It's Raining....

You have health insurance.
You have car insurance.
You have home owners or renters insurance.
You have life insurance.

In each instance, you pay a premium and then you either use it....or lose it. 

Someone might say, "What a waste! I'm not going to buy those things. I'll just be careful. I'll eat right and exercise so that I don't get sick. I'll drive carefully, so I don't get in a car accident. I'll be wise in my home so that I don't start a fire. I'll live without debt so that make sure my spouse has the skills to earn an income, so that I won't need a large life insurance policy. In all these instances, I can make choices so that I don't need these extra insurances."

Sadly, with the exception of life insurance, it is the law that we carry these other insurances, because human nature tends to show that prevention is not our greatest strength. 

And then, there's life. Stuff happens.
 
I want to also point out that each of these only insure you after you have a loss, and most of us carry it to protect us from the more catastrophic kinds of loss that we hope we will not experience, but know that if we do, it can devastate us financially.

There is another kind of insurance that is also the law, but that many fail to carry. It is not man's law...it is God's law, which should be reason enough to have it. But the consequences are not immediate, like man's law, and we rationalize that, through the years, many who have not kept this law have lived and died without consequence for not keeping it. Really?

What is this law? What is this "insurance"? Why do we so easily dismiss it when we KNOW that we will need it?

It is Self-Reliance, which includes the storing of food, water, fuel, and clothing.

Is it really a law? A Commandment? And what are the consequences for not following it?

Listen to just a small sample of quotes from God's authorized witnesses:


"We may know that the warning is from the Lord [when] the law of witnesses, authorized witnesses, has been invoked. When the words of prophets seem repetitive, that should rivet our attention." (Elder Henry B. Eyring, Ensign May 1997)

Marion G. Romney
-April Conference 1976 (Quoting Brigham Young):
"...If we are to be saved in an ark, as Noah and his family were, it will be because we build it…"

"The revelation to store food may be as essential to our temporal salvation today as boarding the ark was to the people in the days of Noah." (Pres. Benson Jan 1974 and Nov 1980; Pres Monson 1986; Pres. Hinckley 1987)

   "The Lord is not going to disappoint either Babylon or Zion, with regard to famine, pestilence, earthquake or storms. . . . Lay up your wheat and other provisions against a day of need, for the day will come when they will be wanted, and make no mistake about it. We shall want bread, and the Gentiles will want bread, and if we are wise we shall have something to feed them and ourselves when famine comes." (Wilford Woodruff Journal of Discourses, 18:121.)                       

  
“The Lord has warned and forewarned us against a day of great tribulation and given us counsel, through His Servants, on how we can be prepared for these difficult times. Have we heeded His counsel?" (Ezra Taft Benson, Ensign, November 1980)

"When the economies of nations fail, when famine and other disasters prevent people from buying food in stores, the Saints must be prepared to handle these emergencies." (The Teachings of Ezra Taft Benson, p. 264.)

    

     “As parents and leaders, we must remember that “it is not meet that [the Lord] should command in all things.”

       The living prophets have counseled us time and again to put our lives in order—to eliminate debt, to store food and other essential items, to pay our tithing, to obtain appropriate education, and to live the commandments.

       Have we obeyed these essential instructions?”

                               (Robert D. Hales May 2003)

     

      "I hope, and this is my brief message to you today, that no one ever reads one word about that terrible flood and the sadness that it has brought-the loss of life, the loss of livestock, the destruction of farms, the suffering that has come to those good people--I say again, I hope no one here will ever read another word about that disaster without saying quietly to himself, 'No moment will ever pass when I will not be prepared as the Brethren tell me to do.' One year's supply of commodities, well cared for, well selected, is a minimum. It's the minimum [President Kimball hit the podium for emphasis], and every family, if they have only been married a day or a week, should begin to have their year's supply.

Now that's basic, and we mean it! [He hit the podium again.]

There should be no family under the sound of my voice who isn't already prepared for whatever eventuality may come. We can't anticipate it, of course. We don't know where another dam is going out, or where a river is going to flood, or whether an earthquake is going to come, or what's going to happen. We just are always prepared because the Lord said, 'If ye are prepared ye shall not fear' (D&C 38:30). And the only way to have peace and security is to be prepared.

"May the Lord bless us that not one family of us will go from this room without a determination from this moment forward that there will never be a time when we will not be prepared to meet the hazards that could come."  (Pure Religion p. 266-267; June 10, 1976 5 days after Teton Dam Broke)

“

    “Every leader knows that families are being hit hard by
the storms of this world…The Savior saw our day as “the beginning of sorrows,” when many would be deceived. He told of wars and rumors of wars, famines, earthquakes, and pestilences.  This describes the world we live in today, and it is essential that the women of this Church take hold of their responsibility to be prepared in all things.

     
"As leaders of Relief Society, you can help every sister in every home in every ward and branch become self-reliant. They should be laying up a store of money, food, and skills, which will sustain them and their families in perilous times.” (Julie B. Beck
Relief Society General President, Sept 2007 General Relief Society Broadcast )

                         “I wish to urge again the importance of 

                          self-reliance on the part of every individual
                         Church member and family. 
                                (Pres. Hinckley, Oct 2002)

     “The Church cannot be expected to provide for every one of its millions of members in case of public or personal disaster. It is therefore necessary that each home and family do what they can to assume the responsibility for their own hour of need...

       …I believe if we are provident and wise in the management    
       of our personal and family affairs and are faithful, God will  
       sustain us through our trials.  (Pres. Faust April Conference 1986

    “Do we lose faith,

     do we lose patience,

     do we lose hope,

     do we get weary in waiting, because the day is long and the event delayed?

   
It is difficult to be prepared for an event so long delayed. Many have found it too difficult and they slumber without due preparation.

 
Hundreds of thousands of us today are in this position. Confidence has been dulled and patience worn thin. It is so hard to wait and be prepared always. But we cannot allow ourselves to slumber.” (Pres. Spencer W. Kimball “The Miracle of Forgiveness”

)    “Too often we bask in our comfortable complacency and rationalize that the ravages of war, economic disaster, famine, and earth quake cannot happen here…

     …Those who believe this are either not acquainted with the revelations of the Lord, or they do not believe them. Those who smugly think these calamities will not happen, that they will somehow be set aside because of the righteousness of the Saints, are deceived and will rue the day they harbored such a delusion (Pres. Ezra Taft Benson October Conference, 1980)

     "I believe it is time, and perhaps with some urgency, to review the counsel we have received in dealing with our personal and family preparedness. We want to be found with oil in our lamps sufficient to endure to the end. Acquire and store a reserve of food and supplies that will sustain life. . . . As long as I can remember, we have been taught to prepare for the future and to obtain a year's supply of necessities. I would guess that the years of plenty have almost universally caused us to set aside this counsel. I believe the time to disregard this counsel is over. With events in the world today, it must be considered with all seriousness" (L. Tom Perry "If Ye Are Prepared Ye Shall Not Fear," Ensign, Nov. 1995)

     "I stand before the Church this day and raise the warning voice...

       It is a voice calling upon the Lord’s people to prepare for the troubles and desolations which are about to be poured out upon the world without measure. For the moment we live in a day of peace and prosperity but it shall not ever be thus. Great trials lie ahead. All of the sorrows and perils of the past are but a foretaste of what is yet to be. And we must prepare ourselves temporally and spiritually."

      (Bruce R. McConkie Ensign, May 1979, pp. 92-93.)

Considering the times in which we live...do not expect to hear a call to prepare from our church leaders. We have been warned. A mass move to prepare on the part of members who have procrastinated would most likely have serious negative consequences. But we can warn our neighbors...and so I try.


Get your "starvation ration" of 300 lbs of wheat and 60 lbs of beans/person and the water and fuel to cook them with and expand from there. Right now at the Home Storage center, wheat is at an all time low! Only $5.75 for 25 pounds. For $105/person you can get a years supply of wheat and beans!

Brigham Young and J. Reuben Clark have both been quoted as saying, "Wheat will one day be worth it's weight in gold". If we take them at their word, that would mean that at today's gold prices (appx $1200./oz) a 25 lb bag of wheat could be worth: $480,000....in other words....wheat will become "priceless!"

No one is going to take care of you. You are responsible for your own family. (I will post a talk on this tomorrow...)No one in the Lord's church can say they have not had the time, or resources to prepare or that they have not been warned. For "the Lord giveth no commandments unto the children of men, save he shall prepare a way for them that they may accomplish the thing which he commandeth them." (1 Nephi 3:7)

It's raining....
Is your ark ready?