You wonder who is more weary this evening?  Is it the candidates who are almost finished?  Or is it the rest of us eager to move on from this election year?  Here is the scary part of waking up on Wednesday morning.  Experts will be speculating already about who will be running in 2016.  We will be four years from the next big election cycle but the conversations will already be underway.  Running for office now takes more time than actually serving out a term.  This is our current system for better or worse.  Many would say it is more the latter than the former.  I think they would be right.

This could be a highly entertaining election night.  Several factors will come into play this year.  You could again have a candidate do well in popular vote yet lose by a decent margin in the electoral college.  I know most see that electoral college as a bad idea but it does have its merits.  Should a state like Louisiana really carry as much weight as a Florida or Texas?  Smart people developed this plan as it continues to work for the most part.  There will be about five states that are crucial to either candidate.  Winning those states will sew up the election for someone.  Right now it sounds like several if not all of those key states are up for grabs.  We will see once the voting ends.

I am a fan of history or political intrigue.  No election seems to be without its controversy.  Even our earliest days as a country record more than a bit of mud slinging as people would go to vote.  But there is good news.  We do still get to vote.  I may get only a single vote but it is my own.  We get that right as citizens of a democratic republic.  You do not have to read the news long to find that not everyone has that opportunity.  Most of us could not begin to imagine living in a land where elections were rare if not already fixed.  Guess this is one reason to keep an open mind during the time leading to the vote.  Far too many on either side of the spectrum just recite the same lines fed them by leaders or gurus.  Learning about issues is hard.  The only thing worse is to not even try.

Pundits are saying my candidate will not win tomorrow.  I will still cast my ballot for him.  That choice is made by my personal approach to government along with religious views.  No one has to share my values as they are my own.  Do I think that believers should carry a set of moral values with their politics?  That would be an affirmative answer.  But it also requires thinking through all of the implications of those views.  My hope is my beliefs are firm yet built on honest evaluation of the issues.  So let us go vote on Tuesday.  Let us be resolved to pray for our country.  Let us be good citizens no matter the outcome.  We all win as we do just that.

Bro. Trey

Changing the clock sure seems easier than living with the new time.  Even the fall change throws us off our usual routine.  I missed a few clocks or watches last night getting set to new schedule.  They reminded me why my stomach was rumbling an hour earlier than the time on the clock.  Most of us really struggle with the spring time change but this one has its moments.  You don't have much of a choice in the matter when it comes down to it.  The only other option is to be an hour late or early for everything.  Seems like we adjust to the new reality or else never be where we want to be or when we need to be there.

Scripture can do this to us in ways.  We live in a century far removed from the times of the writing of God's word.  Vocabulary or grammar puzzle us when we wrestle with ancient languages.  Words pregnant with meaning way back then sound unfamiliar or even foreign to our day.  This is not to say one cannot grasp what the Bible does say.  One of the myths of study is you need to be a kind of scholar to really understand scripture.  There are some bare facts to know but never fear not having a degree in ancient languages or history.  Good people write books or articles constantly to help us where we fall short.  I know my study is greatly enhanced by those resources that most anyone can understand.  But also be sure these may not make all of the questions vanish.

We talked about the concept of justification this evening in our study.  Here you find one of the basic words that defines our faith.  But trying to come to grips with what such a strange sounding word means can be hard.  Large volumes of books are already out there about this topic.  Most of the significant theological authors over the centuries wrote on this.  My point is that it can be overwhelming to try to handle all of the material.  The usual mistake of mine is to make such studies so complex it loses meaning.  Doing research does not always translate into a good study.  Here is where it becomes a bit like changing your clock.  The goal is to take a word so important from the beginning of church life to find its current meaning in our world today. 

I am not going to do a whole study here on the blog tonight.  What would be life changing for you to know is that such a phrase matters greatly for whatever time we live.  To get a sense of how far God goes to bring you into a divine relationship is not just in the moment but it is eternal.  We see from the Old Testament how He works out this divine purpose in Jesus.  Time and space come together in the cross to open the way for us to know God.  You don't even need to change your clock to figure that one out. 

Bro. Trey