TRAWDADDY: 04/18/24

Thursday, April 18, 2024

Bible Verses About Preparation

www.kingjamesbibleonline.org

Proverbs 24:27 - Prepare thy work without, and make it fit for thyself in the field; and afterwards build thine house.

1 Peter 3:15 - But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear:

Luke 21:36 - Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man.

Proverbs 6:6-8 - Go to the ant, thou sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise:   (Read More...)

Proverbs 22:3 - A prudent man foreseeth the evil, and hideth himself: but the simple pass on, and are punished.

Matthew 25:1-46 - Then shall the kingdom of heaven be likened unto ten virgins, which took their lamps, and went forth to meet the bridegroom.   (Read More...)

Romans 13:11 - And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed.

Matthew 24:44 - Therefore be ye also ready: for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh.

Romans 12:1-2 - I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.   (Read More...)

John 16:33 - These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.

Matthew 24:13 - But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved.

Proverbs 16:1-33 - The preparations of the heart in man, and the answer of the tongue, is from the LORD.   (Read More...)

Luke 12:47 - And that servant, which knew his lord's will, and prepared not himself, neither did according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes.

Ezekiel 38:7 - Be thou prepared, and prepare for thyself, thou, and all thy company that are assembled unto thee, and be thou a guard unto them.

Matthew 24:42 - Watch therefore: for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come.

Proverbs 21:31 - The horse is prepared against the day of battle: but safety is of the LORD.

Luke 21:9-36 - But when ye shall hear of wars and commotions, be not terrified: for these things must first come to pass; but the end is not by and by.   (Read More...)

Luke 14:28 - For which of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first, and counteth the cost, whether he have sufficient to finish it?

2 Timothy 2:15 - Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.

This Is The Weapon That Is Being Used To Destroy America’s Middle Class

theeconomiccollapseblog.com

The middle class in the United States has been steadily shrinking, and the gap between the ultra-wealthy and the rest of us has grown to absurd proportions. But it wasn’t always this way. When I was growing up in the 1980s, it seemed like almost everyone was middle class. Of course there were wealthy people and poor people in the 1980s too, but the vast majority of the population was comfortably somewhere in the middle. Sadly, things have changed so much since that time. Today, most of the people that I know are struggling. According to a report that was just released, in all 50 states it now takes an income of more than $100,000 in order for a family of four to live “the American Dream”.

A new report from GOBankingRates used that framework to analyze how much money a family of two adults and two children would need in each state to own a home, a car and a pet. The report tallied estimated annual essential expenses for such a family and then doubled that figure.
Using that framework, GoBankingRates found that all 50 states require more than a $100,000 annual income, according to the report, with 38 states needing more than $140,000.

Is your family bringing in more than $100,000 a year?

If not, “the American Dream” is not for you.

Sorry.

Our leaders purposely pursued policies that they knew would cause inflation, and when new money enters the system most of it tends to flow into the hands of those at the top of the economic food chain.

So the ultra-wealthy have been doing very well in this economic environment, but high inflation is absolutely eviscerating all the rest of us.

At this point, it takes the average U.S. household an extra $1,069 per month just to purchase the same goods and services that it did three years ago…

Inflation is once again gaining steam, forcing the average American to shell out a lot more money for everyday necessities.
The typical U.S. household needed to pay $227 more a month in March to purchase the same goods and services it did one year ago because of still-high inflation, according to calculations from Moody’s Analytics chief economist Mark Zandi shared with FOX Business.
Americans are paying on average $784 more each month compared with the same time two years ago and $1,069 more compared with three years ago, before the inflation crisis began.

What we are witnessing is the collapse of the middle class.

CLICK HERE TO CONTINUE

Senate Can Stop Expansion of Government Surveillance

realclearwire.com

When the U.S. House passed the Reforming Intelligence and Securing America Act (RISAA), which reauthorizes the FISA Section 702 surveillance authority, it overlooked something big – an amendment that would drive the greatest expansion of government surveillance authority in recent history. The Senate has time to correct this and restore balance between the needs of national security and the safeguarding of Americans’ civil liberties.

Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act is a legal authority enacted by Congress to enable the surveillance of foreign threats located abroad. But it has increasingly become a means of surveilling Americans located within the United States whose communications are often caught up in the government’s global trawl of data. Section 702 authority has been used millions of times in recent years to query, or target, Americans’ communications. In the House, reformers proposed an amendment to add a warrant requirement before the government can query a U.S. person’s data. That amendment, which failed in a tie vote, was the primary focus of debate on the bill.

As RISAA comes to the Senate, attention is now being cast on another amendment – one from the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI) that many have come to call the “Everyone’s a Spy” provision. This measure was portrayed as a “narrow” definitional change to the law concerning electronic communications service providers – big telecom and Internet companies – which obligated them to cooperate with NSA surveillance. These big companies can be compelled to spy for the government, and then be subject to gag orders, forbidding them from telling customers they have been surveilled.

The new expanded definition of the Everyone’s a Spy provision is much broader than what many members of Congress thought. It would give the government the right to similarly compel millions of small businesses that provide Wi-Fi, or have access to routers or other ordinary communications equipment, to act as the government’s partners in surveillance. They, too, would be bound not to tell their customers about this surveillance.

The HPSCI amendment achieves this by including any service provider who has access to equipment that transmits communications. After critics complained that digital loungers in hotel lobbies and coffeehouses would have their data hoovered up by the government, the authors of this amendment provided carve-outs for hotels, restaurants, dwellings, and community centers. This was a good PR move. But this measure still applies to most everyone – owners and operators of any facilities (other than the exempted categories) that house equipment used to store or carry data.

If this became law, millions of American small business owners would have a legal obligation to hand over data that runs through their equipment. These small businesses could be forced to give the NSA direct access to their equipment, or else they might just copy messages en masse and turn them over. And when they’re done with doing their part in mass surveillance, these small businesses would then be placed under a gag order to hide their activities from their customers.

Small businesses are just waking up to what is about to be done to them by the Everyone’s a Spy amendment. Customers are sure to be outraged when they learn that the businesses they patronize are potentially spying on them. All U.S. business might suffer, as this law is sure to also widen the wedge between the United States and European Union on the contentious issue of spying and data privacy. Meanwhile, U.S. consumers and businesses would have no legal way to resist these intrusions. It is easy to see why Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon (pictured) calls this expansion of government surveillance “terrifying.”

The intelligence community is pressing the Senate to act before this authority lapses on April 19. But the agencies have already secured permission from the FISA Court to continue conducting Section 702 surveillance in its current form until April 2025. So the Senate has plenty of time to act with deliberation. It can boldly strike this toxic Everyone’s a Spy amendment. And considering the popularity of adding a warrant requirement for searching for and accessing Americans’ communications caught up in Section 702 databases, it should do that as well.

STAND Strong and Keep Trusting In The Lord - A Blessed Morning Prayer To Start Your Day

www.youtube.com/GraceForPurposePrayers

Psalm18:2

Be STRONG In The LORD And He Will Never Fail You

www.youtube.com/DailyJesusPrayers

Hebrews13:5-6

A Parable of Role Reversals – Luke 16:19-23

A Clay Jar

Encouraging, comforting, and urging you to live lives worthy of God, who calls you into his kingdom and glory. (1 Thess. 2:12 NIV)

A man digging through a trash can: A parable of role reversals.

aclayjar.net

In Luke 16:1-9, Jesus told a parable about using worldly wealth wisely, using it in a way that would produce a welcome into our eternal home. In Luke 16:10-12 he encouraged us to be faithful with what we have, still referring to how we handle worldly wealth. He went on to tell us we cannot serve both God and money (Lk. 16:13) and that “what is highly prized among men is utterly detestable in God’s sight” (Lk. 16:15).

And then, to illustrate the contrast between what men prize and what God detests, Jesus gave us another parable–a parable of role reversals.

There was a rich man who dressed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day. But at his gate lay a poor man named Lazarus whose body was covered with sores, who longed to eat what fell from the rich man’s table. In addition, the dogs came and licked his sores.
Luke 16:19-21 NET

This parable begins by describing two men. One was rich and had everything he could have desired, living in luxury. The other was a poor beggar who had nothing. The beggar did, however, have one thing that the rich man lacked. He had a name. He was known by God.

A Dramatic Role Reversal

Now the poor man died and was carried by the angels to Abraham’s side. The rich man also died and was buried. And in Hades, as he was in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham far off with Lazarus at his side.
Luke 16:22-23 NET

As the parable goes on, we find the two men have died. And the contrast between them is just as great as before. Except that their roles have been reversed. Lazarus was not buried. Instead, he received an angelic escort to Abraham’s side. His days of torment were over.

Unlike Lazarus, the rich man was buried and found himself in Hades, a place of torment and anguish. And it was likely made worse because he could see that the one who had sat outside his gate, covered in sores and begging, was now in a place of honor at Abraham’s side.

God’s Perspective Is Not Our Perspective

Jesus did not tell this parable to describe heaven and hell. It is, instead, an illustration to show that “what is highly prized among men is utterly detestable in God’s sight” (Lk. 16:15). This nameless rich man thought he had it all. He had the kind of life that is highly prized in this world. But, in God’s eyes, he was a nameless nobody who found himself cast out and in torment.

This parable illustrates the importance of using our worldly resources wisely. Not for our own comfort and benefit. But by investing them in the kingdom of God by caring for those less fortunate. Be careful to evaluate the “goodness” of your life through God’s eyes rather than by the standards of this world.