Ok, here's a better one

[SaltAndLight]

Here one for devtional writers.
What is your thought on financial crisis for a spirtual perspective?
What can Christians learn from this?
What point would like unbelievers to understand How would you point them to Jesus?
What is difference between enjoying material goods and putting too much trust in them? How do we know when we have crossed the line?

I don't impose word limits I can be paragraph or an essay and please do not resort self-righteous platitudes The goal is to is use scripture to illuminate was happened not to engage in finger pointed That outside the scope of this site.

[jacks girl]

Hey there glad to see you in the prompts. i'm not much on this kind of writing but may be Melw will jump in when she comes back on line.

jacks

[SaltAndLight]

Jacks,
You at least answer the first one.

[Textus Rec]

And he believed in the Lord; and He counted it to him for righteousness.
Genesis 15:6

Bills are scattered on the kitchen table. The electric company, the insurance company, the gas company, and the mortgage company are all represented in this creditor quorum. She sits down and places a half-empty cup of coffee on the table. It makes a brown ring on one of the correspondences. A tear drops and stains another. She opens her checkbook and studies it through blurred eyes. She can’t read the numbers through her tears, but she knows that they are too low. She doesn’t know what she’s going to do. Ever since Charlie died, things have been so difficult . . . But my God shall supply all your need . . . She read that verse last night. God shall supply all her needs. She knows her income, she knows her bills add up to be more, and she knows that God shall supply her needs. She believes. She doesn’t know how He’s going to do it, but she knows He will. She gathers all the bills together into a pile and prays, “Here you go, Lord. They’re all yours.”

James warns us to be “doers of the word, and not hearers only (James 1:22).” Doing is so much more than simply going through the motions of physical obedience. True, we must physically do what the Word of God commands, but we must receive the Scriptures into our hearts and believe them (Romans 10:10) – not just believe that they are inspired, but that they are also alive. Believe the words and the power of the God behind them. How can we believe what God says if we do not realize who He is? We must understand that God is omnipotent and that His storehouses are illimitable.

But my God shall supply all your need according
to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.
Philippians 4:19

[revbill]

From a spiritual perspective I think St. Ambrose had an excellent idea when he said, "Be a fish." He used the old Chritsian symbol in comparison to the situations in which I find myself sometimes. We must learn how not to be swamped by these situations, which for me is a lot easier said than done.

I have found myself caught up in the same thing. I also look at the income and outgo of our budget and am finding there seems to be a lot more month left than there is money. Somehow, though, on the day before payday, there are still a couple of coins in my pocket because He has provided everything.

There is a story told of two monks in Japan travelling together down a muddy road. A heavy rain was still falling. Coming around a bend, they met a lovely girl in a silk kimono and sash, unable to cross the intersection. 'Come on girl,' said Tanzan at once. Lifting her in his arms, he carried her over the mud. Ekido did not speaqk again until that night when they reached a lodging temple. Then he could no longer restrain himself. 'We monks do not go near females,' he told Tanzan, 'especially not young and lovely ones. It is dangerous. Why did you do that'? 'I left the girl there,' said Tanzan. 'Are you still carrying her?'

We, too, must learn to pass through situations like a fish, rather than carrying them like a snail. We will emerge with a little more experience of life, but there is no need to carry more with us than we have to.

There are many times when I think I know what should be happening in my spiritual journey to notice what God is really trying to teach me. And, again, I must be still enough and simple enough to let Him plan the course.

I tend to get in a whole lot of trouble when I try to get in front of the Lord, which has happened more times than I want to admit. We can learn to be content in every situation, as in Phillippians 4:11 where Paul said, I have learned in whatever state I am to be content

Please don't get me wrong, I am not like Paul; I am still learning over, and over, and over, that He will provide ALL my NEEDS. Just enough, which is plenty.

[SaltAndLight]

Revbill,
That's a great one. I can relate to that, thinking getting a job, moving out and ahead . I felt like it should have been happening already especially when all friends have jobs and some are even married. I feel like I am having a Joseph moment. God want me to stand still, so he work out all of the kinks such as my anxiety. Being at home all of the time have given plenty of chances to be still and listen. I have learned not to compare myself to everyone else. I also believe in the concept of just enough. However, it hard to remember in an emegency when things happen all at once. That why it is important to pray. But in today uncertain times, how much really is enough?

[SaltAndLight]

I was thinking along the lines of the actual crsis and the response. I keeping think of Proverbs 14:12 There is way that seem right to a man, but in the end it leads to death".
These CEOs were not necessarily greedy. In fact they wanted to be generous, by giving more people a chance to buy homes. However, they were blind the consequences of these actions. No one know what can happen with perfect clarity, but there were warning signs if they happened to look for them. I give JPMorgan's Jamie Dimon a lot credit( no pun intended). He saw the warning sign and avoided it. Was he smarte or he was just wiser because he looked long term. In life as in business we must look term. Is that not what our faith encourages to do? We can enjoy the here and now because our future is secure. However, in the daily pressures of life we must remember to think long term. We must heed the Bible's warning about wisdom and discernment. We must get it and have the courage to use it. Solomon had wisdom but wasted on pleasure. As result he went into a reactive depression as reflected in Ecclesiastes. "Me Wisdom is it intelligence with judgment. All of these CEOs had the same information, but not all of the the judgment to act on it properly. If human judgment is bad in earthly matters, how can we trust it in moral and spiritual matters?"
The government must get to the heart of the problem rather than offering a quick fix. In that respect there is no easy answer. Tighter regulation will help, but it does not solve the heart problems of lack of wisdom or dishonesty. We know as Christian The government can over regulate and cause more problems because they don't see the long term. Bearing the consequences is the only sure way to learn because sometimes we are too stubborn to learn from others . This how God trains his children and as representatives of God government should act the same way. Handing over money blindly is bad stewardship. How can these CEOs be trusted to handle taxpayer's money, when they cannot handle private funds? Jesus was right when he said the following:

Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much.So if you have not been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth, who will trust you with true riches?And if you have not been trustworthy with someone else's property, who will give you property of your own? [or in this case vice versa] Luke 16:10-11

[SaltAndLight]

Textus Rec,
I think your point is not only applicable to Christians, but also to the world in general. People always push for tighter oversight, but people will only be accountable as they want to be. In my revised version of my previous I make that point.

[litmistic]

On a spiritual perspective with this crisis

I believe that the world has changed in the government as well as on wall street and in the banking industry. Its not in" God we trust"
its "In government we trust "Haven't we learned anything from our previous history of allowing the government to do it all.

It doesn't work if they don't have the same morals, policies, rules and principles in place as the average American have to obey to. America need to understand the Government is corrupted, not reformed in policies or rules or the same constititional rights in place. They are in the big boys club for sure and we American's need to get off our tv/game boy/ipods/and the such and start taken action by writing to our senators/government/and congress to do what is right and what our government was built on.... IN GOD WE TRUST "... to do whatever it takes to make the Government stronger. WE The PEOPLE ********>the constitution states... so we the people must take back what is ours.

One: I feel the banks crossed the lines when they looked at peoples incomes and should have done more research in their banking and other loans with homes, cars and ect. Plus they allowed loans to go through even though some who applied had two homes already and could only get interest only loans/ or arms in place. They allowed people with very low income to take out loans and than jacked the interest rates after so long...some of the minority/senior citizens did not understand the paperwork.
The industry went wild wanting to allow for house buyers in and reap the benefits of the soring market....but they did not look at the consequences of what would happen if the loan applicants could not pay when it came to the grand scale.

Two: Wall street I believe had too much leeway in what they could and could not do with not enough watchdogs keeping check.
Making it easy for fraud and scams to take place as well as corp. insider trading.

Three :the government who are in charge of over seeing that the financial system is working the way it should broke down due to all the wealth that was going around in everyones wallet but the tax payers.
They allowed big bonus and yearly incomes to soar
corrupt activity to prosper
accountablity factors/rules were broken
they let the finanical corp. liquidate all asset before claiming bankruptcy. Example: lehman brothers.
They unleashed the rules/policies/and control for greed to all that wanted to get rich. Making the tax payers suffer.

They did not listen to the motto" If you play with fire you will get burned". The people who have been responsible and made money off of these practices may not get punished here but trust me God is not happy with liars and cheaters. You reap what you sow .

We need to write to congress and the white house /senators of our state and tell them how we feel and that we will take action against the people who steal from the government, financal market and on wall streets. It is time to take America back to where it needs to be "In God do we trust" If we as tax payers have to have a balanced budget than I believe that the government should be showing an example and doing what is best for our country. They need to get the budget in a surplus within 5 years or less. It is time that the Government do its job and not get involved in everything. We the people need to get involved with the civic groups so the majority in numbers will succeed in congress.
We must all be solely responsible for improving ourselves and not over spending at this time. We must all cut our budgets to show that we are not going to give the bad guys the gold.