Election Day Reflections

In January 1949, I marched with the Brigade of Midshipmen in Truman’s inauguration. In 1961, I put together an evangelistic dinner for the Corps of Cadets from West Point and the Brigade of Midshipmen from the Naval Academy following Kennedy’s inaugural parade.

My history with presidents includes: 2 years under Calvin Coolidge, 4 years under Herbert Hoover, 12+ years with Franklin Roosevelt, almost 8 years with Harry Truman, 8 with Eisenhower, 2 with John F. Kennedy, 6 with Lyndon Johnson, 6 with Richard Nixon, 2 with Gerald Ford, 4 with Jimmy Carter, 8 with Ronald Reagan, 4 with George HW Bush, 8 with Bill Clinton, 8 with George W. Bush, 8 with Barak Obama, and 1 now with Donald Trump.

For many of my years, I looked at the President of the United States as the Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces. Each president swore to uphold the Constitution of the United States.

This year is not a presidential election, but here are the qualities I have looked for in presidents and politicians in the last forty years (not in order of importance): integrity, sexual morality, good economic policy, small government, states’ rights, socially conservative. I also look at their religion, family, and profanity. If I consider these at all, it is difficult to find a qualified man. I did not vote for Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential election.

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Why Is Obedience So Hard?

There are several reasons why obedience seems hard. I will comment on some of them and then speak positively on how obedience is easy. We think: 1) Obedience is an infringement on freedom. Since we are free in Christ, and obedience is somehow contrary to that freedom, we conclude that obedience is not good. Yet we know it is good. Thus, we become confused about obedience and are not single-minded. 2) Obedience is works. We who have been justified by grace through faith are opposed to works; therefore, we are opposed to obedience. 3) We have tried to obey and have failed—frequently. Therefore, the only solution is to disobey and later confess to receive forgiveness. It is easier to be forgiven by grace than to obey by effort. 4) We confuse obedience to men with obedience to God. Although these are sometimes one and the same (see Romans 13, 1 Peter 2-3, Ephesians 5-6, Colossians 3, and Titus 2), sometimes they are not the same (see Colossians 2:20-23, Mark 7, 1 Timothy 4:1-5, a...

Ripe for Harvest: Prepared to Give an Answer

As you read through the book of Acts, look at every conversion, and see what happened right before it: what was said, who said it. The situations are the same today. A long time ago, my duty in the Officer’s Christian Fellowship was the east coast of the United States. I went to an officer’s office at Fort Lee, VA, and stayed overnight, then I went on to Norfolk and Fort Bragg. Forty years later, I was no longer on the staff of OCF, but I had to go to Denver. While I was in Denver, I checked in at the OCF offices. There was the same Air Force officer I had met in Fort Lee, retired now, a colonel. I had stayed in his house when he was a first lieutenant. He asked me, “Do you know what happened when you stayed overnight?” I said, “No, I just remember staying in your home.” He said, “You led the next-door neighbor to Christ.” I had no memory of it. Ten years after that, I was speaking at a banquet at the Hotel Salisbury, and who was th...

Lifted Up

In the first thirteen verses of John 3, Nicodemus did not understand what Jesus was talking about. It was nonsense to him. When Jesus said verse fourteen to him, Nicodemus finally understood Jesus. Here it is: “Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up…” (John 3:14). The reason it made sense to Nicodemus was because he knew of the event that Jesus spoke of. People who had been bitten by a serpent could look at the bronze snake and did not die. Nicodemus knew the Bible story. Here it is: “Then the LORD sent venomous snakes among them; they bit the people and many Israelites died. The people came to Moses and said, ‘We sinned when we spoke against the LORD and against you. Pray that the LORD will take the snakes away from us.’ So Moses prayed for the people. The LORD said to Moses, ‘Make a snake and put it up on a pole; anyone who is bitten can look at it and live.’ So Moses made a bronze snake and put it up on a pole. Then ...

Roots by the River

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