Federal Budgeting 101

I found this posting on FB and thought I would share it here.  It does help a guy like me to understand the problem.

Federal Budgeting 101


The U.S. Congress sets a federal budget every year in the trillions of dollars. Few people know how much money that is so we created a breakdown of federal spending in simple terms. Let's put the 2011 federal budget into perspective:

• U.S. Income: $2,170,000,000,000
• Federal budget: $3,820,000,000,000
• New debt: $ 1,650,000,000,000
• National debt: $14,271,000,000,000
• Recent budget cut: $ 38,500,000,000 (about 1 percent of the budget)

It helps to think about these numbers in terms that we can relate to. Let's remove eight zeros from these numbers and pretend this is the household budget for the fictitious Jones family.

• Total annual income for the Jones family: $21,700
• Amount of money the Jones family spent: $38,200
• Amount of new debt added to the credit card: $16,500
• Outstanding balance on the credit card: $142,710
• Amount cut from the budget: $385

So in effect last month Congress, or in this example the Jones family, sat down at the kitchen table and agreed to cut $385 from its annual budget. What family would cut $385 of spending in order to solve $16,500 in deficit spending?

It is a start, although hardly a solution.

Now after years of this, the Jones family has $142,710 of debt on its credit card (which is the equivalent of the national debt).


You would think the Jones family would recognize and address this situation, but it does not. Neither does Congress.


The root of the debt problem is that the voters typically do not send people to Congress to save money. They are sent there to bring home the bacon to their own home state.


To effect budget change, we need to change the job description and give Congress new marching orders.

It is awfully hard (but not impossible) to reverse course and tell the government to stop borrowing money from our children and spending it now.


In effect, what we have is a reverse mortgage on the country. The problem is that the voters have become addicted to the money. Moreover, the American voters are still in the denial stage, and do not want to face the possibility of going into rehab.
By: DAVID THOMAS
Chief Executive Officer
Equitas Capital Advisors LLC

Why Doesn’t God Work Faster?

Today's blog is a reprint from a blog that I read.... I repost it here for your encouragment.

Why Doesn’t God Work Faster?

D

o you ever wonder why God doesn't do things the way you would do them (if you were God)? Do you ever wonder why God doesn't work faster in answering your prayers? Sometimes I do. I think most believers wrestle with these kinds of questions at some point in their lives.

Much of the early history of the Children of Israel involved following God through a wilderness on the way to a land that “flowed with milk and honey.” And a wilderness was not the way the Israelites wanted to start the journey. Milk and honey were fine. An endless desert was not. The Israelites spent more than a generation wandering there, where many died and were buried.

We are part of a culture that expects that we can personally shape our whole destiny within a couple of years, if we just roll up our sleeves and take action. We expect things to happen quickly and produce the results that we desire. We look for the easiest and shortest route to accomplishing our goals. Our culture values things that are fast and direct. God doesn’t.

This sometimes makes it difficult for us to understand what God is up to, because His perspective of time is often different from ours. As we look at what God did to deliver Israel from Egypt in the Exodus, it is easy to ponder what God had in mind. After allowing Israel to remain in slavery in Egypt for more than four hundred years, we would expect that once God made a decision, it would be a quick transition toward the Land of Canaan. If we were God, we would have led the people from the crossing of the Red Sea straight north through the land of the Philistines and into the land of Canaan. That would be the quickest route, and it would therefore seem also to be the easiest. As I noted above, we like quick and easy fixes.

But interestingly, we read in Exodus 13:17 (NIV): "When Pharaoh let the people go, God did not lead them through the Philistine country, although that was shorter. For God said, ‘If they face war, they might change their minds and return to Egypt.’” So God didn't lead them directly into the Promised Land, but rather led them through the wilderness toward Canaan.

God often does this in our lives as well. We want to immediately reach the land of “milk” (a land filled with the necessities of life) and “honey” (a land with the necessities, but also accompanied by some sweet extras in life) that God promises to give to us. We want it, and we want it now. But God in His wisdom leads us by a different route, and into encounters with events that are not quick and easy to pass through.

He often leads us into experiences that will deepen our character, challenge our faith, and develop our awareness of the power of God at work in the difficult days of our lives. If we were to encounter the “giants” of life with only our puny skills and experience, we would become fearful and quit. Israel needed to learn that God could provide for them, regardless of what situations in which they found themselves. We also can learn that lesson. Not everything in life is solved by quick fixes and short timeframes.

Some problems take a long time to solve. Some take a lifetime. The quickest way is not always the best or easiest way, nor the way of lasting quality. God does not always guide us to take the shortest or easiest route. Some accomplishments in life take a long time.

What are you dealing with today that you are tempted to solve in the quickest way possible? What things are you dealing with that may not be satisfactorily resolved this year? Can you trust God to lead you to the best way to address the situation, even if it is not quick and easy to solve?

copied from Tuesday Morning for July 12, 2011. Guest writer for this week is Dr. Ed Jordan, senior pastor of Gate City Baptist Church, Pocatello, Idaho.  

a great Picture/a true statement.

http://twitpic.com/4w7cbl

Types of preaching...think I'll take the tropical.

All I Have is Christ - An Animation

What does Easter mean to you?

What does Easter mean to you?

In his book If I Should Die Before I Live, Joe Lomusio writes: "If I were to ask you to describe Easter without using any words, and you could only use punctuation marks, which punctuation mark would you choose to describe this Easter for yourself?

"Maybe this Easter is a comma for you. It makes you stop, pause, think, and listen, but that's about it.

Perhaps today is a downer -- a big bold period. You thought you'd feel excited, but instead it seems to be more like empty ritual. You feel like you're not on the inside, but on the outside . . . an onlooker. It was day when life felt like a period for Jesus' disciples. He was dead. He was buried. An end to expectations.

"But wait -- news of an empty tomb . . . the period is no longer a period, it's a question mark. That's worse than a period. Now they're beginning to doubt. Where is He? They're perplexed. the guards are gone, the stone is rolled away. He is not there. And if not there, where? An angel speaks, 'Why do you seek the living One among the dead? He is not here, but He has risen. Remember how He spoke to you while He was in Galilee, saying that the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and how He must be crucified, and the third day He must rise again?'

"Of course they remembered! The periods are gone. The question marks are removed.

There is one massive exclamation point! That's what Easter is all about . . . an exclamation of gratitude and of praise for the resurrection Jesus Christ and for the salvation His victory over death brought to us."

So what does Easter mean to you?

( if i knew who to give credit to I would -- had this for a while now)

When the chips are down....

“Did you teach hawks to fly south for the winter?” (Job 39:26)

There once was a bird that lived in Canada. One winter he announced to the other birds, “I’m not flying south for the winter. I’m staying right here!” All the other birds said he was crazy, but he answered, “You’re the ones that are crazy. You’ll get down south, turn around and fly right back up here again next year. What’s the point?!”

The other birds shook their heads, shrugged their shoulders, and took to flight; leaving him behind.
Wondering what winter in Canada would be like, the lone bird was pleasantly surprised at the stretch of Indian Summer that lingered long into the fall. “Aha!” he said to himself, “I was right to stay. This is wonderful!” But then, winter hit full force in the middle of December. Shuddering in the cold the silly bird finally realized, “I must hurry and leave before I freeze to death!”
He took to flight and made it as far as Montana. There, in mid-air, he froze up and tumbled to the ground; landing in a farmer’s barnyard. “Oh, what a stupid bird I am,” he moaned to himself. “I should’ve flown south with all the other birds, but now I am about to die.”
Just then a cow in the barnyard strolled past the fallen bird and without realizing it dropped a big cow-plop right on top of him! “Oh, this is just great,” mumbled the buried bird. “It’s not bad enough that I’m about to die; now I’m covered with cow manure!”
But then he noticed something he had not expected. The warmth of the plop actually began to thaw him out and restore him to life. “Why, what do you know about that?” said the bird. “This ain’t so bad after all!” Then he began chirping and singing under the pile of poop.
Meanwhile, the barnyard cat was passing by and heard the sound of singing coming from the pile. Curious as a cat can be, he pawed around in the pile and uncovered the thawed bird. Their eyes met, there was a silent moment of suspense, and then the cat ate the bird.
The moral of the story is three-fold. First, not everyone who dumps on you is your enemy. Second, not everyone who cleans it off is your friend. Third, when you do get dumped on, it is best to keep your mouth shut.
The bottom line is this. When the chips are down, the Lord is up to something good. Take heart, and place your trust in Him. You’ll be blessed in every way.