FAITH FRIDAY :: 11 MAR 2022 - Tomorrow is near...

My list of things to get done seems to be forgotten when I start watching a movie.  I realized it's getting late and may watch a 3-hour western... maybe.  

Not much to say because I don't want to go into the videos I discovered about Lauren Chapin and her family... yesterday.

We don't really know what others are suffering.

And we don't always understand the effects abuse has on our lifetime.

It's a place I haven't visited for many years.

I am continuing my downsizing activities... sorting, shredding, filing, organizing.  I found my old kitchen gadgets again. I love OLD utensils.  It's like seeing how people changed the way we do things in the kitchen.  Some are perfect for my prepping supplies (non-electric), others I just love to have.  Some I have to figure out how to use them, still. 

By the time we get to the Antichrist there will not be much that isn't connected to the internet.  I found a JOHN DEERE video that shows how the tech equipment they use in harvesting crops creates a crop amount as it goes.  These tractors can't be fixed by the farmers. It's scary.  Everything in our lives is moving to surveillance mode. 

I started to see our need to capture all the non-computerized parts of our lives a long time ago.  It began with laundromat equipment.  Keeping all the quarter-run machines we can.  Computerized anything can't be fixed by normal people.  It's trash or it has to be fixed by someone who knows what to do.  

With software issues getting big, new versions of programming make continued use a problem.  That's all about new phones, new routers, new endless updates we never know what's in them or are they even needed or is it just another way to collect all our private details...  and we can't refuse them anymore.  The computers just wait for a moment to update, usually when we sleep.

I really want to collect as much non-internet options as I can.  I wish I could afford to.

In news stories you see the growing ability of law enforcement to track our phones, our calls, our texts, our pings, out life.  DNA is becoming a new force in crime solving.  I like to see crimes solved and the bad guys get caught, I just hate all the invasive tracking.

Off-grid, controlled internet, separate technology and software (no "cloud"), creative abilities with the possibility of hacking.  Those are what I would like.  Maybe a cell phone that calls 911 when you need help.  :-)  Or, I would have the option to only have internet attached to my phone.  Well, something.

Years and years ago I discovered people used microphones the size of a sewing needle to spy on people.  Now I read there are Apple tracking things people can attach anywhere they want to and you won't know they even exist... like the old movies we use to watch.

Criminals use these things to for their goals, Government uses these things for their goals.  Technology is going to become a difficult opponent of freedom.

I wn't get started about medical technology!

I don't know what Christians, or anyone, can do about all this as we try to protect and help each other, but I keep hoping to try.

Think about the two sides of technology in your life... The same things that appear to help you "stay connected" can also be used to violate your lives, your freedoms, your work, your faith, your ability to protect yourself and survive.  

What can we do?  I don't know.  We are slowly becoming ruled by technology.  

When the satellite service to help you if you ever needed it was in the news every day, I realized that the same device that locks your doors to keep others out and protect you from harm could also be locked to keep you in if someone wanted to keep you from escaping.  It's a scary thing.  It all depends on who is in charge -- a good person or a bad person.  We are heading into a world where the bad people will out number the good.  How do we prepare for that?

Thursday, 26 July 2018

This has been a strange day... lots of thinking about GOD and how He works in the world... now and always.  I discovered someone in the Christian community died unexpectedly, linked to some properties that really share the differences between the big bucks and poverty, read some articles on success and finding your way to it, and thought a lot about what it means to be a Christian in our times.

I was listening to Christian radio in the background this morning and barely caught a special announcement with the name Tony Evans and pray for everyone in the family... I thought, Oh no, someone has died.  When I finally found the related information as I searched different places, I discovered it was one of his relatives that died, and discovered how many of his family are in the news.  It took forever to find an article that even mentioned how she might have died (a possible heart attack), and when I checked back tonight there was a mention that she died in her sleep.  The fact that she is dead at a young age is really a painful reminder of how fragile our lives, and dreams, and souls are.  No matter how she died, she is gone, forever.  Her family is gaining a large blessing at GoFundMe... I hope it helps.

I flipped through an online article of photos about the 25 richest people or families in America... many of the names I didn't know about, others were interesting because I discovered how things went with the generations that follow the ones that make the wealth they enjoy.  There was one man who died without a will, so the kids went to court.  I would think that a wealthy man would have a Will.  Poor people don't have anything to fight over, and can't afford a lawyer, so Wills are not the main concern... surviving another day is the main concern.  I think they were all billionaires, but I can't remember that detail.  I mostly remember the family details.  In this list the Walmart family was number one, with Alice Walton noted as the richest woman ever.  I looked at the photos of her, and of pretty much all of the ones that showed the people mentioned, and wondered what life meant to her.

We think that money is the answer to every misery, when we don't have it.  In my own quest for funds to build Working Together, I wonder what would happen to me when I built it.  I also flipped through a photo article about all the people who were destroyed by winning lottery millions.  I guess I don't see that happening to me because I have a purpose in life and the money would just let me reach my purpose.  I guess it would be the "other" people who might mess up my plans.  One man had a brother who hired a hit man to kill him so he could inherit the leftovers.  Some went back to their real lives once the money was gone, others killed themselves because of the pain it caused their lives.

Money is not just a problem with the wealthy... I have seen that people will kill a person for their Social Security checks, or just because they THINK they have money in their purse or wallet.  Usually drug addictions are involved in poverty crimes... I think they call them "poor on poor" crimes.

The Bible has the answer to this problem, too... I like the part where there is a "prayer" to not be rich or poor....   (I had to search for it, but I finally found it!)

[Proverbs 30:7-9 KJV]
https://www.blueletterbible.org/

7 Two [things] have I required of thee; deny me [them] not before I die: 
8 Remove far from me vanity and lies: give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with food convenient for me: 
9 Lest I be full, and deny [thee], and say, Who [is] the LORD? or lest I be poor, and steal, and take the name of my God [in vain].

I have always thought about this in my life, especially in the harder, homeless, poverty-related tragedies we faced.  I don't know about the wealthy, but I see how their lives are affected by the money that makes their meaning in life... and the tragedies it causes them.  Finding that place in the middle seems to be important.

The other part where the Bible warns about money is the need to choose between GOD and money...about the love of money being the root of all evil.  (1 Titus 6:10 KJV)

For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows

https://www.blueletterbible.org/kjv/1ti/6/10/s_1125010

It will be interesting to see how this post publishes with these copy and paste efforts...  :-)  This must be at least one of the "things I learned today."

I haven't really decided yet how I feel about multi-million dollar properties... they are all quite different and yet the same sometimes... maybe it is the type of properties that become the same.  I looked at expensive California properties after linking to an article about the Hearst history... Malibu, Venice, Santa Monica, downtown LA, and I don't remember where else.  Then I discovered more at YouTube from a link... Oregon, Texas, Montana, and ??? (can't remember).  I don't know how to value that kind of property financially, yet... so I don't know if the prices are reasonable or just a seller's dream.  I did think, again, that it would be better to build my vision than to remodel these structures... kind of.  The water and electricity and other things like that matter, but the housing is often not right for what I would want to use it for...

The bottom line is going to be how much GOD provides for the task.  Once I know, then I can work out all these details.  And if I die without getting there, it won't matter anyway.  

It was a long day, and I need to end this post.  I am still thinking about all these parts of life, and money, and death, and meaning, and GOD, and dreams.

Until next time,
In Christ,

Deborah Martin
work2gather.us

*
*
*
May we find our way to the future with GOD as our strength and provider and guide.
Amen.