My, Too Cumbersome!Written by Terry Dashner
My, How Cumbersome!Terry Dashner……………….Faith Fellowship Church PO Box 1586 Broken Arrow, OK 74013 His name is John Stossel. You might know him as co-anchor of ABC’s 20/20. He has written a really good book entitled, Give Me A Break How I Exposed Hucksters, Cheats, and Scam Artists and Became Scourge of Liberal Media… (Perennial Currents 2004). The reason I’m commenting on his book is because it strikes a nerve with me—a raw nerve at that. I love my nation. I think Government is, by and large, composed of good men and women who really do work for common good. I believe most leaders are honest and pretty sharp; however, system they serve is broken. The Government has become so large and cumbersome that it impedes progress. Stossel’s book supports my reasoning. Let me share some of his insights. “Last year, Agriculture Department paid subsidies of almost $200 million to make sure some sheep and goat ranchers made a profit. Why? Because in 1954, nine years after World War II, congressmen argued it was crucial to ‘national security’ that America have enough wool to make soldiers’ uniforms. Today most military uniforms aren’t even made of wool, but no matter, Agriculture Department still gives farmers handouts.” I think United States would have surplus monies if it would trim back its leviathan Government and stop wasting money. For example, “At Pentagon, accounting discrepancies total $2 trillion. ‘They may have it. They just don’t know where it is,’ David Walker, head of General Accounting Office, told me. How can they not find that much money? Walker says Pentagon has bought things with it, but doesn’t know what. ‘They don’t know that they have it,’ he says. ‘They may buy it again.’ “No private company could get away keeping its books that way. The investors would be all over it. It would go bankrupt. The managers might go to jail. When I said that to Walker, he answered, ‘We’re not a private company.’”
| | Luck or Providence?Written by Terry Dashner
Luck of Providence?Terry Dashner……………..Faith Fellowship Church PO Box 1586 Broken Arrow, OK 74013 Think of dominoes falling and not luck happening. What am I saying? Consider this. The milestones of human history are not free-standing monoliths, occurring by luck. They are, however, like dominoes—one event of time affecting another until milestones arise and provide a signature by which we identify human history. Does that make sense? Listen to this. Author Bill Yenne in his book entitled, 100 Events That Shaped World History (Bluewood Books 1993), “…the Battles of Salamis and Plataea were significant because they prevented annihilation of Greek civilization. This in turn allowed a great flourishing of Greek culture which gave rise to philosophies whose thought would come to form basis for Western culture. The Battle of Waterloo and World Wars changed course of history. So did invention of steam engine and airplane. The flights of interplanetary spacecraft have cast a whole new perspective on our relatively tiny planet.” I agree with Mr. Yenne about hodgepodge of events culminating into one great event, marking history for posterity. But, again, I seem to be in minority group of people who are screaming loudly, “Hey! Things don’t just happen. There is an over riding hand of Providence, working throughout human history. Please, somebody, tell us this.” Since they won’t tell you that God rules over universe and nations—directing them by counsel of His Sovereign will—I will tell you. In this brief document, I’m going to state a few of history’s milestones and tell you what could have happened had they not occurred. And since they did occur, God was in them working out His will to consummate all things under authority of His only begotten Son Jesus Christ. The nations of world will become nations of our God. Okay, I got carried away. Let me get back to story. What if man had never become dissatisfied with drawing pictures on cave walls in order to communicate? “It wasn’t until around 3500 BC that people had idea of developing a set of simple, widely understood symbols—letters—that represented sounds used in speech and could be combined in different ways to make up what we call sentences. Such a system is called a phonetic alphabet” (Bill Yenne). Had not God moved man to point of writing as a form of communication, there would have been NO Bible. God is all about communication. So much so that He sent us “Word” and it “…became flesh and dwelt among us” (John 1:1-14). Never underestimate power of written word. It was written and disseminated word that changed course of human history.
|