I want this to be a community based blogg so many times I will post my next topic based on what is happening within the context of Church, my own life (which could be scary) and comments that are posted on the blogg. Lauren C and David brought up some interesting points in the last blogg and I would like to expound upon those thoughts, add some more and see what you all think. By the way, everyone is making good comments.
I have always struggled with the churches place within a society. I get tired of both preachers and politicians who use their proverbial pulpits to say their thoughts. I have found that we all keep saying the same things and there is never change that occurs. If these sermons that are preached are so deep rooted in human existence, should there not be some form of response. What tends to happen is extremisms. On the religious side everyone and everything becomes the devil incarnate. The church begins to picture all things as an attack on God almighty and makes proclamation of divine grandeur. These proclamations only deepen the wound instead of skillfully adding stitches. Let it be stated loud and clear that the God that designed the vast wonders of the universe does not need the church to defend His honor. The churches job is to serve the master builder and provide the truth that will lead others to follow the builder’s plans. Unfortunately the church tends to push the world out and bandage its own. Do not read too far into this, there are plenty of churches that have profound impacts on culture. These very same churches are the ones that are attacked the most by a society that wants them to be active in practice and silent in spirit.
The other side of this coin is the place of the government within this cosmic battle of good and evil. The government is not, “Babylon the great.” (That is a shout out to my Sunday School class) The problem is the compartmentalizing of life by the government. There has been a lack of people to serve the people, I.E the church, to the extreme that the government has been forced or sometimes has forced itself into places of authority. These places have become diving boards for a lost world to plunge into deeper distress. How can someone who doesn’t believe in God almighty ever know what is true justice? They cannot. The person can grasp at straws to fix momentary problems but can never go to the root of the issue. Government cannot dig into the core of humanity and change the lives of people, only God can. This is why things such as murder, rape and theft will continue until the world is changed from its core. We must also remember that God has given the government all of its authority. Disagree? Here are some verses…….
I Peter 2:13”Submit yourselves for the Lord's sake to every human institution, whether to a king as the one in authority,”
Romans 13
Be Subject to Government
1Every person is to be in subjection to the governing authorities for there is no authority except from God, and those which exist are established by God.
2Therefore whoever resists authority has opposed the ordinance of God; and they who have opposed will receive condemnation upon themselves.
3For rulers are not a cause of fear for good behavior, but for evil. Do you want to have no fear of authority? Do what is good and you will have praise from the same;
4for it is a minister of God to you for good. But if you do what is evil, be afraid; for it does not bear the sword for nothing; for it is a minister of God, an avenger who brings wrath on the one who practices evil.
5Therefore it is necessary to be in subjection, not only because of wrath, but also for conscience' sake.
6For because of this you also pay taxes, for rulers are servants of God, devoting themselves to this very thing.
7Render to all what is due them: tax to whom tax is due; custom to whom custom; fear to whom fear; honor to whom honor.
8Owe nothing to anyone except to love one another; for he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law.
So here is the question, what is the churches job? It is true that the church is called to love people; the problem is that our love cannot just be seen in handouts and hugs. The love that, “compels us,” is a love that desperately wants people to come to the saving knowledge of Christ. This means that the church must relocate itself from sanctuaries to sanitariums, from its pristine walls to broken homes. The church must intentionally go deep into the recesses of world and bring life to them. Is it not sad, the church has spent so much time powdering its nose that we assume the blush on everyone’s face is real.
I do not know where government and church meet. I know that the church has an eternal call to follow the plan of our great builder. This should compel us to work with all people on all levels, praying for those few who will receive and come to know the grace, which abounds inside of us.
13 comments:
I really have some thoughts on this issue. I agree most of the churches today tend to forget about everyone else who is out there and stay more concerned with itself. Don't get me wrong on what i am about to say but, I know an author called Mark Cahill who wrote in his book, "One thing you can't do in Heaven", about a Christian concert. At the exact same time in the same city about a mile away, a rockfest concert was going on. He asked the question, if every saved person at the Christian concert (around 5000) would have went to the rock concert (around 4000) and told one person about Jesus, Then imagine how many people could be saved. But instead we tend to hide in what makes us feel good, and talk about everyone else on the outside, instead of stepping out of our comfort zone and sharing the Hope that is within us.
Umm.. now that I read it my comment might not have been on topic, but It was just something on my heart, Im real concerned with the lack of witnessing in our country today! And I think that is where a lot of problems, including governmental problems, are coming from.
Wow, nice topic Mr. Broughton, it'll be awesome when the LC gets ahold of it.. lol. But I think that one of the biggest things you can do to show that you're a believer in Christ is to follow the laws. I think the only time it's not ok to follow the laws is when it comes between you and your walk with Christ. Also, it'd be pretty awesome if more well grounded men and women went into government, especially now... Just look at our presidential candidates. I personally think it would take someone truly wrapped in Christ to be able to go into politics and not get wrapped up in the system. It's all a name blame game, and alot of it is hard to decipher the truth from the false.. I guess that's why we have Bill O'Reilly... lol. This is just my take on it.. I'm not really sure either where Church and government can collide safely.. Clearly it didn't work in the 1400-1700s in England.. I think that our job is to follow the Word of God and just get out and share it. Government.. I don't really know much about it's all a big interweaved system of suck-ups and people pleasers... But then again it's those type of people we end up voting for because they tell us what we want to hear... I'm interested to see where this topic goes :D!!
So...This is my spill...I bet I'm a little more opinionated in this topic than most because this is my family life...what we talk about around the table...I really think that it's a shame that more Christians don't get involved in the political life of the nation because of "seperation of church and state"...I'm sorry...that's crap! The constitution states that congress may make no laws prohibiting church and religion...A.K.A. Congress! Keep your cotton pickin hands off of my church....NOT!...Church keep away from congress...The thing is that not only does the government see us as deserving different rights than other religions but we do also...If we don't get involved just because we are christians and shouldn't get involved in all of that government stuff, then no wonder we have a lot of the politicians we have today...We are citizens along with Christians and if my beleifs affect the way I vote, who the heck cares? Isn't that the point? Again...one of my favorite points...we are supposed to be IN the world...How in the heck are we going to reach anybody when constantly the government is taking rights away from the christians because the christians won't take part in the government...Guys, we can't expect things to be good if we don't take active steps to make them that way...this is where I'm gonna stop, but I plan to post pretty soon about how I think the church's lack of a role in society has forced the government do some pretty stupid stuff...We Christians can be pretty stupid some times...I'm just saying.
P.S.
Just because you don't know that much about the government, doesn't mean you can't have an opinion. I don't know much about a lot of things I have an opion on. The thing is, if you state your opinion then we can talk about it, and maybe, people who do know what they're talking about can help you understand things and either your opinion will stay the same or change. Just a sugestion.
I agree with you Lauren. If we never take it upon ourselves to get out and do something, then how can we expect a lost person in the government to not make laws that prohibit Christians from praying publicly, or making laws that prohibit the display of the 10 Commandments? Also, I think we should begin to pray that God will pick people to rise in our government that will live for Him and produce laws for Him. How can we expect anything to ever occur if we won't even ask God for it to happen? So often we tend to rely on ourselves, when we have a God that loves us beyond compare, and He wants to help us, we just have to want Him to help us.(This doesn't mean God is going to give you a nice new car because you "need" one.) The blind cannot lead the blind, sadly that seems to be the case in our societies worldwide today.
You are all making valid points. Here is a wrench inside your proverbial engine, as Christians should our focus be chaging the philisophical, ethical and moral views of the world or should we be more focus on sharing the lost with others. We see the Apostles giving up their jobs to spread the good news, this sharing led to others doing the same. I am not stating that Christians do not belong in Goverment, I am merely asking what our main focus should be; what is the goal of the Christian life? Are we missing the disease and only trying to fix some symptoms of the larger problem?
I think the main focus of Christians should be sharing the Word of God. If we do that, then we may influence some that are in government, and then they could use Christian morales and views inside of government... Maybe instead of us trying to jump into government we should try to influence those around us... But then again, we have to evaluate what gifts God has given us... Some of us may be better off being in a political setting sharing the Word, and others better at teaching and discipling.
well, since i'm being pestered by a certain somebody to post a comment on this blog...
i think the government did and is doing what it has to because no one will step up for the challenge of "taking care" of a nation the way a "church should". we do hide, and we do step down, it's evident in the way we as Christians run our programs and live our lives. Heck! Most of us are too afraid at school to even voice our own opinions in Shine (a "Christian" club), because we might step on someone's toes (me included). If we can't even talk things through with each other, how will we ever be able to share our faith and try and "change the world?" (the Shine thing just being an example)
and personally, in my own life, i find it hard to think that the church could ever take over what it "should be doing", "taking care of the people". in my mind, i think it's easier for the government to do those sorts of things, one: they have the power and the resources, two: they have the money, and three: they can mass produce, they can reach everyone. sometimes, Christians just can't do all of that. let's face the facts, Christians can't do everything. and shouldn't be blamed for short comings on this earth. this is God's world and He's in charge of it. if he wants us in charge of handing out money and taking care of everybody in the United States, he would have made it happen that way. We should love on people. We should share our faith with people. But to go as far as saying we should be the ones in government making all the rules is pushing it in my mind. If we are meant to be there, God would put us there, or have enough people believing the same way we do in order to vote more Christians into office.
i'm not saying Christians don't belong in office, i'm just trying to say that maybe we're not meant to be the one's apart of the big program, maybe God wants us behind the scenes, and we're just failing to see that.
Joe,
I see what you are saying. I understand your frusteration. I see in the Bible that we meet physcial needs as we approach them but the greater issue is to share our faith. If we just try to work well with people and do good things we will never offer the Truth that changes lives.
when I read lauren's comments, some bells really went off in my head. I listen to people talk about politics, and hear my parents worrying about what the world is coming to that we have Hillary Clinton running for president and this and that and what's going to happen, the world is so immoral, our politics are screwy, blah, blah, blah. And after reading everyone's comments, I would have to say that YES our number one priority as Christians should be to love others and share Christ with them by all means possible. However, since we are talking about government, lauren makes an excellent point. We NEED Godly influences in the government. We need men and women with high moral standards and biblical views on how things should be run and so forth. I believe its true we should have some Christians "behind the scenes" but just like the body of Christ, we need people in all parts of the body...we need "eyes" and "ears" just as much as we need feet and toes. We cant expect our government or our country to keep from getting worse and worse, more and more immoral if we dont have some people running it who are full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom and knowledge that comes from God alone.
thats true...we cant expect our government to go well if we dont have Christian influences running it...but its not all up to us to put people there....we cant control who runs for office....we can vote and pick someone that would run the nation in a Godly way....but its up to God to put people there....its that persons responsiblity to run for God and be a Christian influence...its up to us to pray about it and to witness to the people around us.
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