The most fruitful discussion all but confirmed that a man's energy is better spent preaching the eternal, not debating the political or discussing the cultural.
Getting people to vote conservative is like witnessing for Christ, one local leader told me.
Indeed.
If that is the case, then where does the preeminence belong? With Christ, of course!
I resisted this for so long. I was convinced that I could support the more conservative political candidates, and Christ could be the perfect culmination.
Yet the more that I consider the problems which frustrate people today, the more apparent it becomes that the state, the political process, the debating culture, the campaign mantras cannot save anyone.
The need for those who are dependent on the state in any way, shape, or form is not a political party which says — "We will not give you free stuff."
The answer is the one who gives all things freely with Himself:
"31What shall we
then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?
32He that spared
not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also
freely give us all things?" (Romans 8: 31-32)
Men and women are looking for fulness and purpose, stability and certainty.
Such things are not just a passing wish, but a necessity which only God can meet.
God has met those needs, and moreso, in Christ.
Indeed, conservatism will follow naturally once men and women understand that the fulness which they seek, which they need, cannot be found in people, places, things in this world:
"15Love not the
world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the
world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16For all that
is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the
pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. 17And the world
passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth
for ever." (1 John 2: 15-17)
Man has eternity in his heart (Ecclesiastes 3: 11), and only eternity will suffice. Man must see this eternal need, that this eternal need cannot be met in finite ends.
For the record, the red states gone redder manifest a culture which recognizes Christ and Him Crucified, while blue states have ignored His power.
Does this make me a champion of Republican causes? Not at all. Any state can just as well abuse its power in the name of "God" as well as "Good."
Witnessing for the Truth, Jesus Christ, is necessary. Conservatism will follow, or not.