My Mind’s Musings

Well, the election is over, and I for one am glad.  I was getting so tired of seeing 10-15 different political advertisements every time I turned on the television or listened to the radio.  I have become pretty jaded with any and all politicians in the past couple of years, but I still had to vote for who would best represent my conservative social and fiscal views.  The Republicans have not done this well recently, but they still give more lip service to conservatism than Democrats so with the exception of one state office, they received my vote.

While I did cast my vote for Republicans, it is very obvious that the majority of people in the USA wanted change.  It seems to me that most have become jaded with the war in Iraq.  I am still one of those people who thinks that the war in Iraq is keeping terrorism from rearing its head again here for the present, but I can see how many people would not want to keep hearing the bad news that seems to come weekly from Iraq.  No matter what your view of why or how we got there, the fact is we are there and need to finish the job.  It also looked to me like many of the Republicans who were defeated were those of the more liberal persuasion anyway and were simply RINO Republicans.  I would rather have a minority party of true conservatives than a majority party that is so big tent, it becomes the party of big government.  I think when it all comes down to it, people don’t see any difference in the two parties, and what was really interesting was one exit poll I saw (I don’t remember where) that showed that by an 11% majority, voters believed that the Republicans were the party of big government.  In many ways they have become that, which is why when it is all said and done, they may not have deserved to win and I won’t shed any tears over their loss.

To wrap it all up though, no matter why or how the election results happened, God ordained the results.  As a follower of Jesus Christ, it really doesn’t matter to me whether Democrats or Republicans are in place, because I know that for good or bad, God has placed them there.  He is ultimately in control, and politicians are not the ones who will determine our nation’s future.  Our job as believers is to follow God and live our lives to spread his gospel to others – everything else including politics is far below that priority.  Too many Christians have forgotten that God doesn’t command us to make Republicans or Democrats, but He tells us to make Disciples of Jesus Christ.  This is my focus, no matter who is in Washington.

Two good articles on the election that I read today are linked here.

Russ Moore talks about the importance of praying for our leaders no matter who they are.

My favorite talk show host, Ralph Bristol, has a great commentary as well. (Look at November 9th daily dispatch if it doesn’t come up)

I’ve been gone a while, because I have been extremely busy lately.  I will talk about some of what is going on in a later post.  I have been wanting to formulate my thoughts on the Middle East situation for some time now.

There are two dimensions to this conflict in my mind. The first dimension is political.  Israel is a sovereign country, and the only truly democratic state in the Middle East.  It sits surrounded by states that literally would love to see it bombed out of existence and every Jew killed.  Israel is also a very strong country militarily for its size.  Every man and woman citizen is required to perform a period of national service in the military, and it can mobilize its citizens and reserves to form a military force of millions.  Considering its location this is very wise.  Its current situation is that it gave up much land to the Palestinians in exchange for peace, and then had that thrown back in its face when Hamas came to power.  In Lebanon, the Lebanese government has failed to enforce UN resolutions that require them to disarm the Hezbollah rebels along the border with Israel.  Lebanon has allowed Hezbollah to be a continuing presence in its political structure, and does not have the military strength to defeat their militia units.  Hezbollah has launched an unprovoked attack on Israel and Israel is taking the correct and necessary actions to push them as far away as necessary to keep them out of Israel and to force them to give back the kidnapped soldiers.  I could only hope that if Canada had a similar terrorist organization that it knowingly allowed to operate within its borders and that terrorist organization attacked us, the U.S. would take the exact same actions.  I feel for the civilians non-combatants who get killed in these combat situations, but in this case military force is the only feasible action for accomplishing the political objectives.  Those objectives being safe borders for Israel, and destruction of Hezbollah.  Israel is right, no matter what the majority of the world thinks.

There is another aspect to this conflict, though.  It is a theological one.  In Matthew 24:6, we are told that a sure sign of the end times is “wars and rumors of wars.”  Along with that when you read Daniel and Revelation you get a picture that much conflict in the last days will be centered around the Middle East.  I am not one of those people that try to figure out a date when Christ will come back.  I don’t even care, at this point, to define myself by a title such as pre-trib, mid-trib, post-trib etc.(although I am a Millenialist), but I do fully believe that the scripture gives and accurate picture of the end times.  I do believe that everything we are seeing is leading up to Christ’s return.  Will it be tomorrow or 100 years from now?  I don’t know and the Bible says that only God the Father knows that.  I do, however, know that Matthew 24:6 ends by telling us, “see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come.”  Therefore, I am to pray for God to have his sovereign rule over this and every situation, but I do not have to worry about it.  Ultimately God will have His sovereign plan come to fruition, and I will follow whatever small part God has for me to play within that plan.

Sh’ma Yisrael Adonai Elohaynu Adonai Echad.
Hear, Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord is One!