I hope you had a good day. I had a beautiful Christmas, the best in a long time. A lot of us in Church gathered together. Great fellowship, good discussion, care and prayer, God's love.
Did you notice that the Queen, in her speech, pointedly, stoically refused to commend the winner of the American election or indeed refer in any direct way to the election at all, and ended with a statement recommending that people draw strength from Jesus of Nazareth. That was good.
She did not present the full gospel message at all times however, at times she seemed to be presenting the gospel in what Christian writer C.S Lewis called an 'all things in moderation style' typical of a lukewarm C of E coterie. ( Down to her scriptwriters, doubtless.) Some C of E representatives are so keen to try to deny Jesus' miracles in order to impress stale old academics that it is they who shock their parishioners with their unbelief, and not vice versa. (This seems to be happening quite a bit today, as well as in the past).
Here is Christian writer C.S Lewis on the matter. In his book on tempters and their plotting, a senior demon writes to a junior demon, lecturing him again and again on how to ruin a Christian's life. ( It's a good book, the demons fail in all their efforts in the truly converted Christian's case).
"As always, the first step is to keep knowledge out of his mind. Do not let him suspect the law of undulation. Let him assume that the first ardours of his conversion might have been expected to last, and ought to have lasted, forever, and that his present dryness is an equally permanent condition. Having once got this misconception well fixed in his head, you may then proceed in various ways. It all depends on whether your man is of the desponding type who can be tempted to despair, or of the wishful-thinking type who can be assured that all is well. The former type is getting rare among the humans. If your patient should happen to belong to it, everything is easy. You have only got to keep him out of the way of experienced Christians (an easy task now-a-days), to direct his attention to the appropriate passages in scripture, and then to set him to work on the desperate design of recovering his old feelings by sheer will-power, and the game is ours. If he is of the more hopeful type, your job is to make him acquiesce in the present low temperature of his spirit and gradually become content with it, persuading himself that it is not so low after all. In a week or two you will be making him doubt whether the first days of his Christianity were not, perhaps, a little excessive. Talk to him about "moderation in all things". If you can once get him to the point of thinking that "religion is all very well up to a point", you can feel quite happy about his soul. A moderated religion is as good for us as no religion at all—and more amusing. "
The scriptures explain that The Lord ensures that true believers who put their faith in him, come through. Here, the Apostle Paul, to the early Church.
'Being confident of this very thing, that he which has begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.'
The Queen ended her speech with a statement recommending that people look to Jesus and draw strength from Jesus. That was good.
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Here's an interesting clip from Hannity and co, 'Obama's Radicalism' showing his radical connections . Barack Obama probably got into Harvard University thanks to some sort of push from Islam extremists, and there is more info on his 'community organization' training. All from radical extremists with far out views. Part 1 here.
And Part 2. and Part 3. and Part 4.
n.b. when watching this, bear in mind that Jesus is indeed the great redeemer and liberator for the oppressed (there is one point in the videos where there seems to be confusion about that fact ). Don't let anyone tell you different. Click here for the scripture and the different bible translations.
Jesus is Not a politically motivated liberator, no. He never has been, and he is 'the same yesterday, today and forever'. During his ministry here on earth he refused to get involved in politics.
He came to set us free from sin and death and the kingdom of satan's destruction.
'King James Bible
The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised..'
A lot of people didn't like Jesus' message, it didn't suit their political purposes. And they thought their purposes were pressing, exceptional. They wanted a King who'd set them free from their various oppressors through political means; the Sanhedrin wanted someone who'd free them specifically from the Romans, by force; many others wanted a King who'd use political force to free them from the Romans and the Sanhedrin alike. ..
That wasn't Jesus' mission.
You can pray to the Lord to be released from oppressors in this world, to be delivered from their oppression. You can. The answer to prayer won't be politics. Or a politician. See the Acts of the Apostles, and many more scriptures in the bible.
This is beautiful. Paul equates being free with being an apostle for Christ.
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