You are Not Your Own

I really need help understanding how a Christian votes for Obama. Now, I realize that McCain isn't exactly a Godly choice either but there can't be much of a debate that Obama's platform and policy ideas are much further from Biblical values than McCain's.

God has a way of teaching me things. He will typically have the same lesson show up in a couple different places or ways over a very short period of time. That's when I know that it is something He is really trying to impress upon me. On Thursday I heard a "Christian" say she was voting for Obama. However, she wouldn't tell me why except that there was no way she wanted "that woman" in the White House. It made me think of 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 - "You are not your own; you were bought at a price." I don't know many Christians who really take that to heart or who even begin to understand the implications. How many Christians really even know what it MEANS to be a Christian? Even I will admit that there are times where I conveniently forget that verse and follow my own little sidepath for awhile.

Then this morning I take a walk to drop off a book to a guy from care group who couldn't make it Tuesday night. Smack dab in the middle of his front yard is an Obama/Biden sign. He wasn't home so I didn't get a chance to chat about that but it again brought that verse to mind. It also shows me how important it is that he starts coming to our group and starts being discipled. He isn't being taught, or perhaps just not accepting, of the role Christ wants to play in his life. Not only is he voting for Obama but here is a Christian man with a wife and three kids making a public declaration that this is who has his support. I don't call that shining a light in the darkness.

Then I get Bill Keller's devotional today (OK, this is one of those times where God used 3 different sources) and he is talking about being a doer of the word and not just a hearer (James 1:22-24). Of course, any time that God is showing me these lessons by using others He typically has to primary objectives: 1) Things to be thinking about as a care group leader and Christian witness in my everyday life; and 2) Things that I need to be convicted of in my own life as He calls me to live more holy and more obediently.

"If you love me, you will obey me." It doesn't get much simpler or more difficult than that. We so want to feel in control of what we do or say or how we think and live. But that's not what God wants. The hard part is just trusting that His way will ultimately be better for us...and yes...even more joyful. Dying to self daily. Quite a challenge...and I have a feeling it always will be until we shuffle off this mortal coil.