JWR’s Recommendations of the Week:

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Here are JWR’s Recommendations of the Week for various media and tools of interest to SurvivalBlog readers. The focus is usually on emergency communications gear, bug out bag gear, books and movies–often with a tie-in to disaster preparedness, and links to “how to” self-sufficiency videos. There are also links to sources for both storage food and storage containers. You will also note an emphasis on history books and historical movies. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. This week the focus is on winter greenhouse gardening and sprouting. (See the Books section.)

Books:

Reader Steve R. wrote to again recommend the book Crisis in the Red Zone: The Story of the Deadliest Ebola Outbreak in History, And of the Outbreaks to Come, by Richard Preston. He also authored The Hot Zone and other medically-related books.

From the author’s Preface: “The people in this story have been largely unnoticed by the world.  Yet, for me at least, their actions and choices, their lives and deaths, seem to loom at the center of the  most destructive rapid epidemic in anyone’s lifetime, one which sent feelers into Dallas and New York City, and may be an example of things to come.”

Steve’s Comments: “Preston is an excellent descriptive writer and this book is mostly about the 2013-2014 outbreak, although the 1976 one is included as well. Epidemics/pandemics are, of course, on the list of things we should be aware of as we prepare.  Preston describes civil order breaking down, even to the point of attacking medical personnel.  Many people involved found strength in their Christian faith.  The activities of personnel representing Samaritan’s Purse, a Christian medical relief organization, are described throughout the book.

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Sam Houston and the Alamo Avengers: The Texas Victory That Changed American History

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The Greenhouse Gardener’s Manual

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Year-Round Indoor Salad Gardening: How to Grow Nutrient-Dense, Soil-Sprouted Greens in Less Than 10 Days

Continue reading“JWR’s Recommendations of the Week:”

The Editors’ Quote of the Day:

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“Calling QE not-QE doesn’t make it different than QE, but it does communicate the Fed’s panicky desire to mask its stupendous injection of financial cocaine into the financial system. The Fed’s level of panic is noteworthy, as is the absurd transparency of its laughable attempt to conceal its panic.

In the same fashion, the financial media is loudly declaring the current blowoff top in stocks is not a blowoff top. The delicious irony here is these denials are reliable markers of blowoff tops: the louder the denials, the greater the odds that this is in fact the blowoff top that many pundits have been expecting for some time, but always in the future.” – Charles Hugh Smith

Preparedness Notes for Tuesday — November 19, 2019

In an unprecedented move, Egyptian president Anwar el-Sadat traveled to Jerusalem on November 19th, 1977, to seek a permanent peace settlement with Israel after decades of conflict. Despite heavy criticism from Egypt’s regional allies, Sadat continued, eventually reaching a peace agreement with Israel at the Camp David accords in Maryland. While Sadat and Begin were jointly awarded the 1978 Nobel Peace prize for their efforts, the peace accord was not admired by the Arabs, eventually leading to Sadat’s assassination. Despite this, the Egyptian-Israeli peace continues today.

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Today, I’m posting a feature article by my lovely wife, Avalanche Lily.

Our Winter Indoor Greenhouse Room, by Avalanche Lily

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I was recently asked for any advice that I could give concerning growing foods indoors. Growing anything indoors or outdoors is always an experiment, because there are so many variables to contend with.  In essence: Indoors: humidity, light, and nutrition. Outside: sunspots (or lack thereof), temperature, cloud cover, rain, drought, storms, bugs, soil nutrition, et cetera.

Let me preface that I have no claim at all in thinking that I’m an expert. I’m not. I am no expert at all, nor am I an expert in any subject. I am a “by the seat of your pants” kinda girl.  I just get a general idea of something that I am interested in doing. I do some basic research and then get the equipment needed, and do it. I don’t try to be the best, the expert, or to do anything perfect.  That stresses me out! There will always be people who do it better, neater, more professionally, have a better method, be more organized, have more ingenuity, are faster, or with more knowledge.  I just want to do projects for fun, in a simple manner, experimentally, to see what happens, and then improve it for the next iteration, if it is worth the time and energy.

Therefore, with this in mind, I will tell you about my indoor garden, what I have done, for fun and learning,  with the goal of growing some of our own food. I’ll relate my trials and tribulations, and what my results have been. I’ve organized this as a scientific experiment and report. I’ve done so in a loose framework of a Scientific Research Paper which consists of: Introduction, Methods and Materials, Results, Discussion, and Conclusion.

Introduction

Many people in the SurvivalBlog community and others have recently observed the claimed “climate change” occurring around the world. We have seen adverse weather events (such as late freezes and early frosts, high wind rain storms, hail storms, drought and lack of rain, too much rain and flooding) which has destroyed crops and livestock during the past two years. The sun has cycles of eleven years, but for the two most recent cycles, there have been dramatically fewer sunspots. The mainstream media is barely reporting on this — keeping the general public at large in the dark. What is really happening is that we are entering a Grand Solar  Minimum, and there will be global cooling, not warming, perhaps for many decades.  The mass media will not tell you about the approaching food crises which will lead to food scarcity and famines.  It won’t be until there is profound cooling that they try to claim that it is the “Climate Change” that they had warned of.

Those of us who aware and proactive are already growing our own gardens and are preserving our own foods through canning, dehydration, freezing, and even freeze-drying. Crops can be protected in short growing seasons with greenhouses, hoop houses,and even indoor gardening. Indoor growing only works if one has electricity. This article describes my experiment with growing vegetables indoors, in a guest bedroom.Continue reading“Our Winter Indoor Greenhouse Room, by Avalanche Lily”

SurvivalBlog’s News From The American Redoubt

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This weekly column features news stories and event announcements from around the American Redoubt region. (Idaho, Montana, eastern Oregon, eastern Washington, and Wyoming.) Much of the region is also more commonly known as The Inland Northwest. We also mention companies of interest to preppers and survivalists that are located in the American Redoubt region. Today, we focus on the death of Jessi Combs.   (See the Eastern Oregon section.)

Idaho

Faithful Observations: From 9/11 ashes arose Christian emergency group.  JWR’s Note: I learned that the newspaper had a typo in the contact e-mail address fro the north Idaho representative. His correct e-mail address is Nick.welbaum@ChristianEmergencyNetwork.net. (There is only one “L” in Welbaum, not two as in the article).

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The Los Angeles Times reports: ‘Go back to California’: Wave of newcomers fuels backlash in Boise.  JWR’s Comment:  It is the liberal mindset on some Californians that isn’t wanted. True conservatives are generally welcomed.

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Property Rights Organization Laclede Meeting

Continue reading“SurvivalBlog’s News From The American Redoubt”

Preparedness Notes for Monday — November 18, 2019

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On this day in 1978, Peoples Temple founder Jim Jones led hundreds of his followers in a mass murder-suicide at their Jonestown agricultural commune in a remote part of the South American nation of Guyana. This incredibly tragic occurrence introduce the term “…drink the Kool-Aid” into our parlance, since poison-laced punch was the vehicle behind most of the deaths. This serves as a stark warning and reminder to those in the prepping/survivalist community who would join with like-minded friends under the leadership of a charismatic leader. Always know who you are following!

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SurvivalBlog Writing Contest

Today we present another entry for Round 85 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The more than $12,000 worth of prizes for this round include:

First Prize:

  1. A $3,000 gift certificate towards a Sol-Ark Solar Generator from Veteran owned Portable Solar LLC. The only EMP Hardened Solar Generator System available to the public.
  2. A Gunsite Academy Three Day Course Certificate. This can be used for any one, two, or three day course (a $1,095 value),
  3. A course certificate from onPoint Tactical for the prize winner’s choice of three-day civilian courses, excluding those restricted for military or government teams. Three day onPoint courses normally cost $795,
  4. DRD Tactical is providing a 5.56 NATO QD Billet upper. These have hammer forged, chrome-lined barrels and a hard case, to go with your own AR lower. It will allow any standard AR-type rifle to have a quick change barrel. This can be assembled in less than one minute without the use of any tools. It also provides a compact carry capability in a hard case or in 3-day pack (an $1,100 value),
  5. Two cases of Mountain House freeze-dried assorted entrees in #10 cans, courtesy of Ready Made Resources (a $350 value),
  6. A $250 gift certificate good for any product from Sunflower Ammo,
  7. American Gunsmithing Institute (AGI) is providing a $300 certificate good towards any of their DVD training courses.

Second Prize:

  1. A gift certificate from Quantum Harvest LLC (up to a $2,200 value) good for 12% off the purchase of any of their sun-tracking models, and 10% off the purchase price of any of their other models.
  2. A Front Sight Lifetime Diamond Membership, providing lifetime free training at any Front Sight Nevada course, with no limit on repeating classes. This prize is courtesy of a SurvivalBlog reader who prefers to be anonymous.
  3. A Glock form factor SIRT laser training pistol and a SIRT AR-15/M4 Laser Training Bolt, courtesy of Next Level Training, which have a combined retail value of $589,
  4. A $300 purchase credit for any of the products from EMPShield.com
  5. A Three-Day Deluxe Emergency Kit from Emergency Essentials (a $190 value),
  6. Two 1,000-foot spools of full mil-spec U.S.-made 750 paracord (in-stock colors only) from www.TOUGHGRID.com (a $240 value).
  7. An assortment of products along with a one hour consultation on health and wellness from Pruitt’s Tree Resin (a $265 value).

Third Prize:

  1. Good2GoCo.com is providing a $400 purchase credit at regular prices for the prize winner’s choice of either Wise Foods or Augason long term storage foods, in stackable buckets.
  2. Three sets each of made-in-USA regular and wide-mouth reusable canning lids. (This is a total of 300 lids and 600 gaskets.) This prize is courtesy of Harvest Guard (a $270 value)
  3. A Royal Berkey water filter, courtesy of Directive 21 (a $275 value),
  4. Expanded sets of both washable feminine pads and liners, donated by Naturally Cozy (a $185 retail value),
  5. Two Super Survival Pack seed collections, a $150 value, courtesy of Seed for Security, LLC,
  6. Mayflower Trading is donating a $200 gift certificate for homesteading appliances.

Round 85 ends on November 30th, 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.

EMP Shield, by Pat Cascio

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First off, let me state that I’m no expert in anything, just a serious student, who is always learning. I’ve spent a lot of time researching the effects of an EMP attack on our electrical grid. One thing that I’ve learned is that there doesn’t seem to be any one source that agrees with others on just what exactly will happen when there is an EMP strike. No one seems to know how long there will be an electrical outage — will it be weeks, months, years, or longer? Some people in this field state that it might be a decade or longer, before we could have an electrical grid up and running once again. And others state that a grid-down collapse could be a multi-generational dark age.

One thing for certain is that any long lapse without electricity can and surely will result in millions of deaths in a very short time. Some experts claim that about 90% of our population will die within a year without electricity. I believe it will be a much shorter time period. Without power, there is no way to produce food, and without food we will die in short order. Additionally, there won’t be any clean water produced for drinking, and without water, everything will die off — this is a fact! There won’t be any production of anything — without power, nothing moves or works.Continue reading“EMP Shield, by Pat Cascio”

Recipe of the Week: R.R.’s Iced Pumpkin Cake Bars

Reader R.R.. kindly sent us this recipe for iced pumpkin cake bars with a cream cheese icing.

Cake Bar Ingredients
    • 4 large eggs, warmed to room temperature
    • 1-2/3 cups granulated white sugar
    • 1 cup of vegetable oil
    • 16 ounces (one can) of solid-pack cooked pumpkin
    • 2 cups all-purpose flour
    • 2 teaspoons of baking powder
    • 2 teaspoons of ground cinnamon
    • 1 teaspoon of baking soda
Icing Ingredients
  • 6 ounces of cream cheese, softened
  • 2 cups powdered sugar
  • 1/4 cup butter, room temperature softened
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1 to 2 tablespoons whole milk
Cake Bar Making Directions
  1. Pre-heat oven to 350° F.
  2. In a mixing bowl, beat the eggs, sugar, oil and pumpkin until well blended.
  3. Combine the flour, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
  4. Gradually add this into the pumpkin,and mix well.
  5. Pour into a lightly-greased greased 10″ x 15″ baking pan that is no more than 2″ deep.
  6. Bake at 350° F for 25 to 30 minutes.
  7. Test with a toothpick to be sure that it is baked through.
  8. Completed cake will only be about 1″ thick.
  9. Cool completely before icing.
Icing Making Directions
  1. In a small mixing bowl, beat the cream cheese, powdered sugar, butter and vanilla.
  2. Add just enough milk to get an icing that can be spread consistently.
  3. After the cake has cooled, spread icing over the cake.
  4. Slice into bars that are less than 2″ wide, and about  3″ long.
SERVING

The icing is a bit messy when warm, so let the cake cool completely, before icing and cutting into bars.

STORAGE

Both the iced bars and any extra icing can be stored in the refrigerator for up to three days. But they will be gobbled up long before then!

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Do you have a favorite recipe that would be of interest to SurvivalBlog readers? In this weekly recipe column we place emphasis on recipes that use long term storage foods, recipes for wild game, dutch oven and slow cooker recipes, and any that use home garden produce. If you have any favorite recipes, then please send them via e-mail. Thanks!

Economics & Investing For Preppers

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Here are the latest news items and commentary on current economics news, market trends, stocks, investing opportunities, and the precious metals markets. We also cover hedges, derivatives, and obscura. Most of these items are from the “tangibles heavy” contrarian perspective of SurvivalBlog’s Founder and Senior Editor, JWR. Today, we look at the market for deactivated guns, in England. (See the Tangibles Investing section.)

Precious Metals:

Revisiting the Dow to Gold Ratio

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Bank Behind World’s Largest Money Laundering Scandal Offered Russians Gold Bars To Hide Their Fortune

Economy & Finance:

Reader A.K. mentioned this, over at MarketWatch: The biggest risk facing the stock market in the coming year isn’t trade jitters or the election, Deutsche Bank warns

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At Zero Hedge: How To Spend $45,000 On A $27,000 Car

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US dials back tariffs on some big-ticket items made in China

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At Wolf Street: The State of the American Debt Slaves, Q3 2019

Continue reading“Economics & Investing For Preppers”

Preparedness Notes for Sunday — November 17, 2019

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On this day in 1777, the Articles of Confederation were submitted to the states for ratification. They differed from the Constitution in that they emphasized the primacy of the states. This brings to mind the dangers of convening a Constitutional Convention, because the last time this happened the Articles of Confederation were thrown out and totally replaced by the Constitution. Do you honestly believe that our politicians today could craft a document that so thoroughly protects the rights of the individual as they did then?

—

SurvivalBlog Writing Contest

Today we present another entry for Round 85 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The more than $12,000 worth of prizes for this round include:

First Prize:

  1. A $3,000 gift certificate towards a Sol-Ark Solar Generator from Veteran owned Portable Solar LLC. The only EMP Hardened Solar Generator System available to the public.
  2. A Gunsite Academy Three Day Course Certificate. This can be used for any one, two, or three day course (a $1,095 value),
  3. A course certificate from onPoint Tactical for the prize winner’s choice of three-day civilian courses, excluding those restricted for military or government teams. Three day onPoint courses normally cost $795,
  4. DRD Tactical is providing a 5.56 NATO QD Billet upper. These have hammer forged, chrome-lined barrels and a hard case, to go with your own AR lower. It will allow any standard AR-type rifle to have a quick change barrel. This can be assembled in less than one minute without the use of any tools. It also provides a compact carry capability in a hard case or in 3-day pack (an $1,100 value),
  5. Two cases of Mountain House freeze-dried assorted entrees in #10 cans, courtesy of Ready Made Resources (a $350 value),
  6. A $250 gift certificate good for any product from Sunflower Ammo,
  7. American Gunsmithing Institute (AGI) is providing a $300 certificate good towards any of their DVD training courses.

Second Prize:

  1. A gift certificate from Quantum Harvest LLC (up to a $2,200 value) good for 12% off the purchase of any of their sun-tracking models, and 10% off the purchase price of any of their other models.
  2. A Front Sight Lifetime Diamond Membership, providing lifetime free training at any Front Sight Nevada course, with no limit on repeating classes. This prize is courtesy of a SurvivalBlog reader who prefers to be anonymous.
  3. A Glock form factor SIRT laser training pistol and a SIRT AR-15/M4 Laser Training Bolt, courtesy of Next Level Training, which have a combined retail value of $589,
  4. A $300 purchase credit for any of the products from EMPShield.com
  5. A Three-Day Deluxe Emergency Kit from Emergency Essentials (a $190 value),
  6. Two 1,000-foot spools of full mil-spec U.S.-made 750 paracord (in-stock colors only) from www.TOUGHGRID.com (a $240 value).
  7. An assortment of products along with a one hour consultation on health and wellness from Pruitt’s Tree Resin (a $265 value).

Third Prize:

  1. Good2GoCo.com is providing a $400 purchase credit at regular prices for the prize winner’s choice of either Wise Foods or Augason long term storage foods, in stackable buckets.
  2. Three sets each of made-in-USA regular and wide-mouth reusable canning lids. (This is a total of 300 lids and 600 gaskets.) This prize is courtesy of Harvest Guard (a $270 value)
  3. A Royal Berkey water filter, courtesy of Directive 21 (a $275 value),
  4. Expanded sets of both washable feminine pads and liners, donated by Naturally Cozy (a $185 retail value),
  5. Two Super Survival Pack seed collections, a $150 value, courtesy of Seed for Security, LLC,
  6. Mayflower Trading is donating a $200 gift certificate for homesteading appliances.

Round 85 ends on November 30th, 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.

Outdoor Survival: Of Belts and Tins, by Randy in S.C.

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M1 Garand cartridge belts and Altoids tins are a match made in prepper’s heaven. You may already have some of these vintage items gathering dust. If not, they are easy to find. Together they can be a literal lifesaver, more capable than smaller survival kits and far less bulky than the typical bugout bag.

The M1 cartridge belt is an adjustable canvas belt with 10 snap-closure pockets, each measuring approximately 3 ¾” x 2 ¾” x 1”. It was standard issue from about 1910 until the full adoption of the M14 rifle in the late 1950s. The belt was originally designed to carry 100 .30-06 cartridges in 5-round stripper clips.   When the Garand came along, GIs instead used these to carry ten 8-round en bloc clips instead. Coincidentally, Altoids tins, at about 3 ½” x 2 ½” x ¾”, also fit just fine…but you probably don’t need ten tins of breath mints. The good news is that lots of other things fit in them when the candy is gone.

Things Came In Tins

When I was young, lots of great things came in tins. Empty, they could be used in any number of ways. Prince Albert tobacco tins, for example, made perfect back-pocket fishing kits. A few worms, a hook, some line wrapped around the outside, and you were set for the day. Band-Aid tins were thicker and didn’t fit my Levi’s as well, but held more marbles or baseball cards. Even Premium saltines came in tins: big ones, maybe five inches square and a foot long. I now wish that I had a hundred of them.

Altoids tins are about the only ones left. I doubt there’s a prepper of my generation who didn’t turn an Altoids tin into a shirt-pocket survival kit, or perhaps a first-aid kit. These are still viable projects. In recent years, recycling Altoids tins has become virtually a cottage industry. There is seemingly no limit to the ways they have been reused. They are particularly popular for small electronic devices. At the end of this article I have included links to some of the most popular and ingenious uses. Many of these projects tend to be just-for-fun, but the solar iPhone charger could have a practical application. The tins are so useful that they can even be bought empty, and in any quantity you might require. Twelve cost about $12 at Amazon. Unless you really hate the Altoids label, you might as well buy them filled and eat the candy.

Where It All Began

I began with a shirt-pocket survival kit – I don’t recall what brand of tin I used. The concept is simple: a container small enough to have with you all the time, packed with tools to make fire, purify water, catch food, treat minor injuries and find your way back to civilization. These took a little ingenuity. At the time a lot of handy items were not readily available for purchase. I had to waterproof matches with nail polish. The best fire starters we had were charcloth and extra-fine steel wool. Cotton balls saturated with Vaseline worked, but were rather messy. Nobody made neat little towelettes and sterile swabs in mylar pouches. Superglue hadn’t been invented. We didn’t even have duct tape!   My early kits were built around a button compass, fishline, hooks and sinkers, a single-edged razor blade or X-Acto knife, waterproof matches, a few band-aids and a small container of antiseptic, and a carefully-folded sheet of aluminum foil. I ‘tested’ my kits on day hikes in the woods, caught and cooked a few fish, and went home convinced I could conquer the world.Continue reading“Outdoor Survival: Of Belts and Tins, by Randy in S.C.”

The Survivalist’s Odds ‘n Sods

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SurvivalBlog presents another edition of The Survivalist’s Odds ‘n Sods— a collection of news bits and pieces that are relevant to the modern survivalist and prepper from “JWR”. Our goal is to educate our readers, to help them to recognize emerging threats and to be better prepared for both disasters and negative societal trends. You can’t mitigate a risk if you haven’t first identified a risk. Today, we look at illegal immigration statistics.

Activated Charcoal for Detox, Food Poisoning & Hangovers

Reader DSV mentioned this, over at Phramacist Ben‘s site: Activated Charcoal for Detox, Food Poisoning & Hangovers

Yale University Claims Up to 29.5 Million Illegal Immigrants

Yale University shocker: 29.5 million illegal immigrants, 3X higher than Census number. The article leads off with this:

“The illegal immigrant population is as high as 29.5 million, far more than the 11 million accepted by experts and the government, according to an explosive new report from three Yale University experts.

“Our results lead us to the conclusion that the widely accepted estimate of 11.3 million undocumented immigrants in the United States is too small. Our model estimates indicate that the true number is likely to be larger, with an estimated 95 percent probability interval ranging from 16.2 to 29.5 million undocumented immigrants,” said their report published by PLOS One, an academic journal.”

Retreat Property in Bridger, Montana

There is a new listing for an off-grid property in Bridger, Montana, over at my #1 Son’s SurvivalRealty.com site.

Supreme Court Lets Sandy Hook Families Sue

H.L. sent this from Fox News: Supreme Court lets Sandy Hook families’ lawsuit against gunmaker proceedContinue reading“The Survivalist’s Odds ‘n Sods”

The Editors’ Quote of the Day:

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“We who are Jews by nature, and not sinners of the Gentiles,

Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law: for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified.

But if, while we seek to be justified by Christ, we ourselves also are found sinners, is therefore Christ the minister of sin? God forbid.

For if I build again the things which I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor.

For I through the law am dead to the law, that I might live unto God.

I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.

I do not frustrate the grace of God: for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain.” – Galatians 2:15-21 (KJV)