Praying Politically

1 Timothy 2:1-3 ESV

"First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, 2 for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way. 3 This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior,"

This is not a prayer that we often consider; praying for Kings and all who are in high positions. Maybe I am blinded by my own failure in this area, but it does not seem that the church is engaged in praying for world leaders. This must become a part of our personal and corporate intercession.

We preach, talk and complain about the political condition of the world, but we don't do a lot of praying about it. I believe that it is the will of God for all nations and kings to bow their knees to the Lordship if Jesus Christ. We must participate in this process through prayer. More important than voting and protesting, which are important rights and responsibilities, is prayer.

Let me make a subtle point here. We are to pray FOR them and not AGAINST them. Many times when prayer is made for political leaders it is in the context of a president or senator that we dislike and so we pray against them. This is an arrogant prayer that presumptuously imposes our will on the process. Many times this is nothing more than sanctified sorcery. What we should be doing is praying for the will of God in their lives; praying that God would turn their heart, if indeed they be wicked.

The purpose of the prayer is: "that we may live a peaceful and quiet life." We should be praying that the hearts of mayors, senators, governors, congressmen and presidents would be turned by God to enact laws that facilitate the advancement of the kingdom of God. Not only in the United States, but world-wide.

I challenge you to pray FOR, and not AGAINST, our leaders. Begin with the leaders in your city and state, and then the president and other world leaders. Pray equally! Pray FOR Democrats, Independents, Republicans, members of the Tea Party. God does not carry a political affiliation; He is not a Republican or a Democrat! We cannot sit by without fulfilling the command of scripture to "Pray Politically."

Different Kinds of People In Your Life

Whether or not you like the messenger, this is a valuable lesson we all have to learn. We need God to give us discernment to know why certain people are in our lives.

The Ultimate Shepherd

1 Peter 5:4 ESV

And when the chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the unfading crown of glory.

Psalms 23:1-6 ESV

1 A Psalm of David. The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.

2 He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters.

3 He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake.

4 Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil,

FOR YOU ARE WITH ME: CHRIST THE COMPANION SHEPHERD

YOUR ROD AND STAFF, THEY COMFORT ME: CHRIST THE COMFORTING SHEPHERD

YOU PREPARE A TABLE BEFORE ME IN THE PRESENCE OF MY ENEMIES: CHRIST THE CULINARY SHEPHERD

YOU ANOINT MY HEAD WITH OIL: CHRIST THE COVERING SHEPHERD

MY CUP OVERFLOWS: CHRIST THE COPIOUS SHEPHERD

6 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the LORD forever.

Caricature of God

I can pick on the above gentlemen as I too have been abundantly blessed with ears. The artists have over emphasized the ears of Barak Obama and Ross Perot. While they have big ears, these pictures are obviously an exaggeration of their size. The artists have focused on a particular attribute of their persons.

Many times this is what men do with God. They over emphasize a particular attribute of His nature until the picture they have of God is not true, but a caricaturization of Him. What we must do is put each of God's attributes in proportion to all his attributes, and not to the minimization or elimination of some.

Some people focus so heavily on the holiness of God that barely no one can be saved; after all their best efforts they even worry about themselves. Others focus so heavily on the mercy of God that no one will be lost, including: Dahmer, Hitler, Stalin and Hussein (not Barak). When you do this you have a distorted view of God. The mercy and holiness of God are not competing ideas that you have to accept one or the other. Both are true and are complimentary of each other.

"Mercy and truth are met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other." Psalms 85:10 KJV

Let's view God how He is, and not how the human mind would portray Him by exaggerating the aspects of God's nature that we choose to emphasize.

Pagan Origin of Fun by James Groce

Fun?

One might wish to investigate the pagan origin of the word.

The word ‘fun’ comes from the name ascribed to a heathen human sacrifice and is actually an acronym meaning; Fellow Unto Sacrifice.

The pagan priest use to sharpen his knife and exclaim, "I am about to have fun! "

Often when the day of sacrifice came due (which was a fun day) and the sacrifice was late arriving- a word would be sent to the site of the sacrifice inquiring, “Are we having fun yet?”

Once a priest lost his knife and only later remembered it was “all in fun.”

So “having fun” was not to amusing to the “fun” guy. Remember this the next time you disclose the fact that you are “having fun,” because it is truly a side-splitting ritual of hell!

-- from James Self's The Study of Pagan Stuff