Quotes of the Day

"Perhaps the greatest measure of Obama's declining support is that just 50% of voters now say they prefer having him as President to George W. Bush, with 44% saying they'd rather have his predecessor."

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"Pornography is a visual representation of sexuality which distorts an individual's concept of the nature of conjugal relations. This, in turn, alters both sexual attitudes and behavior. It is a major threat to marriage, to family, to children and to individual happiness. In undermining marriage it is one of the factors in undermining social stability.

"Social scientists, clinical psychologists, and biologists have begun to clarify some of the social and psychological effects, and neurologists are beginning to delineate the biological mechanisms through which pornography produces its powerful negative effects."

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"54 Senators voted to use your money to fund abortions; 45 voted to protect the unborn. Elections matter."

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"As it turns out, the strain of the downturn hasn’t pushed the divorce rate higher; instead, economic stress seems to have made American marriages slightly more stable overall, as couples develop a “new appreciation for the economic and social support that marriage can provide in tough times,” as the study’s lead author, Brad Wilcox, puts it. Americans are also turning thriftier (saving more, cutting down on credit card debt, reviving home-based economies, etc.), which is good news for wedlock, since financial stability correlates with marital stability, and with marital happiness as well.

"Here’s the pessimistic take. Yes, divorce rates are dropping, but marriage rates are down as well. People aren’t getting divorced because they can’t afford it, not because they’re suddenly happier with their spouses."

Greed is Hidden Inside All of Us

In one of the most exposing and devastating paragraphs I have ever read, Tim Keller comments on greed and how it "hides itself from the victim." In Counterfeit Gods: The Empty Promises of Money, Sex, and Power, and the Only Hope that Matters, p. 52-3:

Why can't anyone in the grip of greed see it? The counterfeit god of of money uses powerful sociological and psychological dynamics. Everyone tends to live in a particular socioeconomic bracket. Once you are able to live in a particular neighborhood, send your children to its schools, and participate in its social life, you will find yourself surrounded by quite a number of people who have more money than you. You don't compare yourself to the rest of the world, you compare yourself to those in your bracket. The human heart always wants to justify itself and this is one of the easiest ways. You say, "I don't live as well as him or her or them. My means are modest compared to theirs." You can reason and think like that no matter how lavish you are living. As a result, Americans think of themselves as middle class, and only 2 percent call themselves "upper class." But the rest of the world is not fooled. When people visit here from other parts of the globe, they are staggered to see the level of materialistic comfort that the majority of Americans have come to view as necessity.

Quotes of the Day

"A lot of Christians, especially people who have had dramatic conversion experiences, go sailing out of the harbor with wind in their sails. They are so confident in Christ and what he has done for their salvation, and that gospel wind is in their sails. Yet after two years, they have heard just one imperative after another. They have lots of course plotting, lots of books on how to do this and that. They've read every manual on spiritual disciplines. They have heard their pastor tell them they need to pray more, to read the Bible more, to evangelize more. Now they are dead in the water. There's no wind in the sails."

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"Not only will we be right back where we started, it will expose the federal trial as nothing more than a show trial. Show trials are conducted by despots and dictators to give only a thin veneer of legality to political detentions and executions. If the state isn’t prepared to abide by the decision of the court, including dismissals and acquittals, then the use of the trial system is worse than useless. It demeans the federal system needed for Americans to seek unbiased justice."

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"He’s a little on the short side, neither fat nor thin, and he wears jeans and a sports jacket, not a shiny suit and an oily smile. With his goatee and what’s left of his graying hair trimmed close to his head, he looks mostly like what he is—a well-groomed, middle- to upper-middle-class American professional. But when he runs out onstage and starts dispensing financial advice, you realize that he could have been a great preacher."

Moldovans are Macedonians

Eating to Survive

As I picked at my own food (if you could call it that), I stared at the orphans around me. Coming in ordered droves, they ate like utilitarians, quickly, efficiently. I could see some desperation in their eyes as they shoveled food into their tummies.

We were in the dining hall in a little orphanage in a little village called Tocuz. Meals were basic--some bread, chicken soup perhaps, always some sort of oatmeal--and came at least twice a day, as far as I could tell. Interestingly, the kids spoke very little to one another as they ate. They were all business, you could say, no pleasure. Ranging from 7-16, these kids would never sip on soda or get dessert if they ate everything on their plate. They always ate everything on their plates. As I stared at the devouring, it dawned on me that, for them, eating was a means of survival. Though meals came with some regularity in Tocuz, they could not be depended upon. The eyes of the kids said resoundingly, "This meal could be my last for a while."

I don't understand that in the slightest. I have gone hungry for, maybe, half a day. The only dilemma I have when eating is whether or not I will eat enough or way too much (I usually choose the latter). What a dilemma. The kids in front of me, however, would never experience true bounty. What they had before them was all that they had and, as far as they knew, all they would have for a while. And it was in this context that I saw, perhaps for the first time, true sacrifice.

A Macedonian Before Me

It was nearing the end of the meal and I was watching one girl eat her food. She was one of the matriarchs of the orphanage, probably 14 or 15 years old. She had only finished half of her meal when she promptly stood up. She grabbed her plate, walked briskly across the room, and scraped the rest of her food off on to the plate of a girl much younger, who quickly began inhaling it. The girl had done this before, I'm sure of it, probably every day. Though she needed the food as much as anyone there, she had taken it upon herself to care for the younger ones. Where there was no mommy to provide, she would be the mommy.

As I tried hopelessly to grasp the enormity of what I had just seen, I thought about the Macedonians. The Macedonians, as we learn from Paul, gave when they had nothing to give. 2 Corinthians 8: 1-2: "We want you to know, brothers, about the grace of God that has been given among the churches of Macedonia, for in a severe test of affliction, their abundance of joy and their extreme poverty have overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their part." This girl was a Macedonian. Generosity had flowed not out of the abundance of her riches, but out of the abundance of grace.

Generosity is not Easy to Come By

Tim Keller says that if you really want to give, you must give sacrificially. That is, you've got to give in a such a way that it hurts. But few of us do that. Very few of us would give the way that girl gave. Why? Several reasons, and they are interconnected.

1. The more we burden ourselves with stuff, the harder it is too free ourselves to actually give any of it away. The show Hoarders is about people who are literally incapable of throwing things away. For a multiplicity of reasons, they collect and collect and collect. And usually, their collection of food or clothes or things grows to such a great degree that getting rid of any of it would prove to be impossible. The same goes for those of us who have plenty. There comes a point when you gather too much stuff to give any of it away. Mountain climbers, for example, rid themselves of anything that isn't useful to them. If they burdened themselves with the extraneous, they'd never make it to the top. How many of us are loaded down with the extraneous? Though it is counter-intuitive, the less we have, the more will give away.

2. There is a direct correlation between wealth building and stinginess. I have spoken to numerous people who believe that giving will come as a result of accumulating money and things. What I have found, however, is that the building of earthly wealth serves as a dandy memory eraser. The more we collect, the more we forget that everything we have is a gift from God. Consequently, the more we collect, the more we believe that what we have is a result of our own ingenuity and discipline. We are owed what we have. So we could say that wealth building reinforces our self-righteousness, the belief that we are our own saviors. And rarely are the self-righteous able to give sacrificially. Giving sacrificially requires faith in something outside of ourselves.

3. The degree to which you give generously will depend on the degree to which you understand how generous Christ was with his own life. Paul does not say that the Macedonians gave out of the goodness of their hearts. Contrary to that, their generosity was a result of the "grace of God." And what is the grace of God? "For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich." It's pretty simple. The more deeply you understand what Christ gave up for us, the more you will give up for others. But if your generosity is not rooted in the work of Christ on the cross, you will never be sacrificially generous.

The girl was a Macedonian. At 14 years old she had little but gave much. I am 30 now. Will I finally follow her lead?

Jon and Kate Plus "Material Things"

I am one of the few men that has admitted he has watched and enjoyed Jon and Kate Plus Eight. It is interesting and the kids are cute. But the cuteness, if you haven't heard, has left the show. I didn't see the first episode this year, but from what I have heard, it was painfully awkward. Jon and Kate, if you don't know, are struggling in their marriage (there are a multiplicity of issues at play).

What is most troubling about it all is that they have chosen to stay with the TV show despite the harmful effect it is having on their marriage (they just signed on to do 39 more episodes). Jon, in an interview with Entertainment Weekly, said that they thought about quitting, but that the perks were too much to give up. "You know," he said, "the material things."

This sort of capitulation to the world flies in the face of what good, Godly male leadership should be. Men, stand up. We are called to sacrifice for all sorts of reasons. And I am pretty sure I would put saving my marriage near the top of that list.

Also read Lynn Roush on this topic.

Randy Alcorn (and others) On Money

Here's a pretty decent video on handling money in this economy, or in any economy, for that matter:



Alcorn's book, The Treasure Principle, is well worth reading.

Save Money, 112 Ways

Rich or poor, there's no need to overspend. My sis sent me this link to "112 Ways To Save Money." A lot of really good ideas. My favs:

CUT YOUR PAPER TOWELS IN HALF, USE TWICE AS LONG

Cut your paper towel rolls in half. I know, short-sheet versions are sold now, but they cost more.

COUPONS!

Clipping coupons. No joke, I save anywhere from 10 to upwards of 40% of my total bill when I use coupons. The trick is to only cut them for the products you will actually (and usually) purchase. Don't be tempted to buy something just because you have a coupon and it looks interesting. Chances are you will never use/eat it. The Sunday paper is my favorite source, but of course they have a slew of on-line coupon websites, only downfall is having to print them out. If and when you do print them out: go to the box marked "Preferences" and remember to select "Print in Grayscale" in the options and under print quality, select "Draft" so you don't use any color ink and you minimize the amount of black ink when you do print them. Hope this helps!

TELL YOUR KIDS NO

Here's a big one: STOP SPOILING YOUR KIDS! I'm always amazed at how otherwise sane and thrifty people will spend any amount of money on all kinds of unnecessary crap to keep their kids happy.

YOU CAN ONLY FIT ONE EYEDROP IN YOUR EYE

If you use eyedrops for any reason, there's NO need to use more than 1 in each eye. My doctor told me recently that more than one drop cannot physically fit within the confines of your eyelid, and only one drop is enough to cover the entire surface of the eye. He said that drug companies always encourage you to use 2 or more in an effort to reel in more money at twice the rate necessary. So, whether it's an antibiotic drop for a pink eye infection or seasonal allergy drops, one in each eye is enough.

Stossel!

John Stossel is the man, exposing corruption, pointing out social, political and governmental absurdities. The latest 20/20 is well worth your time, but the segment below was especially interesting:

Christians, Pay Attention to the Economy

From Doug Wilson's blog today:

The screaming issue, the one that has everybody's attention right now, is the economy. And this is not just a matter of your private retirement, although that probably has your attention as well. Evildoers can't do evil without paying their troops, and we can't resist them without paying ours. Churches have budgets, and have a payroll to meet, and the same thing goes for pro-life organizations, publishing houses, colleges, not to mention organizations dedicated to the preservation of the second amendment.

Obama knows that his approval rating will never be higher than it is right now. He knows that if he wants to get lunatic legislation through Congress, which he does, a bunch of it, then he has to do it now. And because he has a couple of truckloads of that legislation, he is going to try to get all of it through now. He will probably succeed with most of it, and no, this is not a rallying cry to "write your Congressman." If your Congressman could read, he would probably have read a book by now, and that would mean his voting record would have to have been a little bit different.

I have said that Christians need to learn economics, and right now they should be taking a crash course in it -- and not so that you can persuade Congress not to bury us under a rock pile of economic disincentives. They will not be persuaded.

But you need to know what is going to be happening a year and a half from now as a result of, say, dropping 30 bucksabillion clams into the clam market. You need to know so that you can continue to provide for your family, so that you can support those who have been thrown out of work -- whether it is the nurse who won't do abortions or the factory worker who had the misfortune to be employed by greedmonkeys regulated by powermonkeys. You need to know so that you can continue to tithe to your church, so that you can continue to support worthy organizations. Whatever the other issues are, and there will be plenty of them, we will all need resources in order to be equipped to do the right thing. "A prudent man foreseeth the evil, and hideth himself: But the simple pass on, and are punished" (Prov. 22:3).

What is the Right Way to Be Rich?

Piper:



Of course, one could argue that anyone in America is rich.

What Yancey Says to Do During a Financial Crisis

Pray, of course.

Top Five Books on Personal Finance

Rusty Leonard's list. The only one I have read is Alcorn's Treasure Principle. It should be read by every Christian. Piper once said that "lightening bolts will erupt over your head as you read it." I just emailed Rusty to ask what he thinks of Dave Ramsay. I'll let you know what he says if he emails back.

Piper on the Economy

Money Kitty

To the Riches of the Lord Only

George Mueller, On February 8th in the evening:

The little donations that came in today are precious, but they are not enough to meet the need of tomorrow. Before nine o'clock in the morning we need more money to buy milk. Truly, we are poorer than ever. Through grace my eyes do not look at the meager supplies and the empty purse, but to the riches of the Lord only.

On Being Able to Go to God for Help

George Mueller wrote in his journal on November 13:

I took one shilling out of the box in my house. This shilling was all our money for today. More than a hundred people must be provided for, and this is not the case once in a while, but very frequently.

And where most of us would despair, Mueller praises:

It is infinitely precious to have the living God as a Father to go to for help.

(from his Autobiography, p. 143)

700 Billion Dollars Would Buy...

• Gasoline for a year for every adult in America. (175 billion gallons of gas)
• You could literally buy the world a Coke. One 2-liter bottle per week for a year.
• You could buy a 60-inch HDTV for every man, woman and child in the U.S.
• Sounds like Monopoly money? It should. You could buy 10 Monopoly games for each of the 6.7 billion human beings on planet earth.
• You could buy everyone in America 2200 McDonalds apple pies. What's more American than that?
• You could buy a brand new Hummer for each of the 11 million people on the island of Cuba
• You could buy 2 mountain bikes for everyone in China
• You could buy 438 pounds of rice for every single person in Africa.
• You could buy a Caribbean Island for every single person in the state of South Dakota.

HT: Joe

Chuck on the Financial Crisis

Check out Chuck Colson's piece on the financial crisis over at CT.

Dave Ramsey on the Financial Tumultousness

Dave Ramsey recently responded to the the recent downturn in the economy. What I like about him is that he talks to those of us on Main Street, not Wall Street:

Are we okay, Dave?

Definitely. Remember Enron and WorldCom in the recent years? We survived that. But much worse than all this was the financial crisis of the ‘80s – S&L collapse and 1,000 bank failures in 2 years. We’re nowhere near this type of thing; that was probably 50 to 100 times worse than all of this.

What does all of this come back to?

Greedy banks financing homes to broke people. It all seemed to work okay in their minds when the economy was booming, but when the economy slowed a little bit broke people quit paying on their subprime mortgages. DUH. No wonder they went out of business. Stupid decisions.

Is there anything we can do to fix this bailout mess?

YES! Here's a quick summary: Companies that had billions in subprime loans were feeling the effects of their stupid decision to make those loans in the first place, and practically gave them away for pennies on the dollar. But since no one wants these loans, and they've had to mark them down to market value, it has frozen the market. If we temporarily change the rule that forces companies to do that, that will free the market up.

This is an absolutely huge deal, and it involves everyone getting in touch with their congressperson before we spend hundreds of billions of dollars that we don't need to! Learn more

Read the rest of his comments.

More on the Christian Response to the Economic Crisis

Al Mohler writes well here (and even simply enough that I can understand it) on the economy and how we as Christians should view it. Near the end of the article, he writes:

This current crisis should also remind Christians that we are not called to be mere economic actors, but stewards. Everything we are, everything we do, and everything we own truly belongs to God and is to be at the disposal of Kingdom purposes. This world is not our home and our treasure is not found here. We are to do all, invest all, own all, purchase all to the glory of God.

Finally, this current economic crisis just might help Christians to focus on another issue -- retirement. Where in the Bible are we told to aspire to years and decades of leisure without labor? There is nothing wrong with saving for what the world calls retirement. Indeed, that is just good stewardship. Furthermore, there is nothing wrong with workers enjoying the fruit of their labor. But Christians should think of retirement as an opportunity to be redeployed for Kingdom service.

Read the whole thing.