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Nunca é tarde para recomeçar

http://anchor.tfionline.com/pt/post/nunca-e-tarde-para-recomecar/

Rick Warren

Deus é um Deus de segundas chances e recomeços. Se você está vivo, respirando e lendo este artigo, então Ele obviamente ainda tem outras coisas reservadas para sua vida. Não desista, aguente firme, mesmo diante de um fracasso. Deus pode usar os erros para alavancar a sua vida. Deixe-o agir.

Em meu último artigo, falei sobre as cinco razões mais frequentes de fracassarmos. Hoje quero compartilhar com vocês as quatro maneiras de se recuperar e avançar na vida.


1. Aceite responsabilidade pelo seu fracasso.

Provérbios 28:13 diz: “O que encobre as suas transgressões nunca prosperará, mas o que as confessa e deixa, alcançará misericórdia.” Nossos erros são em vão quando não os admitimos. Seja sincero consigo mesmo. Seja sincero com outros. A maioria de nós é mestre em transferir a culpa. Faz parte da nossa natureza pecaminosa. Culpamos a economia, o tempo, o destino, o azar, os pais, o cônjuge, o governo, etc.

Mas Deus diz que, se alguém falhar e desejar recomeçar, basta admitir o fato. Não sei de onde tiramos a ideia de que devemos fingir perfeição. Não somos perfeitos! Você não é perfeito nem eu.

Em 1974, depois de uma sequência de 88 vitórias, o time de basquete da Universidade da Califórnia perdeu para o Notre Dame — apesar de estarem onze pontos à frente. No dia seguinte, nas manchetes, John Wooden dizia: “A culpa é minha.” Esta é uma característica de um vencedor: não transfere culpa. Ele admitiu o excesso de confiança da equipe.


2. Deixe o remorso e se arrependa.

Depois de um grande erro, devemos deixar o remorso e nos arrependermos. Arrependimento, palavra de origem grega, significa conversão, mudança de mentalidade, de perspectiva, de direção e de sentimento. Não se fica inerte lamentando: “Eu não presto; sou um fracasso. Deus nunca mais vai poder me usar. Nada valho; sou uma porcaria. Deus vai me aposentar”. Largue o remorso e se arrependa.

2 Coríntios 7:10 diz: “Porque a tristeza segundo Deus opera arrependimento para a salvação, da qual ninguém se arrepende; mas a tristeza do mundo opera a morte.” Esse versículo menciona dois tipos de tristeza, uma de caráter divino; outra, de caráter mundano.

O primeiro tipo estimula mudanças e uma transformação interior. A tristeza segundo Deus nos motiva a mudar. A tristeza segundo o mundo desmoraliza, deprime e leva à morte. A autocomiseração é uma das emoções mais devastadoras na vida. Alimentar lamentações nada nos ensina.

Praticamente todo êxito na vida é resultado de algum fracasso. Aprende-se com os erros. Tenho certeza que certas lições nós só conseguimos aprender errando.


3. Esqueça o passado e concentre-se no futuro.

Filipenses 3:13–14 afirma: “Irmãos, quanto a mim, não julgo que o haja alcançado; mas uma coisa faço, e é que, esquecendo-me das coisas que atrás ficam, e avançando para as que estão diante de mim, prossigo para o alvo, pelo prêmio da soberana vocação de Deus em Cristo Jesus.”

Existe alguma lembrança pela qual você se deixa manipular constantemente? Toda vez que ela lhe ocorre, você pensa: “Se arrependimento matasse... Quem me dera nunca ter feito isso!” E se deixa manipular. Algumas pessoas deixam o passado controlar o seu futuro. Isso está errado. Preocupação não altera o passado. Deixe disso. Pense no futuro. O que importa é a direção em que está sentindo, não a situação anterior. O passado não tem que controlar a sua vida.

Não me importam os seus erros na vida. Ninguém está descartado, a menos que desista e tome a decisão de rejeitar a graça de Deus. As opções são: sentimento de culpa ou confissão. Você pode viver com sentimento de culpa, ou admitir o erro e tocar sua vida. Esqueça o passado. Foque no futuro.

4. Confie em Deus para as soluções.

Romanos 8:28, “E sabemos que todas as coisas contribuem juntamente para o bem daqueles que amam a Deus, daqueles que são chamados segundo o seu propósito.” Deus está tecendo uma trama específica em nossas vidas, e vai formar um desenho lindo. Tudo vai se encaixar. Mas. às vezes, do nosso ponto de vista, parece uma confusão, uma bagunça. Olhamos para nossas vidas e pensamos: “Como é possível que isso dê certo?”

Antigamente eu me preocupava muito antes com a origem dos meus problemas. Será que isso é obra do capeta? Será que é culpa de outros cristãos? Será que foi o Senhor que deixou isso acontecer comigo? Ou porventura sou eu mesmo o causador deste problema? Com o passar dos anos, conforme cresci na fé, percebi e entendi melhor que não importa a origem do problema. Não importa quem teve participação, se o Diabo, outras pessoas, ou eu mesmo. Deus fará contribuir para o bem. Ele sabe como lidar com nossos grandes erros e fazer tudo dar certo no final.

Deus quer usar o seu maior fracasso — aquele aspecto da sua vida com grandes erros o qual você esconde muito bem e mantém em segredo — e transforá-lo no seu ponto mais forte. Quer que se torne uma mensagem de vida. Qual é o seu ponto fraco? Não importa, Deus vai entrar em ação e retificar. Basta você largar o remorso e as lamentações e deixa-lo agir em sua vida.

Artigo do pastor Rick Warren da igreja Saddleback Church na Califórnia, from http://pastors.com/start-over-2.

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I believe we have a moral obligation to starve the beast. - Simon Black

April 15, 2015
Santiago, Chile

On August 5, 1861, facing rapidly deteriorating economic conditions and a horrible defeat at Bull Run, President Abraham Lincoln signed the Revenue Act of 1861 into law.

It was the first time in US history that the federal government would charge an income tax on its citizens. But Lincoln felt that it was vital to fund what would become one of the most unconscionably costly conflicts in US history.

The original law in 1861 set a flat tax rate of 3% on incomes above $800.

(Using the gold price as a benchmark, this is equivalent to 42.26 ounces, or roughly $50,500 in today's dollars. Not that there's any inflation.)

The income tax was tweaked occasionally throughout the war, and it lasted for a few years afterwards to help fund reconstruction.

But it was ultimately lifted in 1873 during the administration of Ulysses S. Grant. And aside from a single episode in 1894, there would be no income tax in the United States of America for nearly 40 years.

Ironically, during this 40 year period the United States emerged as the largest, most powerful economy in the world.

And they achieved this with no income tax. No inflation. And very little public debt.

Today it's entirely different. The dollar has lost over 99% of its value. And US debt is more than has ever been accumulated by any other nation in the history of the world.

Entitlement program costs are soaring. The US government's own figures estimate that the long-term funding gap for Social Security, Medicare, etc. is at $40 trillion. Many private estimates are several times that amount.

This is obviously concerning.

But what's even more concerning is the complete lack of care and attention this issue receives.

Politicians continue to spend money with a dangerous sense of entitlement.

They believe that since they're "America" they can do whatever they want without consequence, as if the laws of the financial universe don't apply.

And their judgement is clearly lacking.

They already borrow money and go deeper into debt just to pay the interest on the debt they already owe.

And yet they continue to spend, often on the most destructive things like bombs, drones, and war.

They throw money at failed programs. They hire armies of bureaucrats who make life more difficult for productive citizens. And they equip legions of police and armed enforcers to intimidate the population into submission.

All of this is ultimately supported by taxes. Your taxes.

You see, the creditworthiness of any nation is underpinned by its ability to raise and collect taxes.

If investors feel like a government has an intimidating-enough system of taxation that can bully citizens into compliance, they feel comfortable loaning a government money.

It's a very simple calculus: when the US government goes into debt, YOU are the collateral.

Whether you realize it or not, whether you signed up for this obligation or not, you're on the hook. You're the guarantor.

It's obscene when you think about it; these people have carte blanche to ruin the country, and then they stick you with the bill.

Remember this as you're standing in line at the post office to send off that 1040.

Continuing to pay taxes into this system only encourages them.

Yeah sure there's an election coming up in the Land of the Free. It's looking to be another wide open field among a bunch of insiders who are responsible for causing all the problems.

This vote (as we'll discuss down the road) is completely meaningless.

What is tremendously impactful, however, is how you 'vote' with your dollars.

Every day you are making an election. By choosing one brand over another in the supermarket, or by buying an iPhone versus an Android, you are essentially voting for the better candidate.

Over time, the good candidates who have a history of providing quality products and services rise to the top. And the bad candidates are starved of the resources they need to go on.

It's time to starve these people of the resources they need. Continuing to pay them every year only encourages them. It sends a signal that we support their decisions.

Cutting off their resources is a far more effective strategy than checking a box in a voting booth.

No, I'm not suggesting that anyone commit tax evasion or stop filing a tax return. This is a one-way ticket to the jailhouse.

But I personally feel a moral obligation to arrange my affairs in a way which maximizes every deduction possible and to pay the absolute minimum that is required by law.

There are countless options... from using tax-deferred options like IRAs or foreign corporations, to even moving abroad.

US tax code, for example, provides a clear path for Americans to move overseas and pay no tax on the first $100,800 in foreign earned income.

Or you can move to Puerto Rico and pay absolutely nothing on investment income or corporate dividends.

Most people don't realize how many options they have at their disposal to cut what they owe.

And in my mind, it not only makes obvious financial sense, but it's one of the best weapons anyone has to fight back.






Until tomorrow,

Simon Black
Founder, SovereignMan.com

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Israel’s Strategy: Divide and Rule

By Justin Raimondo, Antiwar.com, April 12, 2015

While the Israel lobby is blanketing the US media with propaganda to the effect that Iran cannot be trusted to adhere to the terms of any agreement limiting its nuclear research and development, back in Tel Aviv Bibi and his government know better. Ha’aretz has the story:

“Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said at a recent meeting of the security cabinet that if a comprehensive nuclear agreement between Iran and the six world powers is indeed signed by the June 30 deadline, the greatest concern is that Tehran will fully implement it without violations, two senior Israeli officials said.”

The problem for the Israelis isn’t that the Iranians can’t be trusted to keep the agreement. Quite the opposite:

“According to the two senior officials, Netanyahu said during the meeting that he feared that the ‘Iranians will keep to every letter in the agreement if indeed one is signed at the end of June.’

“One official said: ‘Netanyahu said at the meeting that it would be impossible to catch the Iranians cheating simply because they will not break the agreement.’”

Hey, wait a minute–so what about the much touted Second Holocaust that’s supposed to happen if our Secret Muslim of a President succeeds in getting the agreement past a hostile Congress? What about all the kvetching and gnashing of teeth over the “existential threat” supposedly looming over Israel?

Bibi has been telling us Iran is on the threshold of building a nuclear arsenal capable of destroying Israel for the past decade: in five years, in three years, in a few months–the Existential Threat is forever on the verge, about to emerge. Yet it never happened, perhaps because Tehran has no intention of provoking the international community in such a manner. However, Bibi does have a point: given its present resources, Iran could in fact produce enough fissile material for a bomb in a few months, six at the most–although measures of so-called “breakout time” are highly problematic.

Be that as it may, the fact is that, as things now stand, Iran could go nuclear in a year or less–unless Tehran reaches some sort of agreement with the P5+1. So why is Bibi working so furiously to nix it?

Because it’s not about nukes. The Iranians know that if they go down that road the West will strike, and, aside from that, their Supreme Leader has issued a fatwa condemning nuclear weapons per se. The whole issue has been phony from the very beginning, even phonier than the “weapons of mass destruction” accusations hurled at Iraq. The real issue is Iran’s very existence–its size, its resources, its position as the epicenter of Shi’ite power in the region.

Confronted with Muslim neighbors united in their hostility to the Jewish state, Tel Aviv’s strategy has always been “divide and conquer.” And the logical dividing point is the historic split between the Sunnis and the Shi’ites. While the Israelis initially played off groups like Hamas against the relatively secular Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO)–tolerating if not nurturing the former to provide a counterweight to Yasser Arafat–the rise of religious fundamentalism in the Muslim world provided them with new opportunities.

Once secular resistance to Israeli regional dominance was out of the way–with the PLO domesticated, Saddam Hussein eliminated, and Syria’s Ba’athist regime up against the wall–the Israelis pivoted to a tacit alliance with the Saudis and the Gulf states against their main enemy: Tehran. This is the meaning of their tactical support to Syria’s “moderate” Islamist rebels, backed by the Saudis and the Gulf emirates: in their lobbying efforts, Israel’s amen corner in the US has gone to bat for the “fund the rebels” campaign. And when Al Qaeda established an outpost contiguous to Israel it highlighted how easily the two get along: instead of battling attacks across the border, Israeli sightseers travel there to watch the rebels fight the Syrian army.

But the real battleground is here in the United States, where Congress has long been “Israeli-occupied territory,” in Pat Buchanan’s felicitous phrase. Netanyahu’s speech before Congress was just the opening shot: Israeli lobbying efforts are focused on garnering a veto-proof majority for the “Iran Nuclear Agreement Review Act,” which effectively scuttles the deal under cover of “congressional review.” The Corker legislation, which has some support among Democrats, not only forbids the lifting of sanctions for 60 days but also gives the Senate and House foreign relations committees de facto veto power over the pact. At least 50 amendments are now up for consideration, and the bill is scheduled to come before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee this Tuesday.

The politics of this issue are fascinating: 61% of the American people support a deal with Iran: that poll puts GOP support at about the same level, although another survey says 31% are for it, 30% oppose it, and the rest are unsure. But the Republicans running for President–all of whom have jumped on the Corker bandwagon–don’t care about those numbers. All they care about is that the big donors are unalterably opposed: so if you’re wondering why GOP presidential wannabes are ignoring the split in their party over this issue, then all you have to do is follow the money.

On the Democratic side support among voters for the emerging deal is overwhelming, and yet you see Senate Democratic leader-to-be Chuck Schumer coming out against it. Schumer has long been a mainstay of the Israel lobby and his support for Corker signals to Democrats that opposing the White House in this is now acceptable. The Schumer ploy underscores the Democrats’ dilemma, which pits the base against the leadership. As Greg Rosenbaum, chairman of the National Jewish Democratic Council, puts it:

“The Republican Party, led by a Republican Jewish coalition, has decided the only way they can get American Jewish voters is to make Israel a partisan issue. And by making Israel a political issue, they undermine the bipartisan rationale for support of the Israel-U.S. relationship.”

Rosenbaum’s problem, however, is that Netanyahu has made Israel a partisan issue by openly aligning with the GOP. Bibi’s speech to Congress, arranged behind the President’s back, is only the latest chapter in this ongoing story: the Israeli Prime Minister made no secret of his support for Mitt Romney in 2012. Both Mitch McConnell and John Boehner made trips to Israel as the recent Lausanne negotiations were concluding–presumably to receive their marching orders.

It’s an extraordinary sight: the leaders of one of the two major parties openly aligning themselves with a foreign government in order to undermine the foreign policy of a sitting US President.

The Israeli strategy–divide and rule–has worked like a charm both in the Middle East and here in the US. Pitting Sunnis against Shi’ites and Republicans against Democrats, Tel Aviv is breaking out of the geographical encirclement it suffered for so long and is well on its way to establishing the old Zionist dream of a “Greater Israel.” With Hillary Clinton–always more pro-Israel than President Obama–poised to clinch the Democratic nomination, and given the Israeli lock on the GOP, the prospects for peace with Iran get dimmer as the days go by.

The irony is that the American people support the Iran deal, but they don’t count. The Israelis are concentrating their fire on those who do count–the political class, resident in Washington, D.C. and New York. And that’s the third prong of Tel Aviv’s divide-and-rule strategy: the vast gulf between the politicians and the people who theoretically elect them.

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Arms spending up globally, except in US, Western Europe

AP, Apr 12, 2015

HELSINKI (AP)–World military spending was largely unchanged in 2014 as lower spending in the United States and Western Europe was matched by increases elsewhere, prompted by conflicts in the Middle East, Eastern Europe and Africa, an arms watchdog said Monday.

The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute said total global arms expenditure was down 0.4 percent at $1.8 trillion.

American spending was reduced by 6.5 percent as part of measures to cut the U.S. budget deficit, while the three biggest arms spenders after the U.S.–China, Russia and Saudi Arabia–greatly increased their purchases. Saudi Arabia boosted its military investments the most, by 17 percent, while China’s arms spending rose by 9.7 percent to an estimated $216 billion.

SIPRI program director Sam Perlo-Freeman said the conflict in Ukraine has prompted many European countries near Russia to increase military spending, particularly in central Europe, the Baltics and the Nordic countries. On the other hand, the five biggest spenders in western Europe–France, Britain, Germany, Italy and Spain–have all budgeted for further, small cuts this year.

“The Ukraine crisis has fundamentally altered the security situation in Europe, but so far the impact on military spending is mostly apparent in countries bordering Russia,” he said. “Elsewhere, austerity remains the main driver of downward spending trends.”

Ukraine increased expenditure by over 20 percent in 2014 and plans to more than double spending on the armed forces in 2015. In line with plans made before the Ukraine conflict Moscow is also spending more on arms this year, the institute said in its report.

The fast build-up of arms in areas such as the Middle East and Africa is “placing an increasingly high burden on economies,” Perlo-Freeman added.

“These increases partly reflect worsening security situations, but in many cases they are also the product of corruption, vested interests and autocratic governance,” he said.

In Latin America, Mexico increased its spending by 11 percent because of the continuing battle against drug cartels, with Brazil’s expenditure falling slightly due to economic difficulties. Crisis-hit Venezuela had the largest drop in the region, of 34 percent.

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