Tuesday's Musical Notes - "For What It's Worth" (Buffalo Springfield)

     Hey there!!!  It's Tuesday!!!!  Thanks for checking in with Tuesday's Musical Notes and today's contribution to the Tuesday's Musical Notes election series.....Tuesday's Musical Notes Votes!    The deadline to register to vote is today in many states!  What about yours?  You can find your state's deadline here:

Voter registration deadlines by state


Have you registered?  Did you make sure that those you know who have turned 18 since the last election have registered?  Many offices will be determined on November 6 and each of us has the opportunity to impact the outcome.  What a great privilege we have to vote!  It has been well said that to not vote is to vote.  This representative form of government is unlike any other on the planet and your vote helps to keep it that way.   Just imagine if we lived in a country led by a dictator or our government was a true democracy where the people made all of the decisions.   The results would be chaotic.  Many people mistakenly understand  that we live in a democracy.  In reality we live in a constitutional republic.  This means that we elect people to make governmental decisions for us.  This too can be chaotic at times.  It may even take on the aspects of a circus:

Schoolhouse Rock "Three Ring Circus"


     In 1966 a curfew and loitering law was passed in Los Angeles to slow the increased traffic of the club goers in the area.  Abiding by the 10:00pm curfew law was hard to imagine for those involved in the club scene and as with many laws at the time, a protest group sprung up.  Stephen Stills observed the protests and immediately penned a song that later became associated with another set of protests, those demonstrating against the Viet Nam war.  Still's song has been ranked #63  in Rolling Stones list of the 500 Greatest Rock and Roll Songs Of All Time and it made the band Buffalo Springfield a legend.  For the most part, it is not even known by its title, "For What It's Worth", however its impact in the entertainment world has made the song a musical icon.  Maybe you know it better by its subtitle;
 
"Stop, What's That Sound"

     Perhaps you have been told that as a Christian we are to "be in the world, but not of the world".  This is not found verbatim in the Bible.  It is however expressed in John's Gospel as Jesus is praying to the Father on our behalf.  It is the idea that we are to be familiar with our surroundings without allowing them to become idols in our lives.  Jesus was tempted one on one by Satan and yet He did not sin.  He was intimate with his surroundings while not surrendering to its temptations.  Jesus, in His human form, proved that it is possible to live in this world without falling captive to its trappings.  The flip side of giving in to the world's temptations, living in total disregard to the world, is equally as bad and in our own strength, virtually impossible.  In Matthew 10:16 Jesus gives His disciples some instruction regarding being in the world:

^"Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves: be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves".  King James Version (KJV)

Jesus is instructing us that as we live in this world we are to pay attention to the things that are going on around us so we can be better equipped to 1) love God, 2) love others more than we do ourselves, and 3) make more disciples.  This isn't always easy, yet as Paul proclaimed to the Phillipians, "I can do all things through Christ's strength!" (paraphrase and emphasis, Musical Notes)

   One of the ways that we interact in our country is to let our Christian perspective be known through our vote.  As we stated before, we have an opportunity on November 6th to impact the direction that our great country is led.  It is incumbent on us to pay attention and then vote based on what the Bible says is right and wrong, not according to the political party to which our families have been affiliated or based on what we hear from political advertisements or the news.  Your vote is too important to leave up to another person's  research, perspective, and possible misinformation.  There is the possibility that your analysis of candidates and issues will not be in alignment with friends or family members.  One of the great things about the way God created us is our ability to come to conclusions on our own when given enough information.  The outcome of our research may mean that we disagree with others.   It is one thing for us to disagree, as long it is done in the right spirit, it is quite another for us to be uninformed because we didn't pay attention or totally understand how those we elect believe on the basis of God's Word.  So within the next 28 days, I encourage you to take the advice from a protest song from the '60s and ......."Stop, what's that sound, everybody look what's goin' down......" 

Don't forget to register to vote.....today is the deadline in many states!

'Til Tuesday,

Loving HIM by loving you,
Randy

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