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by Rick Warren

Take on an entirely new way of life - a God-fashioned life, a life renewed
from the inside and working itself into your conduct as God accurately
reproduces his character in you. Ephesians 4:22-24 (MSG)

"God's ultimate goal for your life on earth is not comfort, but character
development. He wants you to grow up spiritually and become like Christ.
Becoming like Christ does not mean losing your personality or becoming a
mindless clone. "

Many religions and New Age philosophies promote the old lie that we are
divine or can become gods. Let me be absolutely clear: you will never become
God, or even a god.

That prideful lie is Satan's oldest temptation. Satan promised Adam and Eve
that if they followed his advice, "you shall be as gods." (Genesis 3:5 KJV)

This desire to be a god shows up every time we try to control our
circumstances, our future, and people around us. But as creatures, we will
never be the Creator. God doesn't want you to become a god; he wants you to
become godly, taking on his values, attitudes, and character. We are meant
to "take on an entirely new way of life - a God-fashioned life, a life
renewed from the inside and working itself into your conduct as God
accurately reproduces his character in you." (Ephesians 4:22-24 MSG)

God's ultimate goal for your life on earth is not comfort, but character
development. He wants you to grow up spiritually and become like Christ.
Becoming like Christ does not mean losing your personality or becoming a
mindless clone.

God created your uniqueness, so he certainly doesn't want to destroy it.
Christlikeness is all about transforming your character, not your
personality.

God wants you to develop the kind of character described in the Beatitudes
of Jesus, the fruit of the Spirit, Paul's great chapter on love, and Peter's
list of the characteristics of an effective and productive life. (Matthew
5:1-12; Galatians 5:22-23; 1 Corinthians 13; 2 Peter 1:5-8)

Every time you forget that character is one of God's purposes for your life,
you will become frustrated by your circumstances. You'll wonder, "Why is
this happening to me? Why am I having such a difficult time?" One answer is
that life is supposed to be difficult! It's what enables us to grow.
Remember, earth is not heaven!

Many Christians misinterpret Jesus' promise of the "abundant life" (John
10:10) to mean perfect health, a comfortable lifestyle, constant happiness,
full realization of your dreams, and instant relief from problems through
faith and prayer.

In a word, they expect the Christian life to be easy. They expect heaven on
earth.

This self-absorbed perspective treats God as a genie who simply exists to
serve you in your selfish pursuit of personal fulfillment. But God is not
your servant, and if you fall for the idea that life is supposed to be easy,
either you will become severely disillusioned or you will live in denial of
reality.

Never forget that life is not about you! You exist for God's purposes, not
vice versa. Why would God provide heaven on earth when he's planned the real
thing for you in eternity? God gives us our time on earth to build and
strengthen our character for heaven.

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Hoping to obtain advice on how to improve government foreclosure prevention
programs, the Department of Treasury's Assistant
Secretary for Financial Stability, Herb Allison, made an unprecedented stop
in Cleveland on Monday to hold a roundtable and hear from local homeowners
and housing advocates first-hand.

The roundtable was held at the offices of Rep. Dennis Kucinich. According to
an article on Newsnet5.com
, a local news station in
Cleveland, the congressman had long pressed high-ranking officials from the
Treasury Department to come to Cleveland, an epicenter of the foreclosure
crisis, and see for themselves how bad it is.

Allison, who is second to Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, oversees both
the Troubled Asset Relief Program and the Hardest Hit Fund program that is
providing more than $2.1 billion to address the foreclosure crisis in 10
states. Ohio is receiving $172 million through this program, the sixth
highest allocation.

Two homeowners, Jim Ross and Amelia Ayad, both with Chase loans and working
with Empowering & Strengthening Ohio's
People (ESOP), a foreclosure counsel-

ing agency in Ohio, were present at the roundtable. Along with other
advocates, Ross and Ayad spoke about the power of ESOP's foreclosure
prevention counseling services.

In a statement, ESOP said it was clear that Allison understood the
importance of counseling as a key part of any foreclosure prevention
solution.

"There is a growing consensus that counseling has a tremendous impact,"
Allison said. "Some people have had to wait one year or more for a
modification. There's no excuse for that."

According to Newsnet5.com, Cuyahoga County Treasurer Jim Rokakis pointed out
a problem with making the federal programs voluntary for institutions, and
he also pushed Allison to consider instituting deadlines on banks to
initiate "an emergency mindset" and get more help quickly.

While Allison balked at the idea of deadlines, he appeared open to all
suggestions that could better get the money to homeowners who are sinking,
Newsnet5.com said.

Allison also heard from Steve Nesmith, SVP and assistant general counsel for
strategic and government initiatives with Ocwen. Nesmith told Allison that
the government needs to ensure that it funds only those counseling agencies
with effective, measurable outcomes.

That, Allison said, would require a rigorous system that standardized
quality, criteria, training, and reporting requirements. He said this would
simply take too long.

However, ESOP noted that the National Foreclosure Mitigation Counseling
program is already designed to do this. Instead of being cut, the funding
for this program needs to be reinstated, the counseling agency said.

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Without PMA, life might be described as long periods of uncertainty
punctuated by occasional emergencies that shake you to the very core of your
being. The emergencies may be financial, personal, or health related, but
each must be dealt with separately and swiftly. The surest way to deal with
any crisis is to focus on solutions, not on the probable cause of the
problem or who should be blamed for it. Conduct a quick damage assessment,
take the time to think through the alternatives and their consequences, and
then act to implement the best solution. If you deal with life's emergencies
as they occur-on your own terms-you will be a stronger, better person for
having looked them in the eye and conquered them.

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Delinquencies on single-family loans guaranteed by Freddie Mac
fell to 4.13 percent in March, down from 4.20
percent in February.

It's the first monthly decline reported by the McLean, Virginia-based
mortgage giant since April 2007, and some say a sign that efforts to improve
loan performance are finally gaining ground.

"The decrease was driven by a higher volume of completed loan modifications
as well as higher short sale volume during the month," Michael Cosgrove, a
spokesman for Freddie Mac, explained to Reuters.

The GSE's multifamily delinquency rate also dropped slightly. In March,
overdue multifamily mortgages were 0.24 percent, compared to 0.25 percent
the month before.

The aggregate unpaid principal balance of Freddie Mac's mortgage-related
investments portfolio was $753.3 billion at the end of March, up from $732.2
billion in February.

The company explained that this growth was largely related to purchases of
loans from mortgage-backed securities holders, which began in February, when
the
GSE announced that it would buy back more
than $71 billion in delinquent loans from mortgage pools it had sold to
investors.

Freddie Mac's total mortgage portfolio decreased at an annualized rate of
9.1 percent in March.

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The U.S. Department of Justice says in light of the mortgage crisis, it has
"made fair lending a top priority" and will be reviewing the Treasury's Home
Affordable Modification Program (HAMP) for possible violations.

Testifying before a House subcommittee last week, Assistant Attorney General
Thomas E. Perez told lawmakers that the Justice Department is focusing on
potential fair lending violations "where much of the lending activity is
occurring today - at the back-end of the process - in mortgage
modifications." With HAMP being the largest loan modification undertaking in
history, that makes it a prime target for scrutiny.

"We want to be sure homeowners are not again subjected to abusive practices
as they attempt to get out from under unsustainable loans," Perez said. "We
will be getting data

soon from the Home Affordable Modification Program, disaggregated by race
and ethnicity, and the Non-Discrimination Working Group members are
collaborating on methods to analyze the HAMP data."

Perez explained the Department of Justice has created a dedicated Fair
Lending Unit, staffed with lending attorneys, economists, and a math
statistician. He says the unit is focusing its efforts on the entire range
of abuses seen in the market, from traditional access to credit issues, such
as redlining, to reverse redlining and pricing discrimination.

Perez stressed that these efforts are part of a larger, administration-wide
initiative to crack down on financial fraud and "eradicate those practices
that led to the financial meltdown."

Perez says some have claimed that aggressive enforcement of fair lending
laws will ultimately hurt consumers and dampen the business climate, but his
experience leads him to disagree.

"To the contrary, common sense consumer protection and promoting a sound
climate for lending go hand in hand, and are inextricably intertwined,"
Perez said.

He added, "The absence of effective consumer protections and the dearth of
meaningful federal enforcement in recent years not only hurt communities
across the country, but also brought about staggering losses in the industry
and undermined the safety and soundness of so many lending institutions."

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In yet another sign of stabilization within the U.S. housing market, pending
home sales continued the climb upward in March, the National Association of
Realtors (NAR) reported Tuesday.

NAR's Pending Homes Sales Index (PHSI), a forward-looking indicator based on
contracts signed in March, rose 5.3 percent from February and was 21.1
percent above March of last year. This increase follows an 8.3 percent jump
in February and affirms that a surge of home sales is unfolding for the
spring home buying season, NAR said.

The month-to-month jump in pending sales surpassed analysts' predictions.
According to a Reuters poll, analysts were expecting pending home sales to
inch up just 4 percent in March.

On a seasonally-adjusted basis, pending home sales have now increased for
two consecutive months. And on an unadjusted basis, March marked the third
straight month of growth.

The PHSI in March varied from region to region. The index in the South
surged 12.7 percent from February and was 28.3 percent above March of 2009.
In the West, the PHSI increased 1.9 percent from the month prior and was 8.8
percent higher than a year earlier. The index in the Midwest nudged up 1.2
percent from February and was 18.5 percent above March of last year.

The only region to post a month-to-month decline was the Northeast, where
pending home sales fell 3.3 percent. However, the PHSI in the Northeast
remained 27.2 percent higher than a year ago.

Lawrence Yun, NAR chief economist, said the combination of favorable
affordability conditions and the homebuyer tax credit bolstered pending home
sales in March. But now that the tax credit has expired, Yun believes sales
will decline in the months to come.

"Clearly the home buyer tax credit has helped stabilize the market. In the
months immediately following the expiration of the tax credit, we expect
measurably lower sales," he said. "Later in the second half of the year, and
into 2011, home sales will likely become self-sustaining if the economy can
add jobs at a respectable pace, and from a return of buyer demand as they
see home values stabilizing."

Yun said another encouraging sign is the improvement in the availability of
jumbo and second-home mortgages. He said as bank balance sheets strengthen,
it is just a matter of time before lending of non-government-backed
mortgages steadily opens up.

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"Your whole idea about yourself is borrowed -

borrowed from those who have no idea of who they are themselves."

~ Osho: Was an Indian mystic, guru, and philosopher

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