Morning & Evening for November 30th - Charles Haddon Spurgeon
Morning, November 30
And Amaziah said to the man of God, But what shall we do for the hundred talents which I have given to the army of Israel?
And the man of God answered, The Lord is able to give thee much more than this.
2 Chronicles 25:9
A very important question this seemed to be to the king of Judah, and possibly it is of even more weight with the tried and tempted O Christian. To lose money is at no times pleasant, and when principle involves it, the flesh is not always ready to make the sacrifice. Why lose that which may be so usefully employed? May not the truth itself be bought too dear? What shall we do without it? Remember the children, and our small income! All these things and a thousand more would tempt the Christian to put forth his hand to unrighteous gain, or stay himself from carrying out his conscientious convictions, when they involve serious loss. All men cannot view these matters in the light of faith; and even with the followers of Jesus, the doctrine of we must live has quite sufficient weight.
The Lord is able to give thee much more than this is a very satisfactory answer to the anxious question. Our Father holds the purse-strings, and what we lose for his sake he can repay a thousand-fold. It is ours to obey his will, and we may rest assured that he will provide for us. The Lord will be no mans debtor at the last. Saints know that a grain of heart’s-ease is of more value than a ton of gold. He who wraps a threadbare coat about a good conscience has gained a spiritual wealth far more desirable than any he has lost. Gods smile and a dungeon are enough for a true heart; his frown and a palace would be hell to a gracious spirit. Let the worst come to the worst, let all the talents go, we have not lost our treasure, for that is above, where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God. Meanwhile, even now, the Lord maketh the meek to inherit the earth, and no good thing doth he withhold from them that walk uprightly.
Evening, November 30
Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels.
Revelation 12:7
War always will rage between the two great sovereignties until one or other be crushed. Peace between good and evil is an impossibility; the very pretence of it would, in fact, be the triumph of the powers of darkness. /Michael will always/ /fight/; his holy soul is vexed with sin, and will not endure it. Jesus will always be the dragons foe, and that not in a quiet sense, but actively, vigorously, with full determination to exterminate evil. All his servants, whether angels in heaven or messengers on earth, will and must fight; they are born to be warriors at the cross they enter into covenant never to make truce with evil; they are a warlike company, firm in defense and fierce in attack. The duty of every soldier in the army of the Lord is daily, with all his heart, and soul, and strength, to fight against the dragon.
The dragon and his angels will not decline the affray; they are incessant in their onslaughts, sparing no weapon, fair or foul. We are foolish to expect to serve God without opposition: the more zealous we are, the more sure are we to be assailed by the myrmidons of hell. The church may become slothful, but not so her great antagonist; his restless spirit never suffers the war to pause; he hates the womans seed, and would fain devour the church if he could. The servants of Satan partake much of the old dragons energy, and are usually an active race. War rages all around, and to dream of peace is dangerous and futile.
Glory be to God, we know the end of the war. The great dragon shall be cast out and for ever destroyed, while Jesus and they who are with him shall receive the crown. Let us sharpen our swords to-night, and pray the Holy Spirit to nerve our arms for the conflict. Never battle so important, never crown so glorious. Every man to his post, ye warriors of the cross, and may the Lord tread Satan under your feet shortly!
Gracefully empowered thankfulness
A lot has changed in those half millennia for sure. The Pilgrims basically came to these shores to flee established religious persecution in Europe and to build a new life for their families. To face the unknowns of sea and the new lands across the Atlantic required deep faith, which is generally absent in America and the rest of the world today.
We want it easy, with immediate gratification, or we find other things to do with our time, like nothing of much importance, even temporally. Things of eternal significance are pretty much undefined for the mass of people. However people are still changed by faith, sometimes their own, but many times there are other people which we do not at this time know personally, that are truly responsible for our life changing pilgrimage.
Early last Sunday morning I had a dream in which family members, some alive, some passed, were having a reunion of sorts. I was sitting on the front porch talking to someone about something, when a person who has had a very dramatic effect upon my life came out the door behind me and sat on the grass and asked, “What am I doing here?”
My immediate response was something really not at all profound, which was answered in another brief, but equally pedantic statement from the person now relaxed and feeling at home on the lawn. Then I woke up, with the thought, where does this conversation go from here?
“Well you are an inspiration of my life, whether you know it or not. In fact, when things get really tough and I wonder why I can do this work at all, eventually you come to mind.”
A pretty heavy thought to lay upon someone with whom you have never spoken with personally before. To which the proper and I believe most common response would be, “When and how did I do that for you?”
“Of course, if the truth is laid out, it probably occurred too many times to count, in situations really too complex perhaps for you to bear, but you were there along side in the hard times, and it really cost you nothing towards me. At the same time you probably deserve a substantial part of any reward. All you did, was be you, and that was more than enough.”
Perhaps the best and Biblical response comes from Matthew 25:33-40 in the sheep and the goats parable:
And He will set the sheep on His right hand, but the goats on the left. Then the King will say to those on His right hand, “Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: for I was hungry and you gave Me food; I was thirsty and you gave Me drink; I was a stranger and you took Me in; I was naked and you clothed Me; I was sick and you visited Me; I was in prison and you came to Me.’
“Then the righteous will answer Him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry and feed You, or thirsty and give You drink? When did we see You a stranger and take You in, or naked and clothe You? Or when did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?’ And the King will answer and say to them, “Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.’
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Morning & Evening for November 23th - Charles Haddon Spurgeon
Morning, November 23
Fellowship with him.
1 John 1:6
When we were united by faith to Christ, we were brought into such complete fellowship with him, that we were made one with him, and his interests and ours became mutual and identical. We have fellowship with Christ in his love. What he loves we love. He loves the saints so do we. He loves sinners so do we. He loves the poor perishing race of man, and pants to see earths deserts transformed into the garden of the Lord so do we. We have fellowship with him in his desires. He desires the glory of God we also labour for the same. He desires that the saints may be with him where he is we desire to be with him there too. He desires to drive out sin behold we fight under his banner. He desires that his Fathers name may be loved and adored by all his creatures we pray daily, Let thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth, even as it is in heaven. We have fellowship with Christ in his sufferings. We are not nailed to the cross, nor do we die a cruel death, but when he is reproached, we are reproached; and a very sweet thing it is to be blamed for his sake, to be despised for following the Master, to have the world against us. The disciple should not be above his Lord. In our measure we commune with him in his /labours/, ministering to men by the word of truth and by deeds of love. Our meat and our drink, like his, is to do the will of him who hath sent us and to finish his work. We have also fellowship with Christ in his joys. We are happy in his happiness, we rejoice in his exaltation. Have you ever tasted that joy, believer? There is no purer or more thrilling delight to be known this side heaven than that of having Christs joy fulfilled in us, that our joy may be full. His glory awaits us to complete our fellowship, for his Church shall sit with him upon his throne, as his well-beloved bride and queen.
Evening, November 23
Get thee up into the high mountain.
Isaiah 40:9
Each believer should be thirsting for God, for the living God, and longing to climb the hill of the Lord, and see him face to face. We ought not to rest content in the mists of the valley when the summit of Tabor awaits us. My soul thirsteth to drink deep of the cup which is reserved for those who reach the mountains brow, and bathe their brows in heaven. How pure are the dews of the hills, how fresh is the mountain air, how rich the fare of the dwellers aloft, whose windows look into the New Jerusalem! Many saints are content to live like men in coal mines, who see not the sun; they eat dust like the serpent when they might taste the ambrosial meat of angels; they are content to wear the miners garb when they might put on kings robes; tears mar their faces when they might anoint them with celestial oil. Satisfied I am that many a believer pines in a dungeon when he might walk on the palace roof, and view the goodly land and Lebanon. Rouse thee, O believer, from thy low condition! Cast away thy sloth, thy lethargy, thy coldness, or whatever interferes with thy chaste and pure love to Christ, thy souls Husband. Make him the source, the centre, and the circumference of all thy souls range of delight. What enchants thee into such folly as to remain in a pit when thou mayst sit on a throne? Live not in the lowlands of bondage now that mountain liberty is conferred upon thee. Rest no longer satisfied with thy dwarfish attainments, but press forward to things more sublime and heavenly. Aspire to a higher, a nobler, a fuller life. Upward to heaven! Nearer to God!
When wilt thou come unto me, Lord?
Oh come, my Lord most dear
Come near, come nearer, nearer still,
I’m blest when thou art near.
Grace in Winter
Finished? Now do the same for summer. OK!
If you are a somewhat normal human being, your winter thoughts included, cold, dark, miserable, wet, snow, and so forth.
For summer your concepts were probably, warm, sunny, colorful, flowers, birds, and eventually you got around to too hot.
What you have just accomplished is a very real application of the absolutes of natural law and common grace, in which winter was law and summer was grace, at least until you got to those unbearably hot days when you sought out air conditioning where ever it may be.
Now let us say, when the alarm clock went off this morning you got up and looked out the window and there was six inches of new fresh snow on the ground and it was snowing heavily. Your first thoughts were, “Oh, God how am I going to get to work?” As you stood there gazing at the increasing snow, you apprehended the reality that you can’t get to work, at least not on time, and no one is really going to know when that time really is, because your boss lives on the other side of town and the weather is always worse in that more ritzy suburb.
So you go into the kitchen and the coffee is warm and fresh, you look for the morning paper, and it has yet to arrive, so you turn on the TV and get the news. The news is that this sudden storm is expected to add another six to eight inches before it quits later this morning. With all that snow you are snowbound at least for the day. “Praise the Lord!” You have a day when the cares of the world and work are only what you decide to make them.
What you are experiencing is the title of this week’s article, “Grace in Winter.”
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G20 Summit: Drifting snow; Forecast: A long cold economic winter
It seems from our less than optimistic spin on the proceedings with our Saturday post, well that spin was way too hopeful. Probably the most interesting web conversation from the Summit seemed to be comments on the $500 per bottle wine served for the Friday evening dinner. That wine was, Shafer Cabernet “Hillside Select” 2003, direct from the Napa Valley of California.
My only experience with White House wine, was a 1973 Cabernet from Chateau Ste. Michelle, from the great State of Washington. That wine was served to the visiting French President sometime during the administration of President Carter. I bought a few bottles while on a winery tour shortly after the event. The wine really wasn’t drinkable at that time, and yet it was served to a French President, which was quite amusing from Washington State. How it went down in the other Washington, I shall never know. Simply put the wine needed to be laid down and aged for another ten years or so, but my remaining two bottles was wonderful for a Christmas dinner sometime in the mid 1980s. I bring this up only to point out, that the Summit may have been the start of something grand, but at the present time the whole proceedings were pretty hard to swallow.
As I was working on our version of the potential communique, I kept coming back reviewing and editing the statement on free trade and global markets. The version that was finally used was “freely-manipulated global markets.” What that is supposed to mean is that we now live in a world of global markets, for goods, services, and commodities, but while we are told that the markets are free, meaning that they respond to global demands, in actuality they are free markets only in perception, True market prices are determined by computer controlled manipulations through derivatives, hedge funds, and similar complex financial instruments.
Reports issued from the Summit stated that these instruments will be considered at some future meeting, like maybe in the spring. In our Saturday post we pointed out that the Wall Street Journal column by Judy Shelton, stated that the current capitalization of derivatives is 12 times, the nominal gross domestic product of the world. That really means to make really big money in the 21st century, you have to have access to huge amounts of leveraged capital, and you have to continually move it around. This must be done against a backdrop of truly amazing, diverse, high quality, material goods to keep the game running smoothly and a strident demand by real people to sacrifice to obtain these goods.
The point is that this economic winter may become a real ice age, or in the context of C. S. Lewis’, “The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe” a world in which it is always winter and never Christmas. You can’t run the modern materialistic world, without Christmas, no matter what the secular progressives in the United States try to call it. Of course this is a metaphor of the allegory, but from the manufacturing and retail sectors, they can only hope that Christmas comes every day.
In order for the winter to cease, derivatives, and other similar financial manipulative instruments need to be strictly controlled, That will happen when all animals fly and wear lipstick, because essentially making money the old fashioned way, by earning it, doesn’t make enough money to make the manipulators rich and this is really easy money. The only human factor or intelligence required is some capacity to choose where to move next. However, because the ocean of non-energetic debt money is so huge, randomness can have almost the same “positive” result.
As we move forward in the current economic universe, it is a commonly acknowledged truth that European style socialism isn’t working economically the way people hoped, whether that be in Europe or a slightly more virulent form in Canada. Now we are finding out that freely-manipulated global markets don’t work either, because they really are not free markets in the capitalistic sense.
What is missing from all of this is an “absolute” philosophical underpinning other than relativism. Relativism will not work to run a complex world economy, especially with the current emphasis on the laissez faire. In that world only the manipulators win the short game, but we all lose everything when it all falls apart. That will make the Great Depression of 70 years ago look like only tough times for most people, and that is no drifting snow.
For those interested in actually reading the communique from the G-20 Summit you can find it here. A PDF is also found under our Resource Tab.
Morning & Evening for November 16th - Charles Haddon Spurgeon
Morning, November 16
The Lord is my portion, saith my soul.
Lamentations 3:24
It is not The Lord is partly my portion, nor The Lord is in my portion; but he himself makes up the sum total of my souls inheritance. Within the circumference of that circle lies all that we possess or desire. The Lord is my portion. Not his grace merely, nor his love, nor his covenant, but Jehovah himself. He has chosen us for his portion, and we have chosen him for ours. It is true that the Lord must first choose our inheritance for us, or else we shall never choose it for ourselves; but if we are really called according to the purpose of electing love, we can sing
With love intense I burn
Chosen of him ere time began
I choose him in return
The Lord is our all-sufficient portion. God fills himself; and if God is all-sufficient in himself, he must be all-sufficient for us. It is not easy to satisfy mans desires. When he dreams that he is satisfied, anon he wakes to the perception that there is somewhat yet beyond, and straightway the horse-leech in his heart cries, Give, give. But all that we can wish for is to be found in our divine portion, so that we ask, Whom have I in heaven but thee? and there is none upon earth that I desire beside thee. Well may we delight ourselves in the Lord who makes us to drink of the river of his pleasures. Our faith stretches her wings and mounts like an eagle into the heaven of divine love as to her proper dwelling-place. The lines have fallen to us in pleasant places; yea, we have a goodly heritage. Let us rejoice in the Lord always; let us show to the world that we are a happy and a blessed people, and thus induce them to exclaim, We will go with you, for we have heard that God is with you.
Evening, November 16
Thine eyes shall see the King in his beauty.
Isaiah 33:17
The more you know about Christ the less will you be satisfied with superficial views of him; and the more deeply you study his transactions in the eternal covenant, his engagements on your behalf as the eternal Surety, and the fulness of his grace which shines in all his offices, the more truly will you see the King in his beauty. Be much in such outlooks. Long more and more to see Jesus. Meditation and contemplation are often like windows of agate, and gates of carbuncle, through which we behold the Redeemer. Meditation puts the telescope to the eye, and enables us to see Jesus after a better sort than we could have seen him if we had lived in the days of his flesh. Would that our conversation were more in heaven, and that we were more taken up with the person, the work, the beauty of our incarnate Lord. More meditation, and the beauty of the King would flash upon us with more resplendence. Beloved, it is very probable that we shall have such a sight of our glorious King as we never had before, when we come to die. Many saints in dying have looked up from amidst the stormy waters, and have seen Jesus walking on the waves of the sea, and heard him say, It is I, be not afraid. Ah, yes! when the tenement begins to shake, and the clay falls away, we see Christ through the rifts, and between the rafters the sunlight of heaven comes streaming in. But if we want to see face to face the King in his beauty we must go to heaven for the sight, or the King must come here in person. O that he would come on the wings of the wind! He is our Husband, and we are widowed by his absence; he is our Brother dear and fair, and we are lonely without him. Thick veils and clouds hang between our souls and their true life: when shall the day break and the shadows flee away? Oh, long-expected day, begin!
Can we have some real money, pretty please?
So today the world leaders from the G20, the world’s 20 largest economies are meeting in Washington DC for the “Summit on Financial Markets and the World Economy.” In due course this afternoon they will be issuing a communique, describing the results of that meeting. Anonymous sources say that announcement is in the form of a kerfuffle of America’s President-Elect Barack Obama. The leaked text of that soon to be delivered statement follows:
“We the leaders of the world’s 20 largest industrial and emerging economies have met to discuss the serious economic problems facing our countries and the rest of the world. Our debate has been open and forthright, but we have achieved agreement on substantial reforms to end this financial crisis. We have unanimously decided to teach pigs how to fly, and once we have that well in hand, we will catch the buggers and we will put lipstick on them. In Israel and the Islamic world we have decided to utilize goats, sheep, or poultry instead. After all, we truly want to develop diversified and freely-manipulated global markets for all commodities. Our soon to be rapidly growing global economy demands nothing less. We know that will be difficult, but that is why our people elected us to be their leaders. In times like these, we all come together to pontificate and bloviate while you all see your life’s savings destroyed. Thank you, citizens of the world for your support in these trying times.”
Seriously, and now that we have that out of the way, you don’t have to search too far in any of the Wonder Springs economic articles to read something to the effect that, “The world economies are awash in and ocean of non-energetic debt capital.”
Yesterday in an Opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal, Judy Shelton had an article entitled “Stable Money Is the Key to Recovery.” There you will read, “Today, a soupy mix of currencies sloshes investment capital around the world, channeling it into stagnant pools while productive endeavor is left high and dry.” That is much more descriptive prose than ours, but the essence is the same.
Furthermore, she backs up her statements with some facts that our research staff of one virtual reality Grizzly Bear just can’t pull off, especially since we dwell in Nowhere and it’s suburbs. The most interesting is that the massive derivatives market capital is 12 times, (twelve times) the world’s nominal gross domestic product. That is $684 trillion of an ocean of non-energetic debt and surely puts the fallout from the $700 billion bailout in a fresh perspective.
I’m now old enough to remember the good old days and in this case they really were the good old days. I was in the Army stationed in Germany when President Nixon abandoned the Bretton Woods system of gold exchange. For most of my tour in Bavaria, the German Mark traded at four to the dollar. When my tour was over a less than six months later, it was down to 3.23, if I remember correctly.
In that time the value of gold soared from $32 per ounce, to $80, and it has been onward and upward since that time. Throughout human history, gold has been the source of maintaining wealth in turbulent times. These are turbulent times and while Ms. Shelton suggests that possibility, there are other measures that can accomplish the same goal. Doing nothing but talk, without real change, not spare change, will accomplish nothing but increase greenhouse gases.
Thus began the world’s financial slide first with Jimmy Carter up through George W. Bush. Too much money chasing to little wealth is another term you will find frequently here at Wonder Springs. Now I suppose some of that was caused by the Viet Nam War. As one of my Group Commanding Officers used to say, “It’s a - - - - - (expletive deleted ) little war, but it is the only one we have.” I suppose the same could be said of the multi front “War on Terror.” Just like then we lost, especially financially, big time.
I doubt that today’s summit will have much effect on the present economic crisis, other than some paraphrase of our anonymously leaked communique. There will be all sorts of spin coming out of the meeting, and it will spin around and around the words, fiscal responsibility, but those specific actions relating to those two words will not be present in any substantial form. World leaders still don’t understand that the problem is essentially too much funny money chasing too little wealth. Wealth means real enterprises and people contributing to real goods and services for the betterment of all human civil society. Derivatives, hedge funds, commodity speculations, and making securities out of bad mortgage loans, do none of the above.
According to Ms. Shelton, Paul Volcker, former Fed Chairman, and then Treasury undersecretary for monetary affairs, was not happy with Nixon’s decision at the time. Perhaps as an economic advisor to the President-Elect, Mr. Volcker may be able to influence the course of America’s and the world’s monetary policy. That would be are real lasting application of the Audacity of Hope.
All the normal folks in the world are asking is, “Can we have some real money for a change, not just your spare change, pretty please?”
Common Graciousness
Of course one of the options is stated in the question’s preface, they could move down on the farm, but that assumes that rural housing values are commensurately less expensive than their urban and suburban alternatives. When you consider job and income disparities between the two locales. Common sense dictates that cheaper home values reflect lower economic realities, at least if real estate is a market driven enterprise, with or without government incentives.
However, I have noticed recently that in the excessive drive to own you own piece of the American Dream in real property, something much more important may have been scuttled in this attempt for continual wealth appreciation. That factor, for lack of a better word, is the loss of America’s common graciousness.
I write extensively here at Wonder Springs about the reality of natural law and common grace. What I have failed to realize is that when you take common grace and humanize it, what flows out is common graciousness. Common graciousness is beautiful, pretty much beyond description.
In contrast, getting mine at the expense of others is just ugly. Getting mine by empowering others is a start, but true common graciousness means my reward comes from you realizing that there is more to your life than just material possessions, stuff, and junk. True wealth begins when you believe more in others than they can presently realize.
America, last week elected a black President, a true Afro-American. Conservative pundits and news commentators are still trying to figure out how John McCain was able to lose by six percentage points. The underlying reality is that the Obama campaign was about six percentage points more commonly gracious than the McCain candidacy.
What you basically saw from McCain was a grumpy old man, telling you like it is, and how he could help you maintain that status quo. Following the election, anonymous McCain sources began smearing the Republican Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin, as dumb and stupid. This only verifies the Obama gracious margin of victory. The fact that McCain has seemly done nothing about these leaks, seems to attest that he lost for more than a few good reasons.
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Morning & Evening for November 9th - Charles Haddon Spurgeon
Morning, November 9
So walk ye in him.
Colossians 2:6
If we have received Christ himself in our inmost hearts, our new life will manifest its intimate acquaintance with him by a walk of faith in him. Walking implies action. Our religion is not to be confined to our closet; we must carry out into practical effect that which we believe. If a man walks in Christ, then he so acts as Christ would act; for Christ being in him, his hope, his love, his joy, his life, he is the reflex of the image of Jesus; and men say of that man, He is like his Master; he lives like Jesus Christ. Walking signifies progress. So walk ye in him; proceed from grace to grace, run forward until you reach the uttermost degree of knowledge that a man can attain concerning our Beloved. Walking implies continuance. There must be a perpetual abiding in Christ. How many Christians think that in the morning and evening they ought to come into the company of Jesus, and may then give their hearts to the world all the day: but this is poor living; we should always be with him, treading in his steps and doing his will. Walking also implies habit. When we speak of a mans walk and conversation, we mean his habits, the constant tenor of his life. Now, if we sometimes enjoy Christ, and then forget him; sometimes call him ours, and anon lose our hold, that is not a habit; we do not walk in him. We must keep to him, cling to him, never let him go, but live and have our being in him. As ye have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him; persevere in the same way in which ye have begun, and, as at the first Christ Jesus was the trust of your faith, the source of your life, the principle of your action, and the joy of your spirit, so let him be the same till lifes end; the same when you walk through the valley of the shadow of death, and enter into the joy and the rest which remain for the people of God. O Holy Spirit, enable us to obey this heavenly precept.
Evening, November 9
His place of defense shall be the munitions of rocks: bread shall be given him; his waters shall be sure.
Isaiah 33:16
Do you doubt, O Christian, do you doubt as to whether God will fulfil his promise? Shall the munitions of rock be carried by storm? Shall the storehouses of heaven fail? Do you think that your heavenly Father, though he knoweth that you have need of food and raiment, will yet forget you? When not a sparrow falls to the ground without your Father, and the very hairs of your head are all numbered, will you mistrust and doubt him? Perhaps your affliction will continue upon you till you dare to trust your God, and then it shall end. Full many there be who have been tried and sore vexed till at last they have been driven in sheer desperation to exercise faith in God, and the moment of their faith has been the instant of their deliverance; they have seen whether God would keep his promise or not. Oh, I pray you, doubt him no longer! Please not Satan, and vex not yourself by indulging any more those hard thoughts of God. Think it not a light matter to doubt Jehovah. Remember, it is a sin; and not a little sin either, but in the highest degree criminal. The angels never doubted him, nor the devils either: we alone, out of all the beings that God has fashioned, dishonour him by unbelief, and tarnish his honour by mistrust. Shame upon us for this! Our God does not deserve to be so basely suspected; in our past life we have proved him to be true and faithful to his word, and with so many instances of his love and of his kindness as we have received, and are daily receiving, at his hands, it is base and inexcusable that we suffer a doubt to sojourn within our heart. May we henceforth wage constant war against doubts of our God enemies to our peace and to his honour; and with an unstaggering faith believe that what he has promised he will also perform. Lord, I believe, help thou mine unbelief.
Redefining the American Dream
But the real substance facing President-elect Obama is trying to restore or redefine the American Dream. Since very liberal tenants have little history in the United States, especially since the Reagan Revolution in the 1980s, any infrastructure to provide these services must be built from scratch, or rebuilt on old ruins.
That leads to tremendous social opportunity, if that dream can be made into some sort of reality. Historically the ability of government to provide anything positive, other than consistently developing infrastructure, does not have a positive record. It has been a very long time indeed since that coordinated governmental role has been active in the United States. Special interest earmarks, or pork barrel spending, and an increasing invasive and bumbling bureaucracy have pretty much steered the recent course at all levels of government. The exceptions are very rare indeed.
To further complicate the recent economic developments, both energy and housing fiascos have pretty much shattered the American Dream that has been the driving force in the United States since World War II. That dream of course was to have a nice car and own your personal home.
After graduation from high school and before graduation from college, the first goal of most American males was to get a nice car, somewhat to impress the chicks, but more importantly to impress your other male compatriots. Once the wheels novelty began to wear off, the reality of work, and probably family began. The next hurdle was to be able to purchase your own house, and attempt to make that into a home.
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Morning & Evening for November 2nd - Charles Haddon Spurgeon
Morning, November 2
I am the Lord, I change not.
Malachi 3:6
It is well for us that, amidst all the variableness of life, there is One whom change cannot affect; One whose heart can never alter, and on whose brow mutability can make no furrows. All things else have changed all things are changing. The sun itself grows dim with age; the world is waxing old; the folding up of the worn-out vesture has commenced; the heavens and earth must soon pass away; they shall perish, they shall wax old as doth a garment; but there is One who only hath immortality, of whose years there is no end, and in whose person there is no change. The delight which the mariner feels, when, after having been tossed about for many a day, he steps again upon the solid shore, is the satisfaction of a Christian when, amidst all the changes of this troublous life, he rests the foot of his faith upon this truth I am the Lord, I change not.
The stability which the anchor gives the ship when it has at last obtained a hold-fast, is like that which the Christians hope affords him when it fixes itself upon this glorious truth. With God is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. Whatever his attributes were of old, they are now; his power, his wisdom, his justice, his truth, are alike unchanged. He has ever been the refuge of his people, their stronghold in the day of trouble, and he is their sure Helper still. He is unchanged in his love. He has loved his people with an everlasting love; he loves them now as much as ever he did, and when all earthly things shall have melted in the last conflagration, his love will still wear the dew of its youth. Precious is the assurance that he changes not! The wheel of providence revolves, but its axle is eternal love.
Evening, November 2
Horror hath taken hold upon me because of the wicked that forsake thy law.
Psalm 119:53
Prayer is the never-failing resort of the Christian in any case, in every plight. When you cannot use your sword you may take to the weapon of all-prayer. Your powder may be damp, your bow-string may be relaxed, but the weapon of all-prayer need never be out of order. Leviathan laughs at the javelin, but he trembles at prayer. Sword and spear need furbishing, but prayer never rusts, and when we think it most blunt it cuts the best. Prayer is an open door which none can shut. Devils may surround you on all sides, but the way upward is always open, and as long as that road is unobstructed, you will not fall into the enemys hand. We can never be taken by blockade, escalade, mine, or storm, so long as heavenly succours can come down to us by Jacobs ladder to relieve us in the time of our necessities. Prayer is never out of season: in summer and in winter its merchandise is precious. Prayer gains audience with heaven in the dead of night, in the midst of business, in the heat of noonday, in the shades of evening. In every condition, whether of poverty, or sickness, or obscurity, or slander, or doubt, your covenant God will welcome your prayer and answer it from his holy place. Nor is prayer ever /futile/. True prayer is evermore true power. You may not always get what you ask, but you shall always have your real wants supplied. When God does not answer his children according to the letter, he does so according to the spirit. If thou askest for coarse meal, wilt thou be angered because he gives thee the finest flour? If thou seekest bodily health, shouldst thou complain if instead thereof he makes thy sickness turn to the healing of spiritual maladies? Is it not better to have the cross sanctified than removed? This evening, my soul, forget not to offer thy petition and request, for the Lord is ready to grant thee thy desires.