Making Life Work

By: C. Roderick Martin

    European and American politicians continue to put off making the difficult choices required to avoid a financial meltdown, the likes of which the world has not seen. To date, the actions taken amount to little more than, “kicking the proverbial can down the road.” I liken these politicians to a man jumping off a 100-story building, falling 98 floors, and yelling, “Nothing has happened to me yet!” In the years to come, many will look back on this period with great regret and say, “We should have known.”

    When the dogwood first buds, we know spring is near. A red sky in morning means bad weather is coming. When the morning dew turns to frost, is winter not imminent? Did not Christ say, “When the fig tree’s branch...

From Ronald L. Dart's Born to Win notes.

    Once upon a time there was a people who had returned to their homeland after a generation in exile. These people had been tasked by God with repairing the Temple and restoring worship.

    It wasn’t that God dwelt in houses made with hands. The Temple was symbolic, a center of worship, a reminder of who God is—really—and of what is really important about life. But life wasn’t working very well for them. They were in the middle of an economic failure—a position not unlike where we find ourselves today.

    They had been told by the prophets from Isaiah to Jeremiah to Ezekiel why they were going into exile before it actually happened, so they just might listen to a prophet this time. God sent...