Good morning on this Saturday, the 27th day of September. The effects of Wall Street recklessness and greed are being felt on Main Street. Tighter credit, failing financial institutions, grave concern being expressed by leaders and constituents and continuing feverish negotiations between members of the administration and members of Congress over a bailout plan, are all part of the big picture of the degree of the mess we're in. How did it happen. It happened in several key steps over the last decade.
(1) There was a push to loosen the mortgage requirements so more people could afford more homes. Mortgages were issued with no money down, without adequately checking people's ability to afford the purchase and even, in some cases, failing to verify the accuracy of the financial information provided by borrowers.
(2) Wall Street investment banks such as Lehmen Brothers and Bear Stearns (not to be confused with commercial banks such as our neighborhood banks which operate under a different set of regulations) were allowed to leverage loans at a rate of 35 or 40 to 1 and package mortgages they purchased from lenders into mortgage backed security instruments and sold them to various investors such as pension funds and other buyer groups.
(3) The Federal National Mortgage Association, commonly referred to as Fannie Mae and the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation, commonly known as Freddie Mac, two huge backers of mortgages which together are responsible for more than half of this country's 12 trillion dollars in mortgages guarantee that the principal and interest will be paid even if the mortgage holder defaults fell under increasing pressure as more and more of the mortgages, especially high risk mortgages, went into foreclosure.
(4) Insurers of those instruments such as insurance giant AIG maintained only $.03 on the dollar to cover the risk.
All of these factors combined became a perfect storm when home prices which had inflated into a bubble in many markets precipitously declined in depreciation and people defaulted on their mortgages.
It became a downward spiral which has taken down everything and everyone in its path.
There is plenty of blame to go around and if all involved would have followed Biblical principles regarding money and finances, we would not have this financial mess. The Bible warns we should never be slothful in business (Romans 12:11). Next week in my blog, I'll share some of the relevant Biblical principles which could have helped prevent this chaos.
Tomorrow's sermon is entitled, The Most Valuable Thing In Your Life. Remember in is Friend Day. I hope to see you and your friends tomorrow.
Pastor Brown.

Good morning! It is Saturday, September 20th. This week we saw what many are calling, the greatest financial crisis on Wall Street in the last seventy-plus years. Experts referred to the situation as a potential meltdown with the Dow Industrials oscillating a total of 2000 points in a few short days. Stock markets all over the world followed suit and some markets had to temporarily halt trading. People were questioning the financial strength of a variety of financial institutions with stock prices plummeting in many of them. Correspondingly, the Fed and Treasury Department took drastic measures of guaranteeing the obligations of a number of them, effectively nationalizing them. We now await congressional action on some provisions of the bailout and the emergence of details of the financial restructuring plan. Some estimates place the cost at $1,000,000,000,000. So much has changed in such a short period of time. As I watched the action unfold and people's reaction to it, I thought about how such a crisis will probably be part of the Antichrist's rise to future economic control. He will have such sweeping powers as to issue a mark on people without which they will be able to neither buy nor sell. Now that is control of commerce! Perhaps this crisis is a snapshot of future events which will make that possible.
Tomorrow's sermon is, Catching the Little Foxes - Part 2. I hope to see you there.
Pastor Brown

Good morning on this soggy Saturday, September, 13th. During the nearly forty years I have been pastor of the Edgewood Baptist Church, I cannot remember any period in which we have had so many of our people who have gone through so many serious illnesses. Nearly twenty people are struggling with bouts of cancer; others are battling heart disease, kidney problems, serious digestive diseases and a host of other medical problems. The Bible admonishes us to pray for one another that we many be healed (James 5:16), and it also reminds us that because we are part of the same body of Christ, we are organically joined together like members of our physical bodies whose various parts work together to meet the needs of each other and the entire body (Romans 12:5). Consequently, we are to weep with those who weep and rejoice with those who rejoice (Romans 12:15). Here are some suggestions about how to faithfully pray for our brothers and sisters in Christ who have special needs:
1. Take a copy of the church's prayer list and use it as a prayer guide.
2. Make a personal prayer list, put the names of those who are seriously ill at the top of the list, others who are ill or have special needs next, then your family and friends together with other's requests given to you, followed by other requests including your own, and pray for these daily. Keep your personal prayer list updated by adding new requests as needed and removing the requests which God has answered. Always remember to give God thanks for each answered prayer.
3. Have a general list of fellow members of the body, and others you are praying God's blessings upon and break the list down into segments and pray over one of the segments every day. By praying for a segment each day you can pray for all of those folks on an individual basis every month.
4. These procedures focus on intercessory prayer or praying for others and their needs. Additionally you will want to include in your prayers, praying for all of your own personal needs (petitions), confession of sins, and praise and thanksgiving to God. This will help you to have a systematic and comprehensive prayer list.
Tomorrow's sermon is entitled, Catching the Little Foxes. I'll look forward to seeing you there.
Pastor Mel Brown

Good morning on this first Saturday in the month of September. The hurricanes are lined up in the Atlantic ocean off the east-coast shores like planes stacked up at the O'Hare airport in Chicago. Hanna, Ike, Josephine, et al.. are currently on our radar screen and this is after serious havoc with Fay which drenched Florida for days and Gustav which caused New Orleans to be evacuated. We've recently had powerful earthquakes in Asia, tornadoes in the central and southern states and an old-fashioned wind whipping storm right here in the Quad Cities with 96 mile an hour winds leaving a trail of destruction. All of these things remind us of both the natural and unnatural disasters which will be coming during the Tribulation Period which is vividly described in the book of Revelation in the Bible. The Word of God describes it as a time of great tribulation such as the world has never known before (Matthew 24:21). The natural disasters we have previously alluded to will be like a Sunday school picnic compared to what will happen then. Thank God that we will not be part of this devastation and destruction but will be safely with the Lord in Heaven. Have you ever found yourself saying when you watch the accounts of various disasters in different areas, 'Thank God I don't live there." Perhaps that is what we'll be saying many times while the Tribulation is raging on earth. We should not only continually be thankful for what we have, but also for what we don't have to endure! It is the flip side of the "give thanks" commandment.
Tomorrow's message is entitled, You Won't Believe What You Can Do. It promises to be an inspirational and challenging sermon. I hope I'll see you there.
Pastor Mel Brown