You Were Born For Such A Time As This!

Yesterday, April 9, 2023, we celebrated the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the tomb. A day revered by believers and denounced by unbelievers for centuries, still it remains one of the most significant days in history. As I mentioned in last week’s blog, the day you accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior should be the most significant day in your own personal history. A day that should’ve changed everything in your life and set you on a path of living for Jesus and discovering the purpose and plans He has for you.

If you’ve allowed the world’s situation or your personal situation to distract you from letting your light shine for Jesus, Easter is always a good time to reflect and re-center on making sure every decision you make and every breath you take glorifies Jesus. That sounds like a big undertaking, and it is. It’s not something we could ever do on our own. But the Holy Spirit is everywhere residing in each Christian’s heart and mind always guiding and directing us to do the next right thing, even with all the distractions and obligations. It’s especially difficult with the arrows continually directed at us from the enemy who seems to become bolder and crueler daily.

Many think that the blatant visibility of Satan in a culture that labels Christians the enemy if we don’t agree with sin, suggests the eminent return of Jesus. It’s true, Jesus could come back for His people at any time, but until that glorious day, He has each of us living at this very moment in history for a specific purpose. It isn’t random that we’re alive while evil is called good, and Satan is trying to silence the church and take our children into his clutches.

Twice in the past week, I’ve heard a speaker refer to Esther whose fellow Jews, including her, were facing extinction by evil Hamen. Queen Esther’s uncle Mordecai pleaded with her to help save her people, even though it could mean immediate death just by asking for an audience with King Xerxes. Her uncle challenged, “And who knows but that you have come to your position for such a time as this.” After three days of fasting and prayer, Esther courageously said, “If I perish, I perish.” The King gave her an audience and she ultimately saw Hamen hung on the gallous that he had built for her uncle.

Esther was willing to set aside her queenly luxury to get involved in the politics of the King’s court to save not just herself, but her people. She risked her life to take a stand against injustice, immorality, evil, and extinction and God put her in the perfect era and place to do exactly that. God has done the same for you and me to be born right now for such a time as this. It’s exciting and exhilarating when you look at the world through that lens.

My birthday this year was on Easter. That’s only the second time in my lifetime; the first time I was three. This year, I felt God’s reminder that I’m still alive for a purpose. He’s helped me survive three breast cancer battles, a congenital malformed spine, and numerous other health and personal issues so I could devote my remaining time and talents to sharing the goodness of God and encouraging people to turn from the destruction of following the evil deceiver, Satan. That’s not always comfortable or easy, but like Esther, it’s worth the risk.

As Aware Christians, We Can’t Avoid Getting Involved!

Last Sunday, Dave and I attended the second free AWARE Biblical Citizenship & Liberty for Idaho Conference hosted by Mountain Heights Calvary Chapel in Meridian, Idaho. I want to share the encouragement and call to action we received that day. It was such a blessing to be in a room with several hundred like-minded Conservative Christians eager to learn more about how we could make a difference in our community for morals and justice to prevail.

In past blogs, I’ve mentioned the Values Advocacy Council (VAC) ministry, which helps Idahoans know what’s happening politically in our state and how we can get involved by contacting our legislators, school boards, and governor.

Last session, the Idaho Legislators passed the Child Protection Act to stop gender mutilation surgeries and opposite-sex drugs given to minors, but our Governor was threatening to veto it depending on how many calls he received supporting or protesting the bill?! The VAC gave us the numbers to call, and 19 Pastors went to the governor’s office with a petition with 5000 signatures telling him NOT to veto it and the rest of us called and emailed the Governor’s office.

We had a victory, and the Governor signed the bill so no longer can doctors and hospitals perform these barbaric “sex-reassignment” surgeries or give cross-sex hormones or puberty blocking drugs to gender-confused children in Idaho! Praise God!!

Another politically involved ministry, The Idaho Family Policy Center, sent out an encouraging email, “We can’t overstate the importance of this victory—and we definitely owe it in part to your biblical citizenship and your support of this ministry.”

Did you notice that these are both ministries involved in politics. The Idaho Family Policy Center ministry drafted the Child Protection Act four years ago. It’s the third legislative session they’ve introduced the bill and championed it. Idaho’s children will be protected because ministries got involved in politics!

One of the speakers at the AWARE Conference, Neil Mammen, is the President of Values Advocacy Council, and has written a book Jesus Is Involved in Politics! Why Aren’t You? Why Isn’t Your Church? The premise of his book is that you can’t separate politics from Christianity and the church. We don’t want a Christian government; we want Christians in government. Christians getting involved to protect God’s laws just like Christians and pastors did with the Vulnerable Child Protection Act here in Idaho.

As Christians, it’s our duty and obligation to remind the government that their job is to enforce God’s laws, not create laws that go against the biblical foundations of our Constitution and the Bill of Rights, which lists what government can’t do to us, not what they can.

Just because I live in a red state doesn’t mean I can be complacent, actually just the opposite. Satan doesn’t like red states and he’s using his henchmen, including the Democrat party which has turned Marxist, to try and turn conservative red states into tyrannically governed blue states.

In Idaho, and other states, Christians and churches are fighting back, and our Idaho children will be protected from this child abuse atrocity, but for sure, there will be future battles. The Governor vetoed another bill protecting children from pornography in libraries and schools and the legislators failed by one vote to overturn his veto. But it’ll be on the docket repeatedly until it’s passed. Christians know how to persevere.

I’m reading Jesus Is Involved in Politics! Why Aren’t You? Why Isn’t Your Church?. Here’s a synopsis from the author’s brochure.

“If you say Christians, churches, or pastors should not be involved in politics, you are essentially saying that child sexual abuse should be legal. It sounds harsh, but the truth is much harsher, because if you take a stance against being actively involved in politics, then you are basically also saying that death games & forced temple prostitution should still be legal.

Here’s just a partial list of abuses Christians and churches in the past have helped to overcome: slavery, racism, segregation, kidnapped brides, death games, gladiatorial combat, infanticide, child labor, child abandonment, child prostitution, child sexual abuse, child marriage, the superstitious killing of twins, elder abandonment, widow burning, cruelty to prisoners, & cruelty to animals.”

“Every one of those practices and thousands of others in history were made illegal only because pastors and elders got their congregation involved in politics and started changing laws in their nation and also in other nations.”

“How heartless, cruel, & mean spirited can we be to say Christians should not be involved in politics? Is this really the stance we want to take? Is this Christlike in any shape, fashion, or form?”

Jesus confronted the Sadducees, Pharisees, and elders who were like the Senate, Congress, and White House of our day. Jesus loves the little children, and He has compassion for a woman worried about her pregnancy, but He would NEVER tell her to kill her baby. He would expect the church to offer her alternatives, protection, and care for herself and baby.

Jesus is not ok with children being sterilized, mutilated, sexualized, and lied to that they can become another sex. He’s not ok with two men or women marrying. These are not political issues; these are biblical moral issues so why is the church silent? Why are so many Christians afraid to speak the truth? The Bible isn’t silent!

The Gospel and Jesus tell us that the truth will set us free. Don’t we want others to be free from the sin that so easily entangles and the lies that are ruining their lives?!

The church and Christians should be taking an active role in helping confused, scared, and mentally ill people. Imitating Jesus by confronting the issues with compassion, love, solutions, and most importantly, the truth so that no one will become a victim to Satan’s lies.

Our Christian Republican Congressman Russ Fulcher was one of the speakers at the AWARE Conference and took questions from the audience. He said when he walks into the Congressional chambers in Washington D.C., he feels the spiritual battle enveloping the room, but he also can sense the prayers of his constituents. He told us the best way to support him is in prayer. So pray for your federal and local officials. Not just the ones you agree with but pray for everyone to have a spiritual awakening.

Rick Green of Patriot Academy and Wall Builders reminded us of our biblical citizenship responsibility. 40 million Christians do NOT vote! Faith without works is dead.

¹⁴ What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save them? ¹⁵ Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food. ¹⁶ If one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it? ¹⁷ In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead. ¹⁸ But someone will say, “You have faith; I have deeds.” Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by my deeds. ¹⁹ You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that—and shudder. James 2:14-19

We don’t want politicians in government; we want patriots! So we need to do our homework and research the voting records of the people we’re electing.

 Green also cautioned the church has lost our commission to go beyond the church walls and take the Gospel to the world. We’ve stopped making disciples.

We need to remember that our freedom comes from God who is in every aspect of our life, yes even politics. There is nothing in our life that God isn’t Lord over! Everything is under His jurisdiction. The church must be salt and light, but our culture is spoiling because there’s not enough Christian salt preserving the country we love.

 “You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot. ¹⁴ “You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. ¹⁵ Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. ¹⁶ In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.” Matt. 5:13-14

Pastor Marty Yost of Mountain Heights Calvary Chapel who hosted the conference also echoed Rick’s message reminding us that yes there are Rinos in politics, but there are also what he calls “Binos”—Believers in name only—who have forgotten the Great Commission which Jesus appointed to every Christian.

¹⁸ Jesus came and told his disciples, “I have been given all authority in heaven and on earth. ¹⁹ Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations,^[a] baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. ²⁰ Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” 28:18-20 NLT

Jesus didn’t say Christian believers, disciples of Christ, have the authority to go into every part of the world except politics. Jesus said go everywhere that He is, and He is everywhere.

If you’re still uncomfortable with the word “politics,” focus on how God wants you to get involved in fighting immorality and unrighteousness in places where you can have a godly influence and pray for those in government.

¹⁷ Remember, it is sin to know what you ought to do and then not do it. James 4:17

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