November 4, 2012

"First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way." 1 Timothy 2:1-2   

 

You have no doubt seen the You Tube video with the four-year old girl who was crying because she was tired of seeing and hearing Mitt Romney and "Bronco Bama".

 

No doubt some of you feel the same about all the ads, debates and news shows about the candidates.

 

So, what should campaign weary Christians be doing just 48 hours from election day?

 

"First then, I urge supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people"

 

We need to be praying!

 

Supplications are heartfelt requests for God to provide something that you deem essential. It might be protection for the candidates. It may be for wisdom and courage for you. It may be for a fair and just election.

 

Prayers are requests made in accordance with God's Word and His will.

 

Intercessions are prayers for the spiritual condition of our leaders and our nation. They are for calling upon God for His mercy upon our land. They are calling for salvation for our President and Congressmen and mayors and councilmen. Pray that evil be restrained and righteousness prevails.

 

Thanksgivings are just that! Thank God for the peace and freedom that we enjoy in this land. Thank Him that you were blessed enough to have been born in America. Thank Him for those who have served and sacrificed to preserve our freedoms.

 

We do not need political commercials or strategies or advisers, we need a divine and supernatural movement of God's Spirit upon our nation. That only comes through supplications, prayers, intercessions and thanksgiving!

 

Months and months of campaigning is 48 hours from coming to a conclusion. Prayer is how

should be spending your time between now and the moment you walk into that booth.

November 3, 2012

^"For he himself is our peace, who has made the two groups one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, by setting aside in his flesh the law with its commands and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new humanity out of the two, thus making peace, and in one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility. He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit. Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of his household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone." Ephesians 2:14-20

 

In three days we will go to the polls and choose between two flawed and imperfect candidates. One of them will lead us for the next four years and have a significant impact on our daily lives and future.

 

But, thank God, we get the privilege of casting a vote and having a voice in the eventual outcome!

 

That great freedom was purchased for us by the bravery, sacrifice and blood of courageous patriots throughout the generations who loved freedom more than life. Think of them when you cast that ballot on Tuesday.

 

What a blessing we have as Americans! Only by the grace of God were we born in thise great land. Therefore, it behooves us to be responsible citizens so we can pass the blessings of this great nation to the next generation and continue to be a blessing to other nations around the world.

 

Those of us who are Christians have an added responsibility to be exemplary citizens of the USA because we are also citizens of another Kingdom - the Kingdom of God. You and I represent that Kingdom in this world.

 

Our citizenship in that Kingdom was also purchased by the blood of One Who loved our freedom greater than His life. Jesus, the Son of God, became the Lamb of God to take away the sins of the world. He did all He could to help bring the power and principles of His perfect Kingdom into this imperfect world. And as troubled as our world and our nation is, imagine what it would be like without the influence of Christians and biblical truth.

 

So, we hold dual-citizenship and we are called to bring as much of the Perfect Kingdom as we can into the fallen kingdom to preserve it and to persuade others to believe in Christ and enter the eternal Kingdom through faith in Christ.

 

I close with this challenge. Since you will spend the vast majority of your life in the perfect, holy, everlasting Kingdom of God, and since that is influenced by how you live in this perishing world, how should you live today? Which kingdom should you live for? Which values should you cherish? What should you love and Who should you live for?

 

November 2, 2012

      
"Honor everyone. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the emperor." 1 Peter 2:17

There are some reasons for optimism if you are backing Governor Romney, as I am.

1. There is a real hunger for leadership in our nation and Mitt Romney has demonstrated leadership in his appearances on the debates.

2. With the economy struggling there is a need for someone with a successful business background to address the serious financial challenges. Gov. Romney has that resume. He is a proven business leader.

3. The results of the 2010 mid-term elections show a conservative resurgence. Also, the Scott Walker recall election in Wisconsin was another example of a conservative trend even in a liberal state. Gov. Walker, a conservative Republican won the election for Governor. When the Teacher’s Union organized a recall vote to counter his efforts to force them to contribute to their pensions in order to help balance the State Budget, he won the recall election by a greater margin than his first election. None of the major pollsters saw either one of those landslide victories coming.

4. According to reliable reports, Gov. Romney is leading in the early voting by a 52% to 45% margin. None of the pollsters have predicted anything like that.

 

5. Just several months ago the electoral vote map was heavily in the favor of the President and it was hard to find many scenarios that would work in Gov. Romney’s favor. Now that is changing and a path to 270 votes is looking more possible.

6. One of the strongest points for the President was his likeability factor. Those favorability numbers have taken a tumble do to his poor performance in the first debate, his harsh tone in the third debate and the negative tone of his campaign.

7. The President has had trouble running on his very poor record on the economy and his very unpopular healthcare reform law. His plan for his second term sounds like more of the same. That is not inspiring the electorate.

8. There is mounting evidence that the President badly mishandled the Benghazi attack and is now covering it up so as to not hurt his re-election chances.

But, the power of an incumbent President is massive and they are rarely defeated for re-election. So, even though there are some positive trends in favor of Gov. Romney, the election is still very much in doubt. You must vote and encourage others to go to the polls.

There are crucial issues at stake in this election:

1) Gov. Romney winning the White House and Republicans winning the Senate is our last chance to overturn the Obama-care Law.

2) Our relationship with Israel has been very negatively affected and this further destabilizes the Middle East.

3) During this next Presidential term there will be several Supreme Court vacancies to be filled. It would do serious harm to the Constitution and the nation if two or three liberal justices were appointed.

 

4) The President has not submitted a budget during his entire term while adding nearly 6 trillion dollars to the debt. He fully intends to continue adding another 4 to 5 trillion in a second term.

All elections are important and it is important for all citizens to be well informed when they go to cast their vote. Christians should not only be well informed but "prayed up" when they go to vote. Their prayers should be for God's wisdom and for discernment of His will. Also, their prayers should be prayers of blessing and wisdom for the President.

 

Because of the condition of our economy, the instability of world economies and the growing threat of terrorism, this election is the most important of our lifetime.Treat it as such.

 

But after you have prayed and voted, trust the results to God and take comfort in the knowledge He is Sovereign and is in control. We don't have to vote on that!

 

 

 

 

November 1, 2012

Untypically, I am going to risk wading into the waters of controversy and share an article that came across my desk last week. It is thought-provoking at the least. I take this risk only because of the extremely critical nature of the upcoming National Election.

 

Peter Heck - Guest Columnist http://www.peterheck.com

 

Is it a sin to vote for Barack Obama and the Democrats?

 

When you examine Paul's warnings in the New Testament, this question is a no-brainer.

 

With the recent proclamation of a Green Bay bishop that Christians who vote for someone supporting the gay or abortion agenda is putting their soul in jeopardy, there's been an increase in the amount of email in my inbox asking my take on whether it is a sin for Christians to be Democrats. I think a lot of people assume this is a difficult subject for me to address. I hate to disappoint them, but it's not.

 

I recently read an article from a self-proclaimed "Christian Democrat" explaining why they would be voting for Obama, and to a larger degree, supporting the Democratic Party. I am intentionally not linking to the original article for a reason. The article was full of the very kind of "fine-sounding arguments" that Paul warns us in Colossians to be on guard against. Given the sorry state of biblical Christianity in America, I know that several of these arguments could easily ensnare and trap a lot of confused Christians -- and I won't willfully provide a potential stumbling block to any believer.

 

It should be an axiom for Christ followers that while our faith should inform our politics, our politics should never inform our faith. But this particular author, as is often the case with Christian Democrats, has made an a priori commitment to supporting the Democrats and then seeks to find faith-based reasons to justify it. But here's the uncomfortable truth such individuals must confront: while it's certainly true that not every Republican is worthy of our support as Christians, any individual who runs under a platform that justifies the legal slaughter of innocent life made in the image of God is an unacceptable choice. Period.

 

Reading the list of supposed justifications for why Christians can turn a blind eye towards this outrageous offense, I imagine these Democrat apologists writing similar essays in the 1930s of how the Nazi Party was doing great things for infrastructure and social welfare programs in Germany. "Never mind that killing of the Jews thing," they would essentially argue. That's the underlying current of the Christian Democrat defense -- "never mind the killing of the unborn beings made in God's image thing." That's not to say that Democrats are Nazis, of course. It's to say that there is something dreadfully wrong with your priorities and moral compass when you try to find ways to excuse genocide. As a believer, I cannot imagine justifying that to God.

 

It's interesting, isn't it? Christian Democrats used to find ways to justify their support of a party that promoted slavery. Now they do the same for a party promoting abortion. Tragic.

 

Beyond that, how lost we are as a culture when Christians in name will actively, vocally, and apparently proudly support a man (Barack Obama) who just a few short months ago called on his country to rebel against God's own definition of the institution of marriage? This isn't about how we treat those who practice homosexuality. This is a case where Barack Obama declared that God is a bigot -- or at least that His prescription for what constitutes family is bigoted. Jesus affirmed marriage as a union of a husband and wife; Barack Obama suggested such a narrow description was discriminatory. Both can't be right.

 

As is typically the rationale, the entire case this particular Christian Democrat writer made was essentially economic. They abuse the biblical text and pretend that its instruction on personal generosity and benevolence is somehow a command for believers to usurp political power and begin compelling charity from the wealthy (even though, of course, compelled charity isn't charity at all). Jesus taught us to give to the needy out of a sense of love and compassion, not out of a begrudging obligation to the law of the land. Further, through its overtaxing and redistribution schemes, government often imperils our ability to give and support charitable causes.

 

But all that is lost on those believers convinced they must find some reason to excuse their loyalty to the Democrats. Take, for instance, this side-splitting line from the column I read: "To put it simply, I am a Democrat because the Democratic Party is doing more than the Republican Party to care for the 'least of these,' however imperfectly." Ah yes, how enlightened. Although the author didn't explain how record numbers of food stamp recipients, expanded welfare rolls, and more government dependency is "caring for the least of these."

 

Since LBJ declared a "war on poverty" through compassionate, liberal government policy, we have greatly increased the number of those in poverty. As Paul Ryan recently pointed out, in the war on poverty, poverty is winning. Why? Because government is not an institution that God ever intended to be an agent of compassion. The only words of Scripture that discuss the role of government describe it explicitly as an instrument of justice. Playing favorites, robbing from some to give to others in the name of compassion - i.e., government-sponsored theft -- is not in any way reconcilable with biblical values. Christian Democrats should visit an Indian reservation to see the face of big government "compassion." That is where the Democratic Party policies are leading our entire civilization. Caring for the least of these? All evidence to the contrary.

 

We live in scary times. I reflect often on the words of Timothy: "But the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear ... they will turn aside from truth to myths."

 

Reading words like those of these Christian Democrats only convinces me further, that time has arrived.Two quick addendums I would add to stave off the inevitable backlash of red herrings and strawmen.

 

First, I don't mean any of this as a personal attack. It is merely an assessment of what I see as a dangerously confused worldview. Christian Democrats often attempt to blend biblical authority with humanist philosophy, and it doesn't work. God is either sovereign or He's not. Surrendering to the Lordship of Christ means dying to yourself -- every part of yourself, including your politics. It's a time for choosing.

 

Second, none of this is saying that Christians should vote for Mitt Romney. That is an entirely separate question than whether they should vote for Barack Obama. Christians who accept the words of Scripture will not do the latter.

---

Peter Heck (peter@peterheck.com) is a public high school government teacher and radio talk show host in central Indiana.

October 31, 2012

^“Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people.” Proverbs 14:34

 

With less than two weeks before the most important Presidential election of our lifetimes, I wish we had a perfect candidate we could support. But we don’t. And as Christians responsible to be good citizens we must cast a vote. So, how do we choose between two flawed candidates?

 

Ultimately, it comes down to a question of which candidate is most closely aligned to the moral values I hold precious? In my opinion, here are the most important moral issues:

 

Life – Which candidate holds life most precious by opposing abortion and valuing the infirm and elderly?

 

Character – Which candidate lives a life that most closely represents the spiritual and moral values I hold dear?

 

Which candidate seems to be the most truthful in what he says and does?

 

One indicator of a man’s character is to take note of the people who he has chosen to surround himself with.

 

Marriage and Family – Which candidate can be trusted to defend Biblical marriage and the traditional family?

 

Trust – Which candidate can be trusted to be a good steward of the massive power of the Presidency?

 

Philosophy – Which candidate adheres most closely to the conservative philosophy of a smaller, less intrusive government as outlined in the United States Constitution?

 

Freedom – Which candidate seems to hold the strongest respect toward individual freedoms as outlined in the U. S. Constitution?

 

Leadership – Which candidate seems to possess the best leadership skills required to execute his Constitutional duties and effectively administer the U. S. Government with all of its offices and agencies? Also, which candidate can best command the confidence of our allies and demand the respect of our enemies on the world stage?

 

Economy – Which candidate is best able to restore fiscal soundness to the U. S. economy and show the fiscal discipline to bring the debt and deficit under control thereby restoring confidence of investors and entrepreneurs?

 

Remember, we are not electing a pastor or spiritual leader. We are seeking to choose the better of two flawed men who have been selected by two far from perfect political parties. Since none of us are perfect, we should not expect to be led by a perfect man. However, the one thing that DOES need to be perfect is your judgment!  That will be the result of much prayer and thoughtful consideration of where each candidate stands on issues such as those I have mentioned.

 

Don't just vote for Republicans or Democrats or Independents. Vote for righteousness.

 

October 30, 2012

"The LORD will guide you always; he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land and will strengthen your frame. You will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail." Isaiah 58:11

 

I grew up loving God. I have been a believer for 55 years.

Even though I have never seen God He is more real to me that any person I know. I knew intellectually He was the one thing I needed most of all.

But, there was a time in my life when it seemed I had lost just about everything that mattered to me. I was devastated and complained to God, "I have lost everything! All I have left is You!" This was in the early hours of a sleepless night as I was having a pity party. God broke the silence when He answered, "What else do you need?"

That was a turning point in my life. I went from knowing God to KNOWING GOD! When I was at the point of really understanding God was all I had - I discovered God was all I needed.

Even though I was a believer. Even though I was a pastor. I lived with the silent and mistaken assumption that what I needed for happiness was God plus....... What I discovered was that God IS the plus. True happiness is God - period! Living under the assumption that God plus anything will bring happiness elevates the plus to equal status with God. That sounds like idolatry to me. God isn't really God until He is unrivaled in your life.

Once I discovered that God IS ALL I NEED and once I committed to become complete in Him, I understood that everything else is a bonus!

What is your formula for happiness?

Complete this equation: God + _______ = Satisfaction.

Whatever you write into that blank - a person, a possession, a relationship - whatever, commit that to God and discover that there is no plus there is only a period! When you come to the place where you discover God is all you really want that is the place you will discover He is all you need!

Ready to REALLY know God?

October 29, 2012

"We walk by faith, not by sight" II Corinthians 5:7


This is a very simple sentence and it sounds relatively easy doesn’t it?

Walking by faith implies trust on something known but unseen.

It brings to mind a time Barbara and I were driving the Blue Ridge Parkway in the late afternoon just before dusk. As the sun dropped lower and the air cooled, fog began developing. We were near Boone, NC and were trying to get to US 421 and get down the mountain before the fog became too thick. It was a nice plan but it didn’t happen. So heavy was the fog that I could not see more than ten feet ahead on the roadway. I didn’t know it I had room to pull off to the right side. Sometimes there is room on the shoulder and sometimes there is a several hundred-foot drop off so I did not want to risk that. All I was able to make out the center line so I slowed down and focused on hugging the center line. Literally, I was driving by faith in the center line rather than by sight. To this day I do not know how far we drove before we got out of the fog but it seemed like one hundred miles. Pavement never looked so good!

What does it mean to “walk by faith and not by sight”?

Hebrews 11:6 says, “And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.”

Walking by faith means pleasing God!

God is pleased by our obedience and He is pleased by our dependence upon His Word. When you live to please yourself or you choose to do what you want rather than do what pleases God you are not walking in faith.

Walking by faith means proving God!

God is pleased when we believe what the Word says about Him and live for Him. He wants to be known and He delights in us actively seeking to know Him. Pursuing Him is evidence that we believe He exists. Three ways to believe He exists are: 1) His Creation, 2) His Christ and 3) Changed lives! Allowing Him to change our life is the greatest proof!

Walking by faith means pursuing God!

Like the line on the Parkway in the fog, faith fixes a focus on God and follows Him. Faith earnestly seeks God to know Him, to be known by Him and to make Him known. Faith keeps pursuing God even when life is hard to figure and God is hard to find.

Are you walking by faith?

Are you living to please God?

Are you living proof of God’s existence?

Are you pursuing God passionately?