I am proud and pleased to present an article from my very good friends, Christopher David and Christopher Michael, who are walking the walk, not just talking the talk, regarding their preparedness and resilience for the dark days ahead. In May 2020, we set out on our journey to simplify our lives by moving to our shipping container tiny house on our 11-acre property in Appalachia. The build-up to this was years in the making, but COVID threw our plans into overdrive. For the

We all know that we are exiting a time of unprecedented wealth, prosperity, and ease. We know deep down that we are experiencing the beginnings of a fundamental shift in lifestyle, priorities, and expectations. Where this shift is leading is not yet clear, but we know that it isn’t going to be good. By “good,” I mean, we won’t have it nearly as easy as we’ve had. We will have to work harder and longer for everything. We will have to physically suffer more. If we boil it down

The three negative emotions are fear, sadness, and anger. Together, I call these “suffering.” I always think that, whichever one I am currently feeling, it is the worst of the three! If you are like me, because of the state of the world and where your gut is telling you it is headed, you are currently swimming in fear. What do we do with all of this fear?? Our rational, human, instinctive response is to survive. So we buy food, we plant vegetables, we raise chickens, we stock

Genesis 32 Out of all of the characters in the Bible, I identify with Jacob the most. He’s not very athletic, he’s quiet, and he’d rather stay home and cook than hunt animals. He prefers to read than make war. His brother Esau is far more successful in worldly ways than he is. Until he’s on his own, Jacob does everything his mother tells him to do, including stealing his brother’s blessing. Jacob eventually leaves home. On the way to his brother-in-law Laban’s place, Jacob ha

One of the lessons of Job is: God is the creator. He can do anything he wants with his creation! He destroyed the whole world in a flood. He doesn’t owe us anything. He does not owe us a good life, or success, or riches, or blessing, or anything else! He can do with us what he likes. Because he is generous and kind and he loves us, he has given us free will to live as we see fit. And we use that will to run around, constructing our little life without him in it at all, as if

Fear is the belief in a lie. Because fear is an uncomfortable feeling, we often deal with it by using denial. If you encounter a person who is in denial, it is because they are afraid to face the truth. They kind of know the truth, subconsciously, but do not want to take the actions that would be obvious to them once that truth is fully revealed. So they deny it. So fear, denial, and lies are all interrelated. Find the underlying lie, and you will crush the denial. The truth

When you have gotten to the point that you realize how incredibly bad you really are, how little control you really have over bad thoughts, or how much effort it takes to control bad thoughts and bad behavior, something inside you demands more. It used to be good enough to not sleep around, to not cheat or steal, to not lie, to be nice to people and not curse out other drivers. Once you’ve gotten a glimpse of what life looks like when God is in control of you, the bar of prop

God wants to bring all of his Creations home. In order to do this, he must persuade us to choose Him. He cannot force us; that would violate our free will and make us his slaves rather than his children. To persuade us, God wants us to see his glory in the world. His glory is his mercy, acceptance, goodness, kindness, generosity, power, grace, and love. Only He knows what each of us should be doing that will be the most effective way of persuading others to come home to Him.

When God created us, he hard-wired us to have needs: The need to be totally loved and accepted: We want love and acceptance from our parents; and if we don’t get it (most of us don’t!), we spend our whole lives looking for it from others, particularly from our partners. The need to be praised by the praiseworthy: We constantly need the ego boosts of the world: money, respect, fame, prestige, admiration, awards. The problem is, these boosts are fickle; they don’t last very lon

If the root of all evil is pride (self in control rather than God in control), then the path out of evil is humility. How do we get to humility? Can we just choose to dig up pride? Or is there something else keeping it rooted in the ground? Is it possible that pride is just a mechanism we use to deal with, cover up, and hide our shame? Is shame really the root of sin? Genesis 3:8-10 Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord god as he was walking in the garden in t

Exodus 20:5 You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments. People get stuck on this commandment: “What? God is going to punish me for the sins of my father and grandfather? That is not fair!” First of all, God is talking about natural con

Think you have led a pretty good life? Meaning, you’ve been a pretty good person? You have a nice place to live, maybe children, a good job, some savings, friends, etc. I thought I had done a pretty good job. I had an accounting career, a daughter with a beautiful soul, a place to call my own, a family who loved me, a husband who loved me and provided for me, and friends to share with. Then I realized that my husband was actually a narcissist who got a kick out of being cruel

Jesus constantly repeats, “Believe and you will be saved,” “Believe and you will have eternal life,” “Believe and you will be in the Kingdom of God.” But what does he mean, “believe?” Believe in what? He means, “Believe what I tell you,” or, “Believe that I am Truth.” We must give up self – and all that self wants to live for – in order to desire to live for God. If God promises us eternal life, love and acceptance, joy, peace, purpose, and blessings, why would we NOT want to

Exodus 14-16, Numbers 11 In Exodus 14, God saves the Israelites from Pharaoh. He literally moves the entire width of the Red Sea – this happened in the middle of the night, did you know that? – even dries the ground before the people walk on t as they cross, walls of water on their right and their left. They then watch as God swept Pharaoh and his best men, horses, and chariots into the sea. Does this sound awe-inspiring? Miraculous? The people celebrate and sing songs of pra

Exodus 34:6-7 What does it mean, to believe? Jesus says, if you believe in me, you will be saved. But what does that mean, exactly, to believe? For a long time, I thought it meant, do you believe that Jesus is the Son of God? Well, yes. I do. Then I must be saved. Right? But does it mean that, really? Even Satan believes that Jesus is the Son of God! Jesus means, do you believe me to be who I say I am? He is not just referring to being the Son of God. His statement is along t

I asked myself this question: how do I pray for others? What do I pray for? Specifically, I wanted to know how what intercessory prayer is and how to do it. I was good at speaking my feelings to God, good at confessing my innermost thoughts, but I felt like it was time to really learn how to pray. According to John 14:14, whatever we ask in Jesus’ name, he will do it. That means that we should be praying with certainty. What does that mean, exactly, “Ask in Jesus’ name?” Do w