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ChristianGovernance Christmas message
From: ChristianGovernance eletter, December 26, 2012
For many people, Christmas is a time for nostalgia.
For us at ChristianGovernance, it is a time to look forward with enthusiasm and confidence because we believe that we are in the business of advancing the Kingdom of God.
Jesus Christ is King. Do not let discouragement or despondency be the last word in your life. If you can’ get beyond despair in Canada or the U.S., move to another country where the Church is growing and the Kingdom of God is expanding in a more evident fashion.
The Church is to blame for the growing wickedness in North America. We are compromised and backslidden so God won’t use us to “leaven” society and restrain evil. The good news about this is that, although you can only change yourself, you CAN change yourself – through repentance and diligent obedience.
The bad news is that we might look around and see that so many professing Christians are content with the current situation, blind to the sin and judgment all around us. There may be more bad news – perhaps we are part of the problem, and we don’t realize it because we’re too busy criticizing others.
If you’re so righteous, if I’m so on the ball, what are we doing about becoming more winsome and expanding our circles of influence? What are we doing to build relationships by coming alongside people, by mentoring others, rather than simply shouting from our podiums? Follow me as I follow Christ, Paul wrote. Can we say that? For me, that has required stepping outside my comfort zone, but the more I do it, the more fun I have – and the more confidence to keep moving in that direction.
We have to expand our circles of influence if we are going to see the Kingdom of God advanced. That means work that is blessed by God and, therefore, faithful to the Gospel and the whole counsel of God – worldview Christianity.
Click here to read a rather provocative article. It will make some of you angry. I think it’s accurate. I think that it illustrates a broader point that is not explicitly stated there – that too many of us are desperate and, therefore, we are looking for shortcuts for reformation. One of the leading shortcuts is to use the power of the state rather than doing the slower, more involved work of bottom-up, disciple-making cultural reformation work. With that in mind, I hope you find the article constructively provocative.
2013 is another year for advancing the Kingdom of God. “Retreat” is a “four-letter word.” So is “détente.”
If you sang “Joy to the World” this Christmas season, you sang about the Satan-crushing advancement of the Kingdom of God in history: “He comes to make His blessings flow far as the curse is found.” This is a comprehensive Kingdom which imposes obligations on civil magistrates along with everyone else: “…And makes the nations prove the glories of His righteousness,and wonders of His love.”
Joy to the World , the Lord is come!
Let earth receive her King;
Let every heart prepare Him room,
And Heaven and nature sing,
And Heaven and nature sing,
And Heaven, and Heaven, and nature sing.
Joy to the World, the Savior reigns!
Let men their songs employ;
While fields and floods, rocks, hills and plains
Repeat the sounding joy,
Repeat the sounding joy,
Repeat, repeat, the sounding joy.
No more let sins and sorrows grow,
Nor thorns infest the ground;
He comes to make His blessings flow
Far as the curse is found,
Far as the curse is found,
Far as, far as, the curse is found.
He rules the world with truth and grace,
And makes the nations prove
The glories of His righteousness,
And wonders of His love,
And wonders of His love,
And wonders, wonders, of His love.