12.28.2010 READINGS

worldmag, 1.1.2011, p8, finders keepers - joel belz..talking about economics..'the children who will be tomorrow's voters need to know more than simply how to balance their own family checkbooks. they need to be learning the principles, even at this stage of their lives, of what it takes to keep a nation economically afloat. the elementary classroom is not too early a setting for teaching boys and girls the sober meaning of terms like 'trillion dollar deficits' (if indeed we adults understand which wording); of the benefits and the costs of 'compound interest'; of the 'welfare state; of 'collectivism'; of the free market'; of 'wealth creation'; of the 'nanny state'; and maybe a hundred other key terms and concepts..
so here's a proposal: sometime in the next 10 days, you share with me no more than three such truths or principles that you think are critical for the next generation to comprehend and implement in the national and world economy. state each concept in no more than 30 words - and make you statement simple enough that a fourth grader ( typically a 10 year old) can understand what you're saying.

dear mr. belz,
several comments before sharing three concepts. 1. i am thinking this teaching should be done at home by parents.. (fathers, train up your children in the discipline and instruction of the Lord..) rather than in school by teachers, 2. that it focus on the individual living a certain way in regard to economics rather than the nation. (a little leaven leavens the whole lump of dough) 3. that it be real life training rather than conceptualized (be ye doers of the word and not hearers only) and 4. that it is essential for adults to start seeking out and then practicing, immediately, what they would teach their children (for ezra had prepared his heart to SEEK the law of the Lord and to DO it and to TEACH in israel statutes and judgments. 7.10)

principles:

1. DO EVERYTHING GOD IS TELLING YOU (trust in the Lord and do good. so shalt thou dwell in the land and verily thou shalt be fed. psalm 37.3
2. MAKE DO, DO WITHOUT; USE IT UP, WEAR IT OUT (self-restraint is a key essence in all morality. (.. and having food and raiment let us be therewith content. iI timothy 6.8)
3. BE A HARD WORKER AND HILARIOUS GIVER (let him who steals steal no longer but rather let him labor, working with his own hands, so that he may have something to share with him who has need. ephesians 4.28)

p24...so disasters would dog 2010, whether they engolfed whole countries or whole tows - chile, indonesia, new zealand, the villages of the indus river basin and montcoal, w.va. nearly 260,000 people died in such events compared with 15,000 in 2009 - the highest number of disaster related deaths since 1976.

p68...the 2010 federal budget deficit hit a near record 1.294 trillion, only slightly less than 2009's overspending. the congressional budget office projected the national debt would reacha level equal to 90% of the u.s. gross domestic product by 2020 - up from just 40% 2 years ago. in a december report, the bipartian national commission on fiscal responsibility and reform warned that 'if the u.s. does not put its house in order, the reckoning will be sure and the devastation severe'. (note: unfortunately God is furthering the process of His judgment on us by sending a lot of would-be republican 'saviors' to save us. jeremiah17.5 says, 'cursed be the man that trusteth in man and maketh flesh his arm and whose heart departeth from the Lord'.)

the smell of death and the aroma of Christ - emily belz, p86

..speaking of recently taliban murdered tom little, a christian optometrist who had worked over 4 decades to help the people of afghanistan... his wife, libby was given a small notebook he had..and 'in between the pages listing medical equipment and supplies for the team he led..were what looked like penciled sermon notes...there were several notations from ephesians and a reference from II corinthians 2.15..for we are to God the aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing, to the one we are the smell of death and to the other the fragrance of life.. to the side tom had jotted, 'use the nuristani goat cheese story'. as libby explained, some aromas take some getting used to and nuristani goat cheese is packed on donkeys in animal skins and carried for weeks, permeating even the saddlebags with its strong sour scent. herdsmen who carry it are smelled from far off, but once you have acquired a taste for it, you're hooked. folks travel miles for a taste of nuristani goat cheese...

the year 2010 has brought multiple encounters with people like the littles, "ones who stayed", men and women of whom the world is not worthy..one is joel, pastor of an evangelical church in baghdad. asked how to pray for a congregation that has faced death all year long, he didn't ask for safety or prosperity but for his church to experience deliverance from a "spirit of religion, where we worship creation instead of the creator: and from "our spirit of pride, rooted as we are so close to ancient babylon".

another, baptist pastor john bell in zimbabwe, told me that living through dire crises has taught his church better to appreciate the reality of Jesus' life. feeding 5,000 or walking on water are sought after traits when grocery shelves are empty. "there are certain things about Christ you only learn in a storm. that has been our privilege here to have Christ manifest Himself in ways that you do not see in the calm".

and there is my friend labib, an arab christian living in a jewish settlement facing the security wall that separates israel from the west bank. "how do you survive this place? i asked him one day waiting in jerusalem traffic. "the importance of the Christian community does not come from its numbers but from our presence and our service and our witness for Jesus Christ", he said calmly.

mailbag, p91..while in kabul some time ago, i asked a female humanitarian volunteer if afghanistan was betting better. would democracy and freedom eventually somehow ooze out of this mess, as western embassies fantasized? and whatof her safety? "it's going to come to the shedding of blood", she told me quietly. "and i'm willing for that blood to be mine"..