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It begins: US government issues $700,000 fine against a digital currency. – S.B.
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Inspector General: IRS Allowed $5.6 Billion In Erroneous Education Tax Credits. PLC
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What’s the Cash Value of Your Vegetable Garden?. – D.S.
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Items from Mr. Econocobas:
Blame the next global financial crisis on the U.S. dollar– More like blame it on central banks and central planning
F.L.I.R. is HERE. FBI using wide scan infra-red monitoring aircraft during Baltimore unrest. – T.P.
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Congressman vs. Surveillance-Happy Secret Police. – RBS
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Ancestry.com Is Now Sharing Your DNA With the Police. They promise not to share your DNA with anyone outside of the company, and yet they did it anyway. They didn’t even ask for a warrant. – H.L.
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Never let a crisis go to waste: France passes new surveillance law in wake of Charlie Hebdo attack. – JBG
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An interactive map that tracks botched police raids in the United States. – D.S.
“We all have our personal Andes.” ? Nando Parrado, Miracle in the Andes
May 6th (1906) is the birthday of Tuvia Bielski. You may remember him as the main character in the movie Defiance. This movie was based on the book Defiance: The Bielski Partisans by Nechama Tec.
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Today, we present another entry for Round 58 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The $12,000+ worth of prizes for this round include:
First Prize:
Second Prize:
Third Prize:
Round 58 ends on May 31st, so get busy writing and e-mail us your entry. Remember that there is a 1,500-word minimum, and that articles on practical “how to” skills for survival have an advantage in the judging.
Ezekiel 33:8-9 gets us right into the thick of what a watchman had better be about: “When I say to the wicked, ‘You wicked person, you will surely die,’ and you do not speak out to dissuade them from their ways, that wicked person will die fora their sin, and I will hold you accountable for their blood. But if you do warn the wicked person to turn from their ways and they do not do so, they will die for their sin, though you yourself will be saved.”
Ouch! Ouch for the wicked man, and ouch for the watchman, if either does not heed the warning. That understood, we need to look seriously at what could be so evil in this country that it would cause God to bring his sword of discipline against us. It doesn’t take a hypersensitive conscience to make a short list of evils in our country that would sicken our Heavenly Father. Wouldn’t it be appropriate to admit, before an all-knowing God, that the following trespasses are cultural addictions?
If this list seems a little too mundane, let’s read it straight from Scripture: “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, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away.” 2 Timothy 3:1-5 (NIV)
Fellow watchmen, this is reality. This is America, and yes this litany of evil has become prevalent, even in the American church. A dozen years ago, African friends of ours sent two of their children to Midwestern American universities for their higher education. On a visit to our home for Christmas, my wife asked Jolla (an 18 year old sister), “What has been the hardest adjustment for you in coming to America?” Without hesitation, she said, “I cannot tell the Christians from non-Christians.” Sadly, Jolla was blatantly honest, and she was right. Jolla is still right. For some reason we think it’s cool to be precisely like the world.
In a nutshell, Americans, whether inside and outside the church, are absolutely self-focused, and in an audacious, shameless manner, we have turned our backs on God. Is there any wonder why our Almighty Heavenly Father is coming with a sword of discipline and destruction?
Do you sense a serious difference here between my perceived, earlier understanding and the actual watchman assignment as it is spoken through Ezekiel? If we are simply called to stand on the wall, scan the distant hills, and warn our friends and family, the repeated message will eventually fall on deaf ears, and the assignment will cause us to tire.
However, that weariness is nothing like the reality of the Almighty God, in anger, advancing on us with drawn sword. There is no defense for prideful, self-centered, and disbelieving mankind in the reality of Who God is.
Let’s double-check this point with another scripture that’s often used to call God’s people to prayer for our nation: “If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.” 2 Chronicles 7:14 (KJV) Here’s how we most often read this passage:
Wrong! These are our wicked ways!
God opens this section with “if my people”. He is addressing us– His people, His chosen ones, Christians, believers. He says we must “turn from our wicked ways” if we want to be forgiven and see our land healed. Yes, there is wickedness amongst us, and we must own it. To deny this fact, in the face of the all-knowing God, is to invite His sword of discipline to come upon us and to come without mercy.
Is God not telling us very clearly:
(These steps are gleaned from the experience of a number of God-fearing watchmen.)
“And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.” (Galatians 6:9). My wife and I are very close to a young family man. I watch this man, who rejects the ideas of personal felt needs and worldly rewards, and in doing so invests all energy and resources in building a godly family. Such a reality humbles me, especially when I think back to my meager efforts as a young dad and husband. I even misunderstood the assignment of a watchman at one time. However, I am reminded that it’s not the looking back that counts, but it is the promises of a loving God who we can know and obey now.
Fellow watchmen, we must avoid any pride in our preparations or in the warnings we bring from God himself. He is willing to forgive the changed heart and pull back his sword. Let us draw in tight with God’s people, turn from all evil, and stand against the schemes of the enemy.
Blessings on your call to duty,
James,
Our county department of health is running an exercise to see how well they could do if they had to distribute an anti-viral to the community. They are asking for volunteers to take part in an effort to try to stress their delivery system. I am encouraged that the local officials, even in hyper-liberal Boulder County Colorado, take the possibility of an outbreak seriously enough to run an exercise. – R.R.
The War On Cash: Transparently Totalitarian. – G.G.
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End of cash?. – D.S.
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Items from Mr. Econocobas:
Video: Peter Schiff – FOMC Rate Hike Hints are a Bluff – The best part is when the commentators say, “The market has rallied on 3% or 4% before, so why couldn’t it now.” This just shows the fundamental lack of understanding of debt and interest payments.
Venezuela opposition leader says Jan-April inflation 50 percent
Greece Attacks Creditors as ECB Considers Next Liquidity Step (includes video)
Financial Reckoning Day Fallout: Surviving Today’s Global Depression by Addison Wiggin and Bill Bonner
The Long Emergency: Surviving the End of Oil, Climate Change, and Other Converging Catastrophes of the Twenty-First Century by James H. Kunstler
?Patriots – Surviving the Coming Collapse – Trike Flying (The pilot of an experimental trike aircraft flies over the locales of my first novel.)
Muslims, Blacks, and Homosexuals: The Three Faces of Intolerance. – J.C.
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DHS is working on an RFID biometric ID badge that knows when you go the bathroom. – H.L.
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Bear believed to have chased runners euthanized by DEEP for study. – H.L.
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Communication Device Stays on When Power and Cell Service Goes Down. – G.P.
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Some very interesting ways to carry firearms in your vehicle. As always, pay attention to the firearms laws in the state in which you live and through which you travel.
“Please challenge me because whenever I am challenged, I learn a way to survive and a brilliant technique to fight.” ? Rohan Nath
May 5th is the birthday of Pat Frank (1908-1964). This was the pen name of newspaper journalist Harry Hart Frank. His novel Alas, Babylon is a survivalist classic. His personal life was marred by alcoholism, but his writing is admired and still surprisingly popular, today. (Alas, Babylon is still in print, after more than 50 years!) As an homage to Pat Frank, one of the settings in JWR’s novel Expatriates is Mt. Dora, Florida, which was fictionalized by Pat Frank as Fort Repose in Alas, Babylon.
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Today, we present another entry for Round 58 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The $12,000+ worth of prizes for this round include:
First Prize:
Second Prize:
Third Prize:
Round 58 ends on May 31st, so get busy writing and e-mail us your entry. Remember that there is a 1,500-word minimum, and that articles on practical “how to” skills for survival have an advantage in the judging.
If you’ve been at the tasks of continually surveying the landscape, monitoring changes in our country, calculating family needs for the coming months or years, spending 95% of your discretionary funds on dried vegetables and wool socks, encouraging anyone close to you to heed the warnings, and wondering if it’s your last time to hear the national anthem, then you can identify with my sense of being tired with it all.
Yes, I’m tired beyond fatigue. Worse yet, when I went back to the Bible to reexamine the teaching in regard to the task of a watchman, I discovered I’ve been mistaken. I’ve not been advocating a false teaching, but in my exuberance to define the task I missed the most critical point. Walk with me up to my recent reexamination of Ezekiel chapter 33.
Watchman fatigue has been a heavy weight on my shoulders for the past two or three months. Actually, it’s been gnawing at my craw for probably a year, but it felt more like a personal failure, or perhaps it was the sinister effect of growing old. After all, anything that has life and moves forward with gusto in this world is creative and draws in new blood. Apparently I’d lost it, and as is often the case, I was the last one to catch on to what seemed like my own demise.
My wife and I have three adult children, and they’ve produced our dozen grandchildren– a quiver that brings great joy on all fronts. We raised our family in the Midwest, where they were guaranteed to be above average. Then, as empty nesters, we eventually found our way about as far to the north and west as we could go and still be in America. Most opportunities are not random, and we interestingly ended up beyond the American Redoubt. Eventually, one of our adult children and his family relocated to the same city, and we enjoy gratifying extended family times both here and on visits back to the Midwest. We are technically retired but with a lot left to do.
Although I had yet to discover the definition, I became a self-assigned watchman of world affairs in the summer of 1998, and as such I pursued keeping my family alert to the potential pitfalls that could come with the eminent turn of the century and a subtle world-wide computer glitch. The kids were gone, so we went about gathering and storing with an eye toward welcoming any of them home in the event the world became unlivable. Without much ado we let them all know of the plan, then we quietly waited for midnight 2000. We said, “Huh, that didn’t amount to much.” We didn’t despair in the least. After all, we liked creative eating and living somewhat off the grid, and we had become especially fond of trying exotic bread recipes built from home-ground grains. A few weeks later a close friend exhorted us not to come to any quick conclusions. The growing consensus was that Y2K was a dry run and the real thing was yet to come. Our response was “Okay. We’re still in.”
A few years later we found ourselves migrating from our semi-rural, somewhat off-the-grid homestead, several thousand miles away, temporarily relocating to work with families in a medium-sized church to a city of all places. Being outdoor adventurers, we could have made the change for any number of exciting reasons, but we simply felt the nudge from the Lord and wanted to be obedient. We left our stores behind, thinking we’d return in a few years and pick up where we left off. It wasn’t long before, with our ear still to the ground, that we realized we needed to get back on track with an updated pre-2000 focus. While there was still time we should look at Joseph’s Biblical example and be ready for some tough years in Egypt.
Working in a church with dozens of families and men who were committed to be Biblical providers caused me to take seriously the task of helping these men stay alert to the realities of the world. 1 Timothy 5:8, “Anyone who does not provide for their relatives, and especially for their own household, has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.” (KJV) In my mind, providing meant three things. It meant to:
The focus intensified when a dozen men started meeting weekly in my office for lunch, where for an hour we’d look at the condition of the world, search the Scriptures for God’s truth, and pray for His wisdom and direction as to how we should live. We saw how important the “Men of Issachar” were to King David and his army. In 1 Chronicles 12:32, we read about these men who understood the times and knew what to do. We also assumed they were obedient, so we regularly and humbly asked God to speak to us in our time by saying, “Lord, would you show us what to do?”
Now, nearly ten years after our move, we have several hundred additional acquaintances, 50-100 fairly good friends, and more than a few folks with whom we are very close. While I don’t consider myself fanatical with my self-assigned role as a watchman, and it’s only one of a number of my involvements, I care very much for our friends and family, and I would not hold back on information that I’d consider critical to life and our convictions. As the waters of the world continue to grow muddy, often even foul, I’ve become more discerning and strategic in approaching the subject, and I’ve learned to perceive a cold shoulder even before it is turned in my direction. Sadly, with a couple of good friends– men with whom I’ve shared mutual concerns– I have to admit we’ve drifted apart, I believe because we simply grew tired of being on the alert. Eventually it began to feel like all the reality out there, which we knew was headed our direction, had somehow just bogged us down. Our relationship didn’t survive being built solely on the assignment of a watchman.
First, in a Biblical framework, what is a “watchman”? It was years back when someone first drew my attention to Ezekiel chapter 33 and pointed out the role of one’s assignment to stand at a key observation point (on the city wall or prominent place) to warn the people of any incoming danger, or that is what we assumed from a cursory reading. There it was, and I now had a Biblical justification for keeping my eyes on world events and warning my friends and family of what was coming.
That understanding of the job may be accurate for a military sentry. There is certainly justification for America being acutely alert and to defend our land against the encroachment of our enemies. The watchman responsibility grays when our moral and spiritual enemies permeate multiple areas of our life. When a nation becomes spiritually generic, who decides or warns of the destruction ahead? In reality we haven’t kept them out, nor do we have the resolve to expel the enemy from our midst.
With God there is no gray line. He assumes of His people a deep commitment to righteousness and to honoring His name. Such a commitment necessitates a watchman with an acute capability to see any advance of the enemy from without, as well as a courageous, uncompromising oversight of His people from within. God is absolutely unwilling for His people to cohabitate with wickedness. There is more on this in a moment. Ezekiel now warns us that the greatest danger is already from within.
More recently I’ve been convicted to look again at Ezekiel 33, in light of the sword, and ask who is actually wielding the sword and why? I’m finding this passage is not simply a warning from God to put a guard on the wall to warn us of danger. As I take a new look, I see a more powerful warning here. This is God saying, “When I bring the sword (most likely weapons of serious destruction) against a land…” Clearly it is God who is wielding the sword, it will be devastating, and He is bringing it against His own people.
What is going on here? Why is God wielding the sword against His own people? It’s a gut-wrenching reality that God brings the sword of discipline and punishment against His people because there is wickedness or evil amongst us. Remember, God does not compromise; in His scheme of things, righteousness and wickedness cannot co-habitat. The line is black and white. When God’s anger is stirred, He will bring punishment and even destruction. Evil is an insidious enemy, and it resides within. We must consider ourselves warned.
A good part of the challenge we have– to see reality in America as well as in the Church– is our history as a Christian nation. Our nation was built on a desire to be free, and in that freedom God has blessed us beyond imagination. However, with that freedom has also come a susceptibility to making wrong decisions. With wrong decisions comes a slow, subtle drift toward evil.
A slow drift towards evil, while keeping one foot in the “we are a Christian nation camp,” produces the “having a form of godliness but denying its power” syndrome. (1 Tim 3:5). So, now we have a serious case of clouded vision. Clouded vision can hardly imagine that such a powerful, blessed nation could merit God’s sword of discipline coming against us. Aren’t we the Body of Jesus Christ– His Church? Are we not the good guys?
HJL:
Search with Google, the candidate “Scott Walker” and then use Duck Duck Go to search the same thing. When I did it, Google queued up 10 articles on him that were all negative. The Duck queued up 6 favorable articles with four negative articles. I’m not necessarily endorsing Mr. Walker, but he is a controversial figure, due to his anti-union measures, making him a good example of Google limiting not just what you see but what you should think. – RV
The Conservative Christian Identification Act. Montana citizens should contact their legislators about this dangerous bill.
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In the same week, Idaho had a Muslim-Turned-Christian Warn of the dangers radical Islam in Idaho and then had to hear about hundreds of Muslim refugees headed to Idaho.
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Fake Boise lawyer to spend 21 days behind bars, pay back clients. – RBS
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Snow Melt: ‘It’s about a month earlier than we would expect normally’
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Sam Culper (of Guerrillamerica.com and Forward Observer Magazine) will be teaching several Intelligence and Analysis courses in the American Redoubt and even has a couple of dates open if you want to facilitate bringing him to your town (min. 5 students + sponsor/facilitator).
The first training weekend is May 29–31 in Spokane, WA. There are three-day or two-day options…whichever works for you. It’s good to have him back in the American Redoubt.
‘Intelligence Preparation of the Community’
Silver and NASDAQ – Long, Medium and Short Trends
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U.S. Sanctions & Saber Rattling Doesn’t Stop The U.S. From Importing Russian Petroleum
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Items from Mr. Econocobas:
Video: Peter Schiff – Will the Fed Run Out of Excuses as the Weather Warms?