Canker and Rust

By Ray Gano

Well for those who are not linked into my Facebook , everything turned out ok with my dentist appointment. They needed to pull my right wisdom tooth.  BUT, the pain is gone and now I have a hole in the back. I am still nursing it so I do not get "dry socket", which I hear is a fate worse than death itself and the pain horrific. Needless to say, I am following the doctors instructions to a "T."
Lots of things going on in the news this past week. The front runner is of course the oil spill. One of the big things that I have noticed regarding this is the clamp down on the press' ability to truly report what is going on. The current administration has been preventing the press from coming within 65 feet of any operations dealing with the spill.
I have a contact that is coming off duty from the oil slick area. I hope to spend some time speaking to him. From what I understand, he was working as part of the crew who is drilling the relief wells. I am interested to see if he can shine any more light on what is going on down there.

Another thing that has me greatly concerned is the state of our economy. More and more signs of serious trouble are looming before us. The S&P 500, which is probably the number one indicator of the state of the economy is getting ready to cross beneath the 200-day moving average.

"Ok Ray, so what does that mean in everyday English? "

It is a very powerful indicator that we could be moving into a "bearish" period. In other words A stock market where a majority of investors are selling ("bears"), causing overall stock prices to drop.

Now you may say this is good and for some it is. But when the law of supply and demand take hold, what happens is people's savings, 401Ks, IRAs, retirement literally gets wiped out.

The S & P 500 is approaching the "Death Cross" as it is known in the financial world.

When you add this impending "Death Cross" with all of the other signs that we are seeing in the financial world,  recession and in fact depression are certainly reasons for alarm. 

Being a PZ Insider and getting the news I send out daily, you know that financial markets across the globe are full of fear and panic right now.  In fact the number one dominate force is the financial world right now is fear.

When fear rules, the markets become very volatile and could fall very quickly. I personally remember when MCI/Worldcom fell, it was a matter of days seeing stock that once sat in the hundreds, being priced in pennies. In the end Worldcom failed and took with it millions of peoples investment holdings. Those invested in mutual funds lost horribly and many people lost their entire retirement savings, just in a matter of days. 

The MCI/Worldcom situation is an excellent example of a bear market in action. People tried to sell off their stock as fast as they could, but the problem was that there were more sellers than buyers and the stock prices was dropping like a lead balloon at warp speed. There was no time to get out and people literally lost everything.

The average rule is that markets tend to fall much faster than they ever rise.  So are we now approaching one of those times of panic when financial markets across the world fall at breathtaking speed?

Quiet possibly. I know that I am concerned for the state of the environment.

Thing is that people who do not have tangible assets are at the greatest risk of losing.  When one has "paper"(investments)  based and supported by "paper" (fiat currency) one is playing a smoke and mirrors game of "virtual" assets. In other words, one has nothing to show for it. (mammon)

This is why I have tried to stay with what God's Word says, maintain your wealth in gold, silver, land, livestock, and most of all, investing in your family.

Now I am going to say something that might upset some folks.  Those who like to throw out  the "gold rusts" idea, you are making God a liar.

Gold and silver are the ONLY God created and ordained forms of money.  In other words, it is the only medium of wealth that God has created, ordained and will be here till the end of time.

Saying gold will rust is like saying all the water in the world will disappear one day. Water is a God created and ordained element just like gold and silver is. It isn't going away.

 I challenge you to reread that portion of scripture again.

James 5:3  Your gold and silver is cankered; and the rust of them shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as it were fire. Ye have heaped treasure together for the last days.

When we read this in context we see that James 5 is not speaking of literal rust, otherwise people will "eat your flesh as it were fire." 

What we need to understand here is the James is speaking in and using "Colloquialisms."

What James  5 is addressing here is our testimonies that are against us. 

Like the steward who buried those talents in the earth, instead of improving them according to what the Lord said and to His will; he did nothing. Like the poor steward, the people will suffer torment.

 He says "Ye have laid up treasure in the last days."  When it is too late; you have no time to enjoy them in light of serving the Lord.  They will become like cankers and rust. They will not literally canker and rust,  but because those who had the talents and abilities were poor stewards over them, they will suffer a great loss.

A verse I often point to in my own personal life is…

1 Corinthians 15:34 (KJV)  Awake to righteousness, and sin not; for some have not the knowledge of God: I speak this to your shame.

Like the 1 Cor 15:34 verse, James 5 is addressing all of us who have the ability to work for the kingdom and we are all squandering it. We are like the "rich men" who have it all, and yet do nothing with it. Our "riches" will be like cankers and rust because we did nothing with them.

WOW… what a jump from bear markets to living the right life in the last days.

Folks, that is what it is all about.

We can let the world bring us down, fear rule us and scream that the sky is falling.

OR… we can take solace in that our God reigns and knows our today's and tomorrow's.

But that does not leave us to do nothing.

Scripture says…

Proverbs 6:6 (KJV)  Go to the ant, thou sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise:

Proverbs 30:25 (KJV)  The ants are a people not strong, yet they prepare their meat in the summer;

The Lord has given us foresight to understand the coming storm. We have history to also draw upon and learn from.

There are things taking place worldwide. God does not want us to sit on some mountain top staring at the sky in the lotus position. He has called us to share the gospel and the blessed hope of His soon return. 

We still have time.