That All May Know Ministries Blog

With all the buzz about Cash for Clunkers, it’s easy to think that it was a great way for people to get a better set of wheels. But was it really? No way! Cash for Clunkers was simply a way for broke people to buy cars that they really couldn't afford. It was a bad idea on multiple levels. But before digging into that, let’s take a little history lesson.

About a decade ago, a fair housing program was started, called a sub-prime lending market. The idea behind it was that everyone “needed” to own a home—including broke people. The government decided to start a program to reinvest in communities, which allowed pretty much anyone to borrow money to buy a house. Lending companies charged high interest rates, causing already struggling families to go even further into debt.

Basically, this was a program designed to encourage broke people to buy houses. Most people didn’t even know it existed until it unraveled and became the number-one cause of our recent recession. The government took those stupid loans back and securitized them, which created the financial mess last fall. Helping broke people buy houses didn’t turn out to be a great government program. Guess what? Helping broke people buy brand-new cars—and now home appliances—will turn out just as bad.

The Cash for Clunkers program was designed exactly for people who should not take advantage of the program. You trade your $2,000 clunker in for a brand-new, shiny $20,000 car, and the only way you can afford it is with a high-interest payment. That just means you really couldn’t afford it to begin with. Doesn’t this sound like the sub-prime mortgage problem all over again?

When you drive that new car off the lot, you’re immediately going to lose $4,500. The worst car accidents happen on the showroom floor. New cars go down in value like a rock. The government thinks it’s going to save the American auto industry by putting broke people into cars they can’t pay for. It’s going to come back to bite them—and the rest of us—in the form of taxes galore.

Another bad thing about this program is that we, the taxpayers, are paying for the new cars! It’s morally wrong of the government to take money away from us—against our will—in the form of taxes and give that money to someone else to buy a stupid car they can’t afford in the first place! This is theft, plain and simple.

Cash for Clunkers is a program that redistributes wealth in the name of the environment, and it’s going to be a curse on the car dealer and the manufacturer that carries the paper. It’s going to hurt the broke person who bought a car he couldn’t afford. And it’s already a problem for our country, because it’s adding dollars to the national debt.

There’s always a twist with government programs like this. They try to think of creative ways to help people, but the situation usually ends up worse than it did before they “helped.” In the end, I should decide what to do with my own money. If I want to buy you a car, I will! And if you can’t buy a car without actually paying for the whole thing, then you’re better off keeping your “clunker.”

So good riddance to a really bad program that has done more damage than good.

While at youth camp, the main speaker in the mornings told of how when he was first starting off in the ministry that he asked an older preacher for some advice, any advice for the ministry.  The preacher said I will tell it to you in a poem. 

The first stanza is:

 

This post came from my wife's personal blog and I wanted to share it with you.

 

While at camp last week, I gave each of the girls in my cabin an assignment. The first day, they were to look in the Bible for something about God that they did not already know. The next day, they had to find something about what the Bible says that we are. We named it the Who Is He? and Who Am I? challenge. The girls did a great job and each found something different about both subjects. We arrived at this conclusion: My worth is not in who I am, but in who He is. When we understand who He is and how much He loves us, it is only then that we can understand what it means for our worth to be in Him. This is much greater than any worth that we can think we have apart from Him. Our goal therefore, should be to find out who He is. He promises to be a rewarder to all that diligently seek HIM! (Hebrews 11:6). If my goal in seeking God is only to help me, then I will not find Him. If I seek Him alone, then He will be my reward and then "...all these things shall be added unto you." (Matt. 6:33)

Watch the video below.  This is how we are going to get the DVD to 50,000 households in our city.

 

It was amazing to see God working in the hearts of the young people at teen camp.  I had the privilege of being a counselor and seeing first hand God working in the hearts of my campers.  

One of the neat things that I saw was one of the campers in my cabin take a spiritual lead.  Even though young, he seems to be a natural leader.  During free time I would often see him off by himself reading the Bible.  

Every night, before going to bed, he would open up his bible, along with the devotional "My Daily Bread, " and start reading it.  The other campers would gather around him to read with him. He would start assigning his fellow companions the specific passages of scriptures to read and all the while I would sit back and let it happen...without any pressure or nudging from me.  This was one of the highlights of their day.  It was a great thing to witness.

However, each morning I reminded them that during a week such as camp, it is easy to be "spiritual."  It is easy to focus on scripture, the Lord, etc. because there are no outside influences.  It is a week completely without TV, Internet, video games, email, cell phones, etc.  AAAHH!!!  What do we do?  :)  

So I proposed the question, "what are you going to do two weeks from now, one month from now when you are out of this environment of good preaching every night and Christians on every side?  The decisions that you made this week, will they stick, last and will you remember them one month from now?"  

Unfortunately, as we have all seen, many decisions made during camp don't last and two weeks to a month later, that person who made the decision is the same ole person they were before they made the decision, or worse.  

So, every morning, during our devotional time, I reminded them of this and I told them that the Christian life is not a success because of the decisions you made in camp or during a church service.  The Christian life is a daily walk with God.  It is a decision to wake up EVERY morning and say, I am going to follow my Lord today!  I am going to obey my Lord today!  Yes, the decisions in camps and conferences are great, but the way we keep those decisions and live them is to wake up every morning and make the decision that we are going to remember the decision we made, follow the decision according to God's Word, and obey what God has told us to do.  It is a daily, consistent, action.  THERE IS NO SECRET TO THE CHRISTIAN LIFE!  We must decide daily  to follow our Lord.  

We are so excited about this project.  We know that God is going to bless in a tremendous way.  I was talking to my father-in-law yesterday about this project and I said to him that we could spend the rest of our lives personally talking to everyone in the street and still not get to every person in our city.  However, in a relatively short time, we will have given every person in our city the chance to hear and watch a clear presentation of the Gospel through this DVD project.  However, it doesn't stop there.  We have plans to distribute mass amounts of literature, CD's, DVD's, etc. to keep the Gospel in front of them. 

Very soon, I will be posting a video of how we are going to produce theses DVD's and deliver them to the people.  Stay tuned!!!  

 

 

This year was my first year being a counselor in the Camps here in Spain.  It was a great opportunity for me to continue practicing my Spanish.  I have been studying Spanish for a little over a year now.  I finished my formal classes several months ago and since then have been continuously learning through conversation, listening, reading, etc. 

Camp is a great week to help with Language learning because for 5 days, 24 hours a day, you are immersed in the spanish.  As a counselor, I had to give a 25 minute devotional every morning.  It was challenging, but very helpful.  

I wanted to blog about one of the testimonies given by one of the campers.  He is 18 years old and has a very tender heart.  From what I understand, he has been battling between the flesh and Spirit for sometime.  

The last night, he stood up and gave a testimony explaining how one of his friends from school had just died.  His friend was taking a shower and a live electric wire had come loose and fallen on the floor where it was wet.  When he stepped out, he was immediately electrocuted to death.  The young man, during his testimony, expressed how this impacted his life.  His friend was not a Christian and as he broke down crying, he explained how he had never told his friend of the Love of Christ.  

This testimony impacted many of the campers, counselors (including myself), workers, and pastors.  The next morning, before we left, my campers expressed how his testimony impacted their lives.  

We never know when it will be our time to die.  We never know when those around us, family, friends, loved ones, will be ushered into eternity.  God has placed us wherever we are for a purpose.  We are to be a light, salt in the place where we reside.  This young man is possibly one of the few lights in his entire school.  

May we be conscientious everyday to being the light that God intends us to be to those around us.  Talk to someone, give them a Gospel tract, give them a message on CD, give them literature, etc. so that they can receive the opportunity to be know our loving Savior, Jesus Christ.  

Deanna and I had the priviledge of being part of the teen camp here in Spain. We saw God work in a tremendous way in the hearts of the young people. God worked in our hearts as well.

During the mornings, Moises Campos, a Spanish Pastor from Barcelona taught some tremendous classes. Then at night, the preaching was great also.

I plan to comment more on some specific things throughout the week, but for now, I wanted to give those who speak spanish the opportunity to download the MP3's of the Messages and Classes and/or subscribe to the podcast.

The Messages and Classes are available.
Download the MP3's	Subscribe to the Podcast