A Blog Article Posted by ACLA President & Church Lobbyist Darrin Mitchell:

“Give your complete attention to these matters. Throw yourself into your tasks so that everyone will see your progress. Keep a close watch on how you live and on your teaching. Stay true to what is right for the sake of your own salvation and the salvation of those who hear you.” 1 Timothy 4:15-16 (NLT)

Good advice from the Apostle Paul to adhere to when you consider who you will vote for in your upcoming caucus or primary. For those who have already cast their votes the month of January has been a political rollercoaster in the states of Iowa, New Hampshire, Iowa again, and South Carolina. As of today’s blog posting the Republican field for the office of President of the United States has narrowed down to the following four candidates: Newt Gingrich, Mitt Romney, Ron Paul and Rick Santorum.

How did we get here?

The synopsis of this month’s January vote is as follows: on January 3rd we were told that Mitt Romney had won the Iowa caucus by 8 votes. That political win helped cement another victory for Mitt Romney in the New Hampshire primary on January 10th.

But wait. Hold on! The Iowan Republican party announced that they had made a mistake and that they were not done counting their caucus votes and in a complete turnabout on January 19th declared that Rick Santorum was the actual winner of the Iowa caucus by a margin of 34 votes. Because of this error, I am now placed in the position of having to issue a retracting statement from my January 10th blog article and now state that there were 35 Mitt Romney supporters in Iowa who did not take the time to vote in the Iowa caucus and now wished that they had.

However this surprising turn of events in Iowa did not influence this political race as on Saturday, January 21st South Carolinians voted in their primary to shake up the 2012 presidential campaign by casting their solid support behind the Former Speaker of the House of Representatives Newt Gingrich.

As a result, we now head into the Florida Primary on Tuesday, January 31st with the delegate count to get the Republican nomination for President of the United States in August standing as follows: Newt Gingrich 27, Mitt Romney 17, Ron Paul 9 and Rick Santorum 6.

The vote in Florida on Tuesday will set the stage for the upcoming caucus and primary contests to come in February. It will be interesting to see who holds the delegate count at this same time next month. As the states vote and as we watch, I encourage everyone to participate by remembering to pray each day for these candidates as one of them will become our next nominee for the office of President of the United States.