Proverbs, Romans, and the Democratic National Convention

When I was a senior at High School Summer Camp at Hume Lake I made a commitment to the Lord to read the book of Proverbs and the book of Romans every month.  Somewhere along the line I added the book of Psalms, but it is so long that I split it up over five months.  Well, I have kept pretty faithful in my reading almost every month for the last 30 years.  It amazes me how each month as I read these books I find something comletely new to me in each reading.  This month I am reading for the first time in The Message, which, with its contemporary wording, brings a lot of new thoughts to my reading.  I came across Proverbs 28:2 a couple of days ago.  It says,

2  When the country is in chaos, everybody has a plan to fix it--But it takes a leader of real understanding to straighten things out. 

As I watched the highlights of the Democratic National Convention I can't think of a more appropriate verse as it applies to our nation.  We are a fragmented country right now.  Everyone has a different plan to fix what they believe is wrong with the country.  I believe that what we really need right now is a leader who can bring us all together and help us work as one.  As I watched the convention I am very concerned with the fragmentation of the Democratic Party itself.  They are trying to bring together all the different splintered groups representing the liberal side of the political system under the Democratic Party umbrella by focusing them on what they have in common: their intense hatred for the Republican Party and George W. Bush.  I tried to go into the Democratic National Convention with an open mind, to see what good might come out of the convention, but I'm afraid that rallying around a hatred for the Republican Party and George W. Bush just isn't good enough for me.  There is just too much out and out hatred on the Democratic side of the ticket this election.  Also, each splinter of the Democratic Party has its own agenda that it wants fixed, but there is no overall cohesive plan to integrate these and make this happen.  The have several lofty goals, such as providing health care for everyone, inproving education, and forming a real coalition with the UN forces in Iraq.  But, there are no details available for how the ticket plans to do this, and frankly the Democrats may win the election, but I don't believe Kerry can pull off any type of a cohesive plan.  I will wait to see what the Republican National Convention accomplishes before I make up my mind who to vote for, but right now it doesn't look like I will endorse the Kerry/Edwards ticket. 

As far as Proverbs, Romans, and Psalms go, I'll still be faithful to the commitment I made to the Lord.  Lately I have been feeling convicted to go deeper; the concepts of justification, grace, and sanctification in the book of Romans have been tugging on my soul very hard over the last few months.  Along those lines, I have 3 friends that memorized the entire book of Romans.  One of them (David Yong)  is a friend I met while living in SongTan, Korea who memorized all of Romans in English (his second language).   Now if David can do it in his second language maybe I should at least try to tackle it in my primary language.

Romans 1:1  Paul, a bond-servant of Christ Jesus, called an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God.........