The Bulletin Board:(Please SCROLL DOWN this page to find the article titled on this post in LARGE CAPITAL LETTERS. Thank you.)
PRAY FOR AMERICA: THANK GOD for His many blessings on America throughout it's history. May we then ask that AMERICA once again be a blessing TO GOD, by once again submitting to HIS will in our affairs - both personal and national - that He may truly "heal our land." (2 Chron. 7:14)
ATTENTION:
[ AS I SEE IT: If YOU haven't voted, make the time to get out and VOTE! If you're not sure about ALL the items on your ballot, just vote for the ones you ARE sure about. So many races are so close, if enough people who felt their vote was inconsequential or just who just gave in to apathy or cynicism BUT VOTED ANYWAY, they can swing the vote for one candidate. And as a Christian, consider that God would have us have Godly leaders, or at least those least likely to do great harm to us and future generations. So BLESS GOD, and do your civic duty; GET OUT AND VOTE! - Stan]
11/3 - A VERY SAD UPDATE: "Family: Brittany Died in the 'Arms of Loved Ones'" - CBNNews.com, November 03, 2014; http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/us/2014/November/Family-Brittany-Died-in-the-Arms-of-Loved-Ones/ [AS I SEE IT: Since first read of this while on the computer last night, I've been filled with both sadness and anger. This woman was convinced that she would have to endure such suffering that it would be the "courageous" thing to commit suicide. That she would do such a thing is sad enough. That she did so with family members standing at her bedside in approval is incomprehensible to me. Sadly, as I don't believe she had a relationship with God through Jesus, ironically Brittany is now beginning to suffer for eternity that which is WAY beyond anything she would have endured in this life. The whole idea of euthanasia screams of coming from the Deceiver himself and speaks of a society that continues to champion a culture of Death. - Stan]
URGENT PRAYER REQUEST: Save Christian Mom Asia Bibi from Execution - A Christian mom has been sentenced to death in Pakistan for her faith. Asia Bibi was falsely accused of “blasphemy” – speaking against the prophet Muhammad. Now this wife and mother of five will hang for her Christian faith.She would be the first woman executed under Pakistan’s Shariah blasphemy law.This is the ultimate human rights violation. We’re mobilizing our international affiliate – the European Centre for Law and Justice – and its partner in Pakistan to stop this atrocity. Add your name to our letter to the government of Pakistan demanding Asia Bibi’s freedom.Go to http://aclj.org/persecuted-church/save-christian-mom-asia-bibi-from-execution; please add your signature to mine and over 35,000 others AND pray for Asia Bibi.
U.S. Supreme Court has Reconvened: Let's be praying WHENEVER the Court is in session as their decisions can have impact on GENERATIONS to come. The fact that they may have an opportunity this session to actually vote on same-sex "marriage" where it has the same impact on this country that Roe v. Wade did should be motivating enough!
ELECTION DAY, NOV. 4th. Let's begin praying that the American people will have wisdom in voting into office those who will lead our communities and nation with integrity and wisdom from God and DO NO HARM!.
WORLD-WDE PRAYER REQUESTS:
Friday, Sept. 26th - Two Year Anniversary of Pastor Saeed Abedini's Imprisonment in Iran! - [NOTE TODAY'S POST!]
We need to continue to pray for Pastor Saeed - that his health will improve and that he will be re-united with his wife and two young children who live in the United States. [If you have not yet, please sign the petition for his clemency- http://beheardproject.com/saeed#sign]
PRAY ALSO : - For comfort and peace for Saeed’s wife and children here in the U.S.\
- For a strong witness and testimony from Pastor Abedini in the prison where God has placed him
- For Christians around the world who are being persecuted for their faith in Christ
- For leadership from the White House and State Department in defending the freedoms of Abedini and other Americans
"Not Everyone Happy with Religious Ambassador Pick," Caitlin Burke,July 29, 2014;
http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/world/2014/July/Obama-Taps-Rabbi-for-Religious-Freedom-Ambassador/ "..An estimated 76 percent of the world's population live in countries where religious freedom is restricted. Secretary of State John Kerry said the United States must take a strong stand against those violations. "Around the world repressive governments and extremists groups have been crystal clear about what they stand against, so we have to be equally clear about what we must stand for," Kerry said. "We stand for greater freedom, for greater tolerance, greater respect, for rights of freedom of expression and freedom of conscience," he said A key development in the 2013 report is the large number of displaced members of religious communities, including entire Christian communities in Syria and Iraq that have been forced to flee their homes because of persecution."
SIGN A PETITION TO THE UN FOR THE PROTECTION OF CHRISTIANS :" The church in Syria has shone brightly for 2,000 years. But today violence and persecution threatens its survival. Thanks to an incredible response, Open Doors is helping 8,000 families in Syria survive each month. We believe the signatures and prayers of 500,000 people will encourage the UN to act and protect the rights and lives of all Syrians, especially the vulnerable Christian community." Go to: http://lp.opendoorsusa.org/emails/nov-13-action/save-syria.html?utm_source=action&utm_medium=email&utm_content=button&utm_campaign=november
Of course, let's CONTINUE PRAYING FOR AN END TO THE EBOLA CRISIS IN WEST AFRICA AND THE HEALING OF ALL THOSE WHO HAVE BEEN INFECTED.
PRAY FOR THE CRISIS HAPPENING NOW IN IRAQ (see post #907) Pray that allied forces will be able to drive the group ISIS back (see post #964)
/PRAYER ALERT- UKRAINE: As the Lord leads, please pray:
*For God to suppress President Putin’s ambitions to "restore" the Soviet empire.
*For the people of Ukrainen [esp. for the church 'to be THE church'] as they wait to see if the Russian troops will advance.
*About President Obama and to use wisdom in crafting our foreign policy, and wisdom for his advisers.
Continue to Pray for EGYPT - Continue to pray for the tense situation in Egypt and especially for the Christian believers who are being targeted with violence by Muslim Brotherhood members.]
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A voter casts her ballot at a polling station in Oak Park, Illinois. (Photo: Michal Czerwonka/Getty Images)
Elections have become theater. By regularly promising the impossible, political candidates give the dangerous impression that salvation is only one bill, one policy solution away. It breeds impatience, impetuosity and ecstatic hopes in citizens. And it can make us bad voters.
James Madison and Alexander Hamilton had a different understanding of voting than we currently do. The authors of The Federalist Papers understood voting as an exercise in elevating citizens’ minds above the concerns of their engrossing private lives. That is, voting was to be a kind of civic education, preceded by genuine debate, perhaps similar to the Lincoln-Douglas debates.
Such elections might be like the ones Winston Churchill observed during his youth. Common men “took as much interest in national affairs and were as good judges of form in public men, as is now that case about cricket or football,” he wrote. “The newspapers catered obediently for what was at once an educated and a popular taste.”
Today citizens appear far more often interested in and better informed about sports than politics.
Voting can elevate the mind by forcing us to make choices, and choosing can subordinate the passions to reason, if only for a moment. Ronald Reagan, among our greatest statesmen, understood that a people must come to a time for choosing. But too often today we seem to be choosing between two candidates’ different overblown promises rather than making a deliberate choice between two positions.
For instance, our current process focuses little on the character of the representatives. According to the Federalist, they must be practical men of experience—not mere promisors or visionaries. In voting, our duty is “to obtain for rulers men who possess most wisdom to discern, and most virtue to pursue, the common good of the society.” That is, much regarding the fate of our nation depends on citizens’ ability to properly discern the qualities of character of the individuals they elect.
And what should representatives know? How to regulate domestic commerce; understand the diverse interests in the nation (ports, roads, etc.), and tax policy. (When’s the last time you saw a campaign slogan focusing on that knowledge?) They should not, as is current to think, sell citizens a dream about satisfying all desires and fantasies. Sensible, practical politicians can eventually become statesmen; visionaries, on the other hand, usually destroy much before disappointing themselves and voters.
Choice also deals with judging the condition of political freedom—how to properly extend or preserve it. And voting is the ultimate check on government power according to The Federalist Papers: the House of Representatives “should have an immediate dependence on, and an intimate sympathy with, the people.” If the government’s power will be restrained by dependence on the people, the public must understand its role in restraining that government, which has a natural propensity toward expanding its powers and influence.
But it’s not over after the election. The Federalist observes that citizens must “take the most effectual precautions for keeping [representatives] virtuous whilst they continue to hold their public trust.” That’s what elections do. They keep representatives virtuous. To do that, citizens must have the capacity to discern the extent to which their elected representatives in fact fulfill their duties. And not in terms of providing pork, but in creating sensible policy.
We are perhaps too in love with promises and have developed a taste for the impossible. Rather than elections making us rational and prudent, they have become a playground for the imagination. Do we want promisers or effective leaders?
Because if we want the latter, we should consider with more thought our decisions before marking our ballots.
[bold and italics emphasis mine]
Arthur Milikh is assistant director of the B. Kenneth Simon Center for Principles and Politics at The Heritage Foundation.
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"Go Out and Vote - ELECTION DAY 2014" - By: Chuck Colson| Breakpoint.org: November 4, 2014; http://www.breakpoint.org/bpcommentaries/entry/13/26337?spMailingID=9830690&spUserID=MTMyMjM2ODE5OQS2&spJobID=420237853&spReportId=NDIwMjM3ODUzS0
Guns, Bears and Pot: "A Sampling of Election Day’s 147 State Ballot Measures" - Josh Siegel/ November 03, 2014; http://dailysignal.com/2014/11/03/guns-bears-pot-sampling-election-days-147-state-ballot-measures/?utm_source=heritagefoundation&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=morningbell&mkt_tok=3RkMMJWWfF9wsRokv63KZKXonjHpfsX56eguXa%2B3lMI%2F0ER3fOvrPUfGjI4CSMVjI%2BSLDwEYGJlv6SgFQrLBMa1ozrgOWxU%3D
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