We Are Who We Vote For

If you are like me, you are pretty pissed at the politicians that are running our government right now. How could one predict that the majority of them would turn out to be people who don't care about humans? Hint, we could stay tuned in and actually follow along with how they govern. Sometimes I will say that I cannot believe what is going on in this country and be met with crickets. Then someone will always say, I've not been keeping up, what's going on? Really? People who do not know what is going on or who are not keeping up do not need to go to the polls. That is how we got where we are. You cannot just skim info off the top and then go vote. Top skimmers don't know what is happening. They only do what other people are doing. That is why Tennessee can't elect a Democrat. They do what their rich preacher tells them to do. These people get into the ministry to help themselves or they would keep church and state separate. 

Are the politicians the real problem. NO. They represent the people who put them in office. If they seem to be asshats it's because the majority of people voting are asshats. It's easy to vote for better people and we don't. We get what we vote for. If asshatery isn't what you want then don't vote for an asshat and if you don't like asshats don't be one. I'm just saying that what they turn out to be is very telling of what our country has become. People vote for people they think have the same values they have. You can look to these politicians and see what Americans value. They vote against their own interest to vote for values. The values that I see that are leading the way in American is "me first." The saddest part of this "me first" attitude is that the people pushing it are Christians. We've had a few decades now of preachers pushing this agenda and because there are so many Christians in America, they have begun to believe that is what the bible says. It ain't. It don't say that anywhere in the book. 

Back when I went to Church and studied Christianity I made some discoveries out of pure self interest. 

I'd go to church and listen to the preacher preach hell fire and brimstone. I'd always look around at the others in the room to see if I could tell if anyone looked like that day's message was for them and I'd think how unfortunate this day was for those people. Some days I felt like the message was aimed at me and then the next week it would be someone else's turn in the spotlight. No doubt that every week would come with a stiff finger pointing at someone. Larry Acuff was the preacher for a while when I attended and he seemed to point the finger back at the finger pointers and they did not like that and made it known by getting rid of him. I can tell you one thing about finger pointers, they never point to themselves. 

Matthew 7 

4How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ while there is still a beam in your own eye? 5You hypocrite! First take the beam out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.

There were a lot of weeks that I sat there and thought about how shitty church makes a person feel and it hurt my heart to think I'd follow an entity that would want that in his house. It felt like the father of all mankind just wasn't that great at parenting. I was a mother of two and I wouldn't just give up on my boys if they messed up. It seemed like a pretty big waste of being God if you couldn't win the parenting award for all of eternity. 

Through all of the sermons, the study and just general crowd watching, I found there were other things to be considered that were not being spoken in church.

I ponder one thing over and over and it was where the bible spoke of the truth that had been revealed. I could not find what that was. I'd read it and flip back and read to see if I'd missed something, then I go forward and read in case I just hadn't got to the reveal yet. One day it finally hit me what the reveal was. First I started to really see Jesus with untarnished eyes and he was not those words that condemned the people every Sunday. He was God walking in the flesh so that we could see what God would be if he were like us. The secret Jesus revealed was what God really is and just like Jesus there was no condemnation only salvation.  

Isaiah 53

1Who has believed our message? And to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed? 2 For He grew up before Him like a tender shoot, And like a root out of parched ground; He has no stately form or majesty That we should look upon Him, Nor appearance that we should be attracted to Him. 3He was despised and forsaken of men, A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; And like one from whom men hide their face He was despised, and we did not esteem Him.  4Surely our grieves He Himself bore, And our sorrows He carried; Yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken, Smitten of God, and afflicted 5But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, And by His scourging we are healed 6All of us like sheep have gone astray, Each of us has turned to his own way; But the LORD has caused the iniquity of us all To fall on Him  7He was oppressed and He was afflicted, Yet He did not open His mouth; Like a lamb that is led to slaughter, And like a sheep that is silent before its shearers, So He did not open His mouth. 8By oppression and judgment He was taken away; And as for His generation, who considered That He was cut off out of the land of the living For the transgression of my people, to whom the stroke was due?  9 His grave was assigned with wicked men, Yet He was with a rich man in His death, Because He had done no violence, Nor was there any deceit in His mouth. 10But the LORD was pleased To crush Him, putting Him to grief; If He would render Himself as a guilt offering, He will see His offspring, He will prolong His days, And the good pleasure of the LORD will prosper in His hand 11 As a result of the anguish of His soul, He will see it and be satisfied; By His knowledge the Righteous One, My Servant, will justify the many, As He will bear their iniquities. 12 Therefore, I will allot Him a portion with the great, And He will divide the booty with the strong; Because He poured out Himself to death, And was numbered with the transgressors; Yet He Himself bore the sin of many, And interceded for the transgressors

It's all there.

Imagine if every person living was ready to lay down their life for another. There would be no ugliness in the world. And maybe if we just had the will to lay down or life then the act might never be asked of us. Maybe the will to give our life for another would win our own salvation. And maybe if we don't find others worthy of saving we also do not think we are worthy.

Proverbs 23 

⁷ For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he

So let's go back to where we started from. If our values tell us that taking care of those in need is important, we will elect someone who believes we should take care of those in need. Nowhere in the bible are we granted the power to interpret this different than it has been stated over and over. If we believe it is in our power to decide who to help and who not to help then we will elect people who look down on people in need. That's not what we were told. We were told that these people are a stand in for Jesus and what we do or don't do for them we do or don't do to him. There's no talk of enabling, that's a man made thought. 

Matthew 25:45

Then the King will answer, 'Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for Me.

So what else does the bible say about this?

Proverbs 14:31
He who oppresses the poor taunts his Maker, But he who is gracious to the needy honors Him.

Proverbs 19:17
One who is gracious to a poor man lends to the LORD, And He will repay him for his good deed.

Matthew 10:42
And if anyone gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones because he is My disciple, truly I tell you, he will never lose his reward.

Proverbs 14:31

He who oppresses the poor taunts his Maker, But he who is gracious to the needy honors Him.

The end.