Jerry L. Lewis's Blog
October 19, 2011
Christian gambling
Post info moved to www.TheEffectiveLife.com
July 18, 2010
Back to Work.
Hello, readers. Been having difficulty getting material for the post. It isn't really writer's block that's the problem. I've been collecting thoughts for another book, so I've been hoarding them rather than sharing them.
I also have been spending a great deal of time re-formatting my PastorJerryLive.org website, and building another website dedicated to presenting my book, "What God Can't Do." The website address is http://www.whatgodcantdo.com/ so if you get over that way and have any good ideas for promoting the book, I'd love to hear about it. I plan to start adding video clips soon to the pages.
Currently my life direction seems to be heading more toward inspirational speaking rather than pastoring again, but who knows about all that?
As a matter of fact, as I am typing this post, I'm waiting for approval on a domain redirection so I can set up a new blog at http://www.TheEffectiveLife.com. All the websites are free (except renewal of the domain registration which is $12 per year for each of the customized domains) and the host, MS Office Live and Wordpress, provides all kinds of applications, support, and instruction on how to build a totally free site. Go to http://www.officelive.com/ to get started.
All this website work and post is beginning to pay off, I hope. Yesterday I typed "Pastor Jerry L. Lewis" into Google (using the quotation marks) and got 12 PAGES of hits back. Google even found quotes that I had written and posted, but forgotten about. Although one site was looking for favorite quotations of famous people, I couldn't resist the temptation, so I wrote, "Small fruits are better than big words. -Pastor Jerry L. Lewis." I guess I'll have to get famous someday so it will count, eh?
Well, back over to the Internet to see if the domain name switch was activated so people can go to The Effective Life (dot)com anytime soon. Kind of like being caught in an electronic time warp.
This is Pastor Jerry saying thanks for reading, and may God bless you.
I also have been spending a great deal of time re-formatting my PastorJerryLive.org website, and building another website dedicated to presenting my book, "What God Can't Do." The website address is http://www.whatgodcantdo.com/ so if you get over that way and have any good ideas for promoting the book, I'd love to hear about it. I plan to start adding video clips soon to the pages.
Currently my life direction seems to be heading more toward inspirational speaking rather than pastoring again, but who knows about all that?
As a matter of fact, as I am typing this post, I'm waiting for approval on a domain redirection so I can set up a new blog at http://www.TheEffectiveLife.com. All the websites are free (except renewal of the domain registration which is $12 per year for each of the customized domains) and the host, MS Office Live and Wordpress, provides all kinds of applications, support, and instruction on how to build a totally free site. Go to http://www.officelive.com/ to get started.
All this website work and post is beginning to pay off, I hope. Yesterday I typed "Pastor Jerry L. Lewis" into Google (using the quotation marks) and got 12 PAGES of hits back. Google even found quotes that I had written and posted, but forgotten about. Although one site was looking for favorite quotations of famous people, I couldn't resist the temptation, so I wrote, "Small fruits are better than big words. -Pastor Jerry L. Lewis." I guess I'll have to get famous someday so it will count, eh?
Well, back over to the Internet to see if the domain name switch was activated so people can go to The Effective Life (dot)com anytime soon. Kind of like being caught in an electronic time warp.
This is Pastor Jerry saying thanks for reading, and may God bless you.
Hello Again!
Hello, readers. Been having difficulty getting material for the post. It isn't really writer's block that's the problem. I've been collecting thoughts for another book, so I've been hoarding them rather than sharing them.
I also have been spending a great deal of time re-formatting my PastorJerryLive.org website, and building another website dedicated to presenting my book, "What God Can't Do." The website address is http://www.whatgodcantdo.com/ so if you get over that way and have any ...
I also have been spending a great deal of time re-formatting my PastorJerryLive.org website, and building another website dedicated to presenting my book, "What God Can't Do." The website address is http://www.whatgodcantdo.com/ so if you get over that way and have any ...
April 9, 2010
Responsible Government: Which Words Two Don't Go Together?
This information was sent in by a reader so some statistics may differ by sources, but look the trend. Hopefully I can return to more "ministry" type topics soon.
"Americans spend $36,000,000 at Wal-Mart every hour of every day.
"This works out to $20,928 profit every minute! Wal-Mart will sell more from January 1 to St. Patrick's Day (March 17th) than Target sells all year. Wal-Mart employs 1.6 million people and is the largest company in the history of the world. Wal-Mart is bigger than Home Depot, Kroger, Target, Sears, Costco, and K-Mart combined.
"Wal-Mart now sells more food than Kroger & Safeway combined and keep in mind they did this in only 15 years. During this same period, 31 supermarket chains sought bankruptcy.
"Wal-Mart has approx 3,900 stores in the USA of which 1,906 are Super Centers; this is 1,000 more than it had 5 Years ago. 90% of all Americans live within 15 miles of a Wal-Mart. This year 7.2 billion different purchasing experiences will occur At a Wal-Mart store. (Earth's population is approximately 6.5 billion.)
"You may think that I am complaining, but I am really laying the ground work for suggesting that MAYBE we should hire the guys who run Wal-Mart to fix the economy.
"This should be read and understood by all Americans: Democrats, Republicans, EVERYONE, especially to the 535 voting members of the Legislature,
a.. The U.S. Post Service was established in 1775. You have had 236 years to get it right and it is broke.
b.. Social Security was established in 1935. You have had 76 years to get it right and it is broke.
c.. Fannie Mae was established in 1938. You have had 73 years to get it right and it is broke.
d.. War on Poverty started in 1964. You have had 47 years to get it right; $1 trillion of our money is confiscated each year and transferred to "the poor" and they only want more.
e.. Medicare and Medicaid were established in 1965. You have had 46 years to get it right and they are broke.
f.. Freddie Mac was established in 1970. You have had 41 years to get it right and it is broke.
g.. The Department of Energy was created in 1977 to lessen our dependence on foreign oil. It has ballooned to 16,000 employees with a budget of $24 billion a year and we import more oil than ever before. You had 34 years to get it right and it is an abysmal failure.
h.. The War on Drugs? Pathetic, expensive, and, well, got the picture?
"You have FAILED in every "government service" you have shoved down our throats while overspending our tax dollars and you want Americans to believe you can be trusted with a government-run health care system??"
I agree with this upset reader. Everything is the same: same type of people in Congress, same taxing and spending mentality, another attempt at making big government even bigger, EXCEPT this time it will work out better? Yez suh, boss!
The only way to really "fix" this problem is by downsizing the federal government, and moving the workload to the states. Let local people work on local problems, and cut out some of the above departments, or let private contractors manage them.
At least the people who spent $36,000,000 that hour at Walmart had something to show for their money, even if they returned everything the next day. Returns? Now there's an idea.
"Americans spend $36,000,000 at Wal-Mart every hour of every day.
"This works out to $20,928 profit every minute! Wal-Mart will sell more from January 1 to St. Patrick's Day (March 17th) than Target sells all year. Wal-Mart employs 1.6 million people and is the largest company in the history of the world. Wal-Mart is bigger than Home Depot, Kroger, Target, Sears, Costco, and K-Mart combined.
"Wal-Mart now sells more food than Kroger & Safeway combined and keep in mind they did this in only 15 years. During this same period, 31 supermarket chains sought bankruptcy.
"Wal-Mart has approx 3,900 stores in the USA of which 1,906 are Super Centers; this is 1,000 more than it had 5 Years ago. 90% of all Americans live within 15 miles of a Wal-Mart. This year 7.2 billion different purchasing experiences will occur At a Wal-Mart store. (Earth's population is approximately 6.5 billion.)
"You may think that I am complaining, but I am really laying the ground work for suggesting that MAYBE we should hire the guys who run Wal-Mart to fix the economy.
"This should be read and understood by all Americans: Democrats, Republicans, EVERYONE, especially to the 535 voting members of the Legislature,
a.. The U.S. Post Service was established in 1775. You have had 236 years to get it right and it is broke.
b.. Social Security was established in 1935. You have had 76 years to get it right and it is broke.
c.. Fannie Mae was established in 1938. You have had 73 years to get it right and it is broke.
d.. War on Poverty started in 1964. You have had 47 years to get it right; $1 trillion of our money is confiscated each year and transferred to "the poor" and they only want more.
e.. Medicare and Medicaid were established in 1965. You have had 46 years to get it right and they are broke.
f.. Freddie Mac was established in 1970. You have had 41 years to get it right and it is broke.
g.. The Department of Energy was created in 1977 to lessen our dependence on foreign oil. It has ballooned to 16,000 employees with a budget of $24 billion a year and we import more oil than ever before. You had 34 years to get it right and it is an abysmal failure.
h.. The War on Drugs? Pathetic, expensive, and, well, got the picture?
"You have FAILED in every "government service" you have shoved down our throats while overspending our tax dollars and you want Americans to believe you can be trusted with a government-run health care system??"
I agree with this upset reader. Everything is the same: same type of people in Congress, same taxing and spending mentality, another attempt at making big government even bigger, EXCEPT this time it will work out better? Yez suh, boss!
The only way to really "fix" this problem is by downsizing the federal government, and moving the workload to the states. Let local people work on local problems, and cut out some of the above departments, or let private contractors manage them.
At least the people who spent $36,000,000 that hour at Walmart had something to show for their money, even if they returned everything the next day. Returns? Now there's an idea.
BIG Government and Responsibility: Which Words Don't Go Together?
This information was sent in by a reader so some statistics may differ by sources, but look the trend. Hopefully I can return to more "ministry" type topics soon.
"Americans spend $36,000,000 at Wal-Mart every hour of every day.
"This works out to $20,928 profit every minute! Wal-Mart will sell more from January 1 to St. Patrick's Day (March 17th) than Target sells all year. Wal-Mart employs 1.6 million people and is the largest company in the history of the world. Wal-Mart is bigger than Ho...
"Americans spend $36,000,000 at Wal-Mart every hour of every day.
"This works out to $20,928 profit every minute! Wal-Mart will sell more from January 1 to St. Patrick's Day (March 17th) than Target sells all year. Wal-Mart employs 1.6 million people and is the largest company in the history of the world. Wal-Mart is bigger than Ho...
February 14, 2010
Have the Romans Returned?
I was lying awake in bed thinking about what to blog this week when my wife's alarm clock went off.
My first thought was that it couldn't really be that time yet, but her clock is one of those atomic ones that periodically gets the national time signal beamed to it from Ft. Collins, Co. It absolutely IS that time, to the millionth of a second. Hmm, the whole country at once? Yep, pretty handy, but who pays for that?
As a matter of fact, who pays for those weird projects like monitoring cow gasses (farts?), or subsidising nude photography touring exhibits (arts?), or the hundreds of other "pork barrel" projects like the recent multi-million dollar "bridge to nowhere" (for sleds and carts?) ? That would be all the rest of us.
In addition to supporting an oversized government, many of us live in houses larger than we really need. Most of the commuting traffic on our freeways has only one person in the car. We buy so much stuff looking for happiness that we can't manage it without extra storage. And in our quest to buy our way to happiness, we look to the government to provide extra services to manage some of the pressures which we have created for ourselves.
We have developed a huge appetite for those government services. With nearly two million civilian employees, not counting the Postal Service, the Federal Government is the United States' largest employer, and is still growing as services are added. But this is nothing new.
Two thousand years ago, the Roman empire was tottering from government over-growth. They financed the Empire by expanding and taking over surrounding countries until the Empire got too big to effectively manage and could not keep up with the demands for services to the wealthy class of citizens. Incidently, the Roman government tried the "coin-sandwich with base metals" trick two thousand years ago, and it failed as well. Except for the 1965- 69 half dollars at 40% silver, no silver has been used in US coins since 1964. Nor has there been any gold in the US "gold" one dollar coin for years.
Unfortunately, governments always perpetuate themselves, which helps them get used to spending money they don't have. When they can't take in enough money, governments just conveniently find a "commom enemy" to rally the people, and then print more money.
The really big problem is that as the US Government grows, it gets more powerful and pervasive. It's not a real benevolent organization now, and some of our leaders are now aligning with wealthy international "New World Order" proponents, and are pushing the World Bank agenda. Read that as "Really Big Brother," with a virtual symphony of accompanying undertones.
Think it couldn't happen here? Almost all of our money is now in the form of electronic ledger entries, all of our phone calls are logged, and government agencies regularly monitor Internet traffic and email. Internet programs can give you a street level view of about anyplace on Earth. You and I can be tracked to within ten feet of our location any place on the planet with current GPS technology.
This fiscal irresponsibility has to stop, on both a personal level, and a national level. We will never find peace, happiness, and security by spending more. We must change our focus from wants to needs; from more services to more accountability. Like Rome, America will never be conquered; it will collapse from within. And maybe with only a whimper.
Remember the words of Gerald Ford: "A government big enough to give you everything you want, is strong enough to take everything you have."
What really worries me is that Big Brother may be controlling our snooze alarms. He may not want us to wake up today.
My first thought was that it couldn't really be that time yet, but her clock is one of those atomic ones that periodically gets the national time signal beamed to it from Ft. Collins, Co. It absolutely IS that time, to the millionth of a second. Hmm, the whole country at once? Yep, pretty handy, but who pays for that?
As a matter of fact, who pays for those weird projects like monitoring cow gasses (farts?), or subsidising nude photography touring exhibits (arts?), or the hundreds of other "pork barrel" projects like the recent multi-million dollar "bridge to nowhere" (for sleds and carts?) ? That would be all the rest of us.
In addition to supporting an oversized government, many of us live in houses larger than we really need. Most of the commuting traffic on our freeways has only one person in the car. We buy so much stuff looking for happiness that we can't manage it without extra storage. And in our quest to buy our way to happiness, we look to the government to provide extra services to manage some of the pressures which we have created for ourselves.
We have developed a huge appetite for those government services. With nearly two million civilian employees, not counting the Postal Service, the Federal Government is the United States' largest employer, and is still growing as services are added. But this is nothing new.
Two thousand years ago, the Roman empire was tottering from government over-growth. They financed the Empire by expanding and taking over surrounding countries until the Empire got too big to effectively manage and could not keep up with the demands for services to the wealthy class of citizens. Incidently, the Roman government tried the "coin-sandwich with base metals" trick two thousand years ago, and it failed as well. Except for the 1965- 69 half dollars at 40% silver, no silver has been used in US coins since 1964. Nor has there been any gold in the US "gold" one dollar coin for years.
Unfortunately, governments always perpetuate themselves, which helps them get used to spending money they don't have. When they can't take in enough money, governments just conveniently find a "commom enemy" to rally the people, and then print more money.
The really big problem is that as the US Government grows, it gets more powerful and pervasive. It's not a real benevolent organization now, and some of our leaders are now aligning with wealthy international "New World Order" proponents, and are pushing the World Bank agenda. Read that as "Really Big Brother," with a virtual symphony of accompanying undertones.
Think it couldn't happen here? Almost all of our money is now in the form of electronic ledger entries, all of our phone calls are logged, and government agencies regularly monitor Internet traffic and email. Internet programs can give you a street level view of about anyplace on Earth. You and I can be tracked to within ten feet of our location any place on the planet with current GPS technology.
This fiscal irresponsibility has to stop, on both a personal level, and a national level. We will never find peace, happiness, and security by spending more. We must change our focus from wants to needs; from more services to more accountability. Like Rome, America will never be conquered; it will collapse from within. And maybe with only a whimper.
Remember the words of Gerald Ford: "A government big enough to give you everything you want, is strong enough to take everything you have."
What really worries me is that Big Brother may be controlling our snooze alarms. He may not want us to wake up today.
Times New Roman?
I was lying awake in bed thinking about what to blog this week when my wife's alarm clock went off.
My first thought was that it couldn't really be that time yet, but her clock is one of those atomic ones that periodically gets the national time signal beamed to it from Boulder, Co. It IS absolutely that time, to the millionth of a second. Hmm, the whole country at once? Yep, pretty handy, but who pays for that?
As a matter of fact, who pays for those weird projects like monitoring cow gas...
My first thought was that it couldn't really be that time yet, but her clock is one of those atomic ones that periodically gets the national time signal beamed to it from Boulder, Co. It IS absolutely that time, to the millionth of a second. Hmm, the whole country at once? Yep, pretty handy, but who pays for that?
As a matter of fact, who pays for those weird projects like monitoring cow gas...
February 4, 2010
Tips for Safe Christian Gambling? \
We all gamble; we just give it other names.
If we are investing in the stock market we look at performance. We are betting that the stock we pick will not be a loss, but that it will out-earn the ones we could have bought. If we buy homeowner's insurance, we are betting that our house will burn down while the insurance company is betting it won't. With a little thought, most of us would be able to see other aspects of life which might be a form of gambling that are socially acceptable.
Christians buying a lottery ticket now and then aren't usually in deep sin. If God tells you that it's not right for you personally, then that's a different matter. But there are a few problems with the type of gambling most of us think about when we use that word.
First of all, "gambling" is looking for a big return from little effort and no time comittment, the direct opposite of the Law of the Harvest that Jesus talked about throughout the Gospels. The first part of that Law says that what goes around always comes around, as in, "As you sow, also will you reap." What we do in life always comes back as either a blessing or as a curse, depending on what we've sown. The other half of the Law of the Harvest tells us that we always reap more than we sow, and it works just as well for evil as it does for good. It may look like the evil prosper, but winning is one thing; keeping is something else.
One of the silliest comments I've ever heard is, "The Lottery is ONLY four million now. I'll wait until it gets up there a ways first." Translation: winning enough money will fix our problems, and four million might not be enough. In other words, "I have decided to depend on money, not on you, God," although few of would have the courage actually say that to God and mean it for very long. Do you see why winning the Lottery might not be a very good idea for many Christians?
Once I caught myself playing, "Lets Make A Deal With God So I Can Win The Lottery," and you may have played it as well. It usually sounds something like, "Well, Lord, if you let me win the lottery, I can take care of our church's budget problems."
On the surface, it sounds like a good plan, but suppose the church later has another pressing need. To whom will they turn first? They may be asking God for help while a video of me writing another check is playing just behind fifty pairs of eyeballs.
The Lord just smiled at my ill-informed offer and said, "Jerry, you know I always start small and work up. Faithfulness in small things leads to faithfulness in great things, never the other way around.
He continued, "Let's see now, what have you been doing with the small amount I've given you? What can you do extra? Can you send a small check to help support Christian radio? How about a small donation to help feed the hungry in Cincinnati? Pick something easy you can do so you build a winning track record, and then maybe we can talk about that lottery idea of yours."
After thaat hot tip, I'll bet you won't catch me in the ticket line any time soon.
If we are investing in the stock market we look at performance. We are betting that the stock we pick will not be a loss, but that it will out-earn the ones we could have bought. If we buy homeowner's insurance, we are betting that our house will burn down while the insurance company is betting it won't. With a little thought, most of us would be able to see other aspects of life which might be a form of gambling that are socially acceptable.
Christians buying a lottery ticket now and then aren't usually in deep sin. If God tells you that it's not right for you personally, then that's a different matter. But there are a few problems with the type of gambling most of us think about when we use that word.
First of all, "gambling" is looking for a big return from little effort and no time comittment, the direct opposite of the Law of the Harvest that Jesus talked about throughout the Gospels. The first part of that Law says that what goes around always comes around, as in, "As you sow, also will you reap." What we do in life always comes back as either a blessing or as a curse, depending on what we've sown. The other half of the Law of the Harvest tells us that we always reap more than we sow, and it works just as well for evil as it does for good. It may look like the evil prosper, but winning is one thing; keeping is something else.
One of the silliest comments I've ever heard is, "The Lottery is ONLY four million now. I'll wait until it gets up there a ways first." Translation: winning enough money will fix our problems, and four million might not be enough. In other words, "I have decided to depend on money, not on you, God," although few of would have the courage actually say that to God and mean it for very long. Do you see why winning the Lottery might not be a very good idea for many Christians?
Once I caught myself playing, "Lets Make A Deal With God So I Can Win The Lottery," and you may have played it as well. It usually sounds something like, "Well, Lord, if you let me win the lottery, I can take care of our church's budget problems."
On the surface, it sounds like a good plan, but suppose the church later has another pressing need. To whom will they turn first? They may be asking God for help while a video of me writing another check is playing just behind fifty pairs of eyeballs.
The Lord just smiled at my ill-informed offer and said, "Jerry, you know I always start small and work up. Faithfulness in small things leads to faithfulness in great things, never the other way around.
He continued, "Let's see now, what have you been doing with the small amount I've given you? What can you do extra? Can you send a small check to help support Christian radio? How about a small donation to help feed the hungry in Cincinnati? Pick something easy you can do so you build a winning track record, and then maybe we can talk about that lottery idea of yours."
After thaat hot tip, I'll bet you won't catch me in the ticket line any time soon.
Christian Gambling? Part 2
We all gamble; we just give it other names.
If we are investing in the stock market we look at performance. We are betting that the stock we pick will not be a loss, but that it will out-earn the ones we could have bought. If we buy homeowner's insurance, we are betting that our house will burn down while the insurance company is betting it won't. With a little thought, most of us would be able to see other aspects of life which might be a form of gambling that are socially acceptable.
Christ...
If we are investing in the stock market we look at performance. We are betting that the stock we pick will not be a loss, but that it will out-earn the ones we could have bought. If we buy homeowner's insurance, we are betting that our house will burn down while the insurance company is betting it won't. With a little thought, most of us would be able to see other aspects of life which might be a form of gambling that are socially acceptable.
Christ...
January 16, 2010
The Curse of the Writer's Internet
Hooray!
My book is now live on Kindle, and is in queue (what a wierd word) to be posted on smashwords.com within minutes. How different things are now. When Charles Dickens wrote "A Tale of Two Cities." the story was printed as a weekly newspaper sequel, and authors were paid by the word. That made for a really long drawn out story. Now I can post my whole book in seconds with a mere click on multiple sites around the world.
Smashwords is converting the book to all formats "as we speak" because I'm posting this on the wireless laptop which is next to my desktop computer. (I know- I'm all ate up with this.)
AAARRG! I've made some stupid spacebar error and have to go back through the whole book to find it before http://www.smashwords.com/ will post it. I guess it could be worse. If one is working with an agent on a traditional publishing project, it could take up to two years to get a book to customers. Well I guess I can go back again and find it (read that as minor hissey fit).
In Dickens' day, writing was a major leap of faith. "What, I have to hand-write the whole novel again because some meathead dropped the manuscript in a puddle?" Some authors died before ever seeing their work in print. Must have been that antique version of "your book is currently number 25,234 in queue."
Oh, man!
http://www.pastorjerrylive.org/
My book is now live on Kindle, and is in queue (what a wierd word) to be posted on smashwords.com within minutes. How different things are now. When Charles Dickens wrote "A Tale of Two Cities." the story was printed as a weekly newspaper sequel, and authors were paid by the word. That made for a really long drawn out story. Now I can post my whole book in seconds with a mere click on multiple sites around the world.
Smashwords is converting the book to all formats "as we speak" because I'm posting this on the wireless laptop which is next to my desktop computer. (I know- I'm all ate up with this.)
AAARRG! I've made some stupid spacebar error and have to go back through the whole book to find it before http://www.smashwords.com/ will post it. I guess it could be worse. If one is working with an agent on a traditional publishing project, it could take up to two years to get a book to customers. Well I guess I can go back again and find it (read that as minor hissey fit).
In Dickens' day, writing was a major leap of faith. "What, I have to hand-write the whole novel again because some meathead dropped the manuscript in a puddle?" Some authors died before ever seeing their work in print. Must have been that antique version of "your book is currently number 25,234 in queue."
Oh, man!
http://www.pastorjerrylive.org/
