Sometimes in our day to day battles, we forget to acknowledge that God is ALWAYS in control. Nothing ever takes Him for surprise. Imagine God saying, “WOW! I never saw that one coming!”. It sounds ridiculous doesn’t it? Yet, this is often what we assume happened when things don’t quite go our way:
* The job you didn’t get…
* The bad news that was just delivered…
* The financial challenges you now face…
* The doors God keeps closing…
Whatever it is, believe me, it didn’t catch God off guard. I truly believe He has a plan and purpose for each and every one of us. Like in the game of chess, he is several moves ahead of where we are. If we could only see far enough down the road.
Wendy’s used to ask “where’s the beef?” This week I ask, “where’s the jobs?” Like you, I’m not seeing them!
This past week, after the jobs report, I was amazed at how few jobs were created in June… With trillions of dollars that have been poured into the markets, how could we see such dismal results? I mean bailouts, quantitative easing, and stimulus -oh my! And all we saw was a lousy 18,000 new jobs last month?
Are you kidding me? That’s not even 500 new jobs per state. How can we continue a jobless economic recovery? Until people are working and producing again and the housing market stabilizes, I don’t see us getting out of this economic mess any time soon. That doesn’t mean the stock markets can’t rally here and there, but long-term we will have a tough uphill climb until we solve the job/production issue.
If people aren’t working, they aren’t spending money and thus companies aren’t hiring – it’s a vicious cycle. The merry go round won’t stop until we give business owners (the ones who create the jobs) incentives to hire. Changing America from its current socialist state to a more capitalist environment would sure go a long way!
America used to be a pro-business country. We used to be the world’s “producer”. Now we are the world’s “consumer”. Jobs in the U.S. continue to be sent overseas and we as a nation continue to lose our competitive edge.
It’s no wonder, China is at our heels and on pace to take over as the world’s “top” economy. They are “producers” – they produce products and profit. We, in turn, borrow money and “consume”. The “consumer”, if he doesn’t control his spending, eventually becomes a servant to the “producer”. The tables must turn for America to continue her greatness.
May we curb spending and get back to being the world’s greatest producer! May we get back to our roots and may God Bless America!
What are your thoughts? What do we need to do to get back on track?
I know I don’t share a lot about my personal life on this blog. I tend to keep to myself too often. I probably should open up more, but I don’t…
Today I have to share because today I put a prayer request out there for everyone to see and hundreds of you responded…and prayed! I can’t thank you enough!
My scary day
This morning started like any other day. You know when you wake up and start your routines? You kind of just go through the motions. My strategy for today was – just survive!
I was exhausted. I had been working hard the past two weeks (day and night) as I am expanding services at FaithBasedInvestor.com. So my head hasn’t been hitting the pillow until about 2am each night then I’m usually up around 6. Yes this is way too much work and not enough sleep!
Today, I was more tired than usual, but other than that, it felt like a normal kind of day. However, little did I know that in a matter of hours I would be fighting for the life of my child.
Something went terribly wrong!
Emma is my youngest daughter. The only way to describe her is a 2 year old bundle of joy. One of my good friends, Gerry calls her “smiley” because that’s what she is always doing. No matter the circumstances, Emma knows how to bring a smile to others – both inside and out.
Emma hadn’t been feeling too well on Monday. She had a temperature and nasty virus that knocked her out of character. She was tired and cranky. Yet, by Tuesday’s “glorious” election day, her illness seemed to be all but gone. Or so we thought…
When Emma awoke this morning… She was run down and refused to get out of bed. We let her be. We didn’t give it a second thought that maybe she just needed to catch up on a little sleep. Nothing seemed unusual. As Karen, my wife, was about to leave for the morning, I went up and started to get Emma dressed. It was then, as I went to get Emma and get her ready to head out the door that we noticed something terribly wrong with her.
She refused to get up. Then we tried to wake her up and she wouldn’t respond. Her eyes started rolling back in her head and her breathing halted to a stop. Panic stuck me. Now I wasn’t the one who needed to survive I needed to help Emma survive.
How often do you pray for the impossible? And when you do so, how often do you believe God will actually come through? Maybe you still believe in miracles. Maybe you have just stopped believing. Maybe you have seen God move so many times that miracles seem like the norm. Or maybe just maybe you have always wished those miracles could happen for you.
Any way you slice it, life is filled with its ups and downs. With all those I talk to it’s easy to hear the pain, to sense the frustration, to see the tears, to know the hurting inside.
You may have your back against the wall with no solution in sight…
You may be facing insurmountable odds and failure seems all but certain…
You may have lost all hope and see it as a lost cause…
There may be a dream that you have let die…
There are times when we need to throw up the mother of all prayers. God: can you hear me? Can you see what I’m going through. Where God oh where are you? I need you now! The Hail Mary pass to heaven. Will it land in the end zone for victory or will the pass fall incomplete or be intercepted by the enemy? There are times when we need to ask God for the impossible.
I just got back from seeing the new Wall Street movie.
Gordo Gekko is back! Yet his defining statement “greed is good” has now turned more into a question “Is greed good?” Now that Gordon has had time to reflect on his life after a lengthy prison stint, he seems to do a lot more soul searching in this sequel.
We know the bible is pretty harsh on greed:
1 Corinthians 6:9, 10 and Ephesians 5:5 tell us that ‘greedy persons will NOT inherit God’s Kingdom’.
In Ephesians 5:3 Paul said: “Let fornication and uncleanness of every sort or greediness not even be mentioned among you”
Also in Ephesians 4:17-19, 28 we’re told that rather than becoming greedy, wanting something that’s not ours, we should work hard to buy our own, and have extra to give others in need.
1 Corinthians 5:11 tells Christians not to even associate with a greedy person,
I could go on and on as God’s Word speaks much about the dangers of greed. You see some of the dangers play out throughout the movie as corporations and the financial system come to the brink of disaster.
Wall Street hits a little too close to home as director Oliver Stone’s storyline very closely resembles the 2008-2010 economic meltdown. The movie often feels more like a documentary about how the collapse happened and how dangerous our financial system was from being completely wiped out. Though you would love to think that Oliver exaggerated the story, the sad part is, there is enough similarities that you begin to wonder how close this is from the truth?
Being a stock market junkie, I really enjoyed the movie. There was enough side stories and non-financial market content to keep a wide audience entertained. The biggest win for the movie in my eyes was Gordon’s quest to repair his damaged relationship with his daughter and make up for much of the harm he caused. The quest for redemption is something we all long to see. You can’t help but like Gordon but at the same time you don’t want to get too close to him cause you know you’re headed for another heartbreak!
I highly recommend this film, especially if you’re like me and love financial movies. Just a warning though: if you are upset with the shenanigans that went down on the real Wall Street the past few years, you may find yourself asking quite a few more questions about what really went on during the crash. It also helps you see that greed isn’t good and that life really is all about relationships.
I am so excited that football is back! I love NFL football and the Patriots are my team. Last year was a tough season for the Pats especially after losing Wes Welker to a season ending injury. The big question in the off-season was “when will this guy come back?”
Now here is a guy who defies critics time and time again! Just 8 months ago, doctors suggested Wes’ ripped-up left knee would take at least a full 12 months to heal. For those keeping track, he had both an ACL and MCL tear that both required surgery. In addition, he also needed rotator-cuff surgery. Many said his 2010 season was gone. Everyone except Wes and his teammates!
On Sunday September 12th 2010, Welker defied the odds and started the opening game of the 2010 season. Not only did Wes play, he looked no different than his pre-injury self as he hauled in 8 catches and scored 2 touchdowns. He was back in a big way!
As I have mentioned several times here at Jayperoni.com, I am an avid reader. I read a lot of financial, biblically based, and business books – sometimes even a combination of the three:) I try to read at least a book a week. It keeps my mind fresh and I tend to get a whole host of new and exciting ideas.
Kingdom Gains
This week I received a copy of the new book by Dwight Short called Kingdom Gains: What Every Christian Should Know Before Investing, and How to use Socially and Biblically Responsible Investments (BRI) as a Steward of God’s Money. Other than the subtitle being a tad too long, this is a fantastic read!
In the forward, Ron Blue, author and president of Kingdom Advisors nicely sums up the premise of Kingdom Gains:
“One of the greatest challenges that we face as Christians is how to integrate our faith into our financial decision-making. Some things are obvious to us such as tithing. What is less obvious is how to make our investment decisions faith-based. There are two aspects to this; one is the process that we use, and the second is the actual investment or investment vehicle that we use.”
Sometimes in our day to day battles, we forget to acknowledge that God is ALWAYS in control. Nothing ever takes Him for surprise. Imagine God saying, “WOW! I never saw that one coming!”. It sounds ridiculous doesn’t it? Yet, this is often what we assume happened when things don’t quite go our way:
