Government's Role?

For those who want more government, here is something to think about. When government creates government jobs, we must remember they are not jobs that create or generate money. Every time the government creates another government agency it must have an equitable response in the private sector.

Let me explain. Since government jobs are solely dependent upon jobs in the private sector for income as a result of taxation, then every time government creates a job within itself then there must be a creation of multiple jobs in the private sector to support it. Herein lies the problem. When government is creating jobs within itself outpacing the growth of employment in the private sector, you then have the inevitable of raising taxes on everyone. Government then becomes larger and the people become financially oppressed, economic growth comes to a standstill, government portrays itself as the answer when in fact they are the problem.

It is not the government’s role to create jobs. It is the private sector’s responsibility. It’s interesting that government is the one who has stifled job growth by it’s over burdening in taxation and regulations and now wants to come in and save the day by creating jobs. This is an amazing concept. I create a problem, and then I create the solution. What’s more amazing is, the solution is more taxation and regulation and somehow what has created the crisis will miraculously become the solution. I thought about this and came up with an illustration. I tell my son “I expect ten bushels of beans out of this garden, but you can’t plant within twenty feet of the stream, ten feet of the fence, and ten feet of the yard.” My son says, “Dad, I can’t get ten bushels of beans if you expect all of these regulations to be obeyed.” I reply “that’s ok son, I have the solution, don’t plant within thirty feet of the stream, fifteen feet of the fence, and twenty feet of the yard.” My son looks at me dumbfounded and leaves scratching his head at this load of wisdom. I must admit, I feel like my son in this story when it comes to our federal government. Referring to the eighties, some people called it the decade of greed; I called it capitalism at its finest. Government downsized, deregulation happened, tax cuts took effect, and a funny thing happened – business prospered and jobs were created by the private sector. How, you may ask. Government got out of the way! Ronald Reagan said it best “The nine most terrifying words in the English language are, 'I'm from the government and I'm here to help.”

“A government which robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend on the support of Paul” - George Bernard Shaw

When man fell in the garden, he became self-centered and self-conscience instead of being God-conscience. Therefore, it is man’s tendency to gravitate towards things that satisfy himself at the expense of others. When a nation’s political leaders look at politics as a career, then security of that position becomes a priority. Conviction of principles will become compromised when financial security, and the intoxication of people’s opinion come in conflict with them. It takes a strong moral disciplined person to resist the temptations of a political life. As a result of a lack of moral stimuli in many politicians today; they are willing to sell the future of this nation at the expense of the present. This brings us to the timeless truth that George Bernard Shaw spoke many years ago, “A government which robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend on the support of Paul.” Irresponsible and selfish politicians will play on the whims of an irresponsible and selfish citizenry to keep itself in power. The problem is that eventually you will run out of enough Peter’s to pay all the Paul’s. As parents do with children; you have to do what is right regardless of their crying. Children are immature and irresponsible thus they only live for the present gratification while totally ignoring the future consequences. America is turning into a quagmire of adolescence. Free handouts are now looked at as a right and most people think government exists to provide these freebies. I think I remember a president once saying, “Ask not what your country can do for you — ask what you can do for your country.” 

I don't think people realize how dangerous this situation in America truly is. It cannot sustain the current path it is on. Something must change! That change will have to begin at the home and not in Congress or the White House. This problem didn't start in Washington, it started in the homes of America. Everybody screamed at the removal of prayer from our schools. However, let's be honest, it left the homes long before the schools. We need to teach our children responsibility, ethics, morals, and a renewed sense of national pride again. America needs to return to its biblical foundation and once again fulfill:  

 2 Chronicles 7:14 If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.

The irresponsible behavior of children not corrected by parents eventually become the future political generation. The blame game, and throwing the responsibility off on each other in government in their meager attempts at being the innocent compassionate person or party, is laughable until you realize their indecisiveness costs us money.  The following story seems appropriate when pondering on the behavior of our government. 

Consider this story told by Bernard L. Brown, Jr., president of the Kennestone Regional Health Care System in the state of Georgia.

Brown once worked in a hospital where a patient knocked over a cup of water, which spilled on the floor beside the patient's bed. The patient was afraid he might slip on the water if he got out of the bed, so he asked a nurse's aide to mop it up. The patient didn't know it, but the hospital policy said that small spills were the responsibility of the nurse's aides while large spills were to be mopped up by the hospital's housekeeping group.

The nurse's aide decided the spill was a large one and she called the housekeeping department. A housekeeper arrived and declared the spill a small one. An argument followed.

"It's not my responsibility," said the nurse's aide, "because it's a large puddle." The housekeeper did not agree. "Well, it's not mine," she said, "the puddle is too small."

The exasperated patient listened for a time, then took a pitcher of water from his night table and poured the whole thing on the floor. "Is that a big enough puddle now for you two to decide?" he asked. It was, and that was the end of the argument. 

Bits & Pieces, September 16, 1993, p. 22-24.

Reuben Egolf

Leading Nations

Real Talk about Abortion

Since the legalization of abortion in 1973 (Roe vs Wade), over 56 million unborn children have been killed, more than the entire population of Spain.  Think about it – an entire nation no longer exists! That's 155 babies per hour.  About 1 every 24 seconds. When you finish reading this blog, five more innocent lives will be terminated. Their potential, gifts, and contribution to the world will be aborted with them. The next cure for cancer, technological advance, and inventions are all plummeted into the abyss as being misdiagnosed as waste.  

Charles Swindoll in The Tale of the Tardy Oxcart told the following story. 

A professor in a college ethics class presented his students with a problem. He said, "A man has syphilis and his wife has tuberculosis. They have had four children: one has died, the other three have what is considered to be a terminal illness. The mother is pregnant. What do you recommend?" After a spirited discussion, the majority of the class voted that she should abort the child. "Fine," said the professor. "You've just killed Beethoven."

Those who cry out in support of abortion will say that it is the woman’s moral right to choose.  However, when we hear of a house that burns down and three out of four of the family dies, those same people will say, “What kind of a moral God could take three lives like that?” Making the inference that God is immoral in his decision who lives and dies. Yet, when a woman who supports "choice" gets to play God with another person’s life in her womb, she has no problem on choosing who lives and who don’t. We must understand that when a woman aborts a child, she does not become un-pregnant, but rather the mother of a dead child. American society is too willing to sacrifice morals to preserve convenience. An unborn child should not be considered as an option or an obstacle on the road of convenience. I’m afraid that our selfishness has perverted our vision, destroyed our morals, and has moved us beyond the banks of rational reasoning. Pro-choice is nothing more than a smokescreen for the real underlying problem. It is the attempt to escape the consequences of our decisions. 

To prove my point, we need to look no further than the following scenario. Scientists look diligently on Mars for any sign of life. If they found a single-cell organism there, they would exclaim they have found life. However, these same people can’t acknowledge that a child in the womb fits the same criteria.

Psalm 139:13-16 (KJV)
¹³  For thou hast possessed my reins: thou hast covered me in my mother's womb.
¹⁴  I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well.
¹⁵  My substance was not hid from thee, when I was made in secret, and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth.
¹⁶  Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect; and in thy book all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them.

In these verses God speaks of his relationship with David while he was developing in the womb before birth. Notice, the Bible doesn't speak of fetal life as nothingness, a blob, or a lifeless mass. The description here is not of a piece of protoplasm that explodes into being David the moment he enters the outside world: this is David already being cared for by God while in the womb.

David reflects and explains how God made and crafted him and how wonderfully made we are.

There is one thread I see throughout scripture. When facing a decision always choose life. When faced with the temptation to gossip which is murder by the tongue, choose life and speak well of. When faced with a decision to lie or tell the truth – choose life and speak the truth. When faced with a decision to abort a child or let live – choose life! 

Pray for America!   

- Dr. Reuben Egolf  

Meet Mr. Pharisee

You Might be a Pharisee if… 

I’m sure you remember the iconic phrase made famous by Jeff Foxworthy some years back “You might be a redneck if…

• You ever cut your grass and found a car.
• You've ever used a weed eater indoors.
• You come home from the garbage dump with more than you went with.
• You fish in your above-ground pool, especially if you catch something!

These were just some to name a few. Recently, that phrase came to my mind while I was sitting in a revival waiting to speak. However, the word “redneck” was exchanged for “Pharisee.” Within in minutes I was writing on a sheet of paper the following statements.

You might be a Pharisee if…

• Love your religion more than Christ.
• You don’t practice what you preach
• You judge everyone by outward appearance
• You elevate man-made traditions to equality with God’s Word

However, this religious sect who were comprised by the most self-righteous religious leaders of the day were

• Religious but lost.
• They were good at converting people to religion but not to Christ.
• Good at making monuments and museums of the past but not life in the present.
• They couldn’t recognize Christ or an ordained move of God.

Pharisees were long on talk and short on practice. Jesus said: "All therefore whatsoever they bid you observe, that observe and do; but do not after their works: for they say, and do not" (Matt. 23:3).

Pharisees majored on minors. Jesus said that they "left undone the weightier matters" and "strained out the gnat, and swallowed the camel" (Matt. 23:23-25). Brings new life to the old saying “making mountains out of mole hills.”

I could go on and on about the Pharisee but the bottom line is that they were the epitome of hypocrisy. If they simply would have been sincere worshipers of the true and living God then all the infectious spiritual disease they were propagating would have been averted. However, their pride crushed any opportunity for humility to gain a foothold and they continued injecting their poison of man-made religion into the masses. People were turned off by their pompous rituals without life, and their attitude of arrogance sickened and repulsed those who otherwise may have come to the true God of Israel.

I began thinking of today, and wonder why more people are not wanting or receiving this wonderful free gift of salvation. It doesn’t take long to realize that the spirit (attitude – disposition) of the Pharisee is alive and well today. 

Is it possible these attitudes and characteristics that are listed above are still resident among God’s people? How many times do we judge the outward appearance and it hinders our response to that individual? How often has sinners said about the church “they talk one thing but they don’t live it.” 

I am thoroughly convinced that we hold the keys to opening the love of God to the masses of unsaved people in our communities. When we speak the Word in Love – what does that actually mean? 

It means we

• speak the truth without compromise
• realize our human weaknesses and it translates into such compassion towards them
• see them as more precious and valuable than anything else in the world
• guard our own life and practice what we preach

If we DO these things, the faucet of Phariseeism will be turned off and the true love of God will flow like a river. It will sweep the sinners into its flow of love and a true lasting revival will ensue. 

-      Dr. Reuben Egolf 

 Experience Life Today