People of the Keys!

ISA.41:13 “For I, the LORD your God, will hold your right hand, Saying to you, 'Fear not, I will help you.”

Financial Crisis Continues to Worsen

Dear Friends,

As most of you are aware the financial crises that was gripping the US and Wall Street has now spread around the globe. Below, once again, are only a very few of the hundreds of head lines from the past few days from news agencies reporting on the ongoing economic conflagration.

Telegraph.co.uk

ECB sees crisis of 'enormous proportions' as Spain creates mortgage rescue fund.

The European Central Bank has dramatically changed its tune over the last twenty-four hours as the credit freeze worsens, acknowledging for the first time that the world faces the gravest crisis since the Great Depression.

From Times Online October 8, 2008
Asian markets plunge to new low Jane Macartney in Beijing

Bloomberg.com

U.S. Stocks Drop; S&P 500, Dow Post Worst Retreats Since 1937

By Elizabeth Stanton and Eric Martin

Oct. 7 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. stocks fell, sending the Standard & Poor's 500 Index below 1,000 for the first time since 2003, on speculation banks and real-estate companies are running short of money as the credit crisis worsens.

Band of America Corp. tumbled 26 percent

Morgan Stanley, KeyCorp and JPMorgan Chase & Co. slid more than 10 percent.

The S&P 500 slid 60.66 points, or 5.7 percent, to 996.23, extending its 2008 tumble to 32 percent in the market's worst yearly slump since 1937. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 508.39, or 5.1. percent, to 9,447.11, giving it a 29 percent retreat in 2008 that would also be the worst in 71 years. The Nasdaq Composite Index lost 5.8 percent to 1,754.88.

"We've approached the edge of the cliff," Leon Cooperman, 65, who manages $6 billion at hedge fund Omega Advisors Inc., said at the Value Investing Congress in New York. "Do we go over the cliff or begin to recede? History says we recede, but there's no guarantee. This is the most difficult financial environment I've lived through."

Merrill Lynch & Co., which is being acquired by Bank of America, sank 26 percent.

Goldman Sachs Group Inc.'s index of stocks with high hedge fund ownership dropped 7.1.

General Motors Corp. fell 11 percent.

Ford Motor Co.,the second-largest U.S. automaker after GM, tumbled 21 percent.

American Express Co.,the largest U.S. credit-card company by purchases, dropped 6.1.

When trouble happens, the only truly safe place to be in is the Lord. His Word tells us, "He that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress: My God; in HIM will I trust. He shall cover thee with His feathers, and under His wings shalt thou trust. His truth shall be thy shield and buckler.

Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night; nor for the arrow that flieth by day; nor for the pestilence that walketh in darkness; nor for the destruction that wasteth at noonday. A thousand shall fall at thy side, and ten thousand at thy right hand; but it shall not come nigh thee. Only with thine eyes shalt thou behold and see the reward of the wicked." Psalm 91

The most important thing is to live close to Jesus and in His will and obey His word. Then, even if there is war and turmoil and confusion and chaos on the outside, you can have peace on the inside, in your own heart.

You will find that His Word is always such a comfort and encouragement in the hour of greatest trial, even when everything seems to be going wrong and you're in danger. It is His Word by His Spirit in His Love that makes you strong.

One very encouraging passage of scripture regarding God's ability to protect and keep those who love Him is the story of the house of Rahab on the wall of Jericho: The whole city of Jericho fell except the part of the wall on which the harlot Rahab's house was standing. Because she had faith and had received and protected His children, when God destroyed the whole city and everybody else in it, her little house was the only part of the wall that didn't fall!

So why worry about it? (Joshua 6)

Below are two photos illustrating the above story, one taken before recent hurricane Ike and one taken of the same location after hurricane Ike.