Voting- Humility Lost

*Again I must open with a warning, I am going to write about politics, and I am going to do it based on what should be guiding our thought life and what should be guiding our actions…Gods word. I did so 4 years ago here and really nothing has changed.

“Seek the LORD, all you meek of the earth, 

Who have upheld His justice.

Seek righteousness, seek humility.” -Zephaniah 2:3

Humility lost

Your word O Lord be ever present, in thought, in deed to the very depths of me.

You shall not give your glory to another, and it is You who have called us to righteousness. Holy because You are holy. 

Forgive us of pride, for it is pride that keeps us out of truth and out of righteousness. To You be the glory alone, and let us be humbled in Your sight.

Politics and religion, two dirty words nobody likes to bring up in conversation because they are opinionated subjects. Here is the thing though, I am a very black and white person, I am a person that doesn't normally speak or write for the sake of an “opinion” I speak/write in truth. Truth is not something that is relative, truth is not an opinion it is either true or it isn’t, and I get that statement is hard to understand in this generation of “What is true for you, is not necessarily true for someone else” but honestly..I don't care what you think…I care about what the truth is.

Let me get some things out of the way right off the bat: 

1. I am not Mr. Political activist, I don’t claim to have all the answers, or to know all the ins and outs of how the political system works.
2. I am not a conspiracy theorist and I don’t think the world is going to end depending on who you vote for. 
3. I am not a loyal Republican or Democrat
4. I am not Mr. Patriotic wave a flag and put the country above biblical standards.
5. I don’t believe this nation is a Christian nation(it hasn’t been in a long time)

I am just your regular common sense view point who loves God and is committed to actually living like it. I looked back at what I wrote on this blog 4 years ago, and I just couldn’t believe how things have become even worse. Where is our humility? I speak to you Christian, where is your humility? I get the world is crazy, and I get the world has its ideals and they are contrary to ours, but why have so many bible believing people become so much like the world? I am appalled at how many believers have rallied behind Donald Trump…

“Woe to the rebellious children,” Says the LORD, “Who take counsel, but not of Me, and who devise plans, but not of my Spirit,” Isaiah 30:5

For all those that hold to the belief that the founding fathers of this country were sincere believers and founded this nation based on Christian principles…what would they think of Trump? MORE importantly what does Your savior think? What does God think? If you actually want Trump to be president of this country you have to do these three things;

1. You have to ignore biblical standards for leadership
2. You have to take God completely out of Politics
3. You have to ignore his lack of humility 

Many people, believers included, think the first 2 points don’t matter anyways. Who cares about biblical standards for leadership, and politics has nothing to do with God…right? I mean we are not voting for a pastor.

I have heard that statement “We are not voting for a pastor” more times than I can count this year. They are certainly right though, we are not voting for a pastor, we are voting for somebody who has the freaking authority to lead our country!! By that statement, you are saying that God doesn’t matter…that somebody who holds the power of leading a country doesn’t need God to do it. Isn’t it ironic, Christians will tell everyone that God is needed, that we need to hold to His word for guidance and direction in every aspect of life…but just not the political aspect? God isn’t needed or welcomed there is HE? 

Don’t get me wrong, I am not saying the leader of our country has to be the perfect christian, because there is no such thing. What I am saying, is we shouldn’t throw God out of politics, we shouldn’t treat them like separate issues, because if we honestly believe and claim to follow God, than that means we do that in every aspect of life….in marriage, in friendships, in how we speak, how we act, how we serve, how we do work, and how we lead. If God is our top priority our devotion, that would mean the principles and standards He sets would be something we adore and seek after. We have the privilege to be able to vote for our leader, other Christians do not have that choice, and while generally speaking you are not going to agree with everything a candidate believes or stands behind and you are not going to always have the choice of voting for a believer. We should be seeking Godly character traits, or at the very least a leader with humility and honesty, someone who puts others above themselves, that is the mark of a true leader.

So while we are not voting for a pastor, we are voting for someone who is leading our country, and we should seek to vote without throwing God out of politics like He doesn’t belong.

The Christians that are voting for Trump, will vote for him because they will ignore his lack of humility, and they will ignore his lack of God. They will make the excuse its voting for the lesser of two evils…

I covered the myth that is “Voting for the lesser of two evils” 4 years ago, again what does God think of evil? Does He consider lesser of evils? Evil is evil any way you slice it, that statement is a statement of fear too. For far too long people have ridden that train to the ground, the fear that you must vote R to keep D out of office or visa versa. 

Why have we become a country without humility? Believers are to be the example of this, we are called to show that we have ultimate reliance upon GOD.

For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted. Matthew 23:12

If we don’t live according to His word in every aspect of our life, then what are we even living for? What is our purpose? 

Our life is supposed to be transformed and renewed in Christ, How can one who holds to Christ support Donald Trump? I am not even speaking upon his lack of belief in God, I am speaking about his total character is the complete opposite of what we are called to be, how can you support that? Now, you may be asking yourself; “Why am I just ragging on Trump”..because he has the evangelical vote…and I see more Christian support for him than I do Hillary. So back to the “Christian chosen one”…

Christ tells us in John 7:24 “Do not judge according to appearance, but judge with righteous judgment.” And we are suppose to judge the fruit, identify false hood by their fruit Matthew 7:16 “You will know them by their fruits. Grapes are not gathered from thorn bushes, nor figs from thistles, are they? Even so, every good tree bears good fruit; but the bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot produce bad fruit, nor can a bad tree produce good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. So then, you will know them by their fruits.” 

This is directly at those who would say “You cant judge Donald Trump” first of all, you are making a judgement about him in voting for him, and second I can judge him, in fact infant-Christian…we are called to judge by the fruit. Donald Trump claims to be a believer and will flat out lie about it and that doesn’t bother any of you, why? because he’s a good business man? he's a freaking con artist….a snake oil salesman who will say whatever you want to hear. It would be fine if Donald Trump were honest about his belief in God, and had a little humility, just a freaking ounce of humility and ability to lead. However, not only is he not a believer he is a flat out liar about it. He claims to be Christian, and yet has never asked forgiveness from God because he doesn't need to. Yeah, that is who I want to lead my country..a person who thinks He is not accountable to God for ANYTHING he does.

Those who vote Donald Trump again either reject the need for God in politics, don't care about biblical standards for leadership or are completely naive. I guess Paul Washer was right about Christianity in America…it is not Gospel hardened it is gospel ignorant.  We completely throw God out of this country, don’t care if our leadership is accountable to Him, and we wonder why this country is totally backwards and is lacking in humility. 

Trump is not the answer for this countries ills, Repentance and GOD is the answer, Trump is not going to fix this country, if elected he will be the punishment of this country that it deserves. Trump is mentally disturbed and self centered, to the point that I honestly believe he has a narcissistic disorder. I understand the popularity of Trump, amongst the worldly, I don’t understand it for the Godly.  

I know God is in control, I believe in Divine Providence; God the good Creator of all things, in His infinite power and wisdom doth uphold, direct, dispose, and govern all creatures and things. 

I will honor who ever receives the position, because Gods word says I have to, but I wont vote for Trump nor will I vote for Hillary, because I can not do so in good conscience ….because neither of them are fit to run this country, and neither stand by principles that I respect.

We need humility as believers, we need to humble ourselves before GOD, we need to submit our worries, our stresses, our fears, our vote to HIM. God is our ultimate authority not man. I will be voting third party again, and there are plenty of options. Voting third party is not a wasted vote, and it is a vote that goes against both parties because both parties are corrupt…

I am not  for someone who should be in Prison(Hillary) and I am not for someone who should be in a mental institution(Trump).

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

When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice; But when a wicked man rules, the people groan. 

Proverbs 29:2

“If My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.” 

2 Chronicles 7:14

Word Of Faith(What Jesus would say..)

You'd rather argue semantics till you're blue in the face

then surrender to ME, and walk in the light.

You're all about your choice, and power in your words

BUT...

I am the author…the finisher(Hebrews 12:2)

King of Kings, Lord of LORDS(Revelations 19:16)

I reign on a throne that no man could hold, (Hebrews 1:8)

worth more than anything ever created

every human,animal, planet and star…

all bow to my very existence.

I am alpha Omega(Revelations 22:13)

Holy and infinite, beyond understanding. (Isaiah 55:8)

I am spotless,blameless, sinless perfection(2 Corinthians 5:21)

righteous above all comprehension.

Only doing the Fathers will, (John 4:34)

His plan that was laid out before all of creation.

I was beaten,scarred…scourged,mocked and  put on a roman cross(Isaiah 53:5)

took every sin from beginning to end…

I was poured out wine and broken bread..(Luke 22:19)

it pleased the Father to crush the Son(Isaiah 53:10)

Yet I am not First? somehow it's become about your choice?

as if this was your plan, and not HIS…

Did you have a choice in choosing how you would be saved from sin?

Or was I chosen and crushed before you even knew what sin was?

You clamor and fight over your freedom of will

When the only choice you freely make is to fail…. 

I tell you... He who looks to save his life will  lose it,

He who loses his life will preserve it.(Luke 17:33)

You want to follow? then pick up your cross…(Luke 9:23)

prepare yourself for death of the flesh

instead of your "Word of Faith" -selfishness.

You pray for Gods will, but only want it if it matches your own!

You didn't speak saving grace into existence,

didn't save yourself from sin

It was given without your permission.

Patience in Faith

"By your patience possess your souls."

Luke 21:19

By patience in your faith, by repentance…take heed,

let not your faith crumble do not worry or tarry

for the gift of salvation is yours.

Lay your burdens to rest, at ease with all things in life,

Our Father creator of the Universe is in control. Patience

brothers/sisters, onward Christian soldier in your walk

with our Lord and savior. Again patience…by faith you walk,

and by faith in the one true God you stand, do not let

the cares of YOUR life affect your walk, In this world

with it's distractions, it's easy to forget what is important,

it's easy to worry and stress and even become diluted

in self grandeur. This life of self is what our culture thrives on…

self-improvement

self-importance

self-Idolatry

Which is why there is so much

worry/stress

un-fulfilment

depression

suicide

A generation with immoral values because we don't live

accountable to anyone, and we live for our pleasure, our glory,

all for our satisfaction. We are our own man centered philosophy,

and we measure ourselves by our ideals NOT by the creator

of the universe, not by God who gave us life in the first place.

God didn't create you to get pleasure out of yourself, He created you to glorify Him, created you for His own pleasure and will..NOT yours.

Looking to SELF, no matter how much you want to, you'll never

find perfection or God, because simply put only God is perfection. There is only one GOD, and you can have an actual relationship with Him and one day be in His very presence because of Jesus Christ taking the wrath we deserve.

So why do we constantly look at OUR happiness? and OUR

pleasure and OUR will and NOT God's? I'm not even talking about the spiritually blind, I'm talking about those who claim

to know Christ, and yet have no patience in their walk…

have no patience in the faith and live exactly like the spiritually

blind world does..

self-improvement

self-importance

self-Idolatry

Where is God's glory? when is He magnified and glorified?

When is He put first when you are worrying

more about getting pleasure out of this world? When you are worrying about fulfilling the American dream rather then Gods plan for your life.

How is God put first when you care more about trivial

worldly blessing then you do HONORING Him.

When is God put first when you know more about Hollywood

gossip and a television show then you do His Word.

Even more true, How is He glorified by you just knowing

the word? Christ said "Follow"…He said "Do"…not

"Think about"…"just believe"

We all need to get our priorities straight, Honor God and give Him glory, surrender your will and stop worrying and stressing

over things, have patience and FAITH that God is in control.

Seek to glorify God NOT yourself, not for salvation because that

isn't earned it is and was given by the grace of God, and knowing this we surrender and give honor to Him seeking for His will to be done.

But also for this very reason, giving all diligence,

add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge,

to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness,to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love.

For if these things are yours and abound, [you] will be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

For he who lacks these things is shortsighted, even to blindness, and has forgotten that he was cleansed from his old sins.

1 Peter 1:5-9

For your own Good

The LORD showed me, and there were two baskets of figs set before the temple of the LORD, after Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had carried away captive Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, and the princes of Judah with the craftsmen and smiths, from Jerusalem, and had brought them to Babylon.

One basket [had] very good figs, like the figs [that are] first ripe; and the other basket [had] very bad figs which could not be eaten, they were so bad.

Then the LORD said to me, "What do you see, Jeremiah?" And I said, "Figs, the good figs, very good; and the bad, very bad, which cannot be eaten, they are so bad."

Jeremiah 24:1-3

Putting Jeremiah 24 in historical perspective, This time in history King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon has already come to Judah and he took as prisoners King Jeconiah(Jehoiachin) and his mother along with all the captains and mighty men of valor, ten thousand captives, and all craftsmen and smiths. (2 Kings 24:13-16) Nebuchadnezzar left the poorest people in the land and then made Jehoiachin's uncle Mattaniah King, and changed his name to Zedekiah.

So Judah at this time was wiped clean, Jeremiah was there amongst the poorest in the land, while all the men of valor and builders and craftsmen, all the strongest and most useful were taken into exile to Babylon. So in Jeremiah 24 the LORD shows Jeremiah two baskets of figs, one basket has good figs and the other basket has bad figs…which Jeremiah can easily see, and then the LORD says..

Again the word of the LORD came to me, saying,

"Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: 'Like these good figs, so will I acknowledge those who are carried away captive from Judah, whom I have sent out of this place for [their own] good, into the land of the Chaldeans.

'For I will set My eyes on them for good, and I will bring them back to this land; I will build them and not pull [them] down, and I will plant them and not pluck [them] up.

Then I will give them a heart to know Me, that I [am] the LORD; and they shall be My people, and I will be their God, for they shall return to Me with their whole heart.

Jeremiah 24:4-7

God is painting a picture for Jeremiah, He is using the example of the bad and good figs for a purpose. God says that those who were exiled into Babylon are the good figs, are you following this? Would it not seem more logical in OUR eyes that the good figs would be the ones who are still living in the land? Isn't it not more logical to think that the bad figs would be the one God let the Babylonians take away into their pagan land? But no, God says he sent them away for THEIR OWN GOOD, these same people who didn't listen to Jeremiah, these same people who said "God wouldn't let us be defeated" these same people who didn't realize how far they've fallen, God says He has sent them away for their own good. God even says that He will give them a heart for HIM!

THINK about this, here is the tribe of Judah living in the land God promised them, and they get taken away in chains to be slaves to a Babylonian Pagan empire(Daniel being one of these slaves) and God allowed it to happen for their own good. You see, this is a perfect example, just one of the perfect examples in the bible that we give God glory in GOOD and BAD. Things happen sometimes that we can't explain or understand.

God allowed it for a reason, trials and pains they come and go, the important thing is we continue giving God glory in good and bad, especially when it seems like everything is going wrong I.e not the way we think it should be going. God used the exile of Israel, the prisoners in Babylon and said He would bring them back, He would build them up and He would give them a heart for Him.

The exile wasn't something they wanted and it was hell to go through, and living in a foreign pagan land doesn't sound like a Blessing to me, but in the end it was, because through it.. God saved them, through it and by the grace of God their hearts were opened up. God made them realize how far off the path they were.

God is absolutely in control, and he deserves all honor and glory at all times. Nothing surprises Him, and in the end it's all apart of His plan.

I pray that all who are reading, and for myself that we would give God all glory, that no matter what we are going through, no matter how big our troubles look… realize that God is much bigger!

just honor Him..

just surrender..

Those who know my testimony know that I failed in this, I didn't give God glory, I didn't have faith or even ask why? I went straight to cursing God when I was going through a transplant. I now know everything happens for a reason, and although it wasn't an ideal situation and their were and are obvious struggles, I know now that I wouldn't want to change a thing, that it took this situation for Him to open my eyes. What I thought was a bad situation at the time, I know now it was for my own good, so God could give me a heart to know Him.

Seek God in struggles and tribulations because they will come,

and hope can only be found in God, we are confident in our Faith.

Confident that God will give us peace, Confident in the fact that our health and well being ,

riches and fame are all meaningless without a surrendering selfless life in Christ.

1 John 1:7

If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth:

But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another,

and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.

1 John 1:6-7

Does "Walking in the light" make us deserving of the salvation that is ONLY found in

Jesus Christ? NO! this isn't about works...you can't save yourself!

only can find saving in JESUS!

We will never deserve salvation, never deserve the freedom from the chains of SIN, yet...because of His grace and abounding love we have it!

So though we fall.. we seek to be Christ-like and walk in the light, we seek to live for Him

because without Him all is meaningless! Does Christ not make us Holy? Did He die in vein?

Was the very wrath of God, His very white-hot justifiable wrath that was poured out on Christ

for our sins

....was it pointless?

....meaningless?

....it doesn't change a thing?

Fact is you yourself make it meaningless (for yourself)

when you don't seek to live and walk in the light!

When you refuse the change that is freely given and offered:

because you don't want to live for Christ,

you don't want to live for God, you want saving...you want salvation and freedom...

but you don't want to surrender the SIN...

You don't want to surrender to Christ,

it's like you want to say "thanks for freeing me from these chains"

but uh..."I'm just going to shackle myself back up if you don't mind"

you put your selfishness and sins you want to continue in...

above the Holy GOD and refuse the Holiness that is offered!

Psalm 101

I will sing of your love and justice;

to you, O Lord, I will sing praise.

I will be careful to lead a blameless life

When will you come to me?

I will walk in my house with a blameless

heart. I will set before my eyes

no vile thing.

The deeds of faithless men I hate;

they will not cling to me.

Men of perverse heart shall be far from me;

I will have nothing to do with evil.

Whoever slanders his neighbor in secret,

him will I put to silence;

whoever has haughty eyes and a proud heart,

him will I not endure.

My eyes will be on the faithful in

the land, that they may dwell with me;

he whose walk is blameless

will minister to me.

No one who practices deceit

will dwell in my house;

no one who speaks falsely

will stand in my presence.

Every morning I will put to silence

all the wicked in the land;

I will cut off every evildoer

from the city of the Lord.

Psalm 101

One of my favorite scriptures is Psalm 101.

To me it's a reminder of what is truly important,

a promise to put God first above

everything. To live this one life we have

for his glory.