November 23, 2010
Crossing the Line
Our City is a home rule municipality with a Council-Manager form of government. The Council members are elected officials who set policy. The City Manager is hired to administratively carry out the policy set by the Council. However, there are times when the line is blurred. Every once in a while the policy setters slip into micromanaging and try to give instructions on how to carry out policy. We Christians do something similar when we forget that God is the Policy Maker. Believers, as well as Jesus, are charged with carrying out policy. Jesus said, “For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me.” (John 6:38 NIV)
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Gail;
-----“Let no one disqualify you, insisting on self-abasement and worship of angels, taking his stand on visions, puffed up without reason by his sensuous mind, and not holding fast to the Head, from whom the whole body, nourished and knit together through its joints and ligaments, grows with a growth that is from God.” (Col 2:18-19) “I write this to you about those who would deceive you; but the anointing which you received from Him abides in you, and you have no need that any one should teach you; as His anointing teaches you about everything, and is true, and is no lie, just as it has taught you, abide in Him. And now, little children, abide in Him, so that when He appears we may have confidence and not shrink from Him in shame at His coming. If you know that He is righteous, you may be sure that every one who does right is born of Him.” (I John 2:26-29) If you want to see beauty, look at Christ’s authority. If you want to see ugly, give a man a little authority.
-----And the way God has made this present age to operate, there is plenty of ugly for display. “Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. Therefore he who resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment.” (Rom 13:1-2) “Obey your leaders and submit to them; for they are keeping watch over your souls, as men who will have to give account. Let them do this joyfully, and not sadly, for that would be of no advantage to you.” (Heb 13:17) God Himself has given men authority both in government and in the church. One reason He has done this is to secure order, peace, and right deeds between all men in both the activities of people as nations and their interactions within the church.
-----History says enough about man and authority to make any sane person long for the actual governing of man to finally take its actual rest upon His shoulders. I just heard a few minutes ago that North Korea shelled a village in South Korea last night. South Korea responded with an air strike. Over what? Possessions? Territory? The ability of someone’s ideas to control other people’s lives? Last week the Pentagon concluded an airplane had laid down a contrail which appeared curiously like that of a missile. Really? An airplane could ascend at that steep of an angle at such a speed it would be mistaken for a missile? And this curiosity would just coincidentally arise from the vicinity of an offshore island strictly controlled by the military? Uh-huh. Circle on a globe all the areas of rampant hunger, disease, and squalor. Now circle on a globe all the areas of corrupt government. Try it. It is educational.
-----I believe another reason God has given man a portion of authority on earth, in both governments and in the church, is to make clear demonstration that He did not make any of His creatures to govern over any other of His creatures. This instrument of peace and righteousness has been wielded by man to paint the earth with blood. And the church has stroked the earth with its brush as well.
-----What man has refused to acknowledge (men in the church, too) is that the authority God gives is an instrument for His purposes, not for man’s purposes. God’s purposes are about love and concern for others. Not just the heady stuff existing in good thoughts and feelings claimed to be towards others. But in working to effect the substantive and actual well being of others. As a whole, we people do not yet have hearts capable of containing such purity.
Love you all,
Steve Corey
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