I have voted in 14 presidential elections. I did not always vote wisely, but over the years I have tried to
focus on the platform of a candidate, that is, the candidate’s policies and programs. What will this
candidate bring to the table when it comes to things that matter to me: Religious freedom, the
economy, traditional marriage, abortion, illegal immigration, inflation, racial issues, taxes, and so on?

Several years ago, I talked with a man who told me that God had audibly spoken to him. Does God
speak to us in that manner; can we literally hear the voice of God? Honestly, I can’t say that God will not
audibly speak to someone…He can do what He pleases to do. But it is certainly a rare thing, and we
have to be very careful and discerning when someone claims to hear God’s voice.

A few folks got to enjoy a taste of ‘’the good ‘ol days” Memorial Day and a few days after. You
remember the good ‘ol days, don’t you? Times were good back then. There was less crime, a higher
sense of morality, a big dose of respect and responsibility…no air conditioning. Wait. What? No air
conditioning? How did people live; how did they survive?

In Matthew 20 verses 1 through 16, Jesus tells the parable of the workers. I’ll paraphrase it but
encourage you to read the scripture for the full context. A vineyard owner hires some workers at
daybreak to work in his field all day.

There is a button on our microwave that says, “Quick 30”. The purpose is to make it so that a person
who wants to heat something for 30 seconds only has to tap one button instead of two. That made me
think about two things: Are we so lazy and spoiled that a major selling point of a microwave is that you
only need to touch one button instead of two? The second thing that came to mind was “why 30
seconds? Why not 45 seconds…or even one minute?” My conclusion was that human nature is
predictable.

The United Methodist Church is about to finalize a seismic shift in their policy and theology. Over the
last few years over 25% of UMC churches have disassociated with the denomination over LBGTQ+
issues.

“A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters
discover that they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury. From that moment on, the
majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury with the
result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship. The
average age of the world's greatest civilizations has been 200 years.

The consensus of Christian thought, doctrine, and policy recognizes that the Hebrews are the chosen
people of God, beginning with His call to Abram as recorded in Genesis 12:1-3: “The Lord had said to
Abram, “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you. “I
will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a
blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth
will be blessed through you.” The Bible records Joshua leading the people of Israel into the land that
was promised to Abram some 500 years earlier.

A movie was just released that claims that Jesus was a vegetarian. From what I gather, the point of the
movie is that Jesus was not only a vegetarian, but also actively opposed the killing and eating of animals.
In fact, the movie claims that the cleansing of the temple was not about making money off of the sale of
sacrificial animals, but the killing of the animals. Of course, there were a couple of other scriptures they
had to reinterpret in order to come to their conclusion that Christians should be vegetarians. And they
strongly insinuate that Christian leaders purposely hid this information from us.

The eclipse was interesting, wasn’t it? In the weeks before its happening, there were a lot of
“conspiracy theories” being thrown out there. They ranged from the beginning of the new world order
to NASA firing rockets at the moon to satanic rituals that would bring on the end of the world. One
article I read, though, added an interesting “conspiracy theory” as written by a Republican
congresswoman. It said this: “God is sending America strong signs to tell us to repent. Earthquakes and
eclipses and many more things to come. I pray that our country listens.”