TRANSCRIPT

Thank you, Mark. And thank you for dropping by to listen.

Yes, I know Father’s Day was a couple of weeks ago — June 19th to be exact.

And no, I didn’t forget.

And no, I’m not late.

Well, maybe just a little bit late.

But I’d like to talk to those of you who have fathers.

I imagine that includes most of you.

Was your father good, okay, or bad?

You may have had an excellent father. Or you may have had a father who was just okay. Or you may have had a father who was … let’s just say, not so good.

Perhaps you don’t even know who your real father was.

Whatever the situation with your earthly father, I have some very good news for you.

I’d like to begin that good news with something Jesus said when he taught his followers how to pray. He gave them a sample prayer. We’ve come to call it the Lord’s Prayer.

You may have memorized it.

Notice how Jesus begins that prayer.

Jesus tells us to pray to “our Father.”

Think about that.

God, the Creator of the Universe, is our Father.

And you know what?

God our Father actually loves us.

Which is amazing because the Bible teaches that God knows absolutely everything about us — what we’ve done, what we’ve said, even what we’ve thought.

I don’t know about you, but I’ve done, and said, and thought a few things that I would just as soon no one ever knew.

And yet God knows every one of those things in my life … and in your life … and still He loves us.

He loves us so much that He sent His son, Jesus, to pay the penalty for our sins — all those things we’ve done and said and thought that weren’t all that good.

Jesus paid the price for our sins so that we could live forever with God because Our Father loves us.

God is our Father in Heaven and He wants … listen carefully … He wants you to be part of His family.

Did you get that? Your Heavenly Father wants you to be His child.

Grab hold of that truth.

Don’t let it go.

God … your Heavenly Father … loves you and wants you to be part of His family.

Celebrate Father’s Day Today

So, whether you forgot Father’s Day a couple of weeks ago, or had a great time honoring your earthly father, I would encourage you to set aside today to honor your Heavenly Father.

Thank Him for loving you and providing you the way to spend eternity with Him.

You have a great Heavenly Father.

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DON'T PLAY WITH THINGS THAT GO BOOM
Episode 1: Baby Boomers Wanted

There was this war on the other side of the planet and the country needed soldiers, lots and lots of soldiers.
The government leaders looked around and there we were -- the Baby Boomers.

Read the Transcript on Substack

I’ve got a question for you.

Where is Zimbabwe?

I’m serious.

If I were to hand you a blank outline map of the world, would you be able to point to the country of Zimbabwe?

Pointing in the general direction of a continent is not the correct answer.

If you’re like me, you might know that Zimbabwe is in Africa, but if you’re like me you couldn’t point to exactly where in Africa it is located.

Here’s a description of the location from Britannica:

Does that help or do you have difficulty knowing where those other countries are located?

For me, I knew where South Africa was and had a good idea where Mozambique was, but I had no idea where Botswana or Zambia were located.

I hope your geographical knowledge is better than mine but this episode of the Big Sky Writer Newsletter is not about geography.

It’s about the economy.

Why don’t you know more about Zimbabwe?

Most of us are probably aware that our country is going through some difficult economic times and the immediate future doesn’t look promising.

Okay, what is coming to our economy looks terrible.

And, trust me on this, it’s not Putin’s fault.

We have destroyed ourselves.

You would think that with inflation already here and threatening to get worse, America’s news organizations would cover how other countries have handled similar challenges … in the present and in the past.

Perhaps we could learn what works and what doesn’t.

But how often do you hear about what happened in Germany in the 1930’s or what is happening in Zimbabwe or Venezuela in the present?

I’m guessing not very often.

The Zimbabwean Dollar

So it’s time for a very short history lesson on the Zimbabwean dollar.2

The first Zimbabwean dollar (ZWD) was introduced in 1980 and was worth a little more than the US dollar … $1.47 to be exact.

But Zimbabwe had a number of social, political, and economic problems — does that sound like any country you know today? — and Zimbabwean dollar (ZWD) began to lose purchasing power. 

The government of Zimbabwe dealt with the problem by printing more Zimbabwean dollars.

Does that sound like any country you know today?

What happened after that?

In Zimbabwe in 1983, one US dollar would get you one ZWD.

But by 2006, one US dollar would get you 500,000 ZWDs.

That’s called inflation.

Time for a change

Things got so bad, they decided to scrap their ZWD and come up with a new currency, the ZWN. 

In 2006, people could exchange 1,000 ZWDs and get 1 ZWN.

In August of 2006, one US dollar would get you 650 ZWNs. Not as good as the original ZWD but it was respectable.

However, only two years later one US dollar would get you 1,000,000,000 ZWNs.

In other words, it was worthless.