Our pastor Bro Dennis is beginning a men’s study on leadership. Men, if you are a member of Midway Baptist Church or live in the Florida Panhandle, please consider this an invitation to join us on Monday evenings from 6:00 – 7:30 (Bible Study begins at 6:30).
I am so looking forward to this teaching.
Last night I presented this question to my social media followers and blog email list:
So once again we are watching the circus live and in color on our television sets. The stage? Congress and the White House and the looming fiscal cliff. It is amazing to see after what was called the most important election of our lifetime that nothing has changed in Washington D.C. All the old leaders are the new leaders and you could not fill a bus up with those serving who are righteous in the sight of God. It reminds me of the old Rolling Stones song “We Won’t Get Fooled Again” where it ends with “Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.”
I was asked by some, and accused by others, if I was looking for perfection in a candidate. My answer to both is I am looking for righteousness in our public servants. Those, whether or not they are Christians, who have a sense of responsibility to their electorate and more important to “the laws of nature and nature’s God.” As my buddy Steve Deace always says, “We want people of convictions, not positions.”
To hope and trust in God means doing so in His power and providence; not in our might and motives. Again, this may seem as a simple truth, and it is, but always remember that simple rarely equates to easy. We are hard-wired to do things on our own. But when we are placing our hope and trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ, we can see with eternal eyes and know that God is in control.
We just finished preparing our annual church budget to present to the church. This is not a budget that looks at the economic uncertainty in our nation. It is not a budget that considers that perhaps people will be strapped for money and giving will inevitably be down.
So many Christian patriots are very discouraged by the election outcome. Many are ready to quit; many are ready to start a third party; many are just ready “to go home” (I can sympathize with the latter sentiment). Discouragement is one of Satan’s greatest weapons against God’s people. It can be lethal. He may use persecution, predicaments, or privation to bring us to our knees and shout, “I give up!” Satan loves defeated Christians because misery loves company.
Beloved, we are not defeated! Our foe has been vanquished and we already have the victory.
Glory to God, for He is on His throne! Jesus is King, Lord, and Savior to all who call to Him for salvation. America is today still the greatest nation in history and I praise God for being born an American. No matter the outcome of our elections throughout history, the peaceful transition of power is a God-breathed miracle captured by godly men who founded our nation. They were God-fearing men who recognized and relied upon the Providence of God.
Our nation is truly at a crossroads. The political outcome of yesterday’s election is a reflection…a symptom…of what ails our great country. Over half of our country clearly has an entitlement mentality where they believe by merely being Americans who may or may not have been dealt a bad hand that they are entitled to other people’s money. Beloved, that is a clear indication of a deeper issue that must be addressed.
I received a response from a dear sister-in-Christ to the comments the past two emails I sent out on whether or not we can vote for the lesser of two evils. Understand that this is no simple matter, voting that is. I am glad to see so many Christians thinking through all of this by questioning and searching the scriptures for answers. That is what we are called to do. In fact, I presented some questions to my pastor and interviewed him Monday night to get his perspective. Bro Dennis is the one man I trust most in this world and while I may not always agree with him, I know I will get a straight answer from him. So is the case with so many other men who bless my life. There are a few women who fit that category also. You can hear Part 1 of Bro Dennis interview at my other blog: http://www.aletheiagroup.org/?p=1088
Here are the words of one sister-in-Christ and her thought process in this election season, admittedly by her incomplete words but I believe they warrant sharing:
Justice is required of us; that is we who call ourselves Christians. Making righteous decisions is only optional in that we can obey or disobey, but the requirement and God’s standard for justice is unchanged regardless our decision or disagreement. God is God and we are not. We can use our wisdom to explain away a grievous decision made by the Supreme Court, but we would judge incorrectly because we are using the wrong measurement. When chalking out a football field you don’t guess at a 50×100 yard playing service and 10 yard end zones, you measure it, and then chalk it. Anything else would be unacceptable.
If you did measure out a football field just by guessing how big it should be, it would be immediately apparent to even the least experienced fan that something wasn’t right. When we use our standard and human reasoning to make decisions, the Holy Spirit within in us lets us know that something isn’t right. David asked two simple questions we should use to inquire of ourselves:
Since Thursday’s Supreme Court ruling on ObamaCare, I have seen all manner of exposition and explanation for why Chief Justice John Roberts’ ruling was brilliant. I have been asked if I want conservative judges, oppose liberal judges, want those that are Republican, and oppose those that are Democrats. Do I want originalists and oppose activists.
I take none of the above.
One year from today our nation will inaugurate either the 45th President of the United States or Barack Obama for a second term. As a nation we face the most important presidential election of my 55 years (when I vote) on earth. Some would say in history. I would say it is a close second to the election of 1860, because our nation’s survival hung in the balance then.
So what should we look for in our next president? Too many of us, me included for the longest time, looked for perfection whether we want to admit it or not. The truth of the matter is we all have fatal flaws and none of us are truly fit for office, for too many reasons to list right now. I know it gets very confusing in this time of year, and that is one of the reasons we began Aletheia Group L.L.C.; to help discover the truth no matter where it leads.
This weekend I sent the following email to a dear brother in Christ:
I want you to design a picture in your mind of the typical atheist and compose a brief description to go under that picture as a caption. I’ll give you a few minutes to do so…go ahead and start and then come back.
Friends, it’s finally here!
Our new venture is up and running and we want to be sure you pass the word to everyone you know!
Just click on the banner below and you can see our new website, Aletheia Group LLC:
A synonym of honesty is integrity. Random House Dictionary defines honesty as “truthfulness, candidness” and integrity as “honor, uprightness.” A common definition for integrity I learned in the military is “doing what is right when no one is looking.” In fact, two leadership characteristics the Army instills in its soldiers are honor and integrity. King Solomon knew the importance of both:
In this postmodern world we’ve been led to believe that truth is relative and that what is right for you may not necessarily be right for me. We cannot legislate morality is a favorite mantra of secular humanists. If you look at most of today’s media, politicians, business, and society in general, it’s hard to argue that absolute truth exists. But just because it does not exists in a culture does not mean it does not exist. It simply means that culture has rejected absolute, aletheia truth as a standard.
All of you saw the reply that Dr. Alan Keyes sent out in response to yesterday’s devotional. I must apologize for not keeping your emails private when I built my new devotional group list, but then each of you got to personally read Dr. Keyes’ words. I’ve since made all emails private.
I received the following reply from Dr. Alan Keyes to my devotional “Despairing of Everyone.” You can read more of Dr. Keyes’ brilliant writing at his website, “Loyal to Liberty.” It is linked under my Citizen Action links.
Alan Keyes
Aletheia is a Greek philosophical word that means truthfulness that corresponds to reality. This means we can trust Biblical, aletheia, truth because it is true and it is real. It is undeniable. Do people deny this truth? Of course, but it does not make it any less true.
Let’s go back to our foundational verse and this is the foundational verse of our new venture starting in three weeks.
