One of our grandnephews is getting married today, doesn’t seem possible, I still think of his mother as a little girl that would get the worms out of her brother’s play area as he build roads for his toy cars.  He didn’t like the feel of them.

Just another reminder that time continues, even if we don’t realize it.  What seems like only yesterday was decades ago.

I still get confused when someone talks about 20 years ago and I think – for a few seconds - of the 1970’s not the 1990’s.

1 Peter 5:2-3 Feed the flock of God which is among you, taking the oversight thereof, not by constraint, but willingly; not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind;

³ Neither as being lords over God's heritage, but being examples to the flock.

Peter was obviously talking to the leaders in the church; emphasizing what Christ told His disciples:

John 21:17 He saith unto him the third time, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me? Peter was grieved because he said unto him the third time, Lovest thou me? And he said unto him, Lord, thou knowest all things; thou knowest that I love thee. Jesus saith unto him, Feed my sheep.

AND

John 14:13-16  If I then, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet; ye also ought to wash one another's feet.

¹⁵ For I have given you an example, that ye should do as I have done to you.

¹⁶ Verily, verily, I say unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord; neither he that is sent greater than he that sent him.

Can you imagine what it would be like if ALL ministers did according to these scriptures, putting their congregation first being less concerned about their own welfare and caring for the people in their congregation - meeting their needs, demonstrating the helping each other?

We are fortunate, because most ministers do just that and we don’t really appreciate the sacrifice they have in both their own life, but in the lives of their family.

While this is good advice for our church leaders, it is also a leadership example to those that own businesses, those that are the managers and supervisors in those businesses.

It is also good advice for those that we choose to elect into office; not only for the person who is in the office, but the citizens that vote for him/her.

Instead what we find is people who take full advantage of their positions to bring glory, funding, honor and anything else to stroke their own egos.  Instead of focusing on how they can make life better for others they focus on what they can get out of their position.

After a while they think they actually deserve special privileges and demand it from others – and others, in order to get what THEY want give them that privilege so they can get out of them something that will benefit them.

Some elected representatives forget that they are servants of the people and take on roles of little dictators in their sphere of influence.  Many of those that they appoint to positions of any kind of importance will also take on the persona of always being right and dictating what the citizens must do, rather that listening and helping them through whatever difficulties they may be having.

I can remember one young man that one of our deputies gave a citation to for speeding.  This man was a member of the election staff for a man running for governor of Oregon.  He tried to talk his way out of the ticket by telling the deputy how important he was and how when the person was elected to office, he would be appointed as the Law Enforcement advisor to the governor.

He got the ticket.  The deputy contacted me to let me know in case there was some fall out – he knew he wouldn’t get it from me, but I might get it from the candidate.

I called the man’s campaign headquarters and talked to his campaign manager.  She was excited about having this person as a player in the campaign, but the candidate wanted him on the staff, he was a harder worker, but he was also a braggart.

She evidently told the candidate about it, because I received a phone call from him, asking if he could stop by in a couple of days, when he was in the area, and talk to me.

He wanted my support as a Sheriff and he did want to talk about what his man had said. 

We had an amicable discussion; however, he would never get my support.  Instead of condemning his man, he made excuses for the behavior.  That isn’t the way we did things.

We had a Commissioner that was issued a citation by one of the deputies.  I didn’t hear about it for over a year; can’t remember exactly how I found out.  I asked the commissioner why he hadn’t let me know, he said that he didn’t want special privileges, knew I wouldn’t give it to him and he was speeding.

NOW, that is what I would expect from a dedicated servant.

Yes, it is important that we have structure; that we empower people to act on our behalf, to set up guidelines of proper action in given situations.  But many will entrench themselves into those positions and wield their own agenda, instead of working for the common man, they kowtow to those in power.

As we pray for this nation, let us pray for strong leaders that are not going to take advantage of their position for themselves but use their position and work to benefit and lift us our country.

We need leaders who know the Lord our God and not only worship Him but take council from Him.  We need leaders who will appoint people into position as advisors that are unafraid to disagree and unafraid of their own situation to give good advice to those that appointed them, and not just be ‘yes, men.’

That when these helpers are asked to research a project and give advice, that the agenda is not self-serving, but truly a desire for truth which includes the impact on the citizens.

We need people who will stand up for the citizens and do not say one thing to one group and then give another group a different speech – often two opposite viewpoints – just to get elected so they can do whatever they want.

We need Christians to stand firm on God’s Word and fight the battle against it that seems to be going more and more satan’s way.

We need leaders who are not afraid of hard work, getting their hands dirty not just for show, but to actually help someone.

We need leaders that are unafraid to do the right thing at all times and not yield to the people that will stroke their egos to get what they want – or be afraid of the intimidations some will make that threatens their position.

God places governments over us, not because He wanted to – He warned the Jewish people what would happen if they had a King, rather than Him as the ruler of their nation.  When they continued to insist, He gave them what they wanted and it wasn’t long before the Kings started taking advantage of their position and power to make their life easier, even if it placed unfair burdens on the populace.

He gave them what they wanted, and they got what they wanted AND suffered because of it.  They got the government they deserved.

We are having the same thing happen to us.  Our government is now ripe for fraud, abuse of power and destruction of those that disagree.  We are seeing God being banished in every quarter, and the religion of ‘government’ taking its place.

The Jews learned that if they returned to God, asked His forgiveness He would give it to them and they found their lives easier because of it.  – That is, until they once again took their eyes off Him forgot their history and repeated their rebellion from God until their next major disaster.

Christianity is still the dominant religion, even if some have gone astray, but if we banded together, asking God to heal our land, asking God to bring in leaders that are unafraid to serve Him, admitting our sins before Him and asking His forgiveness, it can happen that our country to, will be healed and once again focusing on how to help others, instead of the ‘me only’ domination going on in our country today.

Later, Art :-)