This morning Pastor Levy preached from 1 Thessalonians 2:14-16 on the need to worthy of being imitated and the privilege of suffering for Christ.
Tonight was Dr Hauser's last message at Fourth. They are moving to Louisville KY in a week. His text was Acts 20:27-32 with a message of warning of false teachings in the church.
We had a relatively busy weekend as we entertained both yesterday morning and then dinner today.
Back to work tomorrow
Colleen (Sister in Law)
Kathee
Kate (Roger's girlfriend)
Katrina (Niece from Ohio State) & Roger
Katrina, Roger, Kate
Nathan
Dinner table # 1
Dinner table # 2
McCain: No Muslim president, U.S. better with Christian one
Excerpt:
GOP presidential candidate John McCain says America is better off with a Christian President and he doesn't want a Muslim in the Oval Office.
"I admire the Islam. There's a lot of good principles in it," he said. "But I just have to say in all candor that since this nation was founded primarily on Christian principles, personally, I prefer someone who I know who has a solid grounding in my faith."
Beliefnet link
Comment: He'll take a lot of heat for this! Based upon the one Muslim in a national office, Congressman Keith Ellison, I doubt I would vote for a Muslim for President. Previous CFG comments on Congressman Ellison
More from AP: McCain: I'd Prefer Christian President
Excerpt:
The Arizona senator was also asked about the confusion over which Christian denomination he belongs to. "I was raised Episcopalian, I have attended the North Phoenix Baptist Church for many years and I am a Christian," McCain said. He added that he has considered being baptized in the Baptist church, but he does not want to do it during the presidential race because "it might appear as if I was doing something that I otherwise wouldn't do."
The Secret Screen Capture Shortcut
Excerpt:
Command-Shift-3 shortcut for taking a screen capture of your entire screen, and you may even know about Command-Shift-4, which gives you a crosshair cursor so you can choose which area of the screen you want to capture.
Comment: I used the "Command-Shift-4" for the NetBank post yesterday. Vista has "Snipper" for this function. Nothing like this in XP. Very cool! Read full link for more!
On the Record: John Stumpf, president and CEO, Wells Fargo & Co.
Excerpt:
Q: Who is responsible for the crazy loans made in the last five to 10 years?
A: There's a shared responsibility here. The Federal Reserve reduced rates to 40- and 50-year lows. Real estate became a very hot asset class. People started buying homes.
Because of such low rates, new people came into the marketplace. People bid up prices and everybody wanted to be in the game.
Certain mortgage lenders - especially those that were not regulated - helped fill the investor market for mortgage paper. And people who purchased homes in 2001 and 2002 and then sold them in 2005 or 2006 made a lot of money, which fueled this whole thing.
Q: Is there a lender responsibility to set a fair marketplace so that people don't get in over their heads?
A: I totally agree. We've been responsible and we didn't do certain things. We could've made a bunch of money doing those things. We put people in products they could afford. All of our loans were underwritten to a fully indexed rate. We have full income verification and full appraisals.
We couldn't understand negative-amortization loans. You owe more than the mortgage you started with. It didn't make any sense for us to do stated-income and stated-asset loans for subprime customers.
Comment: Has Minnesotan common sense! "Stumpf, the second of 11 children who grew up on a Minnesota farm, raised chickens and milked cows as a youngster. "
State legislators to run for Ramstad's seat in U.S. House
Excerpt:
Two of Minnesota's suburban congressional races are about to get more crowded.
In the wide-open Third District, where Republican incumbent Jim Ramstad is retiring, two state legislators are laying the groundwork to run for a seat that has attracted the attention of a wide range of potential candidates.
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DFL Sen. Terri Bonoff said she plans to formally announce her campaign in mid-October, after she files a federal campaign finance report that reflects her fundraising in late September.
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Bonoff, a former business executive, won a special election two years ago in a Plymouth-Minnetonka district that had been held by Republicans, and was re-elected last year in a close vote.
Comment: This seat is vulnerable for the Republicans because Ramstad is a moderate Republican and Bonoff is (in my opinion) fiscally conservative! She's dynamic and would be a good congress woman!
Last night at about 10:20, I said to Kathee, "time for bed". She said that the bed wasn't made yet. Why? Emily was hiding in the clean sheets. I sneaked in to snap her picture.
Six Fingers of Blame in the Mortgage Mess
Economic View
Six Fingers of Blame in the Mortgage Mess
By ALAN S. BLINDER
Published: September 30, 2007
Until we diagnose what went wrong with the subprime mortgage market, we cannot even begin to devise policy changes that might protect us from a repeat performance.
Excerpt:
Finger-pointing is often decried both as mean-spirited and as a distraction from the more important task of finding remedies. I beg to differ. Until we diagnose what went wrong with subprime, we cannot even begin to devise policy changes that might protect us from a repeat performance. So here goes. Because so much went wrong, the fingers on one hand will not be enough.
The first finger points at households who borrowed recklessly to buy homes, often saddling themselves with mortgages that were all too likely to default. They should have known better. But what can we do to guard against it happening again?
The six fingers:
Gingrich Says No to White House Bid
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich will not run for president in 2008 after determining he could not legally explore a bid and remain as head of his tax-exempt political organization, a spokesman said Saturday.
"Newt is not running," spokesman Rick Tyler said. "It is legally impermissible for him to continue on as chairman of American Solutions (for Winning the Future) and to explore a campaign for president."
Gingrich decided "to continue on raising the challenges America faces and finding solutions to those challenges" as the group's chairman, Tyler said, "rather than pursuing the presidency."
Comment: I'm a fan of his political views but not of the man. Why? His adultery!
What we suffer from today is humility in the wrong place. Modesty has moved from the organ of ambition ... [and] settled upon the organ of conviction, where it was never meant to be. A man was meant to be doubtful about himself, but undoubting about the truth; this has been exactly reversed. We are on the road to producing a race of men too mentally modest to believe in the multiplication table.
From Orthodoxy, Gilbert Keith Chesterton, pp 31-32.
Cited by D.A. Carson in Becoming Conversant with the Emerging Church: Understanding a Movement and Its Implications, p. 217
God Made Flesh, Then Plastic: Religious action figures create a different kind of toy story
Anyone seeking a mischievous stocking stuffer for Christopher Hitchens or less exalted scoffers need look no further. A growing phalanx of religious action figures--including Adam, Eve, Daniel, Job, Esther, Goliath, Samson and Jesus--offer a tweaking reminder that despite Heathendom's best efforts, the faith-based marketplace is forever expanding.
Plastic saints, to be sure, aren't exactly new. Mary, mother of Jesus, has long ridden shotgun in Catholic vehicles. Yet some of the faithful, including a few with a gift for retail, concluded that she needed reinforcements. David Socha, chief executive of One2believe, which offers a line of religious action figures, told the Associated Press that there is a "battle for the toy box" under way, in which good and evil vie for the young. "If you're very religious, it's a battle for your children's minds and what they're playing with and pretending," he said. "There are remakes out there of Satan and evil things."
Old Scratch and associates may now have their hands full. Jesus, for example, comes in several incarnations, including a football player, skier, roller blader and the best-selling "Baseball Jesus Sports Statue," offered by Catholic Supply for $20. "A contemporary statue for today's youth," the sales pitch says of the figure, promising a hands-on reminder that "Jesus is with us in everything we do, watching over us & involved in all of our acts & activities." The company's Web site also anoints its statue with a bit of marketplace myrrh: "As seen on the Conan O'Brien show!"
The deployment of Jesus and other biblical bigs to the toy-box war includes some contemporary updates. One supplier, in a bow toward divinity and diversity, offers figures in both dark- and light-skinned models (Adam and Eve, it should be noted, are portrayed in post-fall attire reminiscent of bathing suits). Meantime, at the Family Values Center, there's Moses ($12.99), who comes with "shield and sword, along with fully illustrated comic book." Interestingly, two female dolls--Deborah the Warrior and Queen Esther--cost $24.99. Must be their wardrobes.
Comment: What the world needs more of is real flesh and blood saints who enflesh and live out truth to the glory and honor of the Lord!
My Doctor switched me over from Lipitor (which is a non-generic drug to treat high cholesterol) to Zocor (a generic drug).
Formerly my co-pay for a three month supply of Lipitor was $ 75. Today I bought a 3 month supply of Zocor for $ 13.33.
For me, both drugs work the same. And what a cost savings for the generic!
FDIC shuts down NetBank due to defaults
FDIC / NetBank Info
Comment: My first Internet banking experience was with NetBank. The confusing web interface was a turn off and I switched to IngDirect (which I highly recommend)
Excerpt:
NetBank Inc., an online bank with $2.5 billion in assets, was shut down by the government on Friday because of an excessive level of mortgage defaults.
It was the largest savings and loan failure since the tail end of the industry's crisis more than 14 years ago. Federal regulators appointed the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. as a receiver for Alpharetta, Ga.-based NetBank.
.....
The FDIC said Friday that $1.5 billion of NetBank's insured deposits will be assumed by ING Bank, also a major online bank that is part of Dutch financial giant ING Groep NV. ING will pay $14 million for the deposits and receive 104,000 new customers.
NetBank, which had no physical branches, sustained significant losses last year "primarily due to early payment defaults on loans sold, weak underwriting, poor documentation, a lack of proper controls, and failed business strategies," the Office of Thrift Supervision said in a statement.
Government shuts down NetBank:
Mortgage defaults cited as FDIC named receiver, ING takes over deposits
Excerpt:
While dozens of mortgage companies have closed due to soaring defaults of home loans made to borrowers with weak, or subprime, credit, those problems previously had occurred among non-bank lenders such as New Century Financial Corp. NetBank, in contrast, is federally regulated.
Loose mortgage standards in recent years — especially among lenders catering to subprime borrowers — have resulted in a spike in home loan defaults.
Bert Ely, a banking consultant based in Alexandria, Va., said NetBank was in "deep trouble" before the subprime mortgage market's woes accelerated this year. Regulators, he said, "should have closed it a long time ago."
Microsoft Excel fails math test
Excerpt:
In a blog post, Microsoft employee David Gainer said that when computer users tried to get Excel 2007 to multiply some pairs of numbers and the result was 65,535, Excel would incorrectly display 100,000 as the answer.
Gainer said Excel makes mistakes multiplying 77.1 by 850, 10.2 by 6,425 and 20.4 by 3,212.5, but the program appears to be able to handle 16,383.75 times 4.
Comment: I actually found this hard to believe. But the above image is from my Vista workstation with Excel 2007. Microsoft will fix .. so it is not a big deal. It's just a little embarrassing (for them)!
Edwards: 'Pretty Soon We’re Not Going to Have a Young African-American Male Population in America.'
John Edwards:
“We cannot build enough prisons to solve this problem. And the idea that we can keep incarcerating and keep incarcerating — pretty soon we’re not going to have a young African-American male population in America. They’re all going to be in prison or dead. One of the two.”
Reality:
Despite popular misperception and those who find it a convenient talking point to illustrate inescapable racism, there are more young African-American men in college than in prison. In 2005, according to the Census Bureau, there were 864,000 black men in college. According to Justice Department statistics, there were 802,000 in federal and state prisons and jails; between the ages of 18 and 24, however, black men in college outnumber those incarcerated by 4 to 1.
Clinton: $5,000 for Every U.S. Baby
Excerpt:
Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton said Friday that every child born in the United States should get a $5,000 "baby bond" from the government to help pay for future costs of college or buying a home.
Clinton, her party's front-runner in the 2008 race, made the suggestion during a forum hosted by the Congressional Black Caucus.
"I like the idea of giving every baby born in America a $5,000 account that will grow over time, so that when that young person turns 18 if they have finished high school they will be able to access it to go to college or maybe they will be able to make that downpayment on their first home," she said.
The New York senator did not offer any estimate of the total cost of such a program or how she would pay for it. Approximately 4 million babies are born each year in the United States.
Clinton said such an account program would help people get back to the tradition of savings that she remembers as a child, and has become harder to accomplish in the face of rising college and housing costs.
One way of building a stronger economy, she said, is "more savings, starting with the so-called baby bonds idea where every person born in this country would be given that kind of account because we want to make an investment in America's young people."
She argued that wealthy people "get to have all kinds of tax incentives to save, but most people can't afford to do that."
Comments:
Democrats and Iran: Hillary outsmarts her dovish competition
Excerpt:
Kudos to Hillary Clinton--yes, you read that right--for her Senate vote this week urging the U.S. to designate Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps as a foreign terrorist organization. That's more than can be said for her primary competition of Barack Obama, Chris Dodd, Bill Richardson and John Edwards, who assailed her on this score at Wednesday's Democratic Presidential candidates debate at Dartmouth. These are men who seem to fear the Netroots more than the mullahs.
Mrs. Clinton's vote was on a symbolic amendment offered by Connecticut maverick Joe Lieberman and Republicans Jon Kyl and Norm Coleman. After marshaling the evidence of Iran's terrorist activities in Iraq, the amendment stated that "it is a critical national interest of the United States to prevent [Iran] from turning Shi'a militia into a Hezbollah-like force that could serve its interests inside Iraq." Twenty-one Democrats, including Joe Biden and John Kerry, apparently found this too shocking to support and voted nay, as did Republicans Chuck Hagel and Dick Lugar.
We probably shouldn't complain when 76 Senators, including a majority of Democrats, show some foreign-policy sense. Still, it's telling that the Democrats only agreed to the amendment after demanding that its language be edited to remove a statement that "it should be the policy of the United States to stop inside Iraq the violent activities and destabilizing influence" of Iran. Also left on the cutting-room floor, under Democratic duress, was a call "to support the prudent and calibrated use of all instruments of United States national power in Iraq" with respect to Iran and its proxies.
Comments:
Bonds a Twin? Ridiculous, but ...
Excerpt:
The Twins are so determined to bolster their lineup for next season, there were indications Thursday they would even consider signing Barry Bonds.
The San Francisco Giants have announced they will part ways with Bonds at season's end. The all-time home run leader wants to play next year, but soon he'll be a free agent looking for a job.
The chances of Bonds signing a free-agent contract in Minnesota are still remote, but the market could be limited. Bonds, 43, has battled knee problems, and most expect him to sign with an American League team so he can be a full-time designated hitter.
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Gardenhire was then asked, hypothetically, what he thought about getting a DH who hits more home runs than anybody but doesn't have the greatest clubhouse reputation.
"Hypothetically, I think we could try to make just about anything work," he said. "I think if people come here and get with our system, I think they'd enjoy it."
Seriously, though, Bonds? Indications around the Twins are, yes. Maybe they'll never get him, but that's how serious they are about scoring more in 2008.
Comment: I hope that Twins skip this option!
John MacArthur: God’s Absolute Sovereignty
Intro:
No doctrine is more despised by the natural mind than the truth that God is absolutely sovereign. Human pride loathes the suggestion that God orders everything, controls everything, rules over everything. The carnal mind, burning with enmity against God, abhors the biblical teaching that nothing comes to pass except according to His eternal decrees. Most of all, the flesh hates the notion that salvation is entirely God’s work. If God chose who would be saved, and if His choice was settled before the foundation of the world, then believers deserve no credit for any aspect of their salvation.
But that is, after all, precisely what Scripture teaches. Even faith is God’s gracious gift to His elect. Jesus said, “No one can come to Me, unless it has been granted him from the Father” (John 6:65). “Nor does anyone know the Father, except the Son, and anyone to whom the Son wills to reveal Him” (Matt. 11:27). Therefore no one who is saved has anything to boast about (cf Eph. 2:8, 9). “Salvation is from the Lord” (Jonah 2:9).
The doctrine of divine election is explicitly taught throughout Scripture. For example, in the New Testament epistles alone, we learn that all believers are “chosen of God” (Titus 1:1). We were “predestined according to His purpose who works all things after the counsel of His will” (Eph. 1:11, emphasis added). “He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world . . . He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will” (vv. 4, 5). We “are called according to His purpose. For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son . . . and whom He predestined, these He also called; and whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified” (Rom. 8:28–30).
Comment: The encouraging message of the day! I trust you will read!
