Arrogant. Dishonest. Immoral. Profane. Unkind. How’s that for a list of very unflattering words? Not only do those words bespeak a lack of character, integrity and morality, they are the words used daily, both in public and in private, to describe our two 2016 candidates for President of these United States.

In fairness, some of those words and perhaps all could be used to describe us at points in our lives. Hopefully those points would be in our “pre-surrender to Christ” days.

However, we must confess we all have sinned and continue to do so, thus prompting repentance and requests for forgiveness.

It is shocking, however, and greatly concerning to me and apparently many others, that high praise for spiritual and moral character seems to be in short supply for our presidential candidates.

If it was just a matter of words, that would be one thing. But the arrogance is astounding, profanity regularly punctuates primary speeches, dishonesty has been documented, immorality has been illuminated, and unkind could be the word best used to describe the whole spectacle of the presidential debates.

Early on President Obama said, “America is not a Christian nation.” One has to ask if that is an observation or a prophetic insight.

Prayer in the Capitol Building

Linda and I spent time early on in 2016 visiting Washington DC. We had a wonderful trip and were privileged to minister in our nation’s capital.

Some dear friends of ours moved to DC a couple years earlier to minister in our capital city. Through a series of events, relationships and God’s favor, they were able to secure a room within the Capitol building itself for a Wednesday evening Bible study/prayer meeting.

To give a little context, this was the first time in over one hundred and forty years that a regularly scheduled, on going prayer service was being held in the Capitol building.

So when I say Linda and I were privileged to minister in our nation’s capital, I mean in our nation’s Capitol!

More and more congress men and women are attending this service. Our friends are having regular times of private prayer and fellowship with our congressional leaders.

God is moving in the hearts and lives of many of our elected officials and for this we should all be thankful and encouraged.

After our time of ministry through singing and preaching, we were privileged to take a special tour of the Capitol building. Our local representative from East Texas, Louie Gohmert, was our guide. Louie is a good friend, a true conservative and a wonderful Christian brother. He took us places and showed us things the normal daily tours miss. There are probably very few more qualified to speak about our nation’s history than Louie. He loves to talk about our founding fathers, the price of freedom and the Declaration of Independence, The Constitution and The Bill of Rights.

God was in, through and above all that birthed this nation. That is simply undeniable.

But my, how far we’ve come! We’ve kicked God out of our schools, banned prayer and the Ten Commandments whenever and wherever possible, made same-sex marriage the law of the land, made the killing of millions of innocent babies for convenience legal, and now can no longer define what constitutes a man or a woman.

Christianity is being attacked and marginalized before our very eyes.

A “Civilized Nation”

While we were in DC we went to the Holocaust Museum. I had been to the Holocaust Memorial Museum in Dachau, Germany back in the early seventies. In the mid-eighties Linda and I visited Yad Vashem, World Holocaust Remembrance Center in Jerusalem, Israel.

Each time I was struck by the absolutely insane brutality visited on the Jewish people and others, by a “civilized nation” under the arrogant, dishonest, immoral, profane and unkind leadership of an individual.

Now while some of you are catching your breath, wondering if I am likening the state of our nation to Nazi Germany or our leaders to Hitler, let me say this: We’re not to that point and I pray we never will be, but any and all arrogance, dishonesty, immorality, profanity and unkindness is the absolute antithesis of humility, truthfulness, morality, holiness and goodness.

And when these Godly qualities are absent, ungodliness wins the day.

I’m not what you would call an overly political person. Like Chuck Colson said, “The Kingdom of God is not going to arrive on Air Force One.”

However, if Christians aren’t willing to speak up, take action, fight for our rights, defend the innocent, denounce injustice and cast our vote, not for a person or a party, but for a nation “Under God,” what then should we expect?

The Lesser of Two Evils?

During the 2016 race many said, “It looks like the upcoming election will be about ‘the lesser of two evils.’” My friend said, “It’s always been about the lesser of two evils unless Jesus Christ was on the ballot.”

Well said! The system has its flaws and people are imperfect, but God is in control and He still saves.

If Saul, the great persecutor of the early Church, can be knocked to the ground to be humbled by a Holy God and blinded so he might see clearly the way of truth and righteousness, then there is hope for any and all who might aspire to lead this nation.

One Nation Under God?

Join with me to commit to complain less and pray more. Let’s not just hope someone does something to protect the innocent unborn, but let us rejoin the fight and find what we can do.

We must guard against a cynicism that suggests all our leaders are corrupt. Let’s pray for those in authority (which is our scriptural mandate) and be encouraged by the many in offices of governmental leadership who love Jesus.

Don’t we benefit from those who tell us they appreciate us, love us and pray for us?

I would imagine our congress men and women would be blessed likewise by a letter or phone call letting them know we appreciate their service to our nation and we are praying for them.

Our nation, no matter what its present condition, is in the hands of God. “For there is no authority except from God, and those which exist are established by God” (Romans 13:1).

This is one of those oft-debated portions of scripture. But the debate only ensues because of a lack of willingness to understand and accept God’s sovereign rule and reign over everything.

The question we should be asking ourselves is, “Is this nation in our hands or have we dropped the ball?”

In a very real sense, this nation and where it goes is largely dependent on our actions, our hearts and our prayers.

“Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a disgrace to any people. The King’s favor is toward a servant who acts wisely, but his anger is towards him who acts shamefully” (Proverbs 14:34-35).

Let’s be wise – let’s pursue righteousness and in so doing let’s remove the question mark from One Nation Under God!

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