DISAPPOINTING TIMES FOR ME

The final count is not in as I write this, but I am very disappointed with what looks like the inevitable outcome of the election. I think that a large majority of people did not really know what they were voting for. They were just mesmerized by a smooth talking politician.

God doesn't always answer our prayers the way we want him to. He looks ahead at the big picture that we can't see. We know by reading the Bible, that many times he lets his people be defeated and even taken into captivity because of their actions and their attitude toward him and his laws.

One of the things that comes to my mind is that I have to be reminded that our time on earth is temporary and Jesus said that his kingdom is not of this world. I don't know what is ahead for America. I just pray that the liberal left will not be allowed to take more of our religious liberties from us. They have already taken God out of our schools to the detriment to our students and our country. Abortion is allowed and approved by our government. I'm not sure we can expect God to bless us as a nation any longer.

I like what Edward Fudge wrote in an e-mail that just came in a few minutes ago. He writes a daily column that he calls gracEmail. Here is a quote from him:

We live during an interim on God's calendar, a defined but unknown period of time that began with a significant event and that will end when Jesus comes again. This is the period of God's conquests, which began when Jesus was enthroned at God's right hand in heaven and will continue until the last enemy, death, has been destroyed (Psalm 110:1). It is simultaneously the period of heaven's reception of Jesus, which will end with the redemptive restoration of all things spoken by the ancient prophets (Acts 3:20-21). In both respects, we live between the Already and the Not Yet.

Because the exact time of the End is unknown, we fully engage the world in which we live. But because the End can arrive any day, we hold all earthly things lightly rather than tightly. Paul once expressed it like this: "This is what I mean, brothers: the appointed time has grown very short. From now on, let those who have wives live as though they had none, and those who mourn as though they were not mourning, and those who rejoice as though they were not rejoicing, and those who buy as though they had no goods, and those who deal with the world as though they had no dealings with it. For the present form of this world is passing away" (1 Cor. 7:29-31, ESV).

God calls us out of the world to go back into the world for the sake of the world. We believers are God's salt-and-light brigade, not his society of separated hermits. But we are like firefighters in the station house -- sleeping, working, eating, yet ready every moment to respond immediately to the call. This does not mean that we live inauthentic lives, merely going through the motions with our minds and hearts elsewhere. It does mean that every earthly circumstance, relationship and event is transitory, and that we keep that in mind lest we become so attached to anything that leaving it when the time comes causes unbearable pain. Nothing here is permanent. Nothing now is ultimate. Yet, for God's sake, every occasion is significant and ever person is important. You can click HERE to go to Edward Fudge's website.

I wish every person in America had seen the video below before they voted. It might have made some stop and think instead of blindly following their "new messiah". We need to pray for our country like we've never prayed before.