A crucial part of preserving our freedoms involves going to the polls on election day!

Welcome to the day before the 2010 Election, and good Monday morning on this 1st day of November. This is an important year and an important time for our country. I know the pundits are saying they are anticipating a resounding victory for candidates running against the current policies of the Obama Administration. I hope this is true because if nothing else it might send a message because I am fully convinced nothing will change the mind or the commitment of these people to their liberal vision of America. We do have to be careful with what the so called experts are saying because many of them also have an agenda. Some are predicting landslide victories in order to influence people not to go and vote. Why should they if it's already decided? See what I mean? Another angle is to predict a huge victory at unprecedented levels so that when it is fails to meet the prediction, you can then call it less successful and perhaps underwhelming. Oh the games politicians play! We even have the spectacle of former President Clinton trying to influence a democratic senate candidate in Florida to drop out of the race. It's a three way race and the republican is ahead but the current governor is running as an independent and the current administration would of course rather have him than the republican. The republican candidate is a staunch conservative of Cuban ancestry, therefore, the administration worries about this fellow's influence on the Latino population in Florida. This almost sounds like a case of racial profiling to me. Oh the games politicians play! President Clinton knows all too well about third party candidates. He became president because of a pint sized fellow named Perot. No wonder people throw up their hands in disgust!

Being disgusted with it all is something we can be because it's well earned and deserved, but I strongly urge us all not to get so frustrated with the process that we fail to exercise our right to vote. Don't get me wrong, there are plenty of shenanigans at work on all sides. Our experiment in freedom has never been easy or convenient and because it is free, we do have the potential for all kinds of games being played. However, at the end of the day, you still have a voice and I still have a voice, and we can stand up and be counted, and when we do, we honor those who have given their very lives to provide us with the freedoms we enjoy. Sometimes our voting can be a lonely experience as we seek to stand for what we believe in. John Quincy Adams said this: "Always vote for principle, though you may vote alone, and you may cherish the sweetest reflection that your vote is never lost." Never lost even if your candidate loses. Why? Because the exercise itself done with conscience and consideration is what makes us who we are. Yes, it is called a sacred right but it could be viewed even as a sacred duty. Rutherford B. Hayes put it this way: "To vote is like the payment of a debt, a duty never to be neglected, if its performance is possible." I've shared before how that in the past I have been wooed by pragmatic evaluations and how that a vote for principle might be called by some to be a wasted vote. But, I've changed my mind. Voting your conscience and your principles never ends in a wasted vote regardless of the outcome.

I plead guilty to being somewhere near the definition of a political junkie. However, whether you are tuned in or tuned out, everyone needs to become informed enough to exercise their right to choose those who will govern us. Some people tend to think the spiritually minded answer is to disconnect totally from the process. This is not biblical. We have a clear mandate from the Scriptures that tell us God Himself ordained government. We also have some inspired instruction regarding our response to government powers. The Apostle Paul writing in his letter to the local fellowship of believers in Rome was inspired by the Holy Spirit to give us these words:   ¹Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God. ² Therefore whoever resists the authority resists the ordinance of God, and those who resist will bring judgment on themselves. ³ For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to evil. Do you want to be unafraid of the authority? Do what is good, and you will have praise from the same. ⁴ For he is God’s minister to you for good. But if you do evil, be afraid; for he does not bear the sword in vain; for he is God’s minister, an avenger to execute wrath on him who practices evil. ⁵ Therefore you must be subject, not only because of wrath but also for conscience’ sake. ⁶ For because of this you also pay taxes, for they are God’s ministers attending continually to this very thing. ⁷ Render therefore to all their due: taxes to whom taxes are due, customs to whom customs, fear to whom fear, honor to whom honor. (Chapter 13) The government at the time Paul wrote this was the Roman Empire, corrupt to its core, and even the government that would bring about his own execution. This is why we know our duty to human government is a God ordained responsibility. That's a powerful argument to motivate us to get out and vote! Amen.           .....More later.