economy

Heads Up

So…what’s in the headlines this morning?

An Urgent Message from David Wilkerson

AN EARTH-SHATTERING CALAMITY IS ABOUT TO HAPPEN. IT IS GOING TO BE SO FRIGHTENING, WE ARE ALL GOING TO TREMBLE – EVEN THE GODLIEST AMONG US.

More Americans say they have no religion

A wide-ranging study on American religious life found that the Roman Catholic population has been shifting out o of the Northeast to the Southwest, the percentage of Christians in the nation has declined and more people say they have no religion at all.

Wikipedia scrubs Obama eligibility

Wikipedia, the online “free encyclopedia” mega-site written and edited entirely by its users, has been deleting within minutes any mention of eligibility issues surrounding Barack Obama’s presidency, with administrators kicking off anyone who writes about the subject….

World Bank offers dire forecast for world economy

In a bleaker assessment than those of most private forecasters, the World Bank predicted Sunday that the global economy would shrink in 2009 for the first time since World War II.

China’s Navy expansion “no threat to others”

China’s plans to add aircraft carriers to its fleet and an historic long-distance mission by its navy are aimed only at protecting the country and its trade interests….

“Iran crossed nuclear tech threshold”

In a chilling indication that Iran’s arms program is advancing steadily, Israel acknowledged for the first time that Teheran had mastered the technology to make a nuclear bomb on the same day that the Iranians announced they had successfully tested a new air-to-surface missile.

Syria: Peace With Israel Possible

Syria President Bashar al-Assad said in an interview published on Monday that a peace deal with Israel was possible but that normal relations would only be possible if Israel ended its conflict with the Palestinians.

There. I don’t know how long that took. But it was quite a while. It would have been faster, but I did it between other computer and online projects. It’s much more efficient for me that way.

Now, make it a good day.

My Ways, My Afflictions

I was going to post this yesterday morning. 🙁

“I thought on my ways, and turned my feet unto thy testimonies” (Psalm 119:59).

We all need to periodically evaluate our ways. Daily, I suppose. May the result of such self-analysis cause me to turn back to God’s ways or to reaffirm myself in those ways.

“Before I was afflicted I went astray: but now have I kept thy word” (Psalm 119:67).

“It is good for me that I have been afflicted; that I might learn thy statutes” (Psalm 119:71).

“Good for me”? Well, it’s a matter of perspective, no? If affliction brings me into compliance with God’s Word, then it’s a good thing. Right?

“The law of thy mouth is better unto me than thousands of gold and silver” (Psalm 119:72).

What a great verse to come across when all kinds of things financial and economic are staggering and collapsing all around us! (Now if that girl who is auctioning off her “virtue” would grab ahold of that verse!)

Well, what say you?

Terror Strike: India

Reuters reports: Mumbai hit by deadly attacks

At least 10 people were killed and 26 wounded in a series of shootings around India’s financial capital Mumbai on Wednesday night, with two five-star hotels among the targets in what police called a terror attack.

Maharahstra state police chief A.N. Roy said attackers had fired automatic weapons indiscriminately, and used grenades, adding that they were still holed up in some buildings.

“These are terrorist strikes in at least seven places,” he told the NDTV news channel.

“Unknown terrorists have gone with automatic weapons and opened fire indiscriminately. At a few places they even used grenades.

Police said targets included the luxury Taj and Oberoi hotels, with television stations showing the lobby of both hotels on fire and people being evacuated from the Oberoi with their hands on their heads.

But the Times of India reports at least 80 dead:

Terror struck the country’s financial capital late on Wednesday night as coordinate serial explosions and indiscriminate firing rocked eight areas across Mumbai including the crowded CST railway station, two five star hotels–Oberoi and Taj.

At least 80 people were dead and 250 injured in the terror attacks, hospital sources said.

Two terrorists were still inside the Oberoi Hotel and commando operation was on.

Is this an effort to further destabilize the global economy?

Does it portend attacks on other financial centers?

Who knows. Maybe Al Qaeda. Certainly God.

There’s also this headline out there: Report of Terror Threat on Subways

The New York Police Department deployed extra officers and stepped up security measures in the subways and other mass-transit stations on Wednesday after learning of al Qaeda discussions to coordinate a wave of explosions in the subway system over the holidays, the authorities announced.

Well, whatever’s going on, we need to pray for those in authority and in law enforcement and in emergency services.

And for those suffering in India.

And for God’s people, that they may rise to represent His love and compassion and helpfulness.

Still Far to Fall

That’s the title of Tony’s piece this morning over at WorldMagBlog. Here are just a few chunks thereof:

Nobody knows where the bottom is for our economy, but the experts agree we aren’t anywhere close to it yet.

We were spiritually poor as well, none of us attending church, mostly because we only knew the kinds of churches where people eagerly look for the failings of others, places where drinking and pornography were regularly denounced, but in which gossip ran rampant.

I carry it in me like a poison, this fear, not for myself any more, but for them, that they will want more food than we have, that they will have to sleep in someone’s basement.

And yet the lover of our souls tells us to worry not for tomorrow, because today’s troubles are sufficient. Let the children come to me, he says, and he may as well have said that we’d best bring them. Because if we are not leading them to him then we are leading them astray, and only God knows what he will do to such parents as that.

Things are going to get worse for many of us. Our children will be watching. The truth is, I don’t know if I trust the Lord to take care of us. And yet these little ones will be watching, and listening, and storing up memories of what it means to be a Christian in times of hardship.

Thanks again, Tony! This dad needs reminders like that.

A Pre-Election Expectation

It’s late…too late to be doing this. This is my last computer activity of the day.

In a final effort to seal the coffin of McCain’s electoral chances, the economic picture will be allowed (or further forced) to darken in the next several days.

The wild ride is not yet over.

Rest in Jesus, and you will have peace.

Good night.

In Other Developments…

Here are three items to distract you from the economic wasteland of the week.

First up:

One + One = Two

Connecticut’s Supreme Court ruled Friday that gay couples have the right to marry, making the state the third behind Massachusetts and California to legalize such unions through the courts.

The ruling comes just weeks before Californians go to the polls on a historic gay-marriage ballot question, the first time the issue will be put before voters in a state where same-sex couples are legally wed.

[…]

Civil unions and a similar arrangement, known as domestic partnerships, are offered to same-sex couples in Vermont, New Jersey, New Hampshire, Oregon, Hawaii, Maine, Washington and the District of Columbia.

Read it all

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Above all, love God!