25 Million Evangelical Christians have not registered to vote!
Father, forgive us! People, we need to encourage our Christian family members, our Christian friends, our believing neighbors about our duty as believers. We have been given this right, this privilege, this treasure, and yet many are foolishly disengaging. This is so arrogant of us. Yep, arrogant. We are very proud; and remember what God says about that - He resists the proud. Just sayin’.
Let me explain how I land in “pride and arrogance”. Christian people, here in America, have been given so much; we have been given this by those who came before us; those who fought and died to allow us this privilege of freedom. The privilege of the vote. Let me share where I am coming from...
My mother lived under Hitler; her sister was sent to a concentration camp for helping
German men who didn’t want to fight for the Reich. I heard, from my own mother, the hell, oppression, adversity, wickedness, and tyranny of living under such an evil government and I also heard her share the joy of being an American! She would say; this is the greatest nation in the world, there is nowhere else to go to enjoy such freedoms. I am thankful she is not here to see how close we are to losing this great nation because of our flawed beliefs, our arrogance, our complacency, and our deception.
As Americans, we are so spoiled. Yes, spoiled. We have become so arrogant; yes, even us in the church. Let me explain in a simple format that may help you see what I am talking about.
Let’s use a simple illustration about our expectations and arrogance. We are so used to choices we don’t even cherish them, we demand them. We go to buy groceries, let’s say, just to buy ingredients for a salad. We EXPECT to have choices! We will have at least 5 kinds of lettuce to choose from, 3 types of cabbages, 2 kinds of cucumbers, 5 types of tomatoes, radishes, celery, broccoli, cauliflower, spinach, several carrots to choose from, and 30 plus choices of
dressing; or 40 or 50 different kinds. We have refrigerated jars and half an isle full of shelf-after-shelf of dressings. Go look; I am not exaggerating. We haven’t even talked about the 30, 40, 50 kinds of cheeses and then all the types of nuts, toppings. and crouton choices.
When I grew up a “salad” was a wedge of iceberg lettuce, shredded, a carrot shredded, a couple of tomatoes chopped-up, and a cucumber sliced. We had three kinds of dressing in my refrigerator as a kid; blue cheese (for my dad), Italian (one kind), and a red or orange (Russian) kind, for the kids. That's it. Asking for choices was unheard of. We were served a salad and we were grateful. If you are over 50, grew up middle-class, and are reading this, then you know what I am talking about. Right?
When I traveled to Nigeria, we were told not to eat ANY fresh food; because the water that rinsed it was full of microscopic bugs that could make you sick. If you could boil the food or peel it, then eat it otherwise don’t get it. Fresh food was NOT an option... if you wanted to stay well. As you can imagine, we had a lot of rice, brown beans, and such. Ya know?
Today, I hear repeatedly when around Americans (while in their homes fellowshipping or at restaurants or church functions), questions like these; “Is that all you have?” Or this one, “Do you have any ...”. We are not very satisfied. It seems we always want something more. Even when we are in someone’s home, with what someone is sharing with us, we want something different; something more. I have heard people asking. Don’t believe me? Listen the next time you gather with Americans. We are high-maintenance.
I first became aware of this in my own children after we traveled to CA years ago, for my husband’s work. We were there for 3 months. While working there, we lived in a hotel and did meals there or at restaurants. When we came home, my very young children sat at my kitchen table, telling me what they wanted for dinner; like there was a menu. It had been our life. One wanted hot dogs with macaroni and cheese and the other wanted pizza. I knew quickly that, “Houston, we have a problem here.” I had allowed them total freedom (as we were traveling) but now we were home and this wasn’t how things worked. I failed to set perimeters while traveling (like having them order the same thing) and we had a few weeks of painful “re-entry” when back home. I learned a lot! We have been spoiled!
Let’s go back to the grocery store; here in America, we have every cut of meat imaginable: we have beef, chicken, turkey, Cornish hens, pork, venison, various kinds of fish, fresh and saltwater, many types of seafood, and... we haven’t even tapped on all the other sundry items like all the brands of dog food, and toilet paper, cleaners, shampoos, and toothpaste. Y’all, we are SO SPOILED and it has made us into, dare I say, brats! We EXPECT and sometimes even DEMAND choices. Father forgive us.
I have observed over the years (as a guest in someone else’s home) a shocking display of this. Honestly, I have several different stories, on several different occasions where I observed our selfish, American, spoiled, demanding behavior, and MOST OF US NEVER SEE IT. Let me share a couple of them with you.
When at a party, where the table was covered with food, choices, and delicacies, a young teenage man was asking the hostess for... a different thing. I was stunned. I was hoping my mouth wasn’t agape. There was more than plenty on the table yet this individual wanted more. It wasn’t good enough. Y’all, that is why people call American’s arrogant. We just don’t get it. My mother would say to this awkward situation of the young man asking, “they just haven’t been taught”.
When at another more intimate gathering, I have seen people go to their backpack, open their own food, and eat in front of others, never offering any to others. (And no, this wasn’t a dietary issue it was a selfish, clueless issue).
I have witnessed a family prepare a meal and an adult guest wants a totally separate meal (like my little kiddos did - again not an allergy or health issue). Y’all, we are TOO aware of our OWN wants and too used to getting what we want. This is selfish. We are full of self and only the Lord can show us some of these issues.
If you have ever been to a third-world country, you will be able to concur with how Americans are so clueless to our selfishness; it comes across to others as arrogance because we are unaware of others. When traveling, I have seen people with NOTHING yet sharing ALL, it is humbling! We just don’t know how good we have it (my mom used to say); and honestly, most of us don’t.
My son went with his dad to a third world country. They were serving at an orphanage. The children there had two outfits; their day clothes and their night closes. Each child had ONE drawer in a dresser for ALL their possessions. When guests were in town (like my son), all the children were served a “special” breakfast — “sugared” cereal. The children in the orphanage were SO excited to have guests and they wanted something to give; so they offered my son the “best” cereal; because they were givers. My son was so convicted. He knew they had nothing yet they were giving the best to him. He came home changed. We all should get to a third world country. It would do us some good. As we know, at this time, we can’t go to a third world country (as things are shut down) but there IS something we can do... we can learn to die to ourselves.
Many are calling for and asking Christians to fast... up to the election. There is SO much riding on the outcome of this election; maybe even life as we have known it. We are already in a different world since March; look at the blue cities and states and their response to the virus... what if America were blue? This alone is a reason we all need to vote, God help us!
I get it, Trump is flawed, but news flash; so are each one of us! Jesus open our eyes to see our logs of self-righteousness, arrogance, selfishness! Sin is sin people and we ALL fall short. Sometimes we only have a limited choice; but as Americans, we think it has to be what WE want. We like our choices.
Until you lose something, most of us don’t know how much we need to value it. Lord, wake us up! Y’all, I don’t want to experience my mother’s life under a tyrannical one-world government.
Lord we need a reformation and Lord, you always start the cleaning in YOUR house; the house of God (with believers)! Dear believer; awaken! We need to change. We need to become less self-aware. We need to let the Lord show us what we don’t see because if we saw, we would change. Clearly, we don’t see it!
We are so used to choice; our way, our likes, our opinions and we like choice after choice that it is easy to become cynical, disenfranchised, selfish, and self-centered. We can easily decide we don’t like the “choices” so then we decide we don’t vote. That again is the arrogance of how we think. We are spoiled.
We need to vote for those supporting Christian values.! If you can find no other reason to vote for someone (because you don’t like them) then vote for the candidates who will protect the unborn! The decision is that easy to see as there usually is only ONE person in each race that is pro-life.
We need a shift. We need less of us and more of God! Vote! Register at: MyFaithVotes.com.
God is moving on the heart of our President. Listen! Here is a clip of some
faith leaders in our nation talking about a prayer event that many Christian leaders from all over the nation recently had with the President.
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