It's amazing how many people can write about God, but how few people have a story of their own to tell!

We know almost everything there is to know about the bible, and about the experiences of the bible, but have none of our own experiences.

The goodie church where everyone only says good messages, not to offend anyone, does not really address anything. On the other hand the judgmental type of preaching is pretty repulsive to western cultures (modern societies)...

In our quest to bring errors to the surface of the body of Christ, we need to make sure we are not going to condemn that body, but speak in love, so the message can get across, and the body may flourish!
We often get disillusioned from experiences we may encounter in the church, but we should never feel any bitterness in our hearts for this!
Let God be the one to judge, and let us try to improve as well as we can, ourselves, and bring to our friends and neighbors' attention the minor issues for correction!

When Jesus says to the rich man to leave it all behind and follow him; how do you relate that to ministers buying the cars and houses they want?

freedom of religion is so important!
It protects us from worshiping the anti-christ in our own churches!; Meaning we are free to refuse religion and traditions of churches that bring no true life.

The more you know, the more you understand, that it isn't a necessity or requirement to follow Jesus.
We often spend hours in bible studies, while the exercise of love, faith, and hope in good deeds are more important to experience the Father in our lives.
Knowledge shall pass away anyways. We don't need to know lots, we... just need to learn to put into practice what we already know!

Positive thinking is good; but it is also not biblical!
The tree of good and evil in the garden for instance, God said NOT to touch it (negative), while the devil said the fruit looked good (positive)...
You see, positive thinking does not always work!

For as long as our president will borrow money from other nations and lend money, the economy will be soothed and less hard when a depression hits.
But one thing our leaders have not realized is that whenever the economy goes well, they supposed to pay back the debt they've accumulated by borrowing when times where tough!
So far in an economy that goes well, no money (or little money) is lended; never thinking about the day they have to pay it all in full back. The amount of money that is lended in a bad economic time is huge.

For as long as the president and congress keep their eyes turned from their public debt, our economy will run like it usually does.
The moment no more money can be lended, and the value of the dollar ends up being rockbottom, then we'll need to start paying back those huge numbers of money, regardless if the economy goes well or not well.

The world's not going to end in 2012(most likely), but USA could very well be a country in so much debt that it will have difficulty in existing.
Those who'll have money at that time,will move to other lands, and those who don't will have to remain in a country carrying the burden of debt our fathers and forefathers have left them with.

A great example of lending and not looking to debt, is Greece. The country of the European Union with the largest public debt as far as I know. A recent article showed that the whole world might have felt the aftershocks of this economic depression, save for Greece. Now that they start investigating, and Greece starts to look at it's public debt, for the first time (almost a year after the depression) it starts to feel the depression, by a decrease in economic growth of about 6%! (or something like that).
The truth is that there is no country save for china that has kept itself without debt.
China is less affected by the economy because it does not base it's economy on gold, but on silver. Most other western countries have left their goldline around the 1940's (after WW2) and printed more money then they had gold.
This lead to a temporal wealth appeal, but also to great debts. Debts that the devaluation of the local currency can not recover!
On average a devaluation of 1 to 2% of a currency is normal per year. The US dollar has devaluated almost double of that. And even with the devaluation of the currency, our debt is still increasing, not decreasing. This means they are lending more than they are paying back by devaluation of money.
And 1 to 2% of GDP is a HUGE sum of money!!!

If you'd ask me, the American economy is going down again very soon. Wise people need to learn from this economic depression, and start to save up!
This economic depression has lasted almost 2 years, and we'll see after january if it falls back into a slump or not. But my estimation is that it will!
Wise people will lay down a cent to the side, raise up a savings account.
Or invest their money in gold (rings chains or pure gold logs), or in properties (houses,but refrain from going into a too expensive or big mortgage).

Now's the time to start thinking about getting rid of debt, forever, destroy our credit cards, and have a small saving of a couple of thousand dollars for emergencies always ready!

Doing so,they will secure themselves a smoother transition in an upcoming economic slump. But as a contradiction, they will not have enough money to support an economic growth. If enough people will start saving up, paying back their debts in full, and grow in properties or have more gold, there will be no money going into the economy like cars, technology, clothing, etc....

We are in a time where we should learn from Joseph, the favorite son of Jacob sent to Egypt! 7 fat years and 7 lean years.
Harvest, and store in storehouses now! Invest in something that is sure.
Don't end up having nothing when future hardships strike you!

Gold is getting more and more expensive these days! Noone knows weather it will go down one day, but most likely it won't.
And even if it does go down in value, it's nothing compared to a dollar which constantly goes down in value. Basically if you have a $1000 on a savings account,that $1000 should stand for $1000 worth of gold. But because of devaluation, within a couple of years, you only have $900 worth of gold. And the interest you get from banks hardly covers the devaluation of the money.
As a 'money lender' we supposed to earn money, because we 'lend' or 'trust' our money to the banks. Instead banks don't pay us interest on it, their interest is barely enough to cover the devaluation of the dollar.
So some people invest in buying gold, which does not devaluates, and is the absolute reference of most of the currencies of the world.
If the dollar loses strength, gold goes up. If the dollar gains strength, gold prices go down. If the euro goes up and the dollar goes down often it could be 3 scenario's:
1- Compared to gold, the euro really goes up, and the dollar really goes down in value.
2- The euro really goes up, and the dollar goes up too, but not as much as the euro.
3- The euro goes down, but the dollar goes down more.

From comparing the dollar to the euro, we can not see which of the 3 is the right case.
With gold we can.

So it is wisest to invest in something that devalues not, like gold.

But something is telling me to be careful with Gold; the fact that it's value is so high right now. And even gold is depending on consumer demand!
When the gold price goes up too much, people will be afraid to purchase it!
Demand will drop, and gold will lower in price.
Other investors, will see this, and sell their gold,in order to keep some sort of profit, before gold goes down even more.
And such a trend can go very fast!
In a matter of weeks or a couple of months, gold can go from 1000 per pound to 800 with ease, and even lower than that on the long run!
True that since the '70's the demand for gold has risen, and therefor the price of gold has risen.
A bad thing about gold is that you can do absolutely nothing with it! You can't comb your hair with it, can't play computer games on it, it can't even bring you to work!
You can only wear it as jewelry, or save it in a vault.
And the other thing that can only happen to gold when you own it,is, it can get lost or stolen!

God has not spoken to me directly in what's going to happen to the American economy; but if we follow the pattern of the times,
we can expect that this recession might take about another 5months after which things will relatively stabilize.
It would take probably 6months for the housing to go up again, and a 7 months for jobs to become available again. IT's only an estimation on my part, by no means a definite conclusion.
It'd take 9-12months for most americans to forget about this depression, and for them to continue their debt and creditcard lending.
This is good for the economy, but also puts them at risk whenever the next economic depression strikes, and there will be a next economic depression FOR SURE!
We don't know much about it; most likely it will be a harder one than this one we just had, but noone really knows yet.
The economy has always gone in cycles, and we're getting close to having more cycles, more frequently, more groaning of the people more frequently, and stronger.

If you look at the signs of the times, get ready for those of you who understand them!

Get rid of your debt! Save up (in gold, or money). If you buy yourself a house,and engage in a mortgage, make sure you calculate within the price, if your partner loses a job for 6 months, if you can still pay the bills!
Your total rent or mortgage payback should normally not exceed 30% of your combined wage!
This has already become impossible lately, but it should enable you to save up, and redefine your loan a couple of years down the road!
Like this, by the last 5 to 10 years of your mortgage, you can pay whatever you have saved,and can skip the interest of those years!

Don't go purchasing your first home at the maximum of your combined income!
Go small! The smallest you can! And once you've payed back your smaller cheaper home, then start thinking about a bigger home!
Sell your first house or use it as down payment for the bigger one you always wanted!
People grow in steps. Be faithful with little and if you are, more will be entrusted to you!

But don't go buying castles when you know they're hardly affordable, especially when one partner loses his or her job.