Prior Book | Prior Chapter | Prior Verse | Next Verse | Next Chapter | Next Book | Viewing NASB and Amplified 2015 | |
NASB | Matthew 5:44 "But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, |
AMPLIFIED 2015 | Matthew 5:44 "But I say to you, love [that is, unselfishly seek the best or higher good for] your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, [Prov 25:21, 22] |
Subject: Denounce militant Islam? |
Bible Note: http://www.townhall.com/columnists/douggiles/dg20040911.shtml Energizing Evangeli-fish to Vote Doug Giles September 11, 2004 Four million evangelicals didn’t vote in the 2000 presidential election. Great ... way to go Church! Onward Christian soldiers [or should it be backward?]. It’s a scary thought: we almost had Al Gore playing Frankenstein around the White House because a few million folks who should have known better refused to get up from the couch on which they were playing potato, go to the polls and vote. Why the vacuum at the voting booth in 2000, people of God? Were you stunned into placidity the Sunday before the last election because of a tedious three point sermon, delivered by a coma-inducing pastor, who left you bereft of hope? Then, reeling from such freshly mainlined pessimism, in your depressed state, you pampered yourself with the Lumberjack Slam at Denny’s which immobilized you with violent flatulence and more material stuff, all the way through election Tuesday. Or, Christian, was your refusal to register and vote based on the no-duh deduction that politics is dirty business and since it is such a DB you shouldn’t be involved in it. News flash! Within the church’s stained glass walls, there are Machiavellian battles, ecclesiastical squabbles and denominational sniping that make Republicans and Democrats look like the Brady Bunch, and Bush and Kerry seem like Paris and Nicole. Sadly, church can be a very dirty business, sometimes even more political than politics … but you still go to church, don’t you? Or have you abandoned God’s house, as well? Or, is it that you will not vote for a President unless he is Mr. Perfect according to your pristine, subjective view? If so, I suggest you do a doe-si-doe out of la-la-land and into reality. Hey! It’s the president we’re electing, not an unblemished savior to make atonement for the world’s sins. That was Christ’s job, and he’s already finished it and hopefully enjoying his retirement. When you’re vacillating in the valley of decision wondering whether or not you are going to vote, remember: we’re electing a president not a messiah. |