Vote vs. Action
In the wake of the recent elections, I have to look back at how all elections are portrayed. Its almost like the Armageddon preachers on the side of the street. The end is near, the end is near, but haven’t we heard that in every election? And why is it that we only hear about this every four years? Do we truly believe that a vote is more powerful than action? Do we believe that voting is our only action?
Although I am a Christian in this nation I do not believe that I live in a Christian nation. I live in a republic, full of all kinds of people, which makes us a blended nation. With that said, I do not find in the Bible that America is or was God’s chosen land, and believe it our not we are not His original chosen people. Yes I know Christians are grafted onto the tree, through the grace and majesty of our Lord, but that doesn’t mean the same thing.
So what am I trying to get at? In Luke when Jesus its calling His disciples, they not only had to express with their voices that they would follow, but also had to get into action. Imagine this: after Saul gets knocked off his rocker and finds Jesus, he turns his name to Paul and simply votes that Jesus is Lord. He doesn’t go throughout the land testifying that the disciples he once was hunting down to kill, were correct in their faith. He doesn’t end up writing two thirds of the New Testament. Would Christianity have survived?
I was listening to Pandora yesterday on my Matthew West channel and this song came on talking about this same thing. The question posed in the song is: why doesn’t God do something about the world, all the evil, sin and hatred, about the starving children, about the orphans and widows? The answer is in the chorus, “He did, He created you.”
When I was lost, I hated Christians much like Paul did when he was Saul. I, like him, strove to murder them, only I wanted to murder their faith, trying to tear apart their faith with science and logic. Ironically that is how Christ found me, but that’s a different story. Part of the reason I had that anger towards Christians is because so many talked with their lips, voted against me in their elections, voted against me with their judgments, picketed their hatred of sin, while sinning themselves, hypocrites.
But one man, one of the Found, not just a Christian by birth, not just a Christian by church, but someone who had conversations with Jesus, someone who loved others, who instead of just voting his convictions and faith, acted on them. He was honest with his struggles and didn’t present himself as perfect. And he was always ready to act at the prompting of the Holy Spirit, Who told him to go buy me a Bible when I needed it most. It was that Bible that I was reading when I became saved. Jesus found me weeping on my bed, reading His word in Matthew in June of 2002, greatly because a man chose loving over judging, helping instead of watching, action over simply voting.
What is the Holy Spirit saying to you?
