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What would Jesus vote? Democrat? Republican? Independent?
To that we’ll not know the answer. Let’s ask a greater question.
What is the Gospel? For some, it
has been the answer to the question, “If you died tonight, do you know
where you would go?” The Gospel was what got you saved.
In the days gone by, we knew what “getting saved” was too. Getting
saved was being placed in the heaven-bound category. And we knew
what heaven was, and what hell was.
Somehow, those things have become diluted in the church today.
The modern day church has either been Pharisaical in its character,
condemning everyone for everything – heaping burdens on people too hard
to bear and never helping them bear the load; or they’ve so compromised
and water-down the Word of God that its power has been snuffed out in
the lives of people. Those groups have no compass for direction
anymore.
I believe there is a balance that must be found between the two. It’s
a place where truth is delivered in love and understanding, but never
compromised.
This presidential election has once again divided America.
Saints and sinners on both sides are screaming at one another with venom.
Liberals want rights for gay lifestyles and mothers with unwanted pregnancies,
and conservatives scream with angry faces about wanting the immorality
to be abolished. Jesus addressed both of these groups in the story
of the adulterous woman.
John 8:3-12 Jesus
told the “conservatives” that the one who had never sinned could throw
the first stone. He told the “liberal” adulterer that He did not
condemn her and not to sin anymore. Jesus
is usually standing somewhere between our extremes.
If hell is presented as the king of all bad places where there’s torment
every second of eternity for all those who don’t tow the line, then
most will respond, “Well, then I already live in hell and no matter
how hard I try, I could never measure up anyway.”
If heaven is presented as merely the ultimate pleasure factory, and
nothing else, then that fits into my self-seeking lustful lifestyle
of do what I want when I want and get everything you can in life before
you die philosophy.
Pastor John Ortberg said, “But if the gospel really is the announcement
of the availability, through Jesus, of the ‘with-God life,’ then things
begin to fall into place. Grace is not just the forgiveness of
sin; it is the power to live the with-God life from one moment to the
next. Heaven is not a pleasure factory that an angry God chooses
to shut some people out of because they don’t pass a theology test;
it is a community of servant hood that can only be enjoyed by a certain
kind of character.”
He goes on to say, “Discipleship or obedience is not something we have
to cajole people into by obligation or gratitude (‘after all, Jesus
died for you; the least you can do is deny yourself happiness for a
while on earth’), it is simply the process of learning to enter into
the good, with-God life. The gospel becomes social as well as
personal – not because individuals don’t matter, but because to be saved
means (among other things) to be delivered from the chronic selfishness
that contributes to the world’s hurt and to my misery.”
One of the reasons why we still say at times, “If you life ended in
30 minutes, do you know you would make it to Heaven?” is because at
least it helps people be very clear that they have made a decision about
something. “I’m not going to earn my way anymore; I’m on the grace
plan now.” And that decision is often enough to start people on
the road toward God.
When Jesus walked the earth, the call “Follow me” was easily understood.
People would actually, physically, bodily, walk with Jesus. People
knew they were following. When the church formed,
the call to follow Jesus was easily understood. There was an alternative
community that met daily, that radically transformed people’s financial
lives, social lives, time, learning, allegiances, and hope. People
knew if they were following.
The issues that load this election are tough ones. I don’t have
all the answers on the issues. I just know how to go back to the
book that points us in the right direction.
THE ISSUES
ABORTION I know there are extenuating
circumstances and heartbreaking stories that can be told on both sides
of this issue, but all I know is what God’s word says.
Jeremiah 1:4-5 (New King James Version)
4 Then the word of the LORD came to me, saying:
5 “ Before I formed you in the
womb I knew you;
Before you were born I sanctified
you;
I ordained you a prophet to the
nations.”
Psalm 139:12-14 (New King James Version)
12 Indeed, the darkness shall not hide from You,
But the night
shines as the day;
The darkness
and the light are both alike to You.
13 For You formed my inward parts;
You covered
me in my mother’s womb.
14 I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully
made;[a]
Marvelous are
Your works,
And that
my soul knows very well.
Genesis
1:27 NKJV
So God created man in His own image; in the image of
God He created him; male and female He created them.
Matthew 22:20-22 (King James Version)
20And he saith unto them, Whose is this image and superscription?
21They say unto him, Caesar's. Then saith he unto them, Render
therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's; and unto God
the things that are God's.
22When they had heard these words, they marvelled, and left
him, and went their way.
SANCTITY OF MARRIAGE
Genesis 2:21-24 (New King James Version)
21 And the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall on Adam, and he slept;
and He took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh in its place.
22 Then the rib which the LORD God had taken from man He made into
a woman, and He brought her to the man.
23 And Adam said:
“This is now bone of my
bones
And flesh of my flesh;
She shall be called Woman,
Because she was taken out of Man.”
24 Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be
joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.
Jesus quotes this passage again in Matthew 19:4-6
Romans 1:24-27 (New King James Version)
24 Therefore God also gave them up to uncleanness, in the lusts of
their hearts, to dishonor their bodies among themselves, 25 who exchanged
the truth of God for the lie, and worshiped and served the creature
rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.
26 For this reason God gave them up to vile passions. For even their
women exchanged the natural use for what is against nature. 27 Likewise
also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their
lust for one another, men with men committing what is shameful, and
receiving in themselves the penalty of their error which was due.
1 Corinthians 6:9-10 (New King James Version)
9 Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom
of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor
adulterers, nor homosexuals,[a] nor sodomites, 10 nor thieves, nor covetous,
nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom
of God.
Is there a difference between those struggling with this who desperately
want to be free and those who’ve accepted it and have believed a lie?
Yes, I do believe, and they must be entreated with love so they might
be pulled from that sin.
Ephesians 5 gives us yet another example of God’s plan for sexual companionship
and it is consistently male and female, groom and bride.
CARING FOR THE POOR
Proverbs
19:17 NKJV
He who has pity on the poor lends to the LORD, And He
will pay back what he has given.
Galatians 2:10 (New King James Version)
10 They desired only that we should remember the poor, the
very thing which I also was eager to do.
Matthew 25:26-30 (New King James Version)
26 “But his lord answered and said to him, ‘You wicked and lazy servant,
you knew that I reap where I have not sown, and gather where I have
not scattered seed. 27 So you ought to have deposited my money with
the bankers, and at my coming I would have received back my own with
interest. 28 So take the talent from him, and give it to him
who has ten talents.
29 ‘For to everyone who has, more will be given, and he will have
abundance; but from him who does not have, even what he has will be
taken away. 30 And cast the unprofitable servant into the outer darkness.
There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’
Matthew 25:40 (New King James Version)
40 And the King will answer and say to them, ‘Assuredly, I say to
you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My
brethren, you did it to Me.’
ECONOMY
Psalm
37:25 NKJV
I have been young, and now am old;Yet I have not seen the righteous
forsaken, Nor his descendants begging bread.
Malachi 3:10-11 (New King James Version)
10 Bring all the tithes into the storehouse,
That there may be food in My house,
And try Me now in this,”
Says the LORD of hosts,
“ If I will not open for you the
windows of heaven
And pour out for you such
blessing
That there will not be
room enough to receive it.
11 “ And I will rebuke the devourer
for your sakes,
So that he will not destroy the
fruit of your ground,
Nor shall the vine fail to bear
fruit for you in the field,”
Says the LORD of hosts;
Genesis 26:1-6,12-13 (New International Version)
1 Now there was a famine in the land—besides the earlier famine of
Abraham's time—and Isaac went to Abimelech king of the Philistines
in Gerar. 2 The LORD appeared to Isaac and said, "Do not go down
to Egypt; live in the land
where I tell you to live. 3 Stay in this land for a while, and I will
be with you and will bless you. For to you and your descendants I
will give all these lands and will confirm the oath I swore to your
father Abraham. 4 I will make your descendants as numerous as the
stars in the sky and will give them all these lands, and through your
offspring [a]
all nations on earth will be blessed, 5 because Abraham obeyed me
and kept my requirements, my commands, my decrees and my laws."
6 So Isaac stayed in Gerar.
12 Isaac planted crops in that land and the same year reaped a hundredfold,
because the LORD blessed him. 13 The man became rich, and his wealth
continued to grow until he became very wealthy.
WAR
Ecclesiastes 3:7-9 (New King James Version)
7 A time to tear,
And a time to sew;
A time to keep silence,
And a time to speak;
8 A time to love,
And a time to hate;
A time of war,
And a time of peace.
Exodus
20:13
Thou shalt not kill.
The word kill here means murder or shedding innocent blood and is different
than fighting in war toward a just cause. The challenge is deciding
what “just war” is.
ENVIRONMENT
Genesis 1:27-28 (New King James Version)
27 So God created man in His own image; in the image of God
He created him; male and female He created them. 28 Then God blessed
them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth
and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds
of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”
I challenge you as believers in Christ to vote the Bible as you see
it revealed to you. We are not of the world any longer and we
need to vote according to the Word of God, not culture, not political
party, etc. We must allow the love of Christ to lead us in all
of our communications where these issues are concerned. Living
the “with-God” life means changes will happen. Both candidates
are talking about change. Let’s make sure it is change
that lines up with God’s letter to us. |