I Walk with The King

To Heavenly Land; the Kingdom of Right–the Pathway of Light…

Tag Archives: Politics


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A Nation of Cowards

I learned something important about America today: we are a nation of cowards. I caught bits of news today as we all learned that the older brother of the Boston Marathon bombers died in a shootout with police, while his younger brother continued to evade arrest. The officials in Boston and the surrounding municipalities put a major U.S. city of approximately 2 million people on a lockdown because of one killer on the loose. One.

A scared 19-year-old kid who felt the entire weight of the United States law enforecement agencies bearing down on him hid in a boat. And 2 million Americans hid in their homes. Our fear-filled response to even small-scale attack (yes–this attack was small-scale) is that we allow other terrorists to witness validation that all they have to do is kill a half dozen of us, injure a few hundred, and the rest hunker and hide. With such a predictable effect, it’s no wonder that enemies of the American people persist in these same tactics, even when fighting overseas.

In difficult times, I tend to seek the words of Jesus Christ for guidence and answers to tough questions. How would Jesus have us respond to acts of terrorism?

“And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. But rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.”  Matthew 10:28 NKJV

See it now? Our response to acts of terrorism is totally opposite of what Jesus commands. There are two commands for us here. First, Jesus commands us not to fear anyone who has the ability to kill our bodies, but have no power over our eternal being. Second, Jesus commands us to fear God; who, if He wishes, can kill the body, but can also condemn us to total, eternal destruction in Hell.

In America, we cower before those evil people who use violence against our lives and the threat of such violence to control and manipulate us. And it works. Every time. At the same time, we pro-actively demonstrate our hatred for God, and deny His power over our very lives and souls. He hate His Word, we hate His ways, we hate His followers.

In the coming days, our citizens and elected officials will join in a debate over the balance between personal freedom and public safety; between government control and national security. I pray that in making decisions about America’s response to future threats, that our leaders will stand tall before our enemies and bow low before God. Until then, I will be no coward. What will you decide?


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Rights vs. Righteousness – Politics and Religion: Part 2

We have rights. In the U.S.A our rights are more sacred than baseball and apple pie. Our constitution contains a bill of rights. The very core of what the founding fathers believed was based on the rights of the citizenry. I don’t know about you but I’m thankful and proud to be an American and to be able to take part in the rights the constitution guarantees me.

However, I often have to remind myself of my true citizenship. I sometimes forget that though I have rights as an American citizen, my duty as a citizen of God’s Kingdom may not always align with those rights.

“ Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God.” Eph. 2:19

As an example, let’s consider the Apostle Paul and his missionary partner Silas as they preached in the city of Philippi in Acts 16. They encounter a woman there who was possessed by a “spirit of divination.” Some local men were making a lot money by her fortune telling, and after Paul (by the power of Christ) cast the spirit out these men arranged for the arrest of Paul and Silas.

They were beaten and thrown in to prison, and what follows is a beautiful story of the conversion of the jailor and his family. The next morning the magistrates sent word to release them secretly and Paul had a few choice words to say about the matter.

“ But Paul said to them, ‘They have beaten us openly, uncondemned Romans, and have thrown us into prison. And now do they put us out secretly? No indeed! Let them come themselves and get us out.’” Acts 16:37

Paul exercised his rights as a Roman citizen, but notice when he did it. He could have done this the day before and saved himself and Silas a beating. But for whatever reason he allowed their arrest and as a result a man and his family were led to Christ.

I don’t pretend to know the reasons Paul did what he did, but I do know that in some cases our rights as U.S. citizens may need to take a back-seat in favor of doing God’s will. It’s the difference between exercising our rights and being righteous.


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Politics and Religion: Part 1

We live in a culture that is both politically and religiously charged.  As Christians, how are we to conduct our lives in the midst of so much controversy and strife?  What is the separation between our duties to the kingdom of God and duty to our Government? In Matthew 22:17-21, the Pharisees sent their servants to ask Jesus this very question, in an attempt to trap Him by His own words.

“17Tell us, therefore, what do You think? Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not?”

The wise answer of our Lord served the dual purposes of both answering their question, and exposing their hypocrisy.

18But Jesus perceived their wickedness, and said, “Why do you test Me, you hypocrites? 19“Show Me the tax money.” So they brought Him a denarius. 20And He said to them, “Whose image and inscription is this?” 21They said to Him, “Caesar’s.” And He said to them, “Render therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.”

I think the main problem is that we try to compartmentalize our lives; our Christian life, our work life, our family life, our political life. But Jesus makes it much simpler for us. Instead, there should be only our lives as Christians. Our service to God and to our government need not, and indeed should not, be mutually exclusive. The two go hand in hand together.

Over the course of my next several blog posts I will explore in greater detail what the Bible has to say about this subject, and how we can incorporate the advice of Jesus into our lives.