Published: November 17, 2008 12:23 am      

May he echo the philosophy of Abraham Lincoln

Barack Obama, the 44th president of this — the United States of America! What an honor to be bestowed upon a man. What a privilege and yet a great struggle and battle lies ahead for him. Our wondrous, free country is drowning in debt and a failing economy.

What a responsibility our new commander in chief must face! I can only pray that he will succeed in accomplishing the change he promised without compromising our rights, our freedoms, and our protection!

Barack Obama is a magnificent, elegant, motivational speaker. He can grasp a crowd’s attention and draw them in close to have those that have ears, hear the words that he speaks. Those words reach the heart of the hearers and sway the listeners to support his views, his goals and his agendas wholeheartedly and unwavered.

From the beginning of time, we find those that were endowed with the same qualities. In the Garden of Eden, God spoke to Adam “But you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die,” Gen. 2:16.

And then from Adam’s side, not his head that the woman would be greater and not his feet that she would be under him, but from his side, God made Adam a partner in Eve. The garden had all that they could have ever dreamed of wanting or needing and yet in the garden there was an elegant speaker, a motivator.

He spoke his graceful speech that swayed her to his views, his goals and his agenda and she ate of the one and only tree that was forbidden. What happened?

Women — we still pay the price today in labor, childbirth. Men and women as well — you still pay the price in your labor, your job — your stress, your worries, your burdens — we pay each day for their decision. They were misled.

The speaker used a sincere motive to tempt Eve: “You will be like God.” It wasn’t wrong for Eve to want to be like God. To become more like God is humanity’s highest goal, to be like Jesus. It is what we are supposed to do although none of us will be as He was prefect. But the motivator misled Eve concerning the right way to accomplish this goal. All appeared, on the surface to be a right decision. But Eve and consequently Adam, did not see clearly the agenda of the speaker. They didn’t see behind the scenes and were lead astray to be as a god and not to strive for excellence in the Way, the truth and the life.

Adolph Hitler ... he was another motivator and elegant speaker. No story is needed here. No behind the scenes needed for we all know the end of this story and the price that was paid. It wasn’t paid by those lead astray by the speaker, those brain washed by the motivator and his agenda, his goals, and his views!

This time it was the Jews that paid the price. They had done nothing wrong but one highly motivated, elegant speaker killed them by the millions being praised his deed. Help me to understand this story? What was his true agenda?

We are to judge every word spoken to justify it, and as a Christian we are to use the Bible as our answer book. We are to use it to find the true motives behind words, agendas, views, and goals spoken to us by others who claim to be of like faith. We are to use the Bible to derive if what is spoken coincides with what is written in the Book.

This is especially important when voting in a presidential election, the highest position in our government. It does not matter if you are a Democrat or Republican, if you are a Christian, you are to vote for the candidate that best lines up with our beliefs found again in the B-I-B-L-E!

With that said, I know of another man who was a great speaker and motivator and that was Abraham Lincoln, our 16th president. He was a gifted story teller, a great speaker and motivator. He was awkward, but people trusted him. They believed in his views, his goals and his agenda. From a poor home and not much education available to him, he became a lawyer and was then elected to Congress.

From there he proposed one very important law, which stated that D.C. should purchase all slaves and set them free! The law was not passed but the heart of Lincoln showed what he felt, what he believed! And then he ran for president. He and the Republican Party came out against the spread of slavery.

War broke out among the states over this issue and President Abe Lincoln proved himself to be a great president. His purpose was to save the Union. It was the only important democratic government in the world and if it was destroyed, it would mean that the free man would not be able to govern themselves. Lincoln somehow made the people understand this and that slavery was wrong, and the great principle that all people are created free and equal before God.

During the war, Lincoln was seen walking the streets at night in deep thought. He was very aware of the blood that was shed for this Union, that became the United States of America and its freedoms and privileges, and in rain and even fog he paced those streets.

Then on Sept. 22, 1862, Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, which was a start in reaching his goal, his agenda. And with his second term of presidency, with no thought of revenge for the Southern states, Lincoln spoke, “With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation’s wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow and his orphan-to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.” This was his dream. At what price did it cost him?

I can only pray that our new president will take a deep look on the inside and chose to mirror the Savior he claims to serve and to echo the views, goals and agenda of our 16th president and not compromise our freedoms and rights.

Tonya Smiley

Bloomington