The Two Reasons: good and real.

Eph 4:14,15 "...henceforth be no more children....by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness...but speaking the truth..."

JP Morgan said: "Men have two reasons for doing a thing: the good one and the real one."

Has your wife ever asked you, "how does this dress look?" You reply, "gee, honey, you look great in that dress." What you really mean is that green dress is the ugliest I have ever seen. But you lie to save your marriage.

I have for years told my wife that I go hunting because I like bonding with my buddies, to bond with nature, enjoying the great outdoors, or telling stories by the campfire. Most hunting trips I come home empty handed. I try to hide my disappointment. Why? Because the real reason I go hunting is to kill something.

Those of us working just love our jobs, right? As long as they pay us. We will tell our customers how much our product will help them, how much we believe in our product because it helps them, and look how much it has helped us, right? But the real reason we sell a product isn't really for them, it is because we want to get paid. It is really for the money.

A pastor friend of mine told me a story once that further illustrates this point. He was in a car with 4 other pastors in downtown Dallas, Texas. One of the Pastors blurted out, "Wow, look at that great looking women!" Which they all looked and agreed, wow! (even Pastors are human) However, one of the men piously said, "I didn't notice anything, I don't look at other women." The driver then quickly pulled over and ordered the pious man out. He said, "get out because your are either a homosexual or a liar!" Even though the man was morally right, he was still a man (I think).

Have you ever over drafted your account? Of course you have, most people have made the mistake at least once. You go into your banker and you ask if they can reverse that $500 dollar overdraft charge. They might ask you why? You will tell them, "I thought I had enough money in my account." That is a perfectly good answer to his question. You do not want to tell him the real reason is because you forgot to write down a debt card purchase you made. You give them a perfectly good reason, because if they knew the real reason they would say sorry, but it isn't our job to keep track of your account.

This one might hurt some of you... You refinance your house to pay off all the consumer debt your have incurred. You are really coy about this one. Your refinancing your debt because you got a lower interest rate, and you might as well include all your debt. Good reason. You have now extended that 5 year car loan out 30 years, but that is okay. Because you know that the real reason is that if you go one more month with all the debt you have incurred your next stop might be a bankruptcy.

One more and I will let you go... The new candidate for President says that his plan will provide 5 zillion jobs in the next few years. He says that because that is what we want, a job or what he thinks we want to hear. That is a good reason. The real reason he says that is that he wants to be elected, and really has not a clue that his plan would work, but he did get elected.

I think that if we lived by the truth we would keep our mouths shut, be better citizens, do better work, accept responsibility, get ourselves in less trouble, live simpler lives, and just be better off.

I Am...wretched, miserable, poor, naked, and blind

Rev 3:16-17 So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth. Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked:

Do I really need to comment...read the verse again. I am pointing one finger out, but three are pointing back at me. I am an American and I know this verse applies because it applies to me. How much time have I spent praying before the Lord in the recent past except at dinner and church. Have I led my family in devotions recently? Have I given up a Sunday service for football, skiing, or riding our motorized toys? How long has it been since I opened the Word outside of a Church service? But I'm happy...

I have spent my kids inheritance on high maintenance stuff that only causes worry and pain. I don't have any money, but I have a lot of stuff. Randy Alcore in his book, "Treasure Principles," has an entire chapter on the tyranny of stuff.; how it owns us amid How it requires our time and money. But I'm happy...

But…wait, how did they pay for everything? They have a mortgage of $300,000 with a payment of $1600 per month. The truck payment is $500 and the car payment is $300 per month. The vehicles sitting in the back have payments of $1000 per month. The department store bill where they bought the big screen TV is $200 per month. They owe $10,000 in credit card bills amounting to another $400 per month. The daycare bill is $800 per month. That is whopping $4800 per month without getting to most of the essentials. They aren’t millionaires, they are debtors. Mommy wants to be a stay at home mom, but the “want” bills are to high, so she has to work to take care of the needs…of the lenders. You get what you want, but you lose what you need. Robert E. Lee said, “you are free to act as much as you are free from debt.”

A debtor gets what he want, but may lose the things that are of real value. In the great real estate bust of 2007 people are loosing their homes, cars, and work. Families are breaking up because of debt. Did the stuff really make a difference to what you really value or did it represent what you value? Are we wretched, miserable, poor, naked and blind?

You’ve heard it before, “who ever dies with the most toys wins,” but in reality he still dies. We have a society that is over indulgent and selfish. This state of want has created a debt monster that is now uncontrollable. We doubled mortgage debt in only 6 years between 2001 and 2007 from 4.9 trillion to 10.2 trillion. Consumer debt (autos, credit card, etc.) has risen from 1.7 trillion in 2001 to 2.6 trillion in 2007. This is little deceiving because many people have rolled consumer debt into home equity to the tune of 2 trillion dollars since 2001. In January of 2008 52% of all homes for sale in California were foreclosures. We have been duped to think that the American dream is owning things. Are we wretched, miserable, poor, naked, and blind?

Rev 3:20 "Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me." We can change. Look to the author and finisher of our faith: Jesus Christ.

The Gift Givers...

Proverbs 19:6 "Many will entreat the favor of the prince: every man is a friend to him that givith gifts."

Do you remember the story of Hansel and Gredel? They were led along by the good gifts. How about Edward in, "the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe," being given the good gifts "turkish delight" by the witch. Now we have the US Government giving the good gifts of money. Are we becoming the friend of the gift giver?

President Bush last spring gave his friends, the American people, a gift. He with the permission of congress gave each of us about $600. That was very generous. He just went to his buddy Bernanke and said get the printing presses ready, "I'm fellin' generous." I became a friend of the gift givers.

My neighbors are behind in their mortgage payment and their house is upside down, meaning they owe more than it is worth. This makes them eligible for a little help from their friends. The gift givers want to forgive them the difference between what they owe and what the value of their home is now plus give them a new loan with an affordable new payment. Isn't that nice! They want to be friends of the gift givers.

As far as I can tell Morgan Stanley, who was the first recipient of the TARP money, is going to help out Citibank, another recipient of TARP money, by taking off it's hands Smith Barney, Citibanks brokerage arm for a mere $10 billion. That's right...Citibank was the one who, with the gift givers backing, was going to buy Wachovia bank. What tangled webs we weave. Morgan Stanley was on the verge of bankruptcy last fall as well. Now they are brokering deals with the help of their friends the gift givers.

I read the other day that the porn king (Larry Flint) and his friends were asking the government for their share (5 billion) of the TARP funds, citing that the economy has affected their industry also. They would like to be the friends of the gift givers.

Once we get fattened up by the gift giver will we be in any position to resist anything that they want to push upon us?