Pastor's Corner

28 Sep
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Mid-Week Challenge

Campaigning for the November midterm is in full swing.  It is during this time period that we see a different side of politicians.  Based on the perceived desires of the electorate, a candidate will pivot his or her speech.  History shows that, if elected, their words don’t match their actions and they govern to meet their own needs.  A poll by the Cultural Research Center at Arizona Christian University for the organization AmericasOne, asked U.S. adults to describe the qualities they want in their desired political leaders. The poll, released Tuesday, was based on two interviews this summer with a total of 3,775 adults. A news release said the survey shows that Americans are “tired of the nastiness and fighting.”  https://www.arizonachristian.edu/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/CRC_Americas-Values-Study_02.pdf

Kindness and unity were mentioned by three-quarters of Americans! 76 percent of responders agreed with a statement saying they want leaders who are “honest, courageous, and hard-working” and who “are in politics to serve the people, not for personal gain.”  75 percent of agreed that in order to “restore peace and unity, we need leaders to model kindness and understanding, even with people they strongly disagree with.”

Since we do not see these qualities in our leaders today, should we break the system and begin again?  Not so fast, 71 percent of Americans believe the political system “is not broken” but “is being abused by people who are in politics for their own benefit or personal interests. The system still works, but it requires officials who will protect our freedoms by applying Constitutional principles rather than changing the system to satisfy personal preferences or ideological ideals.”

George Barna, who directed the research for the Cultural Research Center at Arizona Christian University, said the two major political parties are not modeling the behavior and actions most Americans want.  “Presently, millions of Americans assume they cannot change the momentum of the political parties and leaders who are poorly representing the hopes and dreams of the public,” Barna said. “To restore the heart of the nation according to the values of the people will take a willingness to get more deeply involved and to reject the unpalatable vision that the major parties and most powerful political leaders are foisting upon the people.” 

So, is it the politician’s fault or the voter?  During the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus speaks about false prophets and tells us, “By their fruits you will know them” (Matthew 7:16-20). Paul later explains that the fruits of the Spirit are love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, and temperance (Galatians 5:22-23). 

There is an old saying, “Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me.” Not to be confused with George W’s: “There's an old saying in Tennessee — I know it's in Texas, probably in Tennessee — that says, fool me once, shame on — shame on you. Fool me — you can't get fooled again.”  https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/6436-there-s-an-old-saying-in-tennessee-i-know-it-s 

What W was trying to say should be true, but we know people allow themselves to get fooled again and again.  Sinful nature tells us to take advantage of this and we find folks telling others what they want to hear so that they can get what they want from them.  Once they have what they want, the individual is of little value to them.  God gives us a memory and spiritual discernment that allows us to protect ourselves from these types of people.  We can say we want certain qualities from our leaders but when they fail to produce the blame is on us when we keep giving them an opportunity to hurt us further.     

But when they said, “Give us a king to lead us,” this displeased Samuel; so he prayed to the LORD. 1 Samuel 8:6 

Serving the Savior,

Bro. Jonathan

By: Dr. Jonathan Richerson

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