Getting past election stuff for the first time in a while here, this is tonight’s talk at LF.

Daniel 9



Obviously, this is a great day if you are a conservative republican. GW Bush has been reelected and the hyper-liberals have been defeated.

As I noted for a friend earlier today this has some meaning across the United States and around the world…

– This will tip the scales away from gay rights and free usage of abortion for birth control.

– This will hopefully result in conservative judges being put in place in the Supreme Court.

– This will definitely mean a completion of the task in Iraq.

– This will be good for small business owners and self-employed people.

– This will mean the economy will grow healthier.

– This means we won’t have scandal in the White House.

– This means we will have to see one more stupid video from Michael Moore that is completely false.

But this also has some meaning for us as believers because we can see that a man who prays regularly and has people pray for him can do an impossible task… be president of the United States for 2 terms.

______________________________

Prayer works.

– I can’t tell you when I finally realized that there was more to prayer than just doing it.

– For me, seeing the effects of prayer on my life and the lives of others was a process.

– It wasn’t until I started to script out my prayers, keep a journal of my prayers, and pray with other people regularly that I saw exactly how prayer worked.

_______________________________

Tonight, we are going to look at Daniel’s life of prayer. This will help us prepare to handle a very difficult piece of Scripture next week.

Let’s begin by reading one of Daniel’s prayers.

Read Daniel 9: 3-19

Discussion Q’s

Is this how you pray?

As I read this did anyone else wonder how he remembered what he was praying? Do you think he wrote it down?



Here are some insights from Daniel’s prayer, things that are plain to see.

1. Combined prayer & fasting

2. Reminds God of His character [not like God forgot who He was!]

3. Personally identifies with the sin of the people of Israel. [Even confesses to sins that occurred before he was born!]

4. Appeals to God’s grace

5. Rehashes God’s faithfulness

6. Petition is done for God’s sake and His alone Form this passage, I’d like to look at some insights we can glean about Daniel’s prayer life.

________________________________

God’s response to Daniel’s prayer was immediate!



Read Daniel 20-23



3 Points to Ponder



When did God send Gabriel to Daniel?



While Daniel was still praying!



Why did God send Gabriel right then?

To give Daniel insight and understanding about what he was praying!

Why did God chose to answer Daniel’s prayer?



Gabriel [an angel] called Daniel [a man] highly esteemed!

If you are like me… I know I want not only pray like that, I want to get a response like that too!

The question for you is then: How can I open the door for God to speak to me?



WARNING: There isn’t a formula. These are things that we can learn from Daniel that can be applied to your prayer life.

_________________________

Story: Unanswered prayers

We all know people who have cried out to God but the prayers have gone unanswered…

Loved one is sick… but still passes away

Desperate situation…but it doesn’t get better

Desire to do good in a situation…but still fall into bad.

But we cannot forget the words of Jesus and how he taught us to pray. In Sunday school we will begin looking at Jesus’ “Óur Father prayer.” Even there we see that Jesus, who is fully God says while praying, “thy will be done.”



When we pray, God instructs us to ask for things and to present our requests to him… but God cannot do something out of His will. Ultimately, while we request and petition God… we must continually pray that He will do His will in whatever the circumstance is.

__________________________

A few ways God can speak to me

Combine a regular time of pray with a private time of fasting.

Pray to please God, not you. (Try to eliminate personal pronouns)

Confess you sins.

Appeal to one of God’s attributes.

Praise God for the things He has done in your life… it’s sweet music in His ears.

It’s official. Kerry has conceded to Bush.

This means a lot of good things for conservatives while it means some steps back for the liberal side.

• This will tip the scales away from gay rights and free usage of abortion as birth control.
• This will hopefully result in conservative judges being put in place in the supreme court.
• This will definitely mean a completion of the task in Iraq.
• This will be good for small business owners and self-emplyed people.
• This will mean the economy will grow more and more healthy.
• This means we won’t have scandal in the White House.
• This means we will have to see one more stupid video from Michael Moore that is completely false.

I could go on. But it also means I have to get back to work.

I know I am a pretty blunt Bush fan. But it seems that it is impossible to believe that Kerry will win either Ohio, (136,000 votes down) New Mexico, (down 5% with 1% left to be counted) or Iowa. (14,000 votes down)

So why doesn’t he just do the whole world a favor and come out and say that it was a good race but he lost it?

Well, I do have a resolution on my long lost pension buy out. It turns out that since I did not send some paperwork in time, though I thought I did, that I can’t have my pension monies until I turn 65. That’s only 37 years until I can see it! Yippee skippy!

Note to self: In 13000, please call Cathy at 312-653-2906 and make a withdraw. If blue cross is still around, I’ll get my money then. I put it on my outlook calendar I am surely not going to forget now.

[In other words, I can kiss that money goodbye. But you never know. It may be God’s funny provision for me.]

Like a lot of Americans, I am up late tonight watching for the latest voting counts. It’s stinking close. Close, close, and closer.

As I’m starting to wipe away the tears of exhaustion I am still chanting…

Four more years. Four more years. Four more years. Four more years. Four more years. Four more years. Four more years. Four more years. Four more years. Four more years. Four more years. Four more years. Four more years. Four more years.

Please oh please don’t let it be Kerry. Go George go!

this is the pitter patter of democracy in action. 

Four more years. Four more years. Four more years. Four more years. Four more years. Four more years. Four more years. Four more years. Four more years. Four more years. Four more years. Four more years. Four more years. Four more years. Four more years. Four more years. Four more years. Four more years. Four more years. Four more years. Four more years. Four more years.

Can you tell I’m a little antsy today?

Unlike many of my 28 year old counterparts, I have been investing in my retirement for several years now. I rode the up and up cycle and then I proceeded to give it all back when the markets busted. While I am 100% certain that social security will be there for me when I retire in 2056 I want to make sure that I have a nestegg to live the high life off of. (Note my sarcasm please!) In the last 7 years we’ve somehow managed to store away roughly $15000. Not bad for some punky kid, eh?

Long story short, when you move jobs your stuff gets messed up. Mine still isn’t right as I’ve moved jobs a few times in the past several years. The last one I am trying to get straight is my pension from Blue Cross. About a year ago I received a note from BCBS that I was due a pension distribution. It turns out I was vested into their pension by a matter of months when I left to enter the ministry.

So I sent paperwork and got paperwork back. In January I thought I had it all taken care of. It turns out that they never wrote a check to my rollover account. So today I faxed over a follow-up note asking where my money is now located. I want my money!

I believe heavily in the realities of compounded interest. Mathematically it just makes sense to invest small portions over the long haul instead of waiting for the big distribution and transfer of wealth when some parent dies. While it would/will be nice if someone in front of me secures my future, I’d like to be a part of doing the same for my children. (It’s not like my folks are rich… But I can see that they each have something that they will pass on to my brother and I. Hopefully it will be more than an unpaid mortgage!) And so Kristen and I plug away and invest where we can.

IRAs work for Kristen and I. I think it has a lot to do with the massive withdraw penalties. I know that some of my friends regularly borrow from their and that there is even some good sense in doing so to buy a house… But we chose to keep ours off limits. Why? Compounding of interest! To stop that cycle is just foolish.

A few weeks ago, our main investment had distributions. It wasn’t much, but it added about 2% to our number of shares in those funds. Each day I keep an eye on good ole TEMFX on the stock market. This is an international stock fund and I’ve been investing in it for some time. We have a target for how much we will invest in it before we lock it away and we are only about 3 months away from realizing that. Next we will focus on a simple stock fund. Yippee! I love US stocks.

More on this in the near future. I’ll keep you updated with the BCBS saga. I want my money!

You heard it here. My vote was suppressed today.

It took me 45 minutes to cast my ballot this morning since the ballots were filled with people.

I made my way to the Capital Banquet Center right after my Bible Study ended at Sweeties and I got the students to the high school. The parking lot was jammed and the lines were long. Thankfully I live in the village which meant that my precinct line was a lot shorter.

The mood in the polling station was jovial as Americans exercised their right to vote for George W. Bush. (All Kerry voters were taken out back, stripped, and left for dead in the woods by guys with a red pick-up truck and Texas plates.) I would have been in there a little less if I didn’t have to fill in all those stupid little dots. Give me back my punch cards! I would have been able to vote a straight ticket if it wasn’t for the fact that the Democratic sheriff in my county is really cool. So instead of one little cirlce, I got to color in dozens. As usual, I voted for judges I have never heard of. Those with last names closest to mine in the dictionary always get my vote!

Other than the long lines, voting went as boring as ever. I think all the media hype is such a bore. All the craziness about observers suppressing the vote or intimidating people is just stupid. All the lady was doing was checking IDs of newly registered voters. She is just a second set of eyes as the polling officials already did that anyway. Besides, if you are intimidated by a grandmotherly looking observer… You don’t deserve to vote anyway! Move to Canada.

All eyes will be on the results tonight. 4 more years… I hope.

That’s right blog fans. I am talking about completely and totally normal voting habits for tomorrow.

But to counteract the 2.5 billion people who will post in their Kerry loving blogs this Tuesday that their vote was suppressed… I am pledging to document my completely and totally normal voting experience for the world (the 3 guys in China) who read my blog faithfully. Thank you Xi, Yao, and Johnny Goodluck!

Keep checking back. As soon as my completely normal and boring voting experience for the republican party candidates of my choice is over, I will certainly publish an exciting story.