Someone asked Jesus that question once. He famously replied, “Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s”. In other words, “Get your allegiances right and your obligations will become clear.” The Christian’s role on planet earth is as an Ambassador of God. Our ultimate loyalties are to God’s values, God’s purposes, and God’s mission.
If our ultimate loyalties are to God what exactly are our obligations? In a democratic republic we the people are Caesar. We owe it to ‘Caesar’ to vote. We owe it to God to understand what he says about the political issues of the day and vote accordingly. Here are a few examples:
The War in Afghanistan – Scripture teaches that government is God’s servant, “an agent of wrath to bring punishment on the wrong doer.” (See Romans 13). Scripture also teaches us to love neighbor as we love self. War for the purpose of conquest, revenge or greed is unjust. War for the purpose of protecting the weak and innocent before they can be harmed or coerced by a nut with a bomb is just and loving. Christians should vote for the person they believe will do the best job of protecting the weak and innocent here and abroad from Islamists.
Abortion – Back in 2004 I watched a presidential debate with a friend. A question arose about the partial birth abortion ban. My friend didn’t understand the phrase – a euphemism for a gruesome death delivered to a child in the final stages of birth. When I described it he was horrified. He should be.
God is the creator of life. Children in the womb are the weakest of the weak, the most defenseless. Isaiah 1:17 says, Seek justice, encourage the oppressed. Defend the cause of the fatherless, plead the case of the widow. Christians should vote for the people who will support the partial birth abortion ban and defend the unborn.
Homosexual Marriage – God created marriage to be between a man and a woman. God established the moral order for the world that he created. If we observe it and abide by it, things go well. If we abandon it we can expect trouble. (See 1 Timothy 1:8-10). Christians should vote for the people who will honor God by protecting the traditional definition of marriage.
Religious Freedom & Freedom of Speech – Jesus instructed us to ‘go into all the world and make disciples, teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.’ Religious freedom and freedom of speech are two of the founding principles of America. Activist judges who wish to silence Christians in the marketplace of ideas are challenging those freedoms. Thoughtless lawmakers and leaders who make room for the growth of Sharia (Islamic) law in America undermine Religious freedom and freedom of speech in the name of protecting them. Christians should vote for the candidates most likely to protect us from Sharia law and from legalized oppression of Christians in the work-place and academia.
Render to Caesar that which is Caesar’s and to God that which is God’s. Get your allegiances right and your obligations in the voting booth will become clear.
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
YOU ONLY SAW HER HANDS and not her face on TV
YOU ONLY SAW HER HANDS (and not her face on TV)
Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving. (Col 3:23-24 NIV)
"I'm a good ole boy and my Momma loves me, but she can't understand why they keep showin' my hands and not my face on TV." Waylon Jennings was so well known on the Country Music scene that by the time he played that song for the redneck sitcom The Dukes of Hazard in 1979 everyone who heard the verse above knew who was singing it. The good ole boys (myself included) of the old South immediately grasped the message in the verse. Waylon’s face never appeared, only his jeans, cowboy shirt and leather vest framing his fingers picking his signature white and black electric guitar. It was an inside joke. But we understood. Waylon was already famous in the South as an “outlaw” country singer. We didn’t need to see his face. We could recognize that guitar and that coal mine deep baritone anywhere.
At about the same time that Waylon and the Duke Brothers were hitting their stride the hands of another musician of a totally different stripe began appearing regularly on television. In Touch, the ministry of televangelist Charles Stanley was airing nationwide in the early eighties. In those days part of the signature opening sequence for the program was a shot of a pair of skilled hands caressing the ivory white keys of a black grand piano. The viewer never saw the musician’s face and very few people ever knew her name but those of us who were members of First Baptist Church of Atlanta back then didn’t need to see her on TV. We recognized the hands and knew the signature sound of one of the most dedicated servants to ever play a hymn. Her name is Alice Marie “Bee” Wolter. We used to sing her that verse of Waylon’s song just to kid her. For twenty-two years she pounded the keys for countless rehearsals, worship services, weddings, funerals, church theatrical productions and traveling choirs as part of the ministry of First Baptist Church of Atlanta. But that period doesn’t make up half of her time in service to the King at the keyboard. Bee began playing for the church when she was ten years old. As of last Sunday, when she played the entire service at FCC, she has been at her post in some church or ministry, almost every Sunday and many nights in between, for seventy years. She has “worked at it with all her heart, as for the Lord, not for men…serving Christ” and the rest of us who love to sing his praises.
So if you ever get discouraged or tired in your service to the Kingdom, and wonder if anyone will ever appreciate it take a little perseverance lesson from my mother-in-law Bee. Very few people on earth will ever know her name. And no one is likely to see her face on TV. But her inheritance is waiting in the presence of the King.
Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving. (Col 3:23-24 NIV)
"I'm a good ole boy and my Momma loves me, but she can't understand why they keep showin' my hands and not my face on TV." Waylon Jennings was so well known on the Country Music scene that by the time he played that song for the redneck sitcom The Dukes of Hazard in 1979 everyone who heard the verse above knew who was singing it. The good ole boys (myself included) of the old South immediately grasped the message in the verse. Waylon’s face never appeared, only his jeans, cowboy shirt and leather vest framing his fingers picking his signature white and black electric guitar. It was an inside joke. But we understood. Waylon was already famous in the South as an “outlaw” country singer. We didn’t need to see his face. We could recognize that guitar and that coal mine deep baritone anywhere.
At about the same time that Waylon and the Duke Brothers were hitting their stride the hands of another musician of a totally different stripe began appearing regularly on television. In Touch, the ministry of televangelist Charles Stanley was airing nationwide in the early eighties. In those days part of the signature opening sequence for the program was a shot of a pair of skilled hands caressing the ivory white keys of a black grand piano. The viewer never saw the musician’s face and very few people ever knew her name but those of us who were members of First Baptist Church of Atlanta back then didn’t need to see her on TV. We recognized the hands and knew the signature sound of one of the most dedicated servants to ever play a hymn. Her name is Alice Marie “Bee” Wolter. We used to sing her that verse of Waylon’s song just to kid her. For twenty-two years she pounded the keys for countless rehearsals, worship services, weddings, funerals, church theatrical productions and traveling choirs as part of the ministry of First Baptist Church of Atlanta. But that period doesn’t make up half of her time in service to the King at the keyboard. Bee began playing for the church when she was ten years old. As of last Sunday, when she played the entire service at FCC, she has been at her post in some church or ministry, almost every Sunday and many nights in between, for seventy years. She has “worked at it with all her heart, as for the Lord, not for men…serving Christ” and the rest of us who love to sing his praises.
So if you ever get discouraged or tired in your service to the Kingdom, and wonder if anyone will ever appreciate it take a little perseverance lesson from my mother-in-law Bee. Very few people on earth will ever know her name. And no one is likely to see her face on TV. But her inheritance is waiting in the presence of the King.
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