I’m Unemployed Is God Punishing Me?

Thinking through God’s Calling and Your Opportunity

Written by GodLife on 30/04/2019
Series: Weekly Devotional
Whatever you do, do it from the heart for the Lord and not for people.

Colossians 3:23
Did you know that "God helps those who help themselves" is one of the most-quoted phony Bible verses out there? Remember this: God “know(s) the hopes of the helpless” (Psalm 10:17) and His “power works best in weakness.” (2 Corinthians 12:9) If you’ve been praying for a job for a long time, here are a few things to consider.

Consider God’s Calling
Does God have a plan for you? Yes. The bigger question is, "What is God’s plan?" We all have dreams for our life, but God’s plan is first. He does not want to just be a part of the plans I make for my life. God’s plan involves His “Kingdom” because He is the King, and we owe loyalty to Him. Sin is disloyalty to Him, and “The Lord will not hear me if I hold on to sin in my heart.” (Psalm 66:18) But there’s more to think about as you wait for an answer to your prayer for a job.

Consider How God Created You
Ephesians 2:1-10 shows that it’s God’s work, not ours, that is most important. “We are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. (Ephesians 2:10) You are unique for God's purposes. Sometimes it's hard for you to see your uniquenesses. Ask a trusted Christian friend to pray with you. Together, you can think through the things that make you different from others. This may open some doors you hadn’t thought about before.

Consider the Importance of Patience
Sometimes you might pray and submit yourself humbly to God, but still have to wait a while. Waiting for fulfillment makes the eventual answer unforgettable. The Bible says, "Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a dream fulfilled is a tree of life." (Proverbs 13:12) God’s calling for you is a holy calling, no matter what your job is. If you are certain you are where He wants you to be, you can be a grocery clerk, a truck driver or a dog catcher to the glory of God just as much as the preacher or full-time Christian worker can! “Whatever you do, do it from the heart for the Lord and not for people.” (Colossians 3:23)

Pray this week:
Father, help me put your plan first in my life. Show me what you want me to do.

What kind of work did God prepare you to do?

Alan Zibluk Markethive Founding Member

Social Security Number Scams

“She then proceeded to tell me that drugs were found in the car and that the addresses were already under investigation for drug trafficking.”

by Prince Of Petworth  October 4, 2018 at 1:45 pm71 Comments

Photo by PoPville flickr user Rich Renomeron

Ed. Note: At this point I assume every single phone call is a scam. When my mom calls, I’m like “Oh yeah mom, what’d you buy me for my 12th birthday? Faster, faster. SCAMMER.” Click. But that’s just me.

“Dear PoPville,

I just wanted to submit a warning to fellow DCers. Today, I received a phone call from a legitimate 202 number (I didn’t know the number and normally wouldn’t answer, but did in case it was a work call). When I answered, they asked me to verify my name (I did), told me that I was under criminal investigation, and asked if I knew anything about it. I said no.

I will preface the rest of the story by saying that I have a very common name and am a bit paranoid about identity theft (it’s happened to several of my family members). I only stayed on the phone as long as I did (12 minutes!) so that I could confirm that my identity was not actually stolen.

Anyway, the woman on the phone told me that they found an abandoned car that was registered under my name. She described the car, gave me two addresses that were associated with it, and asked if I was familiar with any of these. I said no. She then proceeded to tell me that drugs were found in the car and that the addresses were already under investigation for drug trafficking.

At this point, I asked how I could verify that she was calling from a government agency. She told me to type the number into google, and it came up as a DC MPD number. So she “confirmed” that she was legitimate.

She then told me that my information was also used to open several bank accounts and wire money overseas. She gave the names of the supposed recipients and asked if I knew them. I said no. She told me that, due to this activity, my social security number was frozen and that I would be issued a new social security number in 1-2 days. I asked her when these accounts were opened. (I just had a thorough background/credit check done this past month when applying for a lease). She said five months ago. I told her none of these came up during my recent background check.

I then requested to hang up and call the number back to verify that she was calling from the police number, and that I would be happy to talk to her more when I called her back. This is when she started to get really hostile. She told me I was behaving like a drug dealer and asked why I wasn’t willing to cooperate. I told her I was happy to cooperate, but to make sure this was real, I wanted to call her through that number. She proceeded to yell at me, feigning disbelief that I was “accusing” her of not providing real information when I was the one acting like a drug dealer. Then, she somehow called me using 911. I ignored the 911 call, and she said, “Are you getting another call? Because you’re breaking up.” I said yes, but that I wasn’t going to answer it. She asked who was calling (which I was another scammer red flag) and I said “911 but that doesn’t make sense.” So she said, “Now you’re getting a call from 911 and you’re not answering it?!” …and, again, told me I was behaving like a drug dealer. We went back and forth a few more times, with 2 more attempted calls from 911. By the end of the call, she told me that if I didn’t cooperate, the police were coming to my house right now to arrest me. She hung up, and the calls from 911 “magically” stopped.

Just to be sure, I called the number back right away. I told the woman who answered that I had received a call from this number, gave a brief description of what happened, and asked to confirm that the call was a scam. She was very nice, and said that yes, that it was in fact scammers. She said that scammers often call masked as their number to try to get information from people. After verifying that I hadn’t actually given them my information, she said that any official information would come through the mail and that the police would never call and say they were coming before they actually were.

If this happens to any others, I hope my story saves you 10 minutes or so and a morning of stress. Offer to hang up and call them back. If it’s real, they won’t care if you do. If they push back, just hang up so you don’t repeatedly get accused of being a drug dealer!”

Chris Corey

Alan Zibluk Markethive Founding Member

Bitcoin Passes 5500 – Facebook Plans Crypto Payment Service

Bitcoin Passes $5,500 -  Facebook Plans Crypto Payment Service

Bitcoin Passes $5,500 – Facebook Plans Crypto Payment Service

Investing.com – Top cryptocurrencies gained momentum on Friday morning in Asia, with Bitcoin spiking above the key level $5,500. Social media giant Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) is reportedly seeking partners for its planned crypto payment service.

Bitcoin gained 6.08% to $5,581.5 by 11:46 PM ET (03:46 GMT), reaching a one-week high. The digital token climbed back to the $5,500 level after losing its grip on it on April 24.

Ethereum added 3.32% to $160.38, XRP edged up 0.18% to $0.30446, and Litecoin rose 7.23% to $74.698.

The total market cap rose further to $179.6 billion from $175 million the day before.

The biggest news in the crypto community today concerned Facebook and its crypto payment service that is under development.

The Wall Street Journal reported that the social media giant is discussing with financial firms and e-commerce companies such as Visa (NYSE:V) and MasterCard to support the payment service known internally as Project Libra.

The project involves launching a digital token that would be underpinned by blockchain technology and pegged to the U.S. dollar. A possible way to promote its adoption is that Facebook users can gain fractions of the token by looking at advertisements. Users of Facebook’s messaging app WhatsApp can also use this digital token to send money to one another.

“Payments and commerce are Facebook’s only way out from its freemium, advertisement business model,” said Henry Liu, a former Facebook employee.

Separately, independent nonprofit institute The Information Technology & Innovation Foundation (ITIF) gave suggestions on how to regulate blockchain technology, which drew some attention among the crypto investors.

ITIF urged the policymakers to uphold principles such as technology neutrality and public-sector adoption. It also encouraged the regulators to support legitimate blockchain innovation and adoption without setting rules that could limit blockchain-based applications.

 

Alan Zibluk Markethive Founding Member

Bitcoin gains 22 in April what comes next?

Bitcoin gains 22% in April, what comes next?

Bitcoin gains 22% in April, what comes next?

  • BTC/USD is rangebound above $5,300.

  • The coin has demonstrated strong growth in April.

  • Experts are cautiously optimistic about the perspectives of the market.

BItcoin (BTC) has been moving inside a narrow range since May 1. The first digital coin is dancing around $5,300 handle amid a thick fog of uncertainty created by Tether scandal. At the time of writing, BTC/USD is changing hands at $5,320, mostly unchanged both since the beginning of the day and since this time on Wednesday.

From the longer term perspective, Bitcoin enjoyed a 22% gains in April and finished the third positive month in a row for the first time since December 2017. This notable development has made cryptocurrency experts wonder about what to expect from the digital asset in the upcoming months.

While the overall perspectives look optimistic, some experts remain cautious, claiming that the green shoots are still young and vulnerable to headwinds.

“The market is still somewhat indecisive as to the direction it should go. Even though Bitcoin has been rising in price steadily, we have not entered a bull run yet,“ Joe DiPasquale, CEO of cryptocurrency fund of hedge funds BitBull Capital noted, cited by Forbes.

This view is shared by Marouane Garcon, managing director of crypto-to-crypto derivatives platform Amulet. He says that the market has not created clear signals of a sustainable bull market as yet.

Meanwhile, Tom Lee, the head and the managing partner of Fundstrat Global Advisors, believes that the crypto winter is over. He singled out 11 positive signals that proved the point.

 

BTC/USD, daily chart

 

 

Tanya Abrosimova

FXStreet

Alan Zibluk Markethive Founding Member

Bitcoin price analysis: BTCUSD stays marginally above 5300 RSI implies that the recovery may be limited

Bitcoin price analysis: BTC/USD stays marginally above $5,300, RSI implies that the recovery may be limited

Bitcoin price analysis: BTC/USD stays marginally above $5,300, RSI implies that the recovery may be limited

  • BTC/USD bulls try to hold the ground above critical support.

  • The critical resistance lies with $5,500.

BTC/USD is changing hands at $5.330, nearly 3% higher from this time on Tuesday. The first digital coin managed to break above several strong resistance levels and return the range of the previous week. While the coin is nearly 4% lower on a week-on-week basis, a sustainable move above $5,300 has improved the technical picture and mitigated an immediate bearish pressure.

Bitcoin’s short-term technical picture

On the intraday charts, BTC/USD has settled above the previously broken channel support and SMA200 (1-hour) clustered under $5,300 handle. While the further upside is capped by $5,344 (the upper boundary of 1-hour Bollinger Band, the short-term trend remains bullish as long as $5,250 remains intact.

On the upside, t we will need to see BTC above $5,500 to say that the downside correction is over that the coin is ready to resume the upside movement. However, the Relative Strength Index on intraday charts has started to reverse from an overbought territory, which means that the coin may extend the downside towards the above-said support of $5,250 before the growth is resumed.

BTC/USD, 1-hour chart

 

Tanya Abrosimova

FXStreet

 

Alan Zibluk Markethive Founding Member