The Last King God Chose Was Jesus

 No elected leader in the US or otherwise was handpicked by God. Especially not Donald Trump.

Truth be told God never wanted us to have a King or President or Prime Minister or Emperor or any other Ruler to begin with. So the very idea that God is picking presidents for a nation (the US) that is not the children or Israel, a nation that didn't exist when the convenent God made with the children of Israel was enacted is a level of mental gymnastics that quite honestly is equal parts impressive and sad. 

The fact of the matter is: The children of Israel looked around and saw that their other counterparts had Kings and so they asked God for one. He didn't want them to have one but He loved them and He obliged them.

That doesn't mean that God is still picking kings.

The last King God chose was Jesus. Jesus is the King of ALL Kings. The Lord of ALL Lords. There is no need for another because... 

NEWSFLASH: Our King is still ALIVE!

This idea that God has chosen Donald Trump or any other Republican leader to be our president that the American evangelical church is subscribing to at the moment, runs completely counter to what the Word of God says.

So what does it say?

That Jesus is the last and forever King and that through acceptance of the Holy Spirit we become the called. 

God always sent a prophet to anoint the next king of Israel. That was the purpose of Jesus's baptism. John the Baptist was the prophet, the one who forshadowed Jesus's coming, To anoint him. The final King. Mark 1: 9-11

How do you know if someone is called? The Holy Spirit. Just like when the Holy Spirit came down from Heaven in the above scripture when Jesus was baptised, acceptance of the Lord Jesus Christ as your personal Savior activates the Holy Spirit to come down and live in your heart. In that instant you become the called by God and that is final. Romans 8:30; Romans 11:29

You can't pray the Holy Spirit into or over someone. The Holy Spirit is activated upon your acceptance of the Lord Jesus Christ.

1 Timothy 6:20,21  tells us,

 Avoid the talk-show religion and the practiced confusion of the so-called experts. (MSG)

Jesus is King. That is who God anointed. Igonre the pundits who want to get on TV and say what is counter to the Word of God. Be anchored in the Word in order to be able to identify truth and falsehoods.

Fact: Any king that is chosen by man or whose position is taken by force is flawed. They have not been anointed by God.

We are tasked by God to pray for ALL people and ALL of our leaders or those in position above us, from the President to our boss. But what are we to be praying for? Peace and their salvation. Praying that their hearts will be open to God. 

The decisions they make will affect us and we want to live in peace. God's desire for us is to live in peace. Praying that their agenda goes forth is the wrong prayer. Our prayer should ALWAYS be that God's will be done and that our leaders be led by God. That is what 1 Timothy 2:1-6 says, because God desires "all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth" of salvation.

So the Last King God chose was Jesus and he is the King of All Kings and he is still alive. The End.

The Unlikely Missionary
Damaris

God is Not a Man

I'll say it one more time for those in the back, God is Not a Man.

God is God. 

I saw someone on Twitter say, I wish they would refer to God in she/her pronouns.  This instantly didn't sit right with me. I get that we want to see ourselves in God but we are made in the image of God. Both man and woman. Who are we as the created to place this finite construct of male and female on the God that created the world by speaking?

When we talk of God the Father we say he and him but He is not a man in the sense that we comprehend. God had a very clear role for men that this world has taken and perverted. Men were to be our protection, trustworthy, loving, a mirror of Christ's love for His church.

The problem is that the church has made Ephesian 5 about women submitting to their husbands although God only spends 2 verses on that and spend 9 verses on telling men how they are supposed to love their wives.

Because this World and man's creation of patriachy has so perverted the order that God created to demonstrate His Love for His Children we no longer view men as safe, as protection, as trustworthy, as loving, as people who would never leave us of forsake us. They are not the mirror of Christ's love that they are supposed to be and so we want to see God as that representation in our lives. The fact however remains that...

God is God. 

He created us, so how can we wrap Him in skin?

He made man in His image, not the other way around. And image is not just physical. We don't look like God. He has no face. Its character, its action, its spirit.

The better question should be, how are men of God supposed to act?

I fell in love the Message version of the Bible many years ago now and I think it makes it quite plain what God intended. See it below.

25-28 Husbands, go all out in your love for your wives, exactly as Christ did for the church—a love marked by giving, not getting. Christ’s love makes the church whole. His words evoke her beauty. Everything he does and says is designed to bring the best out of her, dressing her in dazzling white silk, radiant with holiness. And that is how husbands ought to love their wives. They’re really doing themselves a favor—since they’re already “one” in marriage.

29-33 No one abuses his own body, does he? No, he feeds and pampers it. That’s how Christ treats us, the church, since we are part of his body. And this is why a man leaves father and mother and cherishes his wife. No longer two, they become “one flesh.” This is a huge mystery, and I don’t pretend to understand it all. What is clearest to me is the way Christ treats the church. And this provides a good picture of how each husband is to treat his wife, loving himself in loving her, and how each wife is to honor her husband.

Ephesians 5:21-33

If men were walking in who God called them to be their love would make us whole. 

In our current world we see the destruction of men abusing their wives, being unfaithful, leaving their families, passing laws that restrict instead of free, spewing hate instead of love. The text in Ephesians says, Everything he does and says is designed to bring the best out of her.

The Best! That is what God does for us. Everything He does and says is designed to bring the best out of us. What is evidenced in our world is how broken and fractured, even in the church, God's intended plan for our lives especially men's lives are due to our own sin. 

We have found a way to determine that God's way is esmasculating and not manly. We call men who love their wives like this soft or whipped when they are actually being obedient to God. God tells men in Ephesian 5, to GO ALL OUT in your LOVE for your wife. How perverted are we?

God doesn't rule over us, He doesn't make us fall in line with an iron fist, He doesn't take away our choice. He leads with love. Love is patient, it is kind, it does not envy or boast, it is not proud or rude, it does not dishonor other, is not selfish, does not anger easily, don't keep a record of wrongs, rejoices in truth and not evil, always protects, trust, hopes, perseveres and never fails. We have gotten incredibly far from that construct.

As Christians we need to ask ourselves, not why we don't us certain pronouns for God. The only question is why men are not being as God call them to be. It not about what we call God but about what He calls us.

The Unlikely Missionary

Damaris