Sunday Morning Comfort

It's been a week full of political turmoil, with Clinton's head-popping rage at Chris Wallace; Condi rips Bill; Hillary stands by her man; and even President Bush jumps into the fray. That's a lot of semi-colons.

Dennis Prager weighs in on the irony between Pope Pius and Pope Benedict XVI; how the kind pope meets with Muslim leaders to diffuse their hysterical reaction to his comment. Of course there are more articles on how Muslim rage is coercive and manipulative. We're always thankful for a lesson in Islamic Fascism by Victor Davis Hanson.

Just when I start to despair over our country not waking up and taking the war on terrorism seriously, or the media ignoring Muslim threats to take over the world, of the possiblity of voting terrorist sympathizers into office in November, or seeing this young MTV generation slipping away into moral oblivion...Sunday morning came:

"For all day long I have been plagued, and chastened every morning. If I had said, "I will speak thus," Behold, I would have been untrue to the generation of Your children. When I thought how to understand this, it was too painful for me--Until I went into the sanctuary of God; then I understood their end." Psalm 73:14-17.

Not exactly their "end" but being reminded yet again that politics is not the ultimate answer; it's just what is wonderful and frustrating about our republic. I can be simultaneously elated over various Republican victories and annoyed by their stupidity like voting for more spending, or not supporting our president. But then, Sunday morning comes.

When my blood pressure was going up over one story after another of Muslim outrage and the world's co-dependent enabling of their outbursts, I heard the good news Sunday morning that four Muslims had recently converted to Christianity and were going to be baptized in the comming week. One of their fathers happens to be an Ayatollah. We also had a couple come to the front to be prayed for as they were going back into Southeast Asia to share the Gospel to Muslims. Yet another couple was leaving for Lebanon on a missions trip. Our pastor then asked the congregation to commit the Muslim celebration of Ramadan to intercessory prayer -- that those Muslims who are seeking truth during this time will indeed meet the Truth.

Ezekiel 18:23 & 32 says:

"Do I have any pleasure at all that the wicked should die?" says the Lord God, "and not that he should turn from his ways and live?..."For I have no pleasure in the death of one who dies, " says the Lord God. "Therefore turn and live!"

Balancing a deep faith in God, being a conservative Republican and enjoying political discourse is like navigating the high beam in gymnastics. One slip, one misstep, and you're on the ground. It would be easy to just concentrate on only spiritual matters while ignoring what's going on in the world, or getting involved in politics to the exclusion of spirituality.

As things heat up in the political arena prior to our election, or reach critical mass around the world through Islamic terrorism, it's good and it's comforting to go into the sanctuary of the Lord. There we are reminded that the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but spiritual, and we can take an active part by daily intercession.

Psalm 73 ends with this declaration:

"But it is good for me to draw near to God; I have put my trust in the Lord God, that I may declare all Your works."