An Election Day Reminder from God's Word

The psalm that many of us will be reading together this coming Sunday, Psalm 146, is perfect for this election week! (Funny how often God works out these "coincidences"!)

The psalm includes these lines:

Do not put your trust in princes, in mortals in whom there is no help. When their breath departs, they return to the earth; on that day their plans perish.

Happy are they whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the Lord their God, Who made heaven and earth, the sea and all that is in them; Who keeps faith forever; who executes justice for the oppressed; Who gives food to the hungry. (Psalm 146:3-7)

Who our president will be is far less important issue than Who our God will be.

It's only God Who can give us what we most need: forgiveness, life, and hope for today and for eternity.

The Bible makes it clear, of course, that the Christian's duty is to honor those holding the reins of political power.

Government leaders serve an important function in God's plans, battening down the chaos that would otherwise engulf the world when our sins against one another had the freedom to do its worst.

God appoints governments to coerce those unchanged by and resistant to the grace He gives through Jesus Christ to leave neighbors unmolested and to protect those who voluntarily accede to Christ as King of their lives. (Otherwise, Martin Luther once wrote, Christians would live in the world as hapless sheep among ravenous wolves.)

So, whoever is elected today should, according to the Bible, have the prayers and the loyalty of all Christians.

After all, if Jesus told His followers to render unto Caesar what belongs to Caesar and if Peter and Paul, in the face of persecution, could tell Christians to pray for the emperors of a despotic Roman Empire, then we Christians in America today can surely pray for and honor the democratically elected leaders of a politically free country, whether we voted for them or not!

But the really important thing for Christians to remember today and every day is that, no matter how much we may like or dislike those elected to be our political leaders, it's stupid to put our hope in governments, politics, or leaders.

The God we know in Jesus Christ has become one of us, has died on the cross, and risen from the dead. He offers life to all who throw in with Him. The God we know in Jesus Christ will still be standing when the last king or president on earth has drawn a breath.

And if we will surrender our lives to Him, accepting His offer of forgiveness for all our sins and of new and everlasting lives to all who trust in Him, we can live in the confidence that nothing in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God, given in Jesus Christ.

That's a lot more important than an election.

The Experienced Democrat?

Some months ago, I said that I thought Senator Barack Obama ought to take a pass on the 2008 presidential race. Though undeniably brilliant and someone it's easy to see in the White House, I said that his sparse Washington experience might be insufficient.

But I was shocked to hear this Linda Wertheimer report on NPR today. African-American women torn between supporting Obama and Senator Hillary Clinton were interviewed and several said that Clinton was the more experienced of the two.

I suppose it's how one measures experience. But when considering elective political experience, of the three Democratic frontrunners--Obama, Clinton, and former North Carolina Senator John Edwards, Obama has the most experience. By my reckoning, counting his time in the Illinois state legislature, Obama has spent twelve years in elective office. Clinton has just over six years and Edwards has six, from his single term in the Senate.

Whichever of these three is nominated for the presidency, if any of them become the eventual nominee, will have to bring someone onto their ticket to shore up questions about experience deficiencies. (The way George W. Bush attempted to do in 2000, when he brought Dick Cheney onto his ticket.) But the one with the least experience deficiencies is Obama.

[Note: I wrote a bit about this experience issue, raised repeatedly by Senator Clinton, here.]

[THANKS TO: Deborah White at About.com's U.S. Liberals site for linking to this piece in a very interesting post weighing the debate among Democrats regarding Clinton v. Obama.]