Sometimes we get caught up in something that engulfs us when all we ever wanted to do was the right thing. When the lava begins flowing over us it is suddenly we realize that maybe we should have checked that mountain a little more carefully before we began climbing it. If Rick Warren is feeling that way this morning it is understandable. If he is not feeling that way then maybe he does not fully realize the problem he is creating for himself and his followers.
History is full of Christian leaders who wandered into the political arena and got their hands slapped. Billy Graham later admitted that he felt “duped” by President Nixon because he had no idea concerning the corruption and profanity that dominated Mr. Nixon and his associates during Watergate. Dr. Graham was a lot more careful with his future involvement with Presidents from then on. Jerry Falwell went on, “Donahue” and tried to lecture the world the same way he did his church congregation and ignominiously failed. Pat Roberston has always been political and every year he loses more and more credibility. This leads to a very good question:
Should evangelical Christian leaders get involved in national politics?
The answer biblically is the same anwer historically. The answer is no.
If these men of God were wearing the bracelet, ”WWJD,” they would confine their comments to within the realm of their spiritual sphere and let the world around them continue to stumble politically and financially until its inevitable ruin. Like Greece and Rome before us, we have become a civilization of egotistical fools. We play more, we spend more, we lie more, we cheat more and we will collapse from within just like our historical counterparts. When Jesus walked this earth, he did not try to reform the Roman government nor did he endeavor to rearrange the Jewish system of laws and tribunals. He preached an ALTERNATIVE to the corrupt human nature around him: The Kingdom of God. He was interested in eternal souls, not political reformation. It was not His mission to replace an emperor or a rabbi; it was His passion to reach out to those who needed everlasting life.
Rick Warren has seemed to forget this mission. Jesus is no longer his message. There is a new savior at Saddleback Church these days. It is not the Lord and Savior Christ. It is Rick Warren. He is the message. People are no longer talking about Jesus, they are talking about Rick. And Obama. And politics and gays and Muslims and same sex marriages. There needs to be a priority check here and Rick Warren needs to become PASTOR Rick Warren again and get the hell out of the way of what Jesus wants to do in and through his life.
It used to be that when people heard Rick Warren’s name they praised the God he exalted and the church the Lord Jesus built in His name. Now, the name of Rick Warren is not as much, “The Purpose Driven Life,” but, “The Political Driven Pastor.” Get back to your first love, Rick. Tell Obama thank you for thinking of you as his inaugural prayer guy and spend that day in California seeking souls. You are becoming a lightning rod for all the wrong people, all the wrong causes and all the wrong reasons. Satan is delighted to see your new career. Just as he tried to get Jesus off the track by tempting Him in the desert, he is luring you into an odyssey of confusion and spiritual impotence. Do not let him succeed here. Stay strong and resist the temptation of worldly power and illusionary influence. It is a trap. Let Obama be Caesar and you be the servant of Jesus. Period.
The world does not want to be changed but there are thousands of searching individuals who do want to live forever. Focus on them while there is still time.
Heaven, not earth, is counting on you. Believe it.
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