The heart of all leaders is in the hands of God beloved! Is it wise to continually question the ability of God? Is this the "beginning of the end?" Is this man simply too much for God to handle? Was Nebuchadnezzar? How small do we make God appear to non-believers when we openly act as if the world ended yesterday? In fact -- what is our proper responsibility?
I urge you, first of all, to pray for all people. Ask God to help them; intercede on their behalf, and give thanks for them. Pray this way for kings and all who are in authority so that we can live peaceful and quiet lives marked by godliness and dignity. -- 1Timothy 2: 1-2 (NLT)
I remember an old friend who used to confuse his politics with his faith, and he actually said after the 2008 election that he would not pray for the president. Then you are not only being willfully ignorant but also willfully disobedient. Is that being as wise as serpents? Listen, you do not have to pray that everything in his worldly agenda is achieved! Just that God's will is achieved through him! I can see the ruffled feathers already -- God can't use a liberal! God can use anyone beloved. Moses was a murderer. David was an adulterer. You want to see a walking Jerry Springer show -- take a look at the life of Jacob. Twelve children with four different women who all lived together! We are absolutely meant to pray. We are to pray for the president and all who are in authority -- not for our agenda but for God's. His agenda is outlined in the above verse. That we can live peaceful and quiet lives marked by godliness and dignity. Dear Lord help us to be wiser when it comes to our interactions with the world.
At the same time however, we need to be as innocent as doves. Another translation says as harmless as doves. The sad truth however is that we do plenty of harm to the
It isn't my responsibility to judge outsiders, but it certainly is your responsibility to judge those inside the church who are sinning. God will judge those on the outside; but as the Scriptures say, "You must remove the evil person from among you." -- 1Corinthians 5: 12-13 (NLT)
Instead, we turn a blind eye to the judgment of sin inside the church by misusing the "judge not" verses from the Gospel of Matthew and then turn our eyes towards a world that is walking in utter darkness and berate them for not repenting. There is a reason why the verses from Chronicles says if the people who are called by MY name will repent and turn from their evil ways that God will hear those prayers and heal the land. Repentance always starts with me -- not the other guy. Take a good honest look at the landscape of the church in
Then Jesus said, "You would have no power over me at all unless it were given to you from above. So the one who handed me over to you has the greater sin." -- John 19: 11 (NLT)
These are the words of Jesus to Pilate! So the man who sentences Jesus to be crucified after he had Him flogged to within an inch of His life does not have the greater sin. Why? Because Pilate was an unbeliever. He was merely doing as the world he lived in did. Is it sin in the eyes of God? Absolutely, but not the greater sin in this story. That belonged to the High Priest Caiaphas; who turned Jesus over to Pilate and orchestrated events to ensure His crucifixion. Caiaphas has the greater sin because he had the greater responsibility -- because he knew better! Likewise, we in the church are supposed to know better beloved. We are not supposed to ignore portions of the Bible when it doesn't suit our pre-conceived political agendas. Harmless as doves we are supposed to be! Do no harm! You want to make a political argument that the country made a bad choice last night -- knock yourself out as long as you are truthful. But stop wrapping God up in your politics and pretending that those who may have voted otherwise somehow violated Scripture. God is not a respecter of man. When I think of how we act sometimes I am reminded of this short story in the Gospel of Luke:
