God's Sovereignty through a Clay Vessel

These events happened in the days of King Xerxes, who reigned over 127 provinces stretching from India to Ethiopia. 

King Xerxes

The celebration lasted 180 days—a tremendous display of the opulent wealth of his empire and the pomp and splendor of his majesty.(Esther 1:1,4 NLT).

Xerxes was a proud and somewhat egotistical King, yet God used him to deliver the Jewish people.  I would like to suggest to you that President Donald Trump may be a similar figure.  Some Christians may be a bit surprised in how President Trump does things but are pleased in what he does.  God often uses unlikely people to accomplish his purposes. 

If I may, let me compare our current President with his predecessor, President Obama.  President Obama made a Christian profession and I, in no way question his faith, yet in his policy decisions, he violated several fundamental Christian values.  First, he parted with the understanding that marriage was to be between one man and one woman.  Second, was his view of the State of Israel.  Concerning the former, Obama flip-flopped and supported gay marriage. His support for Israel, at best, can only be described as lukewarm.  Granted, Obama was a little smoother around the edges than Trump, and at times did things with more tact.  The question is, do we want a President that is polite, or right?  Neither, Trump nor Obama would I like to be my pastor, but we did not elect a religious leader, but a political one.  Do we want a President who says the right things and carries his Bible to church, but then makes policy decisions that are anti-biblical?  Or do we want a President that is not always politically correct, but in the end, does the right thing, consistent with a world Christian view?  The choice is fairly obvious to me.

President Trump’s critics are telling Christians that we should be ashamed to support a man of such a checkered past. In answer to these questions, I point you back to the story in the Book of Esther.  Mordecai, a righteous Jew, allows his niece, Esther to be involved in Xerxes’s harem. The King, one by one, took beautiful women to his bed to choose his Queen.  This violated the law of creation of one man with one woman.  Esther was not meant to be read as a moral document. God is not once mentioned, yet his hand in the background accomplishing his purposes through flawed people and even unrighteous practices.  In speaking about this story, the commentator Matthew Henry once wrote, “This shows how God serves his own purposes even by our sins and foolish ways.”  Evangelical Christians’ support for our President should not be misconstrued as an endorsement of his past, or all of his actions today. It’s merely a recognition that God has raised up a political leader to affect changes that were desperately needed in this country.  One change has been bringing a greater balance to our Supreme Court.  Another, the long-awaited move of the US Embassy to Jerusalem in Israel.  This move may be the most significant event towards fulfilling Bible prophecy that we have seen in our generation.  Read the Book, it all happens on Mount Zion.

It is not my purpose to justify sin.  Donald Trump along with the rest of us, barring forgiveness through Jesus Christ, will be held accountable for all our actions.  In spite of this, in a national or global sense, it is difficult to argue that Donald Trump has not been a change agent for things that Christians have been seeking for many years.  We evangelical Christians have had this cookie-cutter mentality concerning who God can use to accomplish his purposes.  We have tried to support people who aligned with our religious preferences and moral constraints in a political world, and it did not work.  Yes, he is a man of the earth, with bigger clay feet than most, yet God has been sovereign enough to use this human wrecking ball to affect his (God’s) purposes on the earth.  I am not much of a prophet and what I am going to say next is not a prophecy, just a suggestion.  As Xerxes is known as the political leader that God used to help save his people from extermination, maybe Donald Trump will be remembered as the secular leader who spurred Israel on to the glorious things God has in store for Jerusalem, God’s holy city. Who knows?   

Images used with permission by Microsoft.

Ken Barnes the author of “The Chicken Farm and Other Sacred Places”  YWAM Publishing
Email:  kenbarnes737@gmail.com
website: https://sites.google.com/site/kenbarnesbooksite/

Blogs: http://kensblog757.blogspot.com

Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death

Fight the good fight for what we believe....( I Timothy 6:12 NLT).

Patrick Henry

The famous words of the title, spoken by Patrick Henry in 1775 were the fuse that ignited The Revolutionary War.  Today the church is in a struggle. This conflict is not being fought with bullets and cannons as in Henry's day, but with words and ideas. For Christians today, though the terms of engagement are different, the consequence of defeat in this war is the same, the loss of our liberty.

Of course, the world has good sounding justifications for their schools of thought. In my country, the United States of America, there are many trumpeting the so-called Constitutional cry for the separation of the church and state.  Yes, our Constitution does guard against a state religion, but it was never the intent of our founding fathers to have believers leave their faith at the door when they exit their places of worship.  Those who interpret the Constitution have done so in a way that freedom of religion has become freedom from religion.  The men who penned this document, mostly men of faith, would be dismayed at how the meaning of their words has been distorted. 

When any society starts to say that good is bad and evil is right, it shows its moral fiber is being ripped asunder. Christians have not only the right but the responsibility to resist. Toward the end of Henry’s famous speech, he said, “Why stand we here idle? What is it that gentlemen wish?  What would they have?  Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery?”  I submit to you that when we are told that we can decide what we believe and practice it in the pulpit but not in the marketplace and government, this is a form of tyranny. It makes the church a toothless tiger.

Patrick Henry once said, “I know no way of judging the future but by the past.”  If we refuse to learn from the past, this country may be in peril.  This nation was founded by gallant men of faith on the Judeo-Christian ethic.  John Adams, one of our founding fathers, said, “Our constitution was made only for a moral and religious people.  It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.” Democracy can only flourish in an environment of faith and virtue.  What is the basis of our faith?  Henry answered that question, “The Bible is worth all the other books which have ever been written.”

Maybe on July 4th, 2018, Christians in this nation need to be echoing the words of that famous gentleman from the State of Virginia, who said, “Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take, but as for me give me liberty or give me death!” 

Image used with permission by Microsoft.

Ken Barnes the author of “The Chicken Farm and Other Sacred Places”  YWAM Publishing
Email:  kenbarnes737@gmail.com
website: https://sites.google.com/site/kenbarnesbooksite/

Blogs: http://kensblog757.blogspot.com

            http://gleanings757.blogspot.com

The Manifold Wisdom of God

so that the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known through the church to the rulers and the authorities in the heavenly places. (Ephesians 3:10 NASB)

The church is God’s theatre to heaven and earth.  Without embracing God’s full expression on this earth, the church with all its varied expressions, we will never understand God’s multifaceted wisdom.

The Greek word for manifold is (polupoikilos) which expressed the idea of multifaceted.  It was used to represent an intricate embroidery of flowers of many colors.   In the New Testament, it is was used to express “most varied” or “many-sided.”  Every believer in Christ has a theology.  All Christians need to know what they believe and why they believe it, yet those who write systematic theology need to understand their limitations.  They need to grasp their need for other believers, especially with those with whom they may not agree.  Theologically speaking, they may be producing a bouquet of flowers of only one color.

 I was nurtured early on as a Christian in charismatic circles.  I don’t like labels, but back then and even now, we have tension between those we call fundamentalists and charismatics.  Though I was raised spiritually on the charismatic side, I always felt I was too charismatic for the fundamentals and to fundamental for the charismatics.  On one occasion, I was asked by a Baptist pastor to be on the planning committee for a Billy Graham crusade.  It was a smaller city held by one of the associate evangelists of the Graham organization.  One of my charismatic friends said to me, “you’re not going to work with those Baptists, are you?  They do not even believe in speaking in tongues.”  I was a young Christian, and it shook me.  I started to wonder if I should be working with this crusade.  I prayed about my involvement, and something did set well with me about what my friend had said.  I continued my participation in this evangelistic effort, and I learned that these Baptists had forgotten more about evangelism than I would ever know.  Concerning reaching the lost, it was honey straight out of the rock.  If I had allowed the bias of my charismatic friend to affect me, I would have missed this rich learning experience.

On another occasion, I was attending a charismatic church.  We wanted to start a Christian school.  I was a school teacher and had been asked to help in the planning of the school.  The Elder in charge of the school piloted a small plane.  The Elder, the Pastor, myself and another teacher flew from western Pennsylvania to Virginia to attend a conference on how to start a Christian school.  The church that held the conference would have considered a fundamentalist Baptist Church.  For lunch, they put us on a bus and took us to a steakhouse.  On the way, back the Pastor stood up and said that we would make a stop at his Christian bookstore.  He also added, proudly, that in our bookstore there is “absolutely no charismatic materials.”  I was sitting directly in back of my Pastor on the bus.  You could almost see the hair on the back of his neck bristle.   Most on the bus got up and went into the bookstore, including me.  My Pastor and the other two members of our Church appeared as if they were glued to their seats.  I was sorry the Pastor of the Baptist Church felt like he did.  Was I disappointed about his attitude toward charismatics?  Of course, I was, but should that have kept me from learning something from him?  I do not remember buying anything, but I came away understanding a little more about another part of the Body of Christ.  We are going to spend eternity together in heaven; maybe we should get started here on earth.

Of course, we should try to clarify what we believe based on the Word of God, yet we all know in part (1 Corinthians 13:9).  God has designed the Body of Christ so that no one group has a corner on the market of truth.  Theology always has to be within the limits of orthodox Christian thought, but if it is, to discard it, is to take a flower out of the bouquet of God’s earthly expression.   As Augustine said, “in essentials unity, in non-essentials liberty, in all things charity.”

Maybe the reason we have no unity or experience liberty is that we lack charity for others in the Church.  Perhaps we should restate Augustine’s quote.  If we put charity, love for the brethren first, then unity and liberty might fall into place. If we never understand our need for other Christians not like us, we will never have the manifold wisdom of God.

Image used with permission by Microsoft.

Ken Barnes the author of “The Chicken Farm and Other Sacred Places”  YWAM Publishing
Email:  kenbarnes737@gmail.com
website:https://sites.google.com/site/kenbarnesbooksite/

Blogs: http://kensblog757.blogspot.com

            http://gleanings757.blogspot.com