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I Love My Country
A look at life and ministry.
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I Love My Country

  11/07/12 09:35, by , Categories: Church Life, Politics, Theology Lived

So after too many ads, debates, heated discussions, passionate Facebook posts, bedtime phone calls (3 in 5 minutes last night), and other heated CO2 expended, the election is over.   Americans, always predicable, are either reveling or mourning.  Partisan divide is hardly new and these days aren't the worst its ever been.  Lot of people were upset when Jefferson was elected to.  That man was a threat to the union!  That's what you say when your guy loses and the other guy wins.

So what's a Biblical Christ-follower to do?  You see things happening that upset and scare you or make you mad, and you worry.  Let's consider a few thoughts.

But you are A CHOSEN RACE, A royal PRIESTHOOD, A HOLY NATION, A PEOPLE FOR God's OWN POSSESSION, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; for you once were NOT A PEOPLE, but now you are THE PEOPLE OF GOD; you had NOT RECEIVED MERCY, but now you have RECEIVED MERCY. Beloved, I urge you as aliens and strangers to abstain from fleshly lusts which wage war against the soul.

Peter tells us here, and we know this, that we are the people of God.  He's not talking to AMERICA, he's talking to the church.  That is our nation.  For too long we have tried to create a theocratic civil society by calling America God's country.  We have fallen in love with America given "her" a place in our hearts next to Jesus.  This is nationalism and idolatry.  We are the body of Christ, a country of our own.  Peter goes on to remind us how to act while we are visiting this earthly country.

Keep your behavior excellent among the Gentiles, so that in the thing in which they slander you as evildoers, they may because of your good deeds, as they observe them, glorify God in the day of visitation. Submit yourselves for the Lord's sake to every human institution, whether to a king as the one in authority, or to governors as sent by him for the punishment of evildoers and the praise of those who do right. For such is the will of God that by doing right you may silence the ignorance of foolish men. (1 Peter 2:9-15)

If Peter can call us to obedience while living under the perversion and moral decay of the Roman Empire, what leads us to believe that this doesn't apply to us?  Now, that doesn't mean that we bury our heads in the sand when it comes to society.  It is good to try to stabilize society.  I exercised my right to vote yesterday and I voted Biblical values that are good for society.  God told the exiles that it was appropriate to be productive and helpful members of the foreign lands they were sent into.

"Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles whom I have sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon, 'Build houses and live in them; and plant gardens and eat their produce. 'Take wives and become the fathers of sons and daughters, and take wives for your sons and give your daughters to husbands, that they may bear sons and daughters; and multiply there and do not decrease. 'Seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the LORD on its behalf; for in its welfare you will have welfare.' (Jeremiah 29:4-7)

But this does not mean total submersion in the culture.  This is what has happened for too long in America.  We were a society at least somewhat based on Biblical values, so we got comfortable and we stopped separating.  But we were ordered to be separate.

Do not be bound together with unbelievers; for what partnership have righteousness and lawlessness, or what fellowship has light with darkness? Or what harmony has Christ with Belial, or what has a believer in common with an unbeliever? Or what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; just as God said, "I WILL DWELL IN THEM AND WALK AMONG THEM; AND I WILL BE THEIR GOD, AND THEY SHALL BE MY PEOPLE. "Therefore, COME OUT FROM THEIR MIDST AND BE SEPARATE," says the Lord. "AND DO NOT TOUCH WHAT IS UNCLEAN; And I will welcome you. (2 Corinthians 6:14-17)

Now we are waking up to this "new" truth that the world is hostile to God, and therefore to us.  We are suddenly faced with the fact that the world is not going to protect us and our faith.  Jesus said it would be this way, yet this morning so many Christians are shocked and dismayed.  What did you think Jesus meant when He said, ""If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before it hated you. "If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, because of this the world hates you. (John 15:18-19)?   In fact, we were even told, "Do not be surprised, brethren, if the world hates you." (1 John 3:13).

The time is quickly coming when we will no longer be able to count on the world and its government to make witnessing easy.  We will not be able to just turn our kids over to the state and assume that they will teach them our Biblical values (as if we thought they were going to anyway).  We will not be able to count on the government giving us favorable tax situations and special statuses just because we love Jesus.  The disciples didn't have any of these things.  The Christians in China don't have these things and their churches are growing while ours are shrinking.

The disciples/apostles lived in a Roman empire that promoted idolatry to a major extent, where homosexuality was not only normal, but where it was considered fun (and legal) to initiate young boys into it.  They didn't send IRS agents after the disciples, they sent Roman soldiers.  And yet what did these men do?

They preached Jesus.

They spent precious little time preaching AGAINST society, but instead warned the Christians not to participate.

They taught Christians to honor those in authority.

They DIED that others might hear.

THIS is my country.  What a country!  Those are my founding fathers.  I'm so proud of them.  My thought now is "Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart." (Hebrews 12:1-3)

This entry was posted by and is filed under Church Life, Politics, Theology Lived.

2 comments

Comment from: Rachelle Henthorn [Visitor]
Rachelle Henthorn
Amen! And thank you! I feel today a mingling of dread and excitement..... God took Israel through exiles, and we know things have to happen to usher in the end times and fulfill prophecy..... i.e. persecution for Christians, even if it is in the form of intolerance..... I appreciate this reminder.
11/07/12 @ 10:04
Comment from: Melody [Visitor]
Melody
Exactly! Praise God- whoever we voted for won't matter someday, and the best really is yet to come, but it'll never be of this world.
11/07/12 @ 20:41


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A look at life and ministry.

About the Author

After growing up in Maine, Ira graduated from Bible College and wandered into Western Maine and has never found his way back out. He has a deep love for the rural churches of Maine and the people who make up this great state. He loves Truth over Tradition, Christ over Culture, and People over Process. He love to equip, teach, and disciple and longs to see the Maine church grow healthy and make disciples.


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