Category — Politics

The television celebrity impressed me deeply. I couldn’t help thinking that if he and I had grown up together or had served together in the military, we would have been good friends. I liked him in spite of all the rumors about his lifestyle. He joked about being a “backslidden” worshiper from his childhood church. God had cycled our lives together for one fascinating afternoon when he introduced me to his media world and I talked with him about the history of Church of the Open Door.

Just before our day ended he looked off and asked of no one in particular, “When did the church become so mean?”

I said, “We’re not mean, why don’t you come here and give us a chance?”

He laughed uncomfortably, and said, “I might just come and visit you some Sunday, Ed.”

I prayed for him and we shook hands. As I watched him drive away with his cameraman, his question haunted me.

On the drive home that night I turned my radio dial to Christian talk radio. Appalled by the snarling arrogance of the host, I prayed that the man I had met that day wasn’t listening. Whether he knew it or not, his “we’ll show those sinners when this bill gets passed” and “just wait until God deals with these idiots” sent a message to those outside of God’s grace: God’s on our side and He hates you.

The Bible teaches that God is on the side of the righteous and emphasizes that ultimately our side will win. But our victory will not come through favorable voting returns but at the return of Jesus Christ to rule and reign on earth.

What the Bible does not teach is that God hates sinners. The New Testament says that the message of the church is the Good News of reconciliation “who has reconciled us to himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation.” (2 Corinthians 5:18)

If God hated sinners—those unreconciled to Him—this verse tells us He would have to start with us. Instead, He loves sinners and sent His Son to die in order to reconcile sinners like us. To us, the reconciled sinners, He has given this ministry of reconciliation, “that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and his commit to us the world of reconciliation.” (2 Corinthians 5:19)

So how would your non-Christian friends and acquaintances classify you? Do your life and words scream condemnation or do they whisper reconciliation?

Excerpt from my new book, Reborn to Be Wild: Reviving Our Radical Pursuit of Jesus

Release Date May 2010

David C. Cook Publishers

Bad News: 24/7

This is the preoccupying question in America today, “How bad will it get?”

It’s a 24/7 thing now, and it’s game on in the political arena. But while our politicians scramble to prove it’s not their fault, Wall Street executives hunker down, and news cycle experts and talk radio hosts bark their analyses and theories, most of us just want to know, “How bad will it get?”

The only dependable authority for the Christian—the Word of God—is pretty clear in its answer to the question, “How bad will it get?”

Worse.

Even if the markets rebound, credit flows again, someone invents an alternative to fossil fuels, and we all pitch in to save the planet, it’s going to get worse.

Before you think I’m getting all doomsday on you, I also want you to know that there’s a place to go and Someone to talk to about all of this. This is someone smarter than Rush Limbaugh and more powerful than Barack Obama.

Good News

There’s a phrase in the New Testament inviting every Christian to turn to Someone else–Abba Father (Romans 8:15). This is an endearing and intimate title for God the Father that could be translated, “Father, my own dear Father.” It is the title a child uses to relate to a father when the child knows that he or she is dear to Him, the one He delights in.

As the world crumbles around us, you may wonder if this is the time when it all spins out of control and if the worst-case scenario guys are right. That question, “How bad will it get?” may be keeping you up at night. Here’s what I do when my anxious thoughts multiply within me—I crawl up on my Father’s lap and talk to Him about my fears, feelings, and hurts. It is the upside of crises for the child of God–deepening intimacy with Abba Father.

I bet if we spent as much time on His lap as we spend in front of our computers, radios and televisions checking the latest bad news, we’d feel a lot better about the future. We’d probably say, “Well, my Abba always told me it would get worse, but He also promised to take care of me. You see, I’m very special to Him.”

“For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by which we cry out, ‘Abba, Father.’” –Paul, Romans 8:15

I’m having a lot of conversations these days with Christians who are feeling a little like the sky is falling.

The reason? The political polls are predicting a huge loss for their candidate in the upcoming presidential election.

I’m not an expert on politics, but I do know something about the Bible. If the election next week changes the party in power in the White House, here are a few things that won’t change:

• Faith in Christ will still deliver all who believe from their sin and release the redeeming power of the Living God in a life, a family, a community, a state, a nation, and our world. (Acts 26:15-18)
• Make disciples will still be the Lord Jesus’ central command to His people. (Matthew 28:19)
• I will build My church and nothing will stand against Me is still the Son of God’s promise to His people. (Matthew 16:18)
• Equip the saints is still the New Testament’s job description for the leaders of the church. (Ephesians 4:12)
• Preach the word is still the pastor’s core responsibility before God. (2 Timothy 4:2)
• You shall receive power is still what the church should expect as witnesses to Christ. (Acts 1:8)
• Ask in My name is still Jesus’ guarantee to any Christian who begs the Father to let him or her to do the greater works of the church age. (John 14:12-14)

Come to think of it, all the stuff that should matter most to Christians will remain the same next Tuesday, in spite of who wins.

Presidents come and go, but the Lord Jesus Christ is the same—yesterday, today, and forever. (Hebrews 13:5)

Change seems to be the issue of this presidential election. One party promises to bring change we can believe in and the other warns that we need change we can depend on.

This tells me a couple of things about our country.

First, everyday people want change because of a deep dissatisfaction with life.

Second politicians and most of those voting for them really think that changing the circumstances of life will somehow help—that finally Americans will say, “Now, I’m satisfied. Now that the economy is better and I feel safer in the war on terror.

In my younger years I was a political animal. I even majored in political science.

But here’s what I’ve noticed as elections and presidents come and go: Not much changes.

My friends marched to a war in Vietnam; I stood on the frontier of freedom as an Army officer during the cold war, and I’ve said goodbye to my son two times on his way to Iraq with his Army units.

The ghetto’s still hopeless; gas still feels like it costs too much; a lot of people still want to kill us; and the culture’s still godless…only a little more godless than it was back then.

Changing power in Washington might help for a while, but it won’t last.

Why? The problem’s not on the outside; it’s on the inside.

What we really need isn’t change we can believe in that just rearranges the patio furniture on a crumbling cement slab. What we really need is belief we can change in!

Only Jesus Christ offers that type of change. When we believe in Him, we become a new creation. When we believe what He says about us—that we’re not who we use to be and we don’t have to live the way we use to live—the resurrection life within us begins to transform us.

When I believe what Jesus says about me—that His life within me is this world’s only hope—I become a better man. When I become a better man and encourage my family to believe in that hope that is within us—we become a better family. When my family becomes a better family and encourage other families in our neighborhood, church, and city to become better families—we become a better neighborhood, a better church, and a better city.

Now there’s a change that offers lasting hope…but it all begins with belief.

“To them [those who receive His life by believing in Him] God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles: which is Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Colossians 1:27).