Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Being very broken, humbled, for our nation.

This morning on my drive time and during some down time at work I listened to Kevin Swanson’s election day sermon that he had mentioned on his blog. Listening I was convicted about not being very broken, humbled, for our nation. Kevin painted a picture that included Obama, current events that tied in things that have happened to our nation for the last hundred years. As a nation we are a mess. Its about an hour long. And is a great book end to his two 25 min radio shows on this topic. Those I have linked to from my blog posting on bearded women. I also link to the fascinating book about election day sermons from our nations history that were mentioned on the show.

It was timely as tonight I was reading more of our John Knox book “For Kirk and Covenant” to the family after dinner as we prepare for Legacy’s Reformation party Friday night. While reading what Wilson wrote in the chapter called “ rarely in one man” both Beth and I felt it was very apropos for where we are with the current election cycle.

…It can be easy to think nothing can be done against the forces of unbelieving modernity that we confront day after day. We need someone like Knox, we think, and waiting for that, is like waiting for lighting to strike…

We need him desperately, we think. But apparently not-if we needed him to accomplish Gods purposes here and now, we would have him. The lesson to draw from the life of Knox is not that every generation needs men just like him, and that in spite of this need, God, for reasons known only to himself, persists on giving such men infrequently. Rather the genuine lesson is that God does what he pleases for his greatest glory…

But still we complain- what is God doing now?...

I have picked out a few parts from the book to read at the party.

Where did the money go? 2.8 trillion have been lost since the baal out.

This is concise and clearly illustrates how prices get determined in the stock market or commodities market. It is also the basis for prices in general. Gary North always says that it is not production costs that determine price, but the buyers. I will be using articles like this rather than a textbook to teach my daughters and son economic principles. Textbooks are made for the big purchaser, which is the govt in some form, and they never are critical of the one who gives them the money. They are not stupid. They give the buyer what he wants! This is from Lew Rockwell


Where Did the Wealth Go?
by Michael S. Rozeff

….Crude oil, which was $140 a barrel in July, is $63 in October. Silver, which was $20 an ounce in March, is now $9. A recent inquiry read "Why have crude oil prices...dropped so drastically in such a short and seemingly random period of time?"

What was once wealth is no longer wealth. Where did the wealth go? Why does it disappear so quickly? Why does it disappear when it disappears?....
The general answer to these questions is "supply and demand." This is not very illuminating. For stocks, the supplies are fixed. IBM has virtually the same number of shares outstanding in October, 2008 as it did two months earlier, which is 1.35 billion, but the price no longer is $130 a share. It is $82. A drop of $48 a share on 1.35 billion shares is a tidy sum: $64.8 billion, to be exact.

What became of the wealth? For every share sold, one was bought. But they were bought and sold at declining prices. The house that was bought at $350,000 that cannot now be sold at $275,000 is still there. It is just that the price has fallen.

Stock market wealth has fallen because stock prices have fallen. Why have stock prices fallen? They have not fallen because there has been a shift in supply. There are still the same number of shares of IBM as there were before. There are the same number of houses. The houses do not even have to change hands for their prices to fall.

The fact is that sellers could not find anyone willing to buy IBM shares at $130. The sellers could have refused to sell at any price less than $130, but they did not. Their urgency to sell exceeded the urgency of buyers to buy, so that the sellers gave in and sold at a lower price. And this happened all the way down.

Why? Why have buyers only been willing to take stocks at lower prices and why have sellers been more willing to sell them at lower prices? It is this process that is recording or reflecting the wealth losses. And it is these transactions "at the margin" that determine total market values and wealth. Those who are not trading could have traded, but they did not. Their inaction ratifies the transaction prices of those that do choose to trade…..

Monday, October 27, 2008

Let's go ahead and take Romans 13 as the standard by which the state's justice is measured

God gave a very limited role to the state. As a believer you will only see this as a fact if you approach life believing that Gods word really is the standard. That Jesus really is Lord of more than our hearts. I don't think we go around and deny what Gods word says. With our history stolen from us we just think that its normal for modern governments to do whatever they want. Most of our arguing is our disgust at over the evil , that governments try and promote. One of our modern errors is that we ,who are called believers, think that if someone doesn't claim Jesus as Lord then they are free to just color willy nilly outside the lines.

We are conditioned that when we see injustices, that something should be done to rectify them. Who should that be? Well of course, the government should. In believers being swept along with mans attempt to create utopia, in spite of God never even giving us a hint that this is something we should pursue. (Gods Law makes it clear that God reserves administering perfect justice for himself.) By this method we Christian's have give more and more freedom for the governments to limit our freedoms. All in the name of fairness and justice.

Must We Obey Interior Design Regulations?
Daily Article by

...I recently read Francis Schaeffer's compelling A Christian Manifesto, and it argues that there are situations in which we have not just the right but the moral duty to disobey the state....

Let's go ahead and take Romans 13 as the standard by which the state's justice is measured, and assume for the sake of argument that states and state-like organizations are restricted to punishing evil and rewarding good....

Do regulations on interior design punish evil and reward good? Certainly not. One justification for these regulations is that they prevent unscrupulous unlicensed designers from committing crimes against their unwitting customers — say, by recommending venetian blinds that don't match the curtains —......

So what is rewarded and punished in a regime where interior design is regulated? It's actually the perverse opposite of what the state is enjoined to do in the Bible. The state punishes those who do good (those who provide services that customers are willing to pay for at a price they are willing to pay) and rewards those who do evil (those who use the coercive power of the state to prevent people from entering the marketplace and earning a living)....

Sunday, October 26, 2008

Disciple your family

Thinking a lot lately on how we should be orienting our families, what we should be doing etc. With the church in the house book it was striking that his foundational principles for families are where many of us have come back too

Tues night we watched the first DVD from the vision forum 200 year conference. It was the opening talk, laying out broad principles with some finer strokes, for example on what the Phillips family prays for, over their kids. Great stuff.

Having now watched the second one from the series I am drooling to get to the rest. This is just an awesome encouragement. When Phillips shows how large our progeny can expand when a vision is passed on and God blesses…whooo hooo! I prayed for Rebecca to be a mother of millions at her graduation. Thankfully none of her extended family fell over right there. Watching this talk, maybe I was holding back to much in my prayer?

This conference will lay down next to and be reinforced by “the church in the house” book and with what Rob and Mark recently opined, not to mention Ovid & Bettie Need from Virginia when they were with us at camp.

Mathew Henry 300 yrs ago, us today, Ovid and Bettie ,the Vision Forum family, this is a huge spread of time, age differences and geography but the unity of purpose is striking.

Tonight we watched number 4 on brothers and sisters. They have all been great.

These are all from the how to disciple your family series.

DVD’s or CD’s

The ride didnt look this tall when we got on it

The more I look and read the more it looks like we have only hit the iceberg and our boat is traveling and scraping down the side of the iceberg still. Its the ones who didnt see it coming who are first to say we are close to a bottom. The ones who were warning about this economic mess to come continue to be suprised by additional things that they didnt forsee or were aware of.

The government keeps tring to hold economic forces at by as if they believe that they are in control. They do not for a minute see that it was the Fed reserve policys for decades that now have brought us to where we are.

They think thay are the best and the brightest. But they will not acknowledge God and his Law so they have made their plea and by gods word they have been found wanting. They are fools.

Last year I was selling things on ebay and remember saying that people have more money than they think they do. Because this sure looks like it is going to be unlike anything we have seen in our lifetimes I encourage you to be saving, ask God to show you how to generate a second stream of income and if there are things around your house that you dont really want. This will be a bad time to try and sell them. But I do think it will be even worse next year.

I get less of a sense that people think this will be over quick. I do think that people are starting to wonder, how bad can it really get?

The good news is that nothing is outside of the direction of Gods hand. That doesnt mean it will be fun. But may we all be more in his image through this time.

Gun Control

I recently saw the William Shatner and gun control you tube clip. Very different if you havent seen it yet.
Find it here

Saturday, October 25, 2008

Chalcedon: God's Law as Man's Environment

Rushdoony and Chalcedon, Praise God for them!

"Because the fulness of man's meaning is discernible only in terms of his Creator and the creative purpose, it is impossible, if man is in harmony with God, for liberty and law to be in conflict. Even as a fish needs water to live in, because it is his environment or law-sphere, and 'liberation' into air would kill him, so man finds true liberty in God's law, his environment...." From Chalcedon blog

What the Fed has been doing

Gary North has this posting that is, open to all, on how much the Fed is inflating right now.

It can be seen here

Now Gary has shown other charts where, like before Y2K and after 911, the fed pumped money like crazy, but shortly thereafter they effectively pulled the money back out of the economy which kept inflation for exploding. Gary thinks no way does the Fed keep doing what he is doing now.

The chart is eyebrow raising and when someone is Garys age and who has been a central bank/fed watcher for a long time says..."I have never seen anything like this."

For the past year the Fed/the central Bank has been saying no problem, no problem, and then has engaged in a seemingly endless series of historic never before behaviors and actions you know the game has changed. The Fed and by extension the federal govenment doesnt want the game to change because it has been very lucrative. But you can only engage in bahavior that flys in the face of Gods law so long before you will reap what you are sowing.

From the days when the pulpits were not filled with bearded women

Swanson has done a pair of back to back shows, one promoting McCain (Gary Demar) and one where a Mr Lofton Says no way should a believer vote for McCain.

Both are interesting and a good exercise to try and see what is the foundational principles behind what is being said. What drives the decision?

I think Kevin is correct when he notes that it would appear that we are laying the first layer of bricks of the walls with Nehamiah. We have found the foundation that was lost. We are ceasing the frantic sand castle building.

Mr Lofton mentioned a book of sermons that had been preached in the past called political sermons of the founding era 1730-1805 from the liberty fund. Two volumes in paperback for $22 My wife found me a copy for $7.50 on half.com with $2.50 shipping.

Dont you want to just run down to the christian bookstore and buy it? Yah, I dont think they will have it either. Shoudn't that disturb us? Why wont they have it? We are talking reconstruction from the ground up.

It is a recent discovery that pastors must not mention politicians names. This is a collection of election sermons, pastors guiding their congregation’s on who to vote for!?! the following is a description of the book.

“The early political culture of the American republic was deeply influenced by the religious consciousness of the New England preachers. Indeed, it was often through the political sermon—the "pulpit of the American Revolution"—that the political rhetoric of the period was formed, refined, and transmitted. And yet the centrality of religious concerns in the lives of eighteenth-century Americans is largely neglected. This has created a blind spot regarding the fundamental acts of the American founding.

Political sermons such as the fifty-five collected in this volume are unique to America, both in kind and in significance. This volume thus fills an important need if the American founding period is to be adequately understood.”

Christmas is coming and every pastor should have this set in their library. No I dont think Joel Osteen or Rick Warren have read it yet.

From phoenix, I can here the pigs in Washington squeeling

From my way news...
Companies start competing for bailout money By MARTIN CRUTSINGER

The bailout is now the hottest lobbying game in town.

Insurers, automakers and American subsidiaries of foreign banks all want the Treasury Department to cut them a piece of the largest government rescue in U.S. history.

The betting is that many with their hands out will be successful, especially with financial markets in a stomach-churning dive and predictions the economy is about to tumble into a deep recession.

These groups argue that the credit squeeze is so severe and the risks to the economy so dire that their industries need financial support as well.

The Treasury is considering requests from a variety of industries, but has not decided whether to expand the program, officials said Saturday....

We never get a version 1.2 of Gods Law. II

This is a follow up to my previous post.

Joh 3:12 If I have told you earthly things, and ye believe not, how shall ye believe, if I tell you of heavenly things?

Gods Law. Right up front in his narative of the world to us. His Law is all about earthly things. "If I have told you earthly things, and ye believe not, how shall ye believe, if I tell you of heavenly things?" So if we have not believed or worked with the earthly things, his law, how much is out of place with....other understandings? I have been confessing for a couple of years now about how many pictures I had hanging up, sideways or upside down.

Mathew Henry from his "a church in the house" in chapter 2 pg 34 makes mention as a part of working with your little church in your house to use "due care is taken to put the laws of Christ into practice." pg 36 "To have the great things of God law and gospel written to you, if you count them as a strange things" That one describes so well how Gods law use to seem to me..."as a strange thing"

If you cannot acknowledge that God has authority to give a binding law on us, if you cannot see that he is sovereign over what he has made, then we will be left with a gooey, lovey, dovey God.

This has been a big key for me, seeing his sovereignty, his authority, which positions me to even begin to see that his Word is over all. "to him who has, more will be given" So much of the modern church I believe has tried for so long to make it work without Gods Law that as time has gone on, we have been in a mode of .."to him who does not have, even what he has will be taken away.." ?

Can you imagine how frustrating it would be to live in a state where many of the physical laws of the universe are unknown or not understood. You would have no science to begin with. With the knowledge of these laws we can see the relationships between cause and effect, you can have understanding. You can design machinery that works in harmony with the world around us.

Well the church has tried to design program after program while many basic principles from Gods law are unknown or misunderstood. We can have effects all around us and not see the cause. So much continues from the sheer inertia of the basic humanistic understanding (Hey look, The three stooges are on! ) that we were equipped with while growing up and living as Americans. Those world views will hang onto you forever apart from us acknowledging Gods authority of his word and then bowing before Gods design. Without all of Gods word we will live in a narrow version of the good news. Frustrating.

Mathew Henry, on families, noted on page 29 “church’s are sacred society’s, incorporated for the honor and service for Christ in two ways. First they are devoted to God, and second they are employed for him, so should our families be..” Henry would see them as families, cohesive units, many today in the church might agree about “devoted to God” and might see “employed for him” but the understanding , the context would be as individuals. One way harmonizes with Gods system and one harmonizes with Americana. We might see the affect, but the cause…? Pro 29:18 Where there is no vision, the people perish: but he that keepeth the law, happy is he.

Vision and the law in the same sentence here, equals “happy is he.” Does that sound "as a strange thing" to you?

Joh 3:12 If I have told you earthly things, and ye believe not, how shall ye believe, if I tell you of heavenly things?

The world doesn’t need a narrow version of the good news.

We never get a version 1.2 of Gods Law.

I was reading in I john with Jamie the other morning and was struck by this passage….

1Jn 2:3-8 And hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep his commandments. He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But whoso keepeth his word, in him verily is the love of God perfected: hereby know we that we are in him. He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked. Brethren, I write no new commandment unto you, but an old commandment which ye had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word which ye have heard from the beginning.
Again, a new commandment I write unto you, which thing is true in him and in you: because the darkness is past, and the true light now shineth.

Which brought me back to what I keep rolling around in my mouth, Gods Law. I have to keep stacking up books to stand on, metaphorically speaking, to embrace this with my mind and heart, with my whole being.

When I think of history, I look at it and think of it as just taking note of something that has happened. Lots of times I look for wisdom or truth that I can bring forward to today and find application. This week I noticed that I would look at my old testament and think history, which it is, and when I would then go through where God lays out his law, it was lumped in with my understanding of history. I am just seeing what I have been doing and it has been a big error for me.

When we go through the Old Testament it is history. But when history intersects with where God Lays out his standard, his perfection , his righteous character and mercy and the infinite, intersects with us in the finite. You have to stop and put your mind into a different gear, you have to realize what God is doing, what it is, that is really happening. When he gives the Law, it is his everlasting truth of himself, being made tangible for us. The Law is a reflection of Gods perfection, equal weights and measures, balanced, wholeness or holy, lacking nothing, it is the perfect standard for any area of life because it measures all against God himself. This is what Gods Law is.

Because the historical narrative of Gods people continues even as God reveals his Law it kind of muddies and hides what God is doing as you get distracted by the goofiness of Gods People. I also have carried around the incorrect thought that Jesus had made it all kind of moot. Yah, yah don’t kill anybody or make idols but the rest had become minutia rather that seeing that it really reflects, who and what God’s character is.

God had maneuvered all of creation to this place where God had chosen a people and brought them out of bondage and they are just 3 months out of captivity when in the book of exodus he reveals his Law to mankind, and as God, only his Law is valid. Because he truly is the Lord of all. He alone has authority. It is put, pretty close to the front of the bible for a reason. We also never get a version 1.2 of Gods Law.

We do get new downloads,patches concerning how we access God through Jesus.

Here is where modern Amergelicals have had a kindred spirit with the Pharasees of Jesus day. Jesus spends a big chunk of his time defending His Law and peeling off what Jewish culture had imposed onto it. The Pharisees and Sadducees had made it “relevant” superseding it with their traditions. I used to incorrectly think that every time Jesus said “you have heard it said…” that he was taking Old Testament Law and turning it into something new. Instead I think every time he says “ you have heard it said…” he is referring to what the Pharisees and Sadducees had been teaching, which was their traditions, by which they made His law, null and void. (I think Bahnsen makes the case for this...)

It is a testimony against me that I am pretty comfortable, I am use to myself figuring it out as I go. Making the best decision that I can. I should get nervous real fast if my mind doesn’t quickly see how whatever choice or direction I’m going should somehow line up at least principally with his word.

Gods commandments when understood and applied will give you a bullet proof worldview. You will not be shaken as you will be standing on the very nature and character of God himself. We need to get this down. Because where God gives his Deut 6 calling to us fathers, it is in the context of his Law being taught.

Wednesday, October 22, 2008

Here the reformation must begin

Just started on “A Church in the House” I’m paying attention to how he addresses the men, the fathers. It feels very right to be reading an exhortation that’s 304 years old and that covers the very same endeavor we are about.

In the first chapter he notes it is within the family, with family worship that…”here the reformation must begin”

Here is a message from 1704 that most of the church wouldn’t know what to think of. But for many of us as I read I’m thinking we could be sitting in Mathew Henrys kitchen just having a great time or sitting in the pew at his church going Amen! Think about that.

Pull your pants up

Its all about vision. Gods vision and his direction for our families. It might take a generation to come to maturity for both our personal families and the church at large for it to sink in on why God gave specific guidlines for ordering the family. For his own glory and he wants to bless us!

Rob is taking heat from his family, they don’t have a cubbby hole to understand what his family is about. But yes, as his kids mature it will be like blinders falling from their eyes I think. For many of our families it will be this way. Lets pray for one another on this path. You thank God for vision and then beg for mercy on just keeping peace in the house sometimes. We grab the plow as best we can, but then we must rest in that it is the Lord who must build the house.

All this talk about family worship and what we are trying to see restored in the family has gotten me to dig out my “A Church In The House” book. Restoring daily worship to the Christian household, by Mathew Henry( huza huza) and edited by Scot Brown ( no slouch either) If I’m reading 6 books what’s one more, right? No wonder it takes forever for me to finish any. That’s sad, I googled the book and Google goes ”who?” Its at vision forum.

I’m trying to mentally prepare to do a radio show with Rob. Greg, How does ”Pull your pants up” sound as radio show? (Just trying to get some feed back Rob.) This is spillover from our lunch Sunday…Ha! Now that, should’ve been taped!

We let some of the most stupid stuff stand like it is self attesting truth

Some thinking out loud, sorry if it gets muddled....

With the Baldwin sign in our front yard, the neighboring Christians have been unwilling to take up the bait and ask "why don't you vote for McCain and Sarah?" (she is a modern day Ester you know)

Talked with my sister in Alaska. The Palin issue was perfect to sketch out how different our family is now, where we are going etc.

Most of modern Christianity is reduced to comments like "that's nice"....."okaaaaay."

Just as Americans generically we are unprepared to engage one another in what used to just be conversation. You know, say things like...."Why do you think that?" Society has conditioned most people, to when asked that question, to now just say anything, like "That's just what I think" and everyone else should then yield to your individual choice. So its almost pointless to ask. We just nod our head understandingly and let some of the most stupid stuff stand like it is self attesting truth.

As believers it should always be on the table to come from the "How do you arrive at that from scripture?" angle. Really, we Christians have also been conditioned to "feel" that something like that would be....impolite....none of our business(?)....rude(?) ...intolerant (horrid)....judgmental (God forbid!) We appear to be disarmed with this, everyone gets to decide what the verse means to them mentality. I don't remember it being this way in the 70's but at the same time I cannot remember a specific time when it just became the normal Zeitgeist that it is today.

Our Christianity actually makes it harder for believers to communicate? The level of tentativeness is through the roof I think. We feel a security in our faith but its like everything else is off the table. Like its impossible to know, that which is good and that which is evil as we have shifted the standard off of God and his word and placed it in individual man and what he thinks the word means.

Now this is so refreshing that we have dragged the whole carcass back into church and are now going "what sayeth the scriptures?" as we poke at it! Not to mention fun. Of course we have a different set of issues to deal with. Loving each other as we try to handle the two edged sword in manners that we are not used to seeing. This way layeth the truth though.

Yes, family worship as a weapon of mass destruction. The Gates of hell shall not prevail against our Lords Kingdom.

Monday, October 20, 2008

No everything is not ok

I was concerned about the coming "alt a" morgtgage debacle that is next in the pipeline. We just have to pray that God will help us to be ready for what is to come...

Coming Soon: The $600 Trillion Derivatives Emergency Meeting by Toni Straka

Here is an update on the size of the derivatives market with the latest official figures (.pdf) from the Bank for International Settlements (BIS). Hold your breath, as we are not anymore talking paltry billions but TRILLIONS of whichever fiat currency.

Current emergency meetings on banks and markets are still only in the stage where politicians and central bankers are bickering over how to create a few more hundred billions Euros and FRNs. But toxic MBS pale in comparison to the mushrooming growth of the derivatives market. According to figures released in the quarterly review of the BIS (pp A103) in September the total notional amount of outstanding derivatives in all categories rose 15% to a mindboggling $596 TRILLION as of December 2007…..

The central banks are a new rung. They prolong the agony.

This is very, very good. Showing how central banks and government can gum everything up. Written in a manner that is easy to follow!

The Panic of 2008 and Financial Socialization
by Michael S. Rozeff

….In a boom, all the main businesses involved in the boom are making handsome profits. Homebuilders, home suppliers, mortgage bankers, banks, and investment bankers, among others, all did well in the housing boom. Many investors along for the ride got above-average returns. They were anxious to supply even more capital. The boom by definition is a period of above-average business activity enabled by financial credits.

Production and finance are both stimulated. Both receive the abnormal stimulation of government regulatory and monetary policies. The boom of 1869–1873 involved a banking system that created money backed by government bonds. The Fed does the same today. In both cases, it also involved Congressional stimulus. In the 1860s, it was railroad subsidies. In this century, it was a variety of measures to stimulate house construction and to absorb the mortgage credits via government-sponsored institutions like Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.Government leads the boom, business follows. Government prepares the boom. Wall Street commits it. The government’s tracks are hidden. Wall Street’s are not. Few blame government for the inevitable bust. Many blame Wall Street. Government investigates Wall Street and makes sure of that.

Invariably, some firms go at it with a vengeance. By being first or most adept or best-situated at exploiting the opportunities, they grow the fastest, make the most money, and become the largest and best-known. The reputations of these firms for making good decisions and money grow. This attracts capital, and they grow even larger. Thus we get investment bankers like Jay Cooke, Bear Stearns, and Lehman. In Great Britain, we got Northern Rock. In Germany we got several German Landesbanken using short-term financing to buy American mortgages. Likewise, in 1870 German and Austrian governments supported banks in their lending activities, causing a building boom…..

An especially risky procedure is when firms borrow using short-term loans (such as three-month or even shorter loans) while buying risky long-term assets. The inducement to do this is that short-term interest rates are usually lower than long-term interest rates. The problem is that the borrower has to re-finance the loan frequently. If that financing is not available or its costs suddenly rise, the borrower faces bankruptcy….

The central banks are a new rung. They prolong the agony. They have been prolonging the agony overseas and here for months now by lending to failed institutions.

These measures do not and cannot restore credit because they are based on a misconception of credit. The Fed acts as if credit can be injected into a market. It refers to it as liquidity. It acts as if it is passing liquid refreshment to a parched athlete…..

Their objective is to live as sustainably and self-sufficiently as possible in an urban environment

File under useful info , Gary North has pointed out a useful book. At their website they talk of citified animals.....

Urban Homesteading
by Dan Shul


The Urban Homestead/ Your Guide To Self-Sufficient Living In The Heart of the City by Kelly Coyne and Erik Knutzen; Process Media, 2008; 308 pages

Those who live in an urban or suburban area should find this book helpful…

Their main premise is lawns are wasted space and a waste of resources, and any urban or suburban homeowner should not be wasting water and time with anything that can't be consumed….

It's written from a Southern California perspective--water shortages and potential food shortages are addressed.

Topics include: worms, composting, building raised beds and self-watering containers, gardening advise on soil, controlling insects, installing drip irrigation, high-density gardening, rotating crops, raising chickens (or pigeons, rabbits, etc.).

Also included are chapters on preserving, dehydrating, making yogurt and cheese, jams and jellies….

I know some are gonna love this site.

"The yard has over 350 varieties of edible and useful plants. The homestead's productive 1/10 acre organic garden now grows over 6,000 pounds (3 tons) of produce annually. This provides fresh vegetables and fruit for the family’s vegetarian diet and a source of income." Here is the website

The problem is sin, specifically, evil in the heart

The problem always comes back to evil in the heart of men...

The Cause of Empire
by Michael S. Rozeffby Michael S. Rozeff


…But there are many men on earth. Having rejected God, men surely reject each other as authorities, because men are lesser beings. They are left in the uncomfortable position of seeking a final authority on the earth. Who among them is the ultimate authority? Obviously, from the perspective of the Bible, none of them are. They cannot possibly find a man among themselves who is the ultimate authority. There is little recourse among those who reject God’s authority but to attempt to make themselves the authority. They cannot succeed, but, in reflection of the evil in their hearts, they try. They attempt to dominate one another. In the political realm, gross misuses of the State manifest these attempts.

Empire and war involve extensions of man’s authority via the State. One set of men wishes to rule another set of men. There is a restless search for the authority of some men over other men. And, by the way, those leaders who have a deep need to demonstrate their authority, no matter what their professed relationship is to God, can be the most dangerous.

As areas of human behavior related to empire and war, Röpke mentions "the field of politics, power, ideology, psychology, sociology, emotionalism." To mention too much beclouds the matter. The problem is sin, specifically, evil in the heart brought about by rejection of God. To reject God’s authority is to accept man’s authority. The logical consequence is a struggle to be number one on earth. Aggressive foreign policy quite directly traces back to the rejection of God’s authority….

Sunday, October 19, 2008

Passing on a heritage

Mathew Henrys commentary. It’s a classic.

In 2004 at the San Antonio Christian film festival someone did a documentary on his Father, Phillip Henry. It was called “Broad Oak: a fathers Legacy.” Mathew Henry didn’t just spring up out of nowhere. Here was a father who in being faithful, laid the foundation for what his son would do. Time to get it out and watch it again, as I remember, it was very good. Don’t know if its available separate. We saw it as a part of the 2004 film festival collection. Its takes place in the 1600’s, could be part of Reformation night?

From Swanson back in aug8 Will Your Chidren Apostisize? Grounding them in the faith.

This was a good show encouraging the use of a catechism to teach the faith to your kids. Its the reformation way. A catechism systematizes the faith. It helps you lay the most important over arching themes of the faith and then fills out a skeleton that can be built upon.

Dads if you haven’t done one yet with your kids be encouraged to do it. I would call it a foundational building block for discipling a new believer even. It was a great help to me when Rob passed them out at church and encouraged us to do them with our kids a year ago or so. Fourty years in the faith and church and when I went through that little book what a blessing it was to me. “Hey look an over arching theme to my faith, who knew?”

Saturday, October 18, 2008

Living in a collapsed economy

A report from Argetina author uses pen name: skyman

......what I learned (either the hard way or thanks to this forum) after all these years of living in a collapsed country that is trying to get out an economical disaster and everything that comes along with it. Though my English is limited, I hope I'm able to transmit the main ideas and concepts, giving you a better image of what you may have to deal with some day, if the economy collapses in your country. Here is what I have so far:

URBAN OR COUNTRY?Someone once asked me how did those that live in the country fare. If they were better off than city dwellers. As always there are no simple answers. Wish I could say country good, city bad, but I can't, because if I have to be completely honest, and I intend to be so, there are some issues that have to be analyzed, especially security....

Some facts:1) Those that want to harm you/steal from you don't come with a pirate flag waving over their heads.2) Neither do they start shooting at you 200 yards away.3) They won't come riding loud bikes or dressed with their orange, convict just escaped from prison jump suits, so that you can identify them the better. Nor do they all wear chains around their necks and leather jackets. If I had a dollar for each time a person that got robbed told me "They looked like NORMAL people, dressed better than we are", honestly, I would have enough money for a nice gun. There are exceptions, but don't expect them to dress like in the movies.4) A man with a wife and two or three kids can't set up a watch. I don't care if you are SEAL, SWAT or John Freaking Rambo, no 6th sense is going to tell you that there is a guy pointing a gun at your back when you are trying to fix the water pump that just broke, or carrying a big heavy bag of dried beans you bought that morning....

After all these years I learned that even though the person that lives out in the country is safer when it comes to small time robberies, that same person is more exposed to extremely violent home robberies. Criminals know that they are isolated and their feeling of invulnerability is boosted. When they assault a country home or farm, they will usually stay there for hours or days torturing the owners. I heard it all: women and children getting raped, people tied to the beds and tortured with electricity, beatings, burned with acetylene torches. Big cities aren't much safer for the survivalist that decides to stay in the city. He will have to face express kidnappings, robberies, and pretty much risking getting shot for what's in his pockets or even his clothes.....

...Also analyze the consequences of those services going down. If there is no power then you need to do something about all that meat you have in the fridge, you can dry it or can it. Think about the supplies you would need for these tasks before you actually need them. You have a complete guide on how to prepare the meat on you computer... how will you get it out of there if there is no power? Print everything that you consider important....
whole story

Bernankes Pig

From Lew Rockwell.com a free column from Gary North

Lipstick on Bernanke's Pig
by Gary North

.....In short, politicians have put taxpayers on the hook for at least $4 trillion in just six weeks.

What caused this? Federal Reserve policy under Greenspan? This was never mentioned. It was world confidence in the United States. ...

...But what was the source of these large inflows of capital? The capital fairy, perhaps? No? Actually, a team of capital fairies. One capital fairy is the People's Bank of China, which inflates at 20% per annum. It buys U.S. Treasury debt. Another is Russia, whose oil exports have blessed the central bank with half a trillion in foreign exchange reserves...

The important thing from the point of view of the men in charge, who did not see this coming and who denied that it was a crisis until the government, without Congress's approval, nationalized the American mortgage market by nationalizing Fannie Mae and Freddy Mac on September 7, is to make it look as though the government has a handle on all this. ...

Thursday, October 16, 2008

Have we hidden God under a bushel basket?

This was in Responce to Robs posting....go here

Bully! Rob, I say bully! Amen!

Israel was not carried off into captivity because the Philistines rejected God’s law.... No, they were carried of because THEY had rejected God’s law.

Bastiat in his essay "The Law" said
...The law is not a torch shedding its own light ...

The source of Law for any system is the God of that system. That being the ultimate authority. For the Pilgrims at Plymouth and the Puritans in Virginia there was no doubt that it was God of the bible and it was his law they used. They did this while living under the reign of a king that just despised them, and was a flaming homosexual to boot. They tried to be true to Gods word and God blessed them. The king thought they would all die in the wilderness.

1Ki 18:21 And Elijah came unto all the people, and said, How long halt ye between two opinions? if the LORD be God, follow him: but if Baal, then follow him. And the people answered him not a word.

Today the answer would be...but we need to be relative...but if Obama is elected.... but you wont get traction. Have we hidden God under a bushel basket? In the name of letting our light shine. Oops.

Its our humanistic upbringing. We think we have to be able to see, how, it will work out. It has to make sense to us. We dont see that a god of reason and logic has weaseled into the throne room of our hearts.

Isa 55:7-9 Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the LORD, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD.For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.

We need to lead the way in repentance.

Pro 3:5 Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.

We know these passages but we cannot see how we violate them. Open our eyes lord!

AmerigelicalsIIII A form of our obedience

I LOVE THIS!!!! yup we cannot change the heart, this is all about making a soup to soak our families in....

Pro 7:1-3 My son, keep my words, and lay up my commandments with thee. Keep my commandments, and live; and my law as the apple of thine eye. Bind them upon thy fingers, write them upon the table of thine heart.

Psa 127:4 As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man; so are children of the youth.

Are your kids arrows in the hands of a mighty man as the word calls them? Are you a mighty man? Then they will be aimed and shot out. We don’t ask the arrow if it wants to go where we are pointing it, whether they want to go that way, that’s Americana . It’s as Joshua said …”as for me and my house we will serve the lord!” Fire! The results are in Gods hand. But the warp and woof of the home they grow up in… that’s our responsibility and we will answer for it. Let us be like John Knox and "Save no arrows"

I grew up with a hidden God ,they must grow up thinking that God was in 7 channel Dolby sound, everywhere, Dad kept pointing him out and his ways all the time. How God and his word were the Rosetta stone for understanding life. All day long if I can, it’s to show how all is to glorify God, how nothing can make sense without God, how we live and move and have our being only through him.

If you think this is about watching G rated movies, having Christian music on and saying “praise God” a lot, then you have totally missed it and I pity you! What are you living for? Are you living as a man that other men can relate to? God forbid! We have a nation of these and God will spit us out because we have lost our savor and we are not being a light. We are being trodden underfoot.

I fall way short, “Giligan” and “The Three Stooges” keeps pulling me back. So I must keep repeating what God wants, keep repeating what he says, and ask for his mercy to help me be obedient.

To the King and his kingdom! Wheres Nathan! Wheres my daughters!

Amerigelicals III

Americana was engraved and ingrained in my heart. We should want to do the same thing. But with Gods world view.

First a premise. I wasn’t equipped with just a head knowledge of Humanism, my being was permeated with it, does a fish know he’s wet issue? For lack of a better descriptive phrase it was written on my heart. It was the foundation for my thinking.

So as a father I do not want to give a foundation of life to my kids that is based on American humanism. In a nutshell that is life where some (or every) area can be addressed without bringing God into the picture. God is made irrelevant, we pretend we can discuss knowledge and bypass the one who created all that is to be known. Man, what I think, what is rational to me or to the group is the measure.

Now this is light years beyond many believing families that now say “praise God” and “thankyou Jesus” and “We just love the lord” and “God is so good to us” all the time, which are good things to say but we are called to take every thought captive.

The following is what God wants us to do. This is what God wants….

Deu 4:9 Only take heed to thyself, and keep thy soul diligently, lest thou forget the things which thine eyes have seen, and lest they depart from thy heart all the days of thy life: but teach them thy sons, and thy sons' sons;
Deu 6:6-9 And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart:

And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.

And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes.
And thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house, and on thy gates

He tells us, to do it.

Now there is no way to read this and conclude that God is telling us to give our family a head knowledge of his commandments. Its to inculcate them.

Make it their worldview! Everywhere they turn it is Gods perspective that is being reinforced, morning, noon and night. All encompassing. I was given humanism as central to all of life. “Gilligans island” and “The Three Stooges” But we put it on the posts, gates, fit them with frontlets so what they see is interpreted by Gods word. We do this from as young an age as we can. We are not saving them. What we are doing, is trying to be obedient to God.

These instructions to us are in the context of God giving his law. God setting up the framework for interpreting life. Laying out the standard for that which is good and that which is evil. Life is to be taught, that you live it, from Gods eternal perspective!

We don’t wait to see if they are gonna be saved. This is supposed to be the basis for life whether someone is saved or not. We give them a biblical foundation because we are saved. And we pray that God saves them, calls them and when he does, they will be ready to live and move and have their being in him. I, now even saved, live and move and have way too much being with “The Three Stooges.”

In the same way that a mother or father in a careless moment, not thinking, can inadvertently bruise a child's heart with something that they say or do, the kid, then deals with it for most of their life, so we echo the proverb 23:26 my son give me thine heart... not to scar it but to implant Gods word deep in it.

Just like in our voting, we need to be obedient, and leave the results to God.

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

From Chalcedon Blog today

Rushdoony on the Financial Crisis

"The world is moving into the greatest economic crisis of history. It is a religious crisis, the product of man's efforts to play god and to control all things. For humanistic man, freedom is anathema, because it runs counter to scientific planning and control. The growing crisis is thus a religious one, and we must see it as God's judgment on a false and rival order. The crisis must be seen as good news, as evidence that God is at war, that the wages of sin in any sphere are always death, and that every tower of Babel man erects has a common destiny, disaster and confusion. The Lord is at work; let the people rejoice."~ R. J. Rushdoony, Roots of Reconstruction, pp.1101f

51 trillion total debt

The Perfect Storm – Our Great Depression
by Jim Quinn

"Gentlemen, I have had men watching you for a long time, and I am convinced that you have used the funds of the bank to speculate in the breadstuffs of the country. When you won, you divided the profits amongst you, and when you lost, you charged it to the bank. You tell me that if I take the deposits from the bank and annul its charter, I shall ruin ten thousand families. That may be true, gentlemen, but that is your sin! Should I let you go on, you will ruin fifty thousand families, and that would be my sin! You are a den of vipers and thieves. I intend to rout you out, and by the eternal God, I will rout you out."
~ President Andrew Jackson 1832

…..A President with a backbone and moral compass would be telling the American people that our bankers have ruined this country and have caused the coming deep recession. He would explain that it is a painful lesson that must be faced now so that future generations would not have to pay for the sins of today. Instead, he urged the American people to support an $820 billion banker bailout which will attempt to push off pain far into the future….

…The most recent flow of funds data shows that total credit market debt is $51 trillion versus our $14.3 trillion GDP. Debt as a percentage of GDP is now 356% versus 260% during the Great Depression of the 1930’s….

. …The conclusion that I reach when looking at the vertical takeoff of debt in the early 1980’s is that this country has been living a lie of false prosperity. The huge McMansions, luxury cars, high-tech gadgets, granite kitchens, 2nd homes, and exotic vacations were purchased with debt….

…The Catch-22 of our current economic system is that if everyone in the country lives within their means, the economy will collapse. The spending of money we do not have is what has driven our "Great" country for the last three decades. We can always count on Government to not live within its means, so deficit spending will continue and most likely accelerate. But, consumers have been dependent upon the stupidity and recklessness of banks, credit card companies, retailers, and auto makers to help them live above their means. This part of the American Dream is lying in shambles….

I love this...

Our Everyone Gets a Trophy Economy

By John Tamny
….The same unfortunate mindset meant to shield children from reality has polluted U.S. economic policy. Rather than expose Americans to the very failures that teach us how to succeed, politicians are devising more and more ways meant to protect us from failure. And, they pass laws that keep others from succeeding so those who are not rich don’t feel bad…..

250 billion to banks

U.S. government to give $250 billion to banks
By Greg Robb & Rex Nutting,

Paulson changes mind on plan after market crash last week

…..Only a few weeks ago, Paulson said that giving banks capital would be a sign of failure, but changed his mind after global stock markets crashed and stress in the financial system rose to previously unimaginable levels……

Monday, October 13, 2008

Amerigelicals II

Continuing: I am amplifying what I said concerning engraving on our children’s hearts. So I have noticed that something has been engraved onto my very being. The very core of who I am, it is the template and the canvas I now work with. We all do. It seems normal.

God didn’t engrave this junk onto me. We can call it something else besides engraving, but it describes so well the how positively it’s on me. We could call it using a Sharpie permanent marker on their heart but I think it misses the essence of what’s happening. This is how the word puts it…
Deu 6:5-8 And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might. And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart:

And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes.

The passage … shalt teach them diligently … is from the word shaman : to point ; intencely to pierce: figuratively to inculcate,prick sharp, (see previous email) teach diligently.

See also Deu 27:3 And thou shalt write upon them all the words of this law, when thou art passed over, that thou mayest go in unto the land which the…

I believe that God wants us as fathers to imitate Him, we are made in his image and he is our example as our heavenly father. We are called to understand what it is that He wants to write on our children’s hearts and we begin the process as it were. We put in the foundational understandings for all of life, his word, his law. We give them frontlets and we put in what God said to instill. This is Genesis, Deuteronomy ,Psalms, proverbs ,all of the word, to make disciples of all nations teaching whatsoever I have commanded you.

I think that it is through family life we learn the basics of making disciples, do it well enough and you have a basic qualification to be an elder. I shudder to think how many Pastors are not qualified. The fact that the whole church is hunky dory with the word pastor rather than elder speaks volumes. We do think of the world around us needing to be evangelized but what they really need is to be made disciples of.

We got saved people all over the place, no disciples,(yes exaggeration) most even opposing what God has said to do in his word. That’s by Jesus definition, you are either with me or against me. (I believe that we can be both with and against Jesus in thousands of different thought processes.

We are double minded, unstable in all our ways… hence the need to…. take every thought captive.) Most Pastors would fight Gods order for his church, IE a plurality of elders. They would no longer be in control. The church would no longer function like a small business. (I know first hand that in the denomination I came from that the supervisor for Arizona was discipling his new pastors to think of their church’s this way. As a small business. He discipled the current supervisor so I would bet this mindset is still there.)

Some of us are experiencing first hand the rebellion, the resistance to finding the lost book of the Law concerning picking civil magistrates. See mine and Robs comments this week. Its not that Christians don’t read their bibles, its that we have humanistic thought processes at the foundational levels of our comprehension. We force Gods word through that grid without even knowing we are doing it.

Swanson apparently has been taking his men through graduate level books for their mens meetings. They were doing Bahnsens “Always Ready” at the meeting I attended. In his “Kingdom of God” talk, that I linked to, he made mention that the men had just finished Schaffer’s “ how shall we then live” book. Meaty stuff. Most men wouldn’t jump into these books but doing as group it is easier. These guys had their 12 year old sons with them. I saw Kevin pressing in with a 16/17? year old on how come the principle of turning the other cheek doesn’t apply to the civil magistrate. We must remake the grid through which we see life, to conform it to Gods word.

We can think that if we just do more of the word, it will fix us. On some stuff , yes.

We are reading through “For Kirk and Covenant, the stalwart courage of John Knox “ as prep for the reformation day party. He poured over works of Jerome and Augustine to help get his understanding. We stand on the shoulders who have gone before. Amerigelicals stand on the shoulder's of the culture around us.

What was inculcated into me? How about “Giligan’s Island” and “The Three Stooges”... Amerigelicals I

Onward. How good it is for brethren to walk together.

Marc I hope no one will feel like we are being picky when we parse each others sentences. I think it is good to do. Not to be picky, but as a way to further the conversation around the campfire as it were.

We all are busy and if we lived closer it would be good indeed to be able to gather and spend evenings talking of things about the Lord. Now when in person, conversation can be so rapid and so many rabbit trails appear and disappear that often we run right past areas of life that would be rich to just dig away at for a bit. In person it can be distracting when someone starts blustering about how something is not in the bible…..

With these emails you can slow down. You can follow the vein deeper into the mountain as it were. Its always good for more clarity and by making sure you point out exactly what it is that raises the eyebrow, the other person will know exactly what is being questioned. When asking what is meant about something we need to be respectful and do it in love. Not like when I email Rob…”did you get saved yesterday?”

When it comes to quality, for a product that might be only 10% better than all the others, but the one that is the crème de la crème it can cost you twice as much for that last 10%. It can take double the production costs to be at the very top. We will need to let the Iron sharpen iron as we try to press in.

Yes, amen, we are on the same page concerning God, He for sure writes on the heart.

This could be misunderstood easily. But what I am getting at is like in the shadow of that principle and I do believe it is a main factor of what we fathers should be about. We want to ingrain, we want to inculcate (to teach or impress by forceful urging: instill, to impress upon) into our sons and daughters. Yes into their minds and thought process’s, but yea even into the depths of their being. Making frontlets for their eyes…
Pro 23:26 My son, give me thine heart, and let thine eyes observe my ways.

We want to have their hearts. That should be what we constantly aim for.

I was saved early about 8yrs old. But what? Was ingrained into me? What was inculcated into me? How about “Giligan’s Island” and “The Three Stooges” and Thousands, thousands of pop songs and no Jedi Knight training would be complete without 12 years slow basting in American government Schools. The principles of being practical and whatever works reigns.

The whole time I'm reading my bible and in church every time the doors are open and Wa La! Now I’m an Amerigelical.

Train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old he will not depart from it…

Its so true. It is a stinking knife fight for us to yield to Gods word at times. Rob just testified himself to trying it, sharing Gods word with believers! Look out! Rob you Pharisee!

Americana was engraved and ingrained in my heart. We should want to do the same thing. But with Gods world view.

From Mises Institute, really making money

Political Power and Economic Ignorance by Jeremie T.A. Rostan

COMMENTS ON BUSHS SPEECH it managed to explain the pending recession of the US economy by a previous situation of "easy credit" without mentioning the monstrously inflationist policy of the Federal Reserve — which reached its climax in 2003 and 2004, when it lent dollars at a negative short-term interest rate, and resulted in the creation of more dollars in a seven-year period (2000–2007) than had been created cumulatively in the two centuries since the founding of the United States. ….

Nevertheless, if some grasped the connection between these present effects and that past cause, few of them seem to have grasped that resorting to the same policies at present will necessarily have the same consequences in the future: to delay the recession, and worsen it…..


….The following is number 7 of a series of "macroeconomics" multiple choice questions:[3]

To counteract a recession, the Federal Reserve should
raise the reserve requirement and the discount rate
sell securities on the open market and raise the discount rate
sell securities on the open market and lower the discount rate
buy securities on the open market and raise the discount rate
buy securities on the open market and lower the discount rate

And the answer is supposedly E.

Notice that the question is not, "Should the Federal Reserve do anything, and if so, what?"

No, the question assumes that the Federal Reserve should do something.

What this question really asks is, what intervention of the Fed will have the immediate effect of stopping a recession? It does not ask, what are the causes of recessions? It does not ask, what will be the long-term effects of the Fed's actions?….. WHOLE STORY

Like suspending mark to market

Governments are muddying the water, helping to conceal where errors have been made. But so long as they stand ready to put a bandaid on every scraped knee...who cares?

G7 undermines price discovery
by, Terence Corcoran

….Governments are pushing to invest directly in banks, put all deposits under unlimited insurance guarantees, pass laws to allow treasury departments to buy mortgages and related instruments, even lending between banks could come with government guarantees. What all these initiatives have in common is their ability to undermine and prevent market forces from operating.

The purpose of markets -- the only purpose of markets, some might say -- is to allow people to determine prices. Without trades in an open market, there can be no accurate determination of value. And without prices, nobody can know what assets are worth and what to pay for them….

Up 900 points

Some different economic news from today. "Are you idiots?" everyone asked after we saw how banks etc gave loans to people who shouldn’t have gotten them. The last couple of weeks the banks have not been able to tell which banks / institutions are sound, IE which are deserving of loans, who can pay back. So this weekend the governments step in and said….

….. the U.S. Federal Reserve said central banks will offer financial institutions unlimited dollar funds and Europe pledged to guarantee bank debt and permit governments to buy stakes and recapitalize some distressed financial companies…..

“unlimited dollar funds” & “ guarantee bank debt”

If you are a bank why not now make the riskiest loans you can, which will be the highest interest you could earn because of that very risk and if the loan goes bad don’t worry, uncle sam says he will just bill us for it. This is where i read about america getting out its credit card again....

Global Stocks Climb, Oil Rises on Bailout Plan; Banks Advance
By Lynn Thomasson and Adria Cimino

Sunday, October 12, 2008

Officialdom has continually been making matters worse for months

Liquidity revisited by Michael S. Rozeff

...One of the biggest problems now is that the lenders cannot ascertain the actual values of the borrower's assets and liabilities. The financial firms are carrying junk assets with unknown values. They are carrying liabilities in the form of insurance guarantees like credit default swaps that have unknown amounts and values. Nobody will lend to a borrower whom they are so unsure of. The market needs transparency. Bailouts make matters worse because they hold up the weak banks rather than letting them fail. The potential lenders have a harder time telling the good from the bad. Furthermore, banks are connected in many ways in loan markets. Keeping the bad ones alive and running only weakens the stronger ones that they are connected to. Lenders are then more afraid to lend to any of them, good or bad....

It is gonna take time

What comes after the Great Unwinding? By James Saft

...The bubble wasn't just in real estate, leaving the financial system holding the bag, the bubble was in consumption.

That is not to say that the current scrambling to save the system is pointless; there is a very big difference in the damage that will be done by a disorderly deleveraging compared with a slightly slower, more controlled one.

The banking crisis will have very serious negative effects on the real economy, and the cost will grow. This is true even if the ATM machines continue working, our deposits are safe and gold, bullets, canned goods and bottled water don't become 2008's best asset allocation choices.

The core of the issue isn't even solvency. It's the way in which the debt which is causing the banking insolvency distorted, distended and hollowed out economies around the world.

It caused a massive misallocation in the English speaking economies into property and into consumption that could only seem to make sense to people drunk on property price appreciation. It caused a less huge but still significant misallocation elsewhere....

The Next Meltdown: Credit-Card Debt

....The next horror for beaten-down financial firms is the $950 billion worth of outstanding credit-card debt—much of it toxic....

Saturday, October 11, 2008

Keep your wits about you

We are now in uncharted waters. There is no historical comparison for what is going on. Worldwide. During 911 we were a humbled people. It was, we need Gods help. But over time the God bless America stickers changed and you started to see the American flag with “power of pride.” I hear too many crys for the govt to do something.

Now on Rush and other conservative shows there is still this confidence that “we are Americans we can get it done, it will be better” It’s about us. Conservative humanism? God is not mocked, but he is not acknowledged as our source either.

As a prudent measure I mentioned to my wife on the way home that for a while, we will try and keep our fuel tanks above ¾ full. Yes it will be a nuisance. We also used our date night tonight to fill out our pantry a little deeper than we normally do. Extra toilet paper, a much heavier than normal supply of beans, etc etc. Wal-Mart is a blessing! It’s all things that will be consumed in the normal course of living.

But should something " happen" and all of a sudden you don’t want to have to leave your house for a few days…

In a panic, atm machines would be out of cash so fast….So, keep a little more cash around.

In the south east they recently had a gas shortage. Long lines everywhere.

All of our supply chains are set up for just in time delivery. Anything that changes consuming habits, like if a larger number of people decide to fill their gas tanks, stations would run out. It snowballs as any word spreads because then even more people stop and fill. When we had the pipeline break for our gas supply a while back, we almost ran out, the first day of it, as we frantically looked for a station with gas.

We saw one station that had a line going into it. No big deal. It was right after sun service, we were going to lunch. 1.5hr later as we head home we decided to fill up and then noticed real big lines all over. What a panic that afternoon was as we then started seeing stations out of gas. Big thrill for the kids. I was not blessed.

The same thing would happen at most stores if for whatever reason consumption habits change even briefly.

Our trust is in the Lord. But we live in a land of scorners and mockers. We have a government that says right is wrong and wrong is right, we subsidize wickedness. I cannot with a straight face say “God please bless America.” For by his word you can see that we have lined up for his curses.

I do pray for his mercy, that he would give us repentant hearts. I have no idea what that would look. So as im praying, I will keep my tank a little fuller .

Being wise in our own eyes

We got our Chuck Baldwin for president signs today! The kids are jumpy to get them in the yard. Our Christian neighbors are gonna flip. “ Im sorry, I have given my life to Christ and I must be obedient to God and his Word…”“why do you call me lord, lord and do not do the things I say?”

I can hear it already…..”but Sarah is anointed…” "Ok, well, when you put it that way, that would carry more weight than scripture…." I know where they are coming from. They think on most things you just have to make the best decision you can. They mean well but its Romans 10:2 with a vengeance.....For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge.

If I was ever feeling the heat to be pragmatic it would be this election. But its Sola Scriptura! What I most notice now is a weight off of me, I am acknowledging that God is sovereign, I am acknowledging that Gods kingdom is not dependant on America. Gods bread crumbs lead this way and the only safe thing is to follow them and be obedient. All else is...that you should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk, in the futility of their mind, eph4:17 ....lest you should be wise in your own opinion,Rom11:25

Speaking of which, Kevin did a talk Friday on this subject of voting and of Baldwin in particular, well worth the time. Third party or settle for McCain

Besides being commanded to do it....

Today I heard a great mp3 from Doug Wilson on Why debate atheists? Excellent! and all the more so as it was free. Get it here. Look for the download mp3 free. Good stuff for our urban fighters, err…I mean street preachers. Apologetics anyone? Why its important.

World Wide, Central Banks verses the Markets

From Gary North's Answers website. One of the many austrian economists that called this train wreck a long time ago. Best $10 a month you can spend.

Dead Rabbits Out of Political Hats
Gary north

…Franklin Sanders, who sells coins for a living, has summarized the Federal Reserve System's policy options: inflation and blarney. He was short-sighted, as we all were. The FED has one other: swapping Treasury debt for assets that are rated AAA by the ratings agencies, despite the inconvenient fact that these assets do not have liquid markets.

This policy option is the equivalent of trading a silver dinner set for crushed beer cans, which are priced officially at silver's price.
The problem here is that the FED has swapped out about 40% of its inventory of Treasury debt. What happens when it runs out?

Why does it do this? Because it does not have to create fiat money when it swaps.

What does a swap achieve? Temporary bank solvency. Because the institutions that borrow Treasury debt for 30 days -- hahahahaha -- are allowed by the regulatory agencies to list this Treasury debt on their balance sheets as if they owned the Treasury debt rather than the AAA-rated, non-marketable debt. This keeps the regulators satisfied. Otherwise, the banks would have to list the AAA-rated paper -- hahahahaha -- at market value. No one really knows what this value is, other than this: it is a lot lower than Treasury debt. The banks would then have to call in loans because of asset losses.

Why? Because of a new rule which went into effect this year: bank assets must be marked to market. Imagine that! Banks must state what the value of the collateral is for their loans. This is FASB 157, issued by the Financial Accounting Standards Board….

….So, what is the credit crisis really about? The conflict between Market pricing and governmental power to alter market pricing.
Commercial banks have played the carry trade game with borrowed money: borrow short, lend long. This is the essence of all fractional reserve banking. It always has been.

Fiat-money booms always become busts. There are no exceptions. On this point, read Chapter 20 of Ludwig von Mises' book, "Human Action." Read Murray Rothbard's short book, "What Has Government done to Our Money?" They can be downloaded for free from the Literature section of www.Mises.org......

Non-banking financial institutions got in on the carry trade game during the expansion of fiat money under Greenspan. The asset bubbles got very large, especially that most popular of carry trade markets, residential housing.

Now the free market is re-pricing the assets that were the focus of the carry trade. The Treasury and the FED are fighting this process….

Thursday, October 9, 2008

In a free market shortages are impossible

from Mises. unitended consequences: what happens when you ban
"price gouging"

Gas Shortage: Irrational Herding or Economics?

....Q: Doesn't reduced supply — scarcity — create shortages?
A: No. In a free market, shortages are impossible; there is only a price. Rubies and Picassos are scarce, but there's never a shortage of them. You can buy all you want any day of the week. Just pay the price.

Q: So how is the state causing a shortage?
A: The overriding cause of the shortage in the Southeast is state legislatures' mandates that anyone selling gasoline at market prices will be labeled a "gouger" and fined $10,000 to $25,000.

Q: That's it? That's the reason?
A: That's all there is to it. Only government can create shortages. If the price for gasoline had been allowed to fluctuate freely and rise to $5 a gallon locally, it would have provided plenty of incentive for truckers to siphon gas from other states and haul it to Georgia, Tennessee, North Carolina and Alabama. But as it stands, every one of these states has an "anti-gouging" law, and every one of their governors stood up to announce that he would vigorously enforce it. They may as well have said, "I demand a gas shortage."....no one is ever taught this in Government schools

Two mp3, fiat money and fractional reserve banking

What is happening world wide could not have happened without central banking, and that means fiat money and fractional reserve banking.

From Lew Rockwell, the problem with fiat money mp3


From Lew Rockwell, the trouble with fractional reserve banking, mp3

Wednesday, October 8, 2008

But What About Deborah?

But What About Deborah?
Einwecther via Vision Forum

It seems that all roads lead to Deborah.....

Accountability?

This is dead on from Douglas Wilson today...

Crapitalism
...But let us deal with the substance, and not with the words. A free market means that you need to have the freedom to fail. If you don't have the freedom to fail, then your economic transactions are answerable to some regulator or bureaucrat, and not to God. And, depend upon it, that regulator or bureaucrat will screw it up. God has built accountability into the world. He is not mocked. But if you insist on having the government step in every time somebody new is going to learn what comeuppance means, then you are at war with the concept of accountability.

But accountability is the word that the minions of Congress keep using. They are waving it around as though it sets up some kind of mystical aura of protection, which it actually does, for them. Insisting on accountability for others means that they can forestall . . . accountability for them. Very useful magic word....whole column

Tuesday, October 7, 2008

Its different this time

This time its different. Now I am not even talking about how we have a world wide mess happening.

Even if this was only america. There is no engine, no wind, to really push our economy forward this time when the dust settles. It has been all about housing 6-8yrs. We borrowed and spent like crazy on housing. Housing was covered with sucker fish, boom years.

The consumers are loaded with debt. The nation itself is too. I have not heard one voice from Washington say we better start thinking about cutting back on spending. There is nothing to jump into housing's place and carry everything along.

Now the fed is starting to throw around money again, trying to get back that loving feeling. But what will it be spent on? What will it be invested in?

May God show us entreprenurial Ideas in the days ahead. There will be opportunities. But it will be different.

Our kids belong to the state

We ignored God’s instruction on education and as a people we have lost the ability to think clearly. Only by compulsory dumbing down through the government education system have we, as a people, just lost our minds, we will go for anything.

It takes a village to raise an idiot by Brian Melton

mp3 podcast on bubbles

How about downloading a podcast on the subject of economic bubbles?
The Lew rockwell Show

A treasure trove of what, and why, went wrong (hint, rhymes with big government)

Gary north pointed out that lew Rockwell has compiled a list of warnings that were given. If you spend a little time over the coming weeks to read some of these you will be more informed than most of congress. You will start nodding your head up and down next time you hear Ron Paul talk. “Oh that’s what he’s talking about...

The Recession Reader: There is No Such Thing as a Free House by Lew Rockwell

Someone once remarked that the best indicator of a recession is the number of times "Mises" "Hayek" or "Austrian" appear in the newspapers. During the boom, no one wants to listen to the lessons of the Austrian economists. No one wants to hear that we need to live within our means – that the Federal Reserve does not have the power to print us into prosperity by artificially creating credit. So while the writers of LewRockwell.com were warning against the housing bubble and the inflationary nature of the Fed, the mainstream was touting the economic wisdom of Bernanke and Greenspan. When this recession hit, it seems everyone except the Austrians was caught off guard. Commentators, bureaucrats, and politicians began panicking, "Something must be done! This is Something…therefore it must be done!"

Instead of looking to the mainstream for answers to this crisis, why not look to those who saw it coming?...hyperlink bonanza here

Family camp blessing

It was such a blessing to hear from "seniors", speaking Gods truth for the family at family camp.

There was another aspect, something right in hearing Ovid with his white hair, speaking this new, old message to us on families. Don’t get me wrong I like our “beardless striplings." (Yes, Rob does has his navy beard going for our Reformation day celebration.)

But a number of things sunk in watching Ovid teach.
Part of our wetness is we have been conditioned to like, or see as a normal condition, being surrounded with people our own age. We don’t do it deliberately. Part of our fragmented compartmentalized age is to push us into our groups. Singles, young marrieds, teens, seniors. This is a dogma of the culture and the church ratified it through silence and then made it a part of modern church life.

For the most part it has been a younger generation that has been teaching and exhorting us forward. But watching Ovid and Bettie it seemed so good to get this older component into the mix as it were. To have young and old harmonizing on what we should be about. Because the whole age spectrum of the family is yielding to Gods purpose in life. Follow the Word and you can see how all the parts can help and bless one another, follow the world and your killing the babies and grandma.

Now today we have a shortage of grey beards, of the Horry head. Either they wont accept Gods truth because it runs counter to what has been normal, “don’t want to have to cut the cruise short”, or they recues themselves, having bought a lie that they don’t have anything to contribute.
Modernity, “listen to the children,” by extension we are telling the elderly to shut up so we can hear the Hitler youth. We have been so...

I pray! That Bettie and Ovid will be part of a spearhead of mature
Christians coming into the ranks of the family integrated church movement! It would be so Americana of us to say God is doing a new thing. Rather I hope we are seeing another aspect of God reforming the church today by restoring the historical thread that has been lost. This is not new but rather how God has always intended life to be lived and overcome in his name. With families that become mighty in the land. The Tribe of Rudy and Jason etc etc. This is the old wine that tastes better than the new. But you had better have a new wine skin to accept it.

Bettie made mention that her kids were concerned that she and Ovid were too alike and would clash too much in marriage. Bettie was so right when she said, but I understand what my role is, as wife, in relation to the husband. This is huge! Because they get there understanding on what their roles are, from Gods word, they seamlessly fit into our midst too. What is the normative role for me? How can I do it better? God help me to embrace that role, that you may bless future generations to your glory! Rather than our cultural mantra, ”through Christ I really can do any role” One is a submission to Him and His order as the highest value. The other perspective thinks in terms of “it seems so restrictive.”

As families say no to society and its free range chicken lifestyle we will get to move into a time of old and young building the walls together. I’m drooling. I have not been privileged to see what happens when multigenerational lines are encouraging and cheering each other on for His glory. Lord let my eyes see it I pray.

Monday, October 6, 2008

More Info, Ever heard of Mises?

Say it again, why should you even listen for a solution from someone who didnt think anything was wrong? What kind of faith does it take to call someone an expert who didnt sound an alarm?

The Mises Inst has been probably the loudest and clearest warning bell ringer about Central banks and The Fractional Reserve Banking system. They have tons of info for those who would like to better grasp of what is inherently wrong with our banking system. Note, mainstream media thinks these guys are kooks.

No one who becomes known as a specialist in austrian economics is allowed to teach at a REAL university! Who looks like the crackpot now.

Loads of free articles at Mises.

Gary North comes from the same perspective but can, and does liberally add in the biblical injunctions that get violated. He does have a free side with an incredible amount of material.
Garys site

An inside look at mortgages

This is the most consise but detailed lay out of how mortgages became messier and uglier over time. Note this was written in dec 2007. You will shake your head.

I also saw somewhere today that it was said that 70% of fannie and freddie obligations are held by overseas parties.

Straight Talk on the Mortgage Mess from an Insider

....The Government says they are going to use the credit score as one of the determining factors. But we have learned over the past year that credit scores are not a good predictor of future ability to repay. This is because over the past five years you could refi your way into a great score. Every time you were going broke and did not have money to pay bills, you pulled cash out of your home by refinancing your first mortgage or upping your second. You pay all your bills, buy some new clothes, take a vacation and your score goes up!.....

I paid for a Baal out and all I got was this lousy T shirt

Today I thought of all the prophets of baal dancing around the alter waiting for fire to come down while being mocked by the prophet… ”maybe your god is in the bathroom?!?”

Last friday Swanson quipped its not good to loan out more money than you have. But thats what deliberately happens when you have a central Bank and a fractional Reserve banking system. They continue to get a free ride.

This is just one of the largest displays of faith that has ever been on display! To see and hear all the expectant faces turning torwards the same governments that have caused this mess is a wonder.

From Gary North today , some things cause inflation and some do not….

Why the fed backed the bailout

The FED needed to government to bail out the banks directly. The government will borrow the money. This is not inflationary. It adds no new money to the economy. Money in investors' bank accounts moves to the Treasury, which replaces the money moved from the Treasury to the banks…

A FED bailout is inflationary. A Treasury bailout is not. The FED wanted the Treasury to bail out the banks. This way, no one blames the FED for mass inflation.…From member side of North’s

Dave Ramsey as part of his fix for our $$$ mess thought that the mark to market rules should be suspended. If being truthful is seen as part of the problem maybe we have to look deeper….

Mark to market

Banks for years were allowed to keep mortgages on their books at face value, even when the value had fallen due to rising mortgage interest rates. This was a subsidy to banks. It let them appear to be more solvent than they were.

All assets should be marked to market. But what if there is no organized market? This creates enormous confusion. This is the situation today…. From member side of North’s

A reason why things have are worse...

Smart money takes a hit…

…The losses are just getting started. These funds are leveraged. They borrowed money to buy shares, on the assumption that shares were headed higher. They weren't. They were headed down.

Now the funds must sell shares to get cash to get out of their leveraged positions. This will force stock prices lower, which will force other hedge funds to sell….From members side

Sunday, October 5, 2008

They didnt get the memo?

Apparently they didn't get the memo about how our brave congress fixed the wall street/banking crisis with their buckets of money fix. The overseas markets are being pounded and there is angst all over the world. Can we get our money back ?

Law and morality, you cannot seperate them

From Len Munsil blog The liberals are just nervous when we christians legislate. Their legislation is just for the common good while what we would do is just cramming Gods morality down there throat.

LIBERALS NOW BELIEVE YOU CAN LEGISLATE MORALITY

For decades liberals have told conservatives that when it comes to laws protecting innocent human life, defining marriage, or regulating gambling or pornography to protect families from harm -- "you can't legislate morality."

But tonight, in response to a national financial meltdown, the same liberals who argue that law can't influence moral behavior, seem to believe all our financial problems can be solved by more laws regulating moral behavior.

Particularly amusing was Rep. Barney Frank -- a prime promoter of the "you can't legislate morality" crowd who was all over television tonight decrying the immorality of Wall Street and promising new laws to legislate morality in the financial industries...whole article

Friday, October 3, 2008

The worship of Baal $ is unopposed, so, How Then Shall We Vote?

Washington wrung it hands over our $4 gallon gas, used it as a weapon to beat Mr bush over the head. They spent $850billion today and gave us the bill. They are Brazen and shameless, preeening on tv,patting each other on the back while waiting for us to lay down fresh palm branchs for them.

God is still on his throne and no detail or fact can show up and suprise God. Our hope is in him, not on humanistic man in Washinton.


This is from Chalcedon BlogI think Mr Ortiz describes clearly where we are at...

How Then Shall We Vote? by Chris Ortiz

...In other words, we have a short-term goal--relatively speaking--of working somewhat within the political process ...we are to seek the salvation of men. In short, save the country, so that we can continue to save men...

Cast your vote for righteousness, because choosing the lesser of two evils is still choosing evil. Let the Lord be honored when He looks down upon your choice, for how can He honor pragmatism? How can He honor your interpretation of the future? Is God wringing His hands at the possibility that Obama will win because a Christian stayed home, or voted for a third-party candidate? Hardly. God wants faithfulness, and if one is to seek the Kingdom and His righteousness, he must support that which best reflects God's standards...

Our nation is facing the consequences of its sin. America had larceny in its heart, so it never challenged this fiat money system. We the people forsook our personal responsibilities as self-governing citizens and now we moan under the weight of this bloated bureaucratic tyranny. We the "followers of Christ" turned His children over to the Molech public school system, and now that our young men and women are older, they have departed from the way...whole posting

Because I am a Christian, I cannot vote for either of our parties.

To the king! and the kingdom!

One of the Legacy Baptist Church trademarks is the "to the King! and the Kingdom!" battle cry. The daughters of mine have taught Nathan to stick his hand /hands up in the air when he hears it. Sometimes he will just see Rob standing in front of the church and will giggle and shoot one or two hands into the air. At camp he was looking at the back of Robs head after he had passed by our table in the dinning hall and he shot up the right hand. While holding a spoon of spaghetti.

Camp,Baalam,Creepy, Castle

Quick thoughts, as Beth says she’s not staying up till 11tonight.

This year it was my turn to get sick at family camp. The Klotz’s keep pegging the sausage as the angel of death. Every year someone’s family gets hit from Legacy.

I don’t suppose it might have something to do with the fact that at whatever part of the encampment Legacy is placed at, we sit around in our chairs, passing around bundled up babies, talking way too late the first night, while the kids play freeze tag!?!

I had to go back to the cabin, fell asleep and missed the Sunday am service, was messed up and went to bed by 8pm Sun. Then woke up at 1am and couldn’t get back to sleep till almost 5. But I took some good notes while laying there!

Capture the flag just killed my body. I hope none of the men hurt themselves pulling up their pants after beating the Ladies in tug of war. You know… you give your pants a little cinch up, after a job done well. Way to go men.

On my blog I have added much on Palin and the the Baalout of Baalam. They are freeking out! They found their god fell over in the night. "We must sacrifice to show we care." They are desperately trying to get someone else to pay for their sins.

The following is symptomatic of where we are today…..

This was surreal, This Obama video , takes the cake. Someone’s comment about it being creepy in the comments section was appropriate. They have more faith in man, than most Christians have in our God. We think our God cannot change the world, because people are just too far gone. We evangelicals have oriented ourselves with the concept of being engaged in a rear guard action, just trying to hold them off till the Lord comes back. What songs do we sing that mirror this attitude, but with our obedience to God and His word as the force, the instrument of change, rather than their syrupy good thoughts?

We have been conditioned to see ourselves inside the circled wagon train with the Indians shooting at us, or inside the castle with the draw bridge up while the enemy attacks. Only I wish God would run up to us inside the castle yelling No! No! No! I said “the gates of hell would not prevail against you.”

As we then go about trading places with the enemy, they go into the castle and we then occupy the hills around it, we would be commenting, “You know, I thought it was strange that they were carrying all those gates”

This is what happens when you have been building castles for a hundred and fifty years.

Mat 16:18 And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.