The world is spinning, staggering, and struggling from the Chinese coronavirus now called COVID-19 to conceal the fact that it came from China.  The jury is still out whether it was manmade or natural and whether it was released accidentally or used by the Chinese Communist Party as germ warfare.  As of today, there have been more than 12 million confirmed COVID-19 cases in the U.S. and more than 260,000 deaths.

However, many of the deaths are suspect since gunshot deaths, heart attacks, etc., were classified as COVID-19.  Hospitals are paid much more if deaths are COVID deaths.  As always, follow the money.  It would be helpful (and honest) if any health official speaking to the media, be required to inform the public if that official holds any relevant patents or any stock in any relevant drug or vaccine company.

It is not commonly known that 56 individual patents were discovered to be owned or shared by one or more members of committees within the Centers for Disease Control.  However, I don’t think the CDC sells masks— yet.

There has been much controversy as to whether masks are useful or useless against COVID; however, a Danish study, released November 18, suggests “face masks did not significantly protect wearers from the coronavirus compared to those without masks.”  The study, published in the Annals of Internal Medicine, may determine and terminate the mask debate.

The issue is bigger than whether a mask helps protect from COVID or not: does any entity of government have the authority to require masks?  The “experts” have been all over the map about this.  Moreover, the worldwide lockdowns have been one of the most contentious, challenged, combative, and caustic decisions government officials have made.  The charge is made that Socialists in the U.S. government want to destroy the present system to build upon its ashes a utopian society.

Whether true or not, the lockdowns have destroyed most of America’s restaurants and almost crippled travel-related businesses. That is true globally.  It seems the cure is worse than the curse by destroying society.

President Trump pushed and bribed health officials and pharmaceutical companies to accelerate efforts to develop a vaccine that would be given freely to Americans.  Many billions of tax dollars were spent to accomplish that purpose.  We are told that two vaccines are about ready, and both are 95% effective.  Another one will be ready in January.

Let me remind you that we have been given medical assurances regarding other diseases with some massive medical failures such as the thalidomide scandal in the 1950s, the HIV-tainted blood scandal in Japan in the 1980s, the swine flu in 2009, and others.  WebMD admitted the flu vaccine for the 2018–2019 season was only 29 percent effective and the vaccine for the 2014-15 flu season was only 19% effective.

But you can trust the COVID vaccine. Right?

As a church we’ve been studying about faith, especially trying to answer the question, How do we learn to live by faith?  And if you remember, last Sunday we talked about learning how to trust God in all His promises.  But there are other ways whereby our faith can grow.  One of them is by having our faith tested.

As Augustine once said, “Faith is to believe what you do not see; the reward of this faith is to see what you believe.”  Couldn’t agree more.

I realized that our church now is under some trials and tribulations.  It seems Covid-19 has infected almost every family in our church and it appears it may be another week or so before things can get back to normal.  So what I wanted to do is send you just a bit of daily encouragement by following up with what we talked about the last Sunday we were together.

And our text is going to be found in 1 Peter 1:3-9.  So let’s jump right in.

Peter is speaking about joy and rejoicing in the midst of trials and tribulations.  His words tell us much about faith and the reason for the bad things that God allows to happen to His children.

1 Peter 1:3-9 – Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, who are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.  In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials, (why) that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ, whom having not seen you love. Though now you do not see Him, yet believing, you rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory,

Untested faith is just a pipe dream.  It’s something that we do, something we accept, something that we say.  But once faith is tested it becomes alive to us as something we can rely on and grow as the Lord brings even more circumstances into our life in order to test our faith.  Our faith must be tested to grow.

We’d all like to believe that the United States is on the road to economic recovery and that things are going to get better.  Everyone wants to think the store shelves are just a few cargo ships away from being refilled. People want to believe that once 2020 is over, life will return to “normal” and that we’re just having a really bad year.

But someone pointed out an article I published four and a half years ago and when you look at the things which happened there and compare them to our situation, you may notice some uncanny similarities.

Here’s how Venezuela ran out of food.

In February of 2016, I wrote about what an economic collapse really looks like, using Venezuela as an illustration.

The article begins when prepping began to be frowned upon by the Venezuelan government.

In 2013, many began to suspect that the outlook for Venezuela was grim when prepping became illegal.  The Attorney General of Venezuela, Luisa Ortega Díaz, called on prosecutors to target people who are “hoarding” basic staples with serious sanctions.

Shortly thereafter, grocery stores instituted a fingerprint registry to purchase food and supplies.  Families had to register and were allotted a certain amount of supplies to prevent “hoarding.”

The following article is from Jan Markell with Olive Tree Ministries.  She speaks with such wisdom regarding the uncertain times in which we live and the failure of the church to be the church.  I pray you will read this and vow to be different.  After all, from a Biblical perspective, we are not living in uncertain times, but in exciting, prophetic times.

So many write to me expressing shock, and even horror, at the tide of our times here in 2020.  They see America crumbling under the weight of sin, debt, violence, immorality, and strong delusion.  Right is wrong, black is white, evil is good, and good is evil.

We Are In the Center of the Storm

People of faith are in the bulls-eye so to speak!  Churches are inconvenient.  The remnant of true believers is growing smaller while the Laodicea churches are mushrooming!  Many churches have not even re-opened yet, and some are saying they won’t until 2021!

Many don’t even know how to think about the future much less plan for it.  People write about “uncertainty”.  Will things get worse?  Probably.  How can we plan ahead if the turmoil is going to continue?

For years I have followed Hal Lindsey and have listened to his take on world events.  Now, at 90, he still has his finger on the pulse of what is happening all around us and how it fits into Biblical prophecy.  This short post is no exception.  I received the following yesterday and wanted to share it with you.  It is titled, Global Upheaval, and speaks of the sinister, satanic foundation behind much of what is happening globally today.  Read and be blessed— and forewarned.

The world changes.  Sometimes it changes quickly.  The two world wars of the 20th century created massive upheavals, as did the Black Death pestilence of the 14th century.  Some upheavals are caused by new technologies, such as the printing press, the internal combustion engine, the telephone, or gunpowder.  Sometimes political revolutions cause fast and massive change, and sometimes big changes come from simple ideas, including bad ones.

Today, several of those things are happening at once.  With Covid-19 as a trigger, we see revolutions all around us.  Technical revolutions that should have been for our good have been subverted.  Ideas that history has repeatedly proven wrong and dangerous, are rising with a new sense of inevitability

The following is a sobering, all-important message from Dr. James Dobson regarding the future of our nation and the quality of life for our children and grandchildren.  I have decided to post it here in its entirety.  You need to read the entire article.

And be warned, the future of our children and grandchildren are at stake.  What will we do?

Dear Friends,

As I write this newsletter, voters across this nation are only a few short months away from the next general election.  What an ominous time this is for our 244-year-old republic.  Its future hangs in the balance. The choices we make on November 3rd will send this nation down one of two dramatically different paths. The wrong decision will be catastrophic.  I agree with former Speaker of the House, Newt Gingrich, who said recently that the next election will be “the most important since 1860.”   He also warned that if we appease or ignore the violence and anarchy occurring in the streets, it might be the end of civilization as we have known it.  Those are sobering words coming from a man who has stood at the pinnacle of national power.

Mr. Gingrich referred to the significance of 1860 because that was the year Abraham Lincoln was elected president.  I’m sure the Speaker would agree that the following election of 1864 was also critical to the future of the nation.  Lincoln and his opponent, Maj. Gen. George McClellan, were in a hotly contested campaign for the White House that could have gone either way.  The “war between the states,” as it was called, had been raging for three ghastly years, and the entire nation was staggered by reports from the bloody battlefield.

Lincoln was running for a second term, and he campaigned on the promise of finishing the war and preserving the Union.  These were momentous times for the young nation.  During the first week of January 1863, the President signed the Emancipation Proclamation, freeing the slaves.

Democrats and their presidential candidate, Maj. Gen. McClellan, initially campaigned on a “peace platform,” pledging to end the war and send soldiers home.  As the election approached, he talked more about negotiating to let the South establish a separate government whose cornerstone would be slavery.  If McClellan had been elected, there would have been no foreseeable end to the inherent evil of buying and selling human beings and treating them like cattle.  Thus, the Civil War was a struggle for the soul of America.

The summer before the election, the war was going badly for the Union.  Lincoln, in fact, was convinced he was going to lose the election.  He wrote the following memorandum on August 23, 1864, asking his Cabinet to accept the grim prospects for his re-election. These are his words

This morning, as for some days past, it seems exceedingly probable that this Administration will not be re-elected. Then it will be my duty to so cooperate with the President-elect as to save the Union between the election and the inauguration; as he will have secured his election on such grounds that I cannot possibly save it afterwards.

No wonder Lincoln dealt at times with depression.  Clearly, the Union was a hair’s breadth away from losing the war. But then, the tide began to turn.  One historian wrote, “The political landscape shifted dramatically when Gen. William T. Sherman took Atlanta in early September.  This major military shift, coupled with the severe internal strife within the Democratic Party, solidified Lincoln’s chance at victory.”

As you know, Abraham Lincoln and the Republicans won the election of 1864 in a landslide.  McClellan was defeated by more than 500,000 popular votes and 191 electoral votes.  An estimated 78 percent of Union soldiers cast their ballots in favor of Lincoln.  McClellan took just three states: Kentucky, Delaware, and his home state of New Jersey.  Less than two months after Lincoln’s inauguration, he was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth.  He is said to have been the “last casualty” of the Civil War.