As far as the curse is found...

No more let sins and sorrows grow,
Nor thorns infest the ground;
He comes to make His blessings flow
Far as the curse is found…

- From “Joy to the World” by Isaac Watts

Hello family! Brent and I usually banter about economic topics and post things about our families, but this time I thought it would be good to share something deeper that has been on my heart.

I love the Christmas carol "Joy to the World", not only for its beauty but also for its rich depth. I recently just finished listening to an amazing message by R.C. Sproul, “The Curse Motif of the Atonement.” This message was given at the Together for the Gospel conference back in April 2008. I would like to share with you some of the highlights from that message:

The joy we have in Christ is being released from the curse of sin so that we may know God and enjoy the blessings of fellowship with Him. In our culture, the term “curse” may conjure up images of Harry Potter casting spells and hexes or the Twilight series with vampires and werewolves. Our culture sees the term “curse” as one of superstition and fiction. But does it stop there? Is that as far as it goes?

No. There is a curse. A real, actual curse. And this curse came from God Himself. It is the curse that we incurred because of sin. It is the curse placed on the earth itself, while it, like us, awaits and even groans for redemption. And the only remedy for this curse is a bloody, primitive obscene death- by a perfect, spotless person, who is completely unstained by this curse. This death must provide a substitution, a swap, so that He can take away our sins and give us His perfect righteousness. Jesus has done this. He became a curse for us, so that we can be reconciled to God and enjoy fellowship with Him again.

Jesus has come so that God’s "blessings may flow, as far as the curse is found." If we've been freed from the curse, are we living like we're free? Are we experiencing fellowship with God and His grace?

May the knowledge of our freedom from the curse compel us to worship and enjoy our fellowship with Christ, our curse-bearer, our Lord and Savior.

Scriptures: Gal 3:10-14; Rom 8:20-23; 2 Cor 5:21;
Link: http://t4g.org/08/media/

Heroic Ben, Saving the World!

First a quote,

"The problem is that today's all-out attack on recession may well generate a surge of unwanted inflation in 2010 or after. But the Fed seems to regard that as an acceptable price to pay to avoid disaster now."

then the link: http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/08_52/b4114022505333.htm

The "acceptable price to pay," is what we a paying now as a result of similar actions by Brother Greenspan. (Fighting the "recession" that came on the heels of the dot-com bust. I know I was naive then, moreso than I am now, but I didn't even realize we had a recession to fight back then).

Anyway. For the record. If you didn't already know. I think all of this hogwash is a really bad idea. All of the media says that all of these wonderful actions will result in a turn-around sometime in '09. Why? Well...nobody can tell you. Because nobody knows. They just assume that if nothing else works, then the eventually the kitchen sink will. Its got to, right?

The first person to throw me a rational opinion wins. I've not seen one out of Washington, or their media, yet. Actually, though, everything I've heard Sen. Shelby of Alabama say, which, mind you, isn't much, has been pretty top notch. Barney Frank, on the other hand, makes me want to dynomite my eardrums everytime I hear him blabber.

Keynes may be dead, but he's more alive today than either Elvis or Lenin.

Snow

We got a little bit of early snow this year. This is how we spent the first part of our day:

Looking at now covered hills.

Looking at really cold horses.

Running in the snow.

And eating muffins in the snow.

The rest of the day was spent at the Tennessee Aquarium or in transit.

Funny Smelling Free Markets

This may or may not be the right link for the NPR segment that was on this morning. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=97933365. If not, I'm sorry I just wasted 4 minutes of your time.

Anyway, on we go. The discussion on the automaker bailout, which you may or may not have just listened to, discussed the automakers getting the bailout "with concessions." Well we know with about 95% certainty that the automakers are going to get something. Its the concessions, that are supposed to make the bailout palpable to the average Joe (be he a plumber or otherwise) is what I have a beef with: Top management must go. No financial engagements of $25-million or more without congressional review. Cabinet level auto-Czars, including reps from the EPA.

Is this supposed to make me like the bailout? This is giving them a lifeline with a brick attached. "You can have the bailout, sir, but only on condition that we saddle you with an impossible business model." Crazy!

So a family is going bankrupt. He asks for a congressional bailout. He gets one "with concessions." He has to leave the family. The remaining family cannot buy anything more than $50 dollars without approval from both sets of in-laws. And all family decisions are subject to review by the neighborhood association.

I thought we fought a cold war AGAINST communism and a real war AGAINST fascism. Now we can't get enough of it.

Our newest family member!

Presenting: Virginia "Geena" Lee Roberts
Born on Nov 25th, 2008
5 lbs 14 oz
20 in long

Mom and baby are doing awesome! Thank you all for your love and prayers! We look forward to seeing you all sometime soon!

-Brooke

Is does this make sense to you?

A column by a New York Times columnist, Thomas L. Friedman:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/16/opinion/16friedman.html

Apparently, we all need to go shopping and throw out "fairness" -- meaning, of course, that we reward stupidity, punish good sense, and hold the government harmless. In one respect, though, he's right: Obama is just the man for the job.

Sorry, Tommy, I care not for your opinions. I'm neither stupid nor a socialist. Get someone else to go shopping, and don't give any more of my money to AIG.

Free Markets are [Probably] Rational

Whilst on my drive home yesterday I listened to the daily financial show, Marketplace, that comes on at 6pm on our NPR station. The story, for which I have attached a link below, bemoaned how markets are irrational. And this contrary to the theory put forth by Milton Freidman that they should be rational. When they say rational, we mean that we expect market prices of stocks to behave in accordance with the appropriate information. If profits and revenue at Company Z are up, then the stock price should go up. If the credit rating of Company B is downgraded, then the price should go down. But this isn't bearing up in what we are seeing in the market today.

I would argue that a FREE market would more than likely be rational. The reason our markets today are not behaving rationally is because they're not free. Can anyone guess the true market value of GM stock? No. And no because the price of GM stock today has a lot more to do with what the government may or may not do in its little magic box than what GM is actually worth.

This same logic applies to any bank stock in existence today. And this spreads from there to the entire economy because of the equally magic and mysterious "securities" created by a bunch of MBAs -- otherwise brilliant people I'm sure, aside from being so stupid. Well the rest of the economy bought this financial junk, gambling on the brains of an MBA degree. Now nobody knows what they or anybody else actually owns in terms of assets.

A lot of, again, otherwise brilliant people, forgot one of the investment rules of thumbs that only applies to us individuals of little brain: if you don't understand what you are investing in, you probably shouldn't.

Here's the link to the article: http://marketplace.publicradio.org/display/web/2008/11/10/economic_theory/.

One of the Joys of Home Ownership

As I am sure Dad can attest from our tenure in the Roebuck home, one of the joys of home ownership is being the proud guardian of the crawl-space. Seeing as our bathroom floor had been described with adjectives like "squishy", it became necessary for me to venture into the underbelly of the home to see what was amiss. Out of my own benevolence, I've invited you all along on a photo tour, and have even extended to Dad the deluxe-package personal tour. I'll spare all of the details because I am sure that you will all be eating at some point in time in the future. I thought about giving the Tennessee Cooperative Extension a call to see if they had a mycologist sitting around needing something to do...I'm pretty sure he could find a new species of fungus in here. So in we go.

Now our house, though only 1,450 square feet, has been added onto once. So apparently it was in vogue at one point in time to build one bed-room one bath houses. Anyway, so in-stead of just your ordinary crawl-space. we have a crawl-space that is only accessible from another crawl-space. And on top of that the inner crawl-space door is 80% blocked by a return duct. So after squeezing through an 8 inch wide by 2 foot tall opening, you then have to run the gauntlet to get where you are going. Yes, indeed, that is an old lawn-mower, two pairs of old boots, several random glass jars, and various and asunder other bits of junk. Also know as habitats.



So after crawling underneath by bath-tub and kitchen, trying to figure why a plumber gets paid what he does, and having a brief conversation with a camel-cricket convent, its time to meander back through the gauntlet and out into the light of day. Easier said than done.



I hope you all had a good weekend. Ours was fine, though parts of it were a bit cramped, dark, and musty.

We Actually Did Something

Unlike another branch of the Roberts family (that might live in the DC area), the Tennessee edition likes to take things rather slowly. We go to bed at a decent hour, and wake up relatively early. We don't spend a lot of money, don't eat out much, and generally don't have extensive plans for our weekends. Believe it or not, though, we actually had meaningful "plans" for three weekends in a row. Staggering, I know. Here's the run-down:

The weekend of October 18th we had two things going on. That Saturday we had our annual (if you can call something annual after only having two in a row) bon fire / weenie roast. I am pleased to inform that good times were had by all. That Sunday afternoon, our church hosted a concert by a gentleman named Jaime Soles from Canada who has an incredible brand of Bible-based music. Most of his songs are geared for kids, but not all. His music is very narrative, drawing on some of the prominent and obscure bits of Old Testament history. So, of course there a song about Noah and Abraham, but he also has a song about Shamgar killing 600 men with an ox-goad, Ehud giving fat-ole Eglon 18 inches of sword, and (one of Timnah's favorites) Korah, Dathan, and Abiarim being swallowed by the ground. Good stuff.

The following weekend, we had our friends from Florence, Becky and Eric, in town for a few days. We had a great time with them. The pictures I sent out last week of our family on a short little hiking trek were actually pictures that they took for us. I tried to convince Eric that the Nashville area needed some more pharmacists so he would stay, but alas, they returned.

And then last weekend was fairly tame, but some friends of ours from church had a Reformation Day party on their parents estate. That too was a great time. They had bratwurst and kielbasa (a step up from the franks we had at our shin-dig), a live bluegrass band, and a hay-ride.

For the foreseeable future, though, I think we are back to the settled, country life. No more of this urban whoop-in it up -- I about pulled a social muscle.

Democrats and Halloweeen...

This was sent to me by a mom in my youth group. I loved it:)