Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

Then a mighty angel picked up a boulder the size of a large millstone and threw it into the sea, and said:
“With such violence
    the great city of Babylon will be thrown down,
    never to be found again.
The music of harpists and musicians, pipers and trumpeters,
    will never be heard in you again.
No worker of any trade
    will ever be found in you again.
The sound of a millstone
    will never be heard in you again.
The light of a lamp
    will never shine in you again.
The voice of bridegroom and bride
    will never be heard in you again.
Your merchants were the world’s important people.
    By your magic spell all the nations were led astray.

• Revelation 18:21-23

Who is going to harm you if you are eager to do good? But even if you should suffer for what is right, you are blessed. “Do not fear their threats; do not be frightened.” But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect, keeping a clear conscience, so that those who speak maliciously against your good behavior in Christ may be ashamed of their slander.

• 1 Peter 3:13-16

“‘Get ready; be prepared, you and all the hordes gathered about you, and take command of them. After many days you will be called to arms. In future years you will invade a land that has recovered from war, whose people were gathered from many nations to the mountains of Israel, which had long been desolate. They had been brought out from the nations, and now all of them live in safety. You and all your troops and the many nations with you will go up, advancing like a storm; you will be like a cloud covering the land.

• Ezekiel 38:7-9

“You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden.

• Matthew 5:14

These four Scriptures may not make a lot of sense put together, but the first is the curse of Babylon.  They had been the light of this world, but there will be no light in her anymore, no commerce, nothing.  This is a story of how evil will fair in the End Times.

Then Peter tells us to be prepared even if we are persecuted.  The words work just as good today as they did then, and as the End Times seem near, we need to be prepared even more so, as the Ezekiel Scripture states.

But if the false light of Babylon is gone, or the collective of all evil throughout the world, then what light can we count upon.  Jesus is the Light, and we need to prepare to shine that light.

I found an old Cub Scout Fun Book in my wife’s things.  One page jumped out at me.  It was so outdated.  It talked about how open flames during a power outage were dangerous, so why not make a hurricane candle.  The craft for the boys to prepare for a disaster was to take a sizeable jar, drip candle wax into the bottom of the jar and then put a candle in the wax.  Great idea until you have to use it and the children get antsy and start running around.  Then they break the jar and the candle goes out.  Now you are in the dark with hot wax and broken glass on the floor.

I came up with a different idea.  I had some high intensity flashlights.  They were great when you were going somewhere or looking for something, like a match to light the hurricane candle – no, forget that one.

But the light did not diffuse well to give light to a room, especially when you needed the light to be hands free.

So, I took a jar of fiber gummies.  I turned it upside down.  I placed the flashlight on top of the jar bottom, light pointed down into the jar.  The orange gummies gave an orange hue to the light as it defused out of the jar.

During the power outage, I used this method to do a lot of things, even restock my two-week pill pack.

Warning: If you use a glass jar you have two problems.  One is it can fall and break.  The other is that high intensity bulbs get hot, and they can burn themselves out if the light is reflected back into the flashlight.  Even with the plastic jar, some light is reflected, but not enough to overheat the bulb.  I had three flashlights.  I tried one with a glass jar and now I have two flashlights.

If you have a miner’s light, you might tape it to a gallon jar of water.

Regardless, do not think the light will be bright.  You lose a lot of lumens as the light diffuses.

But this is just one way to be prepared.  When the derecho hit, I had no power for four nights.  Some people were worse off.

We have a lot of modern conveniences that we rely upon.  That puts us in danger as the power grid and other infrastructure ages.

We should rely on God no matter how much preparations we do.  I looked back on a silly purchase of three flashlights.  I had no idea why I bought them.  It was on impulse because they were on sale, but God knew I would need them.

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.