Keep your lamps lit ~ By Patrice Lewis

Patrice is consistently straightforward. This column is no exception.

Once again, Harold Camping, now retired, came up with another false prophecy about the end of the world right after the previous one on May 21, 2011 that obviously didn't happen on October 21, 2011 as he fortold. That is obviously a good thing. I'm not ready for the end of the world. There are lives I can still touch.

Being a "prepper"? Having everything that I would need to survive should the global economy "go to hell in a hand-basket," or should there be a great war in the Middle East? The fact is, there could be all kinds of disasters that could happen, and there is no way I can be prepared for a very long time. I'd be toast.

But, if there is nothing else that I can do, I am assured of being spiritually prepared. Because of my lack of income that would be required for a long-term - or actually, anything over a week or two - survival plan, I guess there isn't any other choice. Spiritual preparation is my only option.

This is why I think Patrice Lewis was being very straightforward about the topic of preparation in this piece. I doubt it will matter if people have a few guns, a lot of ammunition, a storage of food for a year.... It may not matter. The fact is, spiritual preparation will need to be the main objective for many of us.

Our days may be numbered, but we do not know when, not even if you can predict the collapse of the global economy within a few days. However, there are things you can do to keep your lamp lit.

If you don't mind, I'll do what I can to help you understand that you can "survive" whatever comes at us, from at least the spiritual aspect. You can be good to people. You can spread the message of the Gospel, the story of God's LOVE for us. Believe me, people need to hear it. People need to have plenty of the lamp oil on hand. The good news is that you can give away that lamp oil for free.

You can thank Patrice Lewis for inspiring me just a little more today.

Keep your lamps lit!

Keep your lamps lit

PATRICE LEWIS

By Patrice Lewis

October 28, 2011 ~ 2:24 pm Eastern

© 2011

Well, another miscalculated Day of Judgment has come and gone, and another false prophet who tried to predict Judgment Day is left with egg on his face. I'll never know why people feel the need to try and outsmart God in predicting the end of the world in direct opposition to Scripture, but there you are. I guess if Jesus had to warn us about such things 2,000 years ago, there was a strong tendency even back then to add up the number of "T's" in the book of Isaiah, divide by the amount of time it takes to hop around Jerusalem on one foot and multiply by the number of Tuesdays in the year 2012 (along with other numerical hocus-pocus) and conclude the world will end on May 21 or whatever.

Keeping the Lamp Lit

So what are we explicitly instructed to do, according to Scripture? Keep watch. Be prepared. Be ready. Always keep sufficient lamp oil on hand because you never know when the bridegroom will come.

So smart people keep their spiritual oil plentiful at all times.

Then there are the people who like to keep their physical lamp oil on hand as well. That would be the wacky subculture known as Preppers. After all, since we never know when the financial day of judgment is going to happen, we Preppers like to be ready.

The urge to be prepared has recently sharpened for millions of people as we've watched not only our own country's problems increase, but the problems of the rest of the world as well. America is toppling under debt. North Africa is in shambles and moving ever closer to Shariah law. Europe is about to implode financially and drag who-knows-what down with it. China is not the bastion of financial stability it would like us to believe.

In other words, the economic bottom could fall out from under us at any moment. When that happens, non-Preppers would be as foolish as the virgins who forgot to stock lamp oil, because lamp oil will shoot through the roof in terms of price and scarcity.

We cannot predict the Day of Judgment, so it's best to be constantly prepared for it. Nor can we predict the economic collapse of our nation … but it's no longer a matter of IF, it's a matter of WHEN. So wise people keep their pantries stocked.

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Not your 1930s Depression ~ By Patrice Lewis

Patrice has it so right in this column, it is making it difficult to expound on it. In fact, I ended up sitting on this one for several days to give me a little more time to come up with something. In fact, for a Patrice Lewis column back on May 22, 2010, I seemed to have encountered the same problem:

I usually do this little intro blurb after I've formatted the page and everything else involved. That's right, I save the best part for last (wink). But, it can also be the hardest part of the work I do in updating this blog. And sometimes, it is Patrice Lewis' columns that are the most difficult to write an intro for. Why? Because they are written so well, and I have to ask myself how anything I write here could ever compare. I really want people - as many as possible - to read what Patrice has to say. I don't want to bore anyone before they get to the column to read it for themselves.

In this column, Patrice brings up a problem that many would not have thought of. The fear now is that if there is a major economic collapse, that unlike in the Great Depression of the 1930's, many people won't be willing to do what it takes, or know how, to survive. She writes:

After decades of government entitlements, many people no longer have a work ethic. My concern is if we encounter the economic depression analysts predict, it will result in societal turmoil – because far too many people haven't the slightest clue how to work, how to exchange labor for food, or how to restrain their most vicious and animalistic desires in order to keep civilization civil.

After reading this column, many of you may get the same thought I did. "Keep your powder dry, folks." Just sayin'...

Our country can survive an economic depression. We've done it before and we can do it again. It won't be easy, but we can do it.

But I fear we cannot survive an economic depression when it's coupled with an unwillingness to embrace a work ethic, independence, civility and religious foundation. Once the artificial props of government entitlements are removed, it will be every man for himself. The results may be anarchy and chaos. And it will give the government a clear opportunity to take advantage of the "crisis" and put in place a government such as we could never imagine.

By Patrice Lewis

Posted: July 10, 2010 ~ 1:00 am Eastern

© 2010

The news headlines have been screaming lately:

• Market forecaster sees Dow plunge to 1000

• Dow repeats Great Depression pattern

• 7.9 million jobs lost, many never to return

If you're self-employed like we are, headlines like these make us nervous. So we've gotten caught up in the "preparedness" movement purely out of anxiety.

You see, if our country is heading toward a 1930s-style depression or worse, I fear it won't be "just" an economic depression. We are missing some key elements that were present during the 1930s that will make that decade-long economic disaster a relative walk in the park compared to today.

Those key factors are a work ethic, independence, civility and a religious foundation.

Remember the old stories of how someone would knock at your grandmother's back door and offer to split some firewood in exchange for a meal? Does anyone honestly think hungry people will do this any more? We're so used to entitlements that the idea of lowering ourselves to exchange labor for food is outrageous. No, today a person who is hard up on their luck and not getting a government handout is much more likely to kick in the back door, tie grandma up, pistol whip her (or worse) and clean the house of any usable items before departing for the next victim. In their minds this is because grandma has no "right" to have food when they don't.

The elders in our society often recall with fondness some of the good elements that came out of the horrible Great Depression. They remember the sense of community that sprang up, born of common hardships. They remember how hard the indigent would work to maintain their dignity and not sink to accepting charitable handouts without offering something else in exchange (such as splitting firewood).

But no more.

After decades of government entitlements, many people no longer have a work ethic. My concern is if we encounter the economic depression analysts predict, it will result in societal turmoil – because far too many people haven't the slightest clue how to work, how to exchange labor for food, or how to restrain their most vicious and animalistic desires in order to keep civilization civil.

If it weren't so tragic, it would be laughable to hear people spouting on and on about their "rights." Criminey, folks, most people wouldn't recognize a real "right" if it bit them on the butt. Rights are a gift from God. They do NOT come from the government. All those entitlements – subsidized housing, food stamps, free medical care – are not "rights."

We have the right to life. We have the right to liberty. And we have the right to the pursuit (not the achievement) of happiness. These rights derive from our Creator, not from the fools in Washington.

You do NOT have the "right" to food. It's up to you to get that for yourself or, if you can't, to look to private individuals or organizations to voluntarily provide it. You do NOT have the right to housing, medical care, transportation, unemployment checks, or anything else people bleat about when they want something but don't want to work for it.

Only when we struggle to be as independent as possible are the chains of slavery seen so clearly.

Because we have been so caught up with false "rights" for the last 50 years, we've gotten to the point where we are helpless and dependent and no longer able or willing to achieve anything on our own. And only someone pathetically caught up in a liberal mentality can argue that entitlements help people achieve independence.

This mentality has set the stage for a modern collapse to be worse than any throughout the annals of history.

Right now there are economic forces at work that are beyond our control. We can go from homeowner to homeless in the blink of an eye. It can happen to anyone, no matter how prepared or unprepared they believe themselves to be.

But a work ethic, an independent spirit and a moral foundation are entirely within our control and can be acquired just as quickly. To their ultimate loss, most people choose not to acquire them.

So if we're heading for a depression in this country, we need to brace ourselves for much, much more than financial hardship. We need to brace ourselves against millions of lawless people demanding "entitlements" they have not earned and for which they have no intention of offering anything in exchange.

What does the future hold for America? There are two possibilities – a loss of freedom, or a return of freedom. Sadly, most people don't like freedom. They want someone to rescue them if things go wrong, which means they only like the "freedom" of an extra-long chain.

We have allowed independence to slip into dependence. We have allowed a work ethic to descend into an entitlement mentality.

READ FULL STORY at WorldNetDaily.com

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Calling all kooks ~ By Patrice Lewis

By Patrice Lewis Posted: June 20, 2009 1:00 am Eastern © 2009 A few days ago, a dear but liberal friend came to visit. (She voted for Obama, but I love her anyway.) This friend is aware of our concerns about the economy. As we walked out to the garden to look at the newly sprouting vegetables, she commented, "I hear so many people are planting gardens that seed companies are running out of seeds." "They're calling them recession gardens," I replied. "People are planting them because they're worried about a steady food supply in the future." "No, they're planting them because Michelle Obama planted a garden at the White House," my friend replied. "They're following her example." Uh, no. I find this typical of Obama supporters: They deny reality. People can't be scared by Obama – they're inspired by him instead! Last week I drove to the airport to pick up some friends. The route took me through what I call Car Row because of the number of new and used dealerships. Because I don't go to the airport very often, it had been a while since I'd traveled this particular stretch of road. What I saw startled me. Some of the car dealerships were gone. Their parking lots were empty, the showrooms were bare, and "For Lease" signs stood forlornly near the road. The remaining dealerships looked … well, desperate. Other businesses in the area were gone, too. Restaurants, a ballet studio, furniture stores … many were vacant. Although this is anecdotal, it seemed a stunningly visible illustration of the current state of our economy. Contrary to the sweetness and light claims of the present administration, the people of Flyover Country know darned good and well the economy is not improving. Many are scared of the government's interference in the free market and private sector. Some of us are concerned enough to stockpile supplies. This automatically labels us, for some reason, as kooks. Kooks believe there will be widespread disruption of our current luxurious lifestyle in the near future. Since we're not enamored of the government's handling of the economy, we're considered "nutjobs" and "dumb" when we stockpile essentials. (Like it's anybody's business if we choose to spend our money on canning jars and garden seeds!) Consider this ABC article in which they portray everyone who prepares as a TEOTWAWKI (The End Of The World As We Know It) survival extremist. The mainstream media tend to focus on the "peak oil" people (somehow concluding that they're among the kookiest), without considering that most of us "survivalists" are just ordinary folks worried about job security and the economy. Or take a look at this Kansas City Star article. There's no question they consider "preppers" as strange and counterculture. As I plant my nonhybrid melon and broccoli seeds, as I order a new set of reusable feminine hygiene products for my youngest daughter (who will need it within a year or two), as I can up a batch of apple pie filling, as we buy 200 pounds of flour, as I hang our laundry out to dry, as my husband stacks logs for next winter's firewood, as I make pizza from a batch of fresh mozzarella from our cow's milk, as I plant potatoes and peas, as we look at our steer and consider when he'll be old enough to butcher, as we re-stake our young fruit trees, as we inventory our ammunition, as my husband helps a neighbor plow her garden, as we mend some fences … I wonder what ABC News or the Kansas City Star would make of us. We're not extremists. We just don't like being overly dependent on modern technology or in thrall to Washington. We're dependent enough as it is. The mainstream media can't seem to portray anyone with concerns about the future in anything but a condescending, unflattering, off-the-deep-end light. Why is a desire for independence and self-sufficiency – some of the founding characteristics of this country – now considered to be offbeat, weird, or even un-American? I find it ludicrous that some apartment-bound critic who would be hungry, thirsty, cold, in the dark and unable to use the toilet during a natural disaster has the gall to criticize someone for growing tomatoes in his backyard and stockpiling canned corn. Those of us who will be warm and well-fed during a disaster are called "nutjobs," "wackos," "dumb" and the ever-popular "right-wing extremists." And most importantly – if the bleep hits the fan, whose door will the critics be knocking on, desperately looking for handouts? [CONTINUE READING!]

Here are the other stories that Patrice refers to in her column: Why Obama scares me, too ~ By Chuck Norris Tracking The Second Great Depression ~ By Henry Blodget 'Recession Apocalypse': Preparing for the End of the World ~ By Jeremy Hubbard and Elizabeth Stuart Survivalists 2.0: Regular people get ready for the worst ~ By Melody McDonald, Fort Worth Star-Telegram “Conservatives” Are Single-Largest Ideological Group ~ by Lydia Saad, Gallup Crisis spurs spike in 'suburban survivalists' ~ By Gillian Flaccus, Breitbart.com Digg this story

I'm depressed … but preparing -- By Patrice Lewis

Whatever your views on the cause of our current economy, and whatever your views on what is needed to pull us out, remember this: In the end, the only thing you can depend upon is YOU. You're the only who can tighten your belt, buy seeds, stockpile food, plug those financial leaks... whatever it takes. But don't bury your head in the sand! read more | digg story

Renewing the 'Old Deal'? - By Joseph Farah

As America continues to feel its way through a dire economic crisis, our elected leaders in Washington seem determined to repeat the mistakes of the past. In fact, they fail to even see that they were mistakes, despite the clearest of evidence. The so-called "economic recovery" plans of 2009 are policies that were tried by FDR and failed. read more | digg story

80+ year-old economic survivor guide - by Chuck Norris

An old Spanish proverb says, "An ounce of mother is worth a pound of clergy." I believe that value will hold, in or out of a recession. And being that his 87-year-old mother lived through the Great Depression, her value (and those like her) will actually increase through these tough economic times, because their insider wisdom can help us.

read more | digg story