This thing on our hands....

When democracy is turning into socialism, I hope more people scream in the face of those voting for it or the government that is quickly spiraling headfirst into the mistake that so many other countries have crippled themselves into. I hear people all over my "network" of facebook friends complaining that this is the beginning of the end, but I know I have conservative friends. I hope and pray more people realize what a mistake they will have made when it comes back to smack them in the face. To think that so many people would willingly particpate in such a horrendous act doesn't quite register in my brain and it's hard for me to wrap my head around it. Where did we as Americans go so terribly wrong? At what point did we trade our hearts in for our wallets? I hope I eat my words, I really do.... I just don't see it happening.

Pray! Hard!

What especially gets me is that so many "Christians" put moral issues aside and decide our economy is more important than Ethics. I thought we were supposed to trust God with our finances and follow him with our actions, not throw morals under the bus so we can save a buck. 

Any man that kills newborn babies is not a Christian.

I'm new to this.

Blogging has seemingly become a very popular pastime of many people and it seems that tons of people my age have been blogging for what seems like centuries, but I've only ever had a xanga account and rarely wrote anything worthwhile on that. Needless to say, I'm pretty new to all this blogging and I probably won't have much interesting or thought provoking to say. Right now I'll probably just talk about the message Jessica and I heard tonight at Joshua House. First off, I've started to go to church again and for the first time in my life I'm really enjoying it and getting a lot of out it. Tonight Jonathan Rue talked about how to "vote Christian" in lue of the upcoming election and when I first saw the bulletin I was pretty bummed out and was anticipating the message to have a strong "liberal" overtone. Since I'm pretty much 100% set on voting for John McCain and I knew the Vineyard Church had in the past had a tendency to vote more liberally than I was comfortable with, I was squirming inside until Jonathan started speaking. He did an awesome job avoiding endorsing either candidate and really pointed out things that I had unintentionally (and intentionally) been doing to my roommates, family, friends, and all random people that I had come in contact with. Jonathan spoke of primarily being a citizen of God and not the United States, that God calls us to respect our government officials even if we don't care for them (I was secretly hoping that if Barack Obama was elected they would come out with those bumper stickers that they made for President Bush that said "Not My President" so that I could put one on my car), and to give everyone the respect they deserve, even if they disagree with us on all issues. I really needed to hear those things directly from the Bible because I had been very staunch on my views and lately I've been trying to shove them down people's throats if they didn't agree with me wholeheartedly. I was very happy to hear him take a strong stand against abortion. All this talk of "infanticide" has really riled me up and made me very sad that these things were allowed to happen in our country. 

I'm glad I attended church tonight and I'm glad this message was spoken to me. I really remember that God is in control no matter who is elected and nothing is out of our hands. I can only pray that what he wants will be carried out in our great country and we will prosper because of his blessings. It's hard to see the views of others when you are so deeply rooted in what you believe is true but Jonathan did a great job of helping me to challenge myself to be more gracious and open to others while not budging on what I believe. I'm very excited for November 4th and 5th so we may see who our next leader is. I can't wait until next Sunday either!