Shootings. Civil wars. Threats of terrorism. Honestly, I had wanted to stay silent this election season. I mean, we don’t need another article, more words, more fire to light an election, already inflamed. Do we?
But first, please know, I came from a household where for forty-five years, both my parents voted silently. Though I asked, they never once verbally declared parties or sided with candidates…
They simply always showed me what an honor it was to vote.
At the same time, this election is different. And God has been reminding me, as His children, we are to do more than just believe something, we are called to prove our faith, through action.
Scripture gives us great examples of this:
- Jonah actually had to “go” to Ninevah. God wouldn’t let him just sit back and pray for some immoral Assyrians.
- The disciples were commanded (I know, strong word) to both “go” and “speak” the gospel. As they did, signs, wonders, and salvation’s followed. (Sitting quietly at home, not offending people, wasn’t an option.)
- Even God could have redeemed the world with just one word, (I mean, He sovereign, isn’t He?) But instead, He chose to “act” by sending his Son as a model of what it looks like to live for others, instead of ourselves.
And Biblically? Christianity has always been offensive. Why do you think they crucified Jesus, tortured and killed almost all of Jesus’ disciples?
- He’s the stone the builders reject. A Rock that is offensive. (1 Peter 2:7-8)
- The word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing. (Galatians 5:11)
- Scripture doesn’t say “some”, but “ALL” who desire to live godly lives will be persecuted. (2 Timothy 3:12)
Still, should we stay silent?
The truth will always offend those blinded by sin; passivity, surpasses offense, when it comes to a tool the enemy uses to paralyze and mute God’s people.
And yes, God gave us compassion and love, but never a lobotomy.
Tweet ThisWhere does it say, we are called to sit in a church lifelessly, while the walls start crumbling, all around us?
In Nehemiah 3, God called Nehemiah to leave his high places, go down and to rebuild the wall with his own two hands (Again, he could have just sat back and command others to do the work, God want HIM to “do” something).
And I thi
nk if we seek Him, that’s exactly what God’s call is to His children today, rise up and build the wall.
Still rightfully, we want to be peacemakers more than policy-makers, we want to love the world more than engage in hurtful behaviors.
Yet, if a student at your child’s school kept on bullying your son or daughter, would you resort to simply sitting back quietly and praying?
Or would you engage, pursue, address the issue, seeking protection, justice, and your loved ones safety?
And I imagine that’s how God feels about his children today. His church is being attached, threatening Christians personally, while undermining the very
foundation of the church, through the governments threats of taking tax-exempt status.
God’s people are being bullied, silenced and intimidated, all the while sin is captivating and destroying his children.
Yet thankfully, we have a loving Father, who won’t sit back and simply watch the destruction of His people.
God always has an action plan, remember?
And He has given us hands and feet to do something.
Likewise, we need to arm ourselves with wisdom and understanding, grace and humility when facing fear-tactics and intimation, bullying, and the deception overtaking our country so blatantly.
After all, no good and loving parent would ask their child to stay still and muted, taking a beating from another? So, why would God ask that of us?
He has given us a voice, let’s use it.
- And oh church, how I see you have been tormented. Fed so much information, you feel like you want to explode internally. I get that. I feel that way too.
- You have lain awake at night, wrought with questions, trying to filter information regarding this election. Trying to grab hope for our country, when honestly there doesn’t seem to be any. But, please know, God sees you. He is still good. He still cares.
- And friend, I know how your families have been pulled apart as you have stuck by Biblical values, that to be honest, just haven’t been popular. Yet, true love can’t be divided by contradictory opinions. And, He is faithful regardless of what we go through.
It is hard, I understand, but this vote isn’t about our feelings, our hopes and dreams, or even our agendas. This election shouldn’t be about us, period, but about maintaining the freedom’s God’s given to us, and His Biblical principles.
Yet, we must be careful to try not to be Joan of Arc, but instead, a Mother Teresa.
Our lives, our words, and our vote should not be about swords and slaughtering, but about the sword of His Spirit, standing on His truth for the benefit of others….regardless of the cost.
The Bible makes it clear, we are to spread the gospel, and the world will oppose it….But, maybe that’s o.k.
Haiti’s suffering, money embezzled, partial-term abortion, where a needle is placed into the skull of a living infant…is where this country is headed. Is there any Biblical model where God calls us to sit back and do nothing?
Hatred, division, the fruit of this nation is losing it’s foundation in Christ, if we stay silent in fear of offending people, if we care about man’s opinions…more than we care about Gods.
Terrorism is becoming rampant because the world has sees our weakening, long before most of us. Let’s lift our faces from our cell phones and ask for God’s perspective.
Brothers, sisters, races, cultures, dividing. What happened to God given unity?And yet, there are even Christians, on a band-wagon about what someone said ten years ago.
I mean, let’s be honest….Would you want to be judged for something you said a decade ago, two years ago….yesterday?
Isn’t Christianity about second chances and unity, life, liberty, and benevolence for those suffering, like those in Haiti…
And yet, we let media spoon feed us, Christian leaders tell us who to vote for, our emotions dictate us. Others caring more about their livelihood, a congregation, or growing a following…than the reality of our country.
All the while, the only one we should be following, Christ. Isn’t this all about what He wants, not the clanging of the great majority.
Are we blinded, and don’t even know it. Like Saul, taking control, when God told him, victory was coming?
Have we used the internet to lull us to sleep, like an idol we are fixed to, needing more and more to satisfy our fears and insecurities…
When in truth, we are people given feet, a heart, and a mind, to rise up and be the people of God, set upon a hill, made to be the light in darkness…
God did not make us to be hidden under a bushel in order to not offend anyone.
A light doesn’t apologize for who it is.
And we, as God’s children need to stop being intimidated, bullied into believing that all we can do is “sit back and pray” and the world will fix itself.
Lucy Burns was imprisoned at the Occoquan Workhouse in Virginia, November, 1917, nearly 100 years ago, for picketing the White House, for the rights of women to vote.
- Today, who are we, as women, to throw away her efforts, because “it doesn’t matter”, or “we can’t choose between the worst of two evils”?
- Have we gone back 100 years? Or more? Have we dug up issues that Civil Rights abolitionist once fought and died for?
- Isn’t our country supposed to be moving forward, not backwards?
And I get it, we are a microwave, a want-things-easy society…
But must we stop stomping on the grave of those who fought and died for the rights you and I are privileged with today. Or one day we might wake up, and just not have them.
Many fought and died for your freedom, so who are you to throw away your ballot?
Christians, let’s get over ourselves. Let’s forget about perfection. Let’s stop, an eye-for -an-eye, and get back to the basics of what God created American to a be…
- A country founded on a Christian foundation, with Biblical values.
- A country of freedom and opportunity.
- A country built by truth and the ability to work hard to make a better way.
For, what if the puritans just stayed across the ocean and prayed? What if those who spread Christianity, did it just by “being good”, staying silent and not offending?
None of us would be here today. We would not be a democracy. We would not even have been given this right to maintain our freedoms.
Evil prevails because good men do nothing. Let’s let our voices heard, by rising up and voting.
25 Million Christians did not vote in the 2012 election, and that is just not o.k.
Someone payed for your freedom, especially if you are a woman.
Shootings. Racial division. Voting Fraud. Over 1,500 aborted babies, in the United States, just this year alone.
Who is going to stand up, and fight by being His voice and voting? Be brave and restore the hope we once had in America?
Silently, sitting by, praying, and not offending won’t work anymore. This election is His plummet line for our nation…
We are better than this. We are His children…
No parent would allow their child to walk around with a black eye. They wouldn’t “just pray”. In addition, they would actually do something.
It’s time to rise up and take back the value this country was founded on.
Stand tall. Grab your ballot. Now, go out and vote.