That being said, I think that tomorrow’s project that I need to accomplish is to write a free eBook about preparation. If you can’t get GBTV, then my eBook will be available. I usually would make a web page about topics like these, but this document is going to probably be several pages long – much more than I can comfortably handle on a web page. You can’t copyright ideas, so I should be safe with creating a book from today’s notes – especially since I have more to contribute than was in this show today.

I have difficulty finishing some of the larger projects that I’ve been working on, but I should be able to finish this one in about a day. If you’ve been looking for information about how to prepare for the last days, then look for my book in the next few days. I know that a lot of us Christians are hoping that the Rapture occurs before things get too bad, but things could potentially get REALLY bad before the Tribulation starts. Back in 1995 when I first learned about all the stuff going on, I estimated that it would be about 10 years before things got really chaotic and the rapture occurred. My estimated date was six years ago. We can’t count on the disappearance of Christians to spark the Tribulation. We may see it get so bad before we leave, that when the Christians are taken from the world, nobody notices.

There is nothing to fear as long as you stay with God. While we may have trouble on this Earth, nothing will happen to us that God doesn’t allow. I’ve seen so many instances where God miraculously protects people, even from certain death, because he has more for them to do.

1. Start with yourself. It won’t do you any good to change the world, even to gain the whole world, if you lose your soul. Evidently, Steve Jobs didn’t do this, as he claimed to be a Buddhist, but if you don’t repent of your sins and develop a relationship with Jesus Christ, you will find out that everything that you do in life amounts to nothing in the end. Sure, you might still change the world, but you’ll regret not taking care of your soul first. Just like the pilot will tell you to put your air mask on first before helping a small child, it’s important to take care of yourself first. In addition, becoming a follower of Jesus will help you prevent making ethical mistakes that can bring all of your hard work down in the end. Ask Bernie Madoff, or any politician whose adulterous relationship was discovered.

2. Take care of your family. Families might not be glamorous like being on television can be, but like the proverbial butterfly whose wing flaps cause a hurricane halfway across the world, creating a strong family can change the history of the world forever. For example, a girl recently traced every president’s ancestry (except one) to John of Lackland. Even President Obama’s ancestry goes back to him. Some people see this as a conspiracy, but millions of people (including myself) can trace their ancestry to him. Think about what would have happened if John of Lackland didn’t take care of his kids and let them camp out in front of the palace instead of teaching them to work hard? While John’s career did have quite a bit of corruption, at least he had enough sense to make sure that his kids were taken care of.

One person that didn’t take care of their family was Eli in the Bible. He may have been a great mentor to Samuel, and might have been a wonderful High Priest, but he didn’t take care of his kids. They turned out so rotten, in fact, that God killed them. On the other hand, the Pilgrims have some pretty successful descendants (they are not in my family tree, but I can trace my ancestry to Jamestown).

3. Serve others. This may seem like it’s backwards, but it’s true. People didn’t buy iPads because they liked Steve Jobs; they bought iPads because they are a good product. People watch Glenn Beck because he entertains them and provides them with information. While you can fool some people for a short time through manipulation, in the end, people will see through it.

Serving others can start with small things, like doing the best at whatever job you are in. Make it a point to smile, even if you’re the check-out person at Wal-Mart. You never know how you will affect someone. If you have time, help someone at your church or volunteer at your local school. Again, you never know how you’re going to change someone’s life.

If you’re doing these things, you never know what opportunities may await. Rosa Parks never meant to stir up trouble when she refused to move on the bus. Steve Jobs might not have imagined how much the computer would change the world. If you’re doing the right thing and the opportunity presents itself, seize the day. You never know what will happen.

In it, Gibbon describes how Rome went from this powerful society with the most advanced roads and technology on the planet, to being a society which we know of as Medieval Europe. I personally don’t even think we know the half of Rome’s greatness at its height. We are still discovering some of the things they did. Medieval Europe was just so low that nearly everything was lost. The people were so desperate (or something) that they would tear apart the old structures of Rome in order to rebuild their own buildings. The Colosseum at one point was used as a garbage dump.

Rome declined gradually, but I’m sure that the people felt something. Where once the army was practically invincible, it starts getting defeated on the battlefield. While the road system once allowed people to travel from one end of the empire to another, the paths started to crumble. The aquaducts that carried fresh water started to break down, and the sewers started to back up.

Today, America seems to be in decline, just like in Gibbon’s history. Shows like Inspector America and The Crumbling of America talk about how America’s infrastructure is breaking down. I witnessed it myself a couple of years ago as I drove up the California coast. Our educational system is flawed, and our politicians are corrupt. We aren’t winning our wars in a decisive manner like we did in World Wars I and II. America no longer supports a space shuttle program.

The rest of the world isn’t off the hook either. Riots abound nearly everywhere. Famines plague some of the poorer countries. Europeans are having a self-inflicted energy crisis just like the United States: countries are closing nuclear plants and don’t want to use coal or fossil fuels, so Germany and England may face blackouts. We may abandon the International Space Station because of problems with one of Russia’s shuttles.

Although we live with technology that makes our lives better, the society that we live in is fragile. We need educated people to keep things running. We need energy. We need people to work in all of the industries that we depend on for our lifestyle.

I do believe that the Lord is coming back soon, but if he didn’t, then I think that we would see a serious change in the way that we live.

Last night, I saw an article about a grandpa who was in some legal trouble for forcing his grandkids to go on a hike at the Grand Canyon. My first thought was, “what’s wrong with that?” I made my kids go hiking while we were on vacation.

There’s a little more to the story than the headline mentions. First, it was an 18 mile hike. That’s a little excessive for unwilling participants. I personally think that many kids can go on 18 mile hikes, but unless the kids’ family is hiking all the time, that’s a little much. Secondly, it was 108º outside. I like to hike, but I personally would pass on an 18 mile hike in that kind of heat.

The story doesn’t end there. The grandpa wasn’t giving the kids food or water on the hike. I don’t care if it’s 58º or 108º outside, if you’re hiking for 18 miles, you need to have something to drink. Plus, grandpa was hitting the kids with towels or something.

So it makes a little more sense that people would be upset that grandpa would force his grandkids to take a hike.

Ever since I became interested in real-food nutrition about a year ago, I’ve noticed that a lot of people that are interested in health often seem to be supporters of the Democratic party. Not all, of course. Some would like the government to pass laws to tell the unhealthy masses what they can and cannot eat.

I do not support that, of course. If you have read much of what I write, then you would probably guess that I’m conservative. I’m not a Republican; I consider myself a Constitution Party member (I voted for the Constitution party Candidate in 2004, in fact). I do support much of what the Tea Party supports (although it’s not a real party). While I don’t support passing laws telling us what we can and cannot eat (I prefer education), I do think that there’s something that both real-food advocates and conservatives can agree on: farm freedom.

While large-scale agriculture doesn’t seem to have a problem with governmental regulations (many of these companies help influence the regulations), small farms are increasingly the target of governmental raids. Amish farms have been raided for selling raw milk. One person was fined over $90,000 for selling rabbits (making about a $200 profit before the fine). Another person was fined thousands of dollars for giving food away. In some ways, we’re not much different from the Tunisian fruit vendor that set himself on fire because he was tired of the government interfering in his life and making it difficult for him to earn a living.

I don’t care if you like to eat healthy, clean foods, or love to eat Ho-Hos and Coke every day at lunchtime. If you’re an American, I hope that you can at least agree that small farmers should be free from excessive governmental interference. If there’s a true health hazard, then perhaps the government might want to warn us; however, in many cases, there is no reason to take away a farmer’s livelihood. I’d prefer freedom, even if it means there is a little risk involved.

The kids weren’t very happy that they couldn’t get a toy with their meal anymore. We don’t go to fast food very often; I’d rather get food at home most times. Even this past week, when we had to go straight from gymnastics to Vacation Bible School, I made my own “fast food” at home (one night I made fried chicken with carrots as a side; another night we had homemade Subway sandwiches with a peach as the side). I explained to them that the reason why they couldn’t have a toy with their food was because some people in government thought that they knew better than us and decided to make it illegal to give out a toy with their food. They thought it was stupid; I told them that when they get older and could vote, it was important to know who you were voting for, because votes have consequences.

If you have children and run into this new toy policy, when they ask why there is no toy, you can use it as a way to teach them that voting is important, and they need to pay attention to what attitude the people that they are voting for have towards “We the People”.

I spent most of the day away from the news today. I had school to teach, then I made dinner, went to church, and was asked to visit a friend. When I did sit down to catch up on the day’s events, I found out that Barack Obama announced that he believes that Israel should go back to their pre-1967 borders. These borders would exclude places like the Garden of Gethsemene, Jesus’s tomb, and other sites that are important to Christianity – not to mention that it would leave Israel virtually indefensible.

I need to be clear here: I know that some nutjob says that the rapture is going to occur in two days, but he’s wrong: the Bible says that no man will know the day nor the hour of the rapture, and if it was on that day, that would make God a liar (I have a longer article on May 21 at Associated Content); however, the events described in the book of Revelation are near. I have a video that I need to review in the next day or so – it’s amazing, I’ve been a student of the end times for 15 years or so, but I still need to review the specifics every now and then. The events described in the Bible are being set up today.

The other thing that I think that it is important to point out is that God will not abandon Israel. Obama may think that he’s stamping out colonialism, but he’s really spitting in the face of God. God will not let the Jews be wiped out. In the book of Esther, the king signed a decree allowing people to wipe out the Jews on a certain day. Mordecai, Esther’s cousin, asked Esther to speak to the king, her husband, on behalf of her people. Esther was afraid to approach the king, because doing so uninvited could result in her death. Mordecai’s response was that she needed to speak up; if she didn’t tell anybody that she was a Jew, she would not escape unharmed. He added “For if you remain completely silent at this time, relief and deliverance will arise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father’s house will perish.” (Esther 4:14)

Those words ring true today. We cannot remain silent. I’m certainly no Esther. God has not called me to be a princess; I’m not famous or powerful. The only thing that I do have is this small voice. I will what little I can. I will warn the few people that will hear. God will deliver the Jewish people. The Arabs may look like they have the upper hand, but anybody that opposed God is a fool. Just like God delivered the Jews in Esther’s day, he will deliver the Jews in our time. We can either be for them, and God might spare us, or we can be against them — if you are against them, and you do not feel the repercussions in this life, be sure that you will receive them in the eternity to come. Even if you are saved and on your way to Heaven, you are not off the hook. Even Christians will gain or lose rewards based on what they do in this life.

I stand with Israel. I trust that God will protect them, even if he has to rain down a miracle to do so. I expect to have more on this in the future, after I look more into the subject. It may be in the form of an article; but I’ll post a link here.

The other day I started re-reading History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. I read the abridged version last year, but this is a very difficult book, and I probably missed some information. Besides, there are many chapters that were cut out of the abridged version; I wonder why they chose to cut out some of the chapters, like the sack of Rome. Wouldn’t that be an important chapter?

I learned how to highlight in my Kindle for iPad (yay!) and I ran into a paragraph that was worth thinking about:

The native Caledonians preserved, in the northern extremity of the island, their wild independence, for which they were not less indebted to their poverty than to their valor.

Right before Rome started to decline, they had enlarged their territory about as far as they were going to go, with the exception of Britain. This area of the world was full of tribes that loved freedom. Gibbon said that they had “the love of freedom without the spirit of union.” Rome eventually overtook most of these tribes, with the exception of Caledonia. These people preserved their freedom.

We face dark days in America today. Many of us love freedom; but how much do we love freedom? Do we love freedom so much that we are willing to suffer the consequences of our own actions? Do we expect someone else to come to the rescue when our exercise of freedom doesn’t work out as we expect? If we truly want to keep our freedom, we need to be in the position to be free. Over the next few years, when the government will inevitably make spending cuts, we need to take this time to exert our freedom. We need to have an attitude of “okay, I see that you can’t afford to give unemployment benefits for more than a month; but I’m going to do my part to save so that I don’t get caught in too much of a jam.” “I know that the government has to cut back on food stamps for the poor, but I’m going to help out and give to my local food pantry so that these people don’t go hungry.” “I realize that the government can’t afford to send rescue helicopters out to the mountains to find me if I get lost while hiking in the mountains, but I either bought some insurance or I’m willing to take the risk.”

The Caledonians were not wealthy, but they were brave. They were willing to fight for their freedom. They weren’t willing to roll over and make compromises. When the enemy arrived, they fought back.

Whenever Americans say things like “oh, I know that on average, more people drown in bathtubs than die from terrorist attacks (a fact), but I still think that it’s okay to be photographed naked or have someone feel me up; it’s for safety” or “I have to fly and do what they tell me to; it’s for my job” then we lose freedoms. When people sue a company because they were too stupid to watch their step and slip on the floor, they’re helping us lose our freedoms. When people put their financial interests ahead of the interests of freedom, we’re forging our own chains. It’s time to start standing up for our freedoms like the Caledonians.

Herman Cain: I LOVE Herman Cain. Okay, I’m not going to leave my husband for him or anything, but it would be a dream come true for me to see this guy win. I have never been a registered Republican, but I might just consider changing my party alignment from Constitution Party to Republican just so I can vote for this guy in the Presidential Preference Election. The only thing that I didn’t like about his answers was that he was in favor of Mitt Romney in the last presidential election. The choices last election season pretty much stunk though, so I can’t hold it against him too much.

Gary Johnson: I don’t like this guy at all. He has some pretty good business sense, but he is in favor of abortions being legal until the fetus is viable. He’s in favor of legalizing drugs as well. If he said that was a matter that should be left to the states, like Ron Paul, then that probably would be an okay answer. He’s a little too liberal on social issues for me.

Ron Paul: He’s Ron Paul. You pretty much know what to expect from him. He said that he would have been able to capture bin Laden with his policies though — I don’t think so. Some of the information that we received was from Iraq (which he was against) using waterboarding (which he is also against). Like Glenn Beck, I think he’d be great as Secretary of the Treasury, but I don’t really want to see him in charge of foreign policy… although with the exception of bin Laden, I think he’d still do a better job than Obama.

Pawlenty/Santorum: I could hardly tell these guys apart. They seem like your typical politicians. Pawlenty is a little more liberal socially, and Santorum is more conservative socially. They’re both for states rights. Maybe they’d be able to solve this mess that our country is in, but they seem as boring as snot. I’m sure that I’d vote for them if they were up against Obama in the 2012 election, but I can’t get excited about either of them.

So that’s the hour and a half debate in a nutshell, from my perspective.

It’s hard to believe it already, but the 2012 political season is already beginning. Candidates have been declaring that they would be running for a couple of months now. You could say that the first shot of the 2012 campaign occurred on Sunday, when Osama bin Laden was shot, but on Thursday, the Republicans are going to begin their season with the first Republican debate.

Let’s hope that it goes well on Thursday for some of the more unconventional candidates. Some of the people’s names that I’ve heard batted around have bored the snot out of me. Mitt Romney? Seriously? Do we really want someone who devised a mini version of Obamacare? Pawlenty? Santorum? I really don’t know too much about them, but they really seem too far into the establishment for me. The last two will be at the debate tomorrow; they’ll have to really impress me that they’re not more RINOs.

I do like Herman Cain… a lot. I’m glad to see that he will be at the debate. There’s also a guy named Gary Johnson who might be interesting, although I know nothing about him other than the fact that he founded a construction company that grew to be one of the largest in New Mexico, and that he was also the former governor of New Mexico.

I know that a lot of people would like Alan West to run, but I’d personally like to see him stay in congress for 4 to 8 years and run in 2016 or 2020 (depending on who wins this next election). I really like him; I don’t know too many people who can rattle off facts about obscure topics like the Roman Empire and the like off the top of my head (well, except me, because I’m always reading that kind of stuff).

Ron Paul will also be at the debate. I do like him, and think that his policies are a lot more likable now than four years ago, but he’s still a little too radical, especially in his views on foreign policy. I like Glenn Beck’s idea to make him secretary of the treasury.

The debate should be pretty interesting. If it was just the same old, boring RINOs, I’m not sure if I’d bother to watch, but I’d like to see more from Johnson, and although I know a little bit about Cain (and like everything I’ve seen so far), I’d like to see more from him and his policies.