Wednesday, May 5, 2010

Food for Thought from Luther


"Let the world, rather than God, be offended with me." - Martin Luther

Monday, May 3, 2010

An Open Letter to the Airdrie & Shotts Candidates

It has been a great pleasure to meet with you in the course of this election campaign. I would like to take this opportunity to thank you for taking the time out of your busy schedules to spend some time talking through your values and policies with me. I have enjoyed it greatly and it has helped me to think through how I will cast my vote on Thursday.

In a few short days one of you will be elected to represent the people of Airdrie & Shotts in the House of Commons as our Member of Parliament. It is my prayer that whoever is elected, you will recognise that not only are you accountable to the people of Airdrie & Shotts, but you are also accountable to the God of the universe for the decisions you make in governing our country. My prayer is that you will govern well and that you will seek the guidance of the Lord as you govern, putting him first in all your decisions. I’d like to share a prayer with you. It is a prayer that was prayed at the opening of the new session of the Kansas Senate by Rev. Joe Wright. Yes, it’s from an American context but please don’t switch off, if we have ears to listen we may hear some insightful truths for our own situation.

“Heavenly Father, we come before you today to ask your forgiveness and to seek your direction and guidance. We know Your Word says, 'Woe to those who call evil good,' but that is exactly what we have done.

We have lost our spiritual equilibrium and reversed our values.
We have exploited the poor and called it the lottery.
We have rewarded laziness and called it welfare.
We have killed our unborn and called it choice.
We have shot abortionists and called it justifiable.
We have neglected to discipline our children and called it building self esteem..
We have abused power and called it politics.
We have coveted our neighbour's possessions and called it ambition.
We have polluted the air with profanity and pornography and called it freedom of expression.
We have ridiculed the time-honoured values of our forefathers and called it enlightenment.

Search us, Oh, God, and know our hearts today; cleanse us from every sin and set us free. Amen!”

Politics in the UK is at its lowest ebb, but the successful candidate from Airdrie and Shotts will have an opportunity to make a difference and regain the confidence of the people. Can I ask you to reflect on this prayer above? Can I ask you to honour the God of the universe in your legislative activity? Can I ask you to defend the sanctity of life; to defend the sanctity of marriage and the family; and to defend religious liberty in this land?

My prayer is that guided by the Lord himself you will make this your agenda. Please be assured of my prayers for all of you, in whatever capacity you serve in our community and may the Lord’s will be done on Thursday both locally and nationally. Every Blessing, Alan

To the Blog Readers

This will probably be the last of the General Election blogs, so I won’t be emailing and facebooking quite so assiduously to let you know when a new blog is up. However, both Jim Coyle (one of the elders at Plains) and I will be continuing to blog here on a reasonably regular basis. If you would like to be kept up to date with blog updates then please subscribe to the blog by inserting your email address in the panel on the top left hand side of the blog. This way you will be automatically updated on any future blog activity. Friends use your vote wisely and prayerfully.