The election is behind us.  All the politicians have ceased calling. Things will once again return to normalcy. Eventually all the politician's signs will be removed from the landscape. Life will return to business as usual. As a result of the election some faces have changed. I don't believe that the electoral outcome declares anything other than the taste of the times and the popular consensus of the day. If most of the people were right then Sundays would be set-aside only for sports.  

By the grace of God my meditation this morning is on Ancient of Days. He spoke; He will bring it to pass! He purposed it, He will also do it. In the Garden of Eden we might have seen the first lobbyist. He advocated for the gates of Hell. He won the majority of the votes that day. But regardless of the popular thought, "the ways of the Lord are right, and the just shall walk in them: but the transgressors shall fall therein" (Hosea 14:9). All praises be to God who by grace chose some in His everlasting love. The elect were the Father's before the world began. Our Lord said, "Thine they were, and Thou gavest them Me." Our forefather Adam earned death and lost his native goodness. The Last Adam our Lord said, "And this is the will of Him that sent Me, that of all which He hath given Me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up the last day." "It" and "nothing" are the words in this Scripture that I ponder this morning. When the elect shall be raised it is raised as one, singularly, as "it" is different from "them". No one is different from nothing. In the twinkling of an eye corruption shall be changed and raised incorruptible and mortality shall put on immortality.

Regardless of the popular consensus in the Garden of Eden, regardless of the fact that the serpent, Eve, and Adam agreed; let's rejoice that "there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one." Let us be mindful that the Father hath chosen us in Christ before the foundation of the world.  God has ordained that the elect should be holy and without blame before Him in love having predestinated them unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will! Should we not look forward to the "recount" of the elect of God? All the chosen elect shall be changed and raised and brought home to immortal glory. Then our Lord shall once again say, "Of them which Thou gavest me have I lost none." What we consider normal today shall never taint our minds in glory. Today it is normal to live in a world filled with sin and sorrow it shall not be so in heaven. That which we know today as "business as usual" shall not be our usual business.  In that never ending day we will sing a new song with no references to sin, shame or sorrow. Oh for a never-ending day filled with perfect praise! None deserves such an end or such notions to cross our minds. What a blessing to believe that God predestinated the elect to heaven and immortal glory! That is God's decree and has nothing to do with our thoughts, or our ways. Shall He not bring it to pass? 11/9/2006 Elder M. Hoogasian