The Obvious Manifestation of God’s Election

I am currently reading a book that clearly describes God’s election to salvation of His people. The book is titled, “They Thought for Themselves.” This book is about ten Jews who heard God’s call and responded to it in faith. Most of them were orthodox in background and understood all of the basics and culture of Judaism very well.

The book is written in very simple, understandable, terms. These people are ordinary people. They speak in everyday language. They are not sophisticated theologians. They are simply people who have heard the words of God; they recognized Him, and they responded.

The various members of the ten faced great opposition from other Jews who believe that Jesus is a falsehood and a pretender to the goods of God. These ten people have answered the opposition of the Jews in various ways; but always with conviction and courtesy.

One argument that was occasionally used by these Jewish Christians is the passage in Jeremiah 33:14-26. “Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will fulfill the promise I made to the house of Israel and the house of Judah. In those days and at that time I will cause a righteous Branch to spring up for David, and he shall execute justice and righteousness in the land….” I strongly recommend that all my readers carefully read that passage in its entirety; it is quite instructive and communicative to the Jewish mind.

One of the ten received this argument from a detractor: “You say that Jesus is the Messiah, but he is well known to have said from the cross where he was crucified, ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’ This passage is from the 1st verse of Psalm 22. If he were truly God in the flesh, why would he have said such a thing?” The answer, of course, is that He well knew that the people standing around the cross would have clearly recognized the source of that question; and they would have understood it in the context of the rest of the Psalm, which is one of the strongest statements of faith in the Bible.

Furthermore, the Jew who had converted to the faith asked the critic a question that stopped his mouth: “Do you remember who it was who first made that statement in the 1st verse of Psalm 22? It was King David. Do you intend to tell me that David questioned his faith, too?”

In view of fierce opposition, the ten converted Jews mentioned in this book stood their ground and became repentant, faithful, followers of Jesus, the true Messiah of the Jews. This could never have happened without the elective finger of God on them.

Do NOT Cut the Defense Department Budget

The Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction, staffed by 6 Congressmen and 6 Senators, half being Democrats and half being Republicans are tasked with cutting the federal budget by $1.5 trillion over 10 years. If they do not succeed in coming up with an acceptable compromise on this issue, automatic cuts will be imposed, amounting to $1.2 trillion. These mandatory cuts in the budget if this committee does not come up with other recommendations will include drastic cuts to the Defense Department.

The Defense Department has already taken severe cuts to their budget since the Obama administration came to power. If these new cuts take place, it is estimated by the DOD that the military will have to mothball over 60 ships, including 2 of our 11 carrier battle groups, ⅓ of our Army maneuver battalions and ⅓ of the Air Force fighter jets.

With the world situation as it is, we can ill afford to limit our country’s military fighting forces.

I would ask all my readers to contact each member of the Select Committee to vote to leave the funding of DOD as it is without any further budget cuts. The web page of the Committee is Deficit Reduction Committee. The members of the committee are listed below; and you can contact them by looking them up on Google.

Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas), Co-Chair
Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), Co-Chair
Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.)
Rep. Xavier Becerra (D-Calif.)
Rep. Dave Camp (R-Mich.)
Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.)
Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.)
Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.)
Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio)
Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.)
Rep. Fred Upton (R-Mich.)
Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.)

Thanks for your attention to this important matter!