For a long time I have been concerned about my involvement in the
political situation in my country. I have been watching my country
self-destruct. Yes, it still looks the same but it has a rotting moral
core. In light of the obvious direction my country is taking, how
should I react? What should I as a Christian do?
What is coming down the road? I have already seen warning signs.
The baker and the florist were penalized for standing for their
beliefs. Restrictions were made on military chaplains. Some
governors controlled church attendance. Almost president Hillary
Clinton said, \u201cAnd deep-seated religious beliefs have to be
changed.\u201d Hate speech has been declared for those standing for
Biblical principles.
How should I prepare for the future when opposition and even
persecution comes against me and I have to make major decisions?
What should my church be doing? Is she ready for coming
opposition and persecution? Are our members being
strengthened? What if we lose property tax exclusion and givers
can no longer make deductions for their gifts? Can she stand
against government control of speech? Should we obey all
restrictions? Where is prayer in the equation? Could it be that
persecution may be required to bring the church out of apathy?
Should I be more involved in politics? If so how? Is there Biblical
instructions or examples? Did Jesus live under ideal political
conditions? Did Paul? The Puritans? While Jesus and Paul had
much to say about the polluted religious system, I can find no
evidence that they led demonstrations, ran for office or led
campaigns against the Roman empire, even when Nero rose to
power.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
While I was pondering on all this I was led to reread \u201cThe Heavenly
Man\u201d about brother Yun a house church leader in China. From the
time of his teenage conversion his heart was set on witnessing,
evangelizing and making disciples. Brother Yun and the house
churches stressed worship, prayer, fasting and evangelism. They
lived in a communistic oppressive and persecuting country with no
real freedom. Yet, there was no attempt or even discussion to
change the system. They lived in God\u2019s Kingdom under His
direction. One on one evangelism was the priority.
My conclusion. I have a duty to respect my country\u2019s leadership and
be a good citizen. Jesus instructed us to go the second mile when
we are ordered to obey. Paul told us to obey the higher authorities.
I should do this unless I am instructed to disobey my Lord. My
priority is to fulfill God\u2019s purpose \u2013 to worship Him and obey Him
while exhibiting a demeanor that would attract others to my Lord. I
must be careful to guard my attitude, because it would be very easy
to fall into bitterness and depression. The world needs to see that
one can have joy and peace in a wicked world because it is not
determined by politics or people serving a contrary agenda. Love,
joy and peace are fruits of the Spirit and can be seen no matter the
political environment. My security and my hope is not in my
government, but in my Sovereign Lord. Jesus said that we could
experience peace in a troubled world. \u201cIn the world you will have
tribulation, but take courage, I have overcome the world [John
16:33].\u201d
This is not to say that I must be quiet and fail to speak out against
evil when I can. I am still called to represent Christ in a godless
world as light and salt. I still have the mandate to share the gospel.
I must always be ready to give a reason for my hope with gentleness
and reverence [I Peter 3:15]. I must also contend earnestly for my
faith [Jude3].<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
For a long time I have been concerned about my involvement in thepolitical situation in my country. I have been watching my countryself-destruct. Yes, it still looks the same but it has a rotting moralcore. In light of the obvious direction my country is taking, howshould I react? What should I as a Christian do?What […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/charliesimpressions.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/charliesimpressions.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/charliesimpressions.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/charliesimpressions.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/charliesimpressions.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=77"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/charliesimpressions.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":78,"href":"http:\/\/charliesimpressions.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77\/revisions\/78"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/charliesimpressions.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=77"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/charliesimpressions.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=77"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/charliesimpressions.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=77"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}