Wednesday, June 23, 2010

Stock Picks for July

British Petroleum has done a number on the oil industry, and so have the problems in Europe. Of, course, President Obama's moratorium on deep water drilling has had a big part in contributing to the sagging oil industry. Many of these oil stocks are down as much as 40-50 percent over the past couple of months. Thousands of oil workers are out of work because of the moratorium. Pretty sad, isn't it?

However, what our president and other environmentalists fail to understand is that our country and our world is still dependent on oil. It is still one of the cheapest and most readily available energy products.... and our world is still set up that way. All of that leads to this: There is going to be an oil shortage, which will then push up the price of crude oil. The result of this is that oil companies will once again see increased profits..... but this time with less production. Oil stocks are poised to go up. Want to make some money? That's where I would invest..... am invested.

Of course, if you want to buy the best and most dependable stock, you can always buy Apple (AAPL) at nearly $275 per share.

Knock Starbucks if you want to. That's the other black gold (black coffee). Or you can buy some Starbucks stock, buy a cup of coffee, and watch your stock go up. They are recovering nicely and most Starbucks shops I go into are constantly busy. And I visit a lot of Starbucks. If people have to choose between coffee and food.... they must be choosing coffee.


Monday, June 21, 2010

Who Did They See?

"Suddenly, when they looked around, they no longer saw anyone with them, except Jesus." Mark 9:8.

Jesus took Peter, James and John up a hight mountain. There He was transfigured before them and his clothes glowed whiter than any bleach could get them. While on the mountain they saw Jesus talking with the prophet Elijah and Moses. Then a mist came over the mountain and when it cleared they saw only Jesus.

The message here is that we often get our eyes on the wrong thing. Elijah was a great prophet and Moses was a great leader. When there are great prophet and leaders there is a tendency to promote these people to an almost godlike position. But the Bible makes it clear that Jesus Christ should be the focus of Christians everywhere. Elijah was taken to heaven in a whirlwind of fire. Moses, God's servant is dead. But Jesus Christ lives forever more.

When we take our eyes off Jesus we can also get off-track very easily. And while we are going off-track we can rationalize what we are doing. At these times we are living in the mist that not only hides Moses, and Elijah from us (or anyone else we may have set on a pedestal) but the mist also hides Jesus and his will for our lives from us. Once we re-focus our eyes on Jesus the mist will clear and we will once again see Jesus only as our Lord, and His Word as the guide for our lives.

Once we get re-focused we can then see how far off track we have been. This calls for sorrow and rejoicing. We have sorrow over our wayward ways and the damage and hurt that it causes. But we have joy that we have been restored. There is a bittersweetness here. But this is better than only bitterness that comes with staying with our waywardness.

"Turn you eyes upon Jesus,
Look full on His wonderful face,
And the things of the earth with grow strangely dim,
In the light of His glory and grace."

Who did they see on the Mount of Transfiguration? In the end it was only Jesus. Who is it you see guiding your life?