November 16, 2008

• Insights:
  
  Thoughts on the Nation

  Its been a while since I’ve written, life has been busy. That’s good news in times when a lot of folks are losing their jobs from the financial mess that’s happened. The elections are over and honestly… they were rather boring to me since I have had no favorite from the beginning. So we have a new president-elect and Obama will become the president in January. While I’m not aligned politically with him, I do wish him well and have already started praying to the Lord on his behalf (and our country) just as I have for President Bush.  In these troubled times, I do not envy the task he has before him. I wonder if McCain was actually the winner this time around given the circumstances we see happening before us.  At any rate, I encourage everyone to pray for our leadership especially that they have wisdom to guide the country to good and not the opposite, to bring and keep a good, free peace here without oppressive control, and to allow the citizens the ability to carry on their lives without undue hardship, free to think and do good as they see necessary. That has worked well in the past since it allows people to be and do what God has made them to be.

  I wish I could feel at ease like I have with most other presidents elected during my lifetime. I think the last time I felt some concern was when President Clinton was elected. He ended up being popular to some, even an icon to others, I think he was the first president that really disappointed me, not being able to personally control himself with the ladies while office. I guess I expect more from a man in the highest office of the land who should be the best example from among us. I suppose I’m an idealist in that regard but I think we all have expectations like that of our leaders at some level.

  That’s what is driving my prayers for Obama. He has been such an enigma to many and it hasn’t been hard to find that he’s hung around and fraternized with people that most good peaceful, hardworking folks would avoid like the plague.  He has promised many things to the electorate which upon close examination may not be too healthy for our country.  Yet he is our president and he comes in to it with less advantages than prior men for those facts alone. He doesn’t have a history of choosing good men to be around him and the foundations of those promises talk of doing things that have been quite obviously failing and destroying nations for quite a long time.  In this I have some pity for him, its going to be rough for him even when he’s a powerful man now. While he’s been practicing all these years to become president, he has little to fall back on when he’s required to actually “be” a president.  It is already starting to hurt him and the people are looking at his past associations and wonder if his new cabinet choices are better choices than before and that obviously reflects upon the men he chooses and the people who selected him to run in the first place and putting his fellow party members in the same questionable light. I guess in the headlong rush to put their man in office, they didn’t think about that.  All that points out some really key points to pray for in the years ahead for the leadership of our country.

  Frankly, this teaches me an important thing. Whatever we aspire to do, there is a required training period and personal testing in order to do the job well. I have been reminded of this lately with a noticeable increase in law enforcement folks patrolling around the countryside here when things seem to be ok. It seems good to see them around but it is also a little disconcerting as well since it makes one wonder “what’s up?” since these folks are busy people but I digress. Each one of these people had to be trained to properly do law enforcement activities. The state and local governments do not hand a guy or gal a gun, a fast car with flashing lights and radios and go around acting out what they see in their imagination as a policeman although there is the rare occasion when we wonder about that.

  So it also goes for the leadership we have in our government. If our elected leaders are lacking in wisdom and experience in doing good things and making good choices and decisions, then we should pray all the more that the Lord would give them what they need to do their job effectively. Along with that, we should also pray that the Lord would inhibit their ability to do things that would not be good for themselves and the country. There’s nothing wrong with asking the Lord to keep all of us from making bad decisions and keep us out of trouble so it would be good to pray for our leaders the same way. Perhaps we didn’t do that when all the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac debacle came to light and we now know that some of our leaders did not do the right thing even though they thought it was ok. Yes, they are responsible for their actions but so are we. They were put there by the people and folks weren’t doing proper oversight of their “elected officials” and left them in office to keep making the same mistakes and now we are in a financial mess. So there’s plenty of blame to go around. The better way is to pray for our leaders since it is so obviously hard to be in those positions without engaging in things that are not beneficial for the country and harmful and/or embarrassing to themselves.

  Paul tells us some really important things about all this in Romans 13.

  Every person is to be in subjection to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except from God, and those which exist are established by God. Therefore whoever resists authority has opposed the ordinance of God; and they who have opposed will receive condemnation upon themselves.
  
  For rulers are not a cause of fear for good behavior, but for evil. Do you want to have no fear of authority? Do what is good and you will have praise from the same; for it is a minister of God to you for good. But if you do what is evil, be afraid; for it does not bear the sword for nothing; for it is a minister of God, an avenger who brings wrath on the one who practices evil. Therefore it is necessary to be in subjection, not only because of wrath, but also for conscience' sake.
  
  For because of this you also pay taxes, for rulers are servants of God, devoting themselves to this very thing. Render to all what is due them: tax to whom tax is due; custom to whom custom; fear to whom fear; honor to whom honor. Owe nothing to anyone except to love one another; for he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law. For this, "YOU SHALL NOT COMMIT ADULTERY, YOU SHALL NOT MURDER, YOU SHALL NOT STEAL, YOU SHALL NOT COVET," and if there is any other commandment, it is summed up in this saying, "YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF." Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.
  
  Do this, knowing the time, that it is already the hour for you to awaken from sleep; for now salvation is nearer to us than when we believed. The night is almost gone, and the day is near Therefore let us lay aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light.
  
  Let us behave properly as in the day, not in carousing and drunkenness, not in sexual promiscuity and sensuality, not in strife and jealousy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh in regard to its lusts.  Romans 12:1-14 (NASB)

  Now these are good words and being respectful of our leadership is right for Christians. Yet I wonder if we really understand all of what is being said here. We need to understand that God has established the Law and all that supercedes man’s opinion. The person who is governing does so because there is a higher law that allows them to be put in that position to do that job. In this passage, more often than not we focus on the individual citizens being subject to the government and that is right. However, we need to read closely to what the government, as God’s minister, is there to do. Let’s take a look at that.

  1.    All authority comes from God and therefore must represent His Law properly.
  2.    Authority is given to present and enforce God’s Law to the nation.
  3.    In order that these people who are given authority can make a living, we pay taxes and the other things mentioned.  The matter of making a living sets what is “due”. Other matters like protecting the nation are also funded from these things, which is allowing the government to do its God-given authority to fulfill its role to “love the people it governs” by protecting it.
  4.    Fulfilling that Law requires that people love one another, doing no wrong to a neighbor. The government has oversight into this and should be promoting this and be allowing the people do what they are to do before God themselves… to love one another… and not take over than job itself.
  5.    The government itself under that Law should then also understand that it is also responsible to love the people it governs, doing no wrong to any of its citizens.

  We should note in Romans 13:3 that the people under the government should not have to be fearful if they are loving one another and doing no wrong to a neighbor for that is God’s purpose for government. If people are doing good and the government still makes them fearful, then the authority the government exercises is not in line with God’s intent.  If there are activities which are not quelled which makes the people fearful by some doing or threatening harm to them and the government is not acting to protect them, its is negligent in its duty.  The government is in place to support those who are doing good as defined by God’s Law, loving your neighbor as yourself.

  Yet to leave it there leaves too much open for poor interpretation. We see even in these verses Paul brings up adultery, murder, stealing, coveting, and doing wrong to a neighbor as examples of not loving your neighbor as yourself. Yet while it is important for us to share and help the needy because they are our “neighbors”, the government is not an instrument of man to promote the covetousness of one group over another which oftentimes tends to be the case these days. Yet we can clearly see that the coveting brings on the first three in those examples and if one cared to watch closely enough to the political process this year, we saw men promising things to enflame the covetousness of one group over another. It was not a good thing to watch. We have recently seen those who have reacted with severe violence to the repudiation of gay marriage in California but we do not see the prevailing government in that state taking any action. This is an obvious example of the government’s negligence in this instance.  Where were folks to protect the rights of those who opposed the measure? It is obvious that those involved in the violence were not loving their neighbor as is required for obeying good government. Their deeds, no matter how they want to justify them, were evil.

  Nor was it good to see the news media and various political entities commit blatant, insolent, and willful perjury before the public eye.  In that same Law, one is not to bear false witness, which also means to not intentionally mislead. It too brings serious injury to the people of the land and is a violation of God’s Law and His intention for the purpose of government. It does not bring good to the people of this land no matter for whatever reason it was done.

  Another thing Paul brings out is the concept of government’s right to bring on retribution to evildoers. It is clear that its role is to “bring wrath on the one who practices evil” as defined by God’s Law. If a government brings force to bear on people who are doing good according to God’s law, the government is operating outside its authorization and we can be sure God will take care of all of it in due time. For those reading who do not believe in God, it is not hard to understand the principle of “what goes around comes around”. Such a principle carries with it a positive aspect to it as well. A government that does good will bring good on itself.  If it feels the increasing need to control things as seems to be happening, it is merely the obvious expression that the government in some area has not done good beforehand.

  Paul goes on to stress that carousing (festivities accompanied by impurity and obscenity of the grossest kind) and drunkenness, sexual promiscuity and sensuality (arrogant, brutal, insolent lack of sexual restraint and debauchery), and strife and jealousy are additional examples of the deeds of darkness, the lack of love for one another.  These things are certainly things that those who name the name of Christ are not to participate in but in context, are things that the government is required to regulate and provide conditions where these things do not proliferate or endanger the citizens at large.

  Further, God permitted our country to be founded on the Constitution and its amendments known as the Bill of Rights, which further define how our country, in particular, loves one another. The Bill of Rights protects freedom of speech, freedom of religion, the right to keep and bear arms, the freedom of assembly, the freedom to petition, the freedom of the press, prohibits unreasonable search and seizure, cruel and unusual punishment, and compelled self-incrimination. The government is not allowed to establish a religion and is not allowed to prohibit free exercise of religion either. It is not allowed to deprive any person of life, liberty, and property without due process of law and more. In fact, it is the Bill of Rights that actually allows us to change our government leaders without bloodshed. It is truly an act of loving one another even when we may be divided on many issues.

  Yet for all of the good that the Bill of Rights defines for Americans, the Bible still says it best in the fewest words…

  “Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.”

  So as we move forward with our new president, it is clear that there are important responsibilities that we, as the people, are to do toward the government and likewise what the government’s responsibility is toward us. Yet both sets of responsibilities reside in the same notion… Love does no wrong to a neighbor… therefore love is the fulfillment of the law… the very essence of what America is all about

  Let us  pray that we do well in this regard and hope that the new government will do the same. Let neither of us do it in words only but in truth.

  Lord, I thank you that we were once again able to have an election to determine who would be our next president and I am glad that we were able to resolve the question without bloodshed. I do pray that even though I do not hold the same political persuasion he does, I ask that you assist him to work on behalf of our country and nation for true good that follows Your intent of this nation being a people who just might have a chance at demonstrating loving one another in all the right ways.  I ask that you assist him to bring goodness and righteousness and peace to all the people of the land.  I ask that you bless him as he follows what You alone have designed as being good leadership of good government.  In addition, I ask that you give him wisdom to know the difference between the good and the evil in himself and those who help him and help him to choose the good and reject the evil according to how You truly see things, Lord, and not how he or I or anyone else might think.  I ask you to protect the people of this land and even our president from himself and others in leadership in making foolish and unwise decisions and I pray that You gently inhibit and block any attempts to do such foolish things and kindly instruct us all in what is a better thing to do.  I pray that everyone that will be leading this nation will have a fresh realization of the precious thing we have in our Constitution and the Bill of Rights and how good men from long ago respected Your Law and wanted such a good thing for all who would follow after them. I also pray for our nation that we all would turn our hearts toward You and your goodness with hope that the United States of America can continue to be the example of men and women looking for something better than the base instincts that come from our own hearts and better than the desire to replace You and your Law with a government based on men worshipping themselves and their own unstable and foolish thoughts.  May You continue to protect us from our enemies who have set it in their hearts to destroy us for a myriad of reasons. In the end, may good triumph over evil without becoming evil itself. In Jesus’ name….   Amen….   Mr.Vee

  • 1:50 am
  • 4 Comments