Forgot to post this yesterday

Sorry.  I wrote this yesterday but forgot to post it.  Here it is anyways:

This morning is the big voting day.  We get to vote for all sorts of things: presidential candidates, judges, congress, proposals… 
To be honest, last night I set my alarm to go off about 90 minutes earlier than normal.  My reasoning is that I wanted to arrive at church really early in hopes of getting some solid Bible study time before the normal office noise would kick in.  What escaped my mind was the election and that our church building is one of the many precincts that will be flooded with people and phone calls today.  The church phone has not stopped ringing since 6:30am wondering if this was the place to vote and where we were located.  Distraction after distraction cut its way into the day.  So, I have resorted to attempting to get into some deep study and will be closing my door to the noise.  I don’t often close my door, but today may be a good day for it.

Sometimes we just need to shut out the noise in life and simply be content that God is in control.  Passages like Psalm 46:10 – “Be still and know that I am God” and Psalm 131 – “My heart is not proud, Lord, my eyes are not haughty; I do not concern myself with great matters or things too wonderful for me.  But I have calmed and quieted myself, I am like a weaned child with its mother; like a weaned child I am content.  Israel, put your hope in the Lord both now and forevermore.

I am not the biggest fan of elections.  I don’t like talking politics.  It’s not that I am afraid to talk about it or discuss it, I just get a little saddened that most people are more enthusiastic about politics than they are about religion, Christians included.  In fact, politics can make a religious person an extremist (in the negative sense).  The same can be said of Sunday night football, American Pickers, or Storage Wars.  While we have the freedom to vote (I hope you got out to the polls today), our HOPE does not rely in man made things or institutions.  Our HOPE is in Jesus.  Regardless of who wins tonight, that HOPE never changes. 

A good reminder for today comes from Galatians 5:13-18 – “You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh; rather, serve one another humbly in love.  For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”   If you bite and devour each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other.  So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.  For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever you want. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.”

A couple of things to make note of:

1) Congregational Thanksgiving dinner is November 18th at 5pm.  Invite a friend or a neighboring family to come with you.

2) Thank you to the deacons for taking care of the Children's Ministry wing this past week.  If you didn’t know, they blew insulation into the wing to make sure we keep things warm back there this winter and to increase our energy efficiency.  They saved us a lot of money taking the time to do this as a group and I appreciate their willingness to serve!

3) There will be a guest speaker this Sunday as I will be with the youth ministry at Great Lakes Christian College for a Fall retreat.