"If They Had Listened...They Could Have Saved Their Lives"

"They heard the alarm but ignored it, so the responsibility is theirs.  If they had listened to the warning, they could have saved their lives." (Ezekiel 33:5-- NLT))

This is not a call for us to save ourselves.  This is a call to "hear what the Spirit is saying to the Churches."  It is a call to obedience.

I would not inundate you with this if I did not think it would encourage you to pray fervently in this hour.  The following are quotes from the "Der Spiegel" article to which I referred yesterday. The article reveals just how parochial most Americans and the American Press are.

You can access the complete article @:     www.antipasprayerforce.blogspot.com

(Quotes From Article: "The End of Arrogance: America Loses Its Dominant Economic Role")

"We don't think of others or of tomorrow.

"The US consumer has consumed himself to death.

"US economist Robert Shiller, who predicted the bursting of the dot-com bubble at the turn of the century, was one of the first to notice that the value of houses and condominiums in the United States was rising at a suspiciously fast rate.  In Shiller's view, this was another case of irrational exuberance.  In December 2004, Stephen Roach, the former chief economist at investment bank Morgan Stanley, cautioned against the 'grimmest of all financial bubbles.'

"To make matters worse, because a large share of the mortgage loans are now distributed all over the world, the crisis is spreading halfway around the globe like an infectious disease.  In recent years, many of the industrialized countries deregulated their financial markets based on the American model. This has led to a relatively unimpeded flow of capital around the world today....

"There was certainly no shortage of warnings, and there were many voices of caution.  As long ago as 1936, John Maynard Keynes recognized the risk that 'speculation may win the upper hand' in the
markets.  Its influence in New York, the British economist wrote, was 'enormous,' and the situation would become serious 'when the capital development of a country becomes the by-product of the activities of a casino.'

"A new chapter in economic history has begun, one in which the United States will no longer play its former dominant role.  A process of redistributing money and power around the world -- away from America and toward the resource-rich countries and rising industrialized nations in Asia -- has been underway for years.  The financial crisis will only accelerate the process.

"Both in Asia and the United States, expressing schadenfreude (harming joy) over the decline of the United States as a superpower is out of place. The risk is too great that if America goes into a tailspin, it will drag the rest of the world down with it."

Father, in Jesus' Name, help me to see what I have contributed to all of this, how I can change, and how I can help others.  Amen.

"Looking Unto Jesus"
Hebrews 12:2



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