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Rejoice

We may well be entering an unprecedented era of natural and man-made disasters. These, of course, were predicted long ago in Matt. 24 and in other places, so we should not be surprised.

Neither should we be afraid. The Scriptures repeatedly admonish us to "fear not." In the face of danger, we are to have faith, not fear. Fear compromises our immune system. Faith strengthens it. We can measure our faith by the level of JOY that we have in the face of fearful circumstances.

Scripture hardly ever tells us to rejoice in good circumstances. To say such a thing would be unnecessary. It usually tell us to rejoice when we are faced with tribulations and adversity, because that is when we need to be reminded not to look at the circumstance, but to the God of the Universe who has it all under control.

For many years, I and others have sought to teach you faith, rather than fear. The main foundation of such faith is to understand the sovereignty of God. If history were "out of control," then we would have reason to fear; but if God has a plan that none can thwart, then we have reason to rejoice in all things and to praise God for all our circumstances.

Is this reasonable? Not to the world. It is only reasonable to those who have true faith.

I have observed over the years that many churches and whole denominations teach fear rather than faith. They may claim to teach faith, but when that faith is tested in the crucible of real experience, it often proves to be insufficient. Christians are often taught to be so afraid of the power of the devil that they believe that he is NEARLY as powerful as God Himself and can therefore do a lot of damage that God is powerless to stop or prevent.

Others are taught a very pessimistic view of Bible prophecy. They are taught that the devil wins in the end, and so Jesus Christ has to come and rescue the believers from certain death. Christians are thus taught that they must be raptured out of the world, because the devil or the antichrist is the winner of the cosmic struggle between good and evil. Then God is portrayed as a sore loser who flies into a rage and destroys the earth, the devil, and all unbelievers.

Teaching that view of prophecy breeds fear, not faith.

Other denominations teach that the world will end with a cosmic battle between their own denomination and the world or apostate church. Many are storing food and weapons to prepare for that final battle. Some are digging underground facilities in view of that day. They do not understand that their entire belief system is based on fear.

So when situations like the quake/tsunami in Japan arise, and some radiation is released, how do such fear-based Christians react? They react as they have been conditioned to react. They react in fear, rather than in faith. Instead of following Paul's admonition to "rejoice evermore" and "in everything give thanks," and "count it all joy," those without faith are sad, afraid, and even complain in their circumstances.

There is nothing wrong with taking steps to prepare for earthquakes or nuclear radiation. That in itself is not the problem. The problem is the heart motive for such preparations. Are we motivated by fear or by faith?

When Joseph made preparations for a coming famine, he did so by faith. His faith was based upon the revelation of God that a famine was coming, and that this revelation was given ahead of time to allow time to prepare. Others might have stored food out of fear. Their immune system would have been compromised, and they might have died early--with a plate full of food in front of them.

It is the same with us today. I have been offering potassium iodate for some years now. Some thought that I was spreading fear by offering this, so they did not buy any of it. No, I was preparing as Joseph prepared in the book of Genesis. The real test of faith is NOW, when the danger of nuclear radiation is real. If our first reaction is to praise God and give thanks for His wonderful works, then we show faith. If our first reaction is "O my God!" then perhaps we do not have as much faith as we thought.

If you are stressed out and are experiencing a lot of fear, read your Bible and take more B vitamins. Stress will use up your B vitamin supply in your body very quickly. Believing the Bible will reduce your need for B vitamins.

We store necessities ahead of time in order to beat the rush in the midst of crisis. One stores some food in order to avoid the long lines and empty grocery stores when the crisis hits. One stores potassium iodate to get it while it is yet available. Right now, you might be able to buy some iodate on ebay for $100 a bottle. The world will take advantage of the fearful and make money on people's fear.

Our price is still the same, unless the cost of raw materials goes up. We are all out of stock at the moment, since our stock went out the door by the second day after the crisis in Japan. We will be getting more as soon as our supplier is able to resupply us. He will be getting in a fairly large shipment of raw material on Monday the 21st of March, and it will take about a week for him to make tablets and bottle them. If all goes well, he will ship out his orders at the end of March, and we ought to be able to fill the back orders about the first of April.

Meanwhile, "rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say, rejoice." (Phil. 4:4)

"My God will supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus." (Phil. 4:19)

I suspect that God has ordained this situation in Japan as an early warning sign and a wake-up call, so that we can be prepared. While there is already some low-level radiation in the atmosphere, there has been no actual meltdown or Chernobyl-type explosion to release large amounts into the upper atmosphere. I may be wrong, but I believe that this crisis will pass and that the main damage will be local in Japan itself.

We are in no immediate danger of high-radiation exposure here in America. If I were living in Japan, I might be taking potassium iodate right now. But in other parts of the world, including our West Coast, the thyroid gland is not in danger of absorbing much more radioactive iodine than what we get every day anyway. So keep it handy and watch the news. If there is a MELTDOWN and EXPLOSION in Japan's nuclear facility that sends a huge cloud of radioactive material into the upper atmosphere, then you may have to begin taking iodate within a few days.

Right now, the main thing for us to consider is the effect of low-level radiation--the kind that does not kill immediately, but has a long-term detrimental effect. If you are taking anti-oxidants, your body will be able to reverse much of the effects of radiation. Other substances may be needed to remove the radioactive particles themselves from your body. A good study of this can be found at: