SURVIVAL THINKING IN BAD TIMES..... PART ONE

The following is not conventional wisdom. I will not give many details about survival, but I intend to inspire you to get your mind and soul moving along in such a way that you are a survivor mentally. You will be able to then fill in the details for your particular situation.

My experiences growing up in Africa, and later as a missionary there and in Ethiopia in the bush, as well as my days as a small church pastor in rural areas, have given me a larger view, I think, than the average survival guru.

By the grace of God, I have been able to survive and thrive, but no dandy from the financial world will ever call me a success. If that bothers you, consider this: The most wealthy and powerful men before the 1929 stock market crash became helpless beggars after the crash. This is because they had soft hands and heads full of vanity. They simply lacked any survival skills that had to do with daily life. They were fed, clothed, and escorted by servants 24/7, and when the servants went back to Tuscaloosa, they starved.

Here then are some survival principles. They are not in the exact order that you may need to apply them, and the first principle will show you why:

1. CATCH UP
Everything must be tied to biblical prophecy AND past history. This means that where you are now, and what you need to do to survive, will not follow exactly the order of life of the Dustbowl farmers or the Great Depression victims. But, pay attention, your options will turn out to be very much like theirs in principle. How well you survive the present stress will depend greatly on whether you have a forward look that is in line with God defined coming destiny for humanity, and a backward look AND KNOWLEDGE of past disasters in the USA and the world.

I venture to guess that you are woefully ignorant of the past. Ninety percent of Americans alive today have been subjected to little of no real history of the past. The public school system has laundered history into oblivion. What history you ever got is all revisionist propaganda. If you depend on pundits, talking heads, and gurus of economics today, most of whom never saw hard times worse than the Arab gas price hikes of the 1970s, you are working with less than half a load. CATCH UP. The Internet is loaded with videos and articles telling what life was like during past crises.

My son works in technology in very high end medical company. He tells me that when he talks about reading the news online to his co-workers, or when he suggests they look up some issue of life on Google, many of them look at him cross eyed. They seem to use the Internet only for amusements like movies and music, and to stick their face in public view on Facebook. It is amazing to me. With four techy sons and sons-in-law, I have to really be careful when I toss out a fact here or there. Someone is invariably punching the topic into Google and setting me straight. Being in Texas, and willing to "stretch the blanket" once in a while, is dangerous IF you have friends who know how to use Google.

Ecclesiastes 6:10 That which hath been is named already, and it is known that it is man: neither may he contend with him that is mightier than he.


In case you are not familiar with it, here is the gate keeper of the world. I jest of course :-)

2. IMPROVISE
You cannot get ready for everything.

You must get ready by setting priorities for you, your family, and neighbors based on your immediate circumstances. Air, water, food, security, companionship, income, and status in the community. All of these must be ever bathed in prayer in the recognition that God is at work in you, and you ought to be a blessing while you survive.

But, you will miss something. This is because new factors will enter which were not in past history and which are not answered by prophetic teachings from the Word of God. So, what will you do? For now, stop throwing away everything that seems outdated and old. It may come in handy later. The old computer still works. The software loaded on it will be hard to find. It will always connect to the web. The old car is probably nearly worthless as to street value. But, it runs, it will get to the store and back when your new whiz machine blows and engine and you just lost your job, and your old beater will look great to someone near you who went bankrupt and lost everything.

I am building a green house right now. I bought much of the materials needed, but I am going to the woods for mulch, and I will cut cedar saplings to put under the buckets so critters cannot get into them. Buckets? A piano tuning customer maintains swimming pools and has lots of 6 gallon plastic buckets made of food grade plastic (very important). I am planting in buckets because water can be scarce in Texas. So, I can greatly reduce the amount of water needed for the plants. The potting soil will come from a Texas "tank" (tanka in Spanish), which is a stock pond on the property. It has badly silted in, and when I dredge if for the silt, I have more water in the tank and I will have exceptional free potting soil.

That story was the result of spending my life HAVING TO improvise. The details are unique to me, but past history and biblical prophetic expectations helped greatly as I built the green house. What biblical expectations, you may ask. Answer: Soon the world will have famine. The USA is nowhere in world prophecy. We are doomed to become a disaster zone as Europe, the Middle East, and Asia prevail. God is not an American. He does not have to save this nation for my benefit. But, he graciously told me what I need to get ready for, and what I cannot deal with, he will.

Better yet, when famine or financial disaster comes, I will not only have food for my family, I will have a great place to go and sit in the sun in mid-winter and drink a cup of tea and inhale high oxygen air. If I am prepared well, famine may end up driving me to contentment. That statement will drive some of you mad. Read it several times..... you might catch on eventually.

Philippians 4:19 But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.

What should you be doing now to provide a smoother ride in the future when the USA tanks?

3. MAKE THE WORLD COME TO YOU
You see the AdSense ads on this blog, right. There are three other blogs. They all produce a small cash flow. I have only scratched the surface in tricks that can be used to make this work better. I don't get much from it now, but when I have idle time, I can turn it into better cash flow. The world comes to me, though only in a small way with this example.

Here are the thoughts of Quince Forrest, a trial drive cowboy foreman from 1889. He and his crew drove a herd of longhorns from Matamoros, Mexico, across from Brownseville in Texas, all the way to an Indian Reservation in Montana. This must be one of the longest trial drive in world history. After the cattle were delivered, the guys were laying around the camp fire on the trip home to Texas.

Quince said, "In don't know how you fellows feel about it, but I bade those cows god-by on their beds to-night without a regret or a tear. The novelty of night-herding loses its charm with me when it's drawn out over five months. I might be fool enough to make another such trip, but I'd rather be the Indian and let the other fellow drive the cows to me-- there's a heap more comfort in it." [ Taken from The Log of A Cowboy by Andy Adams ]

Drive the world to yourself. By barter, friendship, stealth, and by simply making sure you are at the right time and place when the parade goes by. When I was in college we went to see the Rose Parade in Pasadena a couple of times. We went the night before and set up chairs right along the curb. We posted a guard to make sure the chairs were not claimed by strangers. We wandered around and handed out Gospel tracts, and when the parade finally went by the next morning, we had from row seats. Think!

Now, it can get both sinister and practical. Suppose a fascist regime takes over the USA (or, has it done so already?). You can hunker down and get ready to fight it out, flee the country, or you can let the regime come to you. Your landlord in Ethiopia was very rich, and he was a savvy and wise man. He was also very loyal and personable to anyone he liked. When the Marxist took over Ethiopia our landlord hid while other government officials and business men were being machine gunned every day at dawn. We had to hear that every morning when we woke up. Finally, the Marxist national counsel came to a frightening conclusion-- they had killed off all the brains of Ethiopia. No one even knew where the tar was to repair the roads. So, they reversed and scoured the nation for all the businessmen who had not left Ethiopia, and ironically they invited them to join the Marxist national counsel in great pomp and dignity. Our landlord let the creeps find him, he was exalted to the counsel, and he played the game. One day, he was gone, probably to Sweden or Great Britain.

You do not have to LIKE the national and political and business establishment. But, can you make them NEED you? This applies even in good times. If they NEED you, they dare not attack you. Especially if we get to the point where working thinking people are fleeing the country, which is happening in small degree NOW. Here is Jesus Christ on this subject:

Luke 16:9 And I say unto you, Make to yourselves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness; that, when ye fail, they may receive you into everlasting habitations. 

Conservative Bible teachers avoid that verse like a plague. It sound like Jesus is telling us to make friends with those who have the power and the money (mammon). And, that is exactly what he meant. When you fail, if you have been the friend of a powerful men in government of business, you have excellent counsel and a recommendation possible. You will need it. Jesus did NOT say to make friends of mammon. He is NOT suggesting becoming obsessed with getting rich and hording gold. He is saying that we need friend who know how the money survival game is played.

Drive them to you. Be a good friend to some people whom God can use to see you through the hard times. But, be a real friend. We are not talking about simply using people. The rich hate to be used. Most of them have no real friends because, from their wife and kids, to their lowliest customers, they are being hit for loans and favors financially. They know that if they had no wealth, they would be divorced and abandoned by society. You could be the only friend they have who cares about them, IF you care. When Jesus tells us to be a friend to someone, friendship must be defined HIS way, not ours.

4. CONTENTMENT
Are you satisfied with God's will? In what way has he failed to care for you? What seems like neglect on his part may be the result of slot on your part.

Now, getting stuff is a trap. It is essential that we find a vocation that will provide for our needs, but so often today, and in all history really, men are not satisfied with enough. It is the hallmark of American society that we never have enough, we always want more. Capitalism is wonderful in what it creates in toys and wealth. But it is a scourge in what it does to the every day capitalist. It makes him a raging covetous freak.

Ecclesiastes 6:9 Better is the sight of the eyes than the wandering of the desire: this is also vanity and vexation of spirit.

Desire! The ads and mailings invite us to desire things, and we crave gratification for our lusts. We are a nation overwhelmed with sodomy and fornication and adultery. It is normal to most people. An American will lie about anything if it gets him ahead. Truth is of little value really. All this is based in the national past time of getting more. One wife, one car, and one toy are not enough.

Micah 4:4 But they shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig tree; and none shall make them afraid: for the mouth of the LORD of hosts hath spoken it.

The coming Messianic Age will be marked by contentment and private ownership. So, what about YOU? Are you content with what you have, with what God has allowed you to get? The reason you feel so driven and pressed to keep a tight schedule is because you want more, more cash flow, more toys, and more power over other people.

On a practical note, when social and economic collapse comes, will you have all sorts of frustrations over what you can no longer do or get your hands on? If you have cultivated an ongoing spirit of contentment, you will only have to worry about your daily bread, literally. You may need to look for a job. You may need to keep watch over your property at night. But, you will not be sitting in the corner grousing about, "how it could have been if the blank blank Feds had not trashed the country."

Make time for coasting, for thinking, for being idle physically and socially so that you can dream dreams about something other than getting more stuff. God has a great world out there that invites your attention. Make a covenant to walk a mile a day in the country. If you live in the city, why? All over America and the world are rural settings where life is far more real and satisfying than downtown. You may take a cut in income, but you will most certainly live longer, and your family will prosper. Prosper? In Paduka Kentucky? Yes, prosper in the real life, the good life near the good earth God created.

God arranged for Adam and Eve's contentment. He would not give Adam misery and tell him it was good for him. So, how did God do that? He planted a garden east of Eden, The Garden of God, and he placed Adam and Eve in that garden to keep it and "subdue" it. The farther you are from the Garden of God, the more miserable you will be. So, if you are stuck in the city, find a way to have a little garden where you can be a keeper of things God made.

5. WHAT ARE YOU OVERLOOKING?
After air,water, food, work, electricity, heat, security, fellowship, etc, there are things you will easily overlook. Start by making a list of things you take for granted-- especially things you think you are entitled to. In a total collapse, according to the history of man from ancient times, people find out that they become desperate for want of one small thing.

What about Social Security? How about health care? Are you receiving these and other services as benefits of past faithfulness? Well, when the insurance company tanks, you will get no help from them. When the company sending you a pension, or the US Military, is busted, you will not get your pension or VA benefits.

Also, what medications and food supplies could you not do without, that is, they are not there in the market place? What is your plan to get ready? No plan will mean you will become an indigent as a bag lady in downtown Chicago after a collapse. You may feel very self-sufficient and confident in your provisions now, but many of them depend on your being employed and society and the government being intact.

What if gas stations closed. What if the power went down. Financial collapse is not the only thing that can maroon you in the modern world as if you were lost on a desert island. You flip the switch, and the lights are out..... for six months. You assume that if the Federal Government can muddle through, all will be well. This illustrates how utterly helpless and unsavvy you really are.

An X-16 solar flare could trash all the electronics, and especially the AC power lines, in a snap. This is an electromagnetic storm caused by the sun, and in 1889 the earth had a big one. It fried all the telegraph keys and some wires and electrocuted some telegraph operators in the process. There were no electric power lines then, and certainly no phones and computers. Imagine a world with no AC power, phone lines, and technology communications. Some computers that were not connected would survive, but the world of business would be gone for a long time. No one would die probably, and no damage could be seen to the naked eye. But, life would come to a dead stop. Your car might run, but gas stations would be gone.

So, I find it a great folly to try to imagine the actual way that a crisis could happen. Financial collapse for the USA is absolutely inevitable. The run away printing of fiat money has ALWAYS resulted historically in a financial collapse, as with the Weimer Republic in Germany and the John Law money scam in France.

So, whatever may be coming is not as urgent as whether you are prepared.

I would be happy to talk about survival in other nations in the world if readers send comments to that effect. I would have to research it a bit, but some principles never change, and many responses work in any setting with some minor details to change.

Matthew 6:33 But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.
34 Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.

Does this mean you can do nothing prudent to prepare for possible issues? I think another Bible text makes it clear that we are talking about ongoing sane preparations for the future versus wide eyed panic based on talking heads and frantic pundits in the news.

Proverbs 6:6 Go to the ant, thou sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise:
7 Which having no guide, overseer, or ruler,
8 Provideth her meat in the summer, and gathereth her food in the harvest.
9 How long wilt thou sleep, O sluggard? when wilt thou arise out of thy sleep?
10 Yet a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep:
11 So shall thy poverty come as one that travelleth, and thy want as an armed man.


Outdated advice? I think Solomon's admonition is very much in order today. In verse 11 you read that you could become as a man who travels. What does that mean? It is exactly the same today. When the Dustbowl and the Great Depression hit unprepared people, they traveled. Many went to California. Men became tramps and HoBoes. People were merciful in those days and helped them. But, if you could prepare for your family so that you did not have to go traveling, would you? Huh?

Go the ant..... learn her ways. No guide or nanny to tell her what to do, but she does the right thing, and we do have ants here yet, just as Solomon did 3000 years ago.

May you thrive under the mercy of God, no matter what may come your way.

Psalms 31:14 But I trusted in thee, O LORD: I said, Thou art my God.
15 My times are in thy hand: deliver me from the hand of mine enemies, and from them that persecute me.
16 Make thy face to shine upon thy servant: save me for thy mercies' sake.
17 Let me not be ashamed, O LORD; for I have called upon thee: let the wicked be ashamed, and let them be silent in the grave.

Psalms 103:1 Bless the LORD, O my soul: and all that is within me, bless his holy name.
2 Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits:
3 Who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases;
4 Who redeemeth thy life from destruction; who crowneth thee with lovingkindness and tender mercies;
5 Who satisfieth thy mouth with good things; so that thy youth is renewed like the eagle's.

Psalms 23:4 Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.
5 Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over. 
6 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the LORD for ever.