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                    ||                       How beautiful on the mountains
                    ||                       are the feet of those ... who
                    ||                       proclaim salvation, who say to
                                             Zion, "Your God reigns!"
          Pastor RALPH & GENE ANN WOOD                  --Isaiah 52:7 (NIV)
          E-mail:  randg.wood@encode.com
          FRESH MANNA, 13/02/1998 ..................... REVELATION 13:16-17
          {16} 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: {17} 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.   --REVELATION 13:16-17 (KJV)
             Today we received the following news item:--
            A secret hearing of Canda's [sic] Immigration and Refugee Board
            was told the Canadian government paid $31-million during the
            early 1980s for state-of-the-art software to track Canadian
            citizens by interfacing with credit card transactions, banking
            data, driver's license information, pension records, taxation
            information, criminal records and immigration records,
            according to transcripts. The U.S.-made Promis system could
            provide details of a person's health care and even library
            transactions.  Updated versions are reportedly still being used
            by the RCMP and CSIS, but neither agency could be reached for
            comment.  (Ottawa Sun 2 Feb 98)
             Whether this report is true or not, in a "high-tech" society,
          it could be!  It -has- elements of a Canadian conspiracy theory:
          arcane computer software stealthily brought in from the United
          States to spy on Canadian citizens innocently going about their
          personal business until it's found out by the news media fifteen
          years after it started.  And yet, almost every week we get phone
          calls from people wanting to sell us things-- people we've never
          heard of before; but they know who to ask for!  Not to forget the
          amount of mail we receive, from sources with which we've had no
          previous contact-- but they have our name and our address!
             To be sure, we know we ourselves will want to contact people
          who aren't active in local churches, to tell them about Jesus.
          But we also know this:-- Jesus warned us that in the last days,
          Christians will be persecuted severely.  In many countries of the
          world, this is happening already.  And in the "information age",
          in a highly computerized culture, when the persecutors want to
          know all about -us-, they'll be able to.  But, when this occurs,
          let us remember this fact:  God is in charge.  He has revealed to
          us, in the Bible, that He already knows what they are, -and- what
          He is going to do.  We can take warning not to be associated with
          the lawless in their destruction; and, take comfort in knowing
          God has a plan for us also!  Praise His name!   --RLW
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