The church's loyalty cannot be auctioned off to those who promised it political influence; nor can its core convictions be pummeled into submission to fit the raining zeitgeist. For citizens of heaven, the gospel should to be declared, not domesticated. @profntwright @mbird12
— Dr. Derwin L. Gray (@DerwinLGray) July 14, 2020
I love this pastor's citation of a wonderful quote from N.T. Wright.
Jesus is not a Democrat.
He's not a Republican.
Jesus doesn't share our enthusiasms for human ideologies, philosophies, rationalizations, or excuses.
Jesus isn't an American.
He is the Lord of heaven and earth.
He is the great I AM.
He is the crucified, risen, and ascended One.
He's the conqueror of sin and death, the Word made flesh, the Pioneer and Perfecter of our salvation, the Lamb of God Who takes away the sin of the world.
His is the name that is above all names to which ultimately, every knee shall bow and every tongue confess is God the Son, all to the glory of God.
So, quit trying to make Him your buddy.
Quit trying to enlist Him as a co-conspirator in your preferred political positions.
Quit trying to make Him an amiable buffoon who will acquiesce to anything that makes you feel good.
Quit trying to portray His tough love, that loves us absolutely and loves us too much to leave us dead in our favorite sins, whatever they may be, as excusing or rationalizing the self-directed, self-aggrandizing path you've already decided to take.
Read the Bible. Partake of the Sacraments.
Get to know Jesus as He is.
Then, bend your knee in abject submission.
Confess to Him the sins He shows you in yourself.
Turn to Him for forgiveness, absolution, and renewal.
Let Him guide you in the true path of His love and righteousness.
That path won't look much like the paths that political. correctness, be it conservative or liberal, this world commends. How could it look like those paths? The ways of the world are dead or dying. The way of Jesus, God the Son, is living, pulsing with the power of the eternal God.
As we follow Him, He goes to work reconstructing us in His image. That reconstruction process is painful. It means giving up on worshiping our favorites gods--ourselves or our own rectitude and rightness, for example.
I haven't made much progress on this path in the forty-four years since Jesus called me back to Him. But I know that He--not political parties, not social movements, not my family that I love, not my country that I love too, not my political preferences--but only Jesus is "the way, and the truth, and the life." All -isms, personal preferences, prejudices, and favorite sins must give way to Him.
The path of following Jesus is the way to truth and life and wholeness and hope and joy. Following Jesus leads us into the very heart of the One Who made us. Jesus alone. Only Jesus.
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