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.
You are guilty as charged, sinful, lost and separated from your Creator.
The blood of the Redeemer provides redemption for all eternity. What is the price we owe our Redeemer? We owe Him one hundred percent of our life.
If you’re like me, you really think about what you will post on social media and what you will not post. It is a good thought process/exercise because you are opening yourself up to the world and that world might include persons who you are not expecting to read what you write. It is a good practice to remember and think about the fact that our Lord is looking over our shoulder as we write. That means we must listen and pay attention to that still small voice. That also means we want to be careful about what we write that might offend, that might anger unnecessarily or that might hurt another. So here are some guidelines that I try to follow when posting:
Doors provide entry and exit. Doors opening invite access and doors closing speak to seasons coming to an end. Doors set boundaries. Some doors are guarded and others have alarms connected to them. There are doors with windows allowing partial sight access along with light entry and there are those that protect from the light. Some doors open automatically and others are manual. Doors protect from intruders and can be decorated to welcome visitors. Still further there are doors that we are never to open. (See Proverbs 5:8) Then there are doors of hope along with doors of despair. And when something or someone is close we sometimes say, “It’s right at the door.”
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.”
I’ve noticed some things about women and men and their wonderful differences. The women in our lives need to hear from us as men. They need to hear about our lives, our ambitions, our emotions, our issues and they really long to hear our thoughts about them. There is something internal in most women that connects with their spouse’s words, expressions, eye contact, touch and truthfulness about themselves. Women want to hear from their men in order to connect with them. It’s an internal connection and it can be difficult for men who would, more or less, rather have external connections.
In Genesis chapter one we are told that God created both male and female and it is recorded that we, as men and women, are made in His image, in God’s likeness. Our Creator represents both male and female. He certainly knew what He was doing when He created us as image bearers. He did not miss a thing or forget to add something in order for us to connect. Genesis two records that we are bone of bone and flesh of flesh. We are connected and that connection is God-created. We were meant to work together and we were meant to become a single flesh.
And…I…also…wonder why the holocaust of mother’s choosing to kill their babies in gruesome and painful measures with the governments help, push and provision of providers still takes place on a daily basis (in our enlightened and educated society) in greater numbers of deaths than all the wars America has ever been involved in (all the while this is now somehow viewed as normal). And… why many people who cry out to God only when they are in danger and could care less in normal, everyday life (spending most of their day cursing God and denying His existence) of a personal relationship with Him or the life they could have in serving Him. It could look like God has removed Himself.
I know of scarcely anything more difficult, more challenging and more humbling than expressing forgiveness. But at the same time, I know of scarcely anything more freeing than forgiveness. In the Holocaust documentary titled Shoah, a Warsaw ghetto victim states, “If you could lick my heart, it would poison you.” Nothing depicts a non-forgiving heart better than that picture. Author Gary Thomas once wrote, “We will be sinned against, and we will be hurt. When that happens, we will have a choice to make: We can give in to our hurt, resentment, and bitterness, or we can grow as a Christian and learn yet another important lesson on how to forgive.”
Forgiving is not something we naturally love to do. Even though we have been forgiven of so much and have fully come short of God’s ideal, we love to withhold forgiveness simply because (we might tell ourselves) the person has not suffered sufficiently for what they did to us. The truth is, One already suffered so we could be forgiven; we must now make the choice to do likewise (See Colossians 3:13). To do anything less is to take a position of critical judgment, freely giving ourselves over to the use of the evil one in heady, heartless self-righteousness.
This blog is from a spiritual father who loves this generation enough to share truth from a man named Peter who walked with Jesus. Please consider Simon Peter’s admonitions below, who we all know was not perfect, but who went on to be one of Jesus’ greatest spokesmen in the New Testament church.
5. Commitment to a local church, to relationships, to accountability and to discipleship is vital for our generation: Maybe you feel like you do not need the church, but does that church (people) need you? It is not just commitment to a building or a place, it is commitment to God’s children, your family. Love the brotherhood of believers… I Peter 2: 13, 17; I Peter 4: 9, 10
