GOD told me to do this

i hate it when people blame GOD for them backing out of their agreements. every now and then i will have a chaperon or volunteer that will tell me that they need to back out of a commitment they had made to the ministry because GOD has told them to. usually, this means that they are quitting a retreat, bible study, or mission trip or maybe they are bailing on a some teaching they had said they would do. the problem i have is that if you dig a little deeper it’s not real hard to find the real reason that they “have to” back out of their promise. maybe it’s a ball game that they were given tickets to, or it’s an event with friends that they would miss if they went to the retreat, or it some other great opportunity that they really want to do.

actually, i don’t have a problem with any of these reasons. i understand that sometimes things are just going to “pop” up and you have to adjust your commitments based on what happens. i just hate it when people blame GOD for their desire to back out of promise. come on, grow a back bone! don’t make GOD look bad by making it appear that HE changes HIS mind all the time. If GOD was the one WHO lead you to say “yes” (because i never take “yes” answers without at least a week of prayer on both my part and the part of the person i have asked) then GOD isn’t going to cause you to bail on that commitment later. i just hate it when people blame GOD for their own decisions.

the election

i am so ready for the presidential election to be over. the reason for this is not because of the constant press coverage of it. instead, it is because of CHRISTians who continually tell others how GOD has picked their candidate. most of these CHRISTians have been conservative and have told me that it is my CHRISTian responsibility to vote for george bush. i’ve heard CHRISTians say that if you are a bible believing CHRISTian then you have to vote for bush and i’ve heard others say that they have no idea what will happen to the world if john kerry wins the election. this is ludicrous! CHRISTians on both sides (conservative and liberal) have picked their issues and decided that only those issues matter to GOD.

sojouners, a website dealing with faith, politics, and culture has an interesting advertisement based on that. here’s the advertisement.

no matter who wins the election for president of the united states of america GOD will still be on HIS throne. GOD is the only governing authority that i trust and i will place my faith in no one else.