Daily writing prompt

What colleges have you attended?

View all responses

A Republican and a Democrat

A Republican and a Democrat were sitting on nearby park benches looking at a beautiful view. The Republican began to pray: “God, thank You that I’m not like that Democrat who wants the government to take care of hurting people. I just want the government to take care of me by protecting me from evil people like that Democrat, and by throwing the poor refugees that the Democrats support out of the country.”

The Democrat looked up and thought: “If we could just get the government to take care of more people they wouldn’t be tempted to rely on the God of the Bible and believe His teachings. Then they could freely praise and applaud the people who fly the rainbow flag, change their identity, and say, ‘My body, my choice.’ O, what a beautiful country it would be.”

The Bible offers a better way. “Trust in the Lord with all your heart.”

To trust in the Lord with all your heart is to set aside your own understanding and to surrender your will and all your ways to Him so that He, Himself, can begin to daily direct your paths and behaviors. (Proverbs 3:5-6) That’s not a lukewarm nominal faith. It’s faith that burns in the heart, (Luke 24:32) seeks first the kingdom — inner government — of God and His righteousness, (Matthew 6:33) and unceasingly presses toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus, (Philippians 3:14)

Jesus calls us to give our all in full surrender. He says: “Whoever wants to be My disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow Me.” (Luke 9:23) Jesus made a radical call for self-surrender when told His disciples to shift their priorities and to begin to care for and serve other people in the same way and with the same intensity that they care for and serve their own daily needs. (Matthew 22:39) There’s nothing nominal or lukewarm (Revelation 3:15-16) in biblical Christianity!

Christ wants His followers to go all out in disciple making. (Matthew 28:19) Disciples are doers of the Word not hearers only. (James 1:22) They are made by hands-on Spirit-led training and by demonstrations of the presence of the Spirit. (1 Corinthians 2:4-6) One word spoken to one person by God’s Spirit is more powerful than multitudes of words spoken to crowds of people by mere human wisdom. (1 Corinthians 2:4-5)

Disciples are made by Christians assembling themselves together (Hebrews 10:25) so they can be freed up to obey the 50+ New Testament “one another” commands as the Spirit prompts them. (Romans 8:14) Then they can use Scripture not merely to teach biblical information but also to train each other to live in true Spirit-produced righteousness. (2 Timothy 3:16)

If pastors could be trained to share the responsibility by freeing up all the congregation to share in church services as they feel prompted by God and to obey the 50+ one another commandments in the New Testament, burnout would run out of fuel. I wrote a guidebook about how to do that based on 10 years of doing it in a denominational church. Search for: Beyond Church Ekklesia.

If you want to praise God, shout it out. If you want to praise a country, that’s fine. However, please don’t praise them both together as if they are equal. God is eternal and the Creator of all that exists. Every country except for the invisible kingdom (inner government) of God (Matthew 6:33) will vanish into nothing. The eternal God and a temporary country are infinitely far from being on the same level! It’s best not to imply that they are.