Editorial: Work requirement should be mandatory for healthy Medicaid recipients

Requiring healthy, childless welfare recipients to work — or undergo job training — to continue receiving taxpayer-funded benefits is practical.

Here’s a link to the editorial.

What Walter Carr, the young man who walked 20 miles to work, taught me this week

 

Kris Kristofferson has been writing great songs for decades. One of my favorites, “Wild American”, has a line in it that I’ve been thinking about lately. It’s this: “heroes happen when you need ‘em.” For these days I wonder, do they?

Here’s a link to the editorial at FOX News.

Editorial: Mr. Trump, government is not a one-man show. Trust your advisers and together you’ll be a YUGE success

President Trump, who I voted for and support, is a strong and decisive leader – a man of action. He often approaches foreign relations and meetings with leaders of other nations like a boxer – standing alone, fighting hard for the best interests the United States. The events of the past few days involving his summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin show he’d be wise to start acting more like the quarterback of a great football team.

Here’s a link to the editorial at FOX News.

FCN Daily Bible Verse

Who is the liar? It is the man who denies that Jesus is the Christ. Such a man is the antichrist — he denies the Father and the Son.
1 John 2:22 (Read all of 1 John 2:22)
New International Version

Pastor Rick Warren: Plant Today, Then Be Patient for the Harvest

“Let us not become tired of doing good; for if we do not give up, the time will come when we will reap the harvest” (Galatians 6:9 GNT).

The time to start planting is now.I talk to people all the time who say, “One of these days, I’m going to . . . .” They’re going to serve more one of these days. Or when they retire. Or when they get a raise. They’re going to increase their giving one of these days.

“One of these days” is none of these days. You don’t wait for things to get better; you start planting now. Why? Because the sooner you plant, the longer you’re going to enjoy the harvest in your life.

But the harvest is not always going to come in your time. There’s always a delay between sowing and reaping. You plant in one season, and you harvest in another.

You have to be patient and not give up!

This is one of the principles that the Kingdom of God operates on. In Mark 4:26-28, Jesus says, “This is what the kingdom of God is like. A man scatters seed on the ground. Night and day, whether he sleeps or gets up, the seed spouts and grows, though he does not know how. All by itself the soil produces grain — first the stalk, then the head, then the full kernel in the head” (NIV).

The results will come, but they will come slowly and as part of a process. And because it takes time, “Let us not become tired of doing good; for if we do not give up, the time will come when we will reap the harvest” (Galatians 6:9 GNT).

Choose to forget about last year’s crop failure. Instead, start focusing on the long-term harvest in your life. You didn’t get the way you are financially overnight. You took years to mess things up, and it’s going to take a while to put things back together. There is a time of delay between sowing and reaping.

The Bible says in Psalm 126:5-6, “Those who plant in tears will harvest with shouts of joy. They weep as they go to plant their seed, but they sing as they return with the harvest” (NLT).

What need have you been grieving over? Maybe you’ve lost your job. Maybe you’ve lost your health. Maybe you’ve lost a loved one. Maybe you’ve lost your savings. Maybe you’ve lost half of your retirement in the last few years. Maybe you’ve lost your dream.

Mourning is okay; moaning is not. Instead of moaning, you need to plant a seed, because whatever you need more of, you need to give away.

Today is the day to plant the seed.

Talk It Over

  • If you could give financial advice to your younger self, what would you say? What can you learn from your financial mistakes that you can apply to your situation now?
  • What would you have time to start doing today to move forward with your finances if you were able to let go of your past mistakes and financial failures?
  • What do you want to receive more of in your life? How can you plant that seed and give yourself away today so that you will one day reap your own harvest?

Give hope, prayer, and encouragement below. Post a comment & talk about it.

Editorial: Chicago officials have an irresponsible idea: give away money to create a universal basic income

Chicago – the city known for high homicide rates, legendary political graft, a patronage system second to none, and Al Capone – can now be recognized for a bold proposal for centralized planning: universal basic income.

Here’s a link to the story at FOX News.

Pastor Rick Warren: Sow Generously to Reap Generosity

“Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously. Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver” Corinthians 9:6-7 NIV).

If a farmer goes out with a trailer load of beans, and he plants them in a barren field, what fruit does he expect to bear? Watermelon? Cucumbers? No. He’s going to get beans. He doesn’t doubt it. He doesn’t question it. Because whatever you plant is what you’re going to get back.This is the law of reproduction, and it applies to every single area of your life — especially in your finances.

The Bible says in 2 Corinthians 9:6-7, “Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously. Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver” (NIV).

This can work either positively or negatively in your life. If you’re planting seeds of kindness, you know what? People are going to be kind to you. If you forgive others, they are going to be forgiving of you. If you’re generous, people are going to be generous with you.

But if you are angry all the time, people are going to respond in anger. If you cheat other people, people are going to cheat you. If you gossip about other people, guess what? People are going to gossip about you.

The law of reproduction says you reap what you sow, but the principle of multiplication says you will also always reap more than you sow.

When you put one kernel of corn in the ground, you don’t get one kernel of corn back. You get a cornstalk with multiple ears on it and hundreds of kernels on each of those ears. This is the exponential power that God has established the universe to handle. You always get more out of it than you put into it.

It’s why I never, ever attack my attackers. Why? I don’t want to get caught in the chain. No matter what anybody says to me, I don’t want to say anything bad back to them because if I do, I’m going to reap more than I sowed. What I choose to do is the exact opposite. I want to bless them. I want to pray for them. Why? Because that’s what I want to receive, and I always reap more than I sow.

Proverbs 11:24 says, “The world of the generous gets larger and larger; the world of the stingy gets smaller and smaller” (The Message).

Talk It Over

  • How have you seen the principle of multiplication active in your life?
  • What do you expect from your investments? How are you sowing so that you can receive what you expect to reap?
  • How do you want God to make your world larger (Proverbs 11:24)? What do you need to change about your finances so that he can increase your influence and giving?

Give hope, prayer, and encouragement below. Post a comment & talk about it.

A Word for Today: Encamped Angels

READ PSALMS 34:1 THROUGH 36:12; ACTS 16:1–18

In 1875, as popular Christian singer-songwriter Ira Sankey sang, he noticed a sad man in his small audience. As they talked later, Sankey discovered they had a unique connection from the recent Civil War.

The sad man, a Confederate soldier, had been on guard duty when he saw a Union soldier walking along unaware he was being observed. The Confederate soldier raised his rifle to shoot, then realized the Union soldier was singing a hymn his mother once sang to him. Remembering his mother’s Christian influence, he lowered his gun. The unsuspecting Union man ceased singing and walked on. Sankey had been the singer. God had protected him.   

The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear Him, and He delivers them (Psalm 34:7).

Indeed, God’s protection comes in many forms, sometimes in surprisingly unexpected ways. While we may not always know how He does it, we know He protects us for our benefit and His glory. 

Thought for Today: Our assurance of God’s protection means we need not fear the future.

Editorial: Trump isn’t the first president to embarrass America by cozying up to Putin

WASHINGTON — The definition of insanity is doing the same thing again and again and expecting to get a different result, which is one of the many reasons President Trump’s news conference with Russian President Vladimir Putin seemed so insane. Trump is trying to do something that both of his immediate predecessors tried to do: turn over a new leaf with Russia. They both failed, and so will he.

 

Here’s a link to the editorial at FOX News.

FCN Daily Bible Verse

A man’s pride brings him low, but a man of lowly spirit gains honor.
Proverbs 29:23 (Read all of Proverbs 29:23)
New International Version
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