Alex Salmond on the ropes: Bookies say he’s 4/1 to stand down as First Minister, Daily Express, updated

EMBATTLED Alex Salmond was ­fighting on two fronts last night to quell growing SNP rage over his disastrous TV debate and save his currency plans.

Questions were raised about the First Minister’s future after senior lieutenants started briefing against him following his defeat to Alistair Darling in the live showdown.

Last night, bookmakers William Hill offered odds of 4/1 that Mr Salmond would stand down before the next Holyrood elections in 2016.

The plotting came amid renewed splits in the Yes camp with nationalist figureheads Jim Sillars and Dennis Canavan demanding a Scottish currency.

However, their guns may well have been spiked as Mr Salmond sparked a fresh battle for an independent Scotland to retain sterling, declaring: “It’s our pound and we’re keeping it.”

The SNP leader give his clearest hint yet this could mean using the pound without a formal currency union with the rest of the UK – an option known as dollarisation or the Panama option. He also repeated his threat that a breakaway country would refuse to accept its share of the UK’s national debt unless a deal was made.

But there was more embarrassment for Mr Salmond when it emerged that his own blueprint for secession contained a serious error in dealing with the currency for a go-it-alone Scotland.

Read more here:

Banks ‘could quit’ if dollarisation used post-Yes

Comment:

It is interesting that Mr Salmond keeps insisting that a break away Scotland will keep the Pound ,  this is known as dollarization or the Panama option,  (Panama uses the US Dollar as it’s currency) this would be known as de-facto or unofficial currency substitution,  The main UK parties have already said that there will be no sterling zone or currency union between England, Wales and Northern Ireland and a break away Scotland, despite this Mr Salmond insists that Scotland will keep the Pound and if he isn’t allowed to use the Pound,  an independent Scotland will not pay it’s fair share of the UK national debt,  a majority of international financial organisations including  France’s  Societe Generale  have stated  that any official or  unofficial currency union would affect Scotland greatly and if Scotland’s defaults on it’s international debts, Scotland would face  economic  hardship, Alex’s Salmond’s plans are economically incoherent, and Scotland with  the rest of the UK  forming a Sterling Zone isn’t an option. It’s interesting that using the Pound in an un-official currency union is known as the Panama option,  any student of Scottish History or British History will know  the results of what  happened the last time Scotland took a Panama option see The Darien Colony.

Brazil’s ‘Billionaire Bishop’ Builds $300M Solomon’s Temple Replica

Brazil’s ‘Billionaire Bishop’ Builds $300M Solomon’s Temple Replica

A 10,000-seat rendition of Solomon's Temple was inaugurated last week in São Paulo, Brazil, owned by the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God.

The large 11-story complex has a helicopter landing pad, allowing Universal Church founder and Brazil's "billionaire bishop," Edir Macedo, to drop in for sermons. It also features an oasis of olive trees similar to the garden of Gethsemane near Jerusalem and more than 30 towering columns.

"The Universal Church spared no expense," Rogério Araújo told The New York Times. "We sought to build a colossus, something that would make people stop and gaze, and that's what we deliver/

10 Reasons God Needs You to Show Courage in the Pulpit - Ministry Today

The Lord is for me; I will not fear. What can man do to me?" (Psalm 118:6. See also Heb. 13:5-6)

I read that scripture-–especially the Hebrews 13:5-6 incarnation-–and smile.  Asking "what can man do to me?" is kind of like asking for it, isn't it? Daring them to "bring it on."

The answer of course is that man can do a great deal to you. But the bottom line—and the point of the scripture—is that ultimately, with God being "for me," it does not matter.

Nothing matters so much as our being one with the heavenly Father.

Can we talk about courage? This is as rare as plutonium these days, particularly among the very people who should demonstrate it most readily, followers of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Only two people in the church need courage: the one in the pulpit and the one in the pew.

The messenger of God in the pulpit needs courage for a thousand reasons. Here are 10:

1. To preach the whole counsel of God no matter who may disapprove—and to sweeten that preaching when his flesh is involved and wants to "lower the boom" on certain people. Graciousness takes courage also.

Read more here:

Further Reading:

Church Leadership, The Load Bearing Walls of the Church

Some thoughts on Christian Leadership/Church Leadership

Blackpool Rocks, What I learned on a trip to Blackpool, a perspective on Pastoral Ministry

Elders & Deacons in the Church