Categories
church current affairs

Illegal Immigration Is Real. So Is the Moral Damage We’re Doing

Let me make the following two statements assuming the very best of intentions on both sides.

  1. Trump and his administration deeply care about enforcing the borders of our nation (they’ve added 10,000 immigration agents in a year!). Frankly, since the fatal attacks of September 11, 2001, our national borders have been a focus for several administrations. Indeed, Democrats praised President Obama for penalizing employers of migrants and his mass deportations —back then he had earned the title “Deporter in Chief”.
  2. The media (and here I include individual influencers and people posting footage) care deeply about the rights of our people to hear the truth and the danger to our nation. Their desire to have constant coverage on the topic that is of growing importance is critical for our nation and grounded in the US Constitution.

Those two statements, even if true and at their best of intentions, ignore that there is something profound happening right now. Profundity is not only about WHAT but in HOW.

Under President Trump’s second term, the topic of border control and deportation has been reinvigorated but now, with cruelty and gross rhetoric from both the administration and the media.

I would like those of us who are Christians to pause. Listen. We are being changed by this rhetoric, folks. What the government and the media emphasizes reflects what those in charge of the government and the medial care about. History will justify or condemn them. But what we the people have allowed (or applauded), even in the short term, shrivels our hearts and freezes the soul of our nation.

Moreso, as Christians, it spoils our unique voice.

Categories
current affairs human rey's a point

Speak Against Evil

American Christians: you must speak against evil. Condemning evil isn’t optional. Doesn’t matter if you originally supported the person doing wrong. Doesn’t matter if you partly agree with the positions that result in the evil. You must speak against that evil.

Categories
current affairs human rey's a point

Who Should I Vote For?

Who should I vote for: Candidate A (in 2024: Kamala Harris) or Candidate B (Donald Trump)? Maybe this is an easy question for some of you USian Christians. It’s not easy for me. I’m struggling.

I’m not struggling with other questions like how candidate A or B will ultimately come into power. God is in control of all governments even if people (or the state) don’t use their God-granted authority (to rule, judge, and even condemn) the right way.  

I’m not wrestling with how to act if someone I don’t want in the oval office gets there anyway. I have responsibilities to obey the government God put in place. The only time I have a different choice is if the ruler pits my obedience to the ruler against my obedience to God.

Further, I’m not struggling with the question if I should vote. Christians, regardless of their locale, should personify the best example of a citizen of a nation under the lordship of Christ. That would mean that a Christian, living in a system where he or she has the freedom and responsibility to mindfully perform civic duties—one of those being voting—should perform those civic duties. In general, I should vote. But it doesn’t follow that I (1) always have to vote or (2) have to vote for the candidates nominated by the two biggest parties. If the American democratic system produced Joseph Stalin (the far-left communist dictator) and Adolf Hitler (the far-right Nazi dictator) it doesn’t follow that I must pick one or the other.

In the current circumstance, I find myself considering and weighing my options. How do I weigh my options? Before I decide who to vote for, I need to figure out how I’m supposed to vote.

Categories
Meditations

Knowing that Our Triune God is Awesome and Wonderful

Sometimes we can only describe something by the affect it produces in us. It is where attribute language isn’t enough. In the Bible, God allows this same description to be recorded. Although He makes himself known, God transcend us. Some descriptions, therefore, are so beyond us, that we can only stand in awe, slack-jawed, and wonder. This is why the Bible also describes Him as awesome and wonderful: He is praised for being completely and amazingly beyond.

  • God is the great and awesome God (Deut 7:21; 10:17)
  • God’s name is awesome (Deut 28:58; Psalm 111:9; Neh 1:5; 9:32) and wonderful (Judges 13:18; Isaiah 9:6
  • God is awesome above all things (Ps 89:7; Dan 9:4)
  • God is awesome in praises (Exo 15:11) so people stand in awe (Psalm 22:23)
  • God’s works are awesome (Psalm 66:3) and wonderful (Jer 2:2; Psalm 145:5; Matt 21:15)

You see how language falters? The only thing you can do is be in awe and worship. This follows New Testament pattern evidenced at the end of Paul’s letters. A pattern of reflecting on the wonder of God and writing a praise and worship to him: “How unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out!”

Our God is an awesome God

He reigns from heaven above

With wisdom, power, and love

Our God is an awesome God

Categories
Meditations

Knowing that Our Triune God is Jealous

When people are jealous, we usually sin. But not always. A woman who knows her husband’s eyes are being drawn away to another is rightly jealous! In that same way, God is so deeply connected to us that His concern for us is rightly, infinitely, jealous.

  • God warns the Israelites not to worship other gods because He is jealous. (Ex 20:5; Ps 78:58)
  • God warns that He so loves His people that His name is Jealous (Ex 34:14)!

God’s jealousy is a perfect, direct outworking of His perfect love—a godly jealousy (2 Cor 11:2). This is why, God, in all three persons is provoked when we’re pulled away.

  • Our Lord Jesus can be provoked to jealousy when we partake of demon’s doctrine and actions (1 Cor 10:21-22).
  • The Holy Spirit is provoked to grieve when we don’t walk worthy of our calling and redemption (Eph 4:30)
  • God the Father can be provoked to wrath when the Spirit of grace is insulted, and the Son of God is trampled underfoot (Heb 10:31)

This is a difficult doctrine but, when reflecting on His infinite grace and love toward us, it totally makes sense.