Wednesday, March 27, 2013

In The News




The Cyprus story just won't go away. Perhaps it is because of the audacity of the EU to come in and take 40% of people's savings or perhaps it is because this is foreshadowing of what is to come to the rest of the EU and quite possibly the U.S. Either way, we continue to see news and commentary on the evolving situation in Cyprus:







Cyprus has agreed to a ten billion euro ($13bn) deal with eurozone and IMF leaders to bail out its banks, and to prevent the Mediterranean island nation from exiting the European single currency. However, Cypriots can be forgiven for not taking to the streets to wave flags and honk their car horns. They’re finding out just what the “protection” afforded by the euro looks like, and it’s more akin to the kind offered by ski mask-wearing heavies in certain parts of New Jersey than the financial security Monsieur Trichet promised.

Under the terms of the deal, the country’s second-largest bank will be shut down, and its largest bank will be restructured. Depositors with more than €100,000 ($130,000) in either bank will face losses in the vicinity of 40 percent. In a bid to prevent a run on the island’s other banks and to stop money from fleeing the country, capital controls have been imposed — guaranteeing that there will still be capital flight once the restrictions are lifted.



The effect on the Cypriot economy will be catastrophic. Businesses serving the banking sector will begin to fail immediately, and others will follow. Property values will plummet and unemployment will soar as the country is plunged into recession.









For the past four years the world has watched as the Euro Zone countries have careened from one financial crisis to another.  Each time the debacle of the day is papered over with yet another patch involving either more printing of euros, forced austerity budgets, or in the case of Cyprus (but eventually destined to occur in Spain and Portugal) the seizure of bankassets (i.e. deposits).
But these so-called fixes will never solve the problem as long as there is a death wish to maintain the euro as a viable currency regardless of the consequences.  These nations can continue to shuffle the deck chairs on the Titanic only so long before the ship hits the iceberg.


The underlying problem in most countries is Europe is that their economies can no longer generate wealth and job creation.   These nations do not have viable manufacturing or service sectors.  Instead they are overwhelmingly consumption oriented, importing not only fuel but many consumer goods from elsewhere.  Among the reasons for the spike in imported goods is that over the years these governments, in looking for revenue have taxed and regulated their industries into moving elsewhere.

As jobs become scarce there is a greater reliance on government spending on a variety of welfare programs.  All the while the tax base diminishes as joblessness increases and wealth diminishes.  The initial plan by the solons of smart in Strasbourg (the legislative headquarters of the European Union) was to force austerity on these nations in order to bring their deficits and debt down.  However, when there is no real economic growth (in fact most of these nations are in a recession again) and thus no additional revenue to the government, which must provide for so many social programs that no austerity program will achieve their ultimate goal and in fact will only foment societal unrest.



Until these nations (i.e. Spain, Portugal, Italy, Greece, and others) voluntarily opt out of the euro as their national currency and begin to get serious about rebuilding their economies, this will be a never-ending crisis repeated ever 4- 6 months until the entire house of cards collapses. Then there will be a globalfinancial crisis.
At first glance most Americans would ask: what does this mean for the United States?  There are arcane issues concerning currency evaluations and money creation that deserve to be reviewed, however for the average American there is one important lesson: the future of the nation depends not on government or government spending but creating and maintaining a viable growingeconomy.  Something this nation, with this current governing class is not doing nor does it have any intention to do so.










On the eve of Tuesday’s “March for Marriage” in Washington and Supreme Court consideration of court cases on homosexual rights, more evidence of the media bias driving the campaign to change America’s culture and Judeo-Christian foundations has emerged.
Speaking at a “gay journalists” event in New York City last Thursday night, Natalie Morales of the NBC Today Show declared, “Many of us here in this room — the media — we are responsible for opening the world’s eyes to these issues and the stories that have brought about such change. When you think 18 years ago when this organization was founded — think of where the country was back then. And now, 50 percent — according to the Pew poll that we talked about on the news today — support gay marriage, and…some other polls put that number even higher. [This] reflects a change in attitudes in this country.”









It's no wonder that Alexa.com tracks an article titled "Hand of God in Weather" on Weather.com as one of the most popular articles at the moment. What, with snow covering large parts of the U.S. this close to April and unseasonal weather hitting as far as the U.K., people are wondering what's going on.



A steady gainer is the Examiner piece titled "California fireball, Russian meteor, 2013 asteroid: God's end of world warning?" -- having garnered nearly 5,000 page views alone last month, according to Google Analytics.
Indeed, people are wondering what these seemingly frequent sinkhole occurrences have to do with God and the Bible, so that's where this reporter turned. The word "sinkhole" itself couldn't be found in Scripture, however, incidences of sinkhole like instances can be found by searching"earth opened" site:bible.cc in Google.
That turns up various instances whereby the "earth swallowed" up evil men, or a Revelation passage wherein the "…the earth helped the woman by opening its mouth and swallowing the river that the dragon had spewed out of his mouth."
Meteors, on the other hand, are mostly mentioned in biblical commentary -- ones that state the fireballs or "falling stars," as they were sometimes called, denoted a sign of evil times in the Bible.
Of course some of the most popular remembrances of meteors falling from the sky and fireballs hitting the earth in the Bible are during the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah -- "Then the LORD rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah brimstone and fire…" -- but also in the New Testament, during the passages about the signs of Christ's return:
"But immediately after the tribulation of those days THE SUN WILL BE DARKENED, AND THE MOON WILL NOT GIVE ITS LIGHT, AND THE STARS WILL FALL from the sky, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken," reads Matthew 24:29.
So it is interesting stuff, and the signs in the sky -- as well as searchers' interest on the web -- shows that people are not only looking at the changes in weather with a curious eye, but also a spiritual one.






“For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of Light.”—Ephesians 5:8

“This then is the message which we have heard from Him and declare to you, that God is Light, and in Him is no darkness at all.”—1 John 1:5

“In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.
And the light shines in the darkness,
and the darkness did not comprehend it.”  —John 1:4, 5


As the apostle Paul admonished us, we should rejoice in the Lord always, not just on religious holidays such as Christmas and Easter, not just on Sundays, but always. For in truthevery day is the Lord’s day, and every location a potential place of worship.




“For we did not follow cleverly devised stories when we told you about the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ in power, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty.” 2 Peter 1:16


Jesus' followers were not country bumpkins who packed up and left home for all points of the compass, and reportedly suffered painful martyrdom, just for grins. Like Saul on the road to Damascus they had all experienced something that shook their world to the bone—something worth dying for, something worth living for. They did not just believe, they knew. Jesus had died and then come back from the dead, and theyknew it.

Now that’s something worth writing home about. That’s something worth celebrating and shouting from the roof tops.

Death had demonstrably been proven to be a fraud, a phony, an ephemeral boogie-man that disappeared when the Light was turned on.


Many of us will celebrate Jesus’s Resurrection this Easter Sunday, as well we should. Permit me to suggest that we take the opportunity to commit, or re-commit ourselves to the reality of being “children of light.” Embrace the Light.











Islamic hard-liners stormed a mosque in suburban Cairo, turning it into torture chamber for Christians who had been demonstrating against the ruling Muslim Brotherhood in the latest case of violent persecution that experts fear will only get worse.
Such stories have become increasingly common as tensions between Egypt’s Muslims and Copts mount, but in the latest case, mosque officials corroborated much of the account and even filed a police report. Demonstrators, some of whom were Muslim, say they were taken from the Muslim Brotherhood headquarters in suburban Cairo to a nearby mosque on Friday and tortured for hours by hard-line militia members.
"They accompanied me to one of the mosques in the area and I discovered the mosque was being used to imprison demonstrators and torture them,” Amir Ayad, a Coptic who has been a vocal protester against the regime, toldMidEast Christian News from a hospital bed.



The latest crackdown is further confirmation that the Muslim Brotherhood’s most hard-line elements are consolidating control in Egypt, according to Shaul Gabbay, a professor of international studies at the University of Denver.
“It will only get worse,” said Gabbay. “This has been a longstanding conflict, but now that the Muslim Brotherhood is in power, it is moving forward to implement its ideology – which is that Christians are supposed to become Muslims.
“There is no longer anything to hold them back,” he continued. “The floodgates are open.”





11 comments:

WVBORN56 said...

The evil continues seemingly unabated. No doubt the Supreme court will rule against Christian values. It appears to me that Clinton, Obama and Portman all came out in favor at a "strategic" time to build the momentum they need to tilt the scales toward their evil balance.

Then I read the Coptic Christians are being tortured by the Muslim brotherhood in mosques.

It is getting to be a bit more than anyone can stomach if they know and love the Lord.

This must have been how Noah felt? Surrounded by evil on all sides. Evil seemingly winning over good.

I am so looking forward to the rapture and Jesus coming back to make all things right as we read in Revelation 19!

Come Lord Jesus!

WVBORN56 said...

I forgot to add Jim Carey coming out and mocking Clint Eastwood in his gun parody was also disappointing! Sigh

These Hollywood stars are going to hopefully have their eyes open during the tribulation.

They should be careful what they wish for. It is going to be particularly bad for America during the pouring out of God's wrath in the tribulation IMHO. The filth and garbage spewed out in our culture by these people has untold horrible effects upon the youth of our nation.

Hopefully they repent in time but I have my doubts. It took ten plagues from God to get Pharaoh to see the light and even that was short lived.

ChristineInCleveland said...

You sound as exasperated & weary as I feel, WV! But since we know it has to get much worse before it gets better, maybe this all means we're not going to be waiting much longer... Still, if the 3rd Temple has to be built before the AC appears on the scene, when I've tried to find info on its progress, has the site actually begun construction yet? I can't seem to find a credible article on the internet within the last month to say one way or another. Has anyone heard what's the actual status with that? Might give more light as to how our departure timetable is looking ....hmm.

jill said...

So while my friends and aquaintances post a red equality signs on their facebook pages, I have posted a lone fish swimming in the opposite direction of the mass of fish that surrounds it. pretty much sums up the direction we must take as the culture hurtles toward destruction carrying signs that say God is only love. love sometimes is giving you over to the thing you demand, and as these fish feel the tangle of the net and the realization of their error I pray freedom is still possible. As I was celebrating my seder monday nite I was struck by the the message of freedom layered in the exodus story, and then the scenes on the tv of people screaming for freedom to marry who they want,,,, the comparison of the two 'freedoms' is stunning. Remember the Old movie Poseidon adventure? there is a scene where the people are heading down a hall to the bow and the man cries out, NO NO we need to go toward the propeller, the opposite of what seemed logical. I have tried to tell friends that I am not crazy for leaving the crowd to head toward the propeller. One or two friends have joined me but the majority are drunk on this new 'acceptance' and are picking up verbal clubs to silence the 'bigots'. He told me 35 years ago that this 'acceptance' would be my sign, His personal message to me that I have a chance to repent. Tell your friends and family that it is not hate to oppose this sweeping fever, it is proof you recognize a heady delusion as the hour approaches. stay firm.

Mrs.C said...

CC said "Still, if the 3rd Temple has to be built before the AC appears on the scene"

Sister Christine, The 3rd Temple does not have to be built before the ac "appears". We His Church, will not even know who the ac is...

David said...

Thats right Mrs. C......We will be out of here when the AC is on the scene.

I still wonder if my prediction is correct? Not that it matters, but Tony Blair has my vote

ChristineInCleveland said...

Mrs.C,

I realize we will never see the AC, but was thinking more like if the 3rd Temple is already started, might the Rapture occur before its finished... just so ready to go Home, & it can't be soon enough! ♡

Stephen said...

Stocks again REFUSE to drop. Not
really sure why. You would think
they would be now. New records
are possible. I really need to
see some SERIOUS selling where
stocks do not RALLY off their
lows LIKE what just occurred
this AM.

That would confirm to me that
trouble is on the way. But so
far bulls REFUSE to stop the buying.

Stephen >>>>>>>>>>>>.

Caver said...

Stephen, may I suggest the market is being artificially propped up, so its not going to fit models. Everything is artificial. Look at volume....record level stocks generally have huge volume...not for months now.

If the Fed let the Stock Market seek its normal level based on investor sentiment, it would have headed way south a long time ago. Its a completely rigged event these days.

If the stocks or gold / silver were allowed to seek their normal levels based on supply/demand the public would panic when they saw just how bad things really were.

Stephen said...

that is what amazes me....the
low volume....which is true.
Nonetheless, the "FED" is not
a GOD.....not even close.

and I do NOT believe that they
should be referred to as if
they have power...they do NOT...

stocks CRASHED in SEP/OCT 2008 despite fed intervention....it
can and WILL happen again.

let me suggest that THE ONLY
REASON stocks are up here is
because the REAL GOD is allowing it. maybe enough people have not
been saved yet for the rapture
to hit, I just do not know...

BUT WHAT I do know is that we are
not at the rapture yet. cause
if we were, stocks would NOT EVEN BE able to open, the selling pressure would be VERY INTENSE.

Stephen >>>>>>>>>>>

Scott said...

WV - I completely agree...So many of us are so weary with this world and are so ready for N Jerusalem.

As far as the Temple - it just had to be completed before the mid-point in the Tribulation...I have read numerous times, over the years. that it could be built in around 18 months - so it may not even get started until the tribulation begins. In fact, many people believe that the covenant of Dan 9:27 will involve a provision of a rebuilding of the temple (under the premise that surrounding Islam radicals will have been basically destroyed during Gog-MaGog and unable to resist the rebuilding of the Temple...A theory that makes a lot of sense to me.