2 Peter 2:16 But was rebuked for his iniquity: the dumb ass speaking with man’s voice forbad the madness of the prophet. (KJV)

I have refrained from making any political comments concerning this Presidential election. However, two things come to mind. The first: I believe Abraham Lincoln once quoted a French philosopher saying, “In a democracy, people get the leaders the majority deserves.”

The second is out of the Old Testament in the Book of Numbers. Peter was referring to this in the above Bible verse. The prophet Balaam was on his way to do something he shouldn’t ought to do.  An angel was about to smite him when his donkey prevented him from going on.

You see this is why we must pray for and after this election.  God used a dumb ass to save the day at least once.  Perhaps if we humble ourselves and pray, He will do it again.

Psalm 14:1a  The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.”  (NIV)

I remember reading a Peanuts cartoon some years back. Lucy had just been mean to her brother Linus.  It was winter, and Linus went outside and built a snowman that looked like Lucy. When she saw it, she came running out and said, “You think you are so smart!  You built a snowman that looks like me. And now you are going to kick it apart!”

Linus said, “Quite to the contrary. I am just going to stand here and watch it slowly melt away.”

The footnote for the Bible verse above in the NIV says that the Hebrew word used for “fool” means someone who is morally deficient. Upon checking into it, I found Strong’s Hebrew dictionary states that it also means among other things, to fade away, to be senseless, to sink, to wither.

Without God, without a sense of higher purpose, or a belief that there is a higher good or truth, it becomes decidedly easy to drift through life and sink into a void, and slowly (sometimes quickly), fade into oblivion.

Without God, we can easily become like Linus’ snowman and just melt away.

Job 42:10 After Job had prayed for his friends, the LORD restored his fortunes and gave him twice as much as he had before. (NIV)

Job was at the top of the heap, king of the hill, spiritually, financially and about every way in which someone could think.  However, though no fault of his own, he lost family, farm, and fortune.  Some of his friends still hung around, but they just blamed him for all the things that went wrong.  Job was under the rock at rock bottom.  All he had left was a prayer, and he offered that prayer up to God for his friends.

There is a whole lot of things we could discuss when we talk about Job.  However, this particular verse has always touched me.  It is significant for several reasons. The first thing first is that forgiveness is often the first step in restoration.

Job’s so-called friends were ugly to him, but Job did not attack them.  He did not post ugly things about them on Facebook nor did he call on the Lord to send fire down from heaven and zap them. He prayed for them.

That is kind of God’s formula to a happy life. “Pray for them which despitefully use you.”  “Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.”  “Judge not lest you be judged.”  All lessons we may have heard growing up or in Sunday school.

The King James Version of the Bible starts this verse this way: “And the Lord turned the captivity of Job…”  You see, our own outlook on life is probably the biggest thing that holds us prisoner.  Job’s situation was dire and spiraling further into darkness.  Once he could get his focus off himself and on what God wanted him to do, he began to see the light and restoration was on the way.

Romans 7:15 I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. (NIV)

Hello?  Is this my life or what? How can I even think that I could stand before a Holy God, let alone, in some way, represent any notion, even the least bit Godly, to others?

While I have often felt that I should do some work for God, I have felt impure, tainted, stained, insignificant – and to top it off, I keep doing the things that I know that God does not want me to do and don’t do the things that I am sure God would have me to do.

Such ideas have plagued me, if not all my life, at least, all my adult life.  Some time ago, I felt an inward prompting to reread the Bible and post some thoughts as I went along.  In the past year and a half, I posted nine entries on my readings and none in the past six months.

Though I became an ordained minister over fifteen years ago, outside of wedding ceremonies, I have not preached since 2007.

God may have had Paul write this verse just for me.

After considerable soul searching, meditation, prayer, guilt tripping, reading, denial, and crying out to God, a particular thought has crossed my heart.  If I was standing in Death Valley and some one was standing on Mount Everest, in relation to one another, the guy on Mount Everest might be a whole lot higher in the air than me. However, in a relationship to the sun, we really are about the same distance. (Though in all likelihood, we would both be in a rather precarious position),

That is how it is with us. In relation to one another, some people may be a whole lot further along on the righteous scale.  In a relationship to God, none of us has much of an advantage. You see, it is not about my will, my word, my situation, my circumstance, or even my sin.  It is all about God’s will, God’s Word, God’s promises, God’s love, and God’s forgiveness.  Like Paul would also write, “Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.”

Time to press on.