Financial Overhaul

Oh goody, more big brother and more government reform.  This thing is bad and it does nothing that would actually prevent the same kind of mess from recurring.   It does not touch Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac - hmm let's see could it be because these are government sponsored enterprises?  Fannie and Freddie played a huge role in creating the financial derivatives market, funded or backed trillions of dollars in questionable mortgage loans and still control half of the U.S. mortgage market.  The new bill will kill as many 120,000 jobs and cost $6 billion dollars a year according the Business Roundtable. Expect banks to tack on new fees to offset the loss of fees in credit cards.  No wonder that a poll of 1,002 Americans by Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards shows that four in five believe Congress and regulators have failed to "deal with the financial market problems and their impact on American investors".

Velveeta

Just a pause from our regular action.  Every other day or so, I like to make an omelet with egg beaters (which I discovered since my cholesterol is high) and I put Velveeta cheese in it.  First off, exactly what is really in Velveeta cheese? According to their branding, it is a pasteurized prepared cheese product, whatever that really means.  I mean there isn't American, Swiss, Monterey Jack, Pepper Jack and Velveeta.  I guess it is most like American, but not really.  Second is, why did they mess with the original recipe?  While I still like it, it just isn't what it was.  You knew it was bad for you, but you still loved it.  Somehow along the way, someone up top at Kraft decided it was too bad for you and dumbed down the recipe.  So Velveeta has become the hot dogs of cheese meaning you know it is an amalgamation of parts and you know it probably is bad for you, but you eat it anyway.  That's what makes us American.

Taser is the Right Response

Several months ago, a fan ran onto the field at a Philadelphia Phillies baseball game.  As he continued to run around and the fans cheered, he was tasered by the security officers.  Take a look.

The teen's father told ABC News that his son looked back and saw an "old guy" chasing him, felt sorry for him and was about to stop when he got zapped.
Bonnie Clark of the Phillies told ABC News today that the team is speaking with the Philadelphia police about whether an officer used excessive force by using a Taser on 17-year-old Steve Consalvi.
Was it excessive force?  Take a look at the most recent fan who ran around the Baltimore Orioles park for what seems like forever before surrendering himself finally to authority apparently after the umpire chastised him. 

The “fan” shows a remarkable ability to thumb his nose at all that is law in the interest of expressing his individuality.  He was promptly rewarded by the fans with a rousing ovation.  What kind of message does that send?
I’ll take the taser!

Thoughts From Hebrews 12:1 – An Endurance Race

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin which so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.  Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith.

Continuing down our theme of looking at the action statement coming from our wall of faith of Hebrews 11.  So far, we have looked at the encumbrances we all face as Christians which block our effectiveness for the kingdom.  Last week, we looked at the sin which can so easily entangle us.  Both of these involve removing hindrances to our effectiveness.  The next three blog posts involve the positive things we must do to be effective for the kingdom. 

Consider if we only removed the negative things that block us, we could still not be effective for the kingdom because we would not be active.  God wants us to be active.  Inactivity is as much a sin as the wrong activity.  We must run.  I do not like to run – I do it because I have to to stay in shape.  My joints creak and I will do anything to not do it.  I never got that runners high that others refer to.  My daughter ran the Chicago Marathon a few years back and while I admired her fortitude to do it, I have no personal desire to train for one.  However, I do run because it is a matter of being proactive in my desire for physical fitness.  However, when I run, I never regret it after I am done. 

It is a matter of perseverance, a matter of duty to my body.  Other translations state it as a matter of endurance.  It is a 10k race, not a sprint.  That means pacing oneself.  I remember watching my cousin when he was in 6th grade running a mile race.  He sprinted out to an early lead only to fizzle out and finish back from the leaders.  My stepfather taught me to start real slow in my running and work my way up to a faster pace.  We must conduct our Christian race by pacing our walk – doing the right things and doing them for a long period of time.  I just learned from a Larry Burkett conference I was listening to about the concept of 9:59 which means to spend at least 9 minutes and 59 seconds in the word every day.  Not an hour, not even a half-hour but a minimum of just under 10 minutes every day.  Do it consistently, every day.  I now spend time every day, even if just a few minutes meditating on and memorizing Scripture.  I find as I do this, the Spirit brings to mind the scripture at even the oddest times.  Finally, the discipline of praying every day.  I am still working on that one, but I am finally learning what it means to literally “pray without ceasing” as Paul teaches us.

So let us start our training to run with endurance.  Next week – the learning about the race God has set before us.

Stimulus Was a Grand Waste

The Obama administration claims that the stimulus and bailout efforts have "saved or created" 2.5 million to 3.6 million jobs.  The truth is that U.S. businesses have shed 3.1 million jobs since Obama became president.  Only 13% of Americans believe Obama's plans have helped the economy.  Remember the stimulus was supposed to somehow drive unemployment below 8% and not the 9.5% it is at now.  Consider the "shovel ready", bailouts, and Fed money-creation now total close to $3 trillion.  Public sector spending has been shown by two Harvard economists to actually have a negative effect, not a positive effect on GDP due to waste, inefficiency, and dead-weight loss of removing money from productive uses in the private sector.  The "medicine" of the stimulus has turned out to be poison.  Now factor in excess regulation and government involvement in the economy is overwhelming.  U.S. Chamber of Commerce CEO Tom Donohue states it well when he says we have moved from a "government of the people to a government of the regulators".

Class Action Suits

I received via e-mail this past week one of those notifications of a class action lawsuit.  The only that actually wins is these things is the lawyers.  Most of the time, I throw them away.  These things are sent seemingly to help us as consumers but in reality, they are a gross waste of time and money and most companies just cave and settle. If I posted this whole thing, you would never read the blog because it is hopelessly long and convoluted. 

The suit was against Classmates.com, a web site that helps to unite high school and college classmates.  I subscribed to it for maybe a year before coming to the conclusion that it was a waste of money and we could communicate more on Facebook for free anyway.  The claim of the suit was that somehow my privacy was violated.  Do I feel violated?  I am sure Classmates did something horrible.  My restitution for such a crime is that I can either get a $3 cash credit or a $2 credit off my membership (don't ask me why the credit is less than the cash payment).  To do this, I have to go online and fill out a form and submit it.  By the time I actually read the thing and fill it out, I probably would have made more at a minimum wage job.  But in the chance that many people actually do this, the suit further mentions there would be a pro-rata reduction of benefit paid.  In other words, my $3 cash in the bank or $2 credit could be even less. 

We wonder why it costs so much more to operate and why these costs are passed along to us.  I really feel vindicated by this law firm looking out for my best interests.

Thoughts From Hebrews 12:1 - Sin Which So Easily Entangles

Continuing down the thoughts from Hebrews 12:1.  Last Sunday, was the encumbrances which so easily distract us from serving God and having the faith of our hall of fame from Chapter 11.  This week is the focus on sin which so easily entangles us.  Encumbrances are things which are not bad in and of themselves, but can be distractions.  Sin are actions that or sometimes lack of actions that keep us from fellowship with the living God.  Paul says he does the things he hates to do (Romans 7:19).  It entangles him and prevents him from being everything God wants him to be.

I once had a phone cord that was always entangled.  Routinely, I would stretch it out, get the kinks out so I could actually use it more than six inches from the phone.  Inevitably however, within a matter of days, it was back tangled up again.  The phone cord just seemed to naturally gravitate to being all entangled again. It took constant effort to get it straightened out. So it is with sin.  Sin naturally entangles us because we are still natural sinners.  It does not seem a day that goes by that there is not a willful act of sin in my life.  Paul says he "when he wants to do good, evil is right there with me" (Rom 7:20).  But my inner being gives me the power supernaturally to overcome the sin which so easily entangles us.  I cannot overcome sin naturally, but supernaturally I can.  Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ who gives the power to overcome this sin which so easily entangles us.  

Next week - the running a race with endurance.