Election Day in America

Greetings All!

     Today is election day in America.  Therefore, I thought I would post some "thoughts" having to do with that topic.  It is 1:40 p.m. as I write.  I have not looked to see who is ahead or behind in the popular vote. All I know is that our church is a polling station and I have never seen such a heavy turnout in the 11 years I have been here -- the parking lot has been packed and the lines have been out the door since 7:00 a.m.

     Thus I offer you these thoughts in regard to our right and responsibility to vote.  We may feel our one vote won't make a difference, but it does.  The right to vote is itself a blessing many do not have.  And regardless of which side you stand on, be encouraged -- God is in control.

     Though Christ's "kingdom is not of this world," we still have the right and responsibility to vote for the people and issues that will affect, not only our immediate future, but set the stage for years to come. I trust you will take your privilege to do so seriously.  Enjoy.

     “Providence has given our people the choice of their rulers, and it is the duty, as well as privilege and interest of a Christian nation to select and prefer Christians for their rulers.”

William Penn, founder, Province of Pennsylvania

     “Let each citizen remember at the moment he is offering his vote…that he is executing one of the most solemn trusts in human society for which he is accountable to God and his country.”

Samuel Adams, Founding Father, United States of America

     "I urge you, then, first of all, that requests, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone -- for kings and all in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. This is good and pleases God our Savior, who wants all men to be saved and come to a knowledge of the truth." 

The Apostle Paul,   I Timothy 2:1-4

     “Let us never forget that government is ourselves and not an alien power over us.  The ultimate rulers of our democracy are not a President and senators and congressman and government officials, but the voters of this country.”

Martin Luther King, Jr., Minister and American Civil Rights Activist

     “When a citizen gives his suffrage (vote) to a man of known immorality he abuses his trust; he sacrifices not only his own interest, but that of his neighbor, he betrays the interest of his country.”

John Witherspoon, Presbyterian Minister and Founding Father of the United States of America

     “Always vote for principle, though you may vote alone, and you may cherish the sweetest reflection that your vote is never lost.” 

Abraham Lincoln, 16th President of the United States of America

     “Bad politicians are sent to Washington by good people who don’t vote.” 

Daniel Webster, US House Representative and Senator

     “If men of wisdom and knowledge, of moderation and temperance, of patience, fortitude and perseverance, of sobriety and true republican simplicity of manners, of zeal for the honor of the Supreme Being and the welfare of the commonwealth; if men possessed of these other excellent qualities are chosen to fill the seats of government, we may expect that our affairs will rest on a solid and permanent foundation.”

Noah Webster, Adviser to the Founding Fathers of the United States of America

     "Those who rule for the public benefit are true patterns and evidences of this beneficence of God, [but] they who rule unjustly and incompetently have been raised up by him to punish the wickedness of the people... we need not labor to prove that a wicked king is the Lord’s wrath upon the earth [Job 34:30, Hosea 13:11; Isaiah 3:4; 10:5; Deuteronomy 28:29]... Since a wicked prince is the Lord’s scourge to punish the sins of the people, let us remember, that it happens through our fault that this excellent blessing of God is turned into a curse."

John Calvin, Reformer and Theologian

     "The king’s heart is a stream of water in the hand of the LORD; he turns it wherever he wills."

King Solomon, Proverbs 21:1

     "God is sovereign, meaning He is ultimately in control of everything, including election results. No matter who is elected by human vote, God is also in control. It is not either/or, it's both/and. I came to this realization of biblical truth later in life. When I finally did, it brought great peace to know that while people do things, God is still in control. There is no situation where this is better described than in the issue of political leaders.  Romans 13:1 says, "Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. (ESV)"

Mark Alan Williams, Speaker and Church Leader

     I trust that regardless of your country of origin, or citizenship, you will avail yourself -- if it is your right -- to vote.

Take time to be well-informed. Don't go by hearsay.  Be wise. Let scripture inform your conscience, and then vote according to your biblically informed and God guided conscience. And if you cannot bring yourself, for various reasons, to vote for a person, vote the issues -- but do vote. It is a privilege and it does matter.

Blessings upon your choices this day, Pastor Jeff

A Song of Ascents - A Spiritual Autobiography

Greetings All,

This week's thought is really more of a personal testimony -- a fascinating testimony of one man's conversion -- that of E. Stanley Jones (1884-1973) the well-known missionary evangelist to India who concentrated on reaching the educated classes of India, before branching out (through books and conferences) into a world-wide ministry. The following account can be found in his autobiography: "A Song of Ascents - A Spiritual Autobiography."
          His conversion took place just before the turn of the 20th century (in 1899) and getting a theological education at Asbury Seminary he left for India to pursue his dream of taking Christ to the nations in 1907. His books, The Christ of the Indian Road,  Victorious Living,  Abundant Living,  The Unshakable Kingdom, and The Divine Yes (written one year before he died, and one year after a stroke at 88 years old) were all popular books.

     He was a pacifist, and an advocate for Indian Independence for English rule, as well as a close friend of Mahatma Gandhi.  He wrote a biography of Gandhi after his assassination, and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said it was the book which inspired him to non-violence in the civil rights movement. This is the story of his conversion.  It is amazingly insightful, and greatly inspiring, so I thought I would pass it on to you. Enjoy.

     "I am an ordinary man doing extraordinary things because I'm linked with the extraordinary.  But apart from this I am very ordinary... and worse. A woman put it this way: "Apart from the Holy Spirit, Brother Stanley would be a mess."  She was right.  But with the Holy Spirit I am not a mess, but a message. This is not boasting. This is witnessing to Another.  To say anything else would be a false humility which is concealed pride.

     How did it all begin?  My first remembered contact with religion was when, as a little boy, I went to the Sunday school at Frederick Avenue Methodist Church, South, in Baltimore, dressed in a brand new suit. To call attention to my new suit, and me, I took a collection plate and began to pass it around before the grown-ups standing chatting. I didn't hope to get any money.  I hoped to collect compliments for my new suit and incidentally, for myself.  Hardly an auspicious beginning with religion.  And yet, I had unwittingly run into the central problem in religion -- the problem of the self-assertive self.

       My second crisis contact with religion was when, about ten years later, at the age of fifteen, I was in the gallery of the Memorial Church, with a group of boys, mostly my chums. The speaker was an Englishman from John Bunyan's church in England. He was a man of God, and at the close of his address, he pointed his finger to where we were seated and said: "Young men, Jesus said, "He that is not with me is against me."  It went straight to my heart. I knew I wasn't with him, but I didn't want to be against him.  It shook me.  I turned to my chum and said: "I'm going to give myself to Christ. Will you?"  He replied: "No, I'm going to see life first." Then I saw I would have to go alone, and I did.

       I climbed over the altar, and took my place among the seekers.  I felt undone and wept -- wept because I was guilty and estranged.  I fumbled for a latchstring to the kingdom of God, and missed it, for they didn't tell me the steps to find it. I stood up at the close when they asked us if it was all right with us.  I wanted the Kingdom of God, wanted reconciliation with my heavenly Father, but took church membership as a substitute.

       My mother came into my room the next morning and silently kissed me before I got out of bed. Her son was a Christian. But I soon found out I wasn't.  I felt religious for a few weeks, and then it all faded out and I was back again to where I was before, the springs of my character and my habit formation unchanged. I had been horizontally converted, but not vertically.  I was outwardly in, but not inwardly in.  It was a sorry impasse.  I could have lived out my life on that level the balance of my days, a cancelled-out person, neither here nor there.

       But as I look back, I am not sorry I went through that half-conversion which was a whole failure.  For the fact that I got out of that failure was used to encourage those who have settled down into a compromised stalemate, dull, listless, and with no note of victory. They too can get into the real thing. So my failure could be used to help others to victory.

       The real thing came two years later. An evangelist, Robert J. Bateman, came to Memorial Church. Through his rough exterior I saw there was reality within.  He was a converted alcoholic, on fire with God's love.  I said to myself, "I want what he has."  This time I was dead serious.  I was not put off by catch phrases and slogans.  I wanted the real thing or nothing. No halfway house for me; I wanted my home.  For three days I sought. During those three days I went to the altar twice.

       One of those times my beloved teacher, Miss Nellie Logan, knelt alongside me and repeated John 3:16 this way: "God so loved Stanley Jones, that he gave his only begotten Son, that if Stanley Jones will believe on him, he shall not perish but have everlasting life."  I repeated after her but no spark of assurance kindled in my heart.

       The third night came. Before going to the meeting I knelt beside my bed and prayed the most earnest prayer I had prayed so far in my life. My whole life was behind that simple prayer: "O Jesus, save me tonight." And he did!  A ray of light pierced my darkness. Hope sprang up in my heart. I found myself saying, "He's going to do it."   I now believe he had done it, but I had been taught that you found him at the altar of prayer. So I felt I must go to church to an altar of prayer.

         I found myself running the mile to the church. The eagerness of my soul got into my body. I was like Christian (in Pilgrim's Progress) running from the City of Destruction to the Celestial City!  I went into the church and took the front seat, a thing I had never done before.  I was all eagerness for the evangelist to stop speaking so I could get to that altar of prayer.  When he did stop, I was the first one there!  I had scarcely bent my knees when Heaven broke into my spirit. I was enveloped by assurance, by acceptance, by reconciliation. I grabbed the man next to me by the shoulder and said: "I've got it."

       "Got it?"  What did I mean?  I see now it was not an "it," it was a him. I had him -- Jesus -- and he had me.  We had each other.  I belonged. My estrangement, my sense of being an orphan, were gone. I was reconciled. As I rose from my knees I felt I wanted to put my arms around the world and share this with everybody. Little did I dream at that moment that I would spend the rest of my life literally trying to put my arms around the world to share this with everybody. But I have. 

       This was a seed moment. The whole of my future was packed into it. Crude? No, creative. Emotional? It took an emotional upheaval to carry me across from a self-preoccupied life to a Christ-preoccupied life. The center of my being was changed from self to Savior.  I didn't try by an act of my will to give up my sins -- they were gone. I looked into his face and was forever spoiled for anything that was unlike Him. The whole of me was converted. There was nothing the same except the name. It was the birthday of my soul. Life began there... He put a song in my heart, for I now had something to sing about. Many undertones and overtones have enriched that Song, but there I caught the standard note -- "Jesus" -- a Savior from what I didn't want to be to what I wanted to be... From the day I was given that "note" to this day, sixty-six years later, I have been sounding that "note" through all the world. And I hope my last gasp will be, "I commend my Savior to you.""

       What else needs to be said? Nothing!

With Prayers for Christ's Richest Blessings on your Life,  Pastor Jeff

  

Quotes About Voting

Greetings All,

     Today is election day in Pennsylvania, and in our particular town they use our church as the voting site. It went as it does every election day (national or local).  As I walked from my car to the building to come to "work," I was stopped in the parking lot 4 times by different smiling individuals telling me the pro's of their candidate and trying to sway my vote before I got to the polling both.

     "Sorry," I said with a smile in return, "I'm just coming to work."  Once I said that I realized their enthusiastic interest in me was very short-lived!  It didn't offend me.  It's understandable. After all, there were other people walking in at the same time and they didn't want to miss the chance to sway them before they got to the voting booths too.

         Why the push?  Because we know life is about choices, and those choices lead to change (be it good or bad).  People know it. The Bible teaches that -- through the providence of a sovereign God our choices are used by Him to mold and form the future as He chooses to guide and direct it. That's why much time, and effort, and money goes into seeking to sway people's beliefs and opinions.

      Some persuasive methods are more overt and some are more subtle, but we are all constantly being "persuaded" to think or believe in one way as opposed to another.  Be it through politics, education, Hollywood, or religion -- through movies, commercials, editorials in the newspapers, billboards, Twitter, Facebook posts, the way news-worthy events are reported (with approving or non-approving glances), or what's actually considered important enough to report as opposed to what's left out -- there are very few people who don't seek to sway the opinions of others in some way. It's not wrong, it's just part of life!

           So for today I thought I would offer you some quotes that have to do with voting.  I am not sure if each person quoted lived up to the values they set forth, but I did think each quote was itself worth considering.  I prefer to keep politics out of the church, and have sought to keep it out of the pulpit. But as a reality of life in this country, and other countries, Christian's do need guidance on how to carry out their involvement. I hope these quotes give you some food for thought as you vote in accord with what your God-guided conscience allows.  Enjoy.

“I met those of our society who had votes in the ensuing election, and advised them
1. To vote, without fee or reward, for the person they judged most worthy
2. To speak no evil of the person they voted against, and
3. To take care their spirits were not sharpened against those that voted on the other side.”

John Wesley, 1703-1791  (Founder of the Methodist Denomination) 

"Let each citizen remember at the moment he is offering his vote… he is executing one of the most solemn trusts in human society for which he is accountable to God and his country." 

Samuel Adams, 1722-1803

"Providence has given our people the choice of their rulers, and it is the duty, as well as privilege and interest of a Christian nation to select and prefer Christians for their rulers." 

John Jay, 1745-1829 (First Chief Justice of the U.S. 

Supreme Court)

"When you become entitled to exercise the right of voting for public officers, let it be impressed on your mind that God commands you to choose for rulers, “just men who will rule in the fear of God.”  The preservation of government depends on the faithful discharge of this duty."

Noah Webster, 1758-1843 (Author of Webster’s Dictionary)

"Now more than ever the people are responsible for the character of their Congress. If that body be ignorant, reckless, and corrupt, it is because the people tolerate ignorance, recklessness, and corruption. If it be intelligent, brave, and pure, it is because the people demand these high qualities to represent them in the national legislature."

James Garfield, 1831-1881 (20th President of the United States)

"When the righteous rule, the people rejoice; when the wicked rule, the people groan." 

William Paterson, 1745-1806  (Signer of the Constitution, and Supreme Court Justice quoting, Proverbs 29:2)

"Voting at elections is one of the most important rights of the subject." 

Alexander Hamilton, 1757-1804  (Author of The Federalist Papers, Secretary of the Treasury)

"It will be conceded that a Christian’s first duty is to God. It then follows, as a matter of course, that it is his duty to carry his Christian code of morals to the polls and vote them … If Christians would vote their duty to God at the polls, they would carry every election, and do it with ease …  If the Christians of America could be persuaded to vote God and a clean ticket, it would bring about a moral revolution that would be incalculably beneficent. It would save the country."

Mark Twain, 1835-1910 (Colliers magazine, September 2, 1904)

"Nobody will ever deprive the American people of the right to vote except the American people themselves—and the only way they could do this is by not voting." 

Franklin D. Roosevelt, 1882-1945 (32nd President of the United States)

"[S]ecularists are wrong when they ask believers to leave their religion at the door before entering into the public square. Frederick Douglass, Abraham Lincoln, William Jennings Bryan, Dorothy Day, Martin Luther King—indeed, the majority of great reformers in American history—were not only motivated by faith, but repeatedly used religious language to argue for their cause.  So to say that men and women should not inject their "personal morality" into public policy debates is a practical absurdity. Our law is by definition a codification of morality, much of it grounded in Judeo-Christian tradition." 

Barack Obama (44th President of the United States,  "Call to Renewal Keynote Address," Call to Renewal Conference on Building a Covenant for a New America, June 28, 2006)

"Proclaim liberty throughout all the land to all its inhabitants.”

Partial quote of Leviticus 25:10 inscribed on the Liberty Bell in Philadelphia

"Therefore I exhort first of all that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men, for kings and all who are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence."

I Timothy 2:1-2

“He who rules over men must be just, ruling in the fear of God.”

II Samuel 23:3

“Choose wise, understanding, and knowledgeable men from among your tribes, and I will make them heads over you.”

Deuteronomy 1:13

As I said, food for thought.   In His Service, Pastor Jeff

Words of Wisdom

Greetings All,

     This week's "thought" is comprised of many short but wise quotes. I have been preaching on the topic of wisdom from the book of Proverbs, and the following quotes follow that same format of short, wise, insightful proverbs. I offer you many in the hope that a few will hit home and give you food for further thought. Enjoy!

“God loves each of us as if there were only one of us.” St. Augustine

“He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep, to gain what he cannot lose.” Jim Elliot

“The will of God will not take us where the grace of God cannot sustain us.”  Billy Graham

“Employ whatever God has entrusted you with, in doing good, all possible good, in every possible kind and degree… Do all the good you can, by all the means you can, in all the ways you can, in all the places you can, at all the times you can, to all the people you can, as long as ever you can.”   John Wesley

"Faith is a living and unshakable confidence -- a belief in God so assured that a man would die a thousand deaths for its sake.”  Martin Luther

“Faith is taking the first step even when you can’t see the whole staircase.”  Martin Luther King Jr.

“God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him.”  John Piper

“Faith does not eliminate questions, but faith knows where to take them.”  Elisabeth Elliot

“We may speak about heaven as a place where there are no tears, no death, no fear, no night; but those are just the benefits of heaven. The beauty of heaven is seeing God.”  Max Lucado

“A woman’s heart should be so hidden in God that a man has to seek Him just to find her.”   Max Lucado

“Jesus said, “Love…as I have loved you.”  We can never love too much.”   Amy Carmichael

“The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.”   Martin Luther King Jr.

“Worry does not empty tomorrow of its sorrows; it empties today of its strength.”  Corrie Ten Boom

“The Christian life is not a constant high. I have my moments of deep discouragement. I have to go to God in prayer with tears in my eyes, and say, ‘O God, forgive me,’ or ‘Help me.’”  Billy Graham

“Aim at heaven and you will get earth thrown in. Aim at earth and you get neither.”  C. S. Lewis

"Live your life as if you were someone else's only role model. Live your life so that all you want your children to be they see in you."   Anonymous

"Strength and struggle go together, The supreme reward of struggle is strength. Life is a battle and the greatest joy is to overcome. The pursuit of easy things make men weak. It is following the paths of least resistance that make both rivers and men crooked."   Paul Parlette

I trust at least one of them was helpful. Have a blessed week. In His Service, Pastor Jeff