Pasto John,
The Blog on “The Real Answer” is so good! Thank you for sending it out.
It is liberating to know that when we are born again, with the evidence of speaking in other tongues, our citizenship changes from this world to a heavenly place! That understanding takes away the pressure to participate in earthly elections.
I love knowing that we are ambassadors for Christ, and that ambassadors do not participate in elections of the country to which they are appointed to serve. They represent the country they belong to, and for us, that is God’s heavenly kingdom. Abraham and other righteous men knew they were strangers and pilgrims on this earth, as well, and longed for a heavenly country (we recently read about that in Hebrews).
Jesus has given us a higher calling – a place of prayer! The key is knowing who Jesus has created us to be when we are born again. It all comes back to understanding the new birth experience.
Bess
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Pastor John,
Beth and I were discussing the Blog that you sent yesterday, “The Real Answer”.
We loved its content.
To take in the truth that you wrote about is to let go of damaging bitterness toward this world and its evil deeds. It puts things back to where they always are, to where they have never left from, and that is with us, the body of Christ.
We cannot go out and change the world per se, but we can be changed, and with that become a real influence of holiness. And that is the only real effect or change that we can institute in this world. With us then, the responsibility lies.
I have copied and pasted below, something that you wrote in that blog that is beyond just true. It is as you described it, “the real answer” and its value to us is immeasurable:
“The spiritual blindness of modern political leaders is astonishing, but the fault is not altogether theirs. Their contempt for the gospel of Jesus is the result of the problem, not the problem itself. The fault belongs to us who believe in Jesus, for our lack of power and conviction for righteousness. The power of the Spirit, when God’s people walk in it, influences the society in which those saints live; it even affects the conscience of those who hate the gospel. Without the Spirit’s power, in men’s eyes, the body of Christ is just another sect of talkers.”
Pastor John, after rehearsing this with Beth this morning, it occurred to me that Jesus would never have been mistaken for a man that was a part of “just another sect of talkers”. As a matter of fact, Jesus spoke little, according to those who have their account of Him recorded in the scriptures. Jesus was known by His acts (works) and His power. His speech, or “talk” did little but to confuse the people that heard it.
The apostle Paul and those like him were known for their power and miracles and their works, not “excellency of speech” as Paul himself put it. His, nor anyone’s “talk”…back then, would have convinced the unbelieving Jews that the Gospel of God’s deliverance had been delivered to the Gentiles; it was power that made that transition believable and palatable.
The question back then, really, for those souls who were honest with themselves, was not, “Are these men from God”, but rather it was, “This is God….now, do I want Him?”
Without the power of God flowing among us in the body of Christ, we are not challenging men today with that same question. We are only asking them to decide whether we are the “real” body of Christ. The power of God can and will move us past that place, to where we too are presenting every man with the real question, that is, “Do you want Him?” I don’t think we are yet being effective until we do.
I love what you wrote. It was from heaven.
Thank you.
Jerry