Quote from Forum Archives on September 7, 2010, 12:30 pm

Posted by: wrather <wrather@...>

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The Burning Bush Devotional
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There were 1367 new subscribers during 2009!!

09.07.10

Short Term Thinking

Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God
dwells in you? If anyone defiles the temple of God, God will destroy him.
For the temple of God is holy, which temple you are. - 1 Corinthians
3:16-17.

Have you ever heard an official of a government urge the citizens of the
country to smoke and drink more? It has now happened. The finance minister
of Russia is urging their citizens to smoke and drink more to raise more tax
money for their social services. Alexei Kudrin, the Russian Finance Minister
says, "If you smoke a pack of cigarettes, that means you are giving more to
help solve social problems such as boosting demographics, developing other
social services and upholding birth rates. People should understand: Those
who drink, those who smoke are doing more to help the state." To generate
more income for the state, taxes on cigarettes will increase by more than
100% in the next three years.

Russia already has a large percentage of their population addicted to
nicotine and to alcohol. Sixty-five percent of men in the country smoke and
based on current consumption the average Russian drinks 19 quarts (18
liters) of alcohol every year. Thousands of Russians die every year from
alcohol related causes and the government has recently implemented laws
designed to help with the problem. Vodka now has a minimum price, which also
ought to help the state coffers. Increased levels of drunk driving
enforcement along with no night-time sales of alcohol are hoped to help
reduce the number of deaths.

In the short term Kudrin is likely to be proven right that if Russians smoke
and drink more tax revenues will increase. In the long term net revenues
will decrease. Why? Because there will be an increased strain on their
social services for which Kudrin wants to increase funding. Increased
smoking and drinking will cause health related diseases to increase causing
a greater burden on the social services system.

We see the same kind of thinking in our own lives all the time. In the short
term buying a new car or a new house with a huge payment will make us feel
better. However, in the long term when we start making those huge payments
we will begin to feel trapped and burdened by our purchase.

We can go out and party getting high on alcohol and drugs and in the very
short term we may feel very good about it. However, the next day, if not
sooner we experience the consequences of a hangover, the need for another
fix, or even worse wake up in jail because of what we have done while we
were high.

We can have a brief relationship with another person that is not our wife or
husband and in the short term we may feel very good about it. However, in
the long term it will complicate our lives, and it could leave us with a
STD, or send us spiraling out of control in the wrong direction.

Not only can short term thinking damage your body, and your relationships,
but it will prevent the implementation of God's will, His plan in your life.
God says in Jeremiah 29:11, "For I know the thoughts that I think toward
you, says the LORD, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future
and a hope." Please do not let short term thinking rob you of "peace" and of
a "future and a hope."

Copyright © 2010. Ed Wrather. Permission is given for use of the devotionals
on a non-profit basis with source credited. The Burning Bush website has
been online since January 31, 1998. On June 8, 1998 the email version of the
Burning Bush Devotional was first sent. Ed Wrather began writing devotionals
in the early 1990s. The distribution of these first devotionals was
primarily through the Burning Bush Newsletter sent to prison facilities
throughout the United States and Canada.

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