A common problem that I would like to address is the issue of disrespectful and discourteous behavior by human resources departments. I just happened to read an article online about mistakes people make during an interview. It got my blood boiling because all you ever see online is advice to people looking for a job. No one ever addresses the lousy behavior of human resource departments that has become so prevalent in American society.
My husband is at the management level and I cannot tell you how many times over the past 30 years that he has applied for a job and never heard back at all from the personnel department. Zippo! Nada! I would say that 7 out of 10 employers never reply to formal application with resume and letter of introduction.
When no one makes the effort to even send you a 'thanks but no thanks' letter (which takes very little time to do), it reveals a lack of respect for their employees as well as the applicants. It reveals poor management skills and poor follow-through. Young people are growing up in this country without basic business etiquette, let alone common courtesy. Human resource departments often refuse to take the time to reply to applicants and rationalize that they are too busy to do so. What they are is too selfish to do so.
Job websites give plenty of advice to applicants about how to do a resume, how to present themselves in an interview, and a list of 'to don'ts,' However, nothing is ever really said to employers and businesses about the need to behave differently and treat their applicants with courtesy, an attribute which is in very short supply in our "it's all about me" society. It's no wonder people text back, "Thx 4 the interview," instead of writing a formal thank-you note. Some companies justify ignoring applicants because of a poor interview. Employers may get turned off by interviewee's behavior but that is no reason to leave them hanging and never inform them that the company has no interest in them.
Today's companies often show a complete lack of compassion for people who are out of work and looking for a job. Unless a company is desperate for workers, the human resource department invariably acts like it's up to the applicant to do everything. That's not the way it should be. It's not the applicant's responsibility to have to keep checking and wasting valuable time trying to find out if a company is interested in hiring him (or her). Human resource departments have just gotten lazy over the years and apathetic towards the people they are supposed to care about. What is missing from human resources is humanity.
Monday, April 26, 2010
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
Congressional Reform Act 2010
I received this in an email and I thought it was superb!
Congressional Reform Act of 2010.
Term Limits: 12 years only, one of the possible options below.
A. Two Six year Senate terms
B. Six Two year House terms
C. One Six year Senate term and three Two Year House terms
2. No Tenure / No Pension: A congressman collects a salary while in office and receives no pay when they are out of office.
3. Congress (past, present & future) participates in Social Security: All funds in the Congressional retirement fund moves to the Social Security system immediately. All future funds flow into the Social Security system, Congress participates with the American people.
4. Congress can purchase their own retirement plan just as all Americans.
5. Congress will no longer vote themselves a pay raise. Congressional pay will rise by the lower of CPI or 3%.
6. Congress looses their current health care system and participates in the same health care system as the American people.
7. Congress must equally abide in all laws they impose on the American people.
8. All contracts with past and present congressmen are void effective 1/1/11.
The American people did not make this contract with congressmen, congressmen made all these contracts for themselves.
Serving in Congress is an honor, not a career.. The Founding Fathers envisioned citizen legislators, serve your term(s), then go home and back to work.
Congressional Reform Act of 2010.
Term Limits: 12 years only, one of the possible options below.
A. Two Six year Senate terms
B. Six Two year House terms
C. One Six year Senate term and three Two Year House terms
2. No Tenure / No Pension: A congressman collects a salary while in office and receives no pay when they are out of office.
3. Congress (past, present & future) participates in Social Security: All funds in the Congressional retirement fund moves to the Social Security system immediately. All future funds flow into the Social Security system, Congress participates with the American people.
4. Congress can purchase their own retirement plan just as all Americans.
5. Congress will no longer vote themselves a pay raise. Congressional pay will rise by the lower of CPI or 3%.
6. Congress looses their current health care system and participates in the same health care system as the American people.
7. Congress must equally abide in all laws they impose on the American people.
8. All contracts with past and present congressmen are void effective 1/1/11.
The American people did not make this contract with congressmen, congressmen made all these contracts for themselves.
Serving in Congress is an honor, not a career.. The Founding Fathers envisioned citizen legislators, serve your term(s), then go home and back to work.
Monday, March 22, 2010
Health Care Schmelth Care
Why do Christians think they can't effect change through the government? Why do they think that it's taboo to get involved in politics? That whole idea that "real Christians don't get involved in politics - that problems can't be solved through government" is a bunch of hooey!
Let's look at it this way - would you agree that government can get a nation in a whole lot of trouble with the way they do things? My guess is that you are saying, "Well yeah, of course." Okay, then the opposite is also true - yes? Good government CAN solve problems and create good living conditions. Even the Bible tells us that the people suffer under a wicked ruler and are joyful under righteous and good rule: Proverbs 29:2 When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice: but when the wicked beareth rule, the people mourn.
The entire books of Kings and Chronicles are all about good and bad kings and how the leadership of the nation of Israel and then Judah caused the people to sin and turn away from God, and also how the leadership at times repented which brought the people back into right standing with God. The Bible teaches us that government has great power to do good or to do evil. And that good and bad government is tied directly to acknowledgment of God.
Right now, our government is doing great evil. Evil men and women are turning the nation more and more away from the worship and acknowledgment of God and the truth of the Bible. Evil men and women, with their laws and policies, are turning the people of this nation towards the worship of the state and hatred of biblical truth. The nation of America has lost her way and as Christians we need to do something about it.
We need to get politically involved. We need to spend time on our knees praying and we need to spend time on our feet promoting good leaders who will be righteous in their lawmaking and their judgments.
We need to say, "NO!" to more out-of-control government. How do we do that? Very loudly. Tell people about it, support good candidates with your financial contributions, believe you can make a difference.
God gave us the political system we have and that political system requires the people to be an integral part of the workings - or it is a failed system. If we are not involved we get tyranny. And that is what we have right now.
In the last 2 elections, we have had a majority of uninformed, deceived voters who voted out good people for tyrants who are seeking to control every aspect of our daily lives. And to top it all off, they voted in a president who was the most radically liberal senator in history - a man who believes heart and soul in socialism.
Socialism for those of you who don't know, is a politically corrupt system where the government runs everything. It is the first step towards communism. It is first and foremost government without God. Then it is government without individual rights. Everything is for the "common" good. Of course, the people in charge get to decide what that "good" is. Socialism is atheistic, pro-abortion, pro-government, pro-state control, anti-creativity, anti-individual, anti-private ownership, anti-growth, anti-capitalism, anti-Christian, anti-Israel, anti-free speech, anti-conservatism, and anti-American. There is no reward for individual hard work or effort. It is the system that redistributes wealth from those who work and are successful to those who don't work or are less successful. Ultimately, it saps the will of the worker - with no reward, why bother? That's why people ended up waiting in lines all day in the USSR just to get a roll or two of toilet paper, or a pair of ill-fitting shoes.
What we have today is what I call "Neo-Socialism." Neo-Socialism is a reworking of socialism with a little bit of democracy and private ownership thrown in. It is "the frog in the warm water" stage of socialism. It is that period where people actually think that the government helping out those less fortunate is good and will not do harm to the nation. What the people don't realize is that the water is heating up slowly and we are going to get cooked to death and eventually under complete government control in every aspect. Once the people get a revelation of what they have allowed to happen, they will either be so numb and beaten by the system that they will succumb, or they will rebel and there will be a revolution in this country - including riots and other destructive results.
And don't think the Constitution will protect us. As part of the socialistic domination, that document will be amended piece by piece. If you think it can't happen, you are sadly mistaken. We thought we would never have government run banks, health care, insurance companies, and corporations. We thought that never could a president be allowed to tell a major corporation to fire their CEO, and have them comply. We thought that we would never have war criminals and foreign terrorists being tried with citizen's rights. We thought a lot of things would never come to pass. And yet we have this and more.
It's tyranny and there will come a point where we all have to decide - is it better to obey God or man? That day is coming soon. We can put it off by getting politically involved and trying to change our government. To return to freedom. It's our choice.
Let's look at it this way - would you agree that government can get a nation in a whole lot of trouble with the way they do things? My guess is that you are saying, "Well yeah, of course." Okay, then the opposite is also true - yes? Good government CAN solve problems and create good living conditions. Even the Bible tells us that the people suffer under a wicked ruler and are joyful under righteous and good rule: Proverbs 29:2 When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice: but when the wicked beareth rule, the people mourn.
The entire books of Kings and Chronicles are all about good and bad kings and how the leadership of the nation of Israel and then Judah caused the people to sin and turn away from God, and also how the leadership at times repented which brought the people back into right standing with God. The Bible teaches us that government has great power to do good or to do evil. And that good and bad government is tied directly to acknowledgment of God.
Right now, our government is doing great evil. Evil men and women are turning the nation more and more away from the worship and acknowledgment of God and the truth of the Bible. Evil men and women, with their laws and policies, are turning the people of this nation towards the worship of the state and hatred of biblical truth. The nation of America has lost her way and as Christians we need to do something about it.
We need to get politically involved. We need to spend time on our knees praying and we need to spend time on our feet promoting good leaders who will be righteous in their lawmaking and their judgments.
We need to say, "NO!" to more out-of-control government. How do we do that? Very loudly. Tell people about it, support good candidates with your financial contributions, believe you can make a difference.
God gave us the political system we have and that political system requires the people to be an integral part of the workings - or it is a failed system. If we are not involved we get tyranny. And that is what we have right now.
In the last 2 elections, we have had a majority of uninformed, deceived voters who voted out good people for tyrants who are seeking to control every aspect of our daily lives. And to top it all off, they voted in a president who was the most radically liberal senator in history - a man who believes heart and soul in socialism.
Socialism for those of you who don't know, is a politically corrupt system where the government runs everything. It is the first step towards communism. It is first and foremost government without God. Then it is government without individual rights. Everything is for the "common" good. Of course, the people in charge get to decide what that "good" is. Socialism is atheistic, pro-abortion, pro-government, pro-state control, anti-creativity, anti-individual, anti-private ownership, anti-growth, anti-capitalism, anti-Christian, anti-Israel, anti-free speech, anti-conservatism, and anti-American. There is no reward for individual hard work or effort. It is the system that redistributes wealth from those who work and are successful to those who don't work or are less successful. Ultimately, it saps the will of the worker - with no reward, why bother? That's why people ended up waiting in lines all day in the USSR just to get a roll or two of toilet paper, or a pair of ill-fitting shoes.
What we have today is what I call "Neo-Socialism." Neo-Socialism is a reworking of socialism with a little bit of democracy and private ownership thrown in. It is "the frog in the warm water" stage of socialism. It is that period where people actually think that the government helping out those less fortunate is good and will not do harm to the nation. What the people don't realize is that the water is heating up slowly and we are going to get cooked to death and eventually under complete government control in every aspect. Once the people get a revelation of what they have allowed to happen, they will either be so numb and beaten by the system that they will succumb, or they will rebel and there will be a revolution in this country - including riots and other destructive results.
And don't think the Constitution will protect us. As part of the socialistic domination, that document will be amended piece by piece. If you think it can't happen, you are sadly mistaken. We thought we would never have government run banks, health care, insurance companies, and corporations. We thought that never could a president be allowed to tell a major corporation to fire their CEO, and have them comply. We thought that we would never have war criminals and foreign terrorists being tried with citizen's rights. We thought a lot of things would never come to pass. And yet we have this and more.
It's tyranny and there will come a point where we all have to decide - is it better to obey God or man? That day is coming soon. We can put it off by getting politically involved and trying to change our government. To return to freedom. It's our choice.
Thursday, March 18, 2010
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
Joy - What is It Really?
In the church today there is much talk of the “joy of the Lord.” Be filled with the joy of the Lord is a common directive as someone is praying for a depressed or seemingly unhappy person. This is also commonly referred to as entering in. And if that person begins to laugh, to enter in, especially uncontrollably, the minister believes that God has touched him or her with the joy of the Lord. Is this what joy really is? Is it laughing hysterically in the middle of a church service or is it something much deeper and much more satisfying than the giggles or a good belly laugh?
I looked up the English definition of joy and from the various sources, I believe that a simple common definition would be an emotion or a state of felicity caused by something good or really satisfying. From what I can comprehend, the expression of joy, i.e. laughter is actually gaiety. The joy is the condition of the heart from which gaiety or laughter can break forth, however, laughter is not a conclusive indicator of joy. Proverbs 14:13 says, “Even in laughter the heart is sorrowful and the end of that mirth is heaviness.”
The Biblical definitions in Hebrew and Greek are much the same as the English interpretation. There are different words to convey different aspects of gladness and the expression of exceeding joy Biblically is more often associated with leaping. However, generally they are similar.
In Galatians 5:22, we see what is called the fruit of the Spirit, which are love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. It is interesting to me that joy and self-control are not contrary to one another because they are both fruit. Is frenzied, disruptive, disorderly laughter during Biblical teaching really a fruit of the Spirit then? This kind of manifestation has always been rationalized by the passage from Acts 2:13 where it says that some people thought those who were filled with the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost were drunk with wine and the apostle Peter answers them by saying, “These men are not drunk as you suppose.” Much has been made of that scripture to justify almost any kind of weird behavior in the church.
However, the scripture does not say they were rolling around wildly laughing, or barking, or roaring, or any of the other behaviors we are told today are manifestations of the Holy Spirit. The Bible says that they were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled. And later in Acts 2:11-13, the Bible says, ‘“…we hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues! Amazed and perplexed, they asked one another, “What does this mean?” Some, however, made fun of them and said, “They have had too much wine.”’ And then Peter explains the phenomenon as a fulfillment of a prophecy of Joel – sons and daughters will prophesy, young men will see visions, old men will dream dreams, and everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. There is no mention of laughter or acting like a drunken fool.
And most importantly, when Peter was preaching, explaining what this was all about, the people were “cut to the heart” (not giggling, not guffawing, not barking, not jerking all over the place) and responded to Peter’s warnings and supplications. About three thousand people repented, were saved, and baptized that day.
There are a couple of scripture passages that stand out to me as really defining the fruit of the Spirit of “joy.” In Acts 5, the apostles are brought before the Sanhedrin (the Jewish ruling council in Jerusalem), are flogged, and then ordered not to speak in the name of Jesus. The scripture then states in Acts 5:41 “The apostles left the Sanhedrin, full of joy because they had been counted worthy of suffering disgrace for the Name.” These guys had just been flogged. Flogging is getting beaten with a whip, was not fun, and was extremely humiliating. I seriously doubt that the apostles were having a good belly laugh over it. What happened was that the Holy Spirit filled them with such a sense of well-being, purpose, and truth that they were exceedingly glad. They were exulting because they had suffered disgrace for Jesus and that was a great honor. Theirs was a state of bliss even in their physical suffering and threats of further violence if they disobeyed. Their faith and the love of Christ overcame fear and pain.
The other scripture that captured my heart is Hebrews 12:2-3 “Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.” Was that joy just a good, cleansing laugh? Not at all. That joy is the salvation of men and women, the redemption of the entire creation from sin. That is the joy that Christ carried in his heart and that is the joy that we should carry in our hearts as Christians. We should also be looking ahead to the same joy because we know that if we are obedient to truly follow Christ and do what he wants us to do, we will endure scorn, shame, and opposition from sinful men. The joy of their salvation, not just ours, is what supersedes weariness, depression, self-pity, and vanity.
Those of you who think that it’s okay to be disruptive during the preaching of the Word of God don’t realize that you are aiding and abetting the devil because he doesn’t want people to hear the Word. The last service I went to where there was out of control behavior and laughing, even from the preacher, I have no clue as to what he was speaking about because it was so broken up and rambling. He was laughing, the people were laughing, and really it was unproductive and not conducive to learning anything. I looked around and I thought, “We are such shallow creatures and very self-absorbed. We want to please ourselves and not God. Where is the ministry in keeping with the fruit?”
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
Dogs and Unconditional Love
Dogs are such great animals. They are the perfect example of unconditional love in action. I have this magnet sticker on my car which says, "Lord make me the person my dog thinks I am." That is so true. My dogs (Max, a Dalmatian, and Tookey, a Boxer/Springer mix) think that I am the most wonderful person in the world. The only things they love more are food and chasing squirrels - "Squirrel!" (If you've seen the movie Up, you get the joke.) That is the right prayer - I want to be the person my dogs think I am. Worthy of unconditional love. Is it impossible? The Bible doesn't say so - Jesus tells us to be perfect as our Father in heaven is perfect. Tall order, eh?
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