How then should we live?

I have been extremely challenged of late as I look at the economic landscape not only of our country but also of our world. My associate and I are in the process of writing a book on financial strategies and the research has opened my eyes. I have been a financial professional for 13 years my associate for 22 years. The following is only a piece of what we are seeing.

A few days ago I was watching a course on economics and the speaker was explaining the concept of Time Value of Money. I hope you have some understanding of the time value of money; money received tomorrow is worth less than money received today. But he made a very powerful statement that really shook me up. He said that the concept of time value of money was a very controversial topic with moral and religious implications as well as economic impacts. I guess I shouldn't have been surprised by this statement but I was.

This really caused me to slow down and think. I have always been frustrated with the idea of inflation. Gas will cost more next year than last year, your house will cost more next year than last year, you will earn more money next year than last year etc.. I know, call me weird, but this never made sense to me and I am in the financial industry. I consider myself one of the more educated people in my field. This week I had an epiphany.

The reason we have inflation is that we don't follow God's laws of economics. Stay with me here. If you open your bible and look into the old testament law you will find some rules regarding ownership and sale of land etc., (see Lev. 25). If you bought land from someone you could only hold it 49 years but in the 50th year, the year of jubilee, you had to return it to its original owner. You could not hold a Hebrew slave for more than 6 years. In the seventh year he was set free. Nothing could be taken from someone forever, it had to at some time in the future be returned. This did not allow people to rise in power over others and rule people. There was no central bank loaning money and collecting interest. Let me explain.

In today's world if you borrow money to purchase a house let's say $200,000. You don't have the $200,000 dollars so the bank loans you the money and charges you interest. The interest you will pay on the purchase will cause the actual cost of the house to go be substantially higher approx. $386,000. The problem here is that the additional $186,000 is not in the money system so in order for them to receive the money they must print more money to make it available to pay back. This creates an inflationary effect in the money system and requires a piece of penny candy to cost .75 cents over time. Who benefits from this process? A very small number of people controlling the overall financial system. We call them the "Central Banking System".

All this said to say this. As our economic system is breaking down and more accurately melting down you need to know where your security comes from. If you look to money or possessions as what will sustain you, your entire world will fall apart. The US Government has confiscated gold four times in our nations short history. You do not own property in the United States your are given the privilege to live on property as long as you pay property taxes and don't break the rules. The United States Government has and is still in the business of confiscating land. You need to be aware that the United States is on the verge of an economic meltdown beyond what has ever been seen in history. The most powerful nation on earth, with the most prosperous people in human history is headed for complete financial meltdown. Think of Greece or Portugal on steroids.

I don't want to sound melodramatic but you need to know the truth. More importantly you need to know who your God is. If it is money and for most of us it is a struggle to be able to say it isn't, we must repent and run to Jesus and seek understanding as to how we should live. Consider Jesus' words in Matthew 6:19-34. Be blessed as you seek first the Kingdom.

It's like falling off a horse

Teaching from horseback

I have found that the best way to get someones attention is to make a mistake or confess something. So today I am going to confess a mistake I made one day out riding by myself. About 6 years ago I was out riding behind my house in Orting and stopped for a moment to, well lets just say I needed to stop for a minute.... lol. You should never drink to much liquid before leaving for a horseback ride.

Anyway, as I was getting ready to mount up I was thinking of all the guys I had been watching on television and the energetic way they seemed to climb on to their horses. SO, of course I decided I should be getting on with a little more exuberance. Wow, I found out very quickly I had a little to much coffee in me... as I swung up, and over, and upside down. I wish I had a picture to post on this site to show you just how silly I looked. Somehow I ended up upside down with one hand in the offside stirrup trying to hold myself from falling to the ground. Important thing to note, I am about three miles from home. So here I am teetering from the stirrup realizing that I haven't got the strength to keep from falling off the other side of my horse upside down. All I can think of is hitting the ground spooking my horse and getting kicked in the head.



Well, as you can guess I survived the fall since I am writing this blog. I landed upside down on my shoulders, knocked the wind out of myself, and my horse never kicked me he just walked about 15 feet away and stood there looking at me trying to get my breath. I could hardly breathe as I was waving my hand and asking him to come back to me. It just goes to show we all make mistakes, some a little worse than others. Usually for me I find they can be avoided by stopping to think through what I am about to do... something I'm not always very good at doing.



Prepping for youth outing

Thankfully God knows all the mistakes I am going to make before I make them and the amazing thing is He still loves me in spite of not only the mistakes I have already made but even in spite of the mistakes I have yet to make. The really important thing I am working on learning is that He loves you the same way and calls me to love you and others the same way that He does.

Easter Celebration for the less fortunate of our community!

What a great day we had yesterday sharing the love of Jesus by sharing our horses with the folks from our community. Each year a group of local churches, business, and ministries get together to provide a meal and a celebration of Easter with the less fortunate in our community. We have been bringing horses for the last 4 years along with Ron and Barb Downing and several others. This year was in a new larger location with a park adjacent to it so the kids had a place to go to play and we had a much more convenient place to walk horses.







Each year the number of people in attendance seems to grow. With the long term economic downturn that we have been experiencing there are many in need. Many of these kids just need some extra love from an outside source to let them know they have value. They received candy, face painting, balloon animals, Easter baskets. All of this is provided by individuals and organizations that just want to share the love of God.

Prior to the service Ted Brackman shares the reason for the celebration and tells us that Jesus Christ is risen! and we echo back He is Risen Indeed! We then sang the hymn Jesus Chris is Risen Today before diving into an amazing banquet of ham, turkey, several different casseroles, and all the trimmings including pie and ice cream. Then it's out to the Easter Egg hunt in the park followed by unlimited free horseback rides until about 5:15 in the evening. There are always lots of happy faces on both the children as well as the parents.

How do you share the love of Jesus to world around you? Is there a food bank, a shelter, a clothing bank, or some other service that is in need of volunteers nears you? Ask around, you will likely not find it very hard to find those who would gladly accept your help.

I hope to have a slideshow of the event up soon.

There is Freedom in the Light!

Tonight while studying about living free I was intrigued by the way we live in freedom through Christ and the way a horse lives in peace in relationship to a good trainer. I was watching one of my favorite horse trainers over the weekend and noting the look of the horse he was working with over the course of the lessons.

One of the things that I have always found interesting to watch is how a horse begins to relax as it grows in its submission to the trainer. The horse is an animal that seeks leadership. However, when you first begin working with them you would believe otherwise. They tend to pull away, run away, or push on you in order to not be led. We are a lot like that. We seek our own way and think we have a better way of doing things in yet we are rarely right in our assumption of what is best for us. So it is with a horse.

When you first begin training them their head is up they are stiff and unresponsive. They fight the halter, the lead rope, the bit, your leg and any other training tool you might have. But, as time goes on if you are a patient, black and white no shades of grey leader the opposite begins to happen. The horse begins to find themselves drawn to you for leadership, safety and rest.

You will see this in a horse’s body language as time progresses. Instead of their head being up in the air, their body language being fidgety, and their tail twitching you will see their head drop low and a calm relaxed look and feel come over them. They will stand quietly and close to their leader. There are few things more rewarding than having a horse trust your leadership and desire to be with you. As their head comes down below yours and they stand close and quiet you are able to come in gentle contact with your horse.

We are much the same as we grow up in our walk with God. As we begin to submit to His leadership in our lives we begin to feel the release of fear, anxiety, depression that comes from the uncertainty of controlling our own lives. As we understand more fully His gentle but clear leadership in our lives we are able to face greater and greater challenges with ever rising levels of confidence knowing that we can do all things through Christ who gives us strength. Learning daily to die to self and lay down our lives for our friends requires a relationship of trust in the Spirit of God who is training us.

I encourage you. Take up the challenge of learning what it looks like to submit to God and understand His strong yet gentle leadership in your life and know the peace that passes all understanding that will guard your heart and mind in Christ Jesus.

Wild in the light!

I was talking with a friend the other night and he mentioned the concept of a tame horse vs. a wild horse and it got me to thinking. I think we have an incorrect perception of a tame horse. There is no such thing as a tame horse. There are wild uncontrolled horses some of whom we call tame because they are in a pasture and some that are living in the wild. The real difference is not wild or tame but submitted and respectful or rebellious and disrespectful.

If we look at the great men of the bible and Jesus himself, they were not tame men. Moses beat an Egyptian soldier to death, David and his mighty men killed thousands in battle, Jesus turned over the money changers tables in the middle of the temple and then later walked to his death on the cross. What makes these stories so amazing is how these wild men of God could do what they did.

The reason they accomplished the things they did was because they were submitted to God. Moses submitted to God's leading and led a million people through the Red Sea. David stood in an open field with a sling and a few rocks and killed a nine foot tall giant and later ruled the Nation of Israel. Jesus said time and time again I do nothing that I don't see my Father doing and I say nothing I don't hear my Father say, I of mine own self can do nothing. Perfectly submitting his personal will to the will of his heavenly Father he walked to the cross and died in my place and yours.

When I work with horses, my number one goal is to get the fear out of them and my second goal is immediately to start teaching them how to respect me as their leader. As they realize they need not fear me because I don't ever do anything to hurt them, they can begin to submit to my leadership. They then become a wildly powerful creature submitted to my leading able to do amazing things. But only when they are free of fear and submitted to be led. Left to their own wild uncontrolled life they are just prey for the wolves.

Horse Training and Christian Foundations

When working toward growth in any arena, there is always a tendency to try to shortcut the process. We want to be able to have the outcome but not put in the time, energy, and sometimes suffering it takes to grow up in wisdom and maturity.

When training horses I have found, often you get down the trail a ways and find that the foundation that was originally laid breaks down when you really begin to ask a horse to do something that they don’t naturally like to do. I have found in my own life this is also true. If the foundational pieces have not been laid well, we will always have issues down the road.

When training a horse we start with simple expectations that don’t require much accept a willingness to stand still or to move their feet in a particular way. These pieces of the training process often times seem as though they aren’t that big of a deal and so if the horse seems to get it a person moves on to the stuff they really want their horse to be able to do. The problem is these seemingly minor issues will show up magnified later.

Case in point! You want your horse to stand still when you are in the saddle. So you work on things from the ground and he stands relatively well so you move on. You get on your horse and all he wants to do is walk around, follow the other horses, and be otherwise fidgety. You didn’t take the time to move him around the arena under saddle until he was tired enough to want to stop and stand and then keep him moving for a while longer, several times. So now though you have an ok horse you don’t have a truly quiet horse.

We are much the same. We study something out in the word and feel like we have an ok grasp of it and so we move on to read something else having not walked out the particular thing we were learning about in our daily walk (Hebrews 5:14)  says "by reason of use have exercised their senses". This becomes problematic as we get farther down the road. When, we bump into something more difficult to walk out in our life and we haven’t practiced it consistently. It hasn’t gotten to the automatic stage in our daily walk and we stumble in an area we thought we had control of or felt we had gained maturity.

We need to get excited about chewing on the word. Truly tasting the truth of who God is and what He has called us to. We all need to build solid foundations in the basic biblical truths of life. If we do they will overtime not only be foundations, but they will become buildings that will protect us and provide shelter for those around us.