End-time Prep-ing...A Good Idea!

End-time Prep-ing, Not A Bad Idea!                                     By Kelly Durant 3-23-14

Proverbs 22:3 (Proverbs 27:12) A prudent man foresees the evil, and hides himself: but the simple pass on, and are punished. 2. “I am a man of many worries, most of which never happened!”-Mark Twain. Our world is very uncertain and it is human to worry about tomorrow especially the way the society and the whole world seems to be is disintegrating! And if you have lived through and served on a few dozen disasters as I have, it is logical to want to be prepared for any future emergency! Better to be ready and not need it than to not be ready and need it! Well, having Jesus gives us peace no matter the storm!

There is something interesting about today’s verses, out of the whole Bible they are some of the only words repeated word for word twice in the same book! The point, God wants us to use common sense, be alert always if something bad is coming our way, and be prepared to ride out the emergency! God does not want you, His child, to be as the ignorant people who suffer because they don’t pay any attention to serious matters. Too many people focus on their vanities and forget the basics of survival!

Today you and I can observe that many people are very unconcerned about the future! Our society has developed a comfort as never before in history and I am shocked at the false sense of security most people have! We are extremely vulnerable in our cities as never before! Too many systems can fail! How many of you survived Hurricane Andrew? I heard the electricity was out for 3 weeks here, is that right? Do you remember what you did then? What did you drink and eat? Did you stay home or leave? If in a few months you knew for sure another big one was coming, what would you do? Are you prepared?

3. Some of you may have missed it but a little over a week ago there were articles in most news channels about how it was discovered that terrorists had targeted the U.S. electrical grids. Let’s assume one day the grids go down for a month or several months, could you survive? Most people could not because they are oblivious to the idea of being ready for any disaster! There is a majority of people who don’t even know what it is like to live with not having the primordial basics. Ignorance is dangerous!

Today, let’s cover how to be prepared. First of all when mass mayhem is happening, when a crisis is here, what is the first thing you should do? You should pray and ask God what to do! Ask in prayer is it time to leave, or time to stay? If you have developed over time a connection with God, if you have already read many times in your lifetime Psalms 91, or Psalm 56:3 “What time I am afraid, I will trust in thee” then you know and trust that God is in full control. Your spiritual development assures that you will make rational, prayerful decisions for you and your family. ”Perfect love cast out dear”. I John 4

First, above everything, is obedience to God’s leadings! Remember to act quickly, only a fool accepts calamity as stated in the Proverbs 22:13 The slothful man says, “There is a lion without, I shall be slain in the streets.” It is amazing how our technology of TVs and computers can display images of people flooded in peril on rooftops showing what happens when you stay when you shouldn’t have, but still people for crazy reasons will keep on choosing poorly anyway! Jesus said in Matt. 24:1616 Then let them which be in Judaea flee into the mountains: (In other words, mobility is a must when there is tribulation!) If you had to leave your home to live in your car and you only had one hour to get ready and go, could you? Jesus makes it clear, be ready to flee and don’t worry about bringing all your stuff!

4. Second, let’s move on to the basic physical things of survival. How many of you have a few gallons of stored water in your house? You can live about a month without food, but only a few days without water! Have you ever gone a day without water and been so thirsty your tongue swells up? It is very undesirable! I have served on disasters where water is trucked in and it means waiting in a long line and getting only a gallon a day! It is better to already have your own 20 or 30 gallons stored out in the garage or in the closet.

In Bolivia several military coups came and went with a curfews and services suspended for weeks at a time, and I discovered quickly one really is at the mercy of the powers that be and it is imperative you must live prepared to stay or go. I started a practice of saving water in milk cartons and I always had about 50 gallons under the stairs. You just put in about 5 drops of iodine and it will last for about a year!

When in survival mode, always remember to measure and ration. If you think you need to wait out a week, see how much you have got and make it stretch! And remember to have enough for one or two more worthy people as well. Remember what happened when a widow and son, who lived by a ration of cereal and oil had to share it when there was a famine? She became miraculously blessed for sharing her last little bit with God’s man!

I Kings 13 And Elijah said unto her, Fear not; go and do as thou hast said: but make me thereof a little cake first, and bring it unto me, and after make for thee and for thy son.14 For thus saith the Lord God of Israel, The barrel of meal shall not waste, neither shall the cruse of oil fail, until the day that the Lord sendeth rain upon the earth.

5. The next basic thing is food. If you cannot cook you can still eat dry cereal, nuts, crackers, chips, dried fruit, honey, candy and many things that can keep you alive for quite some time. The only problem is having it stored in your house already! When the news channels announce that a hurricane will arrive in 3 days, what happens? All the stores sell out of everything in just a few hours! Store it up now!

Right now, how many of you could survive one month on the food you have stored? Here is something to think about, the first food to go bad is the food in the fridge. If you have a gas grill you can char cook and salt all the meat you have so it doesn’t get wasted and eat that for a week. Meat jerky is delicious!

If you can get some ice, you could keep some fridge items in a cooler as well. Also, you are going to need disposable plates and cups if there is no water to wash dishes with. Also, consider how you can cook. I have a 2 burner camp stove but for Bar-B-Q you will need a propane bottle that is full as well.

6. Now, how many of you have stored toilet paper? Think about all the luxuries we have gotten accustomed to that are often not available in other countries like Venezuela, Cuba, Africa, India, etc! In other places where I lived when the toilet paper was not found in the stores we just used regular paper, but today, newspapers are not so available! So don’t forget to store napkins and/or paper of some kind!

Think of the other things we take for granted like tooth paste, soap, deodorant, etc. You need these things as well. Of course, batteries for a small radio and flashlight are always recommended! Keep your car always full of gas every week as well just in case you need to get out of town and 1 or 2 million more people are trying to do the same! Learn about the evacuee routes as well.

And here is something that could cause a real emergency, the lack of some prescription meds, and a few medical basics like a disinfectant for a cut, Band-Aids, or aspirin, etc.! I have been on emergency disaster relief crews (more than once) and then suddenly, volunteer Joe from Virginia needs his meds or he might get a heart attack or get psycho! So what did I have to do? Confirm with my overseers I needed to leave feeding people early in the day so we all could drive to the next city 25 miles away and get the meds! I hate to imagine what will happen on the day that meds are not there for the mega million users!

7. Here is a difficult one, it is hard to pack, but you can do your best at it, pack some humor! Try to find the positive and funny even in the bad situations! Laugh when you get the chance! I have been on disaster canteens when only beans and rice was the food for all week long (but that is not usually the case), so what do you say to a few thousand people who depend on you to eat? “Well, today we ordered lobster tail, but this what they sent us, ha! Read your Bible often in the day as well!

Apart from humor you need thankfulness! When go to serve on a disaster or experience living through one and when you end up sleeping on air mattress that loses all the air overnight and you wake up on a hard floor, you can still praise God that you did at least sleep! If you want to be thankful anyway, just tell yourself, oh, thank God I woke up on the floor here and I am not waking up on a cement bed with a chain on my infected ankle with my body all mosquito bitten in the Devil’s Island prison colony! (You should read history on how horrible that place was! And TSA put an end to it, we helped shut it down!)

Also, resolve in your mind to never worry about things! Matt: 6: 31 Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? 32 (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things.33 But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. God takes care of you and me in the end!

8. In the 70s when I was old enough to analyze what life was all about I meet all kinds of interesting, crazy, and scary people. Of course I knew many straight laced Christians, some loving and accepting of the youth caught in the generation gap while others were down right mean to those without a suit and tie on. I attended guru meetings that mixed philosophy and meditation as the answer. Ironically I discovered the hypocrisy of gurus teaching to live in poverty for enlighten spirituality when actually they lived in luxury their own selves. I met those who after only a year of marijuana and LSD use seemed to only have half a brain as well! I meet people who even injected alcohol to get high! Multitudes of people are crazy, reckless, and sad!

I also had a few friends in the university that were doomsday prep-ers as well who had families who lived on farms and they were getting ready for the great crash, or the great meltdown of the system, or the popularized Helter Skelter (the sudden confusion of a prophetic expected destruction). There was a popular Mother Earth catalog that had everything in it for survival in the mountains and I dreamed to own all of that stuff! And as well, I knew a few people who were atheists communists and they always were the angry aggressive types usually bitterly venting against the system over the inequalities of wealth. They, of course, felt they deserved some better lot in life that the rich should hand over to them and revolution was in the air.

But the most scary people I met were the anarchist types, or the “let’s destroy the system” types. Their dream was to mess up everything they could so they could bring about a climax crisis day so that the system would fall apart into absolute confusion. There  exists “how to” books and websites on this! We have seen what happens all the time in Latin America and around the world when chaos prevails provoked by evil ambitious people. It is then in the careless moments of weakness that militant abusers step up to grab the wealth and power! The poor never actually get it! In the chaos everyone loses! Right now other nations are conspiring to destroy this nation and, other ones as well! Satan’s happiness is to destroy and tear down in order to create suffering and death for millions under his absolute despotic dictatorial control.

 I detest the fact that people who hate humanity are obviously being successful recruiting others online to their causes with the intention of provoking the breakdown of any and all the systems they can. These plots are against targeted in particular at Christian religious leaders that bring God’s love and peace to humanity. Also they target systems that provide security in society plotting the destruction of the family unit, financial institutions, the military protection, the food supply, and all basics which now include the internet! That can crash at any moment! 

9. Being ready implies spiritually as well as physically. Matt. 25: 1 Then shall the kingdom of heaven be likened unto ten virgins, which took their lamps, and went forth to meet the bridegroom. 2 And five of them were wise, and five were foolish. This parable is a warning to always be prepared, to always be busy obeying and doing the Lord’s work and this includes doing practical day to day obedient measures.

No one can say when facing the Lord, well, my sister/ brother stored my oil for me! We are facing today more than ever what has always been, people with the mentality that they do not need to do any preparing to meet God, and do nothing for others, or even their selves! These foolish people just expect in a crisis that someone will just have to cover for them, but as you can discern from the 5 wise virgins and the 5 foolish ones, it does not work that way. Jesus makes it clear you are responsible for yourself and your backup is not FEMA, or your neighbor, or any other disaster relief organization we know about, your main backup is the Lord and his leading for your preparedness under His direction in council with His people.

The lamp oil only lasts for a short time, and our short lives in time are symbolic of this limit. We are only given a certain amount of time, and we are responsible for investing that time in the Lord’s work. We are responsible for choosing wisely for all things, for the storing up of souls for our Lord in heaven (those that we have won for Jesus). And being faithful with the material and being prepared on earth will just come as second nature to us as a result.  Christians live the time tested lifestyle of being faithful to the Lord and that transfers into preparing for most anything.

10. I use to worry a lot about the destruction of the systems and when the ‘doomsday’ would come, and that continues to be an eminent danger. But today because I have God’s peace and I don’t worry about it like I use to! Each of us do need to apply common sense, as covered here, to take care of ourselves and our family though. First of all, do you have Jesus as the guide of everything you do? If so, do you have an escape, ride-it-out, or help others plan?

All of us have studied about the end-time, we know there will be an increase in “wars and rumors of wars”, earth quakes and etc., so more destructions, system breakdowns, and more suffering is inevitable… are you getting prepared? Just be ready to go or to stay! Even ready to go with God at any moment! Above all you and I must be ready living in holiness to be sure our souls will go to be with the Lord if it comes to that! Prepare! Do it spiritually and physically trusting that God, Jesus, and the H.S. will save you and me despite evils to come!