Hello World!!!

It’s November y’all…2010 is on. its. way.out…I can’t even believe it…It seems like it was just last night that I went to Watch Night Service at my church. And the reason I bring that up is because the pastor spoke on Joshua and how finally he led his people into the Promised Land after they wandered in the wilderness for 40 years due to their own fear and disobedience…

What I got from his message is that it is my time to finally enter into the promised land…What does that mean for me? I cannot share all of that now, but someday I will. What I will tell you now is that I am no longer hoping, wishing & praying for my dreams to come true…Instead I am standing on His word and expecting my dreams to come to life right now. (I am still confident of this: I will see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living. Psalm 27:13)

But the pastor did have a word of caution about entering into the promised land…Before God allowed Joshua and his people to enter in, they had some requirements to meet…below is what the Lord said to Joshua…

⁶ “Be strong and courageous, for you are the one who will lead these people to possess all the land I swore to their ancestors I would give them. ⁷ Be strong and very courageous. Be careful to obey all the instructions Moses gave you. Do not deviate from them, turning either to the right or to the left. Then you will be successful in everything you do. ⁸ Study this Book of Instruction continually. Meditate on it day and night so you will be sure to obey everything written in it. Only then will you prosper and succeed in all you do. ⁹ This is my command—be strong and courageous! Do not be afraid or discouraged. For the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.” Joshua 1:6-9

I believe the Lord was telling me that if I will enter into my promised land, I must stay in the will of God and be strong, courageous, fearless and unshakable…So yes, the Lord’s promise to me is conditional…He promises, but I have to meet the conditions…

So all of this pondering on promises made and promises kept has me thinking of the elections yesterday…It seems that people are trying to punish President Obama for what they perceive as his unrealized promises of hope and change…And people are now attempting “to take their government back.” I’m no political pundit so I will save all of the thorough analysis for those that are, but I will say a few things from a spiritual point of view…No politician can ever perfectly keep all of his promises – even those that have promised to take their government back. The Bible has many references in which we are warned about lightly making promises because we human beings have a difficult time keeping them. At the end of the day, only God enables us to keep promises…I mean, we cannot even wake up in the morning without His permission…(See Matthew 5:36 and think on that…)

But back to President Obama and his promises of hope and change…I happen to be one that believes that he is diligently working to keep his promises, but we have conditions to meet on our end. He is not our savior and cannot accomplish miracles without our support. Are we supporting his policies with our votes? (I guess this line may be a day late and a dollar short)…Are we attending city council or school board meetings or otherwise taking part in our local government? (All politics begin at the local level.) Are we educating ourselves about the real issues that this country faces or are we latching on to catch phrases and acting like we know more than what we really do? Are we simply voting for a party because we always have instead of paying attention to the actual candidates? Are we praying for those in authority? (1 Timothy 2:1-2)

I must say as I inventory my actions based on these questions, I have a ways to go…

However, although the balance of power has shifted at a national level, I do believe that this shift did not take God by surprise. He is always working behind the scenes in the course of human history…I don’t know what the end result will be. But it seems to me that at the very least,  the opposing powers are now forced to work together and neither power can entirely lay the blame at the other’s feet.

Okay, let me get off my virtual political soapbox…

We are free to claim the promises of God, but let us not the ignore the conditions that must be met…Delight yourself in the Lord and THEN He will give you the desires of your heart…All things work together for good IF you love the Lord and are called according to His purpose…You will be saved IF you believe in the Lord…

Any thoughts?

P.S. I realize that I haven’t blogged in over a week, and I apologize…I hope I haven’t stayed away too long…I offer Michael Jackson’s “I Wanna Be Where You Are” as a peace offering…lol…love this song!

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