Since fear seems to be running rampant in our world today, let’s spend some time discussing what the Bible has to say about fear. In today’s modern world, we are constantly bombarded with reasons to fear. First and foremost, the current ‘war on terror’ permeates our media and our thoughts. It’s almost impossible today to listen to the news on television or on the radio or read the news in newspapers or on the internet without hearing or seeing something about the war on terror, the war in Iraq, the spread of terrorism, or North Korea and Iran’s nuclear ambitions. We’re constantly told in the U.S. how porous our borders and ports are and how easily it would be for terrorists to smuggle a nuclear device or ‘dirty bomb’ into our country. During the recent midterm elections, the Republican National Committee ran ads that showed Osama bin Laden in videos speaking about what he was planning next for the U.S. superimposed over a mushroom cloud. All of this obviously strikes fear in our population. Is it good for us to fear these things? Because of fear, we have given our government more power to protect us. Is this wise? We have given up freedoms (whether you realize it or not) under the Patriot Act and the Military Commissions Act of 2006. The National Security Agency (NSA) now monitors domestic phone calls and financial transactions. We believe that by giving up individual freedoms, our government will be more equipped to protect us from the bad guys. Is this an intelligent thing for us to do? Will our government use these new powers to protect us or is there something more sinister going on? Do you feel more or less safe now than you did 5 years ago? If you’re like me, something doesn’t feel right. We seem to be spending more on defense in the U.S. (half a trillion dollars), yet most of us feel less safe. Why? Let’s take a look at what the Bible says about fear before we answer these questions.

You may not know Psalm 23:4 by heart, but chances are you’ve heard it at some point in your life. It’s probably one of the most quoted verses in the Bible because it speaks about something we all must deal with….fear.

“Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me” (Psalm 23:4).

What is the Lord telling us? He is saying that we live in a fallen world that is full of evil, but not to fear, for He is always with us and will comfort us. Even though evil things will come our way, do not fear this evil. Many quote this verse, but how many live by it? How many in the world today truly do not fear evil? I believe there are few. Why? Because few of us truly believe that God will comfort us….that he will be with us…and that he will give us the strength and power to overcome evil. We’re talking about true faith in our Creator to deliver us from evil.

What does the Lord say will result from fear?

“Fear of man will prove to be a snare, but whoever trusts in the Lord is kept safe” (Proverbs 29:25).

The Lord is telling us that if you fear people in this world, it could very well be a trap. Yet those that put their trust in the Lord will be kept safe. Once again the Lord tells us not to fear, but put our faith and trust in Him. Only He should be trusted. Time and again we are told not to put our confidence in men, but trust in the Lord. Only He will protect us and keep us safe from the evil in this world. Ask yourself this question – is the United States placing its faith and trust in the Lord or the things in this world? Do we place our trust with God or with our defense budget? Do we feel less secure because of terrorism or because our nation has turned away from God?

“For the Lord your God moves about in your camp to protect you and to deliver your enemies to you. Your camp must be holy, so that He will not see among you anything indecent and turn away from you” (Deuteronomy 23:14).

Sadly, I believe that this is exactly what has happened to us. The United States has slowly turned away from God. We have removed God from our schools and offices, we removed the Ten Commandments from our courts, we have allowed His most precious children to be killed before birth, we worship wealth and the pleasures of this world and we approve all types of unbiblical practices in the name of ‘political correctness’. The fact is that the U.S. has turned away from God, and as a result, He has lifted His hand of protection from us. 9/11 was a spiritual warning and it is only the beginning.

There is another side to turning away from God - we don’t live according to His Word. When this happens, we are not prepared for our spiritual enemy. We don’t see with spiritual eyes so that we can discern his deceptive schemes. We walk around thinking we’re kings of the world, when in fact, we are poor, blind and naked. We may win battles in the natural world, but we are being steamrolled in the spiritual realm.

Do you think this is crazy? Do you think you live in a nice, safe country that can protect you? Don’t think we need to pray and seek God and His protection? Let’s take a closer look at Proverbs 29:25 and apply it to what is happening within our nation and the world according to what has been revealed to me.

Proverbs 29:25 tells us that fear is a trap. How does this relate to us today? It has been made very clear to me that the Illuminati (consisting of Freemasons, Skull & Bones, Bilderbergers, Council on Foreign Relations, etc) is using fear to gain control of both the U.S. population and the world. As I’ve mentioned before, they are the 2nd beast of Revelation 13. Think about it for a moment. Since 9/11, we have lost many freedoms and have started a couple of wars based on the attacks. You may say that we needed to give up some freedoms for security and the wars were needed to protect us…but what if the attacks were orchestrated by our own government? What if it was this ‘beast’ that caused the death of thousands of Americans? What if 9/11 was used to scare us into giving up freedoms? What if it was used to eliminate American freedoms in preparation for the next phase of the Illuminati’s plan for a one world government? What if the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq were used to keep fear on the front page of the news and establish a base in the Middle East? It would be hard to keep us in fear if the ‘war on terror’ wasn’t producing some headlines. The truth is that 9/11 has produced fear in us that never existed before in America….and it is a trap. Men tell us that we must give up freedom for security……which is not biblical. We are walking into a snare.

What does the Bible say about revenge? Does the Bible say that we should go out and attack whoever we think might attack us? No.

“Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everyone. If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. Do not take revenge, my friends. But leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: ‘It is mine to avenge, I will repay’, says the Lord. On the contrary: If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head. Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.” (Romans 12:17-21).

The Bible makes it clear - do not take revenge because the Lord will repay. Is this what the U.S. has done? No. We’ve done just the opposite. Our nation has gotten so far away from God that when someone speaks of faith in this manner he or she is most often labeled a 'religious fanatic'. Our President is not acting in accordance with biblical doctrine even though he says he is a man of faith (there are many other instances that I will discuss later). If our attack on Iraq was simply a response to an attack on the U.S., it would be unbiblical…but Iraq didn’t even attack us. The truth is that we did not attack Iraq and Afghanistan in response to a perceived threat. Something much more deceptive is happening. Most of us are not living lives according to God’s Word and His Laws and therefore, we are blind to the truth.

The Illuminati is using fear as their #1 weapon. Keep the population in fear and dependent on the government for protection….protection that comes with a price. I believe that the next phase of the Illuminati plan is a catastrophic terrorist event inside the U.S. that will cause widespread panic. This will be the natural explanation. Spiritually, it will be the Lord’s judgment upon our nation. Out of this growing fear, ‘the beast out of the earth’ of Revelation 13 will emerge. I will discuss this in more detail in the next posting.

Regardless of what may be happening to our country and the world around us, the Lord protects the righteous. He shields us, protects us, guides us and strengthens us. Remember, He is with us ALWAYS. He has guided me to these verses time and again to strengthen me. He will do the same for you. Pray to Him and He will answer you if you seek him with all of your heart.

Security is our nearness to God, not our distance from danger.   Kenneth R. Hendre

‘A thousand may fall at your side, ten thousand at your right hand, but it will not come near you.’ Psalm 91:7

‘But whoever listens to Me will dwell safely and will be secure, without fear of evil.’ Proverbs 1:33

‘Whenever I am afraid, I will trust in you….In God I have put my trust; I will not fear.’ Psalm 56:3-4

‘In God I have put my trust; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me?’ Psalm 56:11

‘I will both lie down in sleep and peace; for you alone, O Lord, make me dwell in safety.’ Psalm 4:8

‘The Lord shall preserve thee from all evil; He shall preserve thy soul.’ Psalm 121:8

‘The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?’ Psalm 27:1

‘I sought the Lord and He heard me, and delivered me from all my fears.’ Psalm 34:4

‘My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth. He will not allow your foot to be moved; He who keeps you will not slumber.’ Psalm 121:2-3

‘Cast your burden on the Lord, and He shall sustain you; He shall never permit the righteous to be moved.’ Psalm 55:22

‘Though an army besiege me, my heart will not fear; though war break out against me, even then will I be confident.’ Psalm 27:3

‘But the eyes of the LORD are on those who fear him, on those whose hope is in his unfailing love, to deliver them from death and keep them alive in famine.’ Psalm 33:18-19

‘The angel of the LORD encamps around those who fear him, and he delivers them.’ Psalm 34:7

‘Why should I fear when evil days come, when wicked deceivers surround me.’ Psalm 49:5

‘He will have no fear of bad news; his heart is steadfast, trusting in the LORD.’ Psalm 112:7

‘You who fear him, trust in the LORD— he is their help and shield.’ Psalm 115:11

‘Have no fear of sudden disaster or of the ruin that overtakes the wicked’ Psalm 3:25

‘The fear of the LORD adds length to life, but the years of the wicked are cut short.’ Proverbs 10:27

‘The fear of the LORD teaches a man wisdom, and humility comes before honor.’ Proverbs 15:33

‘So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.’ Isaiah 41:10

‘Hear me, you who know what is right, you people who have my law in your hearts: Do not fear the reproach of men or be terrified by their insults.’ Isaiah 51:7

‘In righteousness you will be established: Tyranny will be far from you; you will have nothing to fear. Terror will be far removed; it will not come near you.’ Isaiah 54:14

‘By faith Noah, when warned about things not yet seen, in holy fear built an ark to save his family. By his faith he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness that comes by faith.’ Hebrews 11:7

‘But even if you should suffer for what is right, you are blessed. Do not fear what they fear; do not be frightened.’ 1 Peter 3:14

“He said in a loud voice, ‘Fear God and give him glory, because the hour of his judgment has come. Worship him who made the heavens, the earth, the sea and the springs of water.’” Revelation 14:7

When discussing God and His relationship to the world, one of the most often asked questions is this: ‘Why does He allow so much suffering and misery in this world?’  It’s a very good question.  If you happen to discuss God with someone who doesn’t believe in Him, chances are that you will eventually be asked this question.  A standard answer is that human beings invited sin into this world (Adam and Eve) and as a result, the world is in a fallen state.  Because we’re living in a fallen world, bad things are going to happen to us.  A more specific answer goes much deeper than this.  In order to truly understand why God allows suffering and misery, you must begin to understand God’s character.  A few months ago I was given a short article written by John Balukian that does an excellent job of answering this question.  Who is John Balukian?  As you will read, John was a simple man with terminal cancer who was given one last task to do before he left this world.  As you will see, at first it seemed like a small thing to do.  What John learned (as every Christian does) is that we’re asked to be obedient to our Creator regardless of how small or large we think the task may be.  He will take care of the rest.  We have no idea how our lives can impact others and God’s plan for this world – but He certainly does.  Like every true man of God, John would tell you that this comes from the Lord - he is simply a servant doing what he is asked to do.  This will be longer than most of my posts, but I feel strongly that the Lord has asked me to give this to you.  As we near the end of this age, suffering and misery will get worse - we need to understand why.

_________________________________________

Dear precious reader:

Regardless of what kind of person you are, regardless of what you have not done, in God’s eyes you are extremely precious.  Bring to mind right now the most vile and repulsive person you can think of.  Can the same be said of that person?  Is that person extremely precious in God’s eyes?  Absolutely, positively!  What is it that makes a person precious? Connection with God.  When the Creator has free access to the creature he will re-create the creature into His own precious image.

 

This is a letter of introduction to the article I am enclosing.  Many people have been greatly helped by this humble article, so please pass it on that others may be helped.  Thank you.  This material may be reprinted, copied or re-used in any form so long as the original text is not altered or abridged in any way.  This is not my message, so please do not change it.  This is God’s doing.  Those who know me know that I have no natural abilities of this kind and there’s no way under the sun that I could possibly write an article like this.

 

Briefly, about myself:  After losing the battle with Lymphoma, I permanently checked into this Veterans Administration Medical Center Nursing Home in Fresno, California, as a terminal cancer patient with only a short time to live.  I just could not understand why god would not heal me!  I had diligently studied the laws of health, healing, prayer, faith, total commitment, etc.  I was anointed twice by Godly men.  And, on top of all this, I had great plans to give our message to thousands of winter visitors who come each year to the warm desert areas of and .  But human plans aren’t worth anything.  The sooner we all learn this, the better.

 

The greatest surprise I have ever had in my life and the happiest that I have ever been was after my little world fell apart and I was admitted to this Nursing Home, waiting to die.  This beautiful, generous gift that God gave to me – this article He impressed me to write – marvelously turned everything around for me.  After having failed Him all my life, He very kindly and graciously gives me a gift like this!  My parents certainly gave me the right name.  In Hebrew, the name John means “God is gracious”.  God has certainly been gracious to me.  After I go to my “rest”, this paper will keep right on working.  When I think of how kind, how generous and gracious God is, and how He is treating me, what can I do but just cry!

 

It all started when my former roommate told me he was an atheist.  I told Charlie that in order for a person to come to an intelligent conclusion about anything, he would have to first look at all the facts – all the evidence.  I asked him what evidence he examined that brought him to such a drastic conclusion that God did not exist.

Charlie related stories of tragedies and suffering in his family and friends.  Then he concluded with, “If there is a God, would He allow things like this to happen to good people?” (He stressed the word good.)  I said excitedly, “Charlie, I have an answer.  Just read the first chapter in this book (“Why Was Evil Permitted?), and you will see this whole thing from an entirely different perspective.”  His answer was, “No, I’m an atheist and I don’t believe in life here-after.”  Poor Charlie.  To think that 30 minutes of reading was too much trouble for him!  It reminds me of the thousands who died because they refused to just look at the uplifted serpent [Numbers chapter 21].  It was at this time I decided to write a small article showing what God is like and why He had to allow sin and suffering to devastate this world.  As I started writing, it was very evident that I was receiving Divine assistance.  I had no idea of God’s plan to place this paper around the world.  I only wrote it to be used here in the Nursing Home. 

 

Two hours after I started handing out the papers here in the Nursing Home, a patient came to my room with tears in his eyes and told me how touched he was by reading my paper.  He asked for written permission to make copies and pass them out.  He’s from .  A sister is sending a copy to the Braille Foundation, and if they use it, it will go around the world.  My pastor’s wife is sending a copy to the Pacific Press to see if they will put it in booklet form for colporteurs to place in Medical/Dental offices, etc.  Many came back for extra copies to give out.  Groups are passing them out in their door to door work.

 

In just a matter of three weeks I have had to broaden my thinking from a small local work here in this V.A. Medical Complex to a work that goes around the world.  I am absolutely overwhelmed.  I never expected anything like this!  God is so good to me that I can hardly stand it.  People have offered to give me money for this work.  I really don’t want anyone’s money until I use up all my own.  Thank you.

 

When a person sees God as He really is, a God with such unbelievable kindness toward one who is so undeserving, then that person’s prayers change from words to tears.  Then the story of Mary washing Jesus’ feet with her tears and wiping them with her hair becomes the most beautiful story in the Bible [John, chapters 11 & 12).  When you realize the true sacrifice of God – His willingness to die eternally for you, and your heart constantly overflowing with love and appreciation for Him, it is then that God’s purpose of allowing sin to devastate this world has been accomplished forever.

With my warmest regards,

John Balukian

 

Now, Do You Believe God?

 

In your opinion, who is the most controversial person who ever lived?  Without a shadow of a doubt, it is God, Himself.  Many see God as being tender-hearted, caring, highly sympathetic toward all His creatures and they see that He is not willing that any should perish.  And they see that His love and feelings for them are so deep that He willingly allowed His Son to come down from heaven and become one of us and go through terrible sufferings and insults and die for every one of us so that if we wanted to, we could live forever.

 

Why Didn’t God Nip This Whole Thing In The Bud?

 

All this is very touching; however, a serious question must be answered before this makes any sense.  Why didn’t God nip this whole thing in the bud and prevent all this terrible suffering and misery to come into our world?  He could have done it and done it with ease.  God knew what would happen if He allowed sin to come into our world, and yet He allowed it.  Why?

 

Many people are puzzled over this and I was too.  But now that I have the answer, I can see that what God is doing makes a lot of good sense.  And certainly, God is very desirous for each of us to have an intelligent understanding of religion.  In writing this little paper to answer this question and others, I am well aware that many different types of minds are reading it.  I must be very careful and not take anything for granted and try to write this so clearly that everyone who reads it can’t help but understand.

 

In the Beginning….Love

 

So, let’s go back to the beginning and take a look at what life was like under God’s marvelous government of love.  We will see also how this terrible problem of sin began and why God, very wisely, did not nip this whole thing in the bud; but allowed it to wreak havoc in this poor world for these last 6,000 years.  The Bible tells us that God is love and also His character, law and government is love.  The beautiful relationship of God with His children was also one of love.  But now, really, what is love?

 

What is love?

 

It was after a number of years of being a struggling, up and down Christian that I began to really understand the meaning of this vital word.  Love is a small word that is used in a wide range of meanings; from the barnyard love to the outstanding sacrifice of God on the cross.  Love has deep feelings and emotions.  The Apostle Paul, in 1 Corinthians 13, shares with us the beautiful and noble qualities of love.  But in order to grasp a fuller understanding of this word, and how it relates to God’s government and people, let’s define love as a principle.

 

Illustration of a Principle

 

To make sure that everyone clearly understands what this word (principle) means, I’ll give an example:  Remember the saying, “Do unto others as you would want them to do unto you”?  It’s so easy to see the principle involved here and to understand what this word means.  Say that your boss treats you harshly and unjustly.  According to the principle that’s in this saying, how should you respond?  Certainly not the same way he treated you.  What a brilliant and beautiful idea.  Think of the peace and harmony that would result from following such a simple principle!

 

The Principle of Love

 

Now, let’s define this principle that is in love and put it in one simple sentence so that no one can possibly misunderstand it.  The greatest demonstration that was ever given, or could ever be given, was when God willingly suffered and died so that you and I would be able to live.  We are talking about God – The majestic and awesome Creator of this whole vast universe!  As if that isn’t enough to blow your mind, think on this: God was not only willing to die, but to die eternally just so that you could live eternally.  (Jesus knew that He would rise up again to life after three days.  But in His darkest temptation, when He cried out, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” He did not know that he would ever live again, but He chose to save man at any price.)  Dear reader, can you really grasp that?  Would God die eternally just for Saddam Hussein?  Absolutely!  But why?  Because this is exactly the type of person He is.  God is love.  He is this principle.

It is not difficult to see the principle in love, is it?  When it came right down to choosing to save Himself or His children, He chose to save His children – and at what a terrible price!  He put His children first and Himself second.  So in one sentence, and in my own words, here is my definition of this principle: “Love is a principle that always puts the other person first.”  What another brilliant and beautiful idea!  With God and all His creatures living by this principle, no wonder heaven and the entire universe enjoyed such supreme happiness and experienced such peaceful harmony.

 

The Principle of Sin

 

But then a completely different principle raised its ugly head and the peace and harmony of the universe was shattered.  In this principle, Self is put first instead of putting the other person first.  It all began when Lucifer, the highest angel in heaven, wanted to become God.  For him to pursue such an insane and impossible ambition, he had to first cast aside this beautiful principle of love and take hold of the principle of sin.  So, we see that the principle of sin is self-seeking, selfishness, putting one’s own desires ahead of God’s desires and everyone else’s.  Now we have two entirely different and directly opposite principles operating in this world and they are totally incompatible.

 

The Deadly Blindness of Sin

 

This raises a very interesting question.  What could possibly be the reason why a created being would dare stand up in opposition to his Creator and actually believe that he could take over His throne?  We are referring to God, the One who created this whole vast universe; the One who has unlimited power and authority; the One who knows the end from the beginning.  And, on top of that, Lucifer knew that to be God, one has to have creative power – power to create something out of nothing.  This same power is necessary to sustain all creation.  If this power was cut off, the entire universe would immediately disintegrate, which of course, would mean his own death too.  And yet Lucifer still wanted it and vigorously pursued it.  Why?  It just doesn’t make any sense!

Lucifer was not a dummy or a slouch.  He was the most brilliant, intelligent, talented, and beautiful of all angels; and also had the highest position (right next to the throne of God).  Without even realizing it, Lucifer made a fatal mistake by pushing aside God’s principle of love and taking hold of the selfish principle of sin.  What happened when he did that?  He actually separated himself from God.  Since God is the very source of all light, truth and wisdom; all good judgment, common sense and balanced thinking; when Lucifer turned away, he lost all of this and stepped right into darkness.  He was now blind.  He became unreasonable and unbalanced in his thinking.

 

God’s Way of Keeping Pride Out of Our Hearts

 

If Lucifer had remembered one thing and had taken it to heart, he would not have gotten proud and possibly this whole problem of sin would not have arisen.  I mentioned the noble qualities that Lucifer had; his brilliance, beauty, talents, position, etc.  Where did he get these?  God gave them to him.  Every good thing that Lucifer had was a gift from a gracious God.  A deadly problem arose when Lucifer began to think of all these beautiful and noble qualities and characteristics that he had as being his naturally rather than as precious gifts from God.  That opened wide the door to pride.  Pride always brings self into the picture and puts it first.  This is the very principle of sin.  What a lesson for us!  If we would never let go of the idea that every good thing we have is a loving gift from a gracious Creator, we would shut the door to deadly pride.

 

Who is Telling the Truth – The Creator or the Creature?

 

Getting back to our original question:  Why didn’t God nip this whole thing in the bud by simply putting Lucifer to death?  Look at all the terrible misery He could have avoided.  Wouldn’t you have done just that if you were in charge?  Not if you were able to see the end from the beginning, as God is able.  Suppose you were there witnessing all of this.  On one side is God, whom you love and worship.  Opposing God is Lucifer, whom you respect and admire.  God says one thing and Lucifer says the opposite.  Who are you going to believe?  Remember now, you had never heard a lie before; you have no idea what sin is really like; and certainly to accept the idea that Lucifer, if given the opportunity, would go so far as to actually kill God, would be unthinkable to you!

 

In this situation, if you saw God kill Lucifer, what would you think?  You would consider God to be totally unreasonable and unfair.  In fact, you would begin being looked at as a tyrant.  You would not serve God any longer because you loved and appreciated Him, but would serve Him because you became afraid of Him.  God wants us always to be free, happy and trusting.

 

God’s Children Were Created to Fully Appreciate Him

 

Let’s take a closer look at God’s situation.  If God had created His children to be mere robots, there would be no problem.  All He would have to do would be to program their computers to never sin again.  God would never have to be concerned about His children disobeying Him or rebelling.  But who would want children like that?  God wants His children to have the highest type of life and to never stop growing and developing.  In order to have this type of children, God created us in His own image.  He created us with the ability to reason things out and come to intelligent conclusions.  God gave us a heart that could fully appreciate Him and spontaneously respond to His love and kindness.  He made us free.

 

Change of Name to Fit the Character

 

When Lucifer rebelled, God changed his name to fit his character.  Lucifer means “Light Bearer”, Satan means “Adversary”.  So, from now on, I will refer to Lucifer as Satan.  Satan toured the vast universe and with great piety and carelessness, he cleverly spread vicious lies about our gracious God.  This brought in untold confusion and perplexity.  I must remind you again that no one had ever heard a lie before.  This will help you to understand why there was such serious perplexity.  So we see the deep damage that Satan did by planting the seeds of disturbing suggestions and doubts in the minds of all.

 

Sin Shall Never Rise Up Again

 

God promises that after this terrible experience of sin is over, that sin shall never rise up again.  Never!  Is it because God will not allow it to happen again?  No, that would be defeating His purpose.  His children are always free to sin any time they want to, but no one will ever want to.  Because all these disturbing seeds of doubt have been completely removed and absolute trust and admiration for their gracious God has been fully restored.  Since God never used fear or force, what means does He use to accomplish this miraculous feat?

 

Truth is God’s Weapon

 

Let’s sharpen the focus.  In Genesis 3:4, Satan contradicts God and calls Him a liar.  The issue in this controversy is not who has the greater power or anything like that, but the issue is who is telling the truth.  Truth is on God’s side.  Satan is deathly afraid of truth because it exposes his lies and deceptions and this will definitely be the cause of his total defeat.

 

What is the topic we hear most about today?  Isn’t it how bad everything is getting?  Crime, sickness, the insane legislative policies of our politicians, etc.  Who wants this type of life?  It all started when Lucifer began telling lies about our gracious God.  This undermined confidence in God.  Before this whole problem of sin can be resolved permanently, total confidence in God must be restored.  Truth restores.  The truth about God’s character; how He feels about His children; the unspeakable sacrifice and suffering He is willing to go through to save us, and many other truths.

 

Do You Really Know What Faith Is?

 

I have come to the place where I don’t take anything for granted anymore.  This little word, faith, for instance, is extremely important (“Righteousness by faith”, “Justification by faith”, “Salvation by faith”, etc.).  If we don’t understand what this word means, then how are we going to understand how faith in God is restored?  I know people who have been Christians many years who flunked this easy, simple, homely test.

Sally was driving through in the month of August with the temperature over 120 degrees.  All of a sudden, her car quits.  After waiting for several tormented hours, a car pulls up with one man in it who is a total stranger.  Immediately, another car stops with one man and she knows him real well.  He is her pastor.  Now, for Sally to best demonstrate what faith is, which car should she get into – the car of the stranger or the car of the friend?  You might be thinking, “What kind of question is that? Of course she is going to get into the car of her friend.”  But wait a moment.  We are trying to clarify what faith is.  Hebrews 11:1 says, “Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” So now, once again, for Sally to best demonstrate what faith is, which car shall she get into, the car of the stranger or the car of the friend?

 

If you hesitated to answer, chances are you don’t really know what faith is.  True faith is not blind.  True faith is based upon evidence.  How could Sally possibly determine if the stranger could be trusted if she had no experience, no evidence by which to judge him?  She couldn’t.  She had ample evidence that her friend could be trusted.  So in order for Sally to best demonstrate what faith is, she could get in the car of the friend.  In order for God to completely gain the faith of His children, He had to give them the evidence upon which they could intelligently judge Him.  He gave them mountains of evidence during these past several thousand years which came to a convincing climax upon the cross.

 

The Cross Tells a Convincing Story

 

The entire universe looked on in total shock and in complete silence as they watched their Creator dying on the cross.  With His last living breath He managed to cry out, “It is finished.”  Then He died.  At that very moment, God came off victorious.  How can that be since He is the One who died?  As the universe looked on, their sorrow turned into heart-warming joy as they saw and suddenly realized the truth about God’s willingness to pay the supreme price of dying eternally for his children.  This beautiful truth they witnessed with their own eyes, completely removed every trace of doubt that satan planted with the lie; that God did not have His children’s best interest at heart.  The truth revealed how fantastic our gracious God is.  Their hearts were so touched and filled with love and affection for their gracious God that nothing could ever change it.

 

Let’s go back to the beginning again and let’s say that God did nip this whole thing in the bud by putting Lucifer to death.  We know that this act of God would have been totally unacceptable to you.  But how about when you stood before the cross in absolute shock and watched your Creator die? Here is 4,000 years of undisputed evidence and demonstration of how far Lucifer would go and, on top of that, the demonstration of the terrible malignancy of sin.  Now, you can see clearly that if God had put Lucifer to death at the beginning, you would have wholeheartedly agreed that He did the right thing.  It’s too bad that God had to take the long and painful way around, but it’s the only way that His children could understand.

 

Sin is insanity

 

We need to take a closer look at sin to see what it really is.  Here is another homely illustration:  A scorpion wanted to get on the other side of the pond.  He asked a turtle swimming by to take him over on his back.  The turtle replied, “Do you think I’m crazy?  You would sting me and I would die.”  The scorpion said, “Do you think I’m crazy?  If you died, I would die too, because I can’t swim.”  The turtle thought for a moment and then said, “You’re right.  Nobody would be that crazy!  Get on my back and I’ll take you across.”  When they were about halfway across the pond, the turtle felt a sickening sting on the back of his neck.  He turned his head and said, “Why in the world did you do that?”  The scorpion replied, “I just couldn’t help it, it’s my nature.”

 

Why would the most intelligent angel in the universe kill God, since it is God who gives Him life moment by moment?  It certainly doesn’t make any sense, does it?  The Bible defines sin in several ways, but my personal definition is:  Sin is insanity!

 

A Law of the Mind

 

It’s a law of the mind that we will become like the one we worship and admire.  It’s terribly important then that we know what kind of person our God is.  Jesus warned His disciples in John 16:2-3 “Yea, the time cometh, that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service.  And these things will they do unto you, because they have not known the Father, nor me.”  Why will these persecutors resort to violence?  Because they think God is this way.  God does not force anyone’s conscience.  He wins hearts by his gentleness and love.  What do you think of a God who created this whole vast universe; who has all this power and authority, yet He is so humble that He willingly washed twelve pairs of filthy feet when His disciples refused to do it?  This appeals to me to no end.  God is the most humble person in all this universe because He lives by the beautiful principle of love.  God always puts the other person first and Himself second.

 

The true God of heaven appealed to the hearts of His rebellious children with kindness and love.  He didn’t use a sword! There are millions of people who believe that the end justifies the means by using force in God’s work.  This is what a band of religious fanatics had in mind when they rode into the town of over a hundred years ago.  They came to take the life of the Christian minister if he did not yield to their wishes.  They were not familiar with the weapons of kindness and love.  Their weapons were force and fear.  They were out to force the Christians to change their beliefs.

 

They were highly disappointed when they learned that the minister had died.  So they did the next best thing by taking the minister’s widowed wife and her three little girls to the town square.  Surrounding this poor widow they all drew out their huge, wicked knives.  The leader, raising his voice demanded that she renounce Christ and declare before all these people that Mohammed was the true prophet of God.

 

Everyone knew what would happen if she refused, and with tears they begged her to comply.  Speaking in Armenian so that these men couldn’t understand, they said, “We know you love Jesus.  God knows you love Him.  Please, please do what they say and save your life.  Think of your children!”  Oh, what terrible pressure!  Standing before her were her three little girls petrified with fear.  The oldest girl was my mother.

 

The Sword Never Wins

 

But my Grandmother didn’t put herself first, she put her God first.  She had learned the principle of love.  Raising her voice and speaking in perfect Turkish, my Grandmother said, “I believe with all my heart that Jesus Christ is my Lord and Savior.” Without a moment’s hesitation they slashed her to the ground and hacked off her head.  My mother’s tender mind was affected for the rest of her life.  I remember while growing up, whenever my mother thought of her mother, she would cry.

 

The Basic Reason Why a Church Would Turn to the State for Power

 

What would you say would be the basic reason why a church or religious organization would turn to the state (government) for power to force others to accept their religious teachings?  Is it because they don’t have power – the Holy Spirit (the power of God)?  Why don’t they have the power of God?  Because God uses only one kind of power – Love.  His method is winning the heart, not forcing the conscience with threats and fear.  God’s method of winning hearts is simply putting the other person first.  God always has that person’s best interests at heart and He is willing to go through any amount of suffering and to pay any price to save that person.  He is not willing that any should be lost.  How can a sincere, honest person fight against that?

What Makes a Person Savable?

 

Just what is it that makes a person savable anyway?  The Apostle Paul makes it very clear in 1 Corinthians 13 that even a person loaded with talent, doing God’s work with zeal, making tremendous sacrifices by putting all his means in the work and even going as far as giving his body to be burned is not savable if he does not have love.  And it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to understand why.  Love is a principle that always puts the other person first.  God and all His children live by this principle.  If you refuse to live by this principle, you couldn’t possibly fit in.  You would be out of harmony with the entire universe.

 

Love is a Gift from a Gracious God

 

God is very reasonable and understanding.  He generously gives us everything that He requires of us.  We need love?  He will see to it that we have it.  Every good thing that we have or will need now and throughout all eternity will be given to us as a gift from a generous and gracious God.  We are absolutely dependent upon God for everything and always will be.

 

There Are Only Two People in Religion

 

Now we come to the bottom line.  The sharp focus is on only two persons: you and God.  Oh, if I had only done this years ago I would have avoided many disappointments and discouragements.  Never again am I going to allow my religion to become complicated or confusing.  One to one contact with God, forming a bond and friendship that can never be broken, is actually what religion is all about.  It’s just that simple.  Just imagine, the very best friend you have is the One who created this whole vast universe.  Wow!  Can you bend your mind around that?

 

Another thing I find extremely helpful is to personify a text.  Take Romans for example: “For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace.”  I love the strong, positive, emphatic way this is put.  To me, this is saying that, in no way will sin dominate me.  Then it goes on to tell why.  When I read this text, this is the picture that comes to my mind: I am standing before the law, which I picture as a huge giant, towering over me.  I’m a sinner and condemned to die.  There is absolutely nothing I can do to appease him or to escape.  But the text says that I am under grace.  To me, grace means that I’m being treated, not as I deserve, but with unlimited kindness and generosity.  There is no such thing as grace without there being behind it a very gracious person.  I see, standing nearby, this most gracious person.  He says to me, “You’re in deep trouble, but I can help you.  Do you want Me to help you?”  I say, “Please do.”  So, He steps in between me and this giant and He puts His arm around me.  “There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after flesh, but after the spirit.” [Romans 8:11].

 

The Most Precious Moment of Our Life

 

At that precious moment, I am safe to save – I am savable.  The moment that I accept God’s gracious offer to take over my life and to personally be my Savior, everything is right between God and myself and not one person in all this universe can say anything against me.  The law has nothing against me now, because God has taken full responsibility for my becoming fit for heaven.  God paid the full price for me by living a life without sinning and by His death, so that I can go clean and free.  What a precious gift!  And what a precious Savior!

 

How Can God Save Saddam Hussein?

 

Saddam Hussein has been portrayed (especially by the West) as being an exceptionally cruel national leader who would not only be willing to exterminate all the Kurds, but would enforce cruelty on his own people to achieve personal power and prestige.  He has a lot of blood on his hands!  (by the way, does God love Saddam Hussein as much as He loves Mother Teresa? Of course He does!)  Say that the Holy Spirit is able to touch Saddam Hussein’s heart and, miraculously, he accepts God’s gracious offer.  He is willing now to have God take complete charge of his life and also to take full responsibility of fitting him for heaven.  Now, let’s see how God does this.

 

Saddam Has No Sins?

 

That’s exactly right!  As soon as God is allowed to take over Saddam’s life (and how is this accomplished? Simply by Saddam praying and requesting that God will take over his life and really meaning it), He takes away all of Saddam’s sins.  “There is therefore now no condemnation to them which  are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.”  [Romans 8:1].  This text means exactly what it says.  God not only takes away Saddam’s sins and completely frees him of the responsibility of all the sins he ever committed, but he graciously restores Saddam to his God-given dignity.  How is this accomplished?  Simply by connection – connection with God.  (It’s like a branch that’s connected to the vine).  It’s a precious gift from a gracious God.  Every good thing we have, or ever will have through all eternity, is a gift of love from our loving Creator.  Sad to say, Lucifer lost hold of this precious truth.  The wonderful and noble qualities of wisdom, beauty, talents, position, etc., that he possessed, he started regarding these as his naturally, instead of precious gifts from God.  We are not only seeing, but feeling, the disastrous results.

 

Day by day, the more Saddam walks with his God, the more thrilled he becomes as he sees the type of person God is.  He sees God as a fantastic person who actually has his best interest at heart.  As a national leader, Saddam always put himself first and his people second.  What a contrast!  And you can be sure that Satan spread enough lies about God to give the people the impression that God was totally selfish and arbitrary.  As I mentioned before, truth is on God’s side.  As the truth is known about God, there will be such a heart appreciation for this type of God that no one will ever want God to be any different. They will be thrilled to follow Him throughout eternity.  This is why sin shall not rise up again – EVER!

 

One of Heaven’s Greatest Surprises

 

One of the greatest surprises that heaven will have for us is learning how much it costs God to get us there.  Besides God paying a price on the cross that will never be fathomed, God has suffered unmerciful abuse, insults and criticisms of all kinds.  He is blamed and cursed for everything.  Here, at the nursing home, if the kitchen forgets to put a slab of margarine on a tray, God is cursed.  God is even blamed for all the forest fires.  In legal circles, it’s called “An Act of God”.

 

Years ago, I was working with a number of other different tradesmen in a building.  Usually, on a job like this, there is a certain amount of swearing going on.  But, on this particular day, it seemed that almost everyone was having a problem and God was getting blamed for it all.  The cursing was so bad that I stopped my work and just listened.  I thought to myself, “If there is this much cursing arising out of this one building, how much is rising out of the whole town of ?”  I had a very impressive picture of God in deep sorrow, bending over the world in loving concern.  With this picture in mind, I visualized millions and millions of angry voices in every language and dialect, in every part of the world, cursing God.  There is a deafening roar of curses constantly ascending up and hitting our gracious Creator right in the face.

 

But love is stronger than hate, and God is bent on saving us no matter what the cost; no matter how much pain He has to suffer; no matter how much He is insulted; no matter how much He is falsely accused; no matter how much He is hated and rejected.  Satan would have us to believe that God doesn’t care, but the very opposite is the truth.  For 6,000 years our gracious Creator has been lavishing His love upon us under such repulsive conditions.  After 6,000 years of presenting all of this evidence – this mountainous amount of visual demonstration, God has one question for you: “Now do you believe me?” 

 

Suffering is Priceless

 

One of the best things that ever happened to me was when I became terminally ill.  When I got sick and was suffering, it made God’s suffering very real to me.  I was absolutely overwhelmed that the Majesty of this whole vast universe with all His power and authority would even care about a person like me, let alone go through all that He was going through to save me.  God could not reveal His love for me any more powerfully or effectively than by His sacrifice and suffering.  This kind and gracious person touched my heart.  My religion now is a person.  My religion is a God.

 

Welcome Home

 

Do you think that you could find one person in God’s vast universe who would be willing to trade places with you, no matter what your condition or how much you are suffering?  The beautiful truth is that you could not find even one person who would not be willing to trade places with you.  How do I know this?  I know this because God is love and love is a principle that puts the other person first.  All of God’s children live by this beautiful principle of love.  The entire government of God is based on this wonderful principle.

No matter who you are, no matter what kind of life you have lived here, there will be an experience for you in heaven that is one of supreme happiness and total acceptance.  Whether you are looking into the eyes of your Creator or rubbing shoulders with the Holy Angels, one message will come through to you loud and clear, WELCOME HOME!!

 

John Balukian

V.A. Nursing Home

 

MEMORIAL

 

John Balukian went to his rest in Jesus on .  One of John’s favorite Bible verses can be found in 1 Thessalonians 4:16-18: “For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God; and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air; and so shall we ever be with the Lord.  Wherefore comfort one another with these words.”

 

It’s hard for us to understand sometimes, but the truth is that we (human beings) invited sin into this world.  God gave us a perfect world and we invited satan and sin into it.  God did not create a fallen world for us, the world was originally without sin.  What you see around you everyday is the result of our fateful decision – violence, death, destruction, misery, etc.  We brought this misery upon ourselves.  You may think that this was Adam and Eve’s fault, not yours…but we make similar choices everyday.  Instead of walking the narrow path and choosing God’s will for our lives and following His paths, we instead choose our own way and choose to sin against our Creator.  Fortunately for us, our Creator loves us so much that He has provided all of us a way back to Him.  Regardless of what you’ve done, regardless of what is happening in the world....He loves you and wants you to know Him.  There is only one way to Him, through faith that His Son Jesus gave His life for you.  You do not need anything in this world to be saved.  You do not need a church, a pastor, a priest or a religious ritual.  True men of God can help you, guide you and teach you, but they can’t save you.  The same is true of God’s church.  It’s important to remain close to believers, but simply being in close proximity to God’s children will not save you.  Only you can believe in God’s offer of salvation and accept it.  How do you do this?  You can do what I did.  Pray to your Father in Heaven.  Go someplace by yourself where it is quiet, fall on your knees, and tell Him that you believe that Jesus died for you, that you want to know Him, to see Him, to become what He created you to be.  He will hear you.  Tell Him your fears, ask Him for a stronger faith, for understanding….to be more like Him.  Ask Him for help against our enemy.  Seek Him.  If you truly want to know Him, you will find Him.  Believe in the Truth that is Jesus Christ.  Pray everyday…..and then listen.  Pay attention to the quiet, still voice inside you, pay attention to the circumstances in your life.  Expect Him to reveal Himself to you.  He knew everything about you before you were ever born….your strengths and weaknesses.  He will strengthen your faith, transform you and show you your true purpose….regardless of what you’ve done in your past.  He will replace the sand that has been the foundation of your life with the Rock that is Jesus Christ.  Your fear of this world will fade away and you will be set free.  “Therefore whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock: and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock. “But everyone who hears these sayings of Mine, and does not do them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand: and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it fell. And great was its fall.” Mathew 7:24-27.

 

It’s not always easy to look past the misery in this world to His kingdom, but that’s what we must do.  We must never lose the hope that exists for us.  It doesn’t matter how bad things get here, our Father has prepared a place for us in Heaven….never forget this.  I’m writing this post in April 2007.  I don’t know when you are reading this, but I do know that the Lord has given me these words to give to you.  You are reading these words because the Lord is communicating to you….specifically to you.  I am simply a humble messenger, doing what I’m asked to do. 

 

Regardless of how bad things may get in this fallen world, never forget:

 

"No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him" 1 Corinthians 2:9.

Let’s spend some time discussing wealth and what the Bible has to say on this subject.  It seems our society has become focused on wealth and becoming rich.  We’re constantly reminded in this world that being rich is a good and desirable goal.  We see this in the Wall Street Journal and listed on the Fortune 500. We read about it in daily newspapers and listen to ‘experts’ talk about wealth on programs such as CNN and Fox News.  Most of us invest in the stock market with the hopes that we’ll one day strike it rich or at least receive high enough returns to retire comfortably.  American CEO’s are the highest paid corporate leaders in the world with some earning 400-500 times what the average worker takes home.  If you’re like me and have managed a business whether on your own or for a corporation, then you know that in today’s world, you’re only as good as your last week, month, quarter, year.  Have a good week?  Great, now have a good quarter.  Have a good quarter?  Spend an hour celebrating and then focus on the year.  Have a good year?  Better start planning a strategy to do even better next year.  If you are successful, you receive rewards in the form of raises, bonuses, better benefits, etc.  Have you ever wondered, as I have, whether all the time spent on the pursuit of business/working success is worth the time?  Of course you don’t need to manage a business to feel the stress of the working world today.  All of us are concerned with earning more money, working our way up, receiving better benefits…..and we’re all concerned with job security considering that we could be ‘downsized’, ‘reassigned’ or fired due to ‘synergies’ created by a merger.  Even if you’ve been successful and have reached your financial goals, my guess is that you’ve reached the goal and thought - ‘Is this it?’  It probably hasn’t been as satisfying as you thought it would be.  Regardless, it’s as though we’re all on this big treadmill that seems to be going faster and faster and we can’t get off and we can’t slow down.  It’s as though someone is dangling a carrot in front of our faces that we can never quite reach.  What does the Bible teach us about the pursuit of wealth.

 

“But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that. People who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge men into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.” (1 Timothy 6:8-10)

 

The Bible teaches us that money isn’t the root of all evil (as is often quoted), but the love of money.  If you believe that everything in the world is the Lord’s and you’re simply a steward of His possessions, then you won’t fall into the devil’s trap of falling in love with money and wealth.  If you begin to view your money as only yours, to do with as you please, then you are starting down a dark path....which is what we, as a nation, have done.

 

Since public corporations seem to make up over 90% of what we read about in the business world, let’s take a moment and look at the decisions they make and why they make those decisions.  As I’ve mentioned before, I have some experience with corporate decision-making.  I’ve never been a CEO of a company, but like many others in middle management, I’ve had to execute senior management decisions within my area of responsibility.  Let’s start by asking some basic, high level questions.  What is the purpose of a corporation? What are the goals of a corporation?  What influences the majority of high level decisions within a company? 

 

Don’t worry, I won’t go into a long-winded discussion on microeconomics and financial statements.  For our purposes here, we’ll stick to the basics.  Obviously, public companies are focused on their stock price and the company’s return to shareholders.  Companies initially issue stock in return for capital (cash) that they can use to grow their business, invest in research, etc.  They want their stock price to rise so that their shareholders are satisfied and that, in return, benefits the employees of the company in many ways…increased salary, bonuses, stock options, career advancement, etc.  The stock price is the focus of any publicly traded company.  It is certainly the focus of anyone who invests in stocks or mutual funds.

 

Have you ever thought about what really affects stock prices?  The answer is ....just about everything.  Obviously, how well a company is performing financially and operationally impacts their stock price.  The problem with stocks is that there are many other things that affect their prices - scandals, fraud, wars, terrorist activity, the overall economy, the overall stock market, interest rates, inflation, Federal Reserve decisions, Federal legislation, etc.  If a big investment institution (private equity funds, hedge funds or the big Wall St. banks) buys or sells a big chunk of stock in a company, they have the power to raise or lower the price to some degree (regardless of what you're told, all investors are not the same).  Mergers & acquisitions can have a big impact on stock prices.  So, even though our society consistently tells us that we should invest in stocks because of past history (we always hear about past 5, 10, 30 years trends), does the past really give us a true indication of the future?  As it relates to something as risky as the stock market, the past has absolutely no bearing on the future.  Yes, you can see trends, but you can't see if a war is going to break-out tomorrow.  You can't see if a terrorist event is going to happen tomorrow.  Did 9/11 affect your checking account or savings account?  Did the value of your CD's drop?  No. How did your stocks do?  We are blindly following flawed advice that says you have to invest in stocks in order to save for retirement.  The has invested trillions in the stock market.  Where is our faith?  Are you placing faith in things of this world or your Creator?  What do you think God sees when He looks at the stock market?  I have an idea - greed.  The truth is that the stock market is a house of cards and it's going to fall.  How?  I don't know specifically, but remember, only one card (a negative event) needs to fall for the whole house to come down. 

 

For simplicity, if we were to point to one, overriding factor in a company’s stock price, I believe it would be growth.  Stock analysts always point to a company’s sales/revenue growth, profit growth, prospects for growth, hindrances to growth, etc. when discussing stocks.  Sales and revenue must continue to grow at an acceptable level (10%, 20%, 30+%), profits must grow, etc……in order for investors to continue to invest in a company’s stock.  If you’re a CEO of a publicly traded company, you’re focused on (among many other things) how to grow your business through internal growth, acquisitions, etc., while keeping costs as low as possible. You're constantly under pressure to find ways to grow your business.  You can't just run a nice profitable business, you must get bigger.  The treadmill never stops running. 

 

So, with these things in mind, let’s answer the questions above.  What is the purpose of any corporation?  We could say that companies provide products and services that benefit us…and that’s a good thing.  This is certainly true for some companies, but the one overriding purpose for any publicly traded company is to make money.  If you aren’t profitable, how long will your investors continue to support you?  I think the Dot Com bust of 2000 showed us the answer.  If you have a great idea, you better turn the idea into a profitable business within a couple of years (depending on the industry) or you’re going to find yourself under ever increasing pressure to do so.  What are the goals of a corporation?  Every publicly traded company has operational and financial objectives that will meet or exceed expectations.  They must meet sales, revenue, cost and profit expectations or their stock could decline.  What influences decisions within the company?  Most high level decisions revolve around whether the outcome of these decisions will have a positive or negative impact on these same metrics – sales, revenue, costs and profits.  If we step back for a moment and really think about what drives corporations and their decisions, we see one overriding theme - the pursuit of money.  What does the Bible say about spending our lives in pursuit of money? God's Word is clear - pursue God, not money.  The love and pursuit of money will lead you into all kinds of evil.  If you're wondering how corporations can do evil, you won't have to look far.  Remember, the measuring stick is not the world - don't compare yourself or your business to the world and think you're a-ok.  The measuring stick is God's Word.  Pollution, deforestation, fraud, embezzlement, bribes, 'creative' accounting, oppressing the poor, pursuit of profits above all else, etc.  Think about the structure of a corporation.  The people at the top are usually wealthy, while the people at the bottom struggle to get by.  In fact, corporations are consistently rewarded for paying the lowest wages possible (an example is outsourcing) regardless of whether they are doing fine financially.  Yes, people with more responsibility should make more, but not 400 times more and not at the expense of others.  Every time you read about layoffs, outsourcing or 'downsizing', who usually loses their jobs? Those at the bottom of the corporate ladder are usually the most affected.  Who usually benefits?  The people at the top.  Wall Street normally applauds these 'cost reductions'....which many times leads to more compensation to those making these decisions.  They never mention the lives that are turned upside down because of these decisions.  For weeks now (April 2007), I have been reading about how the downturn in the subprime market is causing a spike in foreclosures and mortgage company bankrupcies.  Many articles have discussed how this could trickle down to affect many areas of the economy.  Not one article I have seen (in the Wall St. Journal or other publications) has discussed the impact to the families who are being evicted due to the foreclosures.  I'm sure their are many reasons for the problems - people taking on too much debt, economic downturn in some areas, overzealous mortgage salespeople & companies, etc., but this is how the world looks at things. Very rarely do we read about the human cost. This cost doesn't affect the bottom line. The corporate working world can chew you up and spit you out.  God tells us this in His Word - you and I are going to have problems throughout our time on earth (work included).  The difference for those that believe in Him is that we know He's watching over us.  We will always receive what we need according to His will.

 

‘Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, "Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you."’ (Hebrews 13:5) 

 

With all of this said, let’s ask the toughest question of all – is it easy to run a company in today's world based on the principles in God’s Word?  I believe the short answer is no.  Why?  Because the #1 focus of most companies is the pursuit of money.  If you were to listen to any publicly traded company’s quarterly earnings call, would the CEO begin talking about how they were following God’s plan?  Would the CEO talk about how their success this quarter contributed to the company’s ability to give back to God?  It seems a little strange to us to even suggest something like this.  In today’s world, we inherently want to separate our working world from our personal world.  We don’t think in terms of blessing and cursing as it applies to the companies we work for.  Why?  We like to think that if I live my personal life according to God’s Word, it’s ok if I let things slip when making decisions for my company.  The truth is that God asks us to stand against our enemy in every aspect of our life.  One of the benefits of forming a corporation is that employees of the corporation are shielded from liability (this changed to some degree with the Sarbanes-Oxley legislation, but we won’t go into details here).  If a defect on a car causes an accident, the people involved in the accident don’t personally sue the CEO of the company who built the car, they sue the corporation.  This is one of the ‘benefits’ of creating a corporation.  In the same way, we feel that God (I was certainly included) wouldn’t ask us to stand against such overwhelming worldly thinking and actions at work.  What if we were fired because we didn’t conform?  Instead of relying on Him, we rely on ourselves and worry about how the world will react.  Never forget, the world wants you to conform to its way of thinking and our workplace is just another conduit for our enemy to get to us.  The Bible tells us that we must stand against our enemy - always.  God is always faithful and will provide for us.

 

Let’s look at an example.  If you’ve read my initial letters, then you know that I spent a few years working for a cable company.  When our company launched our services in , we had a few ‘adult’ channels as part of our channel lineup.  I simply accepted this as part of being in this business.  A couple of years after we launched, our company decided to launch ‘level 2’ adult channels.  These are more graphic and the price is higher.  I held out on offering these channels until we were the only division without them.  Eventually, I gave in because ‘every other division offered them’ and they offered us more ‘revenue’.  Once the Lord began to change me, I no longer viewed these channels as ‘revenue’.  I viewed them as they truly were – a way for our enemy to lead people down dark paths.  What came to mind for me was this – a family man who has never viewed pornography sees an ad for the Playboy channel late at night while watching ESPN.  He decides to order one movie…which leads to other movies and possibly the Internet.  After awhile, his wife discovers that he’s viewing these things and ……you can guess the rest.  All of us are susceptible to this temptation (yes gentlemen, the Lord knows we are weak in this area. He created us to be visual, but only to look at our wives!).  If someone is not a strong believer in God, all they need is a little push to get hooked on this stuff.  Ask any pastor and they’ll tell you how damaging pornography can be.  It can destroy marriages, families, homes. 

 

“Your eye is the lamp of your body. When your eyes are good, your whole body also is full of light. But when they are bad, your body also is full of darkness.” (Luke 11:34).

 

Of course, it only starts out with a movie.  This is how the enemy works.  It became very clear that I was going right along with the plan.  I can tell you that it is a very sobering moment when you see that you are being used by the enemy.  Would I have felt responsible if the marriage of someone I knew ended because I decided to show these movies?  Of course not, I’m simply trying to earn a living – who am I to push my values on someone else?  This line of reasoning doesn’t make much sense to me now.  I thought I was doing ok in this world, but I was not strong enough to resist our enemy because I was relying on my own understanding and strength…I failed time and again to resist. 

 

“Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.” (Proverbs 3:5-6)

 

Once I began following the Lord, I was led to this verse:

 

"Return, faithless people," declares the LORD, "for I am your husband. I will choose you—one from a town and two from a clan—and bring you to . Then I will give you shepherds after my own heart, who will lead you with knowledge and understanding.” (Jeremiah 3:14-15)

 

Let’s briefly take a look at a few Bible verses that comment on wealth and the pursuit of wealth:

 

“Then Jesus said to his disciples, I tell you the truth, it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven." (Matthew 19:23-24)

 

Is Jesus telling us that if you are wealthy it is impossible to enter God’s kingdom?  No.  It is difficult for wealthy people to enter heaven because in most cases, wealth and the pursuit of riches becomes their master.  They put their pursuit of wealth ahead of God and money becomes the focus of their lives.  Are we warned about this? Absolutely.

 

"No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.” (Matthew 6:24)

 

How do you know who you’re serving?  It’s not hard.  If God asked you to give up everything as part of His plan for you, could you do it?  Be honest.  Two years ago I could not have done it.  If you seek God and allow Him to change you, money will no longer be your master because He will give you true faith.  The Lord may bless you with wealth, but you’ll view it as His – you will only be a steward of His money to use for His kingdom.  This is how you determine whether money is your master.  Do you view it as yours or His?

 

We are given many warnings about pursuing wealth:

 

“Looking at his disciples, he said: "Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you who hunger now, for you will be satisfied. Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh.  Blessed are you when men hate you, when they exclude you and insult you and reject your name as evil, because of the Son of "Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, because great is your reward in heaven. For that is how their fathers treated the prophets. "But woe to you who are rich, for you have already received your comfort.  Woe to you who are well fed now, for you will go hungry. Woe to you who laugh now, for you will mourn and weep.” (Luke 6:20-25)

 

Don’t let the riches and pleasures of this world keep you from maturing spiritually:

 

“While a large crowd was gathering and people were coming to Jesus from town after town, he told this parable: "A farmer went out to sow his seed. As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path; it was trampled on, and the birds of the air ate it up. Some fell on rock, and when it came up, the plants withered because they had no moisture. Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up with it and choked the plants. Still other seed fell on good soil. It came up and yielded a crop, a hundred times more than was sown." When he said this, he called out, "He who has ears to hear, let him hear." His disciples asked him what this parable meant. He said, "The knowledge of the secrets of the has been given to you, but to others I speak in parables, so that, " 'though seeing, they may not see; though hearing, they may not understand.'

 

"This is the meaning of the parable: The seed is the word of God. Those along the path are the ones who hear, and then the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts, so that they may not believe and be saved. Those on the rock are the ones who receive the word with joy when they hear it, but they have no root. They believe for a while, but in the time of testing they fall away. The seed that fell among thorns stands for those who hear, but as they go on their way they are choked by life's worries, riches and pleasures, and they do not mature. But the seed on good soil stands for those with a noble and good heart, who hear the word, retain it, and by persevering produce a crop.” (Luke 8:4-15)

 

This is another parable that certainly applies to us today:

 

Then he said to them, "Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; a man's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions." And he told them this parable: "The ground of a certain rich man produced a good crop. He thought to himself, 'What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.' "Then he said, 'This is what I'll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I'll say to myself, "You have plenty of good things laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.” "But God said to him, 'You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?' "This is how it will be with anyone who stores up things for himself but is not rich toward God." (Luke 12:15-21)

 

What does the world tell us?  Acquire all the money you can.  There is certainly nothing wrong with having a reserve for tough times, but we are constantly told to store up as much as we can.  This doesn’t mean that you should spend everything you earn, but seek God’s guidance on how He wants to use what has been given to you.  Don’t store up a lot of money and then sit back and take it easy.  We don’t know what’s going to happen tomorrow, so stay close to the Lord, do not put your faith in money.

 

"Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much. So if you have not been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth, who will trust you with true riches? And if you have not been trustworthy with someone else's property, who will give you property of your own? (Luke 16:10-12)

 

We’re being told here that if you are faithful with a little, the Lord will give you more to manage for him…and not just wealth, but ‘true riches’.  He will give you more authority to carry out His will.  Most importantly, we are told that you cannot serve God and money.  Don’t think that making lots of money and giving small amounts on Sunday means that you are serving God.  If you are truly following the Lord, you are tithing on Sundays and giving when and where He asks you to give.  Your focus is on Him.

 

There are many lessons given to us in James chapter 4.  One of them speaks directly to us today regarding how we are living our lives.  We pursue worldly business and things with no thought about what the Lord wishes us to do.  We don’t ask God for what we need, we try to do it all ourselves.

 

“What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don't they come from your desires that battle within you? You want something but don't get it. You kill and covet, but you cannot have what you want. You quarrel and fight. You do not have, because you do not ask God. When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.

 

You adulterous people, don't you know that friendship with the world is hatred toward God? Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God. Or do you think Scripture says without reason that the spirit he caused to live in us envies intensely? But he gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says:

   "God opposes the proud

      but gives grace to the humble."

Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.

 

Brothers, do not slander one another. Anyone who speaks against his brother or judges him speaks against the law and judges it. When you judge the law, you are not keeping it, but sitting in judgment on it. There is only one Lawgiver and Judge, the one who is able to save and destroy. But you—who are you to judge your neighbor?

 

Now listen, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money." Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, "If it is the Lord's will, we will live and do this or that." As it is, you boast and brag. All such boasting is evil. Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn't do it, sins.” (James chapter 4)

 

We must overcome the world and our focus on worldly things through faith in Jesus Christ:

 

“You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.” (1 John 4:4)

“This is love for God: to obey his commands. And his commands are not burdensome, for everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith. Who is it that overcomes the world? Only he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God.” (1 John 5:3-5)

"I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world." (John 16:33)

 

And finally, we are given warnings to those who are focused on wealth in this world and those that have taken advantage of the poor:

 

“Now listen, you rich people, weep and wail because of the misery that is coming upon you. Your wealth has rotted, and moths have eaten your clothes. Your gold and silver are corroded. Their corrosion will testify against you and eat your flesh like fire. You have hoarded wealth in the last days. Look! The wages you failed to pay the workmen who mowed your fields are crying out against you. The cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord Almighty. You have lived on earth in luxury and self-indulgence. You have fattened yourselves in the day of slaughter. You have condemned and murdered innocent men, who were not opposing you.” (James 5:1-6)

 

As you think about these things, remember what we’re told from this passage in Luke.  No matter what you have done to this point, it’s never too late to allow God to change your life and accept His offer of salvation - until you leave this world.  Once we die in this world, there are no more chances.  The Bible is clear on this subject.

 

"There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and lived in luxury every day. At his gate was laid a beggar named Lazarus, covered with sores and longing to eat what fell from the rich man's table. Even the dogs came and licked his sores.

 "The time came when the beggar died and the angels carried him to Abraham's side. The rich man also died and was buried. In hell, where he was in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham far away, with Lazarus by his side. So he called to him, 'Father Abraham, have pity on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, because I am in agony in this fire.'

 "But Abraham replied, 'Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, while Lazarus received bad things, but now he is comforted here and you are in agony. And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, so that those who want to go from here to you cannot, nor can anyone cross over from there to us.'

 "He answered, 'Then I beg you, father, send Lazarus to my father's house, for I have five brothers. Let him warn them, so that they will not also come to this place of torment.'

 "Abraham replied, 'They have Moses and the Prophets; let them listen to them.'

 " 'No, father Abraham,' he said, 'but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.'

 "He said to him, 'If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.' " (Luke 16:19-31)

 

I just read a couple of articles about why Americans are never satisfied with what we have.  Even though we are the richest nation on earth, we want more.  It’s always interesting to read secular articles try to explain these things when the Bible does a much better job in one sentence.  In the fallen world in which we live, material gain is never good enough.

 

“…..the eyes of man are never satisfied.” (Proverbs 27:20)

 

In the end, we all need to remember why we’re here.  We’re not here to live nice, comfortable lives and focus on gaining material wealth.  We are here to love and serve our Creator in a spiritual war…just as He loves us.  If our enemy has diverted you from your true purpose through worldly pursuits, it’s time to ask God for forgiveness and start on His path for your life.  Remember, if you’re reading this, you still have time.

 

Lastly, it doesn’t take a doctoral degree to see what most corporations focus on – the pursuit of money and power.  There’s not a whole lot of difference between corporations and governments in the world today (both are in the business of power and money).  In some areas, they actually seem to be blending together. Where is this pursuit of money leading us?  The above verses spell it out quite clearly.  In addition, the Bible tells us that we will not be able to buy or sell unless we accept the mark of the beast.  While I don’t believe that the mark of the beast is technology related (previous post – this is a spiritual mark), I do believe that technology will certainly come into play.  How else could the coming political beast prevent buying and selling?  By removing cash from the world’s economic system.  To buy and sell, you will need to be part of the ‘system’.  Who will control the ‘system’?  In the physical world, it will obviously be this beast.  In the spiritual realm, satan will be in control of this.  He will put enormous pressure on us to relent and give up – give up our life in eternity.  Now think about this – who is inventing the technology to do this?  Our government?  No.  Private enterprise – corporations.  Also remember that as larger and larger mergers & acquisitions take place, more control is placed in the hands of fewer people.  The same thing is happening as governments grow larger and exert more control over us.  So, fewer and fewer people are controlling more and more of our money supply, economic policies, job opportunities, etc.  Does this make you a little uneasy?  It should.  Bible prophecy tells us that power will be consolidated at the very end of this age.  It’s happening right in front of us.

 

Again, this isn’t an attack, it’s the truth.  Corporations make decisions on what’s best for the company and pay no attention to whether it’s the correct, Biblical thing to do.  In effect, they are not following God’s plan, but our enemy’s.  If you are thinking that it is impossible to run a company according to Biblical principles in today’s world, then you believe our enemy’s lies – just as I did.  This type of Godless decision-making will ultimately lead to technology that places the world into bondage.  There will remain only one way to get free – Jesus Christ.

 

If you are someone in a leadership position within a company, ask yourself who you are following.  Which team are you on?  Regardless of what you’ve been told, there are only two teams.  Be honest with yourself.  Don’t let our enemy tell you that your life should be used to make money and die rich.  If you lead a Godless life in the pursuit of money and never ask for forgiveness – never receive God’s offer of salvation, there will be nothing that He can do for you at that point.  You will have rejected all that He did to save you from an eternity in desolation.  Worldly success is a deception - don’t be deceived.  True success is walking in our Father’s perfect will.

“Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share.” (1 Timothy 6:17-18)

By Tim McLaughlin 1 hour, 31 minutes ago

While record bonuses make some Wall Street bankers feel invincible, others become emotional wrecks from pressure to perform and some hit rock bottom, experts say.

Harris Stratyner, a psychologist at Caron's New York Recovery Center, said some executives he treats are experimenting with cocaine, opiate-based drugs, Ecstasy and marijuana, as well as abusing alcohol.

"It's like they're chasing a dream. Even when they make tremendous profits, they're still worried," he said.

Alden Cass, a clinical psychologist who counsels Wall Streeters with drug addictions, said drug abuse and high anxiety are undercurrents to the current boom.

"When things are really good, they feel invulnerable," Cass said. "That can lead to adultery, substance abuse, problems with the law."

When it comes to profits, things are really good.

Six of the largest U.S. investment banks -- Goldman Sachs, Lehman Brothers, Citigroup, JPMorgan & Chase Co., Morgan Stanley and Bear Stearns -- combined for $17.6 billion in first-quarter profit this year. That's after shelling out $28.8 billion for pay and benefits, financial statements show.

Those profit and pay figures are more than double those seen in the first quarter of 2000, the last days before the dot-com bubble burst. New York's comptroller estimates Wall Street's 2006 bonuses will generate $1.6 billion in state tax revenue.

COCAINE AND HILLBILLY HEROIN

"To my knowledge, we have not seen an uptick in drug use," Morgan Stanley spokeswoman Jean Marie McFadden said.

The other five firms declined comment or did not return telephone calls.

But Cass said opiate abuse among his clients is rising and they openly talk about being hooked on prescription drugs like OxyContin, known as hillbilly heroin.

"That's what has changed from previous booms on Wall Street," he said.

Cass and Stratyner said their clients sometimes conceal their habits by taking prescription drugs they get for back surgery or sports-related injuries. The Internet has also expanded the black market for drugs.

Wall Street professionals in their 20s use Ritalin and Adderall, prescription drugs used to treat attention-deficit disorder and hyperactivity, to enhance their performance as they grind out 100-hour weeks, Cass said.

Big bonuses and the need to blow off steam have helped invigorate demand for cocaine in Manhattan, according to two junior bankers who did not want to be named.

Juan Rodriguez, convicted of selling drugs to investment bankers and other professionals, said his clients never complained about the price of cocaine, even as it escalated.

"My customers were all business individuals," Rodriguez said, citing Morgan Stanley bankers as among his clients.

Morgan Stanley said the company has a strong policy against substance abuse and uses random drug testing.

PASSING THE TEST

One hiring manager at a major New York bank said new staff must take a urine test, which is typical for the industry. But he said new hires can choose when to schedule the test during a 45-day period before their start date.

"Our drug test is not so much a test of whether you actually take drugs as it is an intelligence test to see if you can figure out how long it takes to get traces of the drug out of your system," said the manager, who asked not to be named.

The hiring manager said his employer also had a policy of random drug tests for employees but that in several years he had never encountered anyone subjected to such a test.

Drugs are not the only reason for executive meltdowns.

Overwhelming pressure and anxiety to meet profit goals undid star trader David Becker as he rose the Citigroup ladder.

Nine months after becoming global commodities chief, Becker found himself on the fast track to prison. The largest U.S. bank discovered in 2004 that Becker and others conspired to overstate profits by $20 million.

Becker, 41, pleaded guilty and is serving a 15-month sentence in federal prison. He declined to comment.

Before he committed his crime, he sought psychiatric help to deal with the pressure of balancing family and career, court papers show.

A metaphor for his life was a painting he owned depicting a man being pulled by all four limbs, Becker's psychiatrist, Dr. Barbara Deutsch, wrote to the judge in the case.

"He felt enormous pressure to make the group's budget at all costs," Deutsch wrote. "He felt identified with this tortured man."

If you regularly read the business section in your local newspaper or subscribe to the Wall Street Journal, then you have been reading over the past few years about the rise of ‘Private Equity’ and Hedge Funds.  We’re going to spend some time discussing these funds in this post along with an article that was published today in the Wall Street Journal.  If you are unfamiliar with these funds, you’ll gain a little insight into what they are and what they do.  We’re not going to go into details, we’ll simply look at what they do and apply to them what the Bible says about wealth and the accumulation of wealth.  If you are (or were) wealthy and invested in these funds, you are probably starting to feel a little uncomfortable - because you know where this is going……..

 

Hedge funds and private-equity funds are pools of private investor money.  They typically boast of very high returns and therefore, attract large amounts of cash from very wealthy investors.  There is a high degree of risk involved with these funds, but over recent years, the returns have been large enough to outweigh any perceived risk – and billions of dollars have flowed into them.  Because of the promised high returns, they charge very high fees which are typically 2% of assets under management every year and 20% of any profits.  So, they must be both aggressive and creative in order to make money for themselves and to keep their investors happy…..and from withdrawing their money.  They have made billions of dollars in recent years for themselves and their investors.  We’re going to take a brief look at how they have done this.

 

Have you ever been called by a hedge fund or private equity fund looking for new investment dollars?  The answer for the vast majority of us is – no.  The reason is that these funds cater to the rich.  They are looking for multi-million dollar initial investments, not the few dollars you and I would put into a mutual fund every month.  So, they are investment vehicles for the rich and are certainly influenced by very rich people.  What does the Bible say about the rich and the pursuit of riches?  We have already discussed this, so I will summarize here.  The Bible tells us that we should seek the Lord and His Righteousness first – other things we need will be given to us.  Do not love money, love the Lord.  He will take care of us and give us all we need.  What do you think the Lord sees when he looks at Wall Street and these funds?  He sees wealthy people pursuing ever more wealth.  Do these funds make money at the expense of the poor or less fortunate?  Yes – they do.  The pursuit of money has blinded us to how this money is made.  This is what we’re going to focus on.  Do you think the Lord approves of this type of behavior?  We’ve already covered this topic in previous posts and the Bible is clear – the love of money is the root of all evil.  It can’t get any clearer than this.  So, if these funds and Wall Street in general are pursuing riches at all costs, how long do you think the Lord will allow it to continue?  Will He allow the rich to continue to exploit the poor forever?  I believe we’re about to find out that the answer is no.  We are beginning to see this today – .  Let’s take a quick look at events that have transpired over the past few months that are beginning to have a very direct impact on Wall Street.

 

We discussed the current subprime mortgage problem in a previous post.  Let’s do a quick review of what has happened and what may happen in the future as a result of these events.   Subprime mortgages are mortgages that are given to homebuyers with poor credit.  These mortgages typically have much higher overall interest rates than mortgages given to consumers with good credit.  It appears that many of them are not fixed rate loans, but have adjustable interest rates so that the mortgage broker or bank can offer very low initial interest rates that will reset at a much higher rate at a later date.  It’s what many would call a ‘teaser’ rate that looks good to the borrower and sells more mortgages.  As the Federal Reserve has increased the Federal Funds Rate, many of these mortgages have reset at much higher interest rates which have then increased the monthly payments that many of these subprime borrowers must pay every month.  As a result, many of the subprime borrowers have been unable to make these increased payments leading to a very dramatic increase in home foreclosures.

 

You may be wondering how this has affected Wall Street and hedge funds.  Good question.  Until recently, a housing downturn could have affected Wall Street due to the overall impact to the economy, but now there is a much more direct correlation.  In recent years these loans have been sold by the banks who initiated the loans to the big Wall Street investment banks.  The Wall Street banks have then re-packaged these loans into investment securities called collateralized debt obligations or CDO’s.  These CDO’s have then been bought by many different hedge funds.  In recent years, these have been attractive to investors because they promised high returns and with the housing boom and low interest rates, the risk involved seemed muted.  With the downturn in the housing market and increased interest rates, it has become apparent that many subprime borrowers were issued loans they could not afford.  They can’t refinance because the value of their home has not appreciated (in some cases has depreciated) and interest rates are now higher than their initial rate….so they’re trapped.  With no options, they lose their homes in foreclosure.  We can talk about why this has happened, but the bottom line is that many have taken advantage of the poorest of us in the pursuit of wealth.  I’m sure that the borrowers, brokers, banks and Wall Street have all played a part in this, but the bottom line is that many wealthy people were profiting from these loans.  From what we read, there is very little concern about the people who have lost their homes as a result of this.  The vast majority of articles we read are about how this could affect hedge funds, the housing market and the stock market.  Ever wonder what the Bible says about loaning money to the poor at high interest rates?  The answer is there and remember, the Lord’s Word applies to us today, just as it applied to everyone alive when it was written.

 

“He who increases his wealth by exorbitant interest amasses it for another, who will be kind to the poor.” (Proverbs 28:8)

 

The Lord is clear: if you continue to exploit the poor, your wealth will be taken from you.

 

“You trample on the poor
       and force him to give you grain.
       Therefore, though you have built stone mansions,
       you will not live in them;
       though you have planted lush vineyards,
       you will not drink their wine.

For I know how many are your offenses
       and how great your sins.
       You oppress the righteous and take bribes
       and you deprive the poor of justice in the courts.

Therefore the prudent man keeps quiet in such times,
       for the times are evil.

Seek good, not evil,
       that you may live.
       Then the LORD God Almighty will be with you,
       just as you say he is. “ (Amos 5:11-14)

 

“He oppresses the poor and needy.
       He commits robbery.
       He does not return what he took in pledge.
       He looks to the idols.
       He does detestable things.

He lends at usury and takes excessive interest. Will such a man live? He will not! Because he has done all these detestable things, he will surely be put to death and his blood will be on his own head.” (Ezekiel 18:12-13)

 

“The LORD takes his place in court;
       he rises to judge the people.

 The LORD enters into judgment
       against the elders and leaders of his people:
       "It is you who have ruined my vineyard;
       the plunder from the poor is in your houses.

 What do you mean by crushing my people
       and grinding the faces of the poor?"
       declares the Lord, the LORD Almighty.” (Isaiah 3:13-15)

 

There are many other verses, but we’ll stop there.  Where is this subprime problem leading?  Hedge funds that invested heavily in these subprime securities are closing.  Debt markets are tightening due to investor’s adversity to the perceived increase in risk.  This, in turn, is making it much harder for private equity companies to fund their buyout deals.  This issue, coupled with the housing downturn, is causing the stock market to fall (the NYSE dropped over 300 points yesterday).  It shouldn’t surprise anyone who is spiritually mature that the exploitation of the poor by the wealthy is turning around to bite the wealthy.  Will the current situation end softly or are we facing something much more dramatic?  I believe we are seeing the beginning of the end of the financial dominance of the United States.  What we are seeing is only the beginning as the Lord begins to redistribute wealth from those focused on themselves and the pursuit of money to those who are following Him and His kingdom.

 

The following article appeared in the Wall Street Journal today.  Take note of who is benefiting from the efforts of private equity and who is suffering.

 

IN THE TRENCHES
How a Blackstone Deal
Shook Up a Work Force

Layoffs at Travelport,
Dividend for Investors;
'On Pins and Needles'

By IANTHE JEANNE DUGAN
; Page A1

CENTENNIAL, Colo. -- Not long after the Blackstone Group bought Travelport Ltd. last August, workers at the company's office campus here began feeling the squeeze.

Two months after the deal closed, scores of employees were lugging boxes of personal belongings to their cars, having lost their jobs. Under Blackstone's ownership, the travel-reservations conglomerate has laid off 841 people, about 10% of its work force. Blackstone, a private-equity firm, has already recouped all of the money it invested in Travelport.

__________________________________

RAPID PACE

 

•  The Situation: After Blackstone Group bought Travelport, changes came swiftly for some workers.

•  The Background: To capitalize on their investments more quickly, private-equity firms have been overhauling companies faster.

•  The Bottom Line: Travelport has laid off 841 workers, and Blackstone has already recouped its investment.

_______________________________

Similar scenes have been unfolding at companies around the nation, a human toll of the corporate-buyout boom. Private-equity firms, which say they bring sorely needed financial discipline to poorly run companies, have been slashing costs and extracting profits at warp speed. As the cycle of buying and selling companies has intensified, life in the trenches can be unstable and traumatic.

By the end of 2007, Travelport expects to slash costs by $150 million. Last week, it brought public its online reservations unit, Orbitz Worldwide Inc., using the proceeds to pay off debt. Its Galileo unit, which feeds airline information to travel agents, is the focus of much of the overhaul. Many of the job cuts have occurred at the company's data-operations center here outside , where some jobs have been outmoded by shifts in technology and in the way people buy airline tickets and rent cars, executives say.

John Kliegel, 41 years old, a computer-systems analyst, and his twin, Russell, a technical writer, were both laid off. They're selling the house they share because they can no longer afford it. Don Kleppinger, a 46-year-old software engineer with five sons, lost his job, leaving him without health insurance for several months. Grace Covyeau, 63, who lost her job as a telecommunications engineer, took a part-time job last month making sandwiches and coffee at King Soopers grocery store.

"It came as a shock," says Michael Berson, 49, who lost his job as a data engineer in October, three years after receiving a "Super Star" award for saving the company $1.2 million on telecommunications costs. Mr. Berson has moved to , where he is looking for a new job.

In addition to the 841 layoffs, 1,500 Travelport workers have left voluntarily since the buyout. The company says it has hired 1,582 new workers during that period, and has invested heavily in new technology.

Travelport Chief Executive Jeff Clarke describes the Centennial operation as the "factory" through which thousands of transactions pass every second. "We need to shift into new technologies," he says. "Some require productivity improvements and often will lead to layoffs."

To complete their $4.3 billion Travelport purchase, Blackstone and Technology Crossover Ventures, a , venture-capital firm that now owns 11%, invested $1 billion and borrowed the rest. That debt landed on Travelport's balance sheet. In March, Travelport borrowed an additional $1.1 billion and paid it out as a dividend to the two firms, returning all their money in just seven months.

"This is likely one of the quickest returns of invested capital for a private-equity deal of its size," Travelport's new chief financial officer, Michael Rescoe, said in a May conference call with analysts.

The buyout boom has been lucrative for Blackstone partners and investors, which include large institutions such as pension funds. Last year, Blackstone managed assets valued at about $88 billion and earned $2.27 billion, according to a prospectus for its own initial public offering in June. Its chief executive, Stephen Schwarzman, who resides in a 35-room apartment, made more than $650 million on the offering and retained a 24% stake now worth more than $5 billion.

Such riches raise hackles among laid-off workers. "These investments are helping the fat cats by hurting the little guys," says Ms. Covyeau. "It'll make you sick."

Over the past five years, private-equity firms have bought more than 10,000 companies. This year, through June, 1,399 deals worth $582 billion have been announced, according to data provider Dealogic.

In order to recoup their investments quickly, buyout firms are speeding up everything -- closing deals more swiftly, cutting jobs and restructuring companies faster, and taking them public sooner. They've also been taking big cash payments out of the companies they buy, as Blackstone did with Travelport. These payments, known as "dividend recapitalizations," reached a record $25 billion in 2006, and are on pace to exceed that amount this year, according to Standard & Poor's Corp. In 2001, they amounted to just $1 billion. The payments increase pressure to cut costs.

"Layoffs are far more likely at firms that pay these dividends," says Steven Bavaria, who oversees bank-loan ratings at Standard & Poor's. "Employees left behind are doing more work, looking over their shoulders, feeling stressed."

At a congressional hearing in May, the Private Equity Council, a lobbying group, testified that buyouts often result in long-term job growth. It cited the Carlyle Group's 2005 purchase of auto-parts company AxleTech International Holdings Inc., which grew to 568 from 425 workers after it began supplying parts to military-vehicle makers.

In other cases, job cuts follow buyouts. After buying Hertz Global Holdings Inc. for $15 billion from Ford Motor Co. in late 2005, Clayton, Dubilier & Rice Inc. and a unit of Merrill Lynch & Co. collected a $1 billion dividend, then took the company public. This year, Hertz cut more than 2,000 jobs, or about 8% of its work force.

Last summer, Blackstone teamed up with Carlyle, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. and other buyout firms to buy VNU, the parent of Nielsen Media Research and ACNielsen, for about $10 billion. In December, the firm announced 4,100 job cuts, about 10% of its work force.

"None of us wants a single job to be cut," says Paul "Chip" Schorr IV, the Blackstone senior managing director who orchestrated the purchase of Travelport and now serves as its chairman. Mr. Schorr, 40, joined Blackstone in 2005 from the venture-capital arm of Citigroup Inc.

The layoffs at Travelport were one of many steps taken to revamp the company. All told, Travelport has reduced operating costs by 6%, the company says.

Before Blackstone bought it, Travelport was operating as the Travel Distribution Systems unit of Cendant Corp., a travel and real-estate conglomerate based in Cendant's founder and chief executive, Henry Silverman, a former Blackstone partner, had cobbled together Cendant's travel unit through a series of acquisitions.

Galileo, which Cendant bought in 2001, gets paid by airlines to feed information about airline schedules, pricing and inventory to travel agents. In addition, it runs the reservations system for United Airlines. Galileo is the largest contributor of Travelport revenue, which totaled $2.6 billion last year.

That business has been suffering. The Sept. 11 attacks curtailed airline travel, as did the outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS. In 2003, struggling airlines reduced the fees they paid to middlemen such as Galileo.

Cendant also had gotten into the online travel-agency business by buying Orbitz, which competes with Travelocity, Expedia and others. Each time consumers use the site to book reservations for flights, rental cars and hotels, Orbitz collects a fee. As more consumers turned to the Internet for travel planning, the business grew.

But as airlines and hotels began handling reservations through their own Web sites, the middlemen lost business. In 2001, systems such as Galileo had handled 70% of airline reservations, according to Forrester Research, a market-research firm. These days, such systems handle just 50%. Cendant began laying off employees, and in 2005, it decided to split itself into four parts.

Mr. Schorr believed that Cendant hadn't fully integrated the systems behind the travel businesses it had acquired. "It was like having a house with eight kitchens," he says. If it eliminated overlapping systems, he believed, the business could become more efficient. He also saw growing opportunities in foreign markets such as the and .

On Aug. 23, the day Blackstone took over, Mr. Clarke wrote to employees on an internal blog: "For most of us, our jobs won't change." Mr. Clarke, who had become chief executive a few months earlier, previously held senior positions at Computer Associates and at Compaq Computer Corp.

Some employees believed Blackstone's arrival would ease the belt-tightening and stress that had begun under Cendant. "A lot of us thought these layoffs would stop," says Gina Fugazzi, 51, who oversaw the company's voice systems in the "There was no more to cut."

Others had heard enough about how private-equity firms operate to be concerned about their jobs. Ms. Covyeau, the telecommunications manager, says many employees were "aware that the pattern at private-equity firms was streamlining work forces." Anxiety, she says, began rising.

In the blog, Mr. Clarke noted to employees that Travelport intended to re-engineer operations to reduce overlap and to eliminate "activities that are not contributing to our success."

The company decided to overhaul the telecommunications center housed in Centennial. "We are automating work that was done manually," explains Mr. Clarke.

Within weeks of the buyout, at a meeting with employees in Centennial, some managers warned that more cuts were coming. Ms. Covyeau says she began packing her boxes and told a manager: "Please, just give me a severance package and let me out of here."

One morning in October, managers in Centennial sent emails instructing employees to report to various conference rooms and cafeterias. Ms. Fugazzi says her heart sank when she walked into her designated room and found only about 20 people. "I suddenly realized I was in a group getting laid off," she says. A colleague, she recalls, spotted a tray of bagels and coffee and chortled: "Looks like this is our last supper."

A manager told them their jobs were being cut for economic reasons, according to several people who were there. Some employees burst into tears; others stared stoically. "I was devastated," recalls Ms. Fugazzi, who says she had planned to retire in four years. "I had the mentality that if you worked hard, you could keep your job forever."

When they got back to their desks, their email had been disabled. Guards lingered while employees filled boxes with belongings. The company declined to provide written references. In the confusion, some employees say, they were inadvertently given a wrong number to call about benefits -- it was a sex line. A company spokesman says only eight employees received the incorrect number, and the company corrected the mistake right away.

All told, Travelport laid off about 500 people that month, including veterans in their 50s and 60s who say they had good performance reviews and relatively high salaries of about $100,000.

Most of the layoffs occurred at Galileo. Gordon Wilson, Galileo's London-based chief executive, said in a written statement that many of the jobs had been outmoded by technology. For example, travel agents used to connect to Galileo's system by phone. Now, many of them access it via the Internet.

The company offered laid-off employees two weeks severance for every year they worked, according to several employees. Mr. Wilson declined to provide details about the severance packages, which he called "generous."

In December, Travelport announced the acquisition of Worldspan, one of Galileo's chief competitors, for $1.4 billion. At a Christmas party at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science, a Travelport executive assured remaining employees that 2007 would be more stable, according to people who were there.

In January, Mr. Clarke, the chief executive, reorganized Travelport into three brands -- Orbitz, Galileo and Gullivers Travel Associates, a wholesaler of hotel rooms and group tours. The company continued to cut jobs.

Galileo's Mr. Wilson says he has warned employees of "further changes" as the company completes the Worldspan acquisition. The deal could produce about $100 million in cost savings through the consolidation of sales staffs, data centers, and other operations, Mr. Clarke says.

In this year's first quarter, Travelport's profits were up 36% over the year-earlier period, to $157 million. Half of the profit improvement was because of revenue growth, the company says, 25% was because of vendor-related cost reductions and 25% was from productivity improvements, including reductions in the work force.

Mr. Wilson says Travelport's debt load has made it more urgent to generate cash. "If we can accelerate the reduction of our debt and therefore lessen our interest payments," he says, "no one would expect management to do otherwise."

With the Worldspan merger looming, employees at both companies say they are worried about their jobs. "We are all on pins and needles," says one employee. "Everybody here feels it's only a matter of time."

For many laid-off employees, finding new jobs hasn't been easy. Danny Carrasco, a software developer in his 50s, searched for five months before finding a job at a telecommunications company. Technical analyst Robert Renwick, 30, sent out more than 100 résumés over four months before landing a job at the local school district. He and his wife, a first-grade teacher, put off having children, he says. "I can't believe they would ruin all these lives to make a couple extra pennies," he says.

John Kliegel is earning 33% less as a program manager at a satellite company. His twin, Russell, is juggling job hunting with free-lancing. Mr. Kleppinger, the software engineer, once expected to retire at Travelport. He's now earning 20% less at a new job.

After months of searching, writing résumés and reading books on how to interview, Ms. Fugazzi landed a job with the Colorado Department of Human Services. She earns about $33,000 less than she did at Travelport, counting her old bonus. But the government job, she says, "feels more secure."

Write to Ianthe Jeanne Dugan at ianthe.dugan@wsj.com

 

JANUARY 7, 2009

 

His Empire in Tatters, German Billionaire Takes Life

By MIKE ESTERL

Wall St. Journal

 

FRANKFURT -- Adolf Merckle, one of Germany's wealthiest men, committed suicide after his family business empire began unraveling amid mounting debt, his family said Tuesday.

The suicide of the 74-year-old multibillionaire, whose holding company had roughly €30 billion, or $40 billion, in annual revenue, is one of several deaths of businesspeople tied to the global financial crisis.

The news of Mr. Merckle's suicide came after a consortium of about 30 creditor banks put the finishing touches on a bridge loan of roughly €400 million to the family holding company, VEM Vermögensverwaltung GmbH, which oversees dozens of firms in industries from drugs to cement.

But VEM had to hand over significant collateral to the banks as a prelude to a broader restructuring in the coming months that is expected to strip the holding company of many assets, said people familiar with the matter.

Mr. Merckle, who shied away from the spotlight, inherited his family's pharmaceutical company in the 1960s and expanded aggressively. He eventually controlled major stakes in Phoenix Pharmahandel, a German pharmaceutical wholesaler with about €20 billion in revenue; publicly listed HeidelbergCement AG, with more than €10 billion in sales; and generic drug maker Ratiopharm International GmbH, with about €2 billion in revenue.

But Mr. Merckle lost hundreds of millions of euros last year in misplaced stock-market bets, said people familiar with the matter. Much of the loss was tied to short positions in Volkswagen AG, in which he wagered that the stock price would fall. Instead, it skyrocketed late last year in what market participants have described as one of the most dramatic short squeezes ever. In a short squeeze, investors who were betting against a company are forced into the market to buy back stock after the price rises.

Bankers say Mr. Merckle also overstretched with highly leveraged acquisitions. He increased his indebtedness in 2007 when HeidelbergCement acquired U.K. building-materials company Hanson PLC for about £8 billion, or $11.6 billion. VEM confirmed late last year it was in refinancing talks with creditors.

HeidelbergCement's share price fell 6.2% Tuesday on Frankfurt's stock exchange to €31.26 a share. That is sharply off its 52-week high of €115.47 reached last March. Mr. Merckle increased his family firm's stake in Germany's largest cement company to about 80% in recent years.

Mr. Merckle's body was discovered Monday night near train tracks outside the southern German city of Ulm in what local police described Tuesday as a "railway accident." There are no signs that anyone else was to blame, they added in a statement.

His family said Tuesday that he had committed suicide. "The distress to firms caused by the financial crisis and the related uncertainties of recent weeks, along with the helplessness of no longer being able to act, broke the passionate family businessman, and he ended his life," the family said in a brief statement.

Refinancing talks with banks in recent weeks proved difficult because creditors were wary of extending VEM new funds without sizable guarantees and Mr. Merckle was reluctant to concede too much control, said people familiar with the matter. Talks were further complicated by the number of banks involved, they added.

In a rare interview last month, Mr. Merckle told the German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung he had survived "many so-called stock-market crashes" but that he "couldn't calculate a banking and financial crisis of this dimension."

Mr. Merckle's wealth was estimated by Forbes magazine last year at $9.2 billion. VEM also owns stakes in companies making goods ranging from all-terrain vehicles to textiles.

In recent days, Ludwig Merckle, one of Mr. Merckle's four children, took the lead role for the family in negotiating the bridge loan with banks, according to a person familiar with the talks. Ludwig helped his father manage the investments through VEM, taking on an increasingly important role in recent years.

The roughly €400 million loan is designed to give VEM and creditors about three months to craft a broader restructuring blueprint for the Merckle family empire. But swift asset sales are expected to be difficult amid the tough market conditions. A VEM spokeswoman declined to comment Tuesday on any possible asset sales.

The dramatic fall of Mr. Merckle's business fortunes shocked many in Germany's financial community, where he enjoyed a reputation as a savvy investor.

Other Deaths

Thierry Magon de La Villehuchet, 65
Founder, Access International Advisors
Date of Death: Dec. 23

Workers discovered the body of Mr. de La Villehuchet in his firm's New York office. Mr. de La Villehuchet's firm oversaw a fund with assets invested by Bernard L. Madoff, according to a person familiar with the situation. An attorney for the firm told detectives that Mr. de La Villehuchet's firm had lost $1.5 billion in the Madoff scandal.

* * *

Alex Widmer, 52
Chief Executive, Bank Julius Baer
Date of Death: Dec. 3

Overseeing the private bank, Mr. Widmer turned the Zurich firm into a leading bank for wealthy clients. Julius Baer officials said Mr. Widmer's death wasn't linked to problems at the bank.

* * *

Kirk Stephenson, 47
Chief Operating Officer, Olivant Ltd.
Date of Death: Sept. 25

In late September, Mr. Stephenson drove to a rail station about 30 miles from his London home and stepped onto the tracks as an express train approached. Mr. Stephenson co-founded the investment firm in 2006. Olivant began accumulating a 2.8% stake in UBS and leading a revolt to turn around the Swiss banking giant. The UBS shares were put in a Lehman Brothers Holdings account with a proviso that allowed Lehman to use the assets as collateral. With Lehman in bankruptcy Olivant may never recover the assets.

One senior German banker described Mr. Merckle's business style as "down-to-earth and very cost-conscious." The billionaire businessman lived in Swabia, a region of Germany with a reputation for "frugality, where you turn every penny twice," and that's how Mr. Merckle was viewed by many investors, the banker added.

Mr. Merckle voiced distress about the rapidly changing opinions of his business dealings as reports surfaced in recent weeks about his debt problems. "We are being thrown into the same pot as hedge funds," he told Frankfurter Allegemeine Zeitung last month.

But he insisted that his holding company was suffering from a "pure liquidity problem" and that his focus had always remained building up solid businesses.

As Mr. Merckle grew increasingly desperate to keep his empire afloat, he lobbied the regional government in his home state of Baden-Württemberg late last year for temporary financial backing but was turned down.

German police said Mr. Merckle's family reported the businessman missing late Monday, "after he left the house in the afternoon and didn't return as usual." Around 7:30 the same night, a railroad worker noticed a body near Blaubeuren, where Mr. Merckle lived, police added in a statement Tuesday. Blaubeuren is about 100 miles west of Munich in southwestern Germany.

Mr. Merckle's death isn't the first linked to the financial crisis. French financier Thierry Magon de La Villehuchet, founder of Access International Advisors, was found dead in his Manhattan office just before Christmas. He reportedly lost $1.5 billion on behalf of customers in Bernard L. Madoff's alleged Ponzi scheme. Police, who called it an apparent suicide, found a box cutter as well as what appeared to be sleeping pills.

Earlier, an investment-fund executive at Olivant Ltd. in London and a veteran Bear Stearns Cos. manager in New York committed suicide.

Write to Mike Esterl at mike.esterl@wsj.com

 

DETROIT--U.S. auto sales in October plunged an estimated 31% to about 850,000 vehicles, as the financial crisis and tightening credit kept buyers away from showrooms.  It was the first time since February 1993 that auto makers sold fewer than 900,000 cars and light trucks in a month. When adjusted for increases in the U.S. population, October was "the worst month in the post-World War II era," Michael DiGiovanni, the top sales analyst at General Motors Corp., said in an conference call. "This is clearly a severe, severe recession."

WASHINGTON -- Amid uncertainty about the economic outlook, U.S. banks continued to tighten their standards on loans to households and businesses in the third quarter, according to a Federal Reserve survey of bank executives."Large net fractions of domestic institutions reported having continued to tighten their lending standards and terms on all major loan categories over the previous three months," said the survey, released Monday. Additionally, banks said the uncertain economic outlook and their reduced tolerance for risk also prompted them to reduce credit limits on existing credit card accounts to both prime and nonprime borrowers.

Manufacturing activity in the U.S. slowed sharply in October, falling to the lowest level since 1982 and signaling that a recession is at hand. On the eve of Election Day, the Institute for Supply Management reported that overall activity sank to 38.9 last month from 43.5 in September. Only two industries—computer and electronic products and apparel—reported growth, while 16 industries, including furniture, plastics and petroleum products, reported contraction. It was the first ISM reading this year to herald a recession.

Circuit City Stores Inc., the second largest consumer electronics chain in the U.S., said it will immediately close and liquidate 155 stores and lay off thousands of employees as it struggles to survive an increasingly dreary holiday shopping season. Citing a deteriorating economy, tightening credit limits by its suppliers, and an updated assessment that found its inventory was worth less than it expected, Circuit City said it would close the stores in 55 U.S. markets Tuesday and immediately begin liquidation sales on Wednesday.

PARIS -- Société Générale SA Monday said net profit in the third quarter fell by 84%, as the French bank increased its provisions and continued to reduce its exposure to risky assets. France's second-largest bank said net profit fell to €183 million ($233.2 million) from €1.12 billion in the same period a year earlier. Third-quarter revenue slid 5% to €5.11 billion from €5.38 billion in the year-earlier period.

Viacom Inc.'s third-quarter net income fell 37% as the media company faced challenges in both its networks and filmed-entertainment segments. "The economic environment and ongoing uncertainty have posed new challenges for the media industry, and Viacom has not been immune to the impact of these forces," said Chief Executive Philippe Dauman.

The souring economy is aggravating the troubles of Whole Foods Market Inc., a onetime Wall Street darling now mired in a nearly three-year slump.  Analysts say the upscale grocer probably will have to trim its earnings forecast for the current fiscal year and announce further cuts to capital spending or new-store plans when it reports fiscal fourth-quarter results Wednesday.

WASHINGTON -- The U.S. Treasury estimated it will borrow a record $550 billion in marketable debt in the October-December quarter to pay for a slew of emergency programs aimed at easing the credit crunch. The $550 billion estimate is $408 billion more than what Treasury projected in July 2008. The latest projection for the current quarter would leave the Treasury with an estimated end-of-December cash balance of $300 billion. That figure includes $260 billion for a new program Treasury created in September to help finance new Federal Reserve programs to address liquidity pressures in financial markets. "The increase in borrowing is primarily due to higher outlays related to economic assistance programs, lower receipts, and lower net issuances of state and local government series securities," Treasury said in a notice Monday afternoon.

For months, many mutual-fund investors could take comfort in this: They had endured worse during the tech-stock collapse. The hard lessons learned from that earlier, harrowing ride led many to believe they were better positioned for this bear market. But U.S. stock-market declines during October were so deep and wide that even tame investments were pummeled. Losses from the steep plunge that began just over a year ago now top those from 2000-2002.

Grim. There's no other word for the European Commission's outlook for the euro zone and wider European Union economy in its regular autumn survey. But the outlook may get grimmer yet for those countries with the biggest current account deficits unless the European Central Bank comes up with a series of sharp interest-rate cuts. That would probably see the euro fall even further against the dollar.

The chairman of Barnes & Noble Inc. last week told employees via an internal memo that the nation's largest bookstore retailer is "bracing for a terrible holiday season," and that he expects "the trend to continue well into 2009, and perhaps beyond." "Never in all of the years I've been in business have I seen a worse outlook for the economy," wrote Mr. Riggio. "And never in all my years as a bookseller have I seen a retail climate as poor as the one we are in. Nothing even close."

Private-equity firm KKR & Co. LP won't complete its initial public offering until 2009, once again delaying its going-public plans amid the growing financial crisis.

BRUSSELS -- The euro-zone economy is now in recession and will remain at a standstill for most of next year, the European Commission said Monday in its autumn forecast.  The commission, the European Union's executive arm, said financial markets are still in a "precarious" condition, creating significant risks to its already bleak economic outlook.

Have you ever been addicted to something – alcohol, drugs, pornography, etc.?  Has a particular sin been very difficult for you to overcome?  If you’ve ever tried to overcome your weaknesses on your own (all of us attempt to overcome on our own at some point in our lives) – then you know how difficult it can be.  Maybe you are a recovering alcoholic who gave up drinking for a few months and thought you were free – only to have a few friends call and ask if you wanted to go out…….and you end up right where you started.

 

As you read the paragraph above – I’m willing to bet that you immediately thought of something(s) in your life that holds some degree of control over you.  Ever wonder why it is so difficult?  Just when you think you are free – something (a person, a situation, an object, an image, etc.) shows up at just the wrong time – to tempt you back into bondage.

 

The reason it is so difficult for us is because we are battling a very powerful, very evil spiritual being who looks at our lives and knows our weaknesses.  Most of us have very little, if any, knowledge of the spiritual realm – so we think that we are only battling ourselves.  If we can somehow find a way in this world to stop thinking about our weakness, stop doing evil things, stop thinking about our sins – we can get free.  Meanwhile, the devil laughs at our feeble attempts to resist his temptations.

 

So – how do we overcome such a powerful, evil being?  If you think it’s easy – the Bible is full of stories of men of God who were, at some point in their lives, overcome by our enemy.  Samson, David, Solomon, many kings of Israel – all were seduced and corrupted by Satan.  This doesn’t mean that God will not forgive us if we fail (albeit with consequences), but our goal should be to resist our enemy at all times. 

 

So – how do we do this? 

 

As always – let’s look to the words of Jesus Christ to find the answer.  Matthew 20:22 begins with the Pharisees accusing Jesus of driving out demons by the power of Satan.  Notice carefully how Jesus responds.

 

‘Then they brought him a demon-possessed man who was blind and mute, and Jesus healed him, so that he could both talk and see. All the people were astonished and said, "Could this be the Son of David?"

 But when the Pharisees heard this, they said, "It is only by Beelzebub, the prince of demons, that this fellow drives out demons."

 Jesus knew their thoughts and said to them, "Every kingdom divided against itself will be ruined, and every city or household divided against itself will not stand. If Satan drives out Satan, he is divided against himself. How then can his kingdom stand? And if I drive out demons by Beelzebub, by whom do your people drive them out? So then, they will be your judges. But if I drive out demons by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.

 "Or again, how can anyone enter a strong man's house and carry off his possessions unless he first ties up the strong man? Then he can rob his house.”’ (Matthew 20:22-29)

 Who is the strong man in the verses above?  Satan.  What we’re told here is this – if you are living according to your flesh (your sin nature) – then Satan has free reign over your life.  Regardless of what you try to do in this life to get free of the world’s hold on you – eventually you will fail because you are not living by the Spirit of God – your focus is on the world.  Without seeking the Lord’s guidance – you are trying to take on someone who is much more powerful than yourself.  Our enemy will pressure you, lean on you – until you eventually fall.  If you think it’s hard now – just wait until you become a servant of God.  As I’ve said before – Satan is a real spiritual being.  If he sees you focusing on God and His plan for you – our enemy will not simply leave you alone – you become a target.  The reason is because your focus is no longer on the world – your focus is on God.  Satan knows that once you are born again – you are going to do what God calls you to do – which will involve destroying the devil’s works. Jesus came to us to destroy the works of Satan – and He will ask you to do the same.

“Dear children, do not let anyone lead you astray. He who does what is right is righteous, just as he is righteous. He who does what is sinful is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil's work. No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God's seed remains in him; he cannot go on sinning, because he has been born of God.” (1 John 3:7-9)

You can’t do God’s will if you are not born again by God – because you will be constantly tossed around by the world and its ruler.  If you will not allow God to change your character into the image of His own – then you will not resist our enemy’s schemes against you.  You will eventually chase after money, alcohol, drugs, sexual immorality – any of the things that you are susceptible to – that will cause your downfall. 

The only way to overcome our enemy and find God’s plan for you is by the power of God.  If you want to overcome the evil, power spiritual being ruling over this fallen world – then you must seek the One spiritual being more powerful than your enemy.  It begins with humility.  Tired of being tossed around by the world?  Tired of having your world crash around you time and again?  You must ask God for forgiveness through His Son. You must be born again by God’s Spirit.  This is the only way to overcome the world’s grip on you.  You must allow God to change your character to match His own.  You must allow God to arm you with the spiritual weapons required to stand against our enemy.

 

“Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints. (Ephesians 6:10-18)”

 

This is how you tie up the strong man who opposes you.  Do you want to understand how the Devil is scheming against you?  Do you want the ability to see and understand the spiritual world around you?  Do you want to be able to resist our enemy?  Do you truly want to be free of the world?  It starts with repentance and truly wanting to know your Creator.  You must get free of the world if you want to follow our Lord Jesus Christ and tear down the works of Satan.  Once you tie him up – you are free to rob his house.

 

“This is love for God: to obey his commands. And his commands are not burdensome, for everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith. Who is it that overcomes the world? Only he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God.” (1 John 5:3-5)

 

Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” (John 14:6)

 

To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, "If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free." (John 8:31-32)

 

I received the following email this week (God’s Daily Promise).

 

jg – July 5, 2009

 

This week's promise: God will guard you from the evil one

 

Do I need to fear the devil's intrusion?

 

"But if I am casting out demons by the power of God, then the Kingdom of God has arrived among you. For when Satan, who is completely armed, guards his palace, it is safe—until someone who is stronger attacks and overpowers him, strips him of his weapons, and carries off his belongings."

Luke 11:20-22 NLT

 

The Stronger Man

 

Do not be misled: Satan is strong in power and cunning. He has laid low some of God's choicest servants because they underestimated him and overestimated themselves. Even Samson with all his strength was no match for Satan. Nor was Solomon with all his wisdom.

 

So how can you keep the devil and his buddies out of your "house"? A man stronger than the one who controls you must deliver you. Only one qualifies as stronger than Satan: Jesus Christ.

 

I want to make it clear that genuine Christians need not fear being possessed or controlled by demons; Jesus is not into a time-sharing program with Satan. The Bible tells us, "He who has been born of God keeps himself, and the wicked one does not touch him." (1 John 5:18)

 

Oh, Satan may knock on the doors and rattle the windows. He may threaten to "huff and puff and blow the house down." But he cannot enter because someone stronger has taken up residence. "Greater is He that is in you, than he that is in the world." (1 John 4:4 KJV)

 

 

I want to spend some time discussing true faith.  How do we attain a faith that will move mountains?  If you attend a Christian church today, you will hear about faith in God and faith in Jesus, but what does this really mean?  Most churches will tell you that it means that you believe Jesus died for you and that he is always with you, regardless of your present circumstances – and their discussion of faith ends there.  This is true, you must have faith in Jesus to be saved, but a true, strong, unshakable faith goes much deeper.  A true, strong faith is not a blind faith.  You may tell me that you have a strong faith that Jesus died for you, but what if you lost everything – your home, your money, all of your material wealth – would your faith remain unwavering?  What if you lost loved ones – could you remain faithful until the end?  If you are threatened because of your faith in Jesus – could you remain with the Lord? If the Lord asked you to do things to further His kingdom – things that would seem crazy to non-believers – could you do it?  Could you remain focused on Him with a rock-solid faith that was unwavering regardless of your circumstances, regardless of what happens in this world? 

How does the Bible define faith?

 

"Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." (Hebrews 11:1)

 

Faith is not only the substance of things we hope for, but is the evidence of things not seen.  Don’t miss this very important point.  True faith is not blind.  If you truly seek the Lord, you will be given evidence of His work in the world.  You will be given evidence that He is communicating with you.  Did Abraham, Noah, the prophets and every other person mentioned in the Bible do what they did purely on blind faith?  Of course not.  The Lord called to them and by their initial faith, were given evidence of things not seen – which strengthened their faith.  They, in turn, believed all the Lord told them.  In the end, they moved mountains by their faith, a faith strengthened by the Lord.

 

Is faith required of us?  Yes.

 

"And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him." (Hebrews 11:6)

 

We are also given many examples of faith in the Bible:

 

"By faith Noah, when warned about things not yet seen, in holy fear built an ark to save his family. By his faith he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness that comes by faith.

By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going. By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise. For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God.

 

By faith Abraham, even though he was past age—and Sarah herself was barren—was enabled to become a father because he considered him faithful who had made the promise. And so from this one man, and he as good as dead, came descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as countless as the sand on the seashore.

 

All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance. And they admitted that they were aliens and strangers on earth. People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own. If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. Instead, they were longing for a better country—a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.

 

By faith Abraham, when God tested him, offered Isaac as a sacrifice. He who had received the promises was about to sacrifice his one and only son, even though God had said to him, "It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned." Abraham reasoned that God could raise the dead, and figuratively speaking, he did receive Isaac back from death.

 

By faith Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau in regard to their future.

 

By faith Jacob, when he was dying, blessed each of Joseph's sons, and worshiped as he leaned on the top of his staff.

 

By faith Joseph, when his end was near, spoke about the exodus of the Israelites from and gave instructions about his bones.

 

By faith Moses' parents hid him for three months after he was born, because they saw he was no ordinary child, and they were not afraid of the king's edict.

 

By faith Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be known as the son of Pharaoh's daughter. He chose to be mistreated along with the people of God rather than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a short time. He regarded disgrace for the sake of Christ as of greater value than the treasures of , because he was looking ahead to his reward. By faith he left , not fearing the king's anger; he persevered because he saw him who is invisible. By faith he kept the Passover and the sprinkling of blood, so that the destroyer of the firstborn would not touch the firstborn of .

 

By faith the people passed through the as on dry land; but when the Egyptians tried to do so, they were drowned.

 

By faith the walls of fell, after the people had marched around them for seven days.

 

By faith the prostitute Rahab, because she welcomed the spies, was not killed with those who were disobedient.

 

And what more shall I say? I do not have time to tell about Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel and the prophets, who through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, and gained what was promised; who shut the mouths of lions, quenched the fury of the flames, and escaped the edge of the sword; whose weakness was turned to strength; and who became powerful in battle and routed foreign armies. Women received back their dead, raised to life again. Others were tortured and refused to be released, so that they might gain a better resurrection. Some faced jeers and flogging, while still others were chained and put in prison. They were stoned; they were sawed in two; they were put to death by the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted and mistreated— the world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and mountains, and in caves and holes in the ground.

 

These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised. God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect." (Hebrews 11:7-40)

 

I used to believe that I had a strong faith.  I believed that Jesus died on the cross, but I led my life my way and felt that since I believed in Him, I was free to do whatever I wanted since I was saved.  The truth was that I didn’t know the Lord, didn’t draw close to Him, and as a result, I felt like I was on my own in this world.  He was up there and I was down here – taking on the world myself. I didn’t invite him into my life so I would be happy when things were going well, then down when things weren’t going my way.  What does the Bible say about living our lives like this?

 

“Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him. But when he asks, he must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. That man should not think he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all he does.” (James 1:2-8)

 

I was like many believers today – double minded.  I would go to church and disregard what I learned so that I could do things my way.  I prayed occasionally, but I never really believed that God would do anything.  Everyone viewed me as a good, church-going man, but the truth was - I was not following the Lord.  As a result, I would be tossed around by the events in the world.  My faith could not stand against adversity.  I viewed trials in my life as pure hardship.  The Lord tells us that when we face adversity, we should rejoice, because our faith will be strengthened.  He will mature us spiritually through hardship – we will develop a true faith that will allow us to persevere through any circumstance.  He will bring you through valleys so that your faith can move mountains.  Two years ago I had very little faith and no Godly wisdom.  Everything changed for me with prayer and truly seeking the Lord.  Do you want true faith and true wisdom?  You must ask the Lord to come into your life and begin changing you. 

 

Let’s take a look at what Jesus had to say on the subject of faith:

 

When they came to the crowd, a man approached Jesus and knelt before him. "Lord, have mercy on my son," he said. "He has seizures and is suffering greatly. He often falls into the fire or into the water. I brought him to your disciples, but they could not heal him." "O unbelieving and perverse generation," Jesus replied, "how long shall I stay with you? How long shall I put up with you? Bring the boy here to me." Jesus rebuked the demon, and it came out of the boy, and he was healed from that moment. Then the disciples came to Jesus in private and asked, "Why couldn't we drive it out?" He replied, "Because you have so little faith. I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there' and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you." (Mathew 17:14-21)

‘The apostles said to the Lord, "Increase our faith!" He replied, "If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, 'Be uprooted and planted in the sea,' and it will obey you.’ (Luke 17:5-6)

 

On more than one occasion, Jesus used a mustard seed to describe faith.  The apostles asked for greater faith and Jesus replied that they only needed faith as small as a mustard seed. Why? 

 

‘Again he said, "What shall we say the is like, or what parable shall we use to describe it? It is like a mustard seed, which is the smallest seed you plant in the ground. Yet when planted, it grows and becomes the largest of all garden plants, with such big branches that the birds of the air can perch in its shade.’ (Mark 4:30-32)

 

I believe that Jesus responded in this manner to give all of us the key to greater faith.  Have you ever looked at a mustard seed?  It’s a very small seed, but it grows into a plant large enough that birds can make it their home.  In the same way, Jesus is telling us that we don’t need to start with a great faith, and if you ask for greater faith it’s not going to happen all at once.  If you initially have faith to seek Him and then continue to draw close to Him through prayer and obedience, you will eventually be given great faith as the Lord works through you and your faith grows.  If you plant this seed of faith in your life through prayer and by reading the Lord’s Word, He will grow your faith to the point that nothing will be able to shake you. 

 

In the world today, we expect things to happen now – on our timetable.  You must be prepared to do things on the Lord’s timetable.  Don’t think that you’ll pray for greater faith and then you’ll have it the very next moment (as the Apostle’s believed would happen).  The Lord will mature you over time, according to His will for your life.  You must realize that He will also use adversity to strengthen your faith.  He will bring you through tough times and then bring you out to show you that you can trust Him – regardless of the circumstances.  Whether we go through good times or bad, we must always remain close to Him.

 

How has the Lord strengthened my faith?  I’ll briefly explain some of the circumstances that have brought me to this point.  All of these things happened – I’m not nearly creative enough to invent any of this.  It all began with humbling myself and prayer.

 

As I’ve mentioned before, my life began to change in May 2005.  After 34 years of leading a lukewarm spiritual life, I began to see that I was a spiritual child – not at all mature.  After researching some events taking place in the world (), I began to sense that we were much closer to the end of this age than I thought.  I began to see that if I continued on my current path, I would never know the Lord and His will for my life because the world was my master.  I wanted to believe that I was a Godly person, but in reality, I was an enemy of God.  I was not following Him, but the world.  So, I began to pray.  I no longer wanted to be focused on the world.  I asked the Lord to come into my life and give me His purpose.  I began to see how meaningless worldly pursuits actually were and asked the Lord to use me according to his will.  I began praying everyday. 

 

After a few weeks, in addition to daily prayers, I began asking the Lord what I should pray for.  The response was immediate – wisdom, knowledge, and understanding.  I was directly told – ‘Ask the Lord the questions that enter your mind, for it has been given to you to get the answers.’  At times, it seemed overwhelming.  It was overwhelming in the sense that the truth of what was going on in the world was so vastly different from what I had been told my entire life.  For awhile, I struggled to come to terms with what was really happening and what I was being asked to do.  I was given brief glimpses into my future, but I couldn’t see how I could possibly get to that point.  Again, the answer was clear – ‘be obedient – I have never left you or forsaken you, trust in ’  Always remember, anything is possible with God – no matter how impossible it looks to you.

 

‘Jesus looked at them and said, "With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible."’ (Mathew 19:26)

 

So, I began praying for knowledge and wisdom regarding the Lord’s prophecies.  How are events in the world today related to your Word?  Help me to understand.  Who is the true antichrist?  Who are the beasts?  What is the image of the beast?  Is the Illuminati real?  Strengthen my faith….and I prayed these things everyday.

 

In August 2005, I attended a Lionheart ministries revival at Thompson Boling Arena in called ‘Fire in the Valley’.  I spent most of the day there listening to various pastors and many different Christian musicians.  It was on this day that I first met Mike McClung and purchased a few of his CD’s on spiritual warfare.  I noticed at the end of the day, a ‘healing rooms’ ministry was being offered for those who needed physical healing.  Even though I didn’t need healing, I felt the Lord leading me to this ministry, so I signed up to attend at 4:30p.  When I arrived at , three people took me into a room that was divided into cubicles.  There were 5-6 groups of people praying.  I told the people with me that I didn’t have any problems that needed healing, but that I did want to pray for the daughter of a co-worker who was struggling with Crohn’s disease.  They took a few moments preparing themselves by praying silently and then began praying out loud….but they didn’t start with healing prayers for me or the daughter of my co-worker.

 

They started praying by telling me what the Lord was communicating to them….that I was a spiritual warrior, that the Lord was preparing me for coming battles, that I would grow strong in the Lord and stand against our enemy.  They continued this for almost 10 minutes.  The woman behind me kept removing her hands from me as if I was hot to the touch.  She asked the other two on more than one occasion – ‘do you feel that?’ At one point I began wondering if they were somehow getting their spiritual antennas crossed with someone else in the room.  I’m just an ordinary guy – I wasn’t sure I was the right material for coming spiritual ‘battles’.  At the end of these initial prayers they mentioned something that I will remember for the rest of my life – ‘someday you will come face to face with evil and evil forces, but you will stand against the enemy and will not fall because the Lord will be with you.’  It was exciting to hear and a little unnerving.  I realized that the Lord’s path for me was going to take me places I would never have chosen on my own.  I would have to trust Him completely.  I had no idea just how important this would be – but I was about to find out.

 

I continued to pray everyday and a few more days passed.  During this time I began to get the message that I needed to write down the things I had been shown and send the message to friends and family.  I also had the same recurring thoughts over and over again – ‘you’ve been successful in business, you’ve been active in your community, but in the greatest game of all, you’re standing on the sidelines.  It’s time to stop being a spectator, get off the sidelines and get in the game.’  Over and over these thoughts ran through my mind.  I believed these thoughts were mine – I have played sports my whole life – sounded like a good analogy for me.  I was about to discover that a much higher power was at work in my life.

 

So, after a few more days, my wife and I attended Church on a Sunday.  I now realize that everything that happened to me from May through August was leading up to this day.  With the Lord, timing is everything.  We dropped our kids off in the nursery and proceeded to the sanctuary.  I forgot that the UT football team was in attendance - our pastor knew the head football coach and had invited the team to church before the upcoming season started.  As a result, the sanctuary was packed.  As we walked in the door, I looked around for a couple of open seats and was stopped cold by what I saw on the two large overhead screens hanging from the ceiling at the front of the sanctuary.  In big, red block letters was written – ‘GET IN THE GAME’.

 

My mind began racing.  Was this for me?  Was our Creator sending me a message?  I couldn’t be sure.  This was all very new to me.  It sure seemed strange that the exact same message had been running through my mind for days.  I decided that the sermon and what followed would determine if this was truly a message from the Lord.  So, with anticipation, we found our seats….and I waited for the sermon to begin.

 

Our pastor began with a couple of football jokes and I started to think that maybe I wasn’t receiving a message.  This changed once he started the sermon.  Our pastor always gave good sermons, but in the four years I attended this church, I never heard a sermon on spiritual warfare.  On this day, he launched into a very serious sermon on spiritual warfare and how as Christians, we should not just spend one hour of every week in church, but fight the good fight of faith everyday.  Seek the Lord and His plan for your life.  It was a very powerful message.  My mind continued to race and as if the Lord knew I needed an exclamation point to this message, our pastor finished his sermon by saying, ‘I don’t know who this is for, but I have a message from the Lord for someone here today.’  He then paused for a few seconds.  As I sat on the edge of my chair, it seemed as if time had stopped as I focused on what he was about to say.  He then said, ‘you’re standing on the sidelines of the spiritual war being waged in the world, it’s time to stop being a spectator, it’s time to get off the sidelines and get in the game.’  The exact words that had been running through my mind for days.  I became vaguely aware of people getting up and making their way to the exits, but I remained seated – staring at the big, red letters on the overhead screens – ‘GET IN THE GAME’….and a small, quiet voice confirming that this message was for me.  It was time to write the letter.  It was time to get in the greatest game of all.

We returned home from Church and placed the kids down for their naps.  My wife and I decided to take a nap as well, but my mind continued to race.  I was wide awake thinking about whether or not to take the leap of faith and write a letter to my friends and family.  Then, out of nowhere, it felt as though a bolt of electricity shot through me.  I decided then and there that I was being asked to get moving.  So, I jumped out of bed, sat down at my computer and began typing a letter (written in August 2005).  I worked on the letter Sunday evening and finished it Monday night.  On Tuesday at work I sat at my computer staring at the email to my friends and family with the letter attached.  My finger hovered over the ‘send’ key for about 5 minutes.  I realized that by sending the letter, I was getting in the game, while at the same time, trusting God.  With a quiet prayer, I pressed the send key and stepped off the ledge.  Would God catch me?

 

As expected, the letter sparked a lot of conversation.  Jesus never promises us that we will live a nice, peaceful life if we follow Him.  In fact, he tells us the opposite will happen:

 

"Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to turn
   a man against his father,
   a daughter against her mother,
   a daughter-in-law against her motherinlaw—
   a man's enemies will be the members of his own household." (Mathew 10:34-36)

 

Jesus is telling us that when you follow Him and wield God's sword (His Word), expect hostility from not just your perceived enemies, but your family members as well. 

 

I realized early on that it’s hard telling the truth when everyone wants to believe lies.  Lies they’ve been told their entire lives. We all struggle with rejecting the truth because we don’t want to believe it.  Initially, we’re much more comfortable with the status quo – regardless of where it may lead us.  I certainly didn’t want to believe it, but through prayer, it became clear to me what was and was not the truth.  Whether or not I wanted to believe it, the truth is the truth.  If you know the truth and realize that everyone is buying into lies, would you tell them?  If you knew the most important thing in the world, but also knew no one would believe you – could you still communicate the message?  This is where true faith and trust in the Lord come into play.  I could not stop doing what the Lord was asking simply because others rejected the message.  I had no idea what was next, but I had the feeling that my life was about to change forever – I wasn’t disappointed.

 

Over the next couple of weeks I felt that I was being asked to write a 2nd letter.  I also felt that I was being given a different message this time – the Lord’s judgment on our nation and a date – November 11.  Honestly, even though I felt strongly that this was given to me by the Lord, I couldn’t do it.  Writing about what was happening in the world and relating it to Bible prophecy is one thing, writing about judgment and specific dates is something else entirely.  I began to pray that if this was from the Lord, I would need some specific guidance from Him.  Even though I felt strongly about doing this, I needed evidence that this is what the Lord wanted me to do.

 

As these weeks progressed, I listened to more and more of Mike McClung’s (Lionheart Ministries) CD’s on spiritual warfare and bible study.  I would check their website periodically for new bible study materials.  On a Wednesday in September I was viewing their website when I noticed they had a prophecy ministry available on Thursdays.  I could schedule a time (for 20 minutes) and their prophecy team would communicate any messages that the Lord gave them.  I felt led to this ministry, so I scheduled a time for the next day.

 

I arrived on time and said a silent prayer sitting in my car in the parking lot – ‘Lord, if this is what you want me to do, then please make it clear, and I will do whatever you ask of me.’  I then walked inside to the sanctuary.  I met three women in a small room and they began to speak to me after initial prayers.  The first woman began with, ‘I see numbers all around you.  The Lord is communicating to you with numbers….that only someone with your training can understand….’  They told me things that were currently going on in my life and things that would happen in the future (some of which has happened since then).  It was a truly amazing experience.  I left there knowing that the Lord wanted me to write the 2nd letter.  So, after only 5 weeks since I sent the first letter, I emailed the 2nd letter to friends and family (written in September 2005).

 

A few days after sending the 2nd letter, I was sitting in class on a Saturday morning at UT.  I believe the topic was corporate tax law…so I wasn’t exactly engrossed in the lecture.  At 9:15am, I decided to take an early break and walked outside the lecture hall and across the patio to the bathroom.  When I came out, I started back across the patio, but decided to stop and admire the morning sunrise (the view from the patio overlooks the UT campus and Neyland Stadium).  As I stared at the sunrise, I decided to close my eyes and say a quiet prayer.  I slowly opened my eyes after praying and noticed that I had inadvertently walked right into the middle of a message that someone had stamped on the railing in big, black letters – ‘NO MORE WORK’.  I took a couple of steps backward while the Lord’s small, quiet voice told me, once again, that this message was for me.  It became clear that I would be asked to leave work as part of the Lord’s plan for me.  As with previous messages, timing was everything.  If I had seen this a few months earlier, it wouldn’t have meant anything to me.  Now, it was clear that I would leave my present job at some point in the future.  The question became – how far in the future?  I would later learn that the answer was – much sooner than I thought.

 

I continued to give my letters to friends and those that were interested.  I wasn’t sure where this was leading, but I was committed to following the plan laid out before me.  I gave my letters to a couple of classmates and never focused on trying to figure out the plan.  I realized early on that what I was doing was part of a plan much bigger than myself.  There was no way I could figure it all out – better to simply follow where I’m led – one step at a time.  One of my classmates happened to be an HR manager for the local Knoxville newspaper.  I never thought much about this, except that I felt led to send the letters to him.  Nothing happened for a couple of months and I began to wonder if I had misread the message God was giving to me. 

 

This all changed on Thursday, November 3rd.  I received a call from Ina Hughes with the Knoxville News-Sentinel.  She told me that my friend had given her the letters and she would like to interview me for an article to be published in the paper the following week.  I agreed and we met for breakfast the following morning on November 4th.  She interviewed me for an hour and I returned to work.

 

The article appeared in the Faith section of the News-Sentinel on Tuesday, November 8th 2005 (posted on blog) with links to my letters on their website.  As I started reading the article, I noticed that she mentioned the company where I worked.  I never told her where I worked, my friend must have mentioned this to her.  I was initially worried about this (I knew the officers of our company would be sent any articles that included our company’s name), but realized that this was all part of God’s plan.  Sure enough, later that afternoon I received a call from my manager – he was coming to Knoxville to discuss the article.  We had a good conversation at dinner that night.  He understood why I did the article, but made it clear that if I met with the media again about the letters, my employment with the company would come to an end.  There it was - the message I had been given a couple of months prior - No More Work - foretold this moment.  I had found the narrow gate.  I had walked right up to it.  The Lord was telling me what I needed to do to walk through it - leave my career and my dependency on the world behind.  My manager kept talking, but what I was thinking about was the young, wealthy man that asked Jesus what he must do to attain eternal life.

 

"Now a man came up to Jesus and asked, "Teacher, what good thing must I do to get eternal life?" "Why do you ask me about what is good?" Jesus replied. "There is only One who is good. If you want to enter life, obey the commandments." "Which ones?" the man inquired. Jesus replied, " 'Do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not give false testimony, honor your father and mother,' and 'love your neighbor as yourself.'" "All these I have kept," the young man said. "What do I still lack?" Jesus answered, "If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me." When the young man heard this, he went away sad, because he had great wealth." (Mathew 19:16-22)

 

Every person who wants to know the Truth comes to this decision at some point.  Every person who understands what is required walks up to the narrow gate.  The question then becomes - can I walk through it?  Do I really believe?  Do I really want to follow Jesus?  Can I give up everything to follow Him?  The rich, young ruler walked right up to that narrow gate, but chose not to walk through - he couldn't give up the world.  Even though we rarely hear this in Church today - it's made clear to us in the Bible that to truly follow Jesus and enter His kingdom, we must give up the world - we must overcome the world and really, truly believe.  We must put our faith into practice.  Now you understand why Jesus tells us to weigh this carefully.  It's not something that only requires us to believe with no sacrifice.  If you truly want to follow the Lord, you will be asked to show Him.  This isn't just about what we say, it's about what we actually do. I decided that from this point on in my life, I was going to focus on God and His kingdom - not this world.

 

I told my manager that I understood, but if I was asked to talk further about this, I would do so.  He asked only that I give him a ‘heads-up’ if I did agree to meet again with the media.  Before we left dinner, I told him that I was told I would leave the company at some point, I just didn’t know when.  He seemed a little surprised by this.  He was very understanding and I could tell that he didn’t really want to deliver this message, but again, that’s corporate life – conformity to the world. If you're not regenerated by God, you do what the world asks you to do.

 

The next morning I received a call from the local CBS news affiliate.  They wanted to do an on-camera interview about the letters and my thoughts on the end times.  The one thing I’ve learned through all of this is that God will never force you to do anything.  We are given a choice – follow Him or our own way.  I had been told what I needed to do to follow Him and enter through the narrow gate, the question then became – could I actually do it?  A few months earlier and the answer would have been no.  At this point (again, timing is everything), I knew what I needed to do.  I called my manager and told him that I was going to do the interview.  He told me that he would have to relieve me of my duties.  I could tell that he didn’t want to do it, but he had to do what he was told.  I had done the same thing on more than one occasion when our company had mandatory layoffs.  You don’t like it, but business is business.  Protect the business at all costs.  Before the week was over I did a total of 2 on-air interviews for local news affiliates, 2 local radio interviews, 2 interviews on 99X radio in Atlanta and a 2nd article appeared in the News-Sentinel on Saturday, November 12th (front-page headline).  The news articles were picked up on the AP news wire and appeared in multiple cities across the U.S., including Las Vegas. It felt like a whirlwind……and then, everything got quiet the following week.  I received many emails and did a radio interview for a nationally syndicated radio program, but eventually, the phone calls, emails and interviews stopped coming.  I tried to convey the message that even though nothing happened on November 11th, nothing had changed.  This was not a message from me, but from God Himself.  This was all part of a divine plan – and our nation still faced His judgment.

 

I spoke to my pastor (Park West Church) a few months after all of this happened (and I was still out of work) and he gave me some good advice.  He told me that if God is clear about what He wants you to do and gives you a message about your future - something that you’re going to do in the future -  and you’ve got to endure to get to that point, what you’re really being asked to do is – have FAITH.  Faith that He will always be faithful.  Faith that He will not let you fall.  I was going through a valley to strengthen my faith, so that in the future, when others are lost and falling, I would be able to stand.  He was showing me the spiritual weapons I would need, weapons that would be vitally important to my future.  Even though it was very difficult (I don’t like to be out of the action), I was asked to endure without a job for a long time.  15 months to be exact.  In January 2007, when my savings were depleted I spoke to my pastor again.  He told me that he really looked forward to talking with me and my wife when he saw us on his calendar.  He said that the Lord had made it clear that it was time for me to aggressively go after a job opportunity.  He said that I should not be ashamed of what happened in the past and to be sure and make contact with old friends.  I felt like the weight of the world was lifted off my shoulders and it was time to go back to work.  Within 4 weeks I was offered a job in Atlanta with better pay and benefits than my previous job.  I was given a generous relocation package.  My wife and I found a home in Atlanta and sold our home in Knoxville within a couple of days of each other.  We’re on our way out of the valley.

 

Today is May 7, 2007.  I’ve been working at my new job for a few months now.  My family and I are permanently moving to Atlanta in a few weeks.  Where does all of this lead?  I don’t have all of the answers, but I know that wherever I go and whatever I do, He will be with me - guiding me every step of the way.