Prepper Recon

Merry Christmas!

I hope everyone is having a wonderful Christmas. Yes I know December 25th was an ancient pagan holiday celebrated by the Romans. I know Jesus was likely not born on that day, but it was incorporated by the early church so the Christians could celebrate Christ’s mass while the pagans celebrated Saturnalia and the birthday of Sol Invictus, the Unconquered Sun. Very little has changed. Today, the pagans still celebrate the day with drunken revelry while Gods children celebrate the birthday of  the Unconquered “Son”. Regardless of its origin, it is a time of the year when even Wal-Mart and Macy’s are playing songs about Jesus. God made every day, and every day is holy. It is up to you to chose how you use it. Paul told the Corinthians, “So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.”

Indeed the day that God became a man to save us from ourselves is worthy of a special day to reflect on the event. What better time  to do so than Christmas. It is often the one time out of the year we can get our friends to attend church with us. It is also a time to look at all of the prophecies that were written about Jesus in the old testament. My personal favorite  was written by the prophet Isaiah more than 700 years before Christ was to be born, “Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel” ( which means God with us) Isaiah 7:14.

What does all of this have to do with prepping? I’m glad you asked. Would you believe the Christmas story has a prepper element? In Matthew 2 we read:

2 After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem and asked, “Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.”

³ When King Herod heard this he was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him. ⁴ When he had called together all the people’s chief priests and teachers of the law, he asked them where the Messiah was to be born. ⁵ “In Bethlehem in Judea,” they replied, “for this is what the prophet has written:

⁷ Then Herod called the Magi secretly and found out from them the exact time the star had appeared. ⁸ He sent them to Bethlehem and said, “Go and search carefully for the child. As soon as you find him, report to me, so that I too may go and worship him.”

⁹ After they had heard the king, they went on their way, and the star they had seen when it rose went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was. ¹⁰ When they saw the star, they were overjoyed. ¹¹ On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. ¹² And having been warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned to their country by another route.

¹³ When they had gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. “Get up,” he said, “take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child to kill him.”

No sooner was Jesus born than his family had to bug out. But his family was poor, how were they able to sustain themselves in a foreign land? Fortunately, we read the magi had brought gifts of frankincense, myrrh, and $100,000 in  US currency. Wait,  the Dollar in its current  completely fiat form has only been around since 1971. I better reread that. No, it was GOLD  the Magi brought. So gold is how God provided for Jesus to escape into Egypt.

There are a couple of lessons here. One is that God did not use a devalued fiat currency for Jesus to escape the police state that was intent on killing him, he used gold. Gold and silver have been used as money since Genesis 13 where we read that Abraham was rich in livestock, silver and gold. While precious metals do not generally function well as a medium of exchange in our society, they have proven to be much better stores of wealth over periods of time than the US Dollar.

The second lesson; despite the fact that Joseph and Mary were not well off, because they were obedient to God, He made sure they had the provisions they needed when it was time to bug out. Do what you can when you can to be prepared. Try to be a good steward of what God has given you, but don’t let anxiety get you down because you can’t afford to be more prepared. Do not worry about the future. “But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well” Matthew 6:33.  Always do your best then trust God for the rest.

If you are new to prepping or would like to learn more about how to prepare for tomorrow, please read our 7 Step Preparedness Plan. It focuses strongly on prepping on a budget. Also check out our coupon corner to learn how to stretch you regular grocery budget to be able to buy extra every week that can add up to several months of stored food. Prepping is about doing what you can with what you have so you don’t create your own personal financial disaster. Never use debt to purchase preps.

The most important prep of all is knowing GOD. Jesus said “what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world yet loses his own soul?” Prepper translation: “What good will it do you to survive the coming economic collapse, nuclear war or even a zombie apocalypse if you don’t know you will go to heaven when you die.” A recent study found that 10 out of 10 people die! On that day we will meet our Maker. It only makes sense to be prepared for that day. Click here to learn more about knowing GOD.

Merry Christmas and happy prepping!