No matter who wins this… or rather, now, no matter who won this election, God is still on the Throne, and Jesus is still my Lord and Messiah.
This is going to be long. If you wonder about why I post and say what I do… my hope is that you read or listen to the end. If not, here are the highlights.
I’m thankful we had a fair and democratic election. If I believe God is in control, then I’m also thankful Trump was elected, or I’m a liar and a hypocrite. God hates those kinds of things. That would be a foolish game to play.
My goal in all of this is to make disciples. Want to learn how?
End of highlights. Let the rambling begin.
Unless you haven’t been paying attention, it’s pretty obvious that I’m opposed to much of what MAGA has made “normal” within the Church.
That being said, getting what you think is best is not the benchmark for the actions and attitude of a Jesus follower. Not my will, but Your will. Not my way but The Way. Jesus.
One of the most brilliant responses Jesus gave was holding a Roman coin with Caesar’s image on it. The image itself was, at the very least, a symbolic breaking of the Second Commandment. Caesar was literally worshipped as God, by law.
Yet Jesus had a higher teaching and purpose than to confront or condemn an earthly king. Scripture is clear. All, which in the Greek and Hebrew literally means… all. All authority. All power. Is God-instituted.
When Jesus followers honor authority, it’s not pick and choose based on what we like or dislike or even their actions or morality. We don’t honor them as the receptacle of that honor. We honor God through honoring them.
The honor is God’s anyway. He gets to tell us how to use it.
And so, it’s pretty easy to say, the people have spoken. But it would be hypocritical and intellectually disingenuous, in light of the faith I live by, to suggest anything other than, according to His Word, God has spoken.
Honestly, I don’t always like what He has to say. But it always, without fail, eventually turns out for good, whether I understood it or not.
No matter who won, my plans, objectives, standards, and goals would be the same. Love God. Love people. Make disciples. I’m still going to object to things called “Christian” that compromise on those principles. I still believe the greatest dilemma the church faces in America is the drought of disciple-making. We are losing that eternal battle, and few seem to care.
That’s why I write. That’s why I challenge. That’s why I follow Jesus.
And so, my hope, my expectation, and my earnest prayer is that God is opening the door to answer the worldwide prayers for an outbreak, a movement of disciple-making.
Love hopes all things, believes all things. Those aren’t just words in 1 Corinthians 13; they are a Jesus follower’s action plan. Our trust should never be in man or earthly systems anyway. And if we say we trust God, then we should trust enough to live by the principles of His Word, without exception.
Like Paul’s letter to the Romans.
Romans 13:1-2 (NET)
Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except by Godʼs appointment, and the authorities that exist have been instituted by God. So the person who resists such authority resists the ordinance of God, and those who resist will incur judgment
And the first letter from that former rebellious fisherman, Simon Peter.
1 Peter 2:13-17 (NET)
Be subject to every human institution for the Lordʼs sake, whether to a king as supreme or to governors as those he commissions to punish wrongdoers and praise those who do good. For God wants you to silence the ignorance of foolish people by doing good. Live as free people, not using your freedom as a pretext for evil, but as Godʼs slaves. Honor all people, love the family of believers, fear God, honor the king.
And so, that’s now the playing field. Actually, it always was the playing field. No matter who is in the White House. The Book is the Book.
President-Elect Trump won in a fair and democratic election according to our rule of law and God’s own Sovereignty. I am thankful for that. Sincerely.
I’m also hopeful. God is working all things together for good.
At the very least, maybe we won’t have to hear about stolen elections every day for a few years. But I digress.
Multiple people, in person and virtual, have expressed concern or disagreement with some stances I’ve taken. I understand. But for me, it never was and hopefully will never be about an election or candidate.
While some Christians think I’ve compromised, I’ll take that, and being called a few of the same names they call the people I’m trying to reach. I follow the One who was also called derogatory names and accused of the same hangups as the people He reached and hung out with. Not trying to compare myself to Jesus. I do try to live like Him, though often fail miserably at it.
The goal is to make disciples. The “go” for me right now includes extending my reach. That’s why I publish content. Some people are good at reaching the almost Christian, and that’s a good thing. They have a pretty solid church background and drifted away for one reason or another. Pretty easy to catch too. I mean they are almost caught. You can catch them in groups at a time. Good advertising and an entertaining, modern worship experience is the perfect bait. And that’s a good thing too.
Until you start trying to make disciple-makers of them—which is what a disciple is to be. A disciple-maker. Follower, fisher of people. Two sides of the same coin. But when there is already a history of “church” being defined by focusing on more interesting and entertaining things, that pre-defines what disciple means to them. Preconceptions are tough barriers to break, especially when most of the Christian culture says the barriers to disciple-making are great stopping points. Who needs to go when you’ve got it!
My gift of grace is to reach people much farther from Jesus than that. It’s much tougher fishing. Most have either been hurt by the church or have become a defender of those who have. Few have a problem with Jesus. Just church. Religion. Bigotry. Hypocrisy. Greed. Some have never really read or studied His words.
You seldom catch them in groups. Hard to tell if they are biting or not. Takes patience and a whole lot of fishing. Get a little nibble, and it can sometimes take years before they put their trust in Jesus. Jesus worked on 12 guys for at least three and a half years, and it took the crucifixion for them to get it.
Your target may be different. You may be called to reach people I can’t. But this I know. If you are a Jesus follower, you are a disciple-maker and maybe just don’t know it yet. You need to be trained by a disciple-maker. That’s how Jesus did it.
So, who’s ready to go out there and make some disciples? You have to be serious about something if you read or listened to all this. There’s this guy I know who’s been working on the how of disciple-making for the past five years, person to person. Not theory. Anyone can make disciples—you just need to be taught by an experienced disciple-maker.
If you are interested, I have some weekly openings, both virtual and in person. About an hour or so a week. Pretty easy to contact. All it really takes is commitment. God will do the rest.
If you don’t follow Jesus and would like to find out more about what that means, let me know. It would be an honor to connect if you wanna talk about Jesus.
So what now?
Let’s go make some peace! Peace is where disciple-making begins. This isn’t about the next four years; it’s about changing lives eternally! Are you ready to start?
✌🏼 #MakePeace #LoveFirst
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