how can we make a difference if we aren't different?
"You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled by men. You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven." Matthew 5:13-16
Those of us who call ourselves Christians have to understand that we are commanded by our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ to make a difference in this world. These Bible verses from Jesus' Sermon on the Mount make it very clear that we fulfill that command by being different than the world. The fundamental problem in our world today, in my opinion, is that we Christians are not following Jesus' command to be the salt of the earth and the light of the world. We are not following our mandate to be different than the world.
The notes in my Study Bible say that if a lamp doesn't help people see, it is useless. The purpose of our light is to show other people how to find God and how to live for Him. The notes in my Study Bible say that there are lots of ways that we hide our light. We can become complacent and satisfied with what we have done in the past. We can let stubborness, resentment or disobedience dim our light. We can stay quiet, instead of speaking out against sin and injustice. We can fail to explain our light to others, or ignore the needs of others. On the other hand, our light shines brightest when we follow Jesus' three most important commands to us, which are:
1. Love God with all of our heart, soul, mind and strength.
2. Love other people as much as we love ourselves.
3. Tell others about the Good News of Jesus Christ.
Make no mistake about it, there is a war raging in our world today, and I'm not talking about any military conflict. The war I'm talking about is a war between God and Satan. The Bible tells us that "the fix is in." The outcome of the war is not in doubt because, when Jesus died for our sins, and then was raised from the dead and ascended to heaven, Satan was defeated. The only question now is--What side will you take? Satan is still working feverishly to capture as many souls as he can before the final judgement, but we can be assured that, if we accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior, He will guard us and save us from Satan's grasp.
Knowing all of this, what are our responsibilities as Christian conservatives? I will list what I believe our responsibilities to be.
1. Understand that the principles of Christianity, as articulated by our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and the principles of conservatism, as articulated by our Founding Fathers and, 200 years later, by Ronald Wilson Reagan, fit together like hand and glove. If anyone wishes to debate me on that point, I would welcome the opportunity.
2. Understand that we have an absolute obligation to be missionaries to our families. If you are a parent, that means that you have a sacred duty to lead your children to Christ. Be constantly in prayer that God will use you to lead your family to Jesus. Spend time each day reading the Bible so that you will be equipped with God's Holy Word as you minister to your family. Know with 100% certainty that, by leading you family to Jesus, you are having a profound effect on this generation, and future generations as well.
3. "Any time you have an opportunity to make a difference in this world and you don't, then you are wasting your time on Earth."---Roberto Clemente. "Do all the good you can, by all the means you can, in all the ways you can, in all the places you can, at all the times you can, to all the people you can, as long as ever you can."---John Wesley. In other words, it is a personal responsibility to fulfill God's commands, not a government responsibility.
4. Use your time, your talents, and your treasure to fully support the following priorities:
a. The acknowledgement of God in all aspects of our culture-- Noah Webster wrote (1823), "In my view, the Christian religion is the most important and one of the first things in which all children, under a free government ought to be instructed...No truth is more evident to my mind than that the Christian religion must be the basis of any government intended to secure the rights and privileges of a free people." Thomas Jefferson wrote (1781), "God who gave us life gave us liberty. And can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are the Gift of God? That they are not to be violated but with His wrath?"
Go to links:
http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=2441
and;
http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=2664
Can there be any doubts as to what the Founding Fathers wanted in this regard for our country? Christian churches, and the members of those churches, have the same right to engage in politics that anyone else has, but further, are specifically protected from exclusion from the public square based on the content of their speech. As Patrick Henry said, "It cannot be emphasized too strongly or too often that this great nation was founded, not by religionists, but by Christians; not on religions, but on the Gospel of Jesus Christ. For this very reason peoples of other faiths have been offered asylum, prosperity, and freedom of worship here."
b. The sanctity of human life-- Almost 50 million unborn babies have been "aborted" (that means "killed" or "slaughtered") since Roe v. Wade. No statistics are available to show how many human lives have been "euthanized" (another very sanitized word that means "killed" or "slaughtered") but we do know that the forces of secular progressivism are working feverishly to make both abortion and euthanasia acceptable, mainstream parts of our culture. Another way of saying that is that the forces of Satan are desperately trying to get us to accept the extermination of "inconvenient life" by convincing us that it's all about "choice" or "quality of life" instead of murder. Ronald Reagan said, "Simple morality dictates that unless and until someone can prove the unborn baby is not alive, we must give it the benefit of the doubt and assume it is. And thus, it should be entitled to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness."
c. The right of a child to a traditional family-- There is not one, single study that has ever been done that shows that children tend to fare better in non-traditional families than they do in traditional families (male husband, female wife, children). The forces of secular progressivism would have you believe that the need for a traditional, Bible-based family structure is passe', antiquated, unenlightened, and oh so very "yesterday." They say that, as a society, we have "evolved" way beyond our old fashioned mores. They are wrong. Children raised in a Bible-based, Christ-centered, traditional family are less likely to experiment with drugs or sex, are less likely to suffer from psychological ailments, and are more likely to grow into healthy (psychologically, physically, and spiritually) adults. Heterosexual monogamy is central to the nature of civilized life. So is a commitment to stay married and to fight against divorce. The abandonment of human morality by government is the first step towards the vile oppression that we see in so many other cultures around the world. Pres. Reagan said, "Through love and instruction, discipline, guidance, and example, we learn from our mothers and our fathers the values that will shape our private lives and our public citizenship.."
d. The right to liberty and property-- All that we have is a gift from God. Government has no right to forcibly take away from us anything that God has blessed us with, unless we the people voluntarily consent to giving the government authority in this regard. The false religions of "environmentalism", "global warming", "growth management", "affirmative action", "globalism", "multiculturalism", and "economic equality" are nothing more than strategies by the devotees of modern liberalism to confiscate liberty and property from the majority in order to empower the minority. This strategy goes against everything the Founding Fathers believed, and it violates the teachings of Christianity.
e. National sovereignty--- Liberals believe that U.S. troops should only be deployed at the direction of the U.N. Liberals believe that American jurisprudence should be based on the whims and beliefs of the world, and not a written Constitution. Liberals believe that foreign nations have the right to establish our immigration policies, and that these same foreign nations have the right to colonize vast portions of our nation for the purpose of exporting their poverty/crime/social ills to us for us to deal with. Again, none of this is consistent with the teachings of the Bible or the beliefs of our Founding Fathers.
5. Openly celebrate, and support those who celebrate with you, God's love for us, the Good News of Jesus Christ, the foundational principles of the American republic, the wisdom of our Founding Fathers, the clear-thinking common sense of Reagan Conservatism, and the relationship between all of the above.
God bless each and every one of you, and God bless America!
Those of us who call ourselves Christians have to understand that we are commanded by our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ to make a difference in this world. These Bible verses from Jesus' Sermon on the Mount make it very clear that we fulfill that command by being different than the world. The fundamental problem in our world today, in my opinion, is that we Christians are not following Jesus' command to be the salt of the earth and the light of the world. We are not following our mandate to be different than the world.
The notes in my Study Bible say that if a lamp doesn't help people see, it is useless. The purpose of our light is to show other people how to find God and how to live for Him. The notes in my Study Bible say that there are lots of ways that we hide our light. We can become complacent and satisfied with what we have done in the past. We can let stubborness, resentment or disobedience dim our light. We can stay quiet, instead of speaking out against sin and injustice. We can fail to explain our light to others, or ignore the needs of others. On the other hand, our light shines brightest when we follow Jesus' three most important commands to us, which are:
1. Love God with all of our heart, soul, mind and strength.
2. Love other people as much as we love ourselves.
3. Tell others about the Good News of Jesus Christ.
Make no mistake about it, there is a war raging in our world today, and I'm not talking about any military conflict. The war I'm talking about is a war between God and Satan. The Bible tells us that "the fix is in." The outcome of the war is not in doubt because, when Jesus died for our sins, and then was raised from the dead and ascended to heaven, Satan was defeated. The only question now is--What side will you take? Satan is still working feverishly to capture as many souls as he can before the final judgement, but we can be assured that, if we accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior, He will guard us and save us from Satan's grasp.
Knowing all of this, what are our responsibilities as Christian conservatives? I will list what I believe our responsibilities to be.
1. Understand that the principles of Christianity, as articulated by our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and the principles of conservatism, as articulated by our Founding Fathers and, 200 years later, by Ronald Wilson Reagan, fit together like hand and glove. If anyone wishes to debate me on that point, I would welcome the opportunity.
2. Understand that we have an absolute obligation to be missionaries to our families. If you are a parent, that means that you have a sacred duty to lead your children to Christ. Be constantly in prayer that God will use you to lead your family to Jesus. Spend time each day reading the Bible so that you will be equipped with God's Holy Word as you minister to your family. Know with 100% certainty that, by leading you family to Jesus, you are having a profound effect on this generation, and future generations as well.
3. "Any time you have an opportunity to make a difference in this world and you don't, then you are wasting your time on Earth."---Roberto Clemente. "Do all the good you can, by all the means you can, in all the ways you can, in all the places you can, at all the times you can, to all the people you can, as long as ever you can."---John Wesley. In other words, it is a personal responsibility to fulfill God's commands, not a government responsibility.
4. Use your time, your talents, and your treasure to fully support the following priorities:
a. The acknowledgement of God in all aspects of our culture-- Noah Webster wrote (1823), "In my view, the Christian religion is the most important and one of the first things in which all children, under a free government ought to be instructed...No truth is more evident to my mind than that the Christian religion must be the basis of any government intended to secure the rights and privileges of a free people." Thomas Jefferson wrote (1781), "God who gave us life gave us liberty. And can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are the Gift of God? That they are not to be violated but with His wrath?"
Go to links:
http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=2441
and;
http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=2664
Can there be any doubts as to what the Founding Fathers wanted in this regard for our country? Christian churches, and the members of those churches, have the same right to engage in politics that anyone else has, but further, are specifically protected from exclusion from the public square based on the content of their speech. As Patrick Henry said, "It cannot be emphasized too strongly or too often that this great nation was founded, not by religionists, but by Christians; not on religions, but on the Gospel of Jesus Christ. For this very reason peoples of other faiths have been offered asylum, prosperity, and freedom of worship here."
b. The sanctity of human life-- Almost 50 million unborn babies have been "aborted" (that means "killed" or "slaughtered") since Roe v. Wade. No statistics are available to show how many human lives have been "euthanized" (another very sanitized word that means "killed" or "slaughtered") but we do know that the forces of secular progressivism are working feverishly to make both abortion and euthanasia acceptable, mainstream parts of our culture. Another way of saying that is that the forces of Satan are desperately trying to get us to accept the extermination of "inconvenient life" by convincing us that it's all about "choice" or "quality of life" instead of murder. Ronald Reagan said, "Simple morality dictates that unless and until someone can prove the unborn baby is not alive, we must give it the benefit of the doubt and assume it is. And thus, it should be entitled to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness."
c. The right of a child to a traditional family-- There is not one, single study that has ever been done that shows that children tend to fare better in non-traditional families than they do in traditional families (male husband, female wife, children). The forces of secular progressivism would have you believe that the need for a traditional, Bible-based family structure is passe', antiquated, unenlightened, and oh so very "yesterday." They say that, as a society, we have "evolved" way beyond our old fashioned mores. They are wrong. Children raised in a Bible-based, Christ-centered, traditional family are less likely to experiment with drugs or sex, are less likely to suffer from psychological ailments, and are more likely to grow into healthy (psychologically, physically, and spiritually) adults. Heterosexual monogamy is central to the nature of civilized life. So is a commitment to stay married and to fight against divorce. The abandonment of human morality by government is the first step towards the vile oppression that we see in so many other cultures around the world. Pres. Reagan said, "Through love and instruction, discipline, guidance, and example, we learn from our mothers and our fathers the values that will shape our private lives and our public citizenship.."
d. The right to liberty and property-- All that we have is a gift from God. Government has no right to forcibly take away from us anything that God has blessed us with, unless we the people voluntarily consent to giving the government authority in this regard. The false religions of "environmentalism", "global warming", "growth management", "affirmative action", "globalism", "multiculturalism", and "economic equality" are nothing more than strategies by the devotees of modern liberalism to confiscate liberty and property from the majority in order to empower the minority. This strategy goes against everything the Founding Fathers believed, and it violates the teachings of Christianity.
e. National sovereignty--- Liberals believe that U.S. troops should only be deployed at the direction of the U.N. Liberals believe that American jurisprudence should be based on the whims and beliefs of the world, and not a written Constitution. Liberals believe that foreign nations have the right to establish our immigration policies, and that these same foreign nations have the right to colonize vast portions of our nation for the purpose of exporting their poverty/crime/social ills to us for us to deal with. Again, none of this is consistent with the teachings of the Bible or the beliefs of our Founding Fathers.
5. Openly celebrate, and support those who celebrate with you, God's love for us, the Good News of Jesus Christ, the foundational principles of the American republic, the wisdom of our Founding Fathers, the clear-thinking common sense of Reagan Conservatism, and the relationship between all of the above.
God bless each and every one of you, and God bless America!
posted by hondo at 11:37 PM
2 Comments:
An excellent post. I guess the only place I would disagree with you is in point 4e. I am a conservative "Bible scholar" (having earned an M.Div.) and I have yet to see the "national sovereignty" extended to the nations in general. Even Israel, which was GIVEN its land by God, lost their "right" to the land when they broke all the rules concerning inheritance (having not observed Jubilee for at least 490 years!)
This land we live in now was wrested from the hands of the native inhabitants by a government that increasingly departed from the Christian principles of the Pilgrims. In fact, by the time of the Revolution we had already alienated them in a war in which they had taken the French's side!
And now we, as Christian Conservatives, cry "illegal aliens" when decendents of original Americans dare seek a better life here. They are only "illegal" because WE wrote the rules. And those rules were not based on Biblical concepts. Aliens were welcome in ancient Israel, afforded all rights except worship [and that also, if they converted].
If we are to make a difference in the immigration argument, we are going to have to show God's love to ALL peoples. WE are going to have to dare to turn from "blind" nationalism and deal with our "undocumented" residents as worthy of the honor due ALL those that are created in the image of God.
I respect your opinion, Henry, but I believe that you are unintentionally misconstruing the Christian conservative position on immigration. No Christian conservative that I know of is anti-immigration. One of the reasons why America is the greatest nation in the history of the world is because we have opened our arms to people from all corners of the globe who want to legally come here to live, assimilate into our culture, work hard and achieve the American Dream. Christian conservatives are anti-illegal immigration, and I'll list the reasons why:
1. The current policies, and the way they are not enforced, encourage the breakup of families in other countries, particularly Mexico. In a great number of cases, the husband/father will sneak into the U.S., illegally obtain employment, and send the money back to his family in Mexico. There is nothing good about separating families.
2. Poor, largely under-educated Mexicans crossing the border are very likely to be victimized by the criminal gangs who participate in the illegal trafficking. Robbery, rape, children being sold into slavery--all of these are quite common, and are being encouraged by our lax policies.
3. Our current policies actually discourage assimilation among the illegals. Most of them don't learn English, most have no desire to become American, and most will never obtain the skills necessary to rise above the menial work they are stuck with when they arrive. In other words, our policies are creating a slave class.
4. The creation of this new slave class is putting many Americans (of all colors) out of work. Our current policies actually favor the illegal immigrant over the legal citizen/resident, and that's not right. The Book of James talks about favoritism, and not favorably.
5. When a citizen of Mexico illegally enters this country, takes a job away from a legal citizen/resident, receives government assistance, and then delivers children into the culture who automatically become legal citizens who are entitled to government assistance themselves, that is stealing. Nothing more and nothing less. People from other countries are stealing the benefits of citizenship because they would prefer not to earn citizenship legally. There is not one single thing Christian about that.
There has never been a country in the history of the world that hasn't established some sort of public policy concerning immigration. In a constitutional republic such as ours, we the people have every right to do that. We also have every right to expect our elected officials to enforce the policy as written, and to not "sell out" on the policy in pursuit of the all-mighty dollar. That should be the position of all Christian conservatives.
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