I could hear the brakes screeching in my head. “Enough of the negativity and the bad attitude; Jesus would have no part of this, and yet you sit here in the middle of it saying, well… I guess that’s the way it is. Really? That’s the way it is because Christians like you are letting it be.” That’s the conversation in my head this morning. This election makes me nauseous and somewhat crazy. I want God to beat people… not figuratively either, I want Him to take out a club and knock some sense into some people: knock the arrogant grin off of a few others, knock down a few notches those who justify their antics in the name of politics and use the name of Christianity as a blanket statement of faith but have no doctrinal behavior to back it up. And that’s just the Republican Party. Don’t even get me started on the Democratic candidates. And God said… enough…
I think if we had been in a car, God would have pulled over, sat me along the side of the road, and drove off, that’s how negative my mindset can be if I allow the media to govern my thoughts. Today, I’m doing a political cleanse. You know what happens when you do a cleanse, right? You flush the toxins out of your body and all the vile junk you’ve ingested the last year, or week. You replace that with good and wholesome things that serve to edify the body. I want that… I want the edification of God’s Word from His book and His people and so it is that I’m refusing to look at one more political ad, post or rant, at least for today.
This is my mindset diet for the day. The 10 step political cleanse.
Philippians 2
- FELLOWSHIP IN THE SPIRIT
1If there be therefore any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any bowels and mercies,
Talk to God… often.
- LIKEMINDED LIVING
2 Fulfil ye my joy, that ye be likeminded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind.
We should be sharing Christ, not criticism.
- LET NOTHING BE DONE FOR SELF
3 Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves.
The opposite of vanity is humility
- LOOK AT THE PEOPLE, NOT THE POLITICS
4 Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others.
So many people are hurting and in need of knowing that someone cares. They don’t need conversations about what government officials can do, they need to see what God can do through His people.
- LET THIS MIND
5 Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus:
We have to allow the mind of Jesus to overtake the property which flesh has claimed.
- LANDLORD OR TENANT
6 Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God:
God is residing with the heart of every Christian, but is He there as a Tenant (just hanging out until you’re in a jam?) or is He there as Lord of all?
- LESSONS IN LEADERSHIP
7 But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men:
We need to get to know the people we serve.
- LEARNING TO DIE
8 And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.
The irony of living for Christ is dying to me. His will should be my way.
- ABOVE ALL
9 Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name:
Jesus. It is the Name that Created all, Calms all, Cures all, Cares for all,
- EVERY KNEE
10 That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth;
Nobody is forced to bow to Christ on this side of eternity, but there will come a day that every knee shall bow and the obituary of the flesh will read “Here lies arrogance and pride. The soul moved on.” There’s no politics in Heaven, your only opportunity to vote is in the here and now. That’s a great thing to remember!
