Summer is about to close and vacations are pretty much over for most people. Some folks are glad to settle back down into a more “normal” routine. A person that just returned from vacation told me the other day that they needed a vacation from their vacation!
It reminded of times when a vacation is not a vacation. By definition, vacation means, “a period of time devoted to rest, travel, or recreation.” We’ve all had those getaways that left us more exhausted than rested; usually when it involves visits to distant family members (I see you shaking your head “yes”)! We may complain when we get home how exhausted we are but we have no one to blame as it was of our own choice.
So when is a vacation not a vacation? When you are told you have to take the time off…and without pay! That’s not a vacation because such drastic measures indicate a problem brewing.
I thought of this as I read this past week that the city of Chicago had to shut down for a day due to budget shortfalls. The report stated that this will not be the last time as the city grapples with the budget problems. A number of other large cities have or are planning to do the same thing as their finances get squeezed with the continued fiscal constraints. The state of California has been issuing IOU’s for the past couple months because it ran out of money.
This week, the mayor of Philadelphia is threatening the state with shutting down its courts, laying off 3,000 workers including firefighters and police, if it won’t approve a sales tax increase and how it pays its pension plan. The mayor states that there is no money without the proposed changes.
As grim as these situations look, probably none as dire as the letter issued a few months ago by Bob Chapman’s influential International Forecaster. It reported on the possibility of a so-called “bank holiday” planned for late August or early September (latest prediction is this Wednesday, August 26th after the release of the FDIC’s 2nd quarter report on the 25th). The idea is that when word gets out that the FDIC is essentially broke (as of today, August 20th, 81 banks this year have closed including giant Colonial Bank last weekend), there will be another run on banks as we saw last year in California and other states.
Schultz believes the global elite are in the process of engineering an FDR-style “bank holiday” of undetermined length in order to “sort-out the bank mess” and impose new bank rules. According to Chapman’s sources, U.S. embassies around the world are selling dollars and stockpiling money from respective countries where they operate. (Note: a number of insiders in government & finances believe that at such a time a new “Amero” currency [U.S. Canada & Mexico] could be introduced.)
As I thought about this yesterday while driving in my car, I was reminded of the Israelites under the taskmaster of Pharaoh. When Moses arrived on the scene to declare a “vacation” (3 days to go and worship God in the desert) it turned into a nightmare. They ended up working harder as they now had to gather straw for the bricks they were already making. In other words, before it got better, it got worse!
Christians that have the idea that they will never suffer or have to deal with extreme difficulties may have a rude awakening very soon. Their faith is one that is followed as long as things go along without too much struggle. They may soon wake-up to find out what many Believers in other countries already know—following Jesus Christ comes with a price.
I take assurance from that thought that these events are pointing to the return of Jesus Christ. And when He returns, He is taking His Church out of this world—what a vacation that will be!
So the question you need to ask yourself is, “Are you ready—for them and Him?”
Comments