Paul's Passing Thoughts

True Christians, according to the Bible, are “ambassadors” here on earth that represent God’s kingdom. As a Christian, I seek to see events unfolding in America through the eyes of being God’s representative. With that said, I am fed up and ready for a fight. I think I am feeling like a lot of Americans: I have no desire at all to be civil with any Democrat. However, I can’t take that position.

Some years ago, after investing every bit of my life into what I perceived as God’s family, the truth came out about the church I was a longtime member of.

The pastors of that church have what we call, “religious authority.” Through the experience, I was taken to school about that issue. I was informed by them that I was one of the few people in church that didn’t get it, and by the way, that didn’t include the person I was married to at the time. I was told to stop asking hard questions, or the pastors at that church, by their authority, would inform the church on how to think about me leading to rejection of “the privileges that come along with being part of God’s family.” That, of course, supposedly includes salvation. I called them on the threat, thinking my longtime friends would laugh at the notion of being under that kind of carte blanche authority. I was dead wrong.

God used the schooling to make me a totally different person. I experienced what it was like to have nothing but myself and God. A few people stood by me, but it wasn’t enough to save my whole life from being burned down by church authority. In the process, I found out that you really only need God and yourself, and everything else is icing on the cake. I became a person builder; I became someone focused on building who I wanted to be under God’s guidance. It’s enough, it works well, It is an incredible feeling of freedom, but God doesn’t see it as ideal.

True Christianity is a body. It is being born into the one body of Christ. That’s the function. The identity is kingdom membership and ambassadorship. Also, the identity is royal priesthood. These identities function as a spiritual and material body according to cooperation, not authority. The only priests are ourselves ministering in our own bodies. Our bodies are the temples of God indwelt by the Holy Spirit which units us with Christ. There are no priests ministering in our own individual temples but us. We offer living sacrifices to God in our temples for purposes of love and devotion to God and others. There is no offering to God outside of our own temples. And these are love offerings; not offerings compelled by law or any authority outside of our temples. God doesn’t want law offerings to mere men, He wants love offerings informed by the law, but not compelled by the law through authority…not even His own. Love is the only thing that will endure eternally. Authority will not. Love doesn’t need authority.

Christianity is a family you are born into. Christ came to establish the new birth and He is the firstborn of God. His death made it possible for you to follow Christ in death regarding the old you, and to follow Him in resurrection regarding the new you. This is obtained by wanting a new life, and asking God for it; the Holy Spirit does the rest. You must be born again. When God’s family meets together, it is like any other family meeting together; it isn’t church and there isn’t any authority. You are a fellow member of Israel’s commonwealth working cooperatively with God’s family to edify His body and the world.

Susan and I have been working to formulate this biblical identity in our home fellowship movement. It is very difficult to convey and demonstrate a body exercising faith through love corporately and cooperatively without authority. Because church is under law and that is what people are accustomed to, it’s hard to operate according to love and not law. Love is to be informed by law, not authority. Freedom of conscience interprets truth, not authority. You may let authority rule you, but authority will not be your attorney when you stand before God.

Hence, Democrats and church are much the same. It is always interesting to watch authority-driven entities trying to get along. It’s truly a hot mess. It’s much like marriage counseling. What is marriage counseling? The concise definition follows: it is two people making a case for one ruling over the other because the other is worthy of more condemnation. That’s marriage counseling in a nutshell.

It is also, at times, co-dependency. Actually, more often than not. An abused spouse will often stay in the abuse situation for financial security and other forms of fear spawned and driven by low self-esteem deserved or not deserved. High self-esteem is earned and based on the truth. In the control-lust game, one must convince the other that they are worthy of condemnation and therefore need to submit to others for their own survival. You see, tyrants always present themselves as saviors for the sinful, but there is only one savior. In these co-dependent relationships, one supplies the other’s need for false security, and the other supplies and fulfils the need to control.

It is often said that America is a Christian nation, but the reason given is false. America is not a Christian nation because of church—church is more like the Democrats. The idea of being able and responsible for yourself is an Enlightenment idea, but in fact, closer to the Bible, much closer, than church which is driven by ideas of inability and the consequential need for man to be ruled for his own good. And again, tyrants always come to help you…to save you…because you supposedly need saving by someone other than Christ.

Donald Trump thinks you are able. He represents about half of the country. The other half do not think mankind is able, and are no different than a co-dependent spouse. Donald Trump is a threat because he might eliminate the ability to have a co-dependent relationship with the government. He must be stopped at any cost.

In all of this, true Christians who get it, stand with Donald Trump for the aforementioned reasons, but for other important reasons as well. Yes, we are mere ambassadors here and citizens of another country, but, God cares very much about justice, fairness, and freedom in the here and now. And, NO country has been a force for those things in the world than the United States.

This boils down to individualism versus collectivism, but I think it is better understood through bad marriages. Half of this country is content to be abused by the government to dissuade the fears of their own self-loathing. And besides, person-building is hard work.

My heart bleeds for Donald Trump. Prayer is not my gift in the body of Christ, but I have found myself on my knees a lot in the past few days. As an ambassador here for God’s kingdom, what is the premise of my prayer?

God loves justice and fairness, and the ability of people to live according to the conscience that he has created in every person. Pray for our president.

paul