allegiance

For I Am Convinced . . .

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“I’m absolutely convinced that nothing—nothing living or dead, angelic or demonic, today or tomorrow, high or low, thinkable or unthinkable—absolutely nothing can get between us and God’s love because of the way that Jesus our Master has embraced us” (Romans 8:38-39, The Message).

I think if all of us could memorize one Scripture passage, Romans 8:38-39 would be a good one. If you’re feeling brave, you could tackle Romans 8:31-39. It’s a majestic collection of verses that comforts those who belong to Jesus through the best and worst of times.

I really believe that if we truly understood and embraced that nothing in all the world can separate us from Christ’s love, we’d be different people. We would live and speak and work and play and exist in a different way. We’d be much bolder in our witness. We’d be less fearful in our risk-taking. We’d be more obedient more quickly to whatever God asks of us. There would be no question as to where our allegiance lies and whom we serve. It would be crystal clear.

Then why don’t we live as though we believe it? Maybe because we don’t really pay attention to it anymore. We’ve let CNN and Fox News and TikTok and Facebook tells us what to believe rather than going back to those precious promises found in God’s Word. We let the world around us teach us theology rather than see the world through the theological lens of Scripture.

I believe that if what you practice and what you preach don’t line up, eventually you will end up not living what you believe but instead believing what you live (with all credit to Cardinal Fulton J. Sheen). If you have unconfessed sin and unbaptized desires, you will end up building your theology around your sin and embracing teaching that justifies your lifestyle rather than holding a mirror up to it (and Jackie Hill Perry said it so much better than I just did).

Let the truth of God’s love sink in and let it overwhelm and transform you. As another famous passage in Romans says, don’t be conformed to the world’s way of thinking and living any longer but be transformed by letting God’s Word renew your mind. Then you can live out this passage to the fullest.

Resist?

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Here I am, thinking out loud again. That may get me into trouble, but I think I need to air out some of my thoughts on the whole idea of resisting for a committed follower of Jesus. These views do not reflect the views of my church or my city, yada yada yada. You know the drill.

Somehow, I think the whole mentality of resisting is similar to what people have said about Christians, especially here in America. Mostly, they’re known more for what they’re against rather than what they’re for. And that’s what strikes me about resisting.

People will say that the disciples were resisting when they were arrested and went back out and went right back to preaching in the synagogue again. I think it was more a matter of an allegiance to a higher power that overrode any civil or human authority. They didn’t have the mentality of “Well, since they tried to shut us down, we’re going to go at it twice as hard to shame them.” It was more like “Even though we submit to all human authority as commanded by God, in this matter we must obey God rather than man.”

I do think that we should never submit to anything that violates our faith or commands us to engage in sin. I do think we still proclaim that Christ is Lord even when the higher powers want us to bow the knee to Caesar (or to the modern equivalent).

It’s not a prideful resisting but a humble acknowledgment that our allegiance is to God rather than man. We’re not being contrarian. We simply believe that when it comes to a choice between man-made laws and the laws of God, God’s law wins every time.

I also think that we’re still commanded to love our enemies and pray for those in authority over us, whether we like them or agree with them or not. I prayed for Biden and now I pray for Trump that both would seek God’s wisdom in governing this nation of ours.

Jesus’ mission wasn’t primarily to oppose Rome or the religious leaders of the day. His main goal was obedience to the Father rather than civil disobedience. I’m sure to the Pharisees and Scribes, what he did looked like breaking their laws just to break them, but in reality, Jesus never once broke one of the laws that God set in place through the Torah.

I believe that as the end times draw nearer, our allegiance to God will come more and more into conflict with the laws of the state. Then we will have to choose to follow God or follow man. We may have to choose between persecution up to and including death or denying our faith to save our own skin. It will look like resisting. Maybe that’s what it really is. But ultimately, it will still be obedience to the highest authority and the ultimate allegiance to the only true King.

Happy Birthday, ‘Murica!

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“The nation whose True God is the Eternal is truly blessed;
    fortunate are all whom He chooses to inherit His legacy” (Psalm 33:12, The Voice).

Well, America is 239 years old today. And she doesn’t look a day over 190. Tops.

Today is the day we celebrate the Declaration of Independence, which said that we would no longer be colonies of Great Britain, but that we would indeed be the United States of America.

Today is a good day to remember all the freedoms that we normally take for granted.

The freedom to worship as you choose? Or not to worship at all? Don’t take that for granted.

The freedom to live as you choose? Don’t take that for granted either.

The freedom to disagree with each other (and hopefully be civil about it) and to even disagree with the powers that be? Definitely do not take that one for granted.

Many have fought and died for your freedoms. People through the ages have sacrificed greatly so that they could come to this great land of opportunity to find new lives here.

Is America perfect? Of course not.

Does she have a lot in her past to be ashamed of? Yes.

Does she also have a lot in her past to be proud of? Absolutely.

Remember this — as believers, we are ultimately not citizens of America (or any other country). We are citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven. When all other kingdoms have fallen (including the one under the red, white, and blue flag), this Kingdom will stand.

Your ultimate allegiance isn’t to a flag or to a president or to a political party or to an ideal.

Your ultimate allegiance is to a King and a Kingdom. to Jesus Christ as King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

Now go be patriotic and eat lots of grilled meats and drink lots of carbonated beverages!

“All religious and political systems, Right and Left alike, are the work of human beings. Abba’s children will not sell their birthright for any mess of pottage, conservative or liberal. They hold fast to their freedom in Christ to live the gospel-uncontaminated by cultural junk, political wreckage, and the complex hypocrisies of a bullying religion” (Brennan Manning).