The majority of Americans believe next Tuesday’s election is one of the most important in recent history. For me personally, I am convinced that our nation is absolutely headed in the wrong direction with a government out of control. Rather than wisely responding to present challenges, our national leaders and the general population have reacted foolishly and with extremely negative decisions.
When Congressional leaders pass legislation that they have not even read and the Speaker of the House states that they “must pass it so we will know what’s in it,” surely we recognize we are on the brink of catastrophic consequences. When every sane thinking American knows you should never live beyond your means (spending more than you make). How is it that when something is wrong for every individual citizen, it can suddenly be totally appropriate for national policy? God help us! Believe me, He wants to and the Father will give us wisdom if we look to Him.
I am encouraging every American to vote and to vote for sound, proven principles that are in harmony with sacred Scriptures. Protect life, uphold marriage, encourage responsibility, reward hard work, prioritize the family and correctly help the poor. Many Americans, including churchgoers, care enough to complain about the economy, but do not care enough to become better informed and actively involved. Surveys revealed 70% of the American people believe religion is important. Two hundred million believe in a “higher power.” There are 60-80 million professing evangelical Christians and 40% were not even registered to vote. Seventeen million did not vote in the last election.
How tragic it is that people who claim to have been born from above and have a relationship with God seem to have few characteristics of the Father they claim to know. God cares and is so anxious to be involved in the lives of every individual that He gave His own Son to die that we might live, and His power is available to establish God’s kingdom rule in our hearts. When He reigns in our lives, we will influence those around us, even in the way we select our local, regional and national leaders.
When you vote, please keep in mind that no political party is perfect, so vote on principle. Christians are foolish to allow themselves to ever become a wing of any political party. If we have the effect we should have on policy, we can become the wings that lift all parties to a higher plane following sound principles. Government cannot solve every problem. It is most effective when it gets out of the way of the private sector and enforces the law, rather than reinterpreting it. Turn the people loose to be productive and jobs, opportunities and prosperity will follow. Do not allow government to hinder those who are productive and penalize those with the greatest creativity and desire to meet legitimate needs.
As believers, we must help bring the government under control. Remember Jeremiah said:
“But where are your gods
Which you made for yourself?
Let them arise, if they can save you
In the time of your trouble;
For according to the number of your cities
Are your gods, (Jeremiah 2:28 NAS)
People have made an idol out of things which never meet human needs. They are looking to the wrong source.
It is the church’s responsibility to inspire all who are productive and prosperous to understand the importance of resisting greed while focusing on assisting others in order to help alleviate the pain and poverty around us. Penalizing the successful and destroying wealth does not eliminate poverty, it in fact destroys any possibility for caring people to effectively deal with it. We must always be anxious to assist the helpless, but our present-day system of government is causing an ever-growing portion of our population to become helplessly dependent on the promises of power brokers. How tragic it is that we Christians allow politicians to use the poor in order to maintain their power by literally taking money from others and giving it to their own supporters.
Many Americans are looking to government in the wrong way because they no longer honor God. The nation that forgets God will never be blessed! Anger, frustration and disgust will not solve our nation’s problems. We need divine guidance. In Philip Yancey’s new book What Good Is God: In Search of a Faith That Matters, he talks about how everybody should have a desire for positive, meaningful change. He says those who believe that somehow God can wrest permanent good out of His flawed planet and its flawed inhabitants should entertain such a hope and such a faith.
I agree and it should be faith in action that inspires through active compassionate involvement the most positive changes. Those of us who choose the captain and crew of our present-day national Titanic are responsible for the course taken by our ship of state. If we are to turn from the present direction leading to catastrophic consequences, we must have the right crew and captain at the helm. When we turn in a new direction, it must be the wisest possible. Our founders understood that biblical principles were the appropriate influences necessary to sail toward stability and security.
Keep in mind, we have many people in office who are not there because people voted for those misguided politicians, but because people didn’t vote! No one has a right to complain or criticize if they don’t become a part of correcting the course and redirecting national policy. In a constitutional republic with the privilege and responsibility of choosing our leaders through a democratic process, we all have the responsibility to participate and choose wisely.
When mistakes are made in your personal life, the life of your community or your nation, for your sake and the sake of posterity, help correct it. The Bible commands us to pray for those in authority. Our democratic process affords us the opportunity and responsibility to put principles in place and choose leaders who will support those principles. Pray for others to participate wisely and encourage them to do so.
Betty and I will be talking to Dr. Erwin Lutzer, Pastor of the great Moody Church in Chicago and other church leaders on Monday night, November 1, from 7:00 – 9:00 (central) on the Daystar Television Network. Dr. Lutzer wrote the book When a Nation Forgets God: 7 Lessons We Must Learn from Nazi Germany. Join us – you will be inspired and better informed as invited guests Dr. Richard Land, President of the Southern Baptist Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission; Dr. Jim Garlow, Senior Pastor of Skyline Wesleyan Church and Chairman of Renewing American Leadership; Dr. Robert Jeffres, Senior Pastor of First Baptist Dallas; our Pastor Robert Morris of Gateway Church, and other concerned church leaders share insight and information with concerned citizens. This is very important. Don’t miss this telecast! Encourage your friends to watch on Monday night, the day before Christians and all Americans affect the future of freedom at the polls.