Thought I should probably post here information I've been receiving in emails, as well as anticipating myself anyway. Thanks to the higher cost of gas, food prices have been going up (along with everything else of course), and are expected to go up higher. One email I received claims to know from an insider that a major food distribution company in the US plans to raise its prices by as much as 30% on July 1st -- that's tomorrow -- because of the high cost of transportation thanks to the increasing cost of gas. Since I'm on a fixed income I've been starting to collect canned goods and other nonperishables before the prices rise again.

Now there is the flooding in the Midwest which has damaged crops. Besides praying for the people in the Midwest who have been through the massive flooding, we need to consider that the Midwest is the nation's breadbasket and the flooding is going to affect all of us just as the economic repercussions of 9/11 and Katrina have been having their effect as well. This is God's judgment on the nation and it's only going to get worse. (I'm sure when the Antichrist comes along, in the near future I suspect, he'll have a "solution" to all of it, but of course not for Christians -- our sustenance comes from the Lord.)

Another email I received passed on stories about major grain businesses being under water, crops and silos, including Quaker Oats and General Mills. The person who sent me this information also included a friend's email about a vivid dream in which a voice said to gather what you can because the locusts are coming, and soon after had a locust splat on their windshield as if to confirm the warning.

There is an unlovely tone in some of this about how we should all stock up before others think of doing it, but if a famine is on the way the whole nation will be suffering, and while stocking up for one's family's needs is only prudent, and many can't go beyond that anyway, we also need to think of our neighbors.

Prayer and trust in the Lord is always our main support but there's no reason not to prepare for hard times as well. This is all certainly God's judgment on America but He will preserve us.

I've seen other articles since I posted the above, which say we probably
won't feel it very much as a shortage, at least not right away. We will,
however, feel the price crunch and that will affect Americans on the
lower end of the economic scale who are already barely making ends
meet. True, most of us would be better off eating less for a while
anyway.

But I do see this as part of a growing trend. Maybe I'm wrong about
that, but this is how it goes: 9/11 already made a dent in the
economy by forcing airlines into bankruptcy, a situation which has
been evolving over time. Katrina is what started pushing the price of
oil up and up, which has been pushing food prices up, also getting
worse over time. The nation has been paying out enormous sums of
disaster relief money for what seems to be a string of unusually
severe natural disasters over the last few years, disasters of all
kinds from hurricanes to wildfires to tornadoes to floods. Relief is
still available, but always there are some who fall through the cracks
anyway, and at some point if the trend continues the bank that
finances the relief simply has to break.

It's just a matter of time as long as we continue as a nation on our
downhill slide into paganism and immorality. Surely as Christians we
know that God is behind all these events, surely we know these are
ways He brings judgment against nations, surely we know that America
deserves judgment for a disgraceful list of government-sponsored sins
that have been accumulating for decades now. Surely we know that the
only way to prevent complete desolation is national repentance. Is it
happening? Is it even happening in the churches where of all places
it should be happening? Where's the sackcloth and ashes, the weeks of
corporate humbling before God in repentance and pleading for the
nation? In the past America actually had some Presidents who called
for times of fasting and prayer. Churches that wanted God to come
down and revive the Christian life of their communities used to pray
through the night for months. Now the churches won't do it for half a
day, and individually we're a sad lot when it comes to that kind of
discipline, and here I'm mostly speaking for myself and SO wanting a
spiritual strength I continually fail to muster.

So as I see it, we may not necessarily be facing a sudden crisis
(although I'm not completely sure of that), but we MUST be facing a
gradual tightening of the vise that we will most likely feel when it's
too late.

[scott]

Amen, Sister Connie....I preached a few weeks ago on:

Nahum 1:3 The LORD is slow to anger, and great in power, and will not at all acquit the wicked: the LORD hath his way in the whirlwind and in the storm, and the clouds are the dust of his feet.

I believe God is trying to wake us Christians and our nation up!! I have heard homosexuals say "what I do behind closed doors is none of your business" [by the way, why are they out from behind closed doors] these people have never read about Achin in the Word--innocent people are affected by other peoples sins, and our nation is full of sin....We as believers need to be in prayer [2 Chronicles 7:14] and use these natural disasters as opportunities to witness.....We also, as believers, have the promise of the Lord taking care of us [Matthew 6:25-33] --I told my congregation, do you not believe the Lord knew what gas prices were going to be in 2008 when Henry Ford was inventing the auto back in 1900?? God has a way of judging nations, and I believe this is one of them....This is a time when we need to band together, lean on one another, and continue praying together for the Lord's protection....

God bless, Scott

Yes, thank you brother Scott, sounds like an inspiring sermon.

Yes, why ARE they out from behind closed doors? Yes, sin is contagious. That is why God's punishments for sin as spelled out in the Law are so severe.

And thank you for the reminder that God will of course protect His people through whatever comes if we are praying to Him and trusting in Him.