Everyone across America asks, "Are we at the bottom?", "Is it going to get worse?", "Is this GOD's judgment upon America?", or they're scoffing, "It's a cyclical downturn, it had to happen. We're going to see recovery in the second half of '09." "Boom times are just around the corner." Who or what can you believe? You can & must believe GOD & His Word. Anything less is temporal imaginations and eternal separation apart from GOD's Kingdom and assurance in Christ.
Is GOD vengeful or loving? Temperamental or consistent? Faithful or abandoning? Spiteful or consoling? To our human minds with its faulty logic, reasoning & limitations, GOD may seem to be all of these from time to time. But, as well you should ever discover, GOD is too big to fit in your box, or mine either. It is only through the revelations of Scripture that we even begin to get a grasp of GOD's enormity, His mercy, His grace, His judgment, and His plan for mankind. And as for His humanity, we see Him in His earthly eternal form, Adonai Yeshua ha' Meshiach, Lord Jesus the Christ. But, HOW do we look upon Him? "For a Child is born; unto us a Son is given; and the government is on His shoulder; and His name is called Wonderful, Counselor, the mighty God, the everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. There is no end to the increase of His government and of peace on the throne of David, and on His kingdom, to order it, and to sustain it with justice and with righteousness, from now and forever." Is 9:6-7 "KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS" Rev 19:16
"Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!" Jn 1:29
"we wait for the blessed hope and the glorious appearance of our great God and Savior, Yeshua the Holy One" Titus 2:13
Only then do our hearts & minds transform and adhere by the Spirit of Truth, the Spirit of Holiness, the Spirit of Life, the Spirit of Adoption, the Spirit of Faith, the Spirit of Promise, the Spirit of Glory...all of whom is the Spirit of Christ. (John 15:26, Rom 1:4, Rom 8:2, Rom 8:15, Eph 1:13, I Pet 4:14, Rom 8:9, I Pet 1:11)
It's fair & accurate to say I use this blog as my podium to preach & present Christ. For I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone who believes. (Rom 1:16) It is my earnest prayer that all who would partake here will come away with a stronger, more dedicated faith & resolve in Adonai Yeshua. It is also a medium to present our world today scrutinized with GOD's eyes through the lens of Scripture. "All Scripture is God-breathed and is indispensable for teaching (doctrine & prophecy), for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, so that the person of God may be complete and thoroughly equipped for every good work." (II Tim 3:16)
It's also a call to the redeemed to wake up from their slumber & sloth. While I firmly believe the End Times are nearing, many have & would state the End Times have been declared in nearly every generation since Christ's appearance. Yes, I've heard & read them all. But, the one stark & glaring reality that none of these generations ever had before...is the nation of ISRAEL. The re-establishment of Israel and its role in the End Times are such long prophesied events which should quicken every believers heart & mind to be about the Master's business. We need & must pay close attention to what goes on with Israel, and GOD's dealings with them...today. The drum roll has started, and will ever increase in frequency and intensity. What does this mean for us in America? It means we must decrease. Scripture states Israel will have no ally save YHWH when her enemies seek to make war against her in these Last Days. America will turn her back on Israel as well as to YHWH already. She will side with the "Kingdom of the North". (Dan 11:6)More likely than not, America will fall subservient to this revived Roman Empire. This means major upheaval to everything we have known in our land for the past 250+ years. We see it happening right before our very eyes.
This is only the beginning...
___________NEWS_____________
Israeli election battle seen too close to call
By Ari Rabinovitch, Mon Feb 9, 10:26 am ET JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israel's national election is likely to be a cliff-hanger, pollsters said on Monday, on the eve of a vote right-winger Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud party had been forecast to win.
"The trend we've seen the last few days indicates a very close battle," said pollster Rafi Smith of the Smith Research Center. "No one has jumped ahead and it's tough to call."
Likud has been the front-runner since November, after Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni of the ruling, centrist Kadima party forced a new election by failing to form a new government following Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's resignation in a corruption scandal.
Smith said the gap between Likud and its closest rival, Kadima, has narrowed, with Avigdor Lieberman of the far-right Yisrael Beiteinu party drawing support from traditional Likud backers.
"At least 10 percent of voters are still undecided, and they will determine the outcome," Smith said.
Pollster Dori Shadmon of the TNS Israel institute said with about a dozen parties in serious contention for seats in the 120-member parliament, predicting a result was difficult.
"It's a close fight and it's still open," Shadmon said.
The election race has focused on security issues in the wake of Israel's 22-day Gaza offensive.
"There hasn't been much excitement about this election. They haven't really been talking about the issues people care about," said Alex Mayorenko, 22, a Jerusalem resident.
"There are only small distinctions between the candidates, not enough to really make a difference."
In the occupied West Bank, Palestinians said they harbored few hopes the Israeli election heralded a change for the better.
"We have tried the Likud, Kadima and Labor parties, and each one of them obstructs the peace process in its own way," said Imad Saify, 38, from Ramallah.
STRATEGY CHANGE
Leading candidates have stepped up efforts to try to woo those still on the fence, mostly by attacking rivals.
Netanyahu's camp, which has watched its numbers steadily drop, reversed its strategy of laying low by describing the popular Lieberman and his fiery rhetoric as a passing phenomenon and a wasted vote.
Lieberman, who immigrated from the Soviet Union in 1978, wants to trade land on which many of Israel's 1.5 million Arab citizens live for West Bank Jewish settlements in any peace deal with the Palestinians.
Critics have described that policy as anti-Arab, along with his demand that all Israelis be required to swear allegiance to the Jewish state in order to vote or hold elected office.
Livni, who hopes to become the first female prime minister since Golda Meir in the 1970s, has painted Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak of Labor, both former prime ministers, as failures.
Israeli President Shimon Peres chided candidates for focusing on personality issues rather than on matters at the core of the Israeli-Arab conflict.
"The country's burning issues weren't properly addressed or fully given voice in the election campaign," Peres told Israel Radio. "There is always a personal side to elections ... what has surprised me is the proportion between the two."
In Tuesday's election, the Knesset's seats are allocated by proportional representation to national party lists.
Once the results are in, Peres consults with party leaders and picks a legislator to try to form a government.
Traditionally, the task goes to the leader of the party that wins the most votes and he or she has 42 days to put together an administration.
In a last-minute move, Olmert, who remains caretaker prime minister until a new government is formed, endorsed Livni on camera for the first time.
Livni had called for Olmert's resignation after the 2006 Lebanon war that many Israelis saw as a failure. Political sources said their relationship has been rocky since.
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In Florida, Despair and Foreclosures
Gloria Chilson in the yard of the house where she lived for 18 years. She and her husband recently lost the home to foreclosure.LEHIGH ACRES, Fla. — Desperation has moved into this once-middle-class exurb of Fort Myers, where hammers used to pound.
Its straight-ahead stare was hidden amid the chatter of 221 families waiting for free bread at Faith Lutheran Church on a recent Friday morning; and it appeared a block away a few days earlier, as laid-off construction workers in flannel shirts scavenged through trash bags at a home foreclosure, grabbing wires, CDs, anything that could be sold.
“I knew it was coming,” said Gloria Chilson, 56, the former owner of the house, as she watched strangers pick through her belongings. “You take what you can; you try not to care.”
Welcome to the American dream in high reverse. Lehigh Acres is one of countless sprawling exurbs that the housing boom drastically reshaped, and now the bust is testing whether the experience of shared struggle will pull people together or tear them apart.
The changes in these mostly unincorporated areas outside cities like Charlotte, N.C., Las Vegas and Sacramento have been swift and vivid. Their best economic times have been immediately followed by their worst, as they have generally been the last to crest and the first to crash.
In Lehigh Acres, homes are selling at 80 percent off their peak prices. Only two years after there were more jobs than people to work them, fast-food restaurants are laying people off or closing. Crime is up, school enrollment is down, and one in four residents received food stamps in December, nearly a fourfold increase since 2006.
President Obama is scheduled to visit Fort Myers on Tuesday to promote his economic stimulus plan. But residents here tend to view it as the equivalent of an herbal remedy — it can’t hurt but it probably won’t heal. Instead, in church groups and offices, people call for “industry” and repeat one telling question: “What do we want to be when we grow up?”
“That’s one of the things we struggle with: What is our identity?” said Joseph Whalen, 37, president of the Lehigh Acres Chamber of Commerce. “We don’t want to be the bedroom community of southwest Florida; we don’t want to be the foreclosure capital.”
A Legacy of the ’50s
Lehigh Acres, like much of Florida and many suburbs nationwide, was born with speculation in its DNA.
The area got its start in the 1950s when a Chicago pest control baron, Lee Ratner, and several partners bought thousands of acres of farmland and plotted about 100,000 lots. With Fort Myers, 15 miles to the west, developers left little room for schools, parks or even businesses.
What they sold was sun and quiet living.
“They used to bring 20 busloads a day,” said Bob Elliott, a former salesman for Mr. Ratner’s company who struck out on his own in 1982. “We had 300 customers, seven days a week.”
By 2000, the lots had been sold, but most stayed empty. Only about 30,000 people were living in an area roughly four times the size of Manhattan. The builders really started to arrive in 2004, setting up model homes on Lee Boulevard next to Mr. Elliott’s office with the faded wooden sign that said “$50 lots.”
Bill Spikowski, a city planning consultant in Fort Myers, said that because Lehigh Acres had so many parcels and few restrictions on what could be built, smaller companies battled for customers. From 2004 to the end of 2006, developers completed 13,183 units in Lehigh Acres — nearly doubling the total stock of 15,216 that existed in 2000, according to Lee County figures.
Residents remember the boom for its noise, with dump trucks lining the streets and power tools heard in nearly every neighborhood. Housing prices doubled, then tripled, and jobs were plentiful, nearly all of them tied to real estate.
Signs of trouble were ignored. “Sometimes houses would sell three or four times in a few months, and no one would move in,” Mr. Elliott said.
Then in 2007, it all went quiet. Houses stopped selling. Foreclosures multiplied. The median home price in the Fort Myers area dropped to $215,200 in December 2007, from a peak of $322,300 in December 2005. It had fallen to $106,900 two months ago.
Work disappeared with the profits. According to the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics, Lee County lost a higher percentage of jobs (8.8 percent) from June 2007 to June 2008 than any other county in the nation. Unemployment in the county rose to 9.8 percent in November, from 3.5 percent in March 2007.
Lehigh Acres was particularly hard hit because it relied on construction. This was where the carpenters and exterminators of southwest Florida lived because it was more affordable or close to work. And by last spring, life as they knew it had come to an end.
The Downward Spiral
Trinkets for $1 were an early sign of trouble. Early last year, garage sales and estate auctions became more common in Lehigh Acres as families sold what they could to survive. No one seemed interested in buying whole houses, and foreclosures soon gave way to empty homes that became magnets for crime.
Thieves stole air conditioner parts for scrap. And on distant roads with only a few new homes and faded blue street signs from the ’50s — on Narcissus Boulevard, on Prospect Avenue — drug dealers moved in.
In 2007 and 2008, the Lee County Sheriff’s Department shut down more than 100 houses in Lehigh Acres where marijuana was being grown. In 2008, the police confiscated nearly 3,000 plants valued at nearly $7 million.
Last winter, Charlotte Rae Nicely, executive director of Lehigh Community Services, noticed something else. More people were going hungry. Demand was increasing at the food pantry she runs at a nondescript office park, with dozens of new faces appearing week after week, even as the population was declining.
Wondering what other social service agencies were experiencing, she decided to form a group that would coordinate assistance. It was the first sign that Lehigh Acres was fighting the recession in an organized way, and the group’s mission appeared in its name: Team Rescue.
The monthly meetings now include about a half-dozen churches, nonprofit groups, business owners and representatives from county government, including the sheriff’s office.
Discussion at one recent gathering centered on the host of troubles that follow unemployment — issues that until recently had rarely been seen in new American suburbs. Hunger was chief among them.
The organizations offering food in Lehigh Acres have seen demand increase by as much as 75 percent in the last year. And the people being served are no longer just the chronic poor.
The line at Faith Lutheran included a mix of ages, races and former income levels.
Luis Oquendo, 38, said he had been showing up for his weekly bread allotment since last fall, after full-time construction work disappeared.
Fred Csifortos, 62, a retiree surviving on $650 a month in disability payments, said the free food left more money for his medications.
Megan Brown, standing in line with her well-dressed daughters, Kayley, 2, and Sydney, 4, had come because she feared the worst. Her husband still had his job, she said, “but things are getting more and more tight.”
Team Rescue, of which Faith Lutheran is a member, considers itself successful, not just because it has helped more families but also because organizers believe that the links they are forming will be the foundation of a tighter community.
Ms. Nicely said she was especially encouraged by the Sheriff’s Department’s new “weed and seed” program, intended to revive Lehigh’s most troubled neighborhoods by involving residents in community policing and cleanup.
And home sales in Lee County are picking up, running roughly even with foreclosures.
“Six months ago, you might get one out of 20 houses with a multiple offer,” said Kevin Williamson, a real estate agent who has lived in Lehigh Acres for 22 years. “A couple of weeks ago, I had one with 13 offers.”
But no one here would describe Lehigh Acres as out of the woods. Real estate agents said the homes that are selling here typically go for only about $45,000, a third of what they cost to build. They predict that foreclosures will continue to keep prices low for two more years.
Job growth is also still nonexistent. Randy Burns, 50, the gregarious owner of Lehigh Discount Furniture, says he now receives 15 to 20 calls a week from people asking him to buy their furniture or help them move out of town — and he said he planned to leave, too.
“Until there’s jobs and foreclosures stop,” he said, “nothing’s going to change.”
The Latest Battle
Creating a community in a deepening recession, many here now say, feels harder than dealing with a Category 5 hurricane. Panic is a powerful headwind.
Voters defeated a proposal last year to incorporate Lehigh Acres, partly because residents feared higher taxes. And Team Rescue, for all its strength as a unified front, is still trying to figure out how to curb the spread of desperation.
Most recently the group has been struggling with a growing wave of families that either visit multiple food pantries using aliases or return the food to supermarkets for money or other items.
Ms. Nicely, at Lehigh Community Services, said that in November she started using a magic marker to blacken UPC symbols on cans so grocery stores would not accept them as returns.
“We even had to do that on the toys for Christmas,” Ms. Nicely said. Without such limits, she said, the neediest families might not be served.
Still, she often feels torn, saying, “I can’t be sure I wouldn’t do the same thing if I was a single parent and my kids were hungry.”
“The needs are so strong now,” she added, noting that there were more canned peas than peanut butter on her shelves because of growing demand. “They’ve never been this big before.”
A similar struggle between cohesion and chaos was also evident at a recent evangelical men’s meeting, where 8 of the 15 members said they had been laid off in the last year. Even as the group had helped some of the men cope, others said their families had been broken up by the stress.
And then there is Ms. Chilson. She lost her house partly because of the boom (if not for easy credit, she might not have refinanced her mortgage a few years ago), the bust (which led to her husband being laid off from his pest control job) and overspending (which led to more than $20,000 in credit card debt).
She and her husband had lived in their simple green ranch house for 18 years, and the night they were kicked out, they stayed across the street with an elderly man whom Ms. Chilson had often helped with his medication.
Ms. Chilson put her couch in an old friend’s house, her frozen steaks in another. And as she scrambled to find work and a place to rent, she decided to thank those she could.
At one point, she tried to vacuum a neighbor’s house as an act of appreciation.
But the vacuum stayed quiet. Ms. Chilson discovered that the electricity had been turned off because the bill had not been paid. Any day now, she said, her neighbor will be leaving Lehigh Acres with all the others.
