Pile of Rubbish or the One Good Deed

Spirituality / The Faith

In my daily morning Bible study in the Gospel of Matthew (People's Bible Commentary - Matthew) I came across something quite interesting.  In this passage from Matthew chapter 19 a rich young man approaches Jesus and asks what he can do to get to heaven.  The passage is as follows:

Matthew 19:16-30 (English Standard Version)

The Rich Young Man

 ¹⁶And behold, a man came up to him, saying, "Teacher, what good deed must I do to have eternal life?" ¹⁷And he said to him, "Why do you ask me about what is good? There is only one who is good. If you would enter life, keep the commandments." ¹⁸He said to him, "Which ones?" And Jesus said,  "You shall not murder, You shall not commit adultery, You shall not steal, You shall not bear false witness, ¹⁹Honor your father and mother, and,You shall love your neighbor as yourself." ²⁰The young man said to him, "All these I have kept. What do I still lack?" ²¹Jesus said to him, "If you would be perfect, go, sell what you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me." ²² When the young man heard this he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.

 ²³And Jesus said to his disciples, "Truly, I say to you, only with difficulty will a rich person enter the kingdom of heaven. ²⁴Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God." ²⁵When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astonished, saying, "Who then can be saved?" ²⁶But Jesus looked at them and said, "With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible." ²⁷Then Peter said in reply, "See, we have left everything and followed you. What then will we have?" ²⁸Jesus said to them, "Truly, I say to you, in the new world, when the Son of Man will sit on his glorious throne, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. ²⁹And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or lands, for my name’s sake, will receive a hundredfold and will inherit eternal life. ³⁰But many who are first will be last, and the last first.

As you can see, living a righteous life - the entrance to Heaven - is difficult, might I say impossible.  However, with God, all things are possible.  The author in the Bible commentary explains it like this:

Anyone with such confidence in his own abilities might be compared to a man who owes a huge debt to his banker.  He worries about it and works had to earn the money to pay the debt.  Finally, he believes he has enough to pay the debt in full, and he joyfully goes to the bank.  The banker examines the money and then sadly informs the unfortunate fellow that it is all counterfeit.  It looks like real money, but it is completely worthless.  Our own virtues and good works are just as worthless in God's sight.  They may look good to us and to others, but they cannot deceive God.  The rich young man thought all he had to do was to add one more good work to the pile he had already accumulated.  But he needed to strip off the garments of his own righteousness and put on the garments of the righteousness that Christ has purchased with His blood.

I like this explanation.  Our good works are important to our neighbor as God doesn't need them.  The author rightly points out that they can not save us. Thanks be to God that we have the Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world. 

I remember a couple of years ago that I made a fire in the backyard.  It was one of those glowing perfect fires that we all sat around and enjoyed.  I sat there and started thinking, "Man is this great."  However, when I went inside to the perfectly clean air for the night, I realized how much I smelled and was in the need of a good rinse. 

Like THE Good Neighbor

Spiritual/The Faith

As this blog has taken shape, there have been moments throughout my week that I wanted to highlight in my quest.  Last Sunday at church the sermon sparked an idea that I wanted to write about. 

In the sermon the pastor said, "Such is the rule for man-kind today. For most of us we would like to say about our neighbor, “I am not my brother’s/sister’s keeper. I have enough problems of my own to attend to."

That started me thinking about setting goals.  When I started this, I thought it felt self-centered.  However, as I looked at my goals I noticed a couple of things.  Yes, these are my goals and they benefit me. However, they also benefit my neighbor whomever that might be. My pastor went on to say:

"You are never alone. Let us not leave the lonely alone. Be the body of Christ together for the sake of your neighbor. Be Jesus for your brother in need. "God made you who you are as an individual. God has made you a Christian to remind you that you are never alone."

If I accomplish my goals, who knows, maybe my neighbor will benefit.  If I pay down my debts that means I will have more money left over for charities/church/anyone in need, a 529 plan for my child, and will insure that I won't have to borrow when an emergency happens. If I know the Gospel better through my daily study, maybe people around will benefit from my ability to articulate what the Lord has done for us on the cross and why.  The list goes on....

I am not alone in this pursuit. These goals not only benefit me, but my neighbors as well. Come to think of it, my neighbors will probably help me achieve them. We are our brother's /sister's keeper after all. 

Feelin' Sort of Bookish

Intellectual/Self Improvement Goal

This is my first "official" post since setting my goals for the year.  As I mentioned in my reasons for setting up this blog, I will from time to time write about my progress and submit the things I have learned along the way.  Additionally, I will reference the goal to which it is related.

In the Intellectual arena I have been reading a book, The Great Depression: A Diary.  It is a wonderful book that I received for Christmas.  The book was developed from the diary of a man who lived and worked during the Depression.  I guess you could say it was his blog. 

The book chronicles his thoughts about what was taking place in Ohio, the United States, and the world. It is fascinating and at times I can't put it down.  It is amazing how those time mirror these.  Here are a couple of highlights from the book that illustrate this:

Page 106
April 18, 1933 -In spite of much reading on the subject I am still confused by the inflation theories.  Briefly the following inflation theories are now being pressed in Congress:

• Loans to industry by the Government
• Federal Reserve Bank to buy bonds and thus put money into banks.
• Put the money directly into hands of consumers by huge public works plans. 

Page 139
November 18, 1933 - It is also interesting to note that the effort to create credit by having the Federal Reserve Bank buy U.S. bonds in the open market has failed. Huge reservoirs of credit are available but banks won't make loans because business is too uncertain.  It seems to prove that when business starts moving credit will expand automatically but the artificial creation of credit will not expand business."

My Note: This can't be more true.  Rates have been driven to historical lows and yet, businesses and consumers are still not borrowing. Like 1933 the powers that be thought that borrowing would pick up - there by stimulating the economy - if the rates were driven down. However, borrowing is not picking up because of uncertainty and lack of hope in receiving a decent return on their investment.  Additionally, although the government has turned on the money faucet full blast for the banks, stricter lending criteria has inhibited them from making loans.  The party is over and everyone has a hang over. A friend at my work said, "I feel like the guy that has to sweep up after the elephants have left the circus."

Page 143
December 28, 1933 - Just finished reading a book entitled Our Mysterious Panics by Colman. Comes to conclusion that every panic is brought on by human greed and speculation instead of by complex economic cycles. Reasoning seems logical and as follows:

1. After a depression comes a slow return to normal.
2. A few years of "normal business," men get too optimistic and begin to over expand, speculate, etc.
3. Speculation leads to fraudulent stock issues, embezzlement, new theories such as "new era."
4. Then comes the crash or panic caused by over-expansion, fraud, embezzlement, and human greed.

My Note: Sound familiar?  Fraudulent "stock issues" of our time are "no-doc" mortgage loans.  Also, I think the government had a hand in inflating the real estate bubble.  Cheap money, loose lending standards, and greed on the parts of consumers and the banks, lit this powder keg.  Seems that everything fell right into place for the "Panic of 2008."

Page 152
January 24, 1934 - The people have gotten used to looking to the government for help and the average man does no stop to consider where the money is coming from or how it is to be paid back.

Page 156
March 22, 1934 - Radical socialism seems rampant in every class of society but mostly ministers and college professors. This had spread to the working class.  They no longer ask for favors but "demand" government work, cancellation of mortgages, reduction of debts, etc. They feel the courts will not permit foreclosure of mortgages or ejectments, etc.

My Note: Even today most professors are socialist. I remember back in 1993 most of mine were of this mind set.  That's not just speculation on my part. They came right out and said it.  I remember one paper I submitted that dealt with Supply-side Economics. The professor went after it and questioned this school of thought.  In that same paper I discussed the "The New Deal" and he had nothing to say about the negatives of Keynesian Economics.  That's alright, we all have our leanings.  I just wonder why professors and the "intellectual elite" are usually liberal.  It comes to mind that Roosevelt surrounded himself with these types and I believe President Obama did the same. 

If we want to know what stimulates business, maybe we should look to the ones that need stimulated and ask them.

Here is a link to this book on Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/Great-Depression-Diary-Benjamin-Roth/dp/1586489011/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1295728230&sr=8-1

The Journey for 2011

Here we are again at the beginning of a new year.  What does 2011 hold for me?  What do I need to accomplish? 

Every year I write down my goals and track them daily to monitor my progress.  I remember 2004, the first year that I did this, I was astonished at what I accomplished.  I remember one of my goals was to "Meet my future wife."  As it turns out, I'm sitting here typing this and she's in the kitchen baking a cake for a get together tonight with her family. This year I'm going to do the same, but with one catch, I'm letting complete strangers observe my goals and my progress. 

Setting goals is beginning with the end in mind as Steven Covey says.  It's a powerful tool and one that I have come to respect and enjoy.  As I mentioned, in the past I set goals every year.  I started doing this because a previous supervisor "recommend" it.  It is often said that "He who aims at nothing will hit it every time."  I don't want that to be me.  I want to accomplish things for myself, my family, and my neighbor.  Maybe I'm emphasizing my goals this year because I'm at the beginning of a mid life crisis.  Maybe it's because I don't want to wander without purpose.  It really doesn't matter what the reason.  There is work to be done and it must be organized. 

I came up with this idea after reading an article on Yahoo Finance about making extra money.- http://finance.yahoo.com/career-work/article/111747/ways-to-make-extra-money-in-2011?mod=oneclick . Now, I'm always curious about making extra money, but I've never taken the initiative to try it.  What sparked my attention in this article was the suggestion to start a blog. I thought to myself, "Yea, right! I can't write!"  However, I also thought about what to write about if I decided to did it.  After about a minute of thinking and just having listened to a segment about goal setting on the Dave Ramsey Show, I decided to give it try.  http://www.daveramsey.com/article/setting-goals-that-work/lifeandmoney_goalsetting/ .


I'm not doing this to make extra money, as I really doubt if I make any.  Also, I have to admit, I was about to change my mind when I started this.  I said to myself, "Who cares what I have to say" and "This is starting to  feel slightly narcissistic."  However, as I prepared for this I started to see this as a way to help me strive to reach my goals.  Who knows, maybe there's someone out there that will be helped along the way. 

Here's how it will work.  As I post new blogs each entry will refer to one of the following six goals categories; please refer my pages that will explain my goals for each category.  Some of my entries will address an element of achieving a particular goal and sometimes it might just be a thought.  With that said, here are the six areas where I have established goals:

Family/Spouse        
Spiritual/The Faith     
Financial             
Career             
Health
Intellectual / Self Improvement
Long Term Goals              

Well, here I am at the beginning of the journey. I have a feeling that this exercise will be about just that; the journey.  Let's see what happens.