States) and enable Iran and its proxies and the Palestinian Authority. Revocation of Terrorist Designation of Houthis in Yemen On February 12, Secretary of State Antony Blinken released a statement saying that effective February 16, the Biden administration will revoke the Trump administration’s designation of the Houthis, Iran’s proxy group in Yemen, as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO). The Trump administration had also sanctioned Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) in part for providing military expertise to the Houthis; it remains to be seen if the Biden administration will reverse this as well. Ironically, the Biden administration admitted that the Houthis are in fact terrorists when State Department spokesman Ned Price called out “their reprehensible conduct, including… attacks against civilians and the kidnapping of American citizens, among other moves.” Houthi warfare tactics include conscripting child soldiers, intentionally targeting civilians, using civilians as human shields, and hostage-taking, all hallmarks of terrorists. The removal of the Houthis’ FTO designation will not advance Middle East peace and will merely serve to enable Iran. This policy change will not stop the Houthis from terrorizing Yemeni and Saudi Arabian civilians. In fact, it only took one day to demonstrate the true worthlessness of Blinken’s statement: on Saturday, Saudi Arabia foiled a Houthi terrorist drone attack on one of its civilian airports. Distancing Itself From Israel and Saudi Arabia President Biden has yet to call Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, despite calling the leaders of at least 10 other countries, including Russia and China. This stands in contrast to President Bush Sr. calling Israel five days after inauguration, President Clinton after three days, President Bush Jr. after a week, President Obama after one day, and President Trump after two days. When asked, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki refused to confirm that both Israel and Saudi Arabia are “important allies” of the United States. Instead, Psaki responded with garbled nonsense that “there are ongoing processes and internal interagency processes” and that “we’ve only been here three and a half weeks.” Some believe that the “ongoing processes and internal interagency processes” mumbled by Psaki hint that the Biden administration is “reviewing” the U.S.–Israeli and U.S.–Saudi strategic partnerships. Such distancing from Israel and Saudi Arabia will only damage relations with our allies, harm the prospects of more peace deals in the spirit of the Trump administration’s Abraham Accords, and appease Iran and the Palestinian Authority. Opposing “Annexation” and “Settlement Building” U.S. State Department spokesperson Ned Price issued a statement opposing, among other things, “annexation” and “settlement building” in Judea and Samaria, known commonly as the “West Bank.” These remarks were in response to remarks by Israel’s Keren Kayemeth LeIsrael Jewish National Fund (KKL-JNF), which is currently debating whether it should spend “millions” of dollars in purchasing land from Palestinians in and near Israeli towns in Judea and Samaria. Where the Biden administration has taken an early antagonistic stance against “annexation” and “settlement building,” the Trump administration was willing to effectively recognize Israeli sovereignty in about 30 percent of Judea and Samaria. The Biden administration’s annexation/settlement stance is as much a non-starter for Israel as it is nonsensical. Israel has an inalienable right to exercise sovereignty in and build in Judea and Samaria, the heartland of the Jewish people. When then-Sen. Joe Biden chastised Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin for Israel’s settlement policy in 1982, and Begin responded with his famous “I am not a Jew with trembling knees” speech, Judea and Samaria had fewer than 22,000 “settlers,” with an additional 76,000 or so living in eastern Jerusalem. Now, Judea and Samaria has over 460,000 “settlers,” with an additional 220,000 or so living in eastern Jerusalem. These “settlers” are here to stay, and any future peace overtures should acknowledge this reality. Equivocating on Israeli Sovereignty Over the Golan Heights When asked during a CNN interview whether the Biden administration seeks the Golan Heights as a part of Israel, Secretary of State Blinken, while recognizing that “the Golan is very important to Israel’s security,” also said, “Legal questions are something else. And over time, if the situation were to change in Syria, that’s something we’d look at. But we are nowhere near as that [sic].” The Biden administration is thus poised to upend the Trump administration’s unequivocal recognition of Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights. More specifically, this reveals that the Biden administration is amenable to pressuring Israel to relinquish sovereignty of the Golan in exchange for peace with Syria. While the United States and Israel should always be open to a long-shot possibility of a normalization agreement between Israel and Syria, denying Israel’s permanent sovereignty over the Golan Heights will be a non-starter for Israel. In response to Blinken’s comments, Netanyahu said, “The Israeli position is clear. In any possible scenario, the Golan Heights will remain Israeli.” As I have argued elsewhere, Israel’s claim to the Golan has ancient roots, its claim on the territory is in fact stronger than Syria’s, and the Golan is of immense strategic importance to Israel and the West, especially given Iranian investment in the Syrian Civil War and Iranian military assets just beyond the Israeli-controlled Heights. Failing to Strike an Israel – Oman Normalization Deal Perhaps as a vote of no confidence in Biden administration statecraft, Oman’s foreign minister recently stated that Oman is “content” with its current relationship with Israel. This remark has greatly deflated hopes that the Biden administration can close on an Israel–Oman normalization deal, which the Trump administration had made significant progress towards clinching. The Biden administration’s growing overtures to Iran to re-negotiate the Iran nuclear deal will likely further cool prospects of an Israel–Oman deal, as Oman is an ally of Iran as well as the Gulf States, and a nuclear deal will give Iran more leverage to pressure Oman. As it enters its fourth week in office, the Biden administration has dropped the baton on Middle East peace. And unfortunately, a course correction appears unlikely. World Council of Churches Hardens Their Heart Towards Israel – Dexter Van Zile - https://www.prophecynewswatch.com/article.cfm?recent_news_id=4567 The World Council of Churches (WCC) had a chance to draw a line in the sand. It had a chance to show the world that it took the plague of antisemitism seriously and understood that ugly dishonest polemics about Israel undermine the ability of Christians to promote peace in the Holy Land. The organization also had a chance to come clean and admit that, yes, the WCC has been an ardent and persistent supporter of the BDS campaign that falsely portrays Israel as a singular human rights abuser on the world stage -- and in so doing, has fomented a plague of hostility towards Israel and Jews. Instead of pretending that the WCC never supported BDS, the group could have declared that it is now doing what it can to distance itself from the bigoted and discredited movement that it previously embraced. WCC officials also had a chance to admit that by singling out the Jewish state for condemnation -- while ignoring actual crimes against humanity in places like China and Syria -- their organization had given Jews throughout the world every reason to regard Christians and the ecumenical movement with suspicion. But instead of engaging in an act of metanoia, the WCC's leaders in Geneva (and one of its activists in South Africa) hardened their hearts against the truth, and doubled down on the lies they've told about events in the Holy Land (and themselves as peacemakers). With their refusal to confront their mistakes, leaders and staffers at the WCC have demonstrated once again that they see Jewish survival and self-determination as stumbling blocks to Christians who, after all, purport to follow Jesus -- a Jew himself. The controversy began on February 6, 2021, when Rev. Frank Chikane, a prominent member of the African National Congress (ANC) in South Africa, made false and incendiary comments during a webinar to promote a 27-minute film about the pro-Palestinian activism of Michel Sabbah. He falsely reported that people die every day as a result of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and declared, among other things, that "the blood of the people of Palestine will be sought from" Israel's supporters. I wrote about Chikane's hateful comments in an article for this site. But instead of responding with the appropriate shock and remorse, the WCC did what politicians do when they are in trouble -- they tried to shoot the messenger in a dishonest and evasive media advisory. In its advisory, the WCC's interim general secretary Ioan Sauca said my article was inaccurate because the WCC "has never called for an economic boycott of the State of Israel." It also quoted Rev. Frank Chikane as being from the ANC in order to declare that he wasn't speaking on behalf of the WCC when he made the comments he did. (So much for a ringing condemnation of his anti-Israel polemics.) The notion that the WCC has not promoted the BDS movement is simply laughable. The media advisory declares that the WCC does not "espouse economic measures against Israel," but in reality, the WCC has been a primary and central supporter of the BDS movement in progressive Christian circles for years. In 2005, the WCC's Central Committee commended the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church USA for approving a a 2004 overture that initiated "a process of phased, selective divestment of multinational companies operating in Israel." The committee also encouraged WCC member churches to "give serious consideration" to adopting similar strategies targeting Israel. After that 2005 statement, the liberal Protestant publication Christian Century published an article from Religion News Service that said the organization had come out in favor of "divestment." When shown this article, WCC officials said the 16-year-old article was inaccurate. How convenient. These days, the WCC's support for BDS flows through two of its institutions, the first being the Palestine-Israel Ecumenical Forum (PIEF), which was established in 2007 at a WCC meeting in Amman, Jordan. According to a summary produced by the Presbyterian Church in 2010, the PIEF met for two years, "encouraging the writing of a defining statement from our Palestinian partners," which later became known as "Kairos Palestine." The same PCUSA report declares that the PIEF met again in December 2009, "in Bethlehem, Palestine, and there witnessed the unveiling of a Palestinian Christian statement: 'Kairos Palestine: A Moment of Truth, A Word of Faith, Hope, and Love from the Heart of Palestinian Suffering.'" In addition to declaring the Israeli presence in the West Bank a "sin against God and humanity" (without offering one word of condemnation of Palestinian terrorism, incitement, or pay-to-slay policies), the Kairos Palestine document promotes -- you guessed it -- BDS. The document, which is posted on the WCC's website, calls for "the beginning of a system of economic sanctions and boycott to be applied against Israel." "I cannot see how the WCC is not for BDS," said Rev. Dr. Jill Schaeffer, former associate visiting professor of ethics at the New York Theological Seminary, who staffed the human rights desk for the World Alliance for Reform Churches from 1985-1991. "All of their actions are for BDS." Two employees of the WCC, one former and one current, helped write "Kairos Palestine." The current WCC employee who helped write the document is Yusef Daher, who works at the WCC's Jerusalem Inter-Church Centre (when he's not posting hateful anti-Israel messages on Facebook). The former WCC staffer who helped write the document is Rifat Odeh Kassis, who in 2005 and 2006, served as international manager for the WCC's Ecumenical Accompaniment Program in Palestine and Israel (EAPPI) -- which provides shock troops for the BDS movement (more about them below). In his 2011 book about the document, Kassis declares that the BDS language in the text is intended to obstruct normalization between Israel and the Palestinians. Of the WCC support for the Kairos Palestine document, Kassis writes, "The range and scope of institutional support for the Kairos Document -- including by international ecumenical bodies like the WCC -- was likewise unprecedented, further increasing its impact and universality." The PIEF worked hand-in-glove with Palestinians who wrote the text, and promoted it once it was finished. The EAPPI, meanwhile, sends privileged Westerners into the West Bank to document Israeli (but not Palestinian) misdeeds -- and upon returning home, to promote BDS in their churches. In 2012, EAPPI issued a document titled "Faith Under Occupation," which included multiple calls for boycotts against Israel. Why is the WCC now trying to deny its support for BDS? One likely explanation is that it needs to maintain access to Jerusalem. In 2016, the Israeli government prohibited a WCC official from entering the country, in part because of the WCC's support for BDS. Instead of saying, "We're done with BDS," the WCC is trying to gaslight everyone by telling us it never supported the movement. The Temporary Collapse Of Texas Is Foreshadowing The Total Collapse Of The United States - by Michael Snyder - http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/the-temporary-collapse-of-texas-is-foreshadowing-the-total-collapse-of-the-united-states/ We are getting a very short preview of what will eventually happen to the United States as a whole. America’s infrastructure is aging and crumbling. Our power grids were never intended to support so many people, our water systems are a complete joke, and it has become utterly apparent that we would be completely lost if a major long-term national emergency ever struck. Texas has immense wealth and vast energy resources, but now it is being called a “failed state”. If it can’t even handle a few days of cold weather, what is the rest of America going to look like when things really start to get chaotic in this country? At this point, it has become clear that the power grid in Texas is in far worse shape than anyone ever imagined. When extremely cold weather hit the state, demand for energy surged dramatically. At the same time, about half of the wind turbines that Texas relies upon froze, and the rest of the system simply could not handle the massive increase in demand. Millions of Texans were without power for days, and hundreds of thousands are still without power as I write this article. And now we are learning that Texas was literally just moments away from “a catastrophic failure” that could have resulted in blackouts “for months”… Texas’ power grid was “seconds and minutes” away from a catastrophic failure that could have left Texans in the dark for months, officials with the entity that operates the grid said Thursday. As millions of customers throughout the state begin to have power restored after days of massive blackouts, officials with the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, or ERCOT, which operates the power grid that covers most of the state, said Texas was dangerously close to a worst-case scenario: uncontrolled blackouts across the state. I can’t even imagine how nightmarish things would have eventually gotten in Texas if there had actually been blackouts for months. According to one expert, the state really was right on the verge of a “worst case scenario”… The worst case scenario: Demand for power outstrips the supply of power generation available on the grid, causing equipment to catch fire, substations to blow and power lines to go down. If the grid had gone totally offline, the physical damage to power infrastructure from overwhelming the grid could have taken months to repair, said Bernadette Johnson, senior vice president of power and renewables at Enverus, an oil and gas software and information company headquartered in Austin. For years, I have been telling my readers that they have got to have a back up plan for power, because during a major emergency the grid can fail. And when it fails, it can literally cost some people their lives. I was deeply saddened when I learned that one man in Texas actually froze to death sitting in his own recliner… As Texas suffered through days of power outages, a man reportedly froze to death in his recliner with his wife clinging to life beside him. The man was found dead in his Abilene home on Wednesday after being without power for several days in the record cold. Most Americans don’t realize that much of the rest of the world actually has much better power infrastructure than we do. Just check out these numbers… In Japan, the average home sees only 4 minutes of power outages per year. In the American Midwest, the figure is 92 minutes per year. In the Northeast, it’s 214 minutes; all those figures cover only regular outages and not those caused by extreme weather or fires. As our population has grown and our infrastructure has aged, performance has just gotten worse and worse. In fact, things ran much more smoothly all the way back in the mid-1980s… According to an analysis by Climate Central, major outages (affecting more than 50,000 homes or businesses) grew ten times more common from the mid-1980s to 2012. From 2003 to 2012, weather-related outages doubled. In a 2017 report, the American Society of Civil Engineers reported that there were 3,571 total outages in 2015, lasting 49 minutes on average. The U.S. Energy Administration reports that in 2016, the average utility customer had 1.3 power interruptions, and their total blackout time averaged four hours. America is literally crumbling all around us, and it getting worse with each passing year. Our water systems are another example. In Texas, the cold weather literally caused thousands of pipes to burst. The damage caused by all of these ruined pipes is going to be in the billions of dollars. Right now, we are being told that a total of 797 water systems in the state are currently reporting problems with “frozen or broken pipes”… Some 13.5 million people are facing water disruptions with 797 water systems throughout the state reporting issues such as frozen or broken pipes, according to Toby Baker, executive director for the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality. About 725 systems are under a boil water advisory, Baker said during a press conference Thursday. Overall, approximately 7 million residents of the state live in areas that have been ordered to boil water, and it could take months for service to fully return to normal. Without water, none of us can survive for long, and it is absolutely imperative that you have a back up plan in case your local system goes down. In Houston, people that are without water in their homes have been forced to line up to fill buckets at a public spigot… Meanwhile, in scenes reminiscent of a third world country, Houston residents resorted to filling up buckets of water from a spigot in a local neighborhood. One Houston resident, whose power has just gone back on Thursday after three days but still has no water, told DailyMail.com: ‘It is crazy that we just watched NASA land on Mars but here in Houston most of us still don’t have drinking water.’ Of course if your local water system completely fails, there won’t even be a public spigot available for you to get water. Shortages of food and other essential supplies are also being reported in Texas. For Philip Shelley and his young wife, the situation became quite desperate fairly rapidly… Philip Shelley, a resident of Fort Worth, told CNN that he, his wife Amber and 11-month-old daughter, Ava, were struggling to stay warm and fed. Amber is pregnant and due April 4. “(Ava) is down to half a can of formula,” Shelley said. “Stores are out if not extremely low on food. Most of our food in the refrigerator is spoiled. Freezer food is close to thawed but we have no way to heat it up.” So what would they have done if the blackouts had lasted for months? All over the state, extremely long lines have been forming at local supermarkets. In some cases, people have started waiting way before the stores actually open… Joe Giovannoli, 29, arrived at a Central Market supermarket in Austin at 8:30 a.m. Thursday, an hour-and-a-half before it opened. Minutes later, more than 200 people had lined up behind him in the biting 26-degree weather. Giovannoli’s wife is three months pregnant and the power in their one-bedroom Austin apartment blinked out Tuesday night. After a water pipe broke, firefighters also turned off the building’s water, he said. Giovannoli said he realized he still had it better than many others across Texas, but worried how long things will take to get back to normal. This is happening in communities across Texas, and you can see video of one of these “bread lines” right here. Of course those that had gotten prepared in advance did not have to wait in such long lines because they already had food. Sadly, even though Joe Giovannoli had gotten to the supermarket so early, he later received really bad news… A few minutes before the store opened its doors, a manager stepped outside and warned those waiting in line that supplies inside were low: No produce, no baked goods, not much canned food. “We haven’t had a delivery in four days,” he said. Remember, this is just a temporary crisis in Texas that is only going to last for a few days. So what would happen if a severe long-term national emergency disrupted food, water and power systems for months on end? All it took to cause a short-term “collapse scenario” in the state of Texas was some cold weather. Eventually, much worse things will happen to our nation, and it has become clear that we are not ready. So get prepared while you still can, because time is running out. Daily Jot: The Farm Chronicles: Obedience rather than sacrifice – Bill Wilson – www.dailyjot.com Farm work was never finished. As the snow receded and spring sprung in about my nineth year, my Dad came up with a project to clear brush on the western-most side of the property. It was a low-lying area where there was once a saw mill. It had gone wild with thorn trees and general brush over the years and Dad wanted to encourage grass to grow for more grazing land for the cattle and horses. One Saturday morning, he got me up early. Mom had fixed a nice breakfast of eggs and potatoes, and over a cup of tea, we discussed the plan for the day. Little did I know, it could have been my last. We gathered up the axe, hatchets and chain saw, some rope and a couple of cans of gasoline; tossed it all in the bed of the pickup and headed down the road to the sawmill sight. I got out of the pickup and opened the old gate made of rough-sawn timber. You know, the kind that you have to lift up off the ground because it weighs too heavy on the hinges. Dad pulled about halfway down the old log trail and we began unloading. There were a couple of really old dead trees that were hollowed out. Just the year before, my buddy Sonny and I had caught a opossum in one of them. Dad decided to burn them out, so he lit a real slow fire in the hollow. Meanwhile, we would cut the fallen wood in 24-inch lengths and stack it to sell for firewood or to use in the pot belly stove that warmed the milk house and kept the water pump from freezing in the winter. The rest of the “brush” was pitched on a huge bonfire that we had created out in the open space. Dad was no stranger to building a bonfire—probably where I got my pyromaniac tendencies of building huge bonfires for various gatherings of family and church. So we had a bonfire, which served as a consumer of the brush and a warmer of the body. We had two hollow trees that were burning out at the base. And I was busy marking timber every 24 inches and gathering brush as Dad was cutting up the fallen trees into firewood. It was a regular work camp. Fire burning. Hollowed out trees smoking. Both of us working to keep warm. Dad had moved ahead with the chainsaw and was about 30 yards away buzzing loudly on some fallen tree. I was concentrating on gathering some firewood and stacking it. When all of a sudden the chainsaw quit and my Dad yelled, “Get out of there!” I heard him, and even before I could think about it, I ran. I didn’t know where I was running, or why, but I was sprinting away. Suddenly, the hollowed-out tree that was burning crashed to the ground in the very exact place I was stacking wood. 1 Samuel 15:22 says, “Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed than the fat of rams.” No doubt. I obeyed or I might have been the sacrifice. Daily Devotion: True Rebels - by Greg Laurie – www.harvest.org Through their faith, the people in days of old earned a good reputation. —Hebrews 11:2 https://harvest.org/resources/devotion/true-rebels/ - Listen Committed Christians are the true rebels in our culture today. Don’t tell me that it’s rebellious to do drugs and party; that’s the status quo. Don’t tell me that it’s rebellious to do what everyone else does, say what everyone else says, and conform to a preexisting culture that’s changing before our eyes. A world changer, a real Christian, is someone who believes the Bible and lives by what it says. If you want to be a rebel, then follow Jesus Christ. That is real rebellion in the best sense of the word. You don’t even need a leather jacket or a motorcycle or a wallet attached to a chain. World changers are thermostats, not thermometers. A thermometer just tells you the temperature, but a thermostat changes it. Noah was a world changer, and when we think of him, we immediately think of the ark. That’s appropriate, but there was a lot more to his life. Noah is one of a number of people mentioned in Hebrews 11, also known as the Heroes Hall of Faith. These are people who stood out from the crowd and lived as God wanted them to live. They’re not mentioned in the Heroes Hall of Faith because they were perfect. In fact, they were far from it. They’re mentioned primarily because they exercised faith. It’s a word that keeps popping up again and again in Hebrews 11. This reminds us that we don’t have to be perfect for God to use us for His purposes. He’s looking for someone, young or old, to simply say, “All right, Lord. Here I am. Send me. I want to make a difference in my world, in my family, and in my culture.” God isn’t looking for ability; He’s looking for availability. God doesn’t call the qualified; He qualifies the called.
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