When I think of stewardship, I am reminded that everything I have is entrusted to me by the grace of God. Really it is all His, and I am his servant, as in Jesus' teaching about the talents in Matthew 25:15-30. Here the master had entrusted one with five talents, a second with two talents and the third with one talent, before leaving on a long journey. When he returned he asked for an accounting, and discovered that the man entrusted with five talents had wisely invested earning five more. The one entrusted with two talents had likewise doubled his master's investment earning two more, but the man with one talent had dug a hole and hidden the talent in the ground earning nothing! The time and opportunity with his master's talent was wasted.
In America God has entrusted us with some awesome blessings. We are the stewards of this freedom, with responsibility not only to guard it well, but to invest it and multiply it for future generations! This November we have the opportunity to prove ourselves faithful stewards. Failure to vote responsibly is paramount to burying your talent in the ground and wasting the opportunity God has given us.
Far too often Christians have failed in this area of stewardship. Paul writes to the church in Corinth, "Moreover it is required in stewards, that a man be found faithful (1Cor. 4:2)." I believe Christians should be the most well-informed, faithful block of voting citizens in the nation. If this had been the case, then abortion would never have been legalized. Prayer would not have been removed from our schools, and we would never elect ungodly leaders to office in this country.
That being said, I want to share how I believe we can be faithful stewards with our opportunity to vote.
With the election a few days away, many people are in a quandary as to what to do, and who to believe, not to mention the non-partisan, judicial races, amendments and resolutions! Therefore, I have put together some resources that I hope will help answer some of those questions. I am am simply gathering and passing along information, and including links so you can do your own research if you like.
Remember your vote DOES matter and is extremely important! "Less than one vote per precinct decided the Republican gubernatorial candidate. If you are tempted to think your vote doesn’t matter, consider the enormous value of each of the 579,031 ballots cast August 10th, when only 85.6% or 6/7ths of a vote per precinct made Deal the candidate."
First, you can see your individualized sample ballot by downloading it from midway down your “My Voter Page” at the Secretary of State’s site. (You can mark it up and take it with you to the polls). There is a link 'to see qualified candidates...', which lists the statewide candidates that appear on your ballot and their websites.
Here is a link is to a website that has a great comparison of Deal and Barnes on 3 important issues, an explanation of the 5 amendments and referendum, and a comparison of the republican and democratic platforms, Georgia Insight.
Sometimes we forget that politics is a team effort. Each team has philosophies, policy objectives, distinctive agendas, and leadership. The major parties are not “all alike” as some claim. They are radically different on such morally important issues as the sanctity of life, definitions of family and marriage, role of parents, role of government, private property, economic freedoms, etc. For a comparison of the major party platforms see the site, I Vote Values Click on the platforms themselves or see the prepared comparison. We vote Republican because we believe that the party and most of its candidates adhere much more to our views of governing than do Democrats. Therefore we recommend you vote for Republicans in each race. I AM NOT CLAIMING THAT THEY ARE ALL CHRISTIANS,but we believe that generally they will make better policy choices than their opponents.
We are now in the middle of SMEAR SEASON! Be prepared for every conservative candidate to be “exposed” as a crook, a moral disaster, or a nut-case in the last days before the election, when no response is possible. Highly organized groups will act to defeat pro-family, pro-life candidates at every level. See the following evidence at blogs.ajc.com. Major media, including the AJC, will likely pile on, because their owners and editorial board are liberal, especially on social issues.
I study the candidates and the issues, but I certainly am not infallible. I encourage you to use these ideas as a resource, and use the links and other information to form your own voting decisions. If you are pressed for time, and choose to use my recommendations, you will find them at them below.
Remember that the Elections are only the beginning. Regardless of who wins, we need to keep praying, keep being informed, keep spreading godly influence to others, and keep holding elected officials accountable.
My choices on the Statewide Georgia races are as follows:(These races will be on every Georgia ballot):
Governor - Nathan Deal, Lt. Governor - Casey Cagle, Secretary of State - Brian Kemp, Attorney General - Sam Olens, Commissioner of Agriculture - Gary Black, Commissioner of Insurance - Ralph Hudgens, School Superintendent - John Barge, Commissioner of Labor - Mark Butler, Public Service Commissioner - Tim Echols.
BALLOTS DIFFER on your U.S. Representative, State Senator, and State Representative. I recommend using the Georgia Right to Life PAC endorsements www.grtl.org.
In my area, the U.S. Representative from the 9th District, Tom Graves is running unopposed, but he does have the endorsement of GRTL. Likewise the candidate for State Senator from the 54th District, Charlie Bethel, runs unopposed with the GRTL endorsement. I will be casting my vote for the incumbent Tom Dickson for State Representative from the 6th District.
It is difficult to get information about the judicial races, because they are non-partisan, and because candidates do not typically share their philosophies or stands on issues. This link gives some background on each of the candidates http://www.georgiainsight.org/ Use links to their websites to check them out yourself.
JUSTICE, SUPREME COURT OF GA:
Tammy Lynn Adkins doesn't appear to be campaigning. It has been said that her strategy is that because she is 1st on the ballot and a woman, she will probably get the most votes and the race will go into a run-off. It is difficult to find out anything about her; even the secretary of state webpage does not even have an address or website for her.
David Nahmias http://www.justicenahmias.com/index.php, clerked with Supreme Court Justice Scalia (this is a good thing in evaluating judicial philosophy). I join many other trusted conservative pro-life people in supporting him.
Matt Wilson http://wilsonforsupremecourt.com/, He was interviewed and is pro-life. Trusted conservative pro-life people are supporting him.
JUDGE, COURT OF APPEALS: With 6 candidates, this is an extremely difficult race to discern, and there will undoubtedly be a run-off. This link gives some background on each of the candidates http://www.georgiainsight.org/archives/September%202010.pdf
James Babalola www.jamesbabalola.com
Antoinette "Toni" Davis www.votetoni.com
Stan Gunter www.votestangunter.com
Adrienne Hunter-Strothers www.adriennehunterstrothers2010.com
Chris McFadden http://www.mcfaddenforappealscourt.com/
David Schaeffer http://schaefferforcourtofappeals.com/index.aspx
STATE CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENTS AND A REFERENDUM: On these I simply offer the following as my best effort working through the wording and calling others who understand the legal language much better than I do.
#1 “Competitive Contracts” NO, this would hold employees hostage and many non-compete contracts would actually reduce competition
#2 “Trauma Care tax” NO, funding should be carved out of the State Budget if it is a priority, and it is.
#3 “Multi-year Transportation Contracts” NO, allows the DOT to agree to a project it may not be able pay for in the long-term and gives the appointed DOT rather than the elected legislature budgetary control.
#4 “Multi-year Energy Efficiency and Conservation Contracts” NO, this has been tried federally but abandoned due to increased costs.
#5 “Industrial Zone Opt-Out” YES, to correct a previous exception for 2 Georgia Counties
Referendum “A”: “Inventory Tax Repeal” YES, this benefits business, job growth, and all of us.
Links to others people’s advice on the amendments and the referendum:
Sue Ella Deadwyler, an amazing woman who has volunteered her time for over 25 years at the capitol analyzing bills and informing the public http://georgiainsight.org/?page_id=92: N,N,N,N,Y; Y www.georgiainsight.org/
Bob Griggs, an entrepreneur and member of Engage Gwinnett: Y,N,Y,N,Y; Y fullest analysis we have seen yet (but I think he is wrong about amendment 1, see comments following his) http://www.talkgwinnett.net/main/section/88888911-bobg/1924-2010-proposed-amendments-and-ballot-questions
I want to thank Gen Wilson for her email inspiring this blog article, many of my friends and work associates who have helped me work through this lengthy process this year. May God bless you as you vote responsibly. Blessings.
Saturday, October 30, 2010
Thursday, September 30, 2010
Does the World Hate You?
Jesus warned us that we would be hated:
If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you. John 15:18-19 NIV
But what if the world doesn't hate us? What would it mean if we are "friendly" with the world? Listen to the words of James.
You adulterous people, don't you know that friendship with the world is hatred toward God? Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God. James 4:4 NIV
We all want to be liked. That's the reason the "I'm - OK - you;re - OK" philosophy became so popular. We have learned to "not make waves," but God wants some wave-makers, some folks like Jason and the Christian brothers in Thessalonica who were dragged into the street with the following accusation:
Acts 17:6-7
These men who have caused trouble all over the world have now come here, and Jason has welcomed them into his house. They are all defying Caesar's decrees, saying that there is another king, one called Jesus. Acts 17:6-7 NIV
God is looking for those who will serve Him no matter what, those who don't care what the world thinks about them, those who don't need to be politically correct, who don't have to be loved by the world. He wants to pour out His blessing on those who are satisfied with His love.
The young woman in this video certainly challenges us to be willing to be hated for Christ's sake. May God stir our hearts through her challenge. Does the world hate you? "Are you willing to be hated?"
If you were blessed by the video above then you won't want to miss part two included here. Gianna Jessen has certainly stirred my heart.
May we be stirred and changed, and rise to challenge we are given to glorify God!
Saturday, September 25, 2010
Renewing our National Strength
You and I have a rendezvous with destiny. We will preserve for our children this, the last best hope of man on earth, or we will sentence them to take the first step into a thousand years of darkness. If we fail, at least let our children and our children's children say of us we justified our brief moment here. We did all that could be done. - Ronald Reagan
If you're afraid of the future, then get out of the way, stand aside. The people of this country are ready to move again. - Ronald Reagan
He motivated a nation to triumph over the difficulties of the day and handed the next administration an America that was strong and proud! We faced the the difficulties head on, and even though the results of his economic policies weren't immediate, we rallied and pulled out of the slump we were in, and Bill Clinton inherited a recovering economy for which he gladly (albeit wrongfully) took full credit. The Reagan economic rebound was such that in spite of all Clinton's character flaws, the people celebrated by re-electing Clinton for a second term. We survived eight years of the Clinton's because of Ronald Reagan's leadership.
Today our nation faces it's greatest challenge ever. Where is the Ronald Reagan of this new millennium? It certainly isn't Barak Obama. He has taken us further in the wrong direction than any other president in American History, and at an alarming cost! Can we recover? Let me share another Reagan quote.
Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn't pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children's children what it was once like in the United States where men were free. - Ronald Reagan
Yes, we can recover, but I believe this November is critical! Let's get out the vote, and take our country back for FREEDOM!
Listen to this awesome message from Reagan himself, and pray for America! May we renew our National Strength.
Monday, September 13, 2010
Ken Raggio: Angels and Holy Smoke
My wife Crystal has been searching the internet for a song she remembers by the Rivialtime Choir. As she was searching she came across a site with this article by Pastor Ken Raggio in Texas. He had been in the Choir while in College, but afterwards went to Texas to pastor. This article was such a blessing that I have re-posted it here.
Ken Raggio: Angels and Holy Smoke: "A Modern Tale of Signs, Wonders and Miracles By Ken Raggio
In 1984, my young family and I moved to a little town in Central Texas to assume the pastorate of a small church congregation of about 50 people. It was a cowboy community, as ranching was the primary industry. The county was inhabited by 4,000 people, 5,000 head of cattle, and 10,000 hogs. The two largest employers were a feed mill and a manufacturer of western-style leather belts.
We worked hard and long for the first year or two, trying to win the hearts of the people, and begin an outreach into the community. I confess that I was a city-slicker far out of my element. I knew nothing of riding horses, hunting deer, running herds of angora goats, milk dairies or hog farms.
My only specialty was having church. I could preach and teach and sing and make music. We prayed and asked God to help us reach lost souls and build a church.
I purchased a weekly time-slot on the local AM radio station so I could broadcast a thirty minute program every Sunday morning. Since there was only one radio station in the county, I had a captive audience. The radio station scheduled my Pentecostal preaching right before the local Church of Christ minister. After several weeks on the air, I happened to leave the radio on one morning after my program concluded. I discovered that the Church of Christ minister was using his thirty minutes every Sunday to attempt to refute everything I had just said on my earlier time-slot. It became a real challenge to prepare the most convincing program I could each week that could not be effectively refuted.
One Saturday night, I went into the church alone to record the thirty-minute program for the next morning's broadcast. It was almost midnight when I cued up the tape to record that program. I said a prayer, made some announcements, played a recorded song, and then preached a twenty-minute sermon. Every week, when I finished the task, I would get in my car and drive a few blocks over to the radio station and drop off the tape-recorded program for the next morning's broadcast.
But that night, something very unusual happened. Since it was late, and I was in the building alone, I only turned on one row of lights, which only dimly lit the auditorium. My work-station was at the audio-recording equipment located in the sound booth in the back corner of the auditorium.
As I preached the sermon onto the tape, I felt the inspiration and Presence of the Lord as I spoke. When I finished the thirty-minute program, I stopped the tape and pressed the rewind button.
I looked up toward the pulpit and the platform. When I did, I saw movement. There was a door to the outside located on the left side of the stage. I saw a row of angels walk through the unopened door and walk across the front of the auditorium and stand as if they were soldiers at attention. They were in a shadowy, spirit-form. I watched as one of the angels walked back toward the door, then turned up the aisle along the wall. He came to the third-from-the-last pew on that row and stopped. He stood at the end of that pew for what seemed like a few minutes. Then he and all the other angels vanished.
I sat in the sound booth dumbfounded. I did not know what I had just witnessed. I could not imagine why they had come, or what they were doing. I prayed and asked God to tell me what I should think about what I had just seen.
After a while, I took the tape recording out of the machine, went to my car, drove to the radio station and dropped it off in the front office.
As I drove home, I questioned the meaning of the angelic visitors. I decided that I would pay particular attention on Sunday morning to whoever sat in the pew where the angel had stood. That place on the pew was not normally occupied, so I was curious to see who, if anyone, would sit there the next morning in the church service.
The Sunday morning schedule consisted of two segments. The first hour was for Sunday School. All ages were divided into classes, and I taught the Adult Bible Class in the auditorium. At the end of the first hour, all the classes were dismissed, and everyone came into the auditorium for a worship service of singing and preaching.
During the Sunday School Class in the first hour, nobody sat on the special pew. I felt a little anxious about that. But when people began to come into the auditorium from their classes, the church pianist sat down on the end of that pew. She had never sit there before during a service. As the morning worship service began, I spoke to her from the pulpit. "Sister Neita, I want to tell you that I have been waiting all morning to see who would sit in that pew today, because last night, I saw the angel of the Lord standing at the end of that pew. I do not know for certain what it means, but I believe that he left a blessing for whoever sat in that pew. We will just wait and see what happens." With that, we opened the service with praise and worship.
That night, in the Sunday evening service, Sister Neita's 76-year-old father came to church. That was really big news, because for her entire lifetime, she had been trying to get her father to come to church with her, and he had refused. She and her mother had been faithful to God for all those years without the support of her father. He never did like church, and would never come.
But that night, he sat on the back pew, and lifted his hands in worship when the rest of the congregation worshipped. He listened carefully to the sermon as it was preached. At the end of the service, when the invitation was given to come to the altar and pray, Horice walked down the aisle, knelt at the altar, and wept bitterly as he repented of his sins and gave his heart to God. Suddenly, the Spirit of the Lord came upon him, and he began to speak in tongues as the Spirit gave him the utterance.
When that happened, the entire congregation "went wild" praising and worshipping God, for indeed a notable miracle had just happened before their eyes. Sister Neita and her mother wept and praised God when they saw him born of the Spirit that night. The very next Sunday, he was back in Church again. This time, he presented himself for water baptism. After praying for more than forty years for God to save him, his wife and daughter stood and watched as I baptized him in the name of Jesus for the remission of his sins. He came up out of the water, again speaking in tongues, worshipping God and weeping for joy. That was one of the most exciting conversions that little church had ever seen.
The news of Horice's conversion traveled all over town. Nobody could believe that old Horice had gotten religion. He seemed the most unlikely person. But God knew his heart, and the angel of the Lord came to minister to that family that year. In the months following, I saw both him and his wife receive miraculous healing of acute heart ailments, as prayer was made in their home. He had been at the point of death on several occasions, but was strengthened, and enjoyed several more years of good health. Horice became a faithful saint, and often testified about how thankful he was that God had mercy on him and saved his soul.
Horice's conversion seemed to be only the beginning of the greatest revival that church had ever seen in its 50-year history.
I received a phone call from my Pastor, John Harrell. He told me that there was a man in his congregation who was having much success teaching home Bible studies to new prospects. A high percentage of his prospects were coming to church and being born again. He suggested that I should invite him to come to our church and instruct my congregation in how to conduct effective home Bible studies. I eagerly accepted his suggestion, and made the phone call to schedule a three-day seminar to begin the very next Sunday.
I spent several days that week in fasting and prayer for the success of those meetings. On Sunday afternoon, the guest minister arrived, and we prepared for the Sunday evening service to begin at 6 PM.
Before the service began that night, one of the saints came to me with a special request for prayer. Her husband's brother and family were visiting in the service that night. She told me that their 10-year-old daughter had gone blind, and asked that we have special prayer for her if we thought it was appropriate. I told her that we would.
During the first part of the service, I led the congregation in singing and worship. When the time came to introduce the speaker, I whispered to him that we had a special request for prayer. I quickly told him the details, and gave him the names of the girl and her parents.
As soon as he stepped to the pulpit to speak to us, he went directly to the matter of praying for the little girl. "Arthur and Rosa, would you like to bring your little daughter forward so we can pray for her tonight?" Rosa stepped out into the aisle with her blind daughter, and they began to walk to the front of the building.
Suddenly, one of the saints began to deliver a message in tongues, (as the Apostle Paul taught about in 1 Corinthians 12:7-11; 14:22). After the message in tongues was given, another saint interpreted the message. The Spirit said, "I am Jehovah Rapha of the Old Testament - the Lord that Healeth. I am Jesus Christ of the New (Testament). I took thirty-nine stripes for your healing, and tonight I will heal you."
The little girl screamed out, "I CAN SEE!! I can see!"
Before prayer was even made, God performed an amazing miracle of healing for 10-year-old Lori. Spontaneous praise rose up in the congregation. The people lifted their hands and their voices and wept as they worshipped God for the notable miracle they had just seen.
The minister walked down the aisle toward the child and her mother. He laid his hands on the mother's head, and she began to speak in other tongues as God filled her with the Holy Ghost. Shortly, he turned and saw the father standing with his hands in the air, weeping and worshiping God. He walked over and laid his hand on the young dad's head and he also began to speak in other tongues as God filled him with the Holy Ghost.
That night was the beginning of a great wave of blessings that swept over that city for more than a year.
The next day, on Monday, they took the little girl to the doctor and confirmed that she had indeed received a miraculous healing. Her best eye had 20-20 vision. Her acute glaucoma had disappeared. The twitching that she had had for so long had stopped. She could see perfectly, and could even read again. She did not even need glasses.
The word spread quickly among her family and friends.
We never did finish that seminar. Instead of having a seminar, we began to have evangelistic services. Relatives of the "miracle girl" came to church Monday night, and six adult members of that family came forward to repent of their sins and give their lives to God. All six were filled with the Holy Ghost that night and spoke in tongues as the Spirit of the Lord came upon them.
Several teenage boys were sitting on the front row that night. As he preached his sermon, the minister suddenly discerned, without having been told, that one of them had been suffering for some time with a leg injury. He walked over to the teenager and said, "When you go to the doctor this week to have it examined, your leg is going to be perfectly well."
The minister had no other way of knowing, except by the Spirit, what he had just said. But the facts were that the young man had been seriously injured on his shin in a sporting accident. His leg had been severely infected for several months. He had been going to a wound clinic for treatments, and the treatments were not working very well. His lower leg had been in bandages for months, and he was scheduled to go back to the doctor the very next morning to have another treatment.
However, when he went to the doctor the next day, they found as they removed the bandages, that his leg was perfectly healed without even a scar. The news of that miracle quickly spread through his family and around town. That night, several more new faces were in the congregation.
One young couple came with their baby, who was less than a year old. For months, their infant had suffered with a horrible skin disease that looked like the chicken pox. The poor child looked awful, and the parents were obviously stressed from the ordeal. The baby had spent days in the local hospital without any improvement. Then she was taken to a regional hospital, where more tests and treatments were performed, still with no improvement. Finally, the child was taken to a large hospital in Fort Worth, where even more tests and more treatments were done.
The baby's grandmother came with the parents and stood for prayer. We anointed the child with oil, in the name of the Lord, and prayed (according to James 5:14-15). The entire congregation prayed the prayer of faith that night.
At 8 o'clock the next morning, the doorbell rang at the parsonage. I answered the door to see the same grandmother, mother, and baby standing there. The baby looked like a brand-new child. The horrible splotches had completely disappeared overnight, and the baby's skin was perfectly healed from head to toe. It was an amazing sight to behold. Both the grandmother and the mother laughed and cried as they rejoiced over what God had done.
What began as a three-night seminar, became instead a six-week series of revival services. FORTY-THREE MEMBERS of the little blind girl's extended family came to church, repented of their sins, received the Baptism of the Holy Ghost, and were baptized in water in Jesus' name for the remission of their sins.
It was a glorious time. During that time, I walked into the church one Sunday morning to prepare the building for the morning services. As I unlocked the doors and turned on the lights, I saw that the auditorium was filled with smoke. I was alarmed to see it, and wondered what was going wrong. It appeared that something was on fire. I quickly went through the entire building looking for the source of the smoke. At last, the only cause I could imagine was that the air conditioning system must be pumping smoke into the auditorium.
But I checked all the air conditioning systems, and there was no problem anywhere with the air conditioning. Suddenly, it occurred to me that there was no odor, and no physical source of the smoke.
That is when I realized that the presence of the Lord was in the place. This, I thought, must be the Shekinah - the glory cloud, like Moses saw in the Tabernacle.
The miracles and healings and conversions continued unabated. Over the next few months, over one hundred and twenty people were baptized and were filled with the Holy Ghost in that little church. The congregation grew from 50 to 125 in attendance. The stories of the miracles we saw could fill a book.
I was attending a ministers' conference a few years later, and listened with amazement to a minister from a large Pentecostal church on the East Coast tell a story that sounded amazingly similar to ours.
He told about being alone in his church auditorium on a Saturday night as he walked the aisles and prayed for God's blessings on the Sunday services. As he stood in the low lights of an empty auditorium, he saw a line of angels enter the front of the building and walk around the entire building. He stood in silence as they moved for several minutes, then suddenly disappeared.
"God! What am I seeing?" he asked. "Those are the angels of revival," came the answer.
In the year following that occurrence, that congregation experienced the greatest influx of new souls in its entire history. Over 800 people were baptized in Jesus' name and received the gift of the Holy Ghost that year.
So the days of miracles are over?
Don't you believe it.
I've seen angels and holy smoke.
Ken Raggio: Angels and Holy Smoke: "A Modern Tale of Signs, Wonders and Miracles By Ken Raggio
In 1984, my young family and I moved to a little town in Central Texas to assume the pastorate of a small church congregation of about 50 people. It was a cowboy community, as ranching was the primary industry. The county was inhabited by 4,000 people, 5,000 head of cattle, and 10,000 hogs. The two largest employers were a feed mill and a manufacturer of western-style leather belts.
We worked hard and long for the first year or two, trying to win the hearts of the people, and begin an outreach into the community. I confess that I was a city-slicker far out of my element. I knew nothing of riding horses, hunting deer, running herds of angora goats, milk dairies or hog farms.
My only specialty was having church. I could preach and teach and sing and make music. We prayed and asked God to help us reach lost souls and build a church.
I purchased a weekly time-slot on the local AM radio station so I could broadcast a thirty minute program every Sunday morning. Since there was only one radio station in the county, I had a captive audience. The radio station scheduled my Pentecostal preaching right before the local Church of Christ minister. After several weeks on the air, I happened to leave the radio on one morning after my program concluded. I discovered that the Church of Christ minister was using his thirty minutes every Sunday to attempt to refute everything I had just said on my earlier time-slot. It became a real challenge to prepare the most convincing program I could each week that could not be effectively refuted.
One Saturday night, I went into the church alone to record the thirty-minute program for the next morning's broadcast. It was almost midnight when I cued up the tape to record that program. I said a prayer, made some announcements, played a recorded song, and then preached a twenty-minute sermon. Every week, when I finished the task, I would get in my car and drive a few blocks over to the radio station and drop off the tape-recorded program for the next morning's broadcast.
But that night, something very unusual happened. Since it was late, and I was in the building alone, I only turned on one row of lights, which only dimly lit the auditorium. My work-station was at the audio-recording equipment located in the sound booth in the back corner of the auditorium.
As I preached the sermon onto the tape, I felt the inspiration and Presence of the Lord as I spoke. When I finished the thirty-minute program, I stopped the tape and pressed the rewind button.
I looked up toward the pulpit and the platform. When I did, I saw movement. There was a door to the outside located on the left side of the stage. I saw a row of angels walk through the unopened door and walk across the front of the auditorium and stand as if they were soldiers at attention. They were in a shadowy, spirit-form. I watched as one of the angels walked back toward the door, then turned up the aisle along the wall. He came to the third-from-the-last pew on that row and stopped. He stood at the end of that pew for what seemed like a few minutes. Then he and all the other angels vanished.
I sat in the sound booth dumbfounded. I did not know what I had just witnessed. I could not imagine why they had come, or what they were doing. I prayed and asked God to tell me what I should think about what I had just seen.
After a while, I took the tape recording out of the machine, went to my car, drove to the radio station and dropped it off in the front office.
As I drove home, I questioned the meaning of the angelic visitors. I decided that I would pay particular attention on Sunday morning to whoever sat in the pew where the angel had stood. That place on the pew was not normally occupied, so I was curious to see who, if anyone, would sit there the next morning in the church service.
The Sunday morning schedule consisted of two segments. The first hour was for Sunday School. All ages were divided into classes, and I taught the Adult Bible Class in the auditorium. At the end of the first hour, all the classes were dismissed, and everyone came into the auditorium for a worship service of singing and preaching.
During the Sunday School Class in the first hour, nobody sat on the special pew. I felt a little anxious about that. But when people began to come into the auditorium from their classes, the church pianist sat down on the end of that pew. She had never sit there before during a service. As the morning worship service began, I spoke to her from the pulpit. "Sister Neita, I want to tell you that I have been waiting all morning to see who would sit in that pew today, because last night, I saw the angel of the Lord standing at the end of that pew. I do not know for certain what it means, but I believe that he left a blessing for whoever sat in that pew. We will just wait and see what happens." With that, we opened the service with praise and worship.
That night, in the Sunday evening service, Sister Neita's 76-year-old father came to church. That was really big news, because for her entire lifetime, she had been trying to get her father to come to church with her, and he had refused. She and her mother had been faithful to God for all those years without the support of her father. He never did like church, and would never come.
But that night, he sat on the back pew, and lifted his hands in worship when the rest of the congregation worshipped. He listened carefully to the sermon as it was preached. At the end of the service, when the invitation was given to come to the altar and pray, Horice walked down the aisle, knelt at the altar, and wept bitterly as he repented of his sins and gave his heart to God. Suddenly, the Spirit of the Lord came upon him, and he began to speak in tongues as the Spirit gave him the utterance.
When that happened, the entire congregation "went wild" praising and worshipping God, for indeed a notable miracle had just happened before their eyes. Sister Neita and her mother wept and praised God when they saw him born of the Spirit that night. The very next Sunday, he was back in Church again. This time, he presented himself for water baptism. After praying for more than forty years for God to save him, his wife and daughter stood and watched as I baptized him in the name of Jesus for the remission of his sins. He came up out of the water, again speaking in tongues, worshipping God and weeping for joy. That was one of the most exciting conversions that little church had ever seen.
The news of Horice's conversion traveled all over town. Nobody could believe that old Horice had gotten religion. He seemed the most unlikely person. But God knew his heart, and the angel of the Lord came to minister to that family that year. In the months following, I saw both him and his wife receive miraculous healing of acute heart ailments, as prayer was made in their home. He had been at the point of death on several occasions, but was strengthened, and enjoyed several more years of good health. Horice became a faithful saint, and often testified about how thankful he was that God had mercy on him and saved his soul.
Horice's conversion seemed to be only the beginning of the greatest revival that church had ever seen in its 50-year history.
I received a phone call from my Pastor, John Harrell. He told me that there was a man in his congregation who was having much success teaching home Bible studies to new prospects. A high percentage of his prospects were coming to church and being born again. He suggested that I should invite him to come to our church and instruct my congregation in how to conduct effective home Bible studies. I eagerly accepted his suggestion, and made the phone call to schedule a three-day seminar to begin the very next Sunday.
I spent several days that week in fasting and prayer for the success of those meetings. On Sunday afternoon, the guest minister arrived, and we prepared for the Sunday evening service to begin at 6 PM.
Before the service began that night, one of the saints came to me with a special request for prayer. Her husband's brother and family were visiting in the service that night. She told me that their 10-year-old daughter had gone blind, and asked that we have special prayer for her if we thought it was appropriate. I told her that we would.
During the first part of the service, I led the congregation in singing and worship. When the time came to introduce the speaker, I whispered to him that we had a special request for prayer. I quickly told him the details, and gave him the names of the girl and her parents.
As soon as he stepped to the pulpit to speak to us, he went directly to the matter of praying for the little girl. "Arthur and Rosa, would you like to bring your little daughter forward so we can pray for her tonight?" Rosa stepped out into the aisle with her blind daughter, and they began to walk to the front of the building.
Suddenly, one of the saints began to deliver a message in tongues, (as the Apostle Paul taught about in 1 Corinthians 12:7-11; 14:22). After the message in tongues was given, another saint interpreted the message. The Spirit said, "I am Jehovah Rapha of the Old Testament - the Lord that Healeth. I am Jesus Christ of the New (Testament). I took thirty-nine stripes for your healing, and tonight I will heal you."
The little girl screamed out, "I CAN SEE!! I can see!"
Before prayer was even made, God performed an amazing miracle of healing for 10-year-old Lori. Spontaneous praise rose up in the congregation. The people lifted their hands and their voices and wept as they worshipped God for the notable miracle they had just seen.
The minister walked down the aisle toward the child and her mother. He laid his hands on the mother's head, and she began to speak in other tongues as God filled her with the Holy Ghost. Shortly, he turned and saw the father standing with his hands in the air, weeping and worshiping God. He walked over and laid his hand on the young dad's head and he also began to speak in other tongues as God filled him with the Holy Ghost.
That night was the beginning of a great wave of blessings that swept over that city for more than a year.
The next day, on Monday, they took the little girl to the doctor and confirmed that she had indeed received a miraculous healing. Her best eye had 20-20 vision. Her acute glaucoma had disappeared. The twitching that she had had for so long had stopped. She could see perfectly, and could even read again. She did not even need glasses.
The word spread quickly among her family and friends.
We never did finish that seminar. Instead of having a seminar, we began to have evangelistic services. Relatives of the "miracle girl" came to church Monday night, and six adult members of that family came forward to repent of their sins and give their lives to God. All six were filled with the Holy Ghost that night and spoke in tongues as the Spirit of the Lord came upon them.
Several teenage boys were sitting on the front row that night. As he preached his sermon, the minister suddenly discerned, without having been told, that one of them had been suffering for some time with a leg injury. He walked over to the teenager and said, "When you go to the doctor this week to have it examined, your leg is going to be perfectly well."
The minister had no other way of knowing, except by the Spirit, what he had just said. But the facts were that the young man had been seriously injured on his shin in a sporting accident. His leg had been severely infected for several months. He had been going to a wound clinic for treatments, and the treatments were not working very well. His lower leg had been in bandages for months, and he was scheduled to go back to the doctor the very next morning to have another treatment.
However, when he went to the doctor the next day, they found as they removed the bandages, that his leg was perfectly healed without even a scar. The news of that miracle quickly spread through his family and around town. That night, several more new faces were in the congregation.
One young couple came with their baby, who was less than a year old. For months, their infant had suffered with a horrible skin disease that looked like the chicken pox. The poor child looked awful, and the parents were obviously stressed from the ordeal. The baby had spent days in the local hospital without any improvement. Then she was taken to a regional hospital, where more tests and treatments were performed, still with no improvement. Finally, the child was taken to a large hospital in Fort Worth, where even more tests and more treatments were done.
The baby's grandmother came with the parents and stood for prayer. We anointed the child with oil, in the name of the Lord, and prayed (according to James 5:14-15). The entire congregation prayed the prayer of faith that night.
At 8 o'clock the next morning, the doorbell rang at the parsonage. I answered the door to see the same grandmother, mother, and baby standing there. The baby looked like a brand-new child. The horrible splotches had completely disappeared overnight, and the baby's skin was perfectly healed from head to toe. It was an amazing sight to behold. Both the grandmother and the mother laughed and cried as they rejoiced over what God had done.
What began as a three-night seminar, became instead a six-week series of revival services. FORTY-THREE MEMBERS of the little blind girl's extended family came to church, repented of their sins, received the Baptism of the Holy Ghost, and were baptized in water in Jesus' name for the remission of their sins.
It was a glorious time. During that time, I walked into the church one Sunday morning to prepare the building for the morning services. As I unlocked the doors and turned on the lights, I saw that the auditorium was filled with smoke. I was alarmed to see it, and wondered what was going wrong. It appeared that something was on fire. I quickly went through the entire building looking for the source of the smoke. At last, the only cause I could imagine was that the air conditioning system must be pumping smoke into the auditorium.
But I checked all the air conditioning systems, and there was no problem anywhere with the air conditioning. Suddenly, it occurred to me that there was no odor, and no physical source of the smoke.
That is when I realized that the presence of the Lord was in the place. This, I thought, must be the Shekinah - the glory cloud, like Moses saw in the Tabernacle.
The miracles and healings and conversions continued unabated. Over the next few months, over one hundred and twenty people were baptized and were filled with the Holy Ghost in that little church. The congregation grew from 50 to 125 in attendance. The stories of the miracles we saw could fill a book.
I was attending a ministers' conference a few years later, and listened with amazement to a minister from a large Pentecostal church on the East Coast tell a story that sounded amazingly similar to ours.
He told about being alone in his church auditorium on a Saturday night as he walked the aisles and prayed for God's blessings on the Sunday services. As he stood in the low lights of an empty auditorium, he saw a line of angels enter the front of the building and walk around the entire building. He stood in silence as they moved for several minutes, then suddenly disappeared.
"God! What am I seeing?" he asked. "Those are the angels of revival," came the answer.
In the year following that occurrence, that congregation experienced the greatest influx of new souls in its entire history. Over 800 people were baptized in Jesus' name and received the gift of the Holy Ghost that year.
So the days of miracles are over?
Don't you believe it.
I've seen angels and holy smoke.
Sunday, September 12, 2010
Unforgettable Morning
In you O Lord, I have taken refuge; let me never be put to shame. Rescue me and deliver me in your righteousness; turn your ear to me and save me. Be my rock of refuge, to which I can always go; give the command to save me, for you are my rock and my fortress. Deliver me, O my God, from the hand of the wicked, from the grasp of evil and cruel men.
The Psalmist begins describing the need for refuge and rescue. Then in the 14th verse of this same chapter he writes,
But as for me, I will always have hope; I will praise you more and more.
Today, I encourage you to lay hold of hope! God has a plan for you to give you hope and a future!
Thursday, September 9, 2010
Change We Need?
Notice that we did have some clues! One of the most obvious was the Obama/Ayers association. Why didn't people take this stuff serious? The launching pad for Obama's political career was Ayers' living room! Why would someone like Ayers, whose group (the Weather Underground) was bombing the United States, be promoting the political career of Barrack Obama? Both seem to be clearly set on fundamental transformation of the United States, but this is not "change we need!"
Follow the trail. Ayers' partner, Jeff Jones, heads the Apollo Alliance in New York, and it is the Apollo Allliance that was largely responsible for writing the stimulus bill. Yes they are all about change all right, but this kind of change is the beginning of Socialism, and the end of America as we know it. People who are bombing America are not the people you put your confidence in to guide us into a secure future. These people are about the demise of the America we know and love!
It's time to wake up, and rescue our nation while we have a window of opportunity to do something! We just thought we needed change before. Now we have come to a place of desperation. The good news is that it's not too late, and to borrow another phrase, "Yes, we can" take our country back!
Sunday, September 5, 2010
Another Great Awakening in America?
Now, I applaud Glenn Beck for all he is doing to restore the values of nation, which when you look closely, are rooted in the Judeo-Christian values that have made our nation great. Still we must be clear that just any faith will not do! Our faith must be rooted in Truth!
This past weekend his guests were: Rabbi Daniel Lapin of the American Alliance of Christians and Jews, Pastor Miles McPherson of "The Rock Church," and the Decorated Vietnam Veteran, Dave Roever. It was a great program, and I encourage you to see it. If you missed it on Fox, you can see it at this site, www.watchglennbeck.com. Please take time to see this video of the September 3rd program. You'll be glad you did.
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
Reclaiming our Christian Heritage
The school bus is rolling again, and the parking lot at the high school is full before 8:30 each morning. Classes have begun. Even though the heat hasn’t let up much, summer vacation is over. The kids are back in school, but what are they learning? I am more concerned than ever about what we are teaching our children. I for one would never have believed we would live to see that day when we would see our history re-written in order to support biased belief systems. That’s right, you read it correctly, and this is no conspiracy theory. It has actually been a concerted effort to distort the truth about the undeniably Christian roots of our nation, and her founding fathers.
Do you realize the first English Bible printed in America was printed by the U.S. Congress in 1782? The records state that this Bible was an edition of the Holy Scripture for the use of our schools! If you think that’s surprising, note that on the inside of the cover it was printed that this edition of the Bible was recommended by Congress to the inhabitants of the United States! Hey, it’s been a long time now since I was in school, but we certainly never heard anything like that! I attended high school in the 70’s, graduating in 1975, and by that time we were hearing plenty about the separation of church and state, and surely our government would never be guilty of such blatant support of religion, as to both print and promote and addition of the Bible authorized by Congress! Now we are told that they don’t want any kind of religion in schools, and certainly no prayer in our public schools, not even before our football games.
Did you know that in the Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol building there are four paintings commissioned by Congress in 1830 to represent the Christian History of the United States? The paintings span a hundred and twenty eight years, from Columbus in 1492 to the Pilgrims in 1620. They depict prayer meetings, a baptism, and bible study. Our heritage has an undeniably biblical, Christian foundation.
Have you heard contemporary educators claim that our founding fathers were more deist, than Christian? Often they select Thomas Jefferson as one of their primary examples, with claims that he was the least Christian of all. Perhaps then you will find it most interesting then that Thomas Jefferson was responsible for turning the Capital building into a church on Sundays, and during his eight years as President he attended church in the Capitol. Church services in the Capitol continued for next hundred years, and by 1857 there were over 2000 people in attendance in these worship services.
No one has done more exhaustive work to restore our historical foundation than David Barton, the Founder and President of Wall Builders, which is a national organization dedicated to presenting our forgotten history and its heroes. We can join our voices with Mr. Barton and others demanding that we teach the whole truth in our schools. Now is the time for us to come together reclaiming our Christian heritage.
Mr. Barton has several great resources available, including America's Godly Heritage
, a hour long DVD presentation of these truths, and The American Heritage Series
, a collection of ten DVD's with 26 sessions filled with awesome insights from our history.
Thursday, August 19, 2010
Little Flowers Never Worry!
It's pouring rain outside, but just before the deluge, the wind began to blow and outside the front window of our house is this large blossom pictured at the left. Notice the different positions of the flower as it is tossed in the wind. It was tossed left and right, and back again, several times, and when the rain began pouring down it bowed very low. I remember some lines from and old song that reads like this:
Little flowers never worry, when the wind begins to blow,
and they never never cry, when the rain begins to fall.
After a couple additional stanzas the song continues with these words:
Oh I guess they've learned the secret; They don't fret because they know, If it never, never rained, then they'd never, never grow.
Perhaps it feels like the storm clouds have gathered in your life today. Maybe the winds are blowing, and you are tossed about. Take heart! Be encouraged, God is still on the throne. He hasn't forgotten any of His precious promises to you.
"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to proper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future (Jeremiah 29:11 NIV)."
Sunday, August 15, 2010
My Library
PC Study Bible 4 Advanced Reference Library
Boy, has my library ever changed through the years! I still have lots of books, and reference works. The shelves in my study are full. I have the complete set of The Biblical Illustrator, Tyndale's Commentaries on the New Testament, The Preacher's Homiletic Commentary Series, and Barclay's New Testament Commentaries just to name a few. You should have seen my desk when I would research a topic with all those books. Alongside my bible, I would have Strong's Concordance open along with some Greek or Hebrew Lexicon's and several commentaries. I would have an idea and then get up to search through my books, looking for the reference I needed. It was a rewarding task, but definitely very time consuming. Technology has really made an impact on my study, and wow! has it ever multiplied my library!
I started with a little program that was only ten megabytes on an old XT Computer. Those ten megabytes were enormous to me then. Yes, there was room enough for the entire King James Bible, all of Strong's Exhaustive Concordance, along dictionaries of Hebrew and Greek words in the Old and New Testaments. Well My Study has come a long way, baby! Now I have hundreds of reference works available right on my laptop through a program that Hubert and I use called PC Study Bible 4 Advanced Reference Library
. And if that's not enough, the World Wide Web is also available with just a key stroke or two!There's no way my bookshelves can hold my library anymore, but there is one thing must be the same. God's Word is still the same. It is spiritually written and the Holy Spirit is still our best teacher. Blessings.
Monday, August 9, 2010
Hucakabee Endorses Deal and Graves!
Wow, is this ever a big deal in the Republican primary this year? Handel gets the endorsement from Palin, and Deal follows with the endorsement of Mike Huckabee! Well, before I just up and blurt it out that I am joining Huckabee in his endorsements of of Deal and Graves... oops! Guess , I already did. Well, still let me explain. I am certainly more impressed with the Huckabee endorsement than I am the Gingrich endorsement, and the Georgia Right to Life endorsement really matters to me! Values matter, and I know that Handel has raised the issue that she is pro-life even though she didn't qualify for the GRTL endorsement. She just had too many exceptions. That doesn't mean that I believe she is an evil woman. In the Primary we are just trying to determine who is the best person for the job, and I am convinced that Nathan Deal is that person for us right now.Do you get all of those slick glossy political mailers in your mail box too? I guess those have also tended to help me make a decision in this race. Right from the start the Handel campaign made attacking her opponents a major thrust. The goal was apparently to paint the rest as the corrupt-politics-as-usual crowd, and herself as the people's champion. I think she is gambling on the political unrest in the parties and the success of the tea party. Unfortunately, she hasn't told the whole truth and nothing but the truth in her attack ads, and I'm afraid the dirty politics has had the reverse effect, making her the corrupt-politics-as-usual candidate instead of her opponents.
YOU MUST READ THIS statement from Maurice Atkinson former Bibb County chairman for the Handel Campaign as of August 1st.
"For months I have been organizing for Karen Handel in her quest for governor. Karen is a friend and was helpful to me when I served on the Bibb County Board of Assessors. Several years ago, when she was running for Sec. of State she visited a Bibb GOP breakfast. After the meeting I asked her about the issues Fulton County faced with the Board of Assessors and how the issue was taken care of. She put me in contact with her Chief of Staff and they provided documents and resources which I then gave to our Commissioners. The rest is history. From that time, I developed a respect and friendship for the Handels. I admired her tenacious spirit and can do attitude.
.
"When she decided to run for governor, supporting Karen was a no brainer. I organized and connected people extolling her personality and tenacity. While many of you knew of my differences with one of the gubernatorial candidates, never did I purposely and publicly attempt to humiliate or malign him. I built up Karen, based on the Karen Handel I knew.
.
"Now the field is narrowed to 2 candidates. Coming out of the primary, Karen had momentum. She was nearly 12 points above her competitors. People were inspired and motivated for “reform”. But something happened. Her ad just days before the election bugged me and I contacted her staff. She ran an ad portraying EVERYONE’s a crook but me. They shrugged it off and so did I.
.
"Then Karen got into another battle with the Georgia Right To Life over stupid comments. Karen then began calling foul to the Deal campaign and began trashing Nathan because he wouldn’t get involved in her issues with a private organization. I again spoke with the campaign and suggested to them that they stay focused on the issues, not things they have no control over. Daniel assured me they were, but had to respond, as they were being overwhelmed with calls into the office. I strongly suggested they refocus to their message and what Karen could accomplish as governor.
"This week the Handel campaign unleashes a snarky advertisement calling Congressman Deal corrupt! In concert with the ad, her surrogates have lit up the blogosphere with a literal trashing of Congressman Deal. Then sends out a mailer promoting a website funded by none other than GEORGE SOROS! You can probably lob some bricks at Mr. Deal for serving as a congressman, but to purposely and aggressively destroy his character is morally wrong. I will have no part of it. I am resigned from supporting Karen Handel.
.
"I decided to do my own review of the candidates and posted items at the Bibb County Republican Party website [Maurice owns this site]. My findings are that there is a significant contrast between these candidates. Nathan Deal has spent a life of service. He is a military veteran (captain), was an assistant District Attorney, Juvenile Judge, State Legislator and Congressman. He conducts himself in a kind and humble manner, yet deliberate and focused.
.
"This election is a mere days away and early voting has begun. Do we want a respected public servant who has lived a life marked with esteem or are we going for door number two, a political neophyte we really don’t know much about, who touts a resume that is incredibly suspect, but can say great buzz words. For me, I’m supporting a real patriot, Congressman Nathan Deal.
.
Kindest Regards,
Maurice Atkinson
I really liked the last appeal from Deal. There was no attack politics, but a strong sense of purpose. Handel has been divisive already, and it may be that all those she has unjustly attacked will rally to defeat her bid for the party's nomination. If she succeeds, then Roy Barnes might very well be the next Governor of Georgia, and I certainly don't believe Georgia needs another Barnes administration!
I have chosen to personally endorse Tom Graves for similar reasons. I believe the Republican party already went through this process to elect him, and believe the political climate has not changed that much since his election.
Blessings
ARTICLE UPDATE: I make this brief because it's now Tuesday morning and I am heading to the polls before I go to work. My choices in the Run-off for the Republican Primary are as follows:
For Governor: Nathan Deal
For Attorney General: Sam Olens
For Commissioner of Insurance: Maria Sheffield
For U.S. Representative 9th District: Tom Graves
For County Board of Education at Large: Tony Stanley
For County Board of Education District 2: Rodney D. Lock
Now I can go vote. Have a blessed day.
Saturday, August 7, 2010
Hope and a Future
In the past few days I have thought much about our vision at Christian Fellowship. We just finished what was probably the most spectacular week of Vacation Bible School that we have ever had. In the picture above, our Pharoah places a ring on Joseph's finger as a symbol of authority as he makes him the second most powerful ruler in all Egypt. Our characters helped us tell the story of Joseph's journey from prison to the palace. The memory verse for our first night was taken from Jeremiah 29:11 "For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." This awesome verse was not only a theme during our VBS, but it is a theme of our ministry here at Christian Fellowship. God has plans for each one of us, and for everyone that he brings into our fellowship. I do not believe you are here by accident. In fact, if you are reading this blog, I don't believe for a moment that it is an accident. God wants you to know that He has a plan for your life. The problem is that often we get in His way. Sometimes we make our own plans, without considering His. That's when we end up in so much mess. You see, He created you for His glory. You were created for fellowship with God, to interact with your Creator. He outlined every detail of your life. The Psalmist writes that you are fearfully and wonderfully made.
Perhaps some great difficulties have come into your life, and you don't know what to do. Take heart today. Joseph ended up in prison, but God had a plan. The prison was just a doorway to the palace, and as he continued to honor God, God worked out His glorious plan. Why not put your faith in God today and see Him reveal the wonderful plan He has for your life too?
It is our vision here at Christian Fellowship to help you discover the awesome plan God has for you. He plans to prosper you and not to harm you as He fills your heart with hope for the future.
Blessings.
Monday, July 19, 2010
Primary Vote Tomorrow
Tomorrow the polls open from 7:00 a.m. until 7:00 p.m., and we go to choose who the Republican and Democrat candidates will be for the November elections. This is a vital process, but I have been nearly overwhelmed by what it takes to vote responsibly. I will be voting in the Republican primary, because candidates in this party come much closer to my values than the opposition. Although I must admit that I am often disappointed by the limited selection we have, however in this 2010 Primary, in many of the races, we have no shortage of candidates. The difficulty we face as voters is how to wade through all the hype and distortion and find the truth. It is no small task, and therefore many voters go to the polls only to be sure they vote in a few of the races that are meaningful to them. What is so very worrisome to me, is that when they don't know, they must then either just skip that particular race or GUESS! Please don't guess! Either investigate the race sufficiently enough to make an informed decision or just leave it blank when you don't have any idea.
There is, however, another alternative. When you don't have a clue about who to choose, you may know a friend or a respected community leader, or church leader, with whom you share common values. Perhaps they have done their homework, and you might just take the time to ask. I find that most of us are happy to share when we have strong opinions. Ask questions. Don't just ask who, but ask why? Take a little time to prepare. Then go to the polls and vote your values.
Someone's values are going to rule the day. It is our hope that when the smoke of political values clears, and all the votes are tallied, that the conservative, Christian values that made this country great will win the day again. We can make a difference if we will just do our part and prepare to vote.
Tonight, I finished preparing my choices for the election tomorrow. There may be flaws in my thinking, but it is my best effort to put my own values into action, and make a difference tomorrow. If we happen to share the same values, then you might be interested in reading the rest of this article. If not, you might want to stop now, because below, for what it's worth, are my opinions about the races we will vote on tomorrow in the Republican Primary. Please join me in giving prayerful consideration to this important civic responsibility. May God help us to turn this country around and return to the Christian values that made America GREAT!
*** Warning what follows is my personal opinion about voting tomorrow. You may disagree with me. You may think I'm mistaken. That's fine. That's awesome privilege we have in America, the Freedom to choose and make and share our opinions freely. ***
In the race for Governor, I chose Nathan Deal. He is running a strong campaign on values that matter to me. I believe he can beat his Democratic opposition in November. I investigated the charges made against him by Karen Handel and found her attacks against him and others nothing more than a mud-slinging distortion of the truth.
For Secretary of State, I chose Doug MacGinnitie, who has the endorsement of Sadie Fields, a trusted friend and former leader of the Christian Coalition in Georgia.
For Attorney General, I chose Preston W. Smith, whom I have met personally, and found to be a dedicated Christian. He is the only candidate for Attorney General who has both the Georgia Right to Life and National Rifle Association endorsements.
For Commissioner of Agriculture, I chose Gary Black, a 51-yr.-old Christian Farmer who teaches the Adult Sunday School Class at his home church the Maysville Baptist Church, and also leads music. He has been a leader in agriculture since he was 17.
For Commissioner of Insurance, I glad to support Gerry Purcell, who as the son of a Baptist minister, is also a minister himself and the founder of two churches. He has a strong endorsement from Georgia Right to Life, and strong support from the Tea Party group in Georgia. Gerry has also been endorsed by the 912 Project in our area.
For State School Superintendent, I have chosen Richard Woods, who is not only the Youth Director of his home church but also a writer of church school curriculum. Both he and his opponent have endorsements from GRTL, and have similar visions for Georgia. I was impressed by the Woods website, and his focus on prayer for this election cycle.
For Commissioner of Labor I chose Melvin Everson, who is a member of the Salem Baptist church in his hometown, and proudly wears the endorsement of GRTL, and the 912 project, along with the are Tea Party folks.
For Public Service Commissioner I have chosen Tim Echols, who began working with Campus Crusade for Christ at age 28. He is a dedicated Christian and the father of seven. I am proud to support him in his campaign for PSC Commissioner.
For U.S. House Representative 9th District Congressman, I chose Tom Graves. This was a difficult decision because I also really liked Steve Tarvin in the Special Election. When Tom Graves and Lee Hawkins ended up in a run-off, I supported Tom. Tom visited our church, and I believe he will be a good Congressman. While I still believe that Tarvin may have been a good choice, I believe a vote for him could divide the vote and put us in another run-off between Graves and Hawkins. There really hasn’t been enough time to elapse between the special election and this primary to make much difference. I believe that Tom Graves will win the Republican nomination in this primary and really wonder why so many are still in the race.
For State Senator for the 54th District, I chose Steve Brannon, even though I know Charlie Bethel a little better. I ate lunch with Charlie when we were fighting Sunday Alcohol Sales. Charlie wanted to ask questions and hear what we had to say. After our discussions he still voted for Sunday Alcohol sales while serving on the Dalton City Council. Charlie appears to have the support of the local Chamber of Commerce, and I believe the Chamber has become too much of a Political Action Committee. Their support for Bethel makes me lean toward his opponent, Steve Brannon.
For State Representative of the 6th District I chose Tom Dickson. Tom is a committed Christian, and has done a good job. I don’t really understand why Cowan has chosen to run against Dickson. I think we serve our cause better when support those who have done a good job. Perhaps Cowan just decided it is time to make an effort up the ladder from the County Commission to the State House. It appears to me very much a political move. Therefore I am supporting Tom.
For County Commissioner District 3 I chose Robby Staten. I have had the privilege to speak with both candidates, and my clear choice is Robby Staten, a member of Grove Level Baptist Church and a committed Christian, working in the family business with his father Ed Staten. His values reflect my own much more the the incumbent Randy Waskul. Robby’s firm has done the County Audit, and he is well equipped to deal with the issues of County government.
For County Board of Education At Large I chose Jarrod Heath Cline, a young U.S. Army veteran who served in Iraq, who is a product of our school system and the only candidate for the School Board who said he would not raise taxes.
For County Board of Education District 2 I have chosen Rodney Lock. He and his opponent have little to no difference on the issues, but Mr. Lock has the experience of running a successful business for 27 years, meeting budgets and payrolls. I believe he will bring some common sense to the school board.
I certainly welcome feedback about my opinions. May God bless you as you vote YOUR values too.
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