THEN is bigger than now

We all know someone who was once devoted to the Lord Jesus Christ. We find ourselves asking, "What happened to them?" The Apostle Paul had a similar experience with a servant of Christ named Demas. Demas was once living all out for the Lord. In 2 Timothy 4:9-10, Paul says that Demas fell in love with this present world. He got caught up in the now. He lost sight of then. Paul describes the world as this present age, the time we live in. It is easy to be caught in what we want now and what's happening to us now. I believe one of the things that will keep us on track with Christ is a good dose of the big picture. Christ is going to come back. There is a heaven. THEN is just simply bigger than now.

Submission and Slander

Titus 3:1-15 "Remind the people to be subject to rulers and authorities, to be obedient, to be ready to do whatever is good, to slander no one, to be peaceable and considerate, and to show true humility toward all men."

I am taking Paul's advice to remind myself and those who are in the faith to be submissive and not to slander anyone, especially those in authority over us. When we find our authorities don't do as we would have them to do, we are often tempted to smear their name to make ourselves look better, wiser and kinder. Christians need to watch their words so that we do not make up things or exaggerate things to discredit those God has placed over us.

Higher Authority

Some people were happy with the election of the new president and some were distressed. No matter which side you fall on, God's Word says in 1 Timothy 1:1-7 that we should be praying for those in authority over us. The implications are great. We should pray for our bosses, teachers, civil leaders, pastors and anybody who has been given authority over us. Our temptation will be to gossip, slander and grumble, but this is not what glorifies God.

Surprisingly, Paul tells Timothy to pray so that Christians can be unhindered by authorities in the promotion of the gospel. Our mission, as Christians, is not the promotion of a party, but the cause of Christ. In light of this, the preferred environment for this is one that is hospitable to the gospel rather than hostile. We should pray for our authorities to give us the freedom to live godly lives and spread the message of truth about Jesus Christ.

Appeal to the highest authority for the greatest opportunity!

Ungodly Authorities

All authority is established by God. (Romans 13:1) BUT not every authority is godly. This is the witness of history and Scripture. Many of our forefathers in the faith lived under the authority of ungodly and evil men. Moses was under Pharaoh. Daniel was under Nebuchadnezzar. Peter had Nero. Many of the kings of Israel were unrighteous as well. God puts all authority in place.

The next President of the United States will be put in office by God. He may or may not be a godly authority. Daniel praised God under the authority of Nebuchadnezzar who had destroyed Jerusalem and taken him into exile with these words, "He (God) changes times and seasons; He sets up kings and deposes them."

Jesus reminded Pilate John 19:11 that "you would have no power (authority) over me if it were not given to you from above."

So, those who follow Christ have no reason to worry, stress or fear the future. Our God is in control even when our authorities are ungodly.

The Election

One day until the election. I am not really worried about whether or not the one I vote for ends up winning the election or not. The real ELECTION goes unseen. According to Romans 13:1, "Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God." So whoever becomes the next president is the one God has put in place. God establishes all authority. Man rules, but God overrules. May God be glorified.

Slack

I am going to be back to blogging shortly. Keeping this thing up to date is hard to do. All 4.5 people have been clamoring for more my thoughts.

Newsmakers

Back on May 7th, I read an article about the news media and marketing. You can find the article here...http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2008/05/the-media-marke.html

This idea that the media sells drama has been on my mind for a while. There seems to have been a paradigm shift in the purpose of the media somewhere along the way. If I understand the purpose of journalism and media (which I may not, some journalism major can correct me), it was created to disseminate information to the public. It seems now that the glory of news media is not to be informative, but to be financially productive. This is why they sell the news and create drama, even when it is non-existent.

Does this bother anyone or is it just me?