your sins are forgiven

Jesus tells His disciples something interesting in John 20:23. i’m having a hard time wrapping my head around it.

"If you forgive the sins of any, their sins have been forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they have been retained."

what does that mean? did the apostles have the right and or ability to forgive sins or not forgive sins? i have always thought that God alone was able to forgive sins. what are your thoughts on this verse and this matter?

last time

it’s late. and have been thinking about the kingdom. throughout the years many people have done many things for the sake of the kingdom. form being labeled outcast,to just standing up, to even giving their lives simply because they were part of the kingdom.

i listen to Hanity some through out the week, right or wrong i do, he says often that he does every show like it’s his last.

how often have i fallen short from doing what needs to be done as a citizen of the kingdom. how many lives could i have loved that were over looked because of my ego or simple by not taking time to lend a hand and care for them. every min of my life needs to be lived as if it is the last. even though it may not be my last it may be the last of the guy i just passed!

Give Me Liberty Or Give Me a Bailout Part 3

Bailout type federal government plans have not worked in the past. In the 1990’s, Japan had the same problem that the United States is going through now. Paul Krugman of MIT wrote this about Japan’s economic bailout,
The Japanese bank bailout is supposedly the key to the recovery of Japan's economy, which is supposedly the key to recovery in Asia; optimism sparked by that bailout has fueled a definite improvement in the mood in the whole region. Yet a simple example suggests that the rescue program is likely to end in farce, as banks decline to be rescued; and that if somehow the Japanese government finds the will to force the banks to take money anyway, it will actually be counterproductive (web.mit.edu).
Japan’s bailout was counterproductive. In fact, Japan’s economy is still trying to recover and pay off the debt that they accumulated during that time. President Franklin D. Roosevelt (FDR) during his terms, instituted the “New Deal” to improve the economic situation of the Great Depression. Some of FDR’s new programs included, “Social Security, heavier taxes on the wealthy, new controls over banks and public utilities, and an enormous work relief program for the unemployed” (whitehouse.gov). Most of these programs are not working, or have only raised the cost for the use of these services. A person that has worked for 20 to 30 years, and paid into Social Security (SS), can barely eat, let alone pay their bills from the SS check that they receive. FDR became President in 1933. The United States fell back into a recession in 1937. If Japan had not attacked the United States in December of 1941 and the United States had not joined in World War II, it would not have come out of the Great Depression. Government bailouts have not worked in the past. Why would they work today?
Putting the bailout gum on the leaking economic dam will only coverup the problem, allowing it to become even worse than before. The United States’ founding fathers, human nature, and history show that letting the government bailout companies will not work, but they will also allow the government to have more control, which will lead to a more socialist economy. The people of the United States should not sit back and let the current governmental leaders turn the United States into a liberty restricted, socialist country.

Give Me Liberty Or Give Me a Bailout Part 2

The government is providing $250 billion (federalreserve.gov) in “recovery” money to the failing companies. Although it sounds good for the government to “bailout” or provide a “Recovery Act” for a company, it is only prolonging and escalating the bad effects of these companies completely failing. If a parent were to give a child a new video game (insert your favorite childhood toy) every time the child hit their sibling in the face, that child would continue to do the bad behavior. It is human nature that when one receives something good for a particular action, then that action will be reinforced. If a company makes decisions that cause that company to lose money and start to fail, the government should not give them money. This action by the government only reinforces the company to continue to do the same action. This is only in human nature to do this. Not only is the Government reinforcing the failing behaviors, but they are lending $250 billion away to failing companies. This money can only come from one place: the taxpayer! If the failing company is only going to continue to fail, then it will not be able to pay the government back, so the money that the government has taken from the taxpayer, the taxpayer will never see again. That means that the government will no longer be able to operate without receiving more money. Taxes will increase to pay for the $250 billion loan. In turn, taxpayers will have less money, because they will be paying more in taxes. Soon the taxpayer will not be able to feed their family or themselves. Then the government will have to bail the taxpayer out with the taxpayers tax money, which will give the government even more control. This is a horrible cycle that will only continue to get worse the more money the government spends. Bailing out a failing company only prolongs that companies failure and deepens the impact its failure has.

Give Me Liberty Or Give Me a Bailout

This is part of a paper that i worte in eng111. let me know what you think!
The United States economy is in the toilet. Any cognitive citizen will confess this to be the case. The United States Federal Government wants to bail the economy out. This will not work. The founding fathers of the United States, human nature, and history all know that a government bailout will not fix the United States’ economic problems.
Bailing out Wall Street is not what the founding fathers intended the government to do. Bailouts sound good in theory: “Uncle Sam saves jobs!” but by the government giving money to companies, they don’t just give them money; they also take control of that company. Because of this, the companies become part of the control of the United States Government. President Obama showed his control after bailing out General Motors, when he requested Rick Wagoner, GM’s CEO, to step down. The United State’s founding fathers fought the British, because the British wanted to be in control of how the new colonies ran, but didn’t want to help them out. The United States was founded on the idea that every man, woman, and child has the right to choose how they live their life. In the Declaration of Independence the founders were listing their many reasons for leaving the British control. They wrote this, “He has made judges dependent on his will alone for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries” (ushistory.org). The King decided what the judges would be paid and even who would be a judge. If this type of control was a travesty to have over a judge, then it also should be a travesty to have this type of control over a privately owned company. Having control over privately owned companies, for whatever reason, was not the intent of the founding fathers of the United States for the government, and should not be allowed today.

the Church is not keeping up

i was reading an essay by Chris Anderson called “the rise and fall of the hit.” in the essay he was talking about how the music industry has changed in the las 9 years or so. Anderson said something that made me think, “There was a reason the church was the main cultural unifier in Western Europe: It had the best distribution infrastructure and, thanks to Gutenberg’s press, the most mass-produced item (the Bible).” What happened, the church no longer is the main “cultural unifier.” should it be? i think it should. the message that the church has a message that unifies cultures. i think our methods the church uses maybe outdated. in western europe at that time the church was cutting edge, using the printing press to distribute the Bible. but the church doesn’t the best and latest distribution infrastructure any more. The church’s idea of brings the young and the old together is a guitar for a song on sunday morning. But the church has got to do much better then that. There are unlimited, practically free resources from blogs, to facebook, podcast, twitter, and so much more that the church could be using to to reach people in our culture. Now there are some in the church that are using some of these resources, but there is still so much untaped potential, that the Church can become the cultural unifier in this post-modern cultural.

dead ends

life is frustrating when it seems that you always run into dead ends. it its even more frustrating when most of those dead ends have come up because of yourself. i know that we have to pay for our mistakes. but do you give up on your dreams? when does reality meet the thoughts that keep you up at night? according to those that have carried out the hopes we have to keep pushing, and getting back up. but when is it falling down and God telling you to change direction? i guess just keeping pushing until you can’t push any more.