Good-bye Canadian Penny...

 

Take care of the pennies and the dollars will take care of themselves....That is a quote my dad used to tell us.
Or another common saying is .... A penny saved is a penny earned! BUT...


A handful of Canadian pennies - my picture

....today we are saying good-bye to the penny here in Canada. To tell the truth, it is just a bit sad that we have come this far in our hurried lives and in our greed in this country. My local grocery store has not wanted to deal with pennies already for most of a year. They will always give or take, which ever is required so they can go with the nickel instead.  They tell me that at the end of the day when they add things up, it makes very little difference at all.
I have fond memories from my childhood saving up every penny in my little change purse and then the joy of going along to the store with my dad to get some toffee. Oh so good!!!
I was thinking about the penny earlier today and remembering how the penny was used in school to teach the value of each coin, ( the nickel, dime, and quarter) and the dollar bill. Yes, back then we had 1 dollar bills. Now of course we have the loonie ( which is $1 coin ) and the toonie ( which is the $2 coin). I began to wonder how the schools will teach the children what the value is of each coin. eg. the nickel is made up of 5 pennies - what will the teacher say now? The nickel is worth 5 pennies but the children will not even know what a penny is or was. This is a confusing thought.
I also heard on the radio today that there is now talk of getting rid of the nickel as well. What??  Call me old fashioned but I would rather keep things as they were in the old days...keep using the penny and the nickel!
 As Bible believing Christians, we know where this is all heading. Where you ask - to the cashless society and the mark of the beast. Someday no one will be using any real money at all. There will be no buying or selling except with the mark of the beast...666. None of God's people will take the 666 mark. Sadly those who accept this 666 mark will be doomed to hell.
Revelation 13:16-18  And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads:  And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.
 Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six.
Revelation 19:20  And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast, and them that worshipped his image. These both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone



The Canadian Penny - my picture

Here is a short piece on death of the penny from the GLOBE AND MAIL:

The penny is beginning to drop.

Canada’s most ubiquitous coin will play a dwindling part in everyday business beginning today, as Ottawa phases it out to cut costs. The passing of the penny will affect the full spectrum of the nation’s economy, from big banks to the corner store – forcing businesses and consumers to change some of their habits.



Some retailers are spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to revamp their cash-register systems to automatically round total cash purchases to the closest nickel and train staff about the changes.

But many smaller shops are far from prepared for the overhaul, and will count on cashiers to calculate the rounding manually, potentially slowing the checkout process.

Ditching the penny will inevitably cause confusion in the coming weeks as retailers adopt an array of different strategies to deal with the move. Discount giant Wal-Mart Canada Corp. will continue to take and give change in pennies until next month, when its systems will start to automatically round out total cash transactions (including tax) to the nearest five cents.

Grocery titan Loblaw Cos. Ltd. will begin this week rounding down cash purchases to the closest nickel. And Sears Canada Inc. is leaving its cashiers to manually figure out the rounding, without current plans to update its systems.

Most major retailers, including Tim Hortons, will round cash transactions to the nearest five-cent increment. But the coffee chain, which still does most of its business in cash, will stop giving out pennies as change this week, although it still will accept them

The Royal Canadian Mint stopped producing new pennies in May. After Monday, it will stop shipping them to retailers and banks, saving the federal government about $11-million a year in production costs.

The move was announced nearly a year ago in the federal budget. Still, Canadians are mostly in the dark about the death of the penny, according to a recent poll commissioned by Home Depot Canada.

There is more to the story  link here : http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/economy/currencies/retailers-banks-and-shoppers-adjust-to-life-without-the-penny/article8155151/




Why does the earth quake??

Under three things the earth quakes, And under four, it cannot bear up: That is what it says in Proverbs 3:20 in the NASB. This is rather interesting. That there are actually some things that make the earth so unstable that it quakes. What are these things?  In the KJV the passage states: Proverbs 30 : 21-23
 ²¹For three things the earth is disquieted, and for four which it cannot bear:
 ²²For a servant when he reigneth;  and a fool when he is filled with meat;
 ²³For an odious woman when she is married; and an handmaid that is heir to her mistress.

So the first thing that causes the earth to quake is when a servant reigns. What could this mean? I know that God does things decently and in order according to 1 Corinthians 14:40 - ⁴⁰Let all things be done decently and in order."  So what if an employee somehow tried take the business away from the owner, like maybe not follow company rules but kind of do things whatever way he wished.  That would not be good and a business could not function that way for very long.  But is that not pretty much what is happening in our world today? God created the world and it belongs to Him. Psalm 24:1 ¹The earth is the LORD's, and the fulness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein.
So LORD made the earth and everything in it. Then He should also have the authority to instruct those of us in the world how to live, to tell us what is truth, and how to live, which is exactly what He does throughout the Bible. The Bible is the business manual or handbook with instruction as to how things are to be done. So when we are his servants, called upon to take care of business till he comes in the second coming, We are to obey Him and being disobedient to the Master would definitely cause the earth to quake. Just as in any business, when the things are not done right the boss is not pleased, and disciplinary action has to be taken. So it is also with God. He sees our disobedience to His instructions in the Bible and so disciplinary action is happening all around us which are the judgements that we see such as the tornadoes, earthquakes, outbreaks of pandemics, etc.
Next let us consider " and a fool when he is filled with meat;"  I believe this is referring to the luxurious and excessive lifestyle that so many take as "must haves". Trying to keep up with the neighbors in possessions and therefore aquiring unbearable amounts of debt. Instead of living in contentment as we should , we are told that we deserve to be able to live out the so called "American dream". Money and posessions, fame and loose living will never satisfy. This is another thing that the causes displeasure to our LORD and causes the earth to quake.
Verse 23 ^23"For an odious woman when she is married, and an handmaid that is heir to her mistress." The words odious woman simply means a woman who is not loved by her husband. I believe this verse is referring to the problem of adultery and divorce in our culture. Consistantly on the news, we hear of high ranking officials, and evangelical leaders, and politicians involved in an affair and failing in their marriages. We also see this happening in our churches, neighborhoods and families. Pornography, lust and coveteousness is rampant. God's directions are for sex within the bonds of marriage. Any other sex is immorality. God clearly states in the Bible that marriage is to be between one man and one woman and that till death.   Ephesians 5:25 -
²⁵Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it;
Mark 10:6-9 states
 ⁶But from the beginning of the creation God made them male and female.
 ⁷For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and cleave to his wife;
 ⁸And they twain shall be one flesh: so then they are no more twain, but one flesh.
 ⁹What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder.
And one more verse 1 Corinthians 7:39 says ³⁹The wife is bound by the law as long as her husband liveth; but if her husband be dead, she is at liberty to be married to whom she will; only in the Lord.
There are many more passages that we could reference that say God made marriage to be between only one man and one woman till death.  God does allow divorce in the case of sexual immorality in order to protect the abused spouse but it never was His original plan.
The rampant immorality is abominable in the sight of God and He is prepared to deal with it.
We who are Christians are a sanctified people and not at all like the non Christian.  Our goal is to please our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ in our words and our actions and bring glory to Him. This world is not our home.