There was a time not too long ago when I did not believe in very much, especially not God.  I believed in myself and that was about it.  The belief I am talking about I simply define as the ability to trust, and rely on someone or something. 

I did not know it then, but have come to realize now, that we all are missing something.  There is a place in our “heart” that is empty, until we fill it.  That place is meant to be filled with God.  He is what we are all missing until we get on board with Him.

If we do not fill it with Him then we all find something else to replace Him or we just feel empty.  I have been there and you may have also.  The problem is that the things we fill it with are not everlasting.  They will eventually lose the ability to satisfy. 

When I joined the army I found something bigger than myself to fill that place to a degree.  It’s called patriotism.  I gained a sense of pride for and love of the nation I live in.   Emotions seemed to well up in me when the flag was raised, when the anthem was sung, and when patriots were honored. 

Just a few months after I first got saved and joined my church, on Memorial Day weekend, my pastor called up all the veterans in my church and recognized them honorably for the service they had performed.  It was the first time anyone had ever given me an honorable mention, I believe, in my life.  As I have noted before, I was a loner and as such, just didn’t “belong” or “join” in very much.

But that felt good.  The sense of being a part of something bigger than myself gave me one of the first glimpses of how good it was to “belong”.  And I mistakenly grabbed hold of that patriotism again.  I was newly saved but God had not yet filled the empty places in my heart to the limits.  I squeezed a little bit of that old sense of pride in this nation into the recesses, the nooks and crannies where God was not, yet.

But, as anyone who is actively seeking to grow in relationship with God can attest, He will fill and overfill that place I am talking about.  He will squeeze out all of the empty things we try to fill ourselves with, if we let Him.  And when we do let Him, we will be better for it.      

Thinking of all that I just said, I have come to realize that America is not a “Christian nation”, though at one time it may have been close.  A nation cannot be a Christian.  Only people can.  A Christian is simply a member of the family and the army of God.  A nation cannot be a family member.  A nation is simply a place.  And I do believe we should aspire to be a nation of Christians.  A nation of true Christians, as I have been saying, truly could change the world. 

Some think that just because we are not all Christians then we must allow this country to be the change agent.  That somehow a nation, that has no soul, no morality in itself, can affect change.  The people are the soul of the nation.  And that should show us quickly that this is not a Christian nation because it has been quite a while since the people of this nation were mostly Christians.   

America is not a “shining city on a hill”.   We are a free nation and one of the very best examples of freedom in the world.  We should let our light of freedom be a shining example for the entire world.  But never think that this alone makes us good.  The very freedom we enjoy has also led to the very godlessness that we see on display. 

America is not the “greatest blessing God gave mankind”, though it is a great nation, even somewhat worthy, of our conditional adoration.   But we must remember the greatest blessing God gave man was His Son.  And the greatest benefit of that is that we have become citizens of a new nation, a better nation. 

Patriotic sentiment has its place but we mustn’t let it expand beyond its acceptable borders. We mustn’t let a belief that changing laws, changing elected officials, and changing what political party is in control, is actually going to change people.  Only Jesus changes people. 

We are citizens of both a country and a Kingdom.  Born into the USA but reborn into the Kingdom of God.  And that rebirth is the better of the two.  We must be careful not to confuse the one for the other.

America is not.  It is not going to make you happy.  It is not going to give you peace.  It is not helping you prepare for eternity.  It is not going to get your child, your grandchild, saved. 

America is not. 

Love you all

There was once a group of people that were led by a loving, just ruler.  He had their best interests at heart and He provided for them in all ways.  Materially, physically and spiritually.  He was stern at times but always quick to dispense mercy and grace. 

But the people were not happy.  Their ruler was not like the rulers that surrounded them in other kingdoms.  Their ruler was never seen and chose to give out His instruction through other men and sometimes directly to individuals.  And His main goal for His people was to spread the knowledge of who He was, all of His love, mercy, grace, provision and instruction, to all people. 

This ruler was the perfect ruler but He was not good enough.  The people He tried to lead wanted something else.  They wanted a king that was a man from among themselves.  This ruler, who by now you know was God, warned them that it would not work out the way they wanted.  But He gave them what they wanted.  He gave them Saul.

From that very first earthly king, things never went the way they should have.  There were a couple of good kings to the Israelites, but none of them ever came close to keeping them in proper relationship with God.   

This post is my response to the questions I put forth on Tuesday.  And for all who responded I seriously thank you and value your input.  I am not being pretentious in saying what I am about to say.  These are new thoughts for me, after spending lots of time in prayer over these issues of voting and the choices laid out before us. 

We are ambassadors of our own King if we have chosen to be a part of the Kingdom of God.  We are supposed to serve Him and His Kingdom.  But instead we seem to think it is the Government of the United States job to uphold our ways and laws.  We seem to think that it is actually the reverse of the way it is.  That this country and its rulers are the ambassadors.  Jesus told us that we are of another Kingdom.  And He told us, while we are here to give to this kingdom what belongs to it but to give to our Kingdom what belongs to Him. 

As Shelly said, even the rulers we think are the right ones turn out to be something other than what we perceived. 

We happen to be in a country where we have been given the “right” to vote.  This “right” has been given by the Constitution, not God.  There is simply no justification that I can find for anyone saying that we are obliged to vote.  God allows it but would not require it. 

And this is the most important part of this post.  If we are going to exercise our “right” to vote, then we better vote for that person that lines up mostly with the heart of God.  If we do not, then we will be held accountable for that vote. 

But as for the question I proposed, I do not believe a person of another faith, even if that person might not make it to eternity with us, cannot have a heart closer to God than someone who declares themselves Christian.  And surely they might be better able to run this country.  

And if you haven’t seen what I am implying yet, I am not sure we should even be concerned with voting.  And know that I expect to get some flak from this.

We have a King.  And instead of listening to Him and doing as He says we waste, yes waste, our time in all the intricacies of the political process. 

Just answer this.  Have you spent as much time talking about Jesus as you have talking about McCain or Obama?  Have you spent as much time reading the bible as you have reading the reports on either of the candidates?  Have you spent as much time seeking Truth as you have the latest sound bite or lie about any politician?

When God calls someone to do something, He knows they can get it done.  Not necessarily that they will.  There is no way in the corrupt system we have now in the US of A, that a politician can be Holy and be an effective leader of this nation at the same time.    Therefore I do not believe God is trying to put any of them in the position.  And He really does not have to. 

God anointed Saul as king.  He anointed David as king.  Then He anointed Jesus as King.  We do not need another. 

I wish these facts were not so.  I wish we could vote the right candidate in and all of the terrible things going on in this nation, which grieve and anger our Lord, would be made right.  But even more, I wish that we would try to start doing what He wants us to do.  Then we could change this nation.  It is never going to be up to the elected officials to bring about the Godly change we need.  It is going to be up to us. 

2Ch 7:14  if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.

The people of God must do these things.  Not the House, or the Senate, or the Judiciary, or the President, but only the people of God.  We want to blame everybody but ourselves.  And like when God called all the people to clean themselves up and come up the mountain to meet Him, we want someone, maybe another Moses, to do it for us. 

God help us and have mercy on those we have failed to reach.

I love you all so very much

Here we are again.  I want to say thank you once again for all of the insightful comments last week about the Starbucks issue.  While important, it was also a little less intense than some of what I seem to put forth.  And don’t forget, your comments are not only appreciated but desired on all posts.

As for this week, I thought we would take a look at the election process.  Not politics per se, but just a question about whether we should look for one thing in a presidential candidate or not.  Next week the people of this country will be electing our next president.  Each individual has a certain list of things they will base their choice on.  Some of these things are strictly personal, some are based on political party affiliation, some on economic policy, some on fringe agendas, and the list could go on forever.

But I want to discuss one thing in particular. 

The president of the United States of America is the president of all, I repeat, ALL citizens of this nation.  All ethnic persuasions, all ages and sexes, and all religious groups.  The Christians, the Muslims, the Hindus, the Buddhists, and even the atheists all have to rely on him to do the work he is elected to do for them, whoever they might be and no matter who they worship. 

So the question is this;

Should it matter what faith a candidate subscribes to? 

Additionally, how much does it matter to you, if you believe that it does?

Please remember to be irenic and say what you have to say as if you were discussing it with Jesus. 

What say you?

Love you all.

There is a whole lot of enemy activity going on right now. 

There is a movement that is intent on removing all vestiges of God from the public square.  Displays of commandments, the phrases mentioning God in the Pledge of Allegiance and on our currency, any public declaration of the name Jesus; all these are taboo, dangerous, and have to be gotten rid of.  Unless of course you are blaspheming or ridiculing God or Jesus.  Then you might become a celebrity.

The radical atheist movement is in league with the enemy.  They might not know it and logically could not if they are the atheists they claim to be.  I have a little experience as an atheist and this movement confuses me.  When I did not believe in God, I was not scared or threatened by Him or any of these displays.  You could go to church, pray, give away your money to the church or to the makers of all of these t-shirts, plaques, crosses, etc., and it did not bother me one bit.  It actually amused me, unless my saved wife was using our money. 

But these neo-atheists don’t portray an assurance of their conviction.  They, instead portray the opposite. They seem to be scared of something they supposedly do not believe in. 

There is a whole lot of enemy activity going on right now.  

We have an election coming up and are faced with the fact that there are no qualified, trustworthy, competent, CHRISTLIKE, electable candidates to choose from for the highest office in our nation.   As this nations government gets bigger and bigger, the broad way to hell seems to be expanding also. 

The war that probably never should have happened goes on and on and the only way to end it will seriously dampen every other nations opinion of us as a world power.  In the meantime, people die.

There is a whole lot of enemy activity going on right now. 

There is not a lot of good news coming from anywhere.  The economy seems to be heading in a direction that is simply scary.  There are people losing jobs and people with little work.  Gas is ridiculously high and impacting everything’s pricing.  Some are losing their homes.  Some are losing their stuff.  We are in an economy that is affecting most people in some way. 

There is no clear way to fix the problems.  So we are faced with many lifestyle adjustments. 

There is a whole lot of enemy activity going on right now. 

On a personal level, I have friends and family that are being devastated by attacks that seem to be intensifying.  Things such as marital discord, child rebellion and hostility, addictions in loved ones, antagonistic in-laws, and many other cacoetheses’ are affecting many families that I know personally. 

But we trust God.  Or do we?  Are our actions and reactions to these attacks displaying this trust?

As far as the atheist movement goes, I take the same attitude that I did as an atheist.  I don’t care.  Because I do trust God.  I do not need a plaque to declare to me the ten commandments.  In fact, I don’t even have to memorize them.  Jesus taught and the Holy Spirit impressed on me that they are all summed up in the two.  The two are, to love God and love everyone else, even my enemies. 

I don’t need my money to remind me that I trust God.  I am not even sure as a card carrying patriot of the Kingdom of God that I should even recite the pledge of allegiance.  I ask the same thing of all those Christians that rally behind a movement to legislate morality and have this worldly government recognize my God, what are you afraid of? 

Just look at the picture I used in this post.  It seems that almost every notion of trusting God in our culture has to be pictured as conjoined with this nation.  But I would dare say there are more outside this nation that truly do trust Him than here.   

As far as the election goes, I think I will let these words from the comment section of Cerulean Sanctum, by Dan Edelen say it for me. 

“Our responsibility in voting is to represent the Kingdom of God. We do not compromise. We do not support candidates who make concessions to evil. That may mean that we must vote for someone outside the two major parties. It may mean that we write in a God-fearing candidate. It may mean that we vote for no one in a particular race if a godly candidate has not been revealed to us by the Lord. Our focus is not in ensuring we vote for the winning side or that we cast our vote against someone wicked, but that we vote in a way that honors the Lord and shows us to understand that Christ has no fellowship with Belial.”

He says what I feel much better than I could.

As far as the economy goes, there is not much to say except, trust God.  And heed these words of our Lord.

Mat 6:19-26  “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal  “But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal; for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. “The eye is the lamp of the body; so then if your eye is clear, your whole body will be full of light. “But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light that is in you is darkness, how great is the darkness! “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth. “For this reason I say to you, do not be worried about your life, as to what you will eat or what you will drink; nor for your body, as to what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? “Look at the birds of the air, that they do not sow, nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they?

As for my friends and family that are close, I encourage you to embrace this season of trial and tribulation for what it is.  An attack of the enemy that has become so severe in your lives because of the attention you are getting from them.  You must be doing the work of the Lord to be hit with such an onslaught. 

Continue in prayer and love, for these are the weapons that make us victorious.  And know that I am praying with and for you.

So again I ask us all, In God We Trust?

I really hope so.

Love you all