Mark of the Beast

According to the Energy Information Administration (EIA) our gasoline inventories are the lowest since 1967. The southeast is running out of gas; Asheville-Buncombe Technical Community College in North Carolina has shut down; and AAA reports that Nashville TN has the worst gas shortage, 85% of the gas stations are closed, and where you can find fuel, the wait can be 4 hours long.

That's not all. Remember the flooding this spring that damaged wheat, corn and soybean crops? Our supermarket shelves already are thinning. Bush can declare himself a dictator at any time, according to PDD 51, and implement martial law for any reason, and he probably will. In early September an article from the Army Times appeared with little fanfare...or notice. They reported that troops will soon be patrolling our streets starting today:

"The 3rd Infantry Division’s 1st Brigade Combat Team has spent 35 of the last 60 months in Iraq patrolling in full battle rattle, helping restore essential services and escorting supply convoys. Now they’re training for the same mission — with a twist — at home."

"Beginning Oct. 1 for 12 months, the 1st BCT will be under the day-to-day control of U.S. Army North, the Army service component of Northern Command, as an on-call federal response force for natural or man-made emergencies and disasters, including terrorist attacks." The article goes on to inform us the Brigade will be involved in "subduing unruly citizens', using non-lethal methods, though, of course.

Of all the gloomy news out there, and it is getting harder to 'choose' which articles to put in digest form because there is so much of it, so very much these days! but that even with all of that, today there is one snippet that just absolutely struck both fear in my heart and joy for the coming HOPE:

Foreign economists urge 'global financial plan'

"Leaders and economists from Western Europe to East Asia Tuesday urged the United States to go beyond reviving a failed domestic bailout and start working on a new global financial system."

"Associated Press Traders at MICEX, the Moscow Interbank Currency Exchange, watch and wait during a tense session in Moscow on Tuesday when stock indexes sank despite a two-hour trading halt. "The Americans don't have a choice — they must absolutely have a global plan," Christian Noyer, head of the French central bank, said in Paris."

"David Smick, a global strategist and author of "The World Is Curved: Hidden Dangers of the Global Economy," said the next U.S. president should immediately call for a second "Bretton Woods" conference to devise a new doctrine of international finance."

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'no choice'...'global financial plan' ... for students of the bible, we know this as end times promise of the institution of a global economy in which all will be forced to take the Mark of the Beast, a tangible marker indicting allegiance with satan, or else one cannot buy or sell.

If this doesn't spell Revelation 13:16, I don't know what does! A one world economy, cashless society, buying and selling forever changed. Watch for it, it is happening now and quickly.

Are we praying for Jesus to prepare hearts of believers to strengthen their faith, and for unbelievers to receive the seeds of faith in a softened heart? The power of prayer is everything! Do we believe that He is coming soon, and that His word is 100% true, the gentle parts as well as the judgment parts? Then let us be strong not only in the times of ease but in the times of tribulation, so as to offer a living, breathing, honorable example of His glory to others who have no hope!

"And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads: 17And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name."

and now here is a daily praise:

Fireproof the movie has earned the 4th best overall box office for the weekend. Counting per-screen, it came in second, because it was released on only 869 screens yet grossed as much as those movies released on over 2000. This fact has stunned movie theater owners, Hollywood, and the movie industry in general. As Alex Kendrick the director said in the article below:

"America has two cultures. There's New York City and California — and there's the way the rest of the country lives."

I encourage all to see the movie and also right now to skip on over to the link and read the full article. Both are well worth it!

SHOWBIZ STOCK WATCH: How 'Fireproof' Used Power of Prayer to Stun the Movie Industry

by Steve Mason

"I'm not impressed with Hollywood in general. They don't make a lot of movies that lift our standards and morality." That's what director Alex Kendrick told me in a telephone interview on Monday after his new movie Fireproof (IDP Films/Samuel Goldwyn) generated a downright shocking $6.5 million opening weekend. Los Angeles and New York are filled with talented film professionals, who spend countless hours and millions upon millions of dollars making movies. The cost of development, production, a director, actors and marketing make the craft of filmmaking prohibitive. So how did a little church in Georgia score the fourth-best gross of the just-completed weekend?

The answer, according to director Kendrick, is prayer. "Before we shot a tough scene, we prayed. This movie was bathed in prayer."

edited, read the full article at the link. The power of prayer, ahhh, praise the Lord He listens and cares!