The U.S. presidential election of 2016 is surely one of the most spiritually destructive of the ten presidential elections in my voting experience. I have been deeply troubled by the extent to which many prominent evangelical leaders have stirred up and played on the fears of their people. This has not been American evangelicalism’s finest hour. Fear should not be a defining characteristic of the people of God. The people of God ought rather to be a shining beacon of hope in the darkness of our anxious secular neighbors.
Fear should not be a defining characteristic of the people of God. We are sons and daughters of the God of the universe. Our Father laid the foundations of the earth. Our Father parted waters of the Red Sea. Our Father raised Jesus from death to life. We are not to be a grim, angry, resentful, frightened, pessimistic people. We are to be a shining beacon of hope in the darkness for our anxious secular neighbors. Don’t listen to the fearmongers. Don’t let them make you slaves to dread. Remember who your Father is, and so remember who you are.
Read: Isaiah 51:9-16 and Romans 8:12-17; see also Acts 28:15
Listen (click on link for sermon audio): “A Troubling Election and a People of Hope”
Related Posts:
Pastor’s Note #67 — An Evangelical Pastor’s Concerns about Donald Trump’s Effect on the Spiritual Life of Christians
Pastor Note #8 (9/11/2001) — Presence as Ministry
Prayer Note #54 — Seeking my True Self in God
Prayer Note #47 — A Prayer for Pure Pleasure
©2016 Gary A. Chorpenning; all rights reserved.
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