{"id":1416,"date":"2016-12-20T12:33:11","date_gmt":"2016-12-20T18:33:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/afriendoftheking.com\/?p=1416"},"modified":"2022-01-10T21:36:27","modified_gmt":"2022-01-11T03:36:27","slug":"blessed-is-the-nation-election-2016","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/afriendoftheking.com\/?p=1416","title":{"rendered":"Blessed is the Nation… 2016"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"img_9627\"<\/a>If you follow this blog, you may have noticed I’ve been pretty quiet about the election in social media. I’ve been quiet period, and quiet in my own soul. Oh, I’m aware of what’s going on around me and tumult in the nation, even though I’m seldom on Facebook and almost never watch the news on TV. It’s just that I put my trust for our national well being, and my personal well being in God, and not in man, or the political system. Psalm 131<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0could well be my creed in this matter.\u00a0Yet\u00a0I intend to write more often on this subject in the days ahead, as\u00a0led, to espouse the\u00a0light the Bible shines on this matter, and on our path as a nation.<\/p>\n

I’m very aware the government of God and the governments of man are both realities and that they intersect at times, if not\u00a0at all times. \ud83d\ude42 There is much teaching about this in the Bible. I’ve tried to understand it and do my part led by\u00a0God’s teaching\u00a0and the laws of our land. God’s Word, His giving us a free will, and world history make it imperative that I be as active as legally permitted, that I vote, and that I pray. Still my trust is in the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth, not man, nor the political system of the USA or any other nation.<\/p>\n

\"img_9628\"<\/a>You can read my only pre-election writing\u00a0in the\u00a0last post<\/a>. The election was easy for me from the beginning. I didn’t struggle to decide. It could be summed up in three or four Bible verses that came to me early in the process. [1]\u00a0\u201cBlessed is the nation whose God is the\u00a0<\/span>Lord<\/span>\u2026<\/span>.<\/span>\u201d (Psalm 33:12<\/span>) [2]\u00a0\u201cRighteousness exalts a nation,<\/span>\u00a0But sin is a disgrace to any people.<\/span>\u201d (Proverbs 14:34<\/span>) [3] \u00a0\u201cYou will know them by their fruits.<\/span>\u201d (Matthew 7:16<\/span>) And with most (but not all!) of my friends and family I voted for the platform that stood for the most right\u00a0and against the most wrong.<\/p>\n

I believe this article<\/a> by Thomas Sowell in the Wall Street Journal and other news\u00a0papers<\/a> around the country hits the main points quite well. The Constitution. Contempt for the\u00a0law. Real leadership. Supreme Court justices. And more.<\/p>\n

\"img_9633\"<\/a>Some of you know exactly what I’m talking about, some do\u00a0not, and some will contest who or Who gets to decide what’s right and wrong? That’s the real problem as I see it. We have good news and bad news in the outcome of this election.<\/p>\n

The good news is we have a reprieve. And what a welcome relief it is to many of us! We were being led and going down a path that would have invited or required God’s judgment on our nation, according to the Bible, and as demonstrated in history.<\/p>\n

\"Painting<\/a>

Painting of my wife’s church in SE Arkansas<\/p><\/div>\n

The bad news is we are still a deeply divided nation as shown by the popular<\/a> and electoral vote<\/a>. The results were 48% to 46% in the popular vote, with both coasts seeing things differently than the interior of the country. The results were 20 states to 30 states and 232 to 306 electoral votes. Surely as you watched the venom of the candidates during the election and the venom of the voters during and after the election, one must wonder about our division as a nation and our character as a nation. I would suggest that we haven’t been this divided as a nation since the Civil War. Abraham Lincoln’s “A House Divided” speech<\/a> comes to mind. Of course Mr. Lincoln borrowed this quote<\/a>\u00a0from Jesus Christ almost 2000 years earlier.<\/p>\n

\"Our<\/a>

Our Times . Acts 17:26<\/p><\/div>\n

If you fear God, and believe the Bible, as our founding fathers did, and Christians do in every age, you feel we have been given a reprieve from judgment. A time to breathe easier, while gearing up to further work and pray<\/a>er for healthy spiritual and moral change in our nation, and in the world\u00a0we\u00a0so clearly affect. I pray we can come together and farewell with God’s help.<\/p>\n

A quote from Elton Trueblood in\u00a0my book<\/a> at the beginning of chapter 3, “Understanding Your Times,” comes to mind.<\/p>\n

The greatest problems of our time are not technological, for these we handle fairly well. They are not even political or economic, because the difficulties in these areas, glaring as they may be, are largely derivative. The greatest problems are moral and spiritual, and unless we can make some progress in\u00a0these realms, we may not even survive. This is how advanced cultures have declined in the past.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Let’s rest a bit and enjoy a small, but major victory for our country, or that’s the way I see it. \u00a0Then let’s get back to work; the work of the kingdom, the ongoing work of the King!<\/p>\n

Christmas Peace\u00a0in His Name<\/p>\n

\u201cPray, then, in this way:<\/span> \u2018Our Father who is in heaven,<\/span> Hallowed be Your name.<\/span> \u2018Your kingdom come.<\/span> Your will be done,<\/span> On earth as it is in heaven.<\/span> \u2018Give us this day our daily bread.<\/span> \u2018And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.<\/span> \u2018And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.'”<\/span><\/em>\u00a0(Matthew 6:9\u201313<\/span>)<\/p>\n

\u201c<\/em>But He answered them, \u201cMy Father is working until now, and I Myself am working.\u201d<\/em>\u00a0<\/span>(John 5:17<\/span>)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If you follow this blog, you may have noticed I’ve been pretty quiet about the election in social media. I’ve been quiet period, and quiet in my own soul. Oh, I’m aware of what’s going on around me and tumult in the nation, even though I’m seldom on Facebook and almost never watch the news […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,9,7,8,11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1416","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-be-a-leader","category-be-a-man","category-kingdom-events","category-the-book-journey","category-understanding-our-times"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/afriendoftheking.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1416","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/afriendoftheking.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/afriendoftheking.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/afriendoftheking.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/afriendoftheking.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1416"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/afriendoftheking.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1416\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3351,"href":"https:\/\/afriendoftheking.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1416\/revisions\/3351"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/afriendoftheking.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1416"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/afriendoftheking.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1416"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/afriendoftheking.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1416"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}