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21 Dec

Pray for Sandy Hook and More

Posted by Zachary P. Hubbard in advice, Poverty, Prayer, Sandy Hook Elementary School, Unemployment. Tagged: advice, Poverty, Prayer, Sandy Hook, Unemployment. Leave a comment

“The world as God designed it was the best of all possible worlds, but it has now become the worst of all possible worlds; in fact, the Bible reveals that it could not be any worse than it is. Individual men who take the wrong line can get worse, but the world itself cannot get worse. Grief brings a man to see this more quickly than anything else and he longs for an umpire who will hold the scales.” —Oswald Chambers

The recent shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School have left the minds of many spinning—such horrific acts defy the human mind’s ability to understand. We’ll probably never learn the shooter’s motive or understand the thoughts that were going through his head on that terrible day.

Watching friends and family of the victims being interviewed, it’s clear that many of them are experiencing difficulty simply trying to explain their feelings in the wake of the calamity. They just can’t seem to find the words. At times when others are hurting and we can’t seem to find the right words, good people everywhere ought to pray.

There’s no need to be eloquent in your prayers, just pause, get in touch with God and let the Spirit do the rest. Romans 8:26 tells us, “…the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered” (NKJV). Before going to bed tonight take a minute to drop to your knees and lift up the families, friends and loved ones of all whose lives have been affected by the Sandy Hook tragedy.

While Sandy Hook might be foremost in our thoughts and prayers today, never forget that there are far more Americans elsewhere who are also suffering greatly. For many Americans, 2013 promises only uncertainty and potential disaster. I recently joined a local job networking group. Although currently unemployed, I’m fortunate enough to be a military retiree with a dependable monthly paycheck and medical benefits. Most in the group aren’t so lucky. Many struggle to make a mortgage payment, others are facing looming homelessness and still others don’t even have enough money to pay for gas to drive to our networking meetings.

As Jesus tells us, we will always have the poor with us. Unfortunately, there’s a new variety of the poor in America. It’s composed of educated, middle class people who have worked for years and now find themselves struggling through long periods of unemployment. The American middle class is shrinking while those living in poverty grows proportionately.

As our politicians bicker over taxes and spending, it appears that the federal emergency unemployment benefits that are currently in effect might be allowed to expire on December 31^st. This would place many more American families at risk. Judging by the news, the politicians are nearly out of time and ideas as to how to reduce the massive national debt and get spending under control. It’s time that we turned to God for ideas.

So while you’re on your knees tonight, don’t stop after saying a prayer for Sandy Hook. Also ask God to help our nation by blessing our elected officials on both sides of the aisle and giving them the wisdom and courage to do what’s best for America in the coming year.

May you have a very merry Christmas and a blessed New Year!

27 Sep

Religion and Politics Don’t Mix

Posted by Zachary P. Hubbard in Politics, Poor, Poverty, Religion. Tagged: politics, presidential election campaign, religion. 1 comment

^“Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.” — James 1:27 (NIV)

There has been much discussion about religion during the current presidential election campaign. At one time or another, candidates from all of the parties have invoked the name of God to support their respective causes (the lone exception perhaps being the National Atheist Party).

With all of the problems in our national politics, it makes one wonder whether God could possibly support any party’s platform. I recently heard an evangelist state unequivocally that, “neither the Democratic nor the Republican party supports the Gospel of Jesus Christ.” During the sermon he referenced a publication called “Christ and the Needy,” a piece penned by Abraham Kuyper in 1895.

I’d never heard of Kuyper (also spelled Kuijper), so I decided to Google him. It turns out he was a Dutch politician and theologian. Based upon my subsequent reading of “Christ and the Needy,” which I found online, he appears to have been theologian first and politician second.

Kuyper, who was a Calvanist, noted that while some politicians might support reforms closely paralleling Jesus’ teachings on social justice, there is one profound difference. The ultimate aim of a politician’s rhetoric is to get elected and consolidate political power for his/her party; the aim of Jesus Christ’s preaching was to lead lost souls to the Kingdom of Heaven. For this reason, religion and politics can never successfully mix.

Following Kuyper’s logic, while it’s important for Christians to be informed on key political issues and to vote accordingly, it is unwise to tie one’s Christian beliefs too closely to one political party or another. Therefore, after careful self-examination, Christians should vote for the candidates whose positions most closely align with their own religious convictions. This approach does not lend itself to so called “straight ticket” voting. Each candidate should be judged on his or her own merits.

Reading “Christ and the Needy” got me thinking about a recent trip my wife and I took to Harlan County, Kentucky, my birthplace. Harlan is situated in the extreme southeastern corner of the state, in the heart of Appalachia. Its entire economy is built around coal and little else.

Many if not most of Harlan County’s citizens are in economic dire straits to say the least. The ramshackle homes of those living in abject poverty are a poignant contradiction to the scenic beauty of the area’s mountains. Sadly, we don’t hear our presidential candidates talking much about Harlan’s poor or the poor elsewhere in the nation. Could this be because a large portion of them don’t vote? James 1:27 states, “Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.”(NIV)

Television comedian and entertainer Stephen Colbert, a Roman Catholic, is quick to comment on politics from a religious perspective. He recently said of the United States, “If this is going to be a Christian nation that doesn’t help the poor, either we have to pretend that Jesus was just as selfish as we are, or we’ve got to acknowledge that He commanded us to love the poor and serve the needy without condition and then admit that we just don’t want to do it.”

It is fitting and proper for governments to help the poor and needy, but the actions of government are by their very nature “polluted” by the world of politics. Jesus calls upon all Christians to care for those who cannot care for themselves. He doesn’t tell governments to do this. Unfortunately, as Colbert so clearly points out, far too many Christians and Christian churches have failed to answer this call. For the individual Christians and churches that have chosen to lift up the banner of this or that political cause, perhaps your time could be better spent lifting up the cross of Jesus and following Him.