The Wise Overseer

As Published June 2014 – Focus on the Family FAMILYWISE NEWSLETTER Sometimes the most fertile fields are those that have lain fallow for years, but sometimes fields that have been neglected produce quite the opposite effect.  Neglect and mismanagement can drain a field of nutrients or lead to an infestation of weeds, like thistles or briars. …

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A Peddler of Dead Souls

“Oh troika, winged troika, tell me who invented you? Surely, nowhere but among a nimble nation could you have been born in a country which has taken itself in earnest and has evenly spread far and wide over half of the globe, so that once you start counting the milestones you may count on till…

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The Sound of Silence

The reason why so few people are agreeable in conversation is that each is thinking more about what he intends to say than what others are saying. -Francois Duc de la Rochefoucauld We are overwhelmed by silence!  The quarter ended with a bang, brought about largely by the silence of the Federal Reserve.  In their…

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Options, Tomahawks & Taper Light

Vision is the art of seeing what is invisible to others. -Jonathan Swift It is football season, and in the South we take our football seriously.  Regardless of whether one is talking about a group of seven year olds running a “twenty-six jet” or an NFL team setting up a “soft zone – prevent” defense…

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Extreme Relativism

The inherent vice of Capitalizm is the unequal sharing of blessings.  The inherent virtue of Socialism is the equal sharing of miseries. – Winston Churchill We live in a relativistic world; one in which toleration is the highest form of virtue.  While we could wax on eloquently about the profound bankruptcy of such a worldview,…

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Tapers, Capers & Papers

One can hardly look at the Papers these days without being bombarded with the activities of two seemingly unrelated entities.  The NFL and the Federal Reserve would, on the surface, appear to have little in common.  After all the FED is staffed by straight laced bankers and PH.D. types and the NFL….well you get the…

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An Absence of Shalom

FEW THINGS ARE MORE EVIDENT in today’s society than an absence of shalom. We see it in the lack of peace throughout the world; we see it in the failure of our marriages; and perhaps most importantly, we see it in a fallen world searching for something -anything – to fill the void inside the hearts…

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Investment Paralysis

Whoever disregards discipline comes to poverty and shame. -Proverbs 13:18a Few people we talk with these days have much positive to say about the stock market, the economy, or even the direction of our nation.  Recent events have done little to reassure us that the future is indeed bright.  A slow-down in China, outright recession…

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Embracing Divine Guidance in Financial Uncertainty

I recently found myself in Paris at a European investment conference. There were a number of notable speakers in attendance and over thirty countries were represented. Senior economic advisors to two governments, prestigious academics, and global investment strategists were included among a glittering array of speakers. While the primary theme of the conference was global economic trends and…

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