J16 11 10 ELIHU THE HERO

JOB 32—37

Did you realize that there was an unmentioned friend who sat and listened to the banter between the “three friends” and Job? He said nothing for the whole time that the banter went on. When the “three friends” finally quit talking because they saw that it was futile, this mysterious friend began to speak to the real issues of the situation:

5 But when he saw that the three men had nothing more to say, his anger was aroused.
6 So Elihu son of Barakel the Buzite said:
“I am young in years,
and you are old;...”
He was young and felt that he had no business telling what he thought until the impasse happened. Then God had him speak up. It was time for some sensible interference with the older men. All four had gotten off track and he had wisdom to share to get them back to remembering who was really in charge, and who they really were in comparison.
Right now we could use an Elihu. We have all gone off the deep end in one way or another: mostly in that we believe that we were right and God was and is wrong. That will never happen; and it did not happen in this election: God is always right. Always.

11 I waited while you spoke,
I listened to your reasoning;
while you were searching for words,
12 I gave you my full attention.
But not one of you has proved Job wrong;none of you has answered his arguments.

Since Job was righteous in the eyes of God, the friends accusation that he must have been seen as sinning, and was now being punished for it because he refused to repent, was as wrong and as off course as the rumors that Hilary was absolutely going to win this election.

But the continued harassment of his friends had worn Job down to wondering himself what he had done wrong to bring on this punishment and he tried proving how righteous he was.

In comes Elihu to the rescue. Speaking at the prompting of God, he began to show where each had gone wrong. And he did it by pointing out the characteristics of Almighty God. We must always remember exactly who He is if we wish to pass through our painful times.

Elihu was the first to speak sense into the issue, and Job reacted to his spiel with regrets and humility; but then the true Hero-God Almighty- sets the whole issue in perspective starting in chapter 38. And what a wonderful reminder to all of us that God is Almighty and He is always right; never wrong.

Election day I mostly avoided Facebook and kept my vow to stay away from the news because I knew the media would be puffing things up on Hilary's behalf and did not want to hear it.

The next morning I sneaked into Facebook and the first thing I saw was that Hilary was about to make make her concession speech. I got off, and stayed still to remember who my God is. I had let myself believe that Hilary actually had a chance to win. She did not. God did not want her to win. Period.

Now it is time for Christians to gather together to pray that God will make changes in and through President-Elect Trump: and that those who will be advising him will have wisdom in how they do that. Not because we are to be a great nation; but because millions of His children live here and we need to preserve His influence here where our families, friends and neighbors live.

Let us “Be still and know that [He] is God.”

COMPROMISING MY CHRISTIAN PRINCIPLES?

A few days ago a very young “Millennial” boldly declared that I would be compromising my Christian principles by voting for Trump. Well, I have voted for Trump and I did not compromise my Christian principles! Sorry, kid, but that did not happen. I held true to my principles which have been given to me by Christ, Himself.

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus lays out a very clear definition of what the Ten Commandments really mean in comparison to the Pharisaical Laws.

And, later, He made a clear distinction by summarizing His purpose and the Ten Commandments with this statement in Matthew 22:

37 Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

The “whine” over this election has been (pinch your nose and speak in a high voice when you say it), “How could God possibly make us choose between two SINNERS??? Oh, no! That is worse than anything else in the world (including tragedies, terrorism, “global warming”, or any other thing happening in the world today). Oh.poor.us! We have to choose between two people who are sinners and act like sinners. BooHoo.

Hey... Both of these people are our neighbors, whom we are to love, and choosing between them is a matter of reality. Why NOT vote for a sinner. All of our presidents have been sinners: some saved by Grace and others not.

There is no place in our constitution which forbids having a president who is not a Christian. The last three who were living a vivid Christian life have been some of the schmaltziest presidents we have ever had. i.e. The two Republicans went immediately to the Democrats and blessed them with an announcement that “we” would work along side them in the things they wanted to accomplish. And they did. Ain't that sweet.

Each citizen of these United States has been given the honor and responsibility to choose our leaders. This is something we need to do, even when we do not want any of the candidates to win. It is our burden to vote anyway. It is our responsibility to discern the best possibility and vote, from President down to local town councilors.

It is our duty to let others know how we are thinking in case they need some buoying up, but it is not our responsibility to blast away on those who see it differently, with gleeful observations of how wrong we think they are. This election is almost over with. 

Let us begin healing as we trust God to push His agenda, no matter what. That is His job.

MAKE AMERICA LIVABLE AGAIN

As the day of voting draws nearer and nearer, I find myself contemplating three perfectly rotten scoundrels.

One was named Manasseh, King Manasseh of Judea, the man who was proclaimed by God to have shed the most innocent blood of all time. His story is so bloody that much of it must be read in history to get the true picture of what happened. As I studied him, I found myself rooting for God to “take him out.” (Lest you have any doubts, that is not a Christ-like attitude.)

I was very happy when the Assyrian King had him arrested on false charges and took him off to the dungeon at his palace. But God had news for him and for me: God was in charge of even this situation. During his stay in the dungeon, his life wasting away, he was bent over to the point that he began to recognize the evil he had done. And, guess what? He repented. He spent much time confessing each detail and repenting of them, asking God's forgiveness for his sin.

So, did God forgive him? You bet. Soon after his repentance, the guard came and released him from prison explaining that they had found the charges against him to be false. He was free to return to Judea and be the King there again.

He did return and he did rule as King again, this time destroying the majority of idol worship, cleaning the temple of all signs of it and ruling by the commandments of God. He was broken and became useful to God.

Another man on my mind is the great, honored President John F. Kennedy. He truly desires honor for what he accomplished, especially in standing up to Russia. And his manner of operation was genuinely acceptable on the level of polite society. But what we did not know was that his private behavior was abominable; even scandalous to those of us who had sexual scruples. His appetite for sex was so voracious that it had him hiding women in the closets of the White House so that he could have sex with them.

And, then, there is my Dad. He was a sleaze of a man and a total womanizer with a mouth that could make a sailor blush. His personal behavior was hurtful and ugly for many, many years. But... He rose up in the Army from a PFC shoveling horse left overs to a Captain in charge of a P.O.W. Camp in Korea. The point here is that as ugly as he was, he got the job done; whatever the job was. In fact all of these men did.

As I contemplate these men, I find myself seeing that I need to consider the repercussions of what I do with my vote.

I have clearly decided that, though both viable candidates for President are seemingly unacceptable, they are nevertheless the only viable candidates.

This is not the first time for me to be in this situation. I have not had opportunity to vote for a viable candidate that I felt deserved the honor of being President since I voted for Reagan. But I have always voted for the ideology and platform of conservative politics. Always.

Now, more than ever, except for 2012, I see a need to vote against the party ideology that I detest. And I detest the liberal socialist progressive ideology and party platform plus the current behavior of that party.

The mouth of Donald Trump may be abominable, but the platform he stands on is NOT. The platform she stands on is crushing and totally unacceptable as a continuation of the destruction of this freedom based nation.

Though I am not standing on the rhetoric of “Make America Great Again,” I am quite persuaded that we need to make America livable again.

As for me, I see voting for Trump and the conservative platform as a much better chance of making this country livable again. I will cast my vote for that possibility before I will throw it away or not vote at all.

THE DEVOLUTION OF THE MEDIA

Contemplating on decades of change.

I read something this morning that took me back to the 70s when I was a news junkie. I listened intently to the news every night, read the paper from front page to back every morning, and read news magazines weekly. Then I went back all the way to the 50s and realized that I was a CBS news junkie in those days. The news was one of my favorite programs due to the way news was presented in those days by the news men on CBS.

In those olden and “golden” days, news was presented in a balanced manner: facts were presented on both sides and we were allowed to make our own conclusions about those facts. And, oh yes, there was an absence of ugly gossip news in regular reporting: i.e. We didn't learn about Kennedy's bad habits until long after he died.

Then things began to change: We got into a war that was deemed unnecessary and evil. Some people took to the streets in un-peaceful manners to demand that we have Peace, whatever that was supposed be. Other people excused themselves from society and began to live a life they call peaceful but broke every long time acceptable behavior rule. Things were shaping up in a whole new way. And the media began to change, too.

At first they became determined to tell ALL in a big way. They put themselves in the middle of everything and told facts about what was going on. It was still a fact by fact order of business; but it was more passionate and more involved than it ever had been.

This era included the assassination of President Kennedy and the triumphal destruction of President Nixon over his ”big” lie. Subtly the media changed from giving us facts on both sides, so we could make up our own minds, to giving us facts based on their opinion of what had happened, so that we could agree with their point of view.

It was then (80s-90s) that I found myself getting angry with every news report, and I didn't even know why. Since I was addicted to anger anyway, I enjoyed the anger fits that came from watching the news. But, at that time, I was not fully engaged in what was going on in the world until 9/11. Then I became deeply interested and listened for all the information I could get.

Bushed reaction to this war strike in our country was properly to strike back. War had been clearly declared against us more than once before that day. 9/11 was a wake up call and Bush answered it.

When Bush brought his platform forward, I was 100% behind him I his decision and strategy. I had helped elect him, but I had never been particularly found of his complacency and didn't want him to be President for any other reason than I did not want Kerry to be president; so I voted against Kerry. And I was very glad I did. In my mind I saw Perry going to Afghanistan and begging for forgiveness that we Americans upset them so badly. And, sure enough, he has done that anyway since then.

The media was finding fault, of course—like he didn't react the way they wanted him to when he was told in a classroom full of children that we had been attacked—but for the most part, they were just as angry as the rest of us and ready for us to do something. And just in case you missed that thought, his reaction was perfect considering he was with a classroom full of children.

Soon of course, there was a protesting and agitation going on that we should not be at war with the people who attacked us and declared war on us. The media loved that and took full advantage of an opportunity to blast the President, who was not of their favorite party, and they stirred up as much contention as they possibly could. And, so it continues.

Their new goal in presenting the news is to be a power of their own. They push hard on every contentious thing that happens and present it in the light of what they think about the situation. That is not news. That is manipulation. And manipulating what we think is their common goal these days.

By 2005, when I came here, the media had charged my anger to a boiling over point, and the first thing God had me do when I was trying to recover my senses from being angry all the time was to STOP watching and reading the news. It was completely the right thing to do.

However, after a few years I became somewhat involved with the news again and came to a breaking point again. I had been limiting myself to news I selected to see on facebook, but the boiling over reared its ugly head again and I was striking out in ways not acceptable.

Therefore I have refused to watch or read the news and I have disconnected with the news on facebook. That is calming me down again and I am glad.

We will never be able to go back to the time when news was presented in a balance way and was about fact, rather than opinion. That is sad. But the times, they are a changing... (for those of you who have not heard it, there is a song in that line.) Our job is to not change with them; but to, rather, keep our feet on the ground and our eyes and ears alert to manipulation. We need to reword everything we hear and consider the possibilities of incorrectness in what is being told to us. Or, better yet, realize that if their lips are moving they are lying. :)

DO WE OR DO WE NOT

ACCEPT THAT GOD IS IN CONTROL? Musings of a confused mind.

But God – We wanted a well spoken, well mannered, presentable gentleman to be the next president of the U.S. How could you bring us down to these two choices? These two people who talk like they have lost their minds.

“1. Sing to the Lord a new song, for he has done marvelous things;” Psalm 98 NIV

What? You say that Obama was that?

4. “Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth,
burst into jubilant song with music;
5. make music to the Lord .” Psalm 98 NIV

But He did so much evil in his terms as President!

1. The Lord reigns, let the earth be glad;
let the distant shores rejoice. Psalm 97 NIV

10. Let those who love the Lord hate evil,... Psalm 97 NIV

10. God loves all who hate evil,... The Message

So why have you given us two evil people to chose from?

12. So, God’s people, shout praise to God,
Give thanks to our Holy God! The Message

What? That is for you to know? We are to trust what you are doing? We are to praise you for what is happening? We are to...

12. Rejoice in the Lord, you who are righteous, And praise his holy name. NIV

Almighty God, help us to do what you have given us the freedom to do and Vote. In Jesus Name, and for His Sake, Amen

PRAISE GOD WHO IS IN CONTROL

As the Republican Convention comes to a close, the reality of what we need to do is hitting home for me. As I tried to sort out consequences, I began reading again in the Psalms (the 90s) and once again realized that what we have to do, and must do, is trust God that He has plans for us in this election. And He has directions for us as well. He wants us to stand up and VOTE. Period.

He is in control of the nations! If we do not believe that then we are questioning His judgment and His plans. If we are conservative in our thinking, there is only one thing we can do and that is cast a vote against Hilary. If we do not stand up and vote against her, this Progressive, Socialist, Liberal government will continue to thrive in its effort to take us further and further down into the pit of accepting sinful behavior as a welcome way of life. It will bring us down financially through giving away our taxes and borrowed money to countries and people who are our enemies. It will eventually accomplish the project of destroying us altogether.

There will only be two choices at the top: Hilary or Trump. The flat out truth is that if we do not vote for Trump, we will be voting for Hilary. We must stand up to those who hate God as a general rule of life and vote for someone who at least does not hate God.

What we must do, unlike Cruz and former Presidents, is get together and stand up for a change of direction in our Government. A vote for Trump is a vote against Hilary and a vote FOR:

• Keeping and respecting the Constitution.
• Turning back to an economy based on Capitalism.
• Strengthening the “Protection of the people” through a strong and well supported military while bringing back “Law ans Order” within this country.
• A President who knows how to delegate responsibility and then listen to those appointed to keep him informed.

There are many more things that will be positive about Trump, especially if we respect his love of country (which Obama and Hilary have never had) and support him as the only candidate who can stop the downhill slide of this country into mindless destruction.

Don't vote your conscience, as Cruz said; vote your responsible conclusions which include that God is in control and has His plans for the future.

WISDOM IN FREEDOM

WISDOM IN FREEDOM

We have been celebrating FREEDOM this Memorial Day weekend and honoring those people who have given life or limb, or even mind, to help us keep that freedom. At the same time many of us have been considering how quickly freedom is being driven out of this country in favor of Progressive Political Correctness.

A mighty war has been going on in this country, in the political sector. The slashing and smashing has been bloody at times. There are people on both sides of the fence who are ecstatic and there are people who are crushed and dismayed at the outcome of the primary elections all over the country.

Right now we have a chance to breathe and to contemplate what we must do in the general election. At the beginning of this “war” of wits, I choose 5 out of the ridiculous number of candidates running, and I watched them closely. One by one, I discarded names until I was 100% behind the candidate that I wanted for President. It was not Trump. I have a reputation, in my own mind, for loosing my candidate before I even have a chance to vote. That is because of where I live and how late our primary election is. That system is antiquated and needs to be changed for sure. I do not mind loosing when I have at least had a chance to vote before the decision is counted as concluded. (Also, the same in the general election!)

However, since this is not the first time I have had to vote in the general election for a candidate who was not my choice, I am ready once again to vote for the candidate most likely to change the direction of the government from the way it has been going. I am ready to eliminate the party in charge and exchange it for a capitalistic government

So let's sit back and see what we can choose to do. (This is addressed to those who really are disgusted with how things stand now, and are extremely disappointed in the candidates who will probably be on our ballot as the only two people who can possibility win the election.)

Choice number one is to NOT vote at all.

Choice number two is to vote for your pet candidate; and, if they are not on the ballot, write them in.

Choice number three is to vote for the candidate most likely to change the direction of this country in some very important ways.

Perhaps you have another choice in mind; but the truth is there is only one wise choice.

We, in the United States of America, have been given the privilege to choose our leaders: a responsibility to pay attention and a responsibility to use that privilege and to vote.

All weekend we have celebrated freedom and we have been reminded that freedom is not free; it comes with a price. People, real people, died so that we could continue to VOTE and attempt to control our government. We have been giving those rights away. It is time to take those rights back.

No candidate will ever be exactly what you want, and no candidate will ever do only what you want. In the last 72 years I have learned that the hard way. Eventually, even the President I loved, but could not vote for, turned out to be a good President (though not with out controversy) but sadly a very immoral man. In those days they didn't ask and didn't tell. His predecessor made sure that I would never think of voting for that party ever again.

But, to get to the point, choices one and two will be very unwise choices: Why? Because both of those choices will be a choice made for the opposite party candidate! When you don't vote FOR something you do not proclaim your freedom. You dump it. You cast a vote for the opposition whenever you do not for vote for the side you say you are on.

Many people will say, “I need to protect my integrity (conscience) and not vote for this man.” In reality, you will be holding the latch and opening the door for the other contender to win: something very much like a boxer throwing the match because he did not throw his punch!!!

Yesterday, I watched the movie “Patton.” I was reminded that not being politically correct can be a major downfall. This man, who stormed threw wherever he was sent, and whipped the enemy heartily. He was a hero, but he was an embarrassment to the government, and he was demoted in duty and shut out of finishing the war that never ended.

The only patriotic and wise decision you can make is to vote! If nothing else, vote for getting back to a free economy through capitalism; that place where we vote with our dollars about who can survive and who cannot. That place where small businesses are helped, not strangled; that place where the people of this country can decide for ourselves what we buy and what we do not buy.

And don't just vote the current establishment out at the top; Vote them out at every level. and do it deliberately.

Keeping in mind that there are only three constitutional requirements for a President to meet - No Person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President; neither shall any Person be eligible to that Office who shall not have attained to the Age of thirty five Years, and been fourteen Years a Resident within the United States...

Calm down and think: you have 5 months to do it. Use this time wisely. Our country needs wise voting. Turn out and cast your ballot. Don't dump your right to vote! Have your say and be proud of it!