Sonday- Why is God in your Politics?(Imported from Southern Belle With Northern Roots

 Why do you always bring religion into politics?
The question put forth by both those opposed to God as well as the nominal Christian, "God belongs in church and no where else!"
Easy to say if you don't know God for who he says he is, if the bible is a mere storybook. Sing a hymn on Sunday and by Sunday evening make damn sure he stayed in church and isn't around telling us what to do in our homes, our schools, our businesses  and in our politics.
If God does not exist to you then you may mock the very thought of the big guy in the sky and those who believe in him. You may instead worship the earth, global warming, society or the big book of "How to do Whatever I Please."
Those who leave their fate to chance have no desire for any imposed absolute moral standard to govern them.

A believer in Christ lives a life governed by and subject to a holy creator.
A believer knows apart from Christ he can do nothing. John 15
He believes the word of Christ dwells within him Col 3:16, and Christ himself lives in him. Eph 3:17.
A believer in Christ knows God establishes all government, Romans 13.
Therefore, they do not live their lives or vote apart from God.
 When a person becomes a parent, their whole life changes, they think in ways they never did before, always knowing their words and decisions effect their children. They begin to anticipate how things will be in the future, it would be safe to say they could not live, discuss or vote in a manner in which they cease to be a parent.
Just as a persons ethnicity, culture and backgrounds factor into their voting, they vote towards ideas and candidates that "fit" into who they are or who they wish to become.
So it is for a Christian, a true believer in Christ and in the bible, he cannot remove God to go vote or to debate an issue. Even if they would not speak his name, his very presence withing them is a part of their thoughts, words and actions. Still acting as fallible human beings guided by the Holy Spirit, this Christian is never separate from God, just as a non believing voter brings in to the voting booth their opinions, beliefs and entire history which has formed them into the person they are.

Law is overwhelmingly, some would say completely based upon biblical principles. Stealing, murder, and the treatment of others are all set before us as laws of the land and laws of God. As a people we demand justice, we depend on it.
A problem arises when we define just , and by who's standards. What is fair and who says so?
The answer is either an absolute authority or the court of public opinion, subject to  whim, emotion and agenda.
Lest it be argued God is not just because of the evil in the world, or the rampant sin, slavery and other challenging issues, keep in mind, the bible's core truth is man is sinful. Sin, slavery, abuse all stem from mankind and we demand justice for it. Correct? So do you curse God because he allows it? Do you blame him? If so, you have just admitted he exists.
Scripture is full of examples of those who followed after God and the mistakes they made as well as those who reject him and curse him.
The final outcome is justice, ultimate justice based on an absolute truth, God is God, man is not. Man wrongs others and God demands justice, man wrongs God and God demands justice. Everyone will be held accountable for every word, for every action, that is just.
Fair? NO
Fair would be everyone would pay equally for their iniquities, but someone, Christ, paid for those who shall be called his. Completely unfair.
Those who reject him will pay for their own sins, that is after all....fair.

So if God is who he says he is, he is not separate from our lives, our conversations, our debates or our voting. You may wish to try and exclude him if you like, but he exists outside of Sunday morning and the next time you need him, when life stinks, when death is at your door and fear overwhelms you...he will be there too.




This was originally posted on my A Southern Belle With Northern Roots blog and has been copied and transferred by me, the author.

Be Thou My Vision

When cancer knocks at your door

    takes over your life by attacking the one you hold dear,

      takes over your plans

 When retirement becomes....pills, appointments.....transfusions and infusions......fatigue.

Be Thou My Vision

Your child wanders......strays

   flirting with the dark and the empty

    until......

 that darkness invades their mind and clouds their vision.

   suffocating them,   reaching into other lives.......

                  distorting

                     lying

                         stealing

Be Thou My Vision

When someone who knows better, someone you have come to love

   willingly walks away.

  leaving behind their best gifts,

      their joy

         their peace

When you want to yank them back and Yell    WHY?

Be Thou My Vision.

When others, small and frail need you

everything you have to give

   your time

     your patience

        your heart

          your very breath

Despite your own tiredness......you give it all.

 Be Thou My Vision

When we focus on ourselves, all the tasks and challenges at hand,

 we can lose hope

     feel despair

         overwhelmed.

  

Cast our eyes upon Christ

Lord of our heart               High King of Heaven

and all things are possible

They are still hard

 still sad

   still tiring.

             Be thou my battle sheild, sword for the fight:

           Be thou my dignity, Thou my delight

          Thou my soul's shelter, Thou my high tower:

      Raise Thou me heavenward, o power of my power.    (verse 3)

This is dedicated to my friend, my step mother, my sister in Christ......Rachel

For all the obstacles in her path that tried to trip her up....

     Her vision was not clouded.

           Her eyes were on Christ. 

               His strength became hers

                  His truth, she trusts in.

                       His peace adorns her.

Praise and honor and glory belong to Him.

Fools

1 cor. 1:18 For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.

Foolishness, a time not so long ago, a fool was saved by grace.

The radio in my bedroom for some reason has an issue getting my favorite talk station, it tends to "conflict" with another, a Christian talk format.
Today a guest host was on, he was talking with another man about the current racial accusations the liberal media has thrown at conservatives. Religion came into the mix.
Jesus...Muslims...Mohammed....Mormans
Both men, admittingly atheist were discussing tolerance, yet one attacked Christianity by saying, "they believe Jesus is going to come back to earth and raise them from the dead and reunite them with their family."
He then stated how silly it was to believe such a thing. Next he commented on the book of Mormon and how it was received. The idea that an angel appeared to Joseph Smith and gave him this book.
In his opinion, again quite silly.

Ok I can see the confusion,
both claim to be Christian though have some very different beliefs. However one is founded on the historical, sacred, canonically approved word of God, one is not.

"Christians" believe very different things, they are hypocrites, liars, fake......insert fault here.
He would have some points.


Now... the interesting thing is, while listening to this conversation, the other station was running interference. At the exact same time the song "Untitled Hymn" by Chris Rice was playing.

" Weak and wounded sinner/
Lost and left to die/
O raise your head, for love is passing by/
come to Jesus, come to Jesus/
come to Jesus and live!"


The message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing.
it flies in their face
it offends them
it is ridiculous....
that God would come to earth in the form of a man, live a sinless life, die a brutal death paying for the sins of those who believe in him that they may have eternal life in the presence of a holy God......silly fools.

That he died for those hypocrites, those liars....imagine.


Yet, he did not die for all- he did not die for those who do not believe, he did not die for those who follow a false gospel, he did not die for the unrepentant, and that makes fools angry.

How dare he?
How dare he decide?
Who does he think he is?

But to us who are being saved it is the power of God.

He is the Savior.
He is the Christ..
He is the King...
He is the Glory....
He is the Majesty! For ever and ever Amen.
I cannot change your mind, only God can. verse 25 says
For the foolishness of God is wiser than man's wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man's strength.

God is not a fool nor is he weak but what man sees as such is but from his own ignorance and sin.
Fools and Grace.. the battle goes on
A former fool, saved by grace.