1-5-08
As we have come up to this election -getting wrapped up in it long before we normally do -one thing that we all have been able to see is that there have been lots of candidates but few stand out favorites. It may be that the Iowa caucus saw the emergence of a standout favorite in the Democratic party, but within the Republican party it looks like from state to state we will see different winners and no clear national favorite.
As a nation we may be more divided in our priorities than we ever have been. I was surprised to hear on a news report last night that Iowa was a strongly anti-Iraq war state. If this is how the heartland views the Iraq war, I can't imagine how widespread the pacifism stretches, which may be exactly where the momentum behind Senator Obama stems from.
Di-vision. Have you ever noticed how the word "division" breaks down? "di" means two, so essentially what we have in this word is "vision" -which is from God- that is split in two, or di-vision.
In Psalm 133:1 the psalmist sings, "Behold how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity." He ends the chorus in verse 3 by declaring that that when "brethren" are "dwelling together in unity," "there the Lord commanded the blessing."
Unity of vision is very important for the blessing to rest upon us as the believing Remnant in the United States of America. Will we be able to find unity and rally around a candidate who truly represents the LORD's vision for His people in the United States, or will try to go forward in our broken 'denominationalism' in this election? We should take notice about the unity that is gathering around a candidate who does not represent a minimum of our values and remember what can built and accomplished with unity even for forces that are in opposition to the values of God.
As someone who has followed Israeli politics for many years, I have be a witness to how divisiveness has just about rendered the Israeli political process completely impotent. In that system dozens of political parties represent so many divisions of interests that there is almost nothing that can be accomplished any more in such a fractured state. There are few places where unity ever emerges in the Israeli population. Only when when Israel is suddenly thrust into war does unity emerge among the citizens. At that point the Jews stop fighting each other and realize that truly, 'united they stand and divided the fall.'
As we approach these elections, this would be a good thing for us to remember as the people of God seeking to elect God's choice of leader for our nation.
A couple of days ago I attended a prophetic conference in the north Texas area where one of the most anointed voices within the Israeli believing Messianic Remnant spoke. I was so encouraged by something Asher Intrater related to the crowd gathered in the NTU coliseum as an aside to the main point of his message. I was encourage by the response even more than what he related!
Asher told this stadium crowd of several thousand – that he went to his son who is a commander in the Israeli army of 150 men and serves on the dangerous border with Lebanon.
Asher asked his son Y, ‘What does the Israeli army think about the U.S. presence in Iraq?”
And Y answered, ‘The strongest danger for Israel and our army is on our northern border with the Hezballah terror group in Lebanon. Next door Syria is funneling weapons to Hezballah and on the other side of Iraq, Iran is funneling funds to Hezballah. The Israeli army is very glad that there is a U.S. presence in Iraq that acts as a wall of protection for Israel.”
The crowd went absolutely nuts- exploding into cheers and applause! This statement created the strongest, most joyous response of the entire message. My own heart leapt to see the overwhelming rejoicing and welcome that statement brought from the crowd.
Frankly I was shocked at the response because we have been hearing mostly just the the nay-sayers who oppose the war in Iraq and only find fault with the U.S. having entered into the dangerous nation in the League of Terroristic States. I frankly did not even know there were that many believers left who understood the importance of the U.S. having gone in to and remaining in Iraq.
Our God-directed president engaged that battle in the war on terrorism in order to take down Saddam and his brutal heirs; to cut off a strategic player in state sponsored terrorism; and to keep troops on the ground long enough to stabilize Iraq--a nation that had been ruled with the iron fist of ruthless brutality for decades. That is not an 'in one day, out the next' job. For Iraq to function in a stable, more democratic fashion, our commitment has to be for the long haul.
The anti-war ("nothing is worth fighting for") crowd has been given the most coverage in the news media. How a story is told over and over again, whether true or whether highly prejudicial, can establish falsehoods as facts. People will believe a lie if it is repeated often enough, and the lie that we have no good reason for being having gone into Iraq and for still being there has certainly been the daily drumbeat of the mainstream news media. Except that God exposes reality to His people, those who are blinded by deception will continue groping in the dark believing things that are not.
This is why I have had the sense that during this process of choosing our presidential candidates, the LORD will allow reality to burst in on the consciousness of American voters. It is because I believe He wants to ultimately have mercy upon us.
In a small way, the terrorist attack that took the life of Pakistani Benazir Bhutto was a warning alarm. It caught our momentary attention but apparently was not enough of an alarm to Christian voters. We have yet to fully realize our imperative to place into office a leader who has understanding of the times in terms of the threat of radical Islamic terrorism.
Recently someone emailed me objecting to an e-column I wrote about not making the abortion issue the litmus test of our choice of candidate. The person objected saying that we were experiencing terrorism because of abortions in the U.S. That is just a patent misunderstanding of the anti-christ underpinnings of the global phenomenon of radical Islam on in our day! (To the Jew first, but also to the nations!)
The ruthless world-domination goals of the radical Islamist movement is a far more ominous spirit of mass murder than that which is attached to abortion. We better lift up our heads and see the true nature behind this battle ...as well as what type of unity as God's people that will bring us protection against all the murderous spirits roaming about devouring human life in the name of Mohammad.
Several days ago there was an Islamic "honor" killing in my Dallas-Fort Worth area, where an Islamic taxi driver killed his 17 and 18 year old daughters. If we don't want to live in a world where this becomes a routine occurrence, we better awaken to the fact that we must resist radical Islam both spiritually in proclaiming the gospel and physically in war.
Today the spiritual reality and the earthly reality are intersecting as one before our eyes as never before, and it is a great mistake to continue to think in terms of two completely separate realities. This war is a spiritual war - make no mistake.
I have said all that to say this: The active, aggressive war on radical Islamic terrorism that President Bush initiated as a long term battle for the survival of the United States and our allies, was not a mistake. Christians must not be deceived into thinking that this is not our battle because the fighting is not taking place on our shores.
We will either install a president into office that is going to fight terrorism from a gut level understanding that it is an antichrist spirit seeking world domination, or we are going to elect someone who is passive and unware that we are like the proverbial frog in the kettle slowly heating up to a rolling boil.
I believe in God's mercy. I believe that in the horrific events of 9/11, God in His mercy awakened a sleeping America to a threat we had be ignoring. As a nation, we had been saying that it was Israel's battle, not ours, and we were dead wrong. In God's mercy, President Bush arose to that occasion at the 9/11 wake up call and he ordered our troops to engage in the long term battle that is surely arrayed against us.
If most in our nation now think the danger has passed, how foolish are we? If we think it is no longer important to have the Most Powerful Leader in the World to be a man that understands and has the will to fight Islamic terrorism, then we are moving toward a nation in decline not into spiritual ascension. I believe God in His mercy will allow events to awaken us if we continue in drowsy spiritual mode towards this battle.
We must not be divided as believers for our nation to stand. We must find a presidential candidate that we can all back in unity, who addresses all the critical issues important to us as believers.
Let us pray for unity among the believers and for God to clearly show all those with ears to hear and eyes to see, who He has anointed to lead the United States of America into the future with His mercies and blessing.
I hope it is not the case the #1 issue in Iowa is that everyone plays nice in their commercials over all the real issues we have to deal with! No one is fond of negative ads and political mud-slinging but there are some real issues that we have to get real with. Iowa is well known for wanting everyone to play nice, but with stakes this high, we don't need to be caught up in our reputation, we need to get to the bottom of who is the best qualified person to lead our country.
Iraq is not the #1 issue, it is only a part of the #1 issue which is what will our leader do about the war with Islamic terrorism that is in full swing globally? Do we really want another Jimmy Carter in the White House at an hour like this? A wonderful smile is great for popularity contests, but I want someone who is clear eyed about our world and with the strength, will and courage to what he has to do to protect our nation and freedom.
If that just sounds corny, I think some people need to start reading their newspapers again. I say this because I hear Christians say all the time how they don't read the newspaper or watch the news anymore because it is only "bad news." H-e-l-l-o! Welcome to real world where lots of bad is afoot that needs to be countered with godly wisdom and strength.
We are not of the world, but we are in the world, and we need to do more in our world than just go from spiritual meeting to spiritual meeting. Sandwiched in there needs to be that military term Jesus used in the parable that addressed men's hopes about when the kingdom of God would appear: "Occupy until I come."
That word "occupy" is pragmateuomai, where we get the word pragmatic. It means "to carry on." We must be pragmatic about the problems we face in our world today and not merely try to wish them away as I hear so many expressing out there in Iowa and New Hampshire with the "We want change" mantra. Of course, we want change, but let's face it wishing the warfare would go away never has caused it to go away. We have to be more pragmatic about living in the real world and "carry on" with the business of resisting evil - after submitting to God. Only then will the devils flee.
