But Have Not Love

Today at church Pastor Ed talked about the newly elected Barack Obama. I know that there are many Evangelical Christians that have some very negative feelings about Mr. Obama. While I do not agree with some of the policies that he has, he is our leader and God's Holy Word has some very important things to say about how we should treat our leaders. Titus 3:1-3 says "Remind them to be submissive to rulers and authorities, to be obedient, to be ready for every good work, 2 to speak evil of no one, to avoid quarreling, to be gentle, and to show perfect courtesy toward all people. " As many of you know I enjoy Facebook, it has been a great tool for me to get in touch with old friends. It has been a blessing! Lately many of my friends have been bickering and fighting, name calling and bashing each other over this whole president thing. This should not be! Fast friends now are disgusted with each other. Is that love? I don't think so. I think many of us "Evangelicals" have forgotten what it means to love. I include myself in the above statement. Who remembers what the greatest commandment is? Love the Lord you God. The second is like it Love your neighbor as yourself (my paraphrase). Where does love fit into all of this anger and fighting? I think it fits in very well where Satan is concerned. Get them fighting and they will be useless. The world will see all the fighting and have no desire to follow Christ! We are commanded to love! Yet we fight. My heart is broken. If we can't love each other because of who our new president is how are we going to love others? How are we going to bring revival to this land? How are we going to bring glory to God. That is why we are here!

Christians are known for what they don't agree with. We are known as anti-gay and anti-abortion. We are looked at as judgemental and arrogant! We should be know by our love! It is possible to love others and yet hate sin. I want to be known as a Christian. A follower of Christ. A lover of others. Not as someone who just condemns others that are not the same as I am. But for the grace of God that saved me! Romans 13:8-10 says "8 Owe no one anything, except to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. 9 For the commandments, “You shall not commit adultery, You shall not murder, You shall not steal, You shall not covet,” and any other commandment, are summed up in this word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” 10 Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law. The whole world is my neighbor. I need to love them more. I would be willing to bet that you do too!

I think it is important for us to love Barack Obama weather we agree with him or not. We need to pray for the leader that God has ordained. We need to pray for each other. Lift each other up. We may have different views of what is right and what is wrong, that does not change what scripture says about how we are to deal with each other and our leaders! Love! I am going to spend some time in the word this week studying more on how to love others and how to treat those who I don't agree with. I will be praying for Barack Obama and his family. I will be praying for this nation. I will be praying that we remember how to love our neighbors! Please join me in this and maybe we will see God do some great things! Thanks to my Pastor for his God given words this morning. God bless you all!