TODAY'S WORD FOR TODAY Prepare for Challenges ‘A sensible man watches for problems ahead and prepares to meet them.’ UCB

TODAY'S WORD FOR TODAY

Prepare for Challenges

‘A sensible man watches for problems ahead and prepares to meet them.’

Proverbs 27:12

The UCB Word for Today - 5 Aug 2014

The path to your God-given destiny will have different challenges, so you must expect them. Indeed you must prepare yourself to face them. Solomon wrote, ‘A sensible man watches for problems ahead and prepares to meet them.’ Wouldn’t you rather look ahead and prepare, instead of looking back with regret? Why does the Bible record the failures of great men like Abraham, Moses, Elijah and Peter? To give you hope; to let you know that nobody performs flawlessly; to help you believe if they can do it, by God’s grace you can too. The road to success has many potholes. You’ll fall into some—and they’re messy. Not only will you have to climb back out, you’ll have to dust yourself off, refocus, recommit, and keep going. Since failure is inevitable, why not make it your friend by examining each experience and growing stronger through it? Once you learn to do that, you won’t keep repeating the same mistakes, and you’ll become more emotionally and spiritually stable. Timelines change, resources dry up, assumptions prove false, plans and people fail. As comedian Bill Cosby quipped, ‘Nothing fits in a pigeonhole but a pigeon.’ As you walk the pathway to your God-given dream, remember the old Italian proverb: ‘Between saying and doing, many a pair of shoes is worn out’. No problem; you can get another pair of shoes! Just make sure you don’t wear out and give up. Here’s God’s promise to you: ‘Keep travelling steadily along His pathway and in due season He will honour you with every blessing’ (Psalms 37:34 TLB).

 

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Independence referendum debate: Alistair Darling wins round one in televised clash with Alex Salmond, Daily Record, Updated

ALISTAIR DARLING won a shock victory
 in the first referendum TV debate 
last night as Alex Salmond came unstuck on the pound. The Better Together leader, an underdog before the start, hammered the First Minister relentlessly on the future of Scotland’s currency.

And when it was all over, 56 per cent of viewers surveyed in a snap ICM exit poll named Darling as the winner.The former Labour Chancellor had been widely expected to fall victim to Salmond’s feared debating skills.

But he put his SNP rival on the 
rack with strong attacks over whether Scotland would keep the pound
after a Yes vote.The bruising encounter early in the two-hour battle seemed to unsettle the First Minister, who went into the debate behind in the polls and knowing he needed a convincing victory.

Salmond rallied later to score strong points over Con-Dem welfare cuts, Trident and the Bedroom Tax.Darling also looked uncomfortable as the First Minister repeatedly challenged him to admit Scotland could be a “successful independent country”.

But the future of the pound – seen by many as the key issue in the race to September 18 – was Salmond’s downfall.

 

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Further Reading here:

 

Yes Scotland ridiculed after issuing a guide telling supporters what to say on social media during TV debate 

“The Scottish Government’s own figures show a separate Scotland’s finances would be in a weaker position than the UK’s 2016/17 thanks to declining North Sea oil revenues. But the guide told supporters in bold type that “we will be in a stronger financial position in the first years of independence than we are today.”

Alex Salmond accused of a 'huge deception' over his plans for a currency union after a Yes vote

"Alex Salmond claims that nothing much will change, that threats otherwise are a bluff and that Scotland would keep the pound sterling - but although Scotland could keep using the pound, to promise 'no change' is a huge deception: the consequences would be enormous."

Alex Salmond And Alistair Darling Clash Over Currency In First Scottish Independence Debate. PA/Huffington Post UK

Scottish independence TV debate: First blood to Alistair Darling as he clashes over currency with Alex Salmond in televised Yes/No debate

FMQs: Alex Salmond defends independence pound plan

Duel that ignored the hard questions: MAX HASTINGS delivers his forthright verdict on last night's Scottish independence debate . Daily Mail

This was billed as the Great Debate between Scotland’s First Minister and the former chancellor and standard-bearer for the No campaign, Alistair Darling.

In truth it turned into the Big Silence night, with neither side confronting the real issues and harsh realities about the future of an independent Scotland.

Alex Salmond called on Scots to seize the ‘opportunity’ of independence with both hands. Alistair Darling urged them to reject it, but did not dare to say frankly to his audience: an independent Scotland will be Iceland without the fish, a dependency culture without visible means of support, a basket case bobbing on the remotest beach of Europe.

He had to renounce such arguments, because Salmond mocks the No campaign as ‘Project Fear’; because polls show that Scottish pride is affronted if anybody reminds them how meagre is their income tax base, how feeble is entrepreneurialism north of the border, how drugged on state subsidy their nation has become.

Salmond, one of the most skilful politicians in Britain, handled himself brilliantly. His pronouncements, from the Vladimir Putin school of statesmanship, are delivered with wonderful fluency, heedless of their polarisation from truth. He emphasised again and again the Norwegian model for an independent Scotland, saying nothing of the fact that Norway has vastly more oil and fewer people.

He flatly contradicted Alistair Darling’s assertion that Scotland could not expect to share a common currency with England, saying ‘everything will change in the negotiation if we get a yes vote’. He repeated doggedly again and again: ‘The pound belongs to Scotland as much as to England’, which means nothing.

Tactically, Darling was usually talking sense and Salmond nonsense, but the ex-Chancellor – perhaps the only man to have emerged from service in the Blair-Brown governments with an enhanced reputation – often seemed on the wrong foot.

Nowhere in the debate, whether from the platform, the floor or the so-called expert commentators, were hard questions asked about how Scotland would support itself as an independent country. Salmond asserted that the respected Institute for Fiscal Studies and Office for Budget Responsibility are simply arms of the Westminster government, which deceive Scots by noticing that the North Sea oil take is shrinking fast. He also rejected the IFS calculation that there is a £6billion black hole in SNP spending plans for an independent Scotland.

He spoke as if his country was Saudi Arabia, its only problem how to spend vast natural wealth.

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Further Reading:

A pounding for Alex Salmond over currency in big TV debate

Rudd suggests SNP energy policy won’t meet needs

Independence: Fiery debate but no clear winner

Scottish independence essay: Say No to colony myth