This will most likely be my one and only blog on the upcoming election. It is not written to change anyone’s mind, but rather to calm our minds and spirits.
I love this nation and I love how God has used this nation and continues to use this nation to care for others around the world. I love our freedoms and I love our Christian heritage. I love the many cultures found in America and I love the church in this nation. I love the fact that we have been given the freedom to vote and elect candidates for office and I love that everyone can freely voice their opinion.
I do not love the disunity I see and feel in our nation today. I dislike the factions over important issues like national debt, cultural values, immigration, abortion, taxes, jobs and so many others. I have prayed for and hoped that the present administration would help bring unity and focus to this great county. I dislike how opposing views have become even more venomous and further apart. I dislike and have been discouraged by the lack of leadership displayed in our nation that has allowed this and has participated in it. The selfishness and immaturity among our leaders is astounding.
The list of why Donald Trump is unfit and his multiple sins exposed is getting longer, as the same list continues to grow with Hilary Clinton. There are so many things wrong with both candidates that many people are saying they cannot vote for either one. Still others find one candidate more evil than the other and are not voting for a candidate but rather against a candidate. Like them or not, these are the choices. It truly speaks to the division in this nation and it speaks to how truly shallow American values have become. As I heard someone say recently, there is so much di-vision because there is so little vision, so little leadership. How true. Was it John Maxwell who said that everything rises and falls on leadership?
I wish it was over and we could all go home. But it’s not over. In fact, November 8th is just the beginning. It will continue for four years, likely eight. And that is my point. We need to look down the road, beyond the election and all the faults in both candidates. We need to ask ourselves which party stands for our personal biblical values because that party will either stay the same and continue on with its agenda or that party will change and work toward its agenda.
For the godly, arguing with your neighbor or posting on-line why your candidate is better by putting the other candidate down, in my opinion, is simply operating in the same spirit that these two candidates operate. You see it in each debate, i.e., the anger, the hate, the division, the immaturity and the lack of integrity, character and leadership. Don’t fall prey to it; rise above it and pray against the spirit that is attempting to separate and divide.
So many today who claim Christ remind me of the disciples, who when they discovered that the Lord was not welcome in a certain Samaritan village asked Jesus, “Lord, do you want us to call fire down from heaven to destroy them?” (Luke 9:54) In other words, burn those to ashes who do not welcome you or receive you. Jesus calmly rebuked them and they simply moved on to a village that would receive them.
As I consider that second Tuesday of November, I find myself required to look beyond these two candidates and instead looking to the party that best represents my beliefs and my values. Daniel did it in his day and Joseph did it in his. Jesus certainly did it best as He represented His Father’s kingdom here on earth. I suppose it is these words of Christ that help me the most when it comes to this election and its candidates, “The teachers of religious law and the Pharisees are the official interpreters of the law of Moses. So practice and obey whatever they tell you, but don’t follow their example. For they don’t practice what they teach. They crush people with unbearable religious demands and never lift a finger to ease the burden. Everything they do is for show.” (Matthew 23: 1-5) Certainly seems that Jesus understood it, while giving practical advice at how to walk it out.
The sign in your yard will most likely not change anyone’s mind, but it just might inhibit your ability to share about a kingdom that is not part of this world system with your neighbors. Eventually we need to ask ourselves, do we want to be right or do we want to be in relationship? Do we only want to share our political “truth” or do we long to share THE Truth? Your neighbor’s need or fear defines your obligation of serving them; it is the love of God. No political party can save them. Remember, Jesus washed the feet of Judas who hours later betrayed Him. Do you think that Jesus assaulted Judas verbally or was especially rough on his feet during that moment?
II Chronicles 7:14 is still the best advice from God’s word for a hurting nation, “Then if my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sins and restore their land.”
Father, please come and restore this land called the USA with Your love, Your heart and Your unity. Please forgive us of our disunity in direct disobedience to the prayer of Your Son recorded in John 17, “May they experience such perfect unity that the world will know that you sent me and that you love them as much as you love me.” Give us such a heart for this nation that we will pray for and love whichever candidate wins this election, because ultimately our trust, our hope and our life is in You and Your hands.
Please make your voice heard by voting and in the meantime represent the kingdom of God well.
I heard on the news that a man was finally arrested and charged with setting the fires in CA that were so destructive. He is being labeled as an arsonist. I had this thought during prayer this morning that we need “Holy Ghost arsonists.” Obviously arson is a negative term and an act that has malicious intent connected to it. But since our Father redeems all things, could He give us those who are and will be fire starters: Holy Ghost fire starters? I began praying for such persons to emerge all over the world. And as the old song goes, “…it only takes a spark.”
Are you a conservative or a liberal? These two words are really polarizing these days in our world of political correctness, especially in a two-party voting system like we have in the USA. These two words have created two opposing sides. It has divided our nation and the daily news loves to point out the differences, further dividing us.
I placed this question before the Lord one day: “Are You a conservative or a liberal?” The question wasn’t posed in the political sense, but more in a spiritual sense. What follows is the answer that I thought I received to the question.
It has been on my heart to address something going on particularly in America right now, but I also know there are some similarities around the world when it comes to elections.
There is this break up of a certain celebrity couple that has recently made the news. It seems that it was over his refusal to have sexual intimacy with her. This is newsworthy today because the media is pointing out his “dysfunction” and not hers. Interesting. Just what will waiting to have sex do for you as a single? Here are a few benefits:
Mid speech the politician talking sheds a tear while the camera zooms in for a closer look on this tender moment. The crowd in the room and the viewer around the world quiets themselves and pauses to observe this deeply felt emotional discourse. Surely tears mean “truth-filled” words are coming from his or her lips and they overwhelm this elected government official. The need or desire must be so great that from deep within their spirit is a groaning to be heard and understood. But is it real or is it an act? I suppose that only the politician and God really know the answer to that question. But, the following are a few ills of this world that I pray politicians will one day weep about in order to provoke change:
Jesus loves these persons. He weeps over the sinful choices of mankind. He gave His life a ransom to redeem every one of these life circumstances and He empowers us to not just weep with Him, but to pray and to ask Him what part we play in changing these real life conditions. Of the increase of his government and peace there will be no end. (Isaiah 9:6,7)
If the answer to the question of why there is evil in the world is found in the fall of man recorded in Genesis chapter three, then what could possibly change our evil heart? Jeremiah wrote, “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?” (17:9) Wow, “beyond cure” and who could possibly “understand it?” That could make us feel that we are without hope and our heart will forever be deceitful. But wait, there is an answer because, “…the Lord searches every heart and understands every motive behind the thoughts.” (I Chronicles 28:9) And the Psalmist, David, prayed, “Create in me a pure heart, O God…” Could that be possible and if so, how?
Have you ever asked or been asked the question, “Why is there so much evil in the world?” Or, have you been confronted by the person who wants you to defend your faith, all the while, claiming that if there truly were a “loving” God, humanity would not suffer as it does? I have also struggled to answer that question. But perhaps there is an answer, an answer that is very difficult to admit. An answer that is not so complicated and one in which you do not need to be God’s defense attorney.
Jeremiah said* that we didn’t listen, but rather followed the stubbornness of our own evil hearts. Isaiah said woe to those who call evil good and good evil, trying to be wise in their futile understanding. Jesus told us that out of our heart would come evil thoughts, murder, sexual immorality and other sins. He spoke these words, “The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For out of the overflow of his heart his mouth speaks. Why do you call me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I say?” (Luke 6:45, 46) There is no escaping it; you and I, along with each person asking the question, are to blame. What is being “stored up” in your heart today?
