Posted on 01/03/2008 8:00:40 AM PST by Mr. Silverback
If you’re like I am, your New Year’s resolutions seldom make it to the end of January. So rather than lay out resolutions today, I want to simply share some thoughts about the New Year—a year that will be dominated by this year’s presidential election.
The official kickoff is tomorrow, with the Iowa caucuses. I am almost relieved. It has been a long, tiresome campaign that began the night the 2006 election returns were coming in. I am sure many of us are so tired of the perpetual campaigning that we are tempted to think, Please let it be over, no matter what happens.
But that is the wrong attitude. We have to care. In the Old Testament, God appointed leaders. But in modern democracies, we elect them. Therefore, we are God’s agents in choosing God’s people. In a democracy, we get the government we deserve.
But I am struck by the advice that Jethro gave Moses when his leadership burdens became too great. Select capable men—today we would say men and women—who fear God; trustworthy men who hate dishonest gains.
Two adjectives jump out at me—capable is the first, which means the person has to be able to do the job. That person might be a Christian or not. If you are going to have brain surgery, you want the best surgeon, whether or not he goes to church. That is why Luther said he would rather be governed by a competent Turk than an incompetent Christian.
But this year, the second adjective really leaps out at me—trustworthy. I do not think there has ever been a time in American history when integrity counted for more.
Our political system has been corrupted by Democrats and Republicans alike. Trustworthy men who hate dishonest gains, as Jethro put it, would not engage in earmarking just to get reelected—pouring $60 billion into pet projects to pay off campaign donors and constituents.
I have not decided how I am going to vote, and if I had, I would not say so. But I could get very excited about any candidate who could promise to clean up the cesspool that Washington has become—and who would have the courage to stand up to the special interests.
But no matter whom we elect, the country will not be governable unless people have a renewed sense of the common good. Christians of all people ought to understand this. Jesus came for the least, the last, and the lost. He cared about the prisoners and the blind. He cared deeply about the good of all people, and therefore, we should. St. Augustine said Christians ought to be the best citizens because we do what we do out of the love of God.
As I said on “BreakPoint” recently, too, we need to take stock of ourselves. I believe Christians these days belong on our knees: repenting of our self-indulgence; repenting of going to church but not making any difference in our society; repenting of the fact that we have not learned how to defend and live out our faith.
I would like to say that the Church is a beacon of light to the culture today. But I am afraid it is kind of a dim light. If I were to make a New Year’s resolution, it would be to help Christians clean up our act so that we really are transformed and live in such a way that we transform the world around us—starting with the voting tomorrow.
It has happened before; why not now?
There are links to further information at the source document.
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BreakPoint/Chuck Colson Ping!
If anyone wants on or off my Chuck Colson/BreakPoint Ping List, please notify me here or by freepmail.
Seems God's already Addressed this issue:
10 Jabez cried out to the God of Israel, "Oh, that you would bless me and enlarge my territory! Let your hand be with me, and keep me from harm so that I will be free from pain." And God granted his request.
1 Chron. 4:10 NIV
All the more reason to reclaim their legitimate meaning and use them in the right way.
Well, this will probably offend you, but I believe the Prayer of Jabez movement in the church is a further example of American Christianity that is a mile wide and an inch deep. Anybody who gets the Voice of the Martyrs newsletter knows that “keep me from harm so that I will be free from pain” is not an expectation a Christian can have for their physical being. I believe God will get me through any circumstance he sends me into, but that circumstance may cost me my life, my freedom or my health. The path of Wurmbrand was not without harm or pain.
Does the phrase "national defense" raise a red flag? How about "tax cut"?
Bill Clinton used both those phrases in his '92 campaign. Duncan Hunter's probably using them on the stump as I write this. Do you think that they mean the same things and have the same level of honesty when both men speak those phrases?
Without considering author and context, analysis is pointless.
Both are worthy of further examination. The intent is sensitive to the orientation of the speaker. The words "common good" from a politician smacks of deciding who gets resources and who provides them...always under the direction of a benevolent governmental entity. When robbing Peter to pay Paul, you can be assured of Paul's support.
Exactly...but Colson hsn't been a politician (if he ever could be considered one) for 33 years. Context, context, context.
ping
Spin this then: 13And we also thank God continually because, when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men, but as it actually is, the word of God, which is at work in you who believe.
1 Thess. 2:13 NIV
My, that's pretty sad that I come to you and point out brothers and sisters of ours who have suffered physically for their faith and you portray it as "spin." I know of one woman in China whose husband was arrested, and the next night her phone rang in the wee hours of the morning. the voice on the other end commanded her to come to the police station and pick up her husband's body for disposal. Is her situation "spin" or just a terrible lack of faith? Or is it exactly what Christ told us we would go through for his sake?
Not accepting your interpretation of a verse is not the same as saying that the Bible is lying. Surely you grasp that?
If the prayer of Jabez means everything will be hunky dory and pain free for all Christians in all times, why did Richard Wurmbrand spend 14 years being tortured in Romanian prisons because he would not deny Christ? Why was Stephen killed, and why was Paul stoned to death and later executed? Why did some of our brothers in Japan suffer crucifixion for following Christ, including one 12 year old boy?
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