Resolutions. Be Happy. Economic Crisis. Gold. End Of World. Google. Calendar. Emancipation. Kingdom of God. Misty.

Have a safe and happy new year.

 

"Life-changing resolutions take thought, planning and action to accomplish."

"The Apostle Peter made a spur of the moment resolution when he resolved to Jesus Christ, "Even if I have to die with you, I will not deny you"(Matthew:26:35Peter said unto him, Though I should die with thee, yet will I not deny thee. Likewise also said all the disciples.).  Later that evening, Peter denied His Master three times!  He could not keep that resolution for one day as Christ predicted he wouldn't.

The great leader Joshua made a resolution found in Joshua:24:15And if it seem evil unto you to serve the LORD, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.,

"But as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD."  Now that's a general resolution we all need to make and keep—to serve the LORD our God."

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Everything Else is Profit

"One of the secrets to happiness is first be willing to see the good in life and then be thankful for what you have, instead of being unhappy with what you don't have."

Transcript: "Ever feel like everybody else has a better life and nothing ever goes your way?

There is an old story about an immigrant who arrived at Ellis Island with nothing more than the shirt on his back.  He worked hard and eventually owned a small business, a nice house and lived in relative comfort.  He even managed to help his son graduate from college.

When the son returned from college, he looked at his father's books and decided that the old man was unsophisticated and needed business education. The son complained, "How do you even know what is your profit?"

The father replied, "I first take out the cost of the shirt I had on my back when I arrived in this country.  Everything else is profit."  

One of the secrets to happiness is first be willing to see the good in life and then be thankful for what you have, instead of being unhappy with what you don't have.  For GN Magazine, I'm Gary Petty."

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"The economic crisis in Europe and the United States has dominated financial headlines for the past 12 months. What do you need to understand?"

 

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Fiat Promises With a Gold Standard

"In an economics class I took in high school, my teacher said something that surprised me. He said, “Money has value only because we believe it does.” He went on to further explain that the current monetary system that we use in the United States refers to our currency as “fiat money.”

Fiat money is a medium of exchange that gives currency value only because the government says so by its authority. The word “fiat” is a Latin word that means, “Let it be done.” The type of currency the U.S. was under previous to this was called the gold standard, which was replaced in 1971 under president Richard Nixon. The gold standard meant that the printed dollars people used day to day had a fixed value compared to gold, which the government kept in reserves to back up that money.

Often in times of economic uncertainty, people turn to gold as a sort of insurance against a financial collapse of our fiat monetary system. Have you noticed lately all the places advertising “WE BUY GOLD”?

We know that ultimately, we can’t put our faith in the value of gold or fiat money (Ezekiel:7:19They shall cast their silver in the streets, and their gold shall be removed: their silver and their gold shall not be able to deliver them in the day of the wrath of the LORD: they shall not satisfy their souls, neither fill their bowels: because it is the stumblingblock of their iniquity.).

However, there is an important lesson we can learn from these two monetary systems.

In a prayer to God after building the temple in Jerusalem, Solomon said, “You have kept what You promised Your servant David my father; You have both spoken with Your mouth and fulfilled it with Your hand” (1 Kings:8:24Who hast kept with thy servant David my father that thou promisedst him: thou spakest also with thy mouth, and hast fulfilled it with thine hand, as it is this day., NKJV).   He realized that God had the power to say, “Let it be done,” and the perfect character to back and fulfill those promises with action.

I believe this is the true value of a promise.

God’s promises are “unchangeable because it is impossible for God to lie. Therefore, we who have fled to him for refuge can have great confidence as we hold to the hope that lies before us” (Hebrews:6:18That by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us:, NLT).

We can put our faith in our loving God of truth, because He makes fiat promises with a gold standard to back them up.'

From: http://www.ucg.org/blog/fiat-promises-gold-standard/

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"Don't worry about the world ending tomorrow. It's already tomorrow in Australia!" - Charles M. Schulz

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World News and Trends: 2012 - End of the world?

"It is claimed that an ancient Mayan calendar mysteriously ends at the winter solstice in the year 2012. Will that mark the end of human history? TV, magazines, major movie studios, booksellers and dozens of Web sites are fanning the 2012 craze. Does Bible prophecy reveal what's really coming?"

The end of the world will not come in 2012.

The Bible makes this inarguably clear. Yet human beings from time immemorial have set dates for the end.

A USA Today article reports on some of the current hype: "With humanity coming up fast on 2012, publishers are helping readers gear up and count down to this mysterious—some even call it apocalyptic—date that ancient Mayan societies were anticipating thousands of years ago . . . Authors disagree about what humankind should expect on Dec. 21, 2012, when the Maya's 'Long Count' calendar marks the end of a 5,126-year era" (Jeffrey MacDonald, "Does Maya Calendar Predict 2012 Apocalypse?" March 27, 2007).

Again, one who reads and believes God's writings on the subject of the end of the age should be able to see that it's impossible for the world to end in 2012.

For one thing, while the world's system and this age of human misrule will come to an end when Jesus Christ returns, the natural realm and the human race will continue on—with Jesus and His glorified followers ruling the nations on earth for 1,000 years and more  (Revelation 5, 20). After that, the earth and sky will be transformed into a new earth and heaven, which will persist forever (Revelation 21-22).

For another, the timing does not fit world conditions. Concerning the end of the world's system, Jesus specified major catastrophic events that would precede His coming, all leading to a period called the Great Tribulation. But this period will commence a full 3 1⁄2 years before Jesus returns. Since we're not in that great conflagration yet, the world certainly won't end in the next year. And, of course, nowhere does the Bible speak of commissioning the ancient Mayans to predict the end of the age!

This does not mean there will be no calamitous events in 2012 or even before. For calamitous events are on the rise as the return of Christ draws closer. Yet when the world goes on at the end of 2012, many will no doubt be sorely disillusioned with any pronouncements of coming doom, Scripture included

(2 Peter:2:3-4[3]And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you: whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth not.[4]For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment;).

Don't be fooled. No matter what happens or doesn't happen in 2012, the end of the age will still be soon ahead." (Source: USA Today.)  From: http://www.ucg.org/news-and-prophecy/world-news-and-trends-2012-end-world/  Article by Jerold Aust, John Ross Schroeder

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Is 2012 the End of the World?

"An ancient Mayan calendar mysteriously ends at the winter solstice in the year 2012. Is this a sign that the Mayans knew that December 2012 is the end of human history? The History Channel, Newsweek magazine, major movie studios, booksellers and dozens of Web sites are fanning the 2012 craze. Should you be building a shelter and stowing away food for the coming disaster?"   Rest of article: Is 2012 the End of the World? - (Article)

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Top Searches on Google: What are the top searches people make on the Internet?

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Changing time: Proposed calendar would stay same, year after year

"Two professors at Johns Hopkins University want the world to drop time zones and use a "Universal Time" to line up dates and times and aid international business transactions.

If you've ever wondered what day your birthday will fall on in, say, 2018 or even 2051, the two professors,  the astrophysicist and the economist are proposing an unchanging, permanent calendar where each year is just like the one that went before it.

The variety would come every five or six years, when a weeklong "mini month" the professors call Xtr would be tacked on the calendar at the end of December to keep the seasons in sync, according to a website the two have created to promote their proposal. Xtr would occur in 2015, 2020, 2026, 2032, 2037, 2043, 2048, 2054, 2060, 2065, 2071, 2076, 2082, 2088, 2093, 2099, 2105 ....

Leap Year would be no more, Halloween would always fall on Monday, Oct. 30, and Christmas would forever be on a Sunday. Forget the childhood rhyme though. Thirty days hath not September on what's being called the Hanke-Henry Permanent Calendar. March, June, September and December would have 31 days. The rest would have 30. And a child born on a future Monday, "fair of face," would celebrate her birthday on Monday for life. More at: http://www.deseretnews.com/article/700211196/Changing-time-Proposed-calendar-would-stay-same-year-after-year.html

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The calendar has been changed before:

On This Day:

New Year's Day, Jan 1, 45 B.C.:

"In 45 B.C., New Year's Day is celebrated on January 1 for the first time in history as the Julian calendar takes effect.

Soon after becoming Roman dictator, Julius Caesar decided that the traditional Roman calendar was in dire need of reform. Introduced around the seventh century B.C., the Roman calendar attempted to follow the lunar cycle but frequently fell out of phase with the seasons and had to be corrected. In addition, the pontifices, the Roman body charged with overseeing the calendar, often abused its authority by adding days to extend political terms or interfere with elections.

In designing his new calendar, Caesar enlisted the aid of Sosigenes, an Alexandrian astronomer, who advised him to do away with the lunar cycle entirely and follow the solar year, as did the Egyptians. The year was calculated to be 365 and 1/4 days, and Caesar added 67 days to 45 B.C., making 46 B.C. begin on January 1, rather than in March. He also decreed that every four years a day be added to February, thus theoretically keeping his calendar from falling out of step. Shortly before his assassination in 44 B.C., he changed the name of the month Quintilis to Julius (July) after himself. Later, the month of Sextilis was renamed Augustus (August) after his successor.

Celebration of New Year's Day in January fell out of practice during the Middle Ages, and even those who strictly adhered to the Julian calendar did not observe the New Year exactly on January 1. The reason for the latter was that Caesar and Sosigenes failed to calculate the correct value for the solar year as 365.242199 days, not 365.25 days. Thus, an 11-minute-a-year error added seven days by the year 1000, and 10 days by the mid-15th century.

The Roman church became aware of this problem, and in the 1570s Pope Gregory XIII commissioned Jesuit astronomer Christopher Clavius to come up with a new calendar. In 1582, the Gregorian calendar was implemented, omitting 10 days for that year and establishing the new rule that only one of every four centennial years should be a leap year. Since then, people around the world have gathered en masse on January 1 to celebrate the precise arrival of the New Year."

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Jan 1, 1863:

The Emancipation Proclamation takes effect

"On this day in 1863, President Abraham Lincoln signs the final Emancipation Proclamation, which ends slavery in the rebelling states. A preliminary proclamation was issued in September 1862, following the Union victory at the Battle of Antietam in Maryland. The act signaled an important shift in the Union's Civil War aims, expanding the goal of the war from reunification to include the eradication of slavery.

The proclamation freed all slaves in states that were still in rebellion on January 1, 1863. Lincoln used vacated Congressional seats to determine the areas still in rebellion, as some parts of the South had already been recaptured and representatives returned to Congress under Union supervision. As the proclamation freed slaves only in rebellious areas it actually freed no one, since these were areas not yet under Union control. The measure was still one of the most important acts in American history, however, as it meant slavery would end when those areas were recaptured. Most crucially, this measure effectively sabotaged Confederate attempts to secure recognition by foreign governments, especially Great Britain. When reunification was the sole goal of the North, the Confederates could be viewed by foreigners as freedom fighters being held against their will by the Union. But after the Emancipation Proclamation, the Southern cause was now the defense of slavery. The proclamation was a shrewd maneuver by Lincoln to brand the Confederate States as a slave nation and render foreign aid impossible.

The measure was met by a good deal of opposition, as many Northerners were unwilling to fight for the freedom of blacks; however, the proclamation signaled the death knell for slavery and had the effect on British opinion that Lincoln desired. Britain, which was ideologically opposed to slavery, could no longer recognize the Confederacy, and goodwill towards the Union forces swelled in Britain. With this measure, Lincoln effectively isolated the Confederacy and killed the institution that was at the root of sectional differences.

On New Year's Day 1863, the president greeted a large group of diplomats at a White House reception. Shortly after noon, he slipped upstairs to his office and signed the proclamation. "I never felt more certain," he commented, "that I was doing right, than I do in signing this paper." 

Although he waffled on the subject of slavery in the early years of his presidency, he would thereafter be remembered as "The Great Emancipator." To Confederate sympathizers, however, Lincoln's signing of the Emancipation Proclamation reinforced their image of him as a hated despot and ultimately inspired his assassination by John Wilkes Booth on April 14, 1865."

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The program on TV today is:

"Knowledge of this coming divine government provides real hope beyond the dismal news and traumas of our present day."

Watch this program at http://www.ucg.org/beyond-today-program/doctrinal-beliefs/what-kingdom-god

Watch Beyond Today on WGN America on Sundays at 8:30 AM EST. (Find a station in your area - http://www.beyondtoday.tv/stations )

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Yesterday:

Misty wasn't feeling well when she first got up to go outside.  She didn't trot to the door with her tail a-waggin', she moseyed along with her tail down.  She didn't eat her breakfast, very unusual.  Then instead of going to her big bed, she curled up in Prime's (my foster cat) bed, in my bedroom. It would have disturbed her if I had opened the sliding door to my closet, so I put on some work clothes.

When I took her outside at noon, I ran my hands all over her to see if she hurt and winced, but she didn't.  After unexpectedly losing my beloved Levi to canine spleen cancer, I was trying to make sure that wasn't her problem.  She walked slowly but a little more gaily down the walkway back to the front door, and curled up in Prime's other bed in the living room.   Then she went back to Prime's bed in my bedroom.  I checked her big bed thinking there might be some reason she didn't want to go back to it, but it looked normal.   I changed her blankie anyway.  Why do these things happen when the vets are closed?  Maybe I am being over-protective, but I am keeping a close eye on her. 

The rest of the day I took it easy looking for a suitable subject for this Sunday journal, so I read a lot of Bible verses, and came up with these varied subjects. 

Also I measured and tried to figure out the best way to rearrange this computer corner.

Paco used to act like he wasn't hungry once in a while, but Misty has never refused food, except the day she came down with pyometra, and had to have emergency surgery.   http://pennys-tuppence.blogspot.com/2011/01/pyometra-will-affect-almost-all.html   

It is a worry, but I suppose a healthy 15+ year old dog can have some 'off' days.  She hasn't got up yet, so I don't know how she feels today.