Tag Archives: Election Results

“In Such a Time as This…”

Let’s Begin With a Comment

A reader named Stephen decided to throw in his two cents in response to a recent post called “He Will Be My President.” Before we go any further, I’d like to share it with you.

Talk is cheap and you got a website dedicated to it.
I get the feeling it won’t take long for the hypocrite in you to come out, but you’ll justify yourself in your hypocrisy. It’s what religious people do.
Reeds in the wind, flailing about trying hard to show the world just how saved you are.
Keep working at it, your salvation is near.

If you would like to read my follow-up to Mr. Stephen’s comment, you can go to the comment section of that post. For now, I want to direct you to the video below.

A 3-Pointer

It’s not that often I preach a classic three-point sermon, but this is one I would ask you watch. The subject of the sermon this past Sunday morning was how to move forward in “such a time as this.”

I would love to hear your thoughts and comments, even if they are like the one above.

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Filed under America, Bethlehem Baptist Church, Christian Living, Christian Unity, Christianity, current events, voting

He Will Be “My President”

Let’s take a trip down memory lane – it’s four years long.

Source: Politico
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Source: eBay
Source: Ruptly
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Source: Capital Gazette

However, REGARDLESS who is finally confirmed as President when this whole debacle of over, He will be . . . MY PRESIDENT!

And because he will be my President, I will do what I’ve been commanded to do by an even higher Authority:

I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, [and] giving of thanks, be made for all men; For kings, and [for] all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty. For this [is] good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour; Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth. – 1 Timothy 2:1-4 KJV

This is what I teach and preach, and this is what I will practice. I will NOT be a hypocrite; I will do exactly what I implore the rest of the country to do, nothing less.

It doesn’t mean I have to agree with him, like him, support his policies, or remain silent. However, when he walks in the room he will be my President. When he addresses my country, he will be my President. When he makes foreign policy or takes the stage on foreign soil, he will be MY President, for there will be no other at that time.

If he’s gonna be my President, then I’m going to pray that he performs his duties with honor and integrity; that he will be surrounded by wise, godly counsel; and that he will not be influenced by the interest of those who would destroy our republic and steal our freedom.

At the same time, however, I will not refrain from preaching truth: that sin is sin, that God is God, and that though we pray for him, our final Authority was never elected and will never cede His throne.

Now, more than ever, the Church must be the Church.

Bonus: Please click on the link below and listen to the brand new release from As Isaac. I’ve never heard a song that was more timely than this one.

https://bandcamp.com/EmbeddedPlayer/track=2320338003/size=large/bgcol=ffffff/linkcol=0687f5/tracklist=false/transparent=true/

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Filed under America, current events, politics, Prayer

For Such a Time As This

As I woke this morning, names started coming to mind.

I would like to share them with you.

Of the following names, try to think what is common among them all.

Deitrich Bonhoffer
Jim Elliot
Joseph (the one with the coat of many colors)
Brother Andrew
Cory Ten Boom
Harriet Tubman
Frederick Douglass
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Casey Jones (the railroad engineer)
Todd Beamer (flight 93)
Abraham Lincoln
William Wilberforce (member of Parliament)
Sir Winston Churchill
Horatio G. Spafford (It Is Well With My Soul)
Rosa Parks
William Wallace
Davy Crockett, Jim Bowie, Col. William Travis
Oskar Schindler
Moses
Esther

If you haven’t figured it out, there may be other similarities, but all of these names have at least one thing in common: You would have never known them had it not been for their moments of adversity, the challenges forced on them, or the stands they took in the face of injustice.

Consider the words of Mordecai to a fearful and hesitant Esther:

Mordecai sent this reply to Esther: “Don’t think for a moment that because you’re in the palace you will escape when all other Jews are killed. If you keep quiet at a time like this, deliverance and relief for the Jews will arise from some other place, but you and your relatives will die. Who knows if perhaps you were made queen for just such a time as this?” – Esther 4:13-14 NLT

Dear friends, whatever the future of this country, God has us here “for just such a time as this.”

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Filed under America, Church, current events, History, politics, Struggles and Trials

Now What? (My Post-Election Thoughts)

It’s Over!

For practically a year and a half our nation has been focused on November 8th. First there was all the primary drama. Could Hillary hold off Bernie? Could 16 Republicans ever produce a candidate? From the very beginning it was clear this was going to be an election like no other.

Then came the general election campaign. Talk about twists and turns! To begin with, who would have thought we’d end up with two candidates so fatally flawed? How did either survive as long as they did with all the scandals each had to endure? Totally amazing.

But it’s over, now, praise the Lord! No more media spin; no more celebrities getting naked or offering sexual favors in return for voting for Hillary; no more talk of swing states and the electoral college; and no more talk of things that divide us.

Sorry, I was kidding about that last part.

What Is NOT Over

Sure, the election cycle is over for now, and Donald Trump will be the 45th President of the United States. However, some of the very things that divided this nation during the election will still be sources of discontent in the future.

  • Immigration. Just this morning on my school bus I literally heard African-American teens talking with each other about their fear of being sent back to Africa. One of them said, “Well, if they don’t send us back, they’ll make us wanna go.” If blacks are talking about being sent back to Africa (which is ludicrous), imagine the what many Hispanics are discussing this morning!
  • Nationalism. Many are afraid of America becoming another Nazi Germany. Personally, I believe their fears have little basis in reality. However, there are certainly some who believe America should no longer be a “shining city on a hill.” They want America to cede her strength and position in the world to international authority. Because of this, tension between proud patriots and liberal leftists will remain high.
  • Gender revolution. The LGBTQetc community has enjoyed nearly 8 years of un-restrained success in pushing through their agenda of social change. Now that they’ve had their way for so long, how will a Republican White House, Senate, and Congress now secure the rights of Christian businesses and such without suffering the rainbow wrath?
  • Entitlements. If our national debt is ever going to be addressed, rampant entitlement spending must be brought under scrutiny. But, just like I heard four years ago on my school bus, I heard it again today, just about a different Republican, “He’s gonna take our food stamps away!” Well, if you don’t really need them, and if you’re just selling them, then they should be taken away. However, nobody wants to starve anyone, people! But continue that lie and there will always be tension.
  • Health Care. President Obama’s Affordable Health Care Act has been anything but, yet how do we now completely repeal something that completely destroyed everything, and now has so many low-income unhealthy hooked? One way or another, this is going to be a big struggle in the coming months.

Moving Forward

As I see it, this election has done two things: it has proved one thing, and offered another.

First, it has proven that an overwhelming amount of Americans are tired of corrupt government and want someone to do something about it.

The main reason Trump was elected – in my estimation – is that the majority of our people were tired of government going against the will of the people, never acknowledging it is WE who elected them, and it was time for an outsider to flush the system.

To be clear, our system of government does work, it’s just been clogged up and getting worse for a long while. There should be no “political class,” only elected Americans serving other Americans like our founding fathers intended. Trump was elected to get things “flowing” again.

Second, this election has offered the American church a reprieve, a short breather, a small window of opportunity in which to prepare for what will inevitably come in the future.

What concerned many in this country such as myself was the clear and present danger that Hillary Clinton posed toward our freedom of religion. Others have scoffed at my concerns, but they chose to ignore (or interpret differently) the overwhelming evidence of precedent. Looking at the way things have “progressed” in America over the last 8 years, it was easy to see the policy track a Clinton administration would take. In my estimation it would have taken only 5 short years until thousands of churches would have been forced to close their doors due to gender laws, and many pastors would have been forced to either curb their speech, or face fines or jail time. All I did was look at the natural progression of things.

But because Clinton was not elected, the American churches have been given an opportunity to start making adjustments: one example would be preparing for our tax-exempt status being removed. Let’s be honest, barring another great spiritual awakening in this country, the time will come when another president is elected who will find it politically expedient to punish a segment of society that refuses to accept and affirm the gender-bending, sexually-immoral agenda of many on the left. Like Joseph of old, we should be preparing now for the famine to come.

Keep Praying

Some of you made it very clear you were praying before this election. Well, whether you voted for Trump, or not, now is NOT the time to stop praying!

President Elect Trump is not a perfect man, as we know. So, pray that God will make him humble and dependent upon Him. Pray that he will select wise and godly counsel to surround him as he’s forced to make decisions that will affect us all, even the world.

Pray that civility will be restored to this broken and fractured nation.

But above all, pray Psalm 9:20… “Put them in fear, O LORD: that the nations may know themselves to be but men.”

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Filed under America, politics, the future, wisdom