The Dream of The King

"There is no authority except from God, and those which exist are established by God." - Romans 13:1

Well, it's Wednesday morning - the day after the 2024 election - and God has made some moves. Nancy Pelosi won again. Six terms? Yikes. AOC won. Clearly, the "war" is not over. But battles have been won.

Wisconsin senator Tammy Baldwin is in a tight battle with newcomer Eric Hovde. But the Senate has already flipped to red. Mr. Schumer will no longer be "leading" the Senate.

Abortion won last night. Seven states made it legal. That's sad news for all of the babies in their mother's wombs right now, that will never get a chance to vote on their own future.

But the big news appears to be Trump's win over Harris. When I checked at midnight, Newsmax said he had reached 270 electoral votes - the minimum number needed to win. This morning he's at 286. Pennsylvania, where he was shot in an assassination attempt, put him over the top. Interesting.

So what now? Time to get to work. It will be REALLY interesting to see what happens at our southern border, with our economy, and with the funding of the Ukraine and Israeli wars.

One thing I noticed though that is really worthy of note. God was acknowledged by Trump and the Republican party and, as a result, was blessed with many victories last night. That's something we all need to remember as we live out our own lives.

Trump said this at 2:26 AM. "God spared my life for a reason." Trump regularly plays God Bless The USA at his rallies.

Trump is brash and snarky to be sure. But God has put him on the thrown of this country. It will be interesting to see what happens next.

These past four years have been hard for many Americans to watch. But it would be SO nice to see God make America great again.

Finally, there's this from the prophet Daniel:

“Praise be to the name of God for ever and ever; wisdom and power are His. He changes times and seasons; He deposes kings and raises up others. 

He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to the discerning. He reveals deep and hidden things; He knows what lies in darkness, and light dwells with Him. 

I thank and praise you, God of my ancestors: You have given me wisdom and power, you have made known to me what we asked of you, you have made known to us the dream of the king." - Daniel 2:20-23

The Ancient of Days

We have an election here in the United States tomorrow. We will be electing "the leader of the free world," or so they say. Honestly, we haven't been doing a lot of "leading" lately.

We sang a song in church yesterday that I thought was perfect for our pre-election blues. Here's the first verse:

Though the nations rage, kingdoms rise and fall

There is still one King reigning over all

So I will not fear for this truth remains:

That my God is, the Ancient of Days

"Though the nations rage." Aren't we living that right now? And kingdoms definitely rise and fall. It has been sad to see our country failing these last few years.

But there is one thing we need to remember. God rules over ALL. Whoever wins tomorrow. God is still king.

If things don't go the way we'd like in our election tomorrow, we need to remember that they are going God's way. And we need to be fine with that.

"Let everyone be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God." - Romans 13:1

The Ancient of Days is God, The Father. Let us respect and honor His judgements and decrees. No matter who wins.

Ancient of Days - CityAlight

The Sound of War

"When Joshua heard the noise of the people shouting, he said to Moses, "There is the sound of war in the camp." - Genesis 32:17

Actually, what Joshua was talking about back then was the sound of God's people rebelling against God. I hear that same sound today as people are celebrating an apparent victory for themselves. It is a premature celebration.

The news media has declared Joe Biden as the winner of the 2020 election. The only problem with them doing that is that they have no authority. The 2020 presidential election is headed for the judicial system to decide who won and who lost. It might well be Joe Biden, but the media has jumped the gun.

The interesting thing about that passage of scripture from Genesis was that the people grew tired of waiting for Moses to come down from the mountain so they made their own gods and began to worship them. Bad decision.

Moses ultimately gave his people a choice.

"So he stood at the entrance to the camp and said, “Whoever is for the Lord, come to me.” - Genesis 32:26

Only the Levites came to Moses. The rest were stricken with a plague.

Does any of that sound familiar yet?

A time is coming when God will call the people to Himself. Only those who are in Christ will come. That's the rapture. The people that are left behind will face unbelievable torment on earth. That's known as the Tribulation. It will be worse for them than a man wearing a MAGA hat to an ANTIFA convention.

The time is short. It won't be long before Jesus returns for His church. After all of us Christians have gone home, the Holy Spirit will remove His restraint on the Antichrist and things will go down hill rather quickly for those who remain.

"Do you not remember that I told you these things while I was still with you? 6And you know what is now restraining him (The Antichrist), so that he may be revealed at the proper time. 7For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work, but the one who now restrains it (The Holy Spirit) will continue until he is taken out of the way. 8And then the lawless one (The Antichrist) will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will slay with the breath of His mouth and annihilate by the majesty of His arrival." - 2 Thessalonians 2:5-8

Stay strong, stay faithful. God's plan is working for our good and His glory. Amen.

Uncertain Times

As of this writing the results of the 2020 election are still uncertain. We live in a world FILLED with uncertainty! No joke!

Uncertainty feeds fear. We begin to hypothesis situations and think about them as if they were real. We become frightened. Fearful.

In this scene from the Joker movie, Joaquin Phoenix gave an excellent portrayal of a man living with a "condition". ALL of us are living with a condition. It's called sin.

What is sin? It is anything that goes against the will of God. Murder is sin, Lying is sin, shedding innocent blood is sin. Adultery is sin. Idolatry is sin.

I recently posted this verse on Facebook. It is as true today as it was when God spoke it through the psalmist.

"There are six things the Lord hates, seven that are detestable to him: haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked schemes, feet that are quick to rush into evil, a false witness who pours out lies and a person who stirs up conflict in the community." - Proverbs 6:16-19

Satan is just waiting to pounce if this election goes his way - the way of abortion and same-sex marriage, or global warming and The Green New Deal. He can't wait.

Recently Democratic governors across our country shut down business and churches. They issued mask mandates and often exceeded their authority in doing do. They acted contrary to written law and the supreme court in those states had to step in.

I heard this quote recently that I thought was good for what is happening in our country right now.

"When evil gets a chance to do something, it always overplays its hand." - Pastor Jack Hibbs, Calvary Chapel - Chino Hills, CA

That is SO true. If Biden is determined to be the winner of this "election" turned insurrection, we can be certain that things will change. For the worse.

Now is a time for prayer. We should have already been praying. We need to ramp it up because, if we don't, things are about to hit the fan and it's not going to be good.

However, there is always hope where God is concerned. This was from my reading yesterday morning.

"Ever since the time of your ancestors you have turned away from my decrees and have not kept them. Return to me, and I will return to you,” says the Lord Almighty." - Malachi 3:7

Let us fall on our knees and pray for our redemption is drawing near. THAT is certain.

The Bus Scene - Joker

God's Election

Did you stay up late to see who won the U.S. presidential election? Me neither. If you did you would have never slept because, as of this writing, we STILL don't know.

As I was watching state after state go blue and vote for Biden, one verse from scripture kept going through my heard. "Father, forgive them for they know not what they do." (Luke 23:34). Lol!

Does it really matter who is president? Well, yes it does. He is the one that signs bills into law and chooses Supreme Court nominees. But it doesn't matter if the House and Senate are of the opposing party.

For the Christian, election has a different meaning. If you are a born-again believer in Jesus Christ, you are one of The Elect. The following is from GotQuestions.org

The biblical doctrine of election teaches that God chooses to save some, and, by necessity, if He does not choose everyone, then there are some who are passed over. Those whom He has chosen to save are referred to as “the elect.”

Just like we must accept the results of earthly elections, we must also accept who God has chosen as His Elect. Sometimes that means family and friends have NOT been chosen. That can be extremely hard to deal with.

Then why evangelize if God has already chosen who He will save? Good question. But consider this: How do we know whether or not God was going to use us to reach someone on His behalf? We don't. So evangelize!

We still don't know who won the 2020 presidential election in this country. But we do know that God is on His throne and no one comes to power without God's say-so.

'For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love 5he predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will- 6to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves." - Ephesians 1:4-6

You are "in Christ", aren't you? If not, seek God out today! "The election" is almost over.

Did you notice the what the sign says on Biden's podium in the picture above? Take a look. It says, "BATTLE for the SOUL of the NATION." That it is my friends. That is is.

The Doctrine of Election

One More Week

Just think. One week from now there will be no more political ads on television! I can't wait.

My wife and I play a game each night to see who is the first to grab the remote whenever a political ad comes on. We are both sick of seeing them so the competition between my wife and I is intense. She leads 759-698. And that was just last week!

I think church can be like that if the ones hearing the message aren't really interested. When I was in eighth grade confirmation class I didn't really care about God or Jesus. I just wanted to answer the questions so I could get outta there!

It wasn't until much later in life, when I fell into a relationship with Jesus, that I realized the truth and the seriousness of the Gospel message. Similarly, unless we have a relationship with a candidate - someone who speaks to us in truth (a rarity) - we won't even listen to the other candidate.

If we get religion rammed down our throats when we're young, we won't really be interested in what it has to say. Not unless it is accompanied by a relationship first.

I don't really care if someone is a Republican or a Democrat. I am looking for truth, honesty, and someone whose message parallels the Gospel. That usually narrows the choices down a bit. Like to zero!

So I find somebody close and vote that way. If my candidate loses, oh well. I voted. I'm not going to whine and cry about losing. I suck it up and move on. Jesus is MY King.

"Let everyone be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God." - Romans 13:1

You Are My King / Amazing Love - Chris Tomlin

Our Faith In Humans

Yesterday my wife and I watched the Packers game. By halftime I was out in the yard cutting down trees and my wife was raking leaves. We had such high hopes for the Packers but they disappointed us.

Did you catch the presidential election last Tuesday. It was hard to miss. Half of the voting populace voted for one candidate, the other half voted for someone else. So basically half of the people are disappointed with the elections outcome.

We humans tend to place way too much hope and trust in our fellow human beings. We always seem to disappoint despite our best intentions not to. We disappoint. That's what we do.

I was disappointed with the service I got at the local Sears store and also at the local tire shop. We humans tend to expect a certain result and, if we don't get it, we don't like it.

Have you seen the riots on TV? People were disappointed with the election results. Naturally, when we are disappointed in others we tend to trash them on Facebook, destroy their property, beat them up or threaten to kill them.

I have even seen people go on Facebook and say that they are disappointed with the people who were disappointed by something else. Seems like everybody's disappointed about something or someone.

Have we tried placing our faith in God? We should try that some time. We'll live longer. WAY longer. Take the election for example. Did you place your faith in God about the results? That He would place into power exactly who He wanted? We should have, because it's true. That's what He does.

"13 Let everyone be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God. ² Consequently, whoever rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves. ³ For rulers hold no terror for those who do right, but for those who do wrong. Do you want to be free from fear of the one in authority? Then do what is right and you will be commended. ⁴ For the one in authority is God’s servant for your good." - Romans 13:1-4

We should trust in God more. Maybe God placed Donald Trump into power because God wanted to do something through Him. Maybe He allowed Trump to win because God wanted to punish us. We shouldn't look at elections the way we do. God is in control.

Donald Trump is who God wanted in the White House at this particular time for some yet unknown reason. We should rejoice in that because we are getting exactly who we deserve. It is God's will!

Are we prepared for what God is going to do with this country? We should be. If He is our God then we should be placing our faith and trust in Him, not an earthly leader.

So, as we "get over" this past election cycle, let us remember that nothing happens without God allowing it and there is nothing that can happen without God getting us through it. We should be placing our trust in God and our faith in His Son Jesus. As long as we do that we will be just fine no matter WHO is in the White House.

Trust In Jesus - Third Day

Of Kings And Men

I almost couldn't believe my eyes! My wife and I have been voting at the same polling station for the past 33 years and we have never seen the line that long. Ever. Not even close. We live five miles out in the country where the population is sparse and we had to wait an hour in line to cast out ballot.

I stayed up late watching the returns and, quite honestly, I was expecting Hillary to win. But when I saw Wisconsin, a traditionally Democratic state, go to Trump, I knew something was happening. Something not of this world.

My friend and I have been praying for our state and national leaders for months now but this outcome was not expected. Not by the pollsters, the media . . . anybody. Yet somehow Trump was winning!

I am not a Trump fan. He is not my idea of an "ideal" candidate. Whatever THAT is. But I think I know why Trump won. Open your Bibles to Exodus, chapter 10.

"10 Now the Lord said to Moses, “Go in to Pharaoh; for I have hardened his heart and the hearts of his servants, that I may show these signs of Mine before him, ² and that you may tell in the hearing of your son and your son’s son the mighty things I have done in Egypt, and My signs which I have done among them, that you may know that I am the Lord.” - Exodus 10:1-2

This nation has turned its back on God just like the Israelites did numerous times in the Old Testament. And God, just as we read in that verse, can harden and, by implication, soften hearts. I think that's what God did here, in our country.

I think God got tired of us killing babies. I think God got tired of the corruption and the scandals but I also think God answered our prayers.

^"14 If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land." - 2 Chronicles 7:14

Earlier this year Franklin Graham traveled this country holding prayer rallies. He encouraged us to pray and to vote. I think we did that. On my way home from work last night, Janet Parshall's show was filled with prayer - two hours of prayer!! Has God heard us from heaven? Is God beginning to heal our land?

Let us continue to pray for our nation's leaders. Let us pray for Hillary, that she might examine herself and the things she has done. May she repent and seek God.

May we as a nation return to God and lift His name high above ALL names!

I invite you to listen to this song. May we be grateful that God hears us and kings and kingdoms bow down. Amen!

Sing, Sing, Sing - Chris Tomlin

Oh Deer

This week my wife and I had a rather unique experience. A deer ran into our living room window. Nothing was broken, except the deer's pride perhaps. "Oops. I ran into a house."

The only thing I could think of for why the deer did such a thing was that the woods surrounding our house was somehow reflected in the window and the deer thought it was running into the woods. Whatever the reason, the deer was clearly confused and lost.

That got me thinking. We humans can be a lot like that confused deer was the other night. Blindly charging ahead, not checking to see if what we are about to do will harm us or hurt us.

Jesus told us we are to "count the cost" before we do something.

²⁸ “Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Won’t you first sit down and estimate the cost to see if you have enough money to complete it? ²⁹ For if you lay the foundation and are not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule you, ³⁰ saying, ‘This person began to build and wasn’t able to finish.’

³¹ “Or suppose a king is about to go to war against another king. Won’t he first sit down and consider whether he is able with ten thousand men to oppose the one coming against him with twenty thousand? ³² If he is not able, he will send a delegation while the other is still a long way off and will ask for terms of peace. ³³ In the same way, those of you who do not give up everything you have cannot be my disciples.

³⁴ “Salt is good, but if it loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again?" - Luke 14:28-34
Have we as Christians estimated the cost of being a Christian BEFORE we became one? It will  cost us plenty, just as Jesus said. It has cost me friends and relationships, even family members. No one told me about the "fine print" before I became a believer.

That's not true. Jesus told us the cost 2,000 years ago. I just didn't hear Him.

I re-wrote this story because the previous version did not glorify God. I did not glorify Him and it cost me. I feel like I let Him down and didn't give Him my best nor the honor that is due Him.

Before we do anything in this life we must first ask ourselves, "Is what I am about to do or say honoring to God? If it is not, why am I about to do it?"

Is running into this house the God-honoring thing to do? No? Then we need to repent, turn around, and try a different direction, a different story.

Honoring God with the living of our lives should be a very high priority for us. It should be our duty. We are representing God here on earth. To quote a Todd Agnew song, "If Ephesians says to imitate Christ, who do we look so much like "the world?"

May we always be thinking BEFORE we act. May we always "count the cost" before we commit to any action or words. By doing that we will be honoring God with our lives. And that's what Christians are known for.  Jesus told us . . .

¹³ “You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot.

¹⁴ “You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. ¹⁵ Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. ¹⁶ In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven." - Matthew 5:13-16


May we look before we leap. May we stop and think before we "jump into things" or open our mouths . . . or in my case, write a story. May we ALWAYS honor God in what we say and do . . . like a city on a hill. So that others might see our good deeds and glorify our Father in heaven.

Shine Your Light - Nichole Nordeman
My Jesus - Todd Agnew