Flo's Creations

Thursday, March 26, 2009

Sometimes other people put into words things we think of, but just haven't penned. Here is a case in point from Ken Sande. His writing is always profound.

"God may not tell us everything we want to know about the painful events of life, but he has already told us all we need to know. Therefore, instead of wasting time and energy trying to figure out things that are beyond our comprehension, we need to turn our attention to the promises and instructions that God has revealed to us through Scripture. The Bible tells us that God is both sovereign and good, so we can be sure that whatever he has brought into our lives can be used to glorify him, to benefit others, and to help us to grow."

Taken from The Peacemaker: A Biblical Guide to Resolving Personal Conflict by Ken Sande, Updated Edition (Grand Rapids, Baker Books, 2003) pp. 64-65.

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Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Obama budget could bring $9.3 trillion in deficits
By ANDREW TAYLOR, Associated Press Writer Andrew Taylor, Associated Press Writer
Fri Mar 20, 7:43 pm ET

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama's budget would produce $9.3 trillion in deficits over the next decade, more than four times the deficits of Republican George W. Bush's presidency, congressional auditors said Friday.

The new Congressional Budget Office figures offered a far more dire outlook for Obama's budget than the new administration predicted just last month — a deficit $2.3 trillion worse. It's a prospect even the president's own budget director called unsustainable.

In his White House run, Obama assailed the economic policies of his predecessor, but the eye-popping deficit numbers threaten to swamp his ambitious agenda of overhauling health care, exploring new energy sources and enacting scores of domestic programs.

The dismal deficit figures, if they prove to be accurate, inevitably raise the prospect that Obama and his Democratic allies controlling Congress would have to consider raising taxes after the recession ends or else pare back his agenda.

By CBO's calculation, Obama's budget would generate deficits averaging almost $1 trillion a year of red ink over 2010-2019.

Worst of all, CBO says the deficit under Obama's policies would never go below 4 percent of the size of the economy, figures that economists agree are unsustainable. By the end of the decade, the deficit would exceed 5 percent of gross domestic product, a dangerously high level.

White House budget chief Peter Orszag said that CBO's long-range economic projections are more pessimistic than those of the White House, private economists and the Federal Reserve and that he remained confident that Obama's budget, if enacted, would produce smaller deficits.


blah, blah, blah...

"This report should serve as the wake-up call this administration needs," said House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio. "We simply cannot continue to mortgage our children and grandchildren's future to pay for bigger and more costly government."

But Obama insisted on Friday that his agenda is still on track.

"What we will not cut are investments that will lead to real growth and prosperity over the long term," Obama said. "That's why our budget makes a historic commitment to comprehensive health care reform. That's why it enhances America's competitiveness by reducing our dependence on foreign oil and building a clean energy economy."

Obama's $3.6 trillion budget for the 2010 fiscal year beginning Oct. 1 contains ambitious programs to overhaul the U.S. health care system and initiate new "cap-and-trade" rules to combat global warming.

Both initiatives involve raising federal revenues sharply higher, but those dollars wouldn't be used to defray the burgeoning deficit and would instead help pay for Obama's health plan and implement Obama's $400 tax credit for most workers and $800 for couples.

Obama's budget promises to cut the deficit to $533 billion in five years. The CBO says the red ink for that year will total $672 billion.

Most disturbing to Obama allies like Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad, D-N.D., are the longer term projections, which climb above $1 trillion again by the end of the next decade and approach 6 percent of GDP by 2019.
blah, blah, blah...

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On the Net:

Congressional Budget Office: http://www.cbo.gov/

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Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Those who truly love God and want to possess godly virtues can accomplish this only one way, through humility. Andrew Murray, in his book Humility compares what many people consider it to be, the one mustered up within ourselves through pseudo self-abasement, to the characteristic exemplified by our Savior in his “unceasing, absolute…dependence on the Father."

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Sunday, March 08, 2009




Sometimes this tree represents how my life appears. On the surface it might look dead and colorless, but the inside has a lot going on. New life is surging with sap with nourishment traveling from root to the tip of branches. Someone might insert a spigot and fill a bucket with delicious, sweet syrup to be boiled down to its essence then poured on hot, golden brown pancakes or waffles. (Are you getting hungry? I am.)

But then, not far from this tree is a conservatory kept at a perfect temperature and moisture level to nurture another miracle of nature. A blossom with blood-red center represents the passions of my heart--thriving, blooming, fading, but always coming back to give pleasure to those in my life. At least, this is what I hope.

It was worth a trip to Longwood Gardens in March to be reminded of the wonder and beauty of God's creation in nature and in my humanity.

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Friday, March 06, 2009

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March 6, 2009 - Excerpt from Joel Rosenberg’s “FlashTraffic”

"Last weekend, I met with some evangelical Christian business leaders in Naples, Florida. They asked me what I thought the future held. I did not offer advice on how to win on Wall Street.

'More tough times may be ahead. If some of you have lost 30% to 50% of your assets, what are your plans going forward? What if another 30% to 50% of your wealth vanishes, or is confiscated in a massive new tax increase? Would it not be better to invest some or all of that wealth in the kingdom of God now, where it is safe and secure, while you still have it?'

The Lord is shaking our country and purifying His Church. He is requiring all of us to reconsider what we value, where our treasure is, where our hearts are. He is preparing us to see Him face to face. And when we see Him, there will be a day of accounting. He will ask us what we did with the resources He entrusted to us. What, then, shall we say?"

[To read the entire article or subscribe to the FlashTraffic, Google him.]

To some, investing in the Kingdom would seem crazy, but the Lord has told us to test Him in the area of our finances. Faith in God makes more sense than Wall Street or the Stimulus Package.

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