Vol.1 No. 14 |  July 5, 2006  

    

This week

“The Bible teaches that Christians are totally different from anyone else.” -  
Peter Jeffery, Evangelicals Then and Now (Buy Now)


 

Finance

The Towing Rider on Your Auto Insurance Can Cost You Dearly

If your car breaks down, towing it to a garage is terribly expensive. So many people buy a towing rider from their insurance company or they buy a towing service from AAA or one of the warehouse clubs.

For years, the cheapest route to go was through your insurance company. The premiums were far less than those offered by the other groups. But there’s a hidden secret the insurance companies don’t want you to know.

Many of the nation’s biggest insurance companies will raise your insurance rates if you use the towing service on your policy even once! Even worse, some of the insurance companies will report you to ChoicePoint if you use the rider. (ChoicePoint is the credit verification service that acts like a credit agency for your insurance scores. You can see how the company scores you at http://www.choicetrust.com.)

So if you think you’re saving money with the insurance towing rider, think again. It will cost you a lot more in the long run.

The companies most likely to increase your rates, according to Consumer Reports, are State Farm, Allstate, Geico, and Nationwide. But there are others. Before you pay extra money on your insurance for a towing rider, make sure they won’t raise your rates if you use it. And make sure you get it in writing.

Otherwise, forget the rider altogether and purchase a towing service from AAA or one of the warehouse clubs, such as Costco.

– Steve Kroening
     
 

 

Health

If You’re Depressed, These Drugs Can Be Deadly

Whether you believe depression is caused by sin or by a chemical imbalance or some combination of the two, you need to know that antidepressants are not a safe way to treat the problem.

That may come as a surprise for some of you. I know a lot of people who swear these drugs saved their life, their marriage, and their walk with God. But a new study suggests that using antidepressants can significantly increase your risk of heart disease. So much so that the very drugs you think saved your life, could take it.

According to the study, your risk of dying is 55% greater if you take an antidepressant! And it doesn’t matter if you take one from the SSRI (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors) class or another type. SSRIs include the popular Paxil, Prozac, Effexor, and others.

The study analyzed the clinical data of 921 Duke University Hospital patients receiving a cardiac angiography. This procedure can determine the extent of blockage in your arteries. An amazingly high number – almost 20% – of the patients were on antidepressants. And 66% of those patients used SSRIs.

The researchers followed the patients over an average of three years. During that time 21.4% of the patients who took antidepressants died. Only 12.5% of those who did not take antidepressants passed away.

If you suffer from depression, please don’t turn to drugs. There’s no need to increase your risk of dying by 55% when there are more effective and safer alternatives. I’ll share some of these with you next week.

– Steve Kroening

Source: Second Opinion Newsletter; 64th Annual Scientific Conference of the American Psychosomatic Society in Denver, March 4, 2006.
     
 
   

Family & Relationships

Relationship Myth: I Can’t Control My Anger

Verbal abuse is a major problem in many relationships. It regularly destroys marriages. What’s worse, those responsible often say they simply can’t control their temper. But is this true? Are these people really out of control, completely subject to the whim of an all-powerful will?

Hardly! If you struggle to control your temper at home, Lou Priolo, in his book The Complete Husband, says, “Actually, you control your temper more than you realize. The reason you control it with some and not with others is because you know you can’t get away with losing your temper with some, and you know you can get away with it with others (especially those in your immediate family).”

To prove his point, Priolo relates a classic example we’ve all seen (or done) before. After describing a particularly heated argument between a husband and wife, Priolo writes, “As the battle rages, the telephone rings. You prepare to answer it, thinking it’s your appointment wanting to know where you are. You pick up the receiver and in a very calm and controlled tone of voice you pleasantly say, ‘Good Morning!… Oh, hello Mrs. Neighborhood Gossip. How are you today?’”

We can turn our tempers on an off more than we want to admit. But, if you will admit it, you’ll be amazed at the power you suddenly have over it – even when you didn’t think it possible. Next week, we’ll discuss how anger prevents husbands from fulfilling their role as the primary problem solver in the family.

– Steve Kroening
     
 

 

Parenting & Education

The Simple Device That Can Motivate Young Children to Work

Motivating children to get their chores or homework done is often an agonizing and chronic problem. It’s easy to become an ogre, a threatening parent, or a pushover. But we’ve found a simple device that does a wonderful job of motivating our children.

For some reason, any time we put this device into action, our kids instantly get to work like a fire was lit under their feet. I’m not sure why, but our children respond to an egg timer better than just about anything else we’ve used.

Even though young children don’t fully understand time, they do know what a deadline is – though we don’t call it that. When the timer goes off, they know they have to be done. If they’re not, they know there will be consequences. So they work like crazy to get their work done, usually finishing in plenty of time.

What’s great about the egg timer is we can use it for all sorts of other things. For instance, we always use it when the kids are on the computer. We can tell them they have to work on their Spanish program for 30 minutes before they can play games. After 30 minutes, we hear the timer go off. Then they reset it when they play the games.

We’ll also use it to help push them to get ready in the morning. We’ll set it when we give them some reading time before bed. And you can even use it to help your kids know when it’s time to start school or leave for an event. It’s a great little device that really helps kids work hard and know their time constraints. You can find one at any discount or grocery store for less than $10.

– Steve Kroening
     
 

 

Success

Can You Answer These Two Questions About Your Customers, Congregation, or Children?

I love to read. This is my favorite way to learn. But I am one of only three percent of the population who love to learn this way. Others like to hear speakers, while others still like to have some kind of experience with the things they’re learning.

I also love to talk to sales people. They’re supposed to be the professionals in their field, the top communicators. And I love to ask them two questions.

The first is this: How are you convinced of something? For example, if someone wanted to sell you a car, how would you want to be convinced that this particular car was the best one for you? Would you want to read about it, hear about it, test-drive it, or maybe some kind of combination of these?

The second question is: How many times do you need to read, hear, or touch something to be convinced? Some people are convinced the first time, some take two, three, or more times to hear, read, do something to be convinced about something. And there’s a small group that’s never convinced no matter how many times they’re presented with something. This groups needs to be convinced every single time.

Now if you think about these two questions, it’s obvious that they are very key questions when it comes to selling. Yet I have never heard or met a sales person who asks the questions. Is this why so much sales activity fails?

But these questions have a wider application than just sales in the narrow sense. How many times do people need to hear something from their pastor to be convinced that what is said is the right belief? And what happens if you’re one of the 3%, like me, that prefer to read something?

Is this why our conservative and evangelical churches are not doing so well? Good preaching needs to be repeated to match the learning styles of the hearers. So does good communication of any type.

So, if success is eluding you, maybe you’ve been asking the wrong questions, or not even asking some questions at all.

– Ian Hodge
     
 

 
 

Wisdom From History

The Power of the Little Man (A Tribute to Independence Day)

John Adams was no slouch at making an argument – but it took Thomas Paine to coalesce a nation.

It was a sore point with Adams. For as long as he lived, Adams – the foremost advocate of American independence in the Continental Congress and a future president – remained utterly mystified and resentful that a small pamphlet published in the opening days of 1776 did what his own words couldn't – awaken the public mind and inspire the Declaration of Independence.

Adams “would later complain that most of the ideas contained in Common Sense were ‘a tolerable summary of the arguments I had been repeating again and again in Congress for nine months,’” wrote Scott Liell in 46 Pages: Thomas Paine, Common Sense and the Turning Point to Independence.

The speeches and writings of Adams and others were eloquent and well reasoned, but they were aimed at their highly educated, politically active peers. Those elite few, however, didn't have the will or the mandate to start a revolution.

Paine, though, perfectly married his message and tone with the purpose of his argument.

To light a spark that would arouse the average Joe to clamor for self-government, Paine “argued not as an advocate before the bar, but as a street corner radical,” Liell wrote.

Paine's message wasn't tailored to the few, but to everyone.

“As it is my design to make those that can scarcely read understand,” he once wrote, “I shall therefore avoid every literary ornament and put it in language as plain as the alphabet.”…

Common Sense was published, with the anonymous author identified only as an Englishman. In Paine's hands, the case for independence that had failed to strike a chord would move out "across the countryside like a brushfire in dry season," Liell wrote. In only three months, it sold 120,000 copies in a country of less than 3 million people.

"I find Common Sense is working a powerful change there in the minds of many men," George Washington wrote in January 1776.

– Jed Graham

(Quoted from “Founding Father Thomas Paine,” Investor’s Business Daily, June 7, 2006)
     
     
 

 

Word for the Wise

When God Demands Action, Not Prayer

“And the LORD said to Moses, ‘Why are you crying out to Me? Tell the sons of Israel to go forward.’” Exodus 14:15

Go Forward – You face fearful obstacles. There seems to be no way of escape. You can't imagine how you will get through it. You're convinced that God brought you to this place, but now things look truly desperate. "God, help me. Why did you bring me here? Get me out of this!"

And God answers, "Why are you crying out to Me?"

If you're shaking your head wondering just how God could be so insensitive, you're not alone. Moses had the same emotional response. Following God's orders, he marched the children of Israel out of Egypt and right to the edge of the sea. Now the Egyptian army is about to attack and there is no place to run. Of course he cries out to God. "Help us!" But God makes it clear that prayer is not the right thing to do. The right thing to do is exactly what Elizabeth Elliott used to say: "Just do the next thing". When God sets you on a course, remember Gideon. "Haven't I sent you?" (Judges 6:14). If God sends, will He not provide a way? Moses and the children of Israel forgot who sent them. They looked at their circumstances but not at their Provider. So God reminded them. "What is your problem? Why are you crying out to Me again? Just go forward and watch how I unravel what you think is stopping you."

If we knew the Hebrew, we would see all that is implied. Nasa is a verb that describes moving something out, pulling up stakes, causing something to get out of the way. It is used for pulling up tent poles, carrying away stones and setting out on a journey. God is really telling Moses, "Get moving. Don't put your stakes in the ground here. Pull them up. Pack up and leave. Take the next step forward and you will see the glory of God revealed."

When we come to the Red Sea, we often see nothing but red flags. On every side there is only danger and discouragement. We have prayed. God has answered. But now the road seems impossible. We can't go back. Egypt is the land of oppression and death. But when we look ahead, we don't see any way to cross over. So we set up camp on the shore and wait. We cry out to God, "Oh Lord, open a door for me." And God just shakes His head in disbelief. "Have I taken you this far and yet you still don’t understand?" (Jesus said something quite like this, didn't he? "Have I been with you so long and still you ask me to show you the Father?") weyissa'u! Pack up! Move out! Get going!

You could stay in your tent, waiting for God to move the earth. Or you could pull up stakes and walk toward the red flag sea, expecting God to push aside the water. One choice is based on security, the other on trust.

When the Son of Man returns, will he find faith on earth? Do you suppose he will look for wet ankles?

– Skip Moen

(Ed. Note: Skip Moen, PhD, is the president of At God’s Table and the author of Words to Lead By.)
     
 

 
 

The Time Shaver

Searching for Lost Computer Files Wastes Time! Here’s How to Find Them Quickly

Are you always searching for specific files and documents on your computer? Have you given up using the Windows "Search" function like I have? Is there anything more frustrating and time wasting than not locating a file you know you have?

Imagine being able to do a Google Search on your own computer just like you do on the Web! Now you can! Download Google Desktop. (No – I’m not paid to endorse this product – I just really love Shaving Time with it!)

Google desktop downloads in less than a minute, but it will take some time to index your hard drive the first time through. After it’s set up, it runs quietly behind the scenes indexing just about everything that moves through your computer – Web pages, e-mails, documents, spreadsheets, PDFs, etc. The best thing of all is the search time – usually under 2 seconds! The display and format of the search results are also very user friendly.

You can download Google Desktop for free at http://desktop.google.com/?promo=mp-gds-v1-1. Enjoy the Time Shavings!

– Dale Gramith (TheTimeShaver@adelphia.net)

PS - This program will find some files you may not want found. Some say it "works too well!" Cached web pages and personal e-mails are accessed very easily. So use caution in public or corporate environments!

   

 Resources

The Complete Husband by Lou Priolo (BUY NOW)

Common Sense by Thomas Paine (BUY NOW)

46 Pages: Thomas Paine, Common Sense and the Turning Point to Independence by Scott Liell (BUY NOW)

Evangelicals Then and Now, Peter Jeffery, Evangelical Press (BUY NOW)

 

   

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