Growing or Exploding?

GROWTH IN BUSINESS

Where ever I go, I ask a lot of questions. One thing I really like to do is ask different businesses and corporations about how they work. It has always amazed me how talkative people are, and how willing they are to tell you about their companies, and how they function. And I've learned a lot about how success is measured.

I've also owned my own Landscape and Lawncare business for five years, and that's helped me see some things too. Probably the most imporant lesson I've learned from my experience/experiences of hands on and by word of mouth about economical and financial lessons is that in our modern economy sucess is not measured by how much money your business MAKES but rather by how much your business DOES.

Let me see if I can explain.

Most big companies have quarterly reports. Everyone looks at those reports and looks for one thing: GROWTH. They are not looking to see if that company is in debt up to their ears, or if that company is laying off employees, or if that company is making a profit. All they want to see is if this quarter is better than last quarter. In other words, they only wish to see if that company is doing more business than before: that the company is GROWING. But growth doesn't always measure profits.

But what if that business had to lower its prices in order to show growth, and is now making less money than it did before? No one seems to ask that question. And sadly, I've seen just that happening over and over.

Sucess in our society is measured in GROWTH, and not in INCREASE. That is to say, people aren't judging a company on how much capital it has accumulated, only how quickly and rapidly it seems to appears to be growing, compared to other companies.

GROWTH IN RELIGION

The best way to illustrate the modern "growth doctrine" is with the MEGA CHURCH MOVEMENT in America. Just because a church grows BIGGER doesn't make it BETTER. In fact, most mega churches in America, although they are growing in numbers, are in debt up to their eyeballs as they are constantly borrowing money to build bigger buildings. And what kind of people are they getting to come to such a church? I'll give you a hint. It's not good, godly, sanctified, spirit-filled Christians who love God. Instead, it's usually people who go to church on Sunday Morning only, and then never darken the door the rest of the week. The kind of people who feel they are doing God a service by going to church, and doing their duty so they can spend the rest of Sunday doing their own thing.

That's why most Mega Churches usually have two services: An early morning service (for those who wish to go fishing and hunting right after) and a regular service, for those who are used to going between 10:00 to 11:00 and then 11:00 to 12:00.

The kinds of services in churches also show the kind of people who attend. There is usually a contemporary service in the morning, and then a traditional service shortly thereafter. What is a contemporary service? It's usually a meeting where they turn the lights down and sing "Christian Rock Music." In other words, it's the same atmosphere they are in Saturday Night at the bar, only now it's "Christian," because the words are about God instead of about beer, sex, and loose relationships.

After the Rock 'n Roll is over, the pastor usually preaches a limp sermonette, lasting about 15 minutes, and then prays for God to bless his people as they leave. It's a shallow Christianity which doesn't produce much results! Growth does not equal spirituality.

A lesson that everyone should take to heart is that just because something is "growing" doesn't always mean it's getting better! It just might be something is corrupt on the inside, and it's getting bigger cause it's about to "EXPLODE!"

The Mega Church movement is the exact opposite of the early church. It grew and spread across the known world. The church grew, and lasted for almost 2000 years. The reason? SACRIFICE. Christians willingly laid down their lives for the cause of Christ.

Compare this to the modern church, which knows very little of sacrifice. They boast how they are "rich" and have "need of nothing." But God said they were poor, and blind, and miserable, and naked. (See Laodicea in Revelation chapter 3).

Sadly, modern Christianity today judges others and judges the spirituality of churches as a whole by their SIZE. They have bought into the worldly idea that "GROWING" is truly what makes one sucessful.

GROWTH IN POLITICS

Now back to the secular world, and the global economy, where sucess is measured by GROWTH alone. What if GROWTH were attained at the expense of something or someone else?

In politics, we find this is the case. Our government has now turned into a BUSINESS, and it is growing. The U.S. government now owns 70% of America's economy. But it's at the expense of the American people, who have to pay for the governmental takeover of the private sector.

The typically line from politicians is, "Look how much we are doing and how big we are growing. That means we are doing something, and it must be something good, because we are growing!"

But growing isn't always a good thing, especially when it comes to government. History proves, the more government controls things, the worse things get.

I'll never forget the story in the news a few years ago about the governement run cafeteria in Washington that was supposed to feed the congressmen and representatives. Care to guess what happened to it? IT WENT BANKRUPT!

The United States government can't even run a meager cafeteria, why oh why then would we expect them to be able to run anything else?

The attitude of the government really defies logic. Their answer to everything is SPEND MORE MONEY AND THAT WILL FIX IT!

The standard line is that Stimulus packages (i.e. SPENDING) will lead to more growth! Yeah, it does just that. It makes our country's national debt, GROW EXPONENTIONALLY!

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to see that a growing debt will lead to disaster. Especially when no one has the money to repay that debt!

SPENDING MORE will never get you ahead. You cannot spend yourself to success!

So there you have it. We should never judge success based on growth! Instead we should look at PROFIT, SACRIFICE, and, RESULTS to see real growth.

The Economic Downfall of man

Man is a depraved creature. His has a sin nature inherited from his disobedient parents Adam and Eve. As a depraved being, man can do nothing right. He might begin well, but he’ll always end up in mess as he spirals downwards.

As we study the economic history of the world, we find yet another thing that man has messed up in these last days. And we find man’s greed and depravity has led to their hatred towards God. Truly the love of money is THE ROOT of all evil! (And not the root of all "evils," as the new versions of the bible say).

In the Bible, we find true riches. The first man in the Bible that God calls rich is his friend Abraham. In Genesis 13:2, we read: “And Abram was very rich in cattle, in silver, and in gold.”

Here God tells us what true riches are. They are GOLD, SILVER, and CATTLE.

If you have all three of these, then truly you are rich. Gold and Silver will buy you anything you want. And Cattle will give you meat, milk, clothing, and more. You can even tie animal skins together for making tents, which is what many of the ancients like Abraham did. Yes, with gold, silver, and cattle, you are truly rich and have everything you need!

Gold and silver were used for currency, and throughout earth’s history we find people minting coinage of these precious metals, and using them to buy and sell.

This early GOLD STANDARD, worked well for thousands of years. All sales transactions were done in a timely fashion and a person was paid with something that was actually worth something! It had VALUE. And the fact that all men have an affinity for gold or silver proves this. We all have an inherit GOLD LUST, as we all desire those precious metals.

God said riches are GOLD and SILVER. But as we study the history of man, we see men turning from God’s economic set-up of gold and silver to other forms of currency. The ancient Spartans, for example, (which were really early Communists!) decided their currency would be IRON, and they used that heavy metal to mint their coins. What was their thinking? They wanted to be isolated from other nations, and they didn’t want people to carry too much money with them (it would have been too heavy). So they used iron, knowing it would keep people from wanting to associate and integrate with them.

But, as time went on, gold and silver ruled the world in all other nations as the standard form of currency. But man’s depravity eventually led to greedy men mixing gold and silver with copper and other metals, to make their coins go farther. Finally, men began to wake up to the fact their coins weighed less, and they demanded a standard coin that was pure metal, with a constant weight.

In Europe the “THALER” quickly rose as the standard because of it’s consistency of always being minted with the same amount of gold and silver. It is from this word (Thaler) that we get our word “Dollar.”

As you study the history of the United States, you’ll find that Spanish coins were used most frequently in the early days, in both gold as silver, because they had to be minted under strike guidelines to make sure each coin had the same amount of gold and silver.

Eventually, Americans began producing their own coinage. Of course they were GOLD and SILVER (with some copper for pennies). And these gold and silver coins were traded throughout or country based upon the GOLD STANDARD the government set up.

Because gold and silver is so heavy, and therefore hard to carry in large quantity, the idea was set up to print paper documents which would be traded for the gold or silver coins. These were I.O.U.’s, and were to be turned into the banks for face value in gold and silver.

But man’s depravity always shows it’s ugly head. And certain men of the baser sort (i.e. bankers), began to print more papers than they had gold or silver to back them. This led to much mistrust (and rightly so) among the common people. And if you’ll study your American history, you’ll see great economic collapse in our country in it’s early years for this very reason.

Still, gold and silver ruled the day, and as long as you had that, you could buy and sell. Paper currency was nothing more than toilet paper.

Gold and silver coins continued right up until the late 1800’s, being circulated all over, especially with the Comstock Load, and the many independent gold and silver miners throughout the land. Paper currency was still printed, but known as GOLD CERTIFICATES. Each note said, “Payable on demand to the bearer the sum in gold.” And because these notes were backed by something tangible, they were used quite often.

However, in the early 1900’s something happened. THE GOLD STANDARD was rejected, and done away with by our government. Instead, our country was put on the SILVER STANDARD. Notes were then called “SILVER CERTIFICATES,” payable on demand in silver to the bearer.

Then in 1933, Roosevelt did a tricky thing. He outlawed gold coins! Under penalty of law, a person had to turn their gold unto the government!

If that wasn’t bad enough, eventually, we went off the silver standard all together. And the Federal Reserve Bank began printing nothing but green dollar bills which they called NOTES. These had nothing to back them, no silver, and no gold. But people had been using paper bills for so long, they just circulated the notes as if they were real money.

In 1964, the federal government stopped minting silver coins. And in 1984, they stopped making pennies out of pure copper.

Do you see a pattern here? Someone, and I’ll let you figure out who, has bankrupted our nation, and taken away our real wealth. They have taken the Gold and Silver and given us FEDERAL RESERVE NOTES (i.e. greenbacks) in return that are seemingly worthless.

Luckily, Ronald Reagan in the 1980’s passed a law allowing people to own gold again. But to get it, they had to pay high prices for it. (As I right this, gold is worth over $1200 dollars an ounce!)

So let’s recap. America went off the GOLD STANDARD in the early 1900’s. It went off the SILVER STANDARD not shortly there after. And through my studies, the world as a whole followed suit, choosing to pattern their economies after that of the United States.

So what “standard” if any is the world on today? The answer to that might surprise you. The standard today is O-I-L!

That’s right! Oil has replaced gold and silver and copper. The government has set up an economic system based on that black slimy stuff under your feet! Ever hear of OPEC? It's an organization which makes OIL the standard of economies world-wide.

SUMMARY

So, as we look through the annuals of time and see the “standard” that GOD set up being taken away by sinful, wicked men, we clearly see the depravity of man. GOLD is a type of heaven (where the bible says there are streets of it everywhere!) SILVER, in the Bible, is a type of Redemption. But instead of these, man decided they wanted something else. And what did they choose? The most filthy and dirty thing they could think of: OIL. They chose the darkest and blackest thing on earth (a type of sin)! Something they had to dig out of the ground, and something that burns up (a type of hell)!

Will the world ever get on the gold standard again? You bet it will, but not anytime soon. The Bible prophecies that very soon there will be a great time of TRIBULATION, in which Satan will do away with oil all together and set up HIS OWN STANDARD, in which people will have to submit to his rule, and take the MARK of the Beast. Only those with that mark will be able to buy or sell. What is that "mark?"

From what I understand it's a lithium powered microchip which will be inserted into the right hand or the forehead of people (as the Bible says will happen). The only problem is if such a chip were to break, while under the skin, the individual would grow very sick and most likely will develop a black "mark" on their skin (just as the Bible prophecies as well).

But thankfully, the Tribulation period is only prophecied to be 7 years long. After that, The Lord Jesus Christ will return and defeat the devil at the battle of Armageddon. And I'm certain that while he rules and reigns for 1000 years, the economic STANDARD of the world will again be SILVER and GOLD!