#GeorgiaOnMyMind - A Christmas Carol

#ProjectVictoryAmerica choir - 144,000 voices, 1 song.  Rehearsals now through January 1 via social media. “This great choir sang a wonderful new song in front of the throne of God and before the four living beings and the twenty-four elders. No one could learn this song except the 144,000 who had been redeemed from the earth.” Rev 14:3  www.TheEnterpriZe.com/healing

 By Stephanie Walker Stradford and Eric Stradford, U.S. Marine Corps, Retired

AMWS December 12, 2020, Atlanta – All across America, voters (on both sides), are anxiously anticipating an historic outcome for the 2020 elections. December 14th is the first day for early voting in the Georgia Senate runoff.  This special election seats the last two and the majority of 100 U.S. Senators.   50 to 50 is the Senate’s new bipartisan reality, with Kamala Harris, the President of the Senate, holding the tie-breaking vote. 

Nearly 4 million Georgians voted early for the November general election, breaking the state’s early voting record, and electing its first Democrat for president since 1992.   By election day, 51% of all Georgians registered had voted.

Since election day, the COVID-19 death toll has continued to claim American lives. With a possible treatment just getting started, most everyone’s hope for this Christmas is less.  About 79% of adults in Georgia relate Christmas to the birth of Jesus the Christ. 

Which brings us to Georgia’s role in Healing The Soul of America.  A plan is already unfolding to demonstrate the aspiration, “One nation under God.”  On the way to January 5, Georgia needs to feel ya America.  The clear choice for Georgia’s future is allegorically embedded in its constitutionally ordained values.

For all purposes, the Jan 5, 2021 Georgia Senate runoff election could be determined by Christmas Day. A little appreciation from #WeThePeople goes a long way in the Peach State.   #NoPoverty2030 is the YouthUSA wish for Christmas.  That means starting now on a 10-year global effort to end poverty.

We’ll want to include Christian leaders on both sides, for a Kairos timeline between our Christmas Carol and a Pre-Palm Sunday report about a preacher and a rich incumbent.  We’re using political pseudonyms to facilitate bipartisan inclusion.

“Radical, Raphael” entered Jericho and made his way through the town.  There was an incumbent there called “KellyisforKelly.” She was the chief tax collector in the region, and he had become very rich. The incumbent tried to get a look at the preacher, but was too short to see over the crowd. So she ran ahead and climbed a peach tree beside the road, for the preacher was going to pass that way.

When the preacher came by, he looked up at the incumbent and called her by name. “Kelly!” he said. “Quick, come down! I must be a guest in your home today.”

The incumbent quickly climbed down and took the preacher to her house in great excitement and joy. But the people were displeased. “He has gone to be the guest of a notorious sinner,” they grumbled.

Meanwhile, the incumbent stood before the Lord and said, “I will give half my wealth to the poor, Lord, and if I have cheated people on their taxes, I will give them back four times as much!”

The preacher responded, “Salvation has come to this home today, for this incumbent has shown herself to be a true advocate for #GeorgiaOnMyMind.

Georgia needs to feel ya America .Revelation 14:1-3

CAN YOU SEE IT?  144,000 voices, from all across America, connected singing one song, in perfect harmony, dedicated to family members lost in COVID-19.

www.TheEnterpriZe.com/healing

Georgia, Oh Georgia

The whole day through

This old sweet song

Keeps Georgia on my mind

Oh Georgia, Oh Georgia

And it’s sung for all of you

Comes in sweet and clear

as moonlight through the pines

Other arms reach out to me

Other eyes smile tenderly

Still in peaceful dreams I see

Oh, the road leads back to you,

Oh Oh

Georgia, yeah, Oh Georgia

No peace I find

Just an old sweet song

Keeps Georgia on my mind

Other arms reach out to me

And other eyes smile tenderly

Still in peaceful dreams I see

The road leads back to you,

oh, oh

Georgia, Georgia

Yeah

No peace I find

Just an old sweet song

Keeps Georgia on my mind

 

 

How Two Senate Races Became a Battle for Your Soul

 #GeorgiaOnMyMind

By Eric Stradford, U.S. Marine Corps, Retired

AMWS, November 19, 2020, Atlanta – Better angels prevailed over outside agitators as the Georgia hand recount confirms a Biden win here. The latest hurdle in Election 2020 prayerfully brings #WeThePeople closer than ever to the Peach State reality -- #GeorgiaOnMyMind.

At dawn’s early light, a battle for Georgia’s soul is being waged with almost enough campaign spending to achieve #NoPoverty2030.  With plagues of Biblical measure at stake, no doubt, at least half of America is looking to Georgia for something other than business as usual.  According to Pew Charitable Trusts, 76% of Christians in Georgia believe in Hell.  Security of their own souls is crucial to recovery for the rest of the nation.

Georgia Secretary of State, Brad Raffensperger, has been facing the worst kind of voter intimidation.  The pressure between doing the right thing politically and doing the right thing is growing old—right alongside America’s intent for its post Civil War Reconstruction.   American history today in Georgia depends on the version to which one might subscribe.

Country artist Charlie Daniels perhaps foretold events of today in his prophetic country hit, The Devil Went Down To Georgia.  In the end, “Johnny” wins the battle for the soul, at least from the perspective of the storyteller here.  

“Johnny, rosin up your bow and play your fiddle hard, 'cause hell's broke loose in Georgia and the devil deals the cards. And if you win you get this shiny fiddle made of gold. But if you lose, the devil gets your soul.”  

Battles for the soul of a nation have been fought and loss throughout Georgia’s history.  But unlike other less fortunate venues, Georgia discovered a bridge.  The multitalented Ray Charles set a tone for healing through his 1960 ballad.  Georgia on My Mind, (lyrics by Stuart Gorrell, a banker, and music by Hoagy Carmichael, an actor) endures as one of America’s best loved songs.

Georgia on My Mind has been recorded by many outstanding artists, but the rendition by Charles, a native Georgian, has been embraced throughout the world.  On April 24, 1979, "Georgia on My Mind" became the official state song of Georgia, replacing the song, "Georgia."

Repair from political conflict begins where a hopeful nation looks for it. In the past, a faithless elector might demonize political opposition without ever considering the history that got us here.

Georgia’s history presents a pathway to America’s future, but only with a little fact checking sprinkled along the way. Republican David Purdue is cousin to former Governor Sonny Purdue.  Georgia elected Sonny as a Democrat in 1991, 1994, and 1996. Then Sony switched party affiliation from Democrat to Republican in 1998 and was re-elected to the State Senate as a Republican. Democrat Jon Ossoff challenges Purdue to some down-home fiddling that could change the majority in the United States Senate.  Jon Ossoff’s election levels the Senate at 50-50, kicking off an honest attempt at being better.

The second of two senate special election races pits Raphael Warnock against incumbent Kelly Loeffler.  Warnock has served as senior pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta since 2005. He came to prominence in Georgia politics as a leader in the campaign to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act.

Loeffler is married to Intercontinental Exchange founder and CEO Jeffrey Sprecher. In August 2020, The Washington Post reported the couple’s combined net worth at $520 million, making her the wealthiest U.S. senator. The Bloomington, Illinois native bought a minority stake in the Atlanta Dream of the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA).  She publicly objected to players wearing shirts with Black Lives Matter and Say Her Name printed on them.

Georgia Governor Brian Kemp appointed Loeffler to the U.S. Senate seat she now holds. During the 2016 election, as Secretary of State, Kemp rejected help from the Department of Homeland Security to guard against Russian interference. During the 2018 election, Kemp held up more than 53,000 voter registration applications, with nearly 70% of the voter registrations belonging to African Americans.

Jefferson Franklin Long (March 3, 1836 – February 4, 1901) was the first African-American congressman from Georgia.  He was the only African American to represent Georgia until Andrew Young was elected in 1972.  If elected, Warnock will be the first African American to represent Georgia in the U.S. Senate. 

In the song, Devil Went Down To Georgia, observers might see the Devil betting a hometown favorite named Johnny a golden fiddle against his soul. It becomes clear that Johnny’s soul is symbolic of something more—perhaps the soul of the South –perhaps the soul of a nation. One might note from Daniels’ perspective on preposition, the Devil didn’t go up to Georgia, as if from hell; he went down to Georgia, as if from the north.

Battle For America’s Soul

 “For we are not fighting against flesh-and-blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places.” Ephesians 6:10-18

Be Strong, Be Ready, Be Prayin’