Today’s Podcast
Today’s Bible reading plan:
Read it in a year – Zechariah 1-7
see the whole year’s plan [here](http://www.bible-reading.com/bible-plan.pdf)
Today’s Devotional
Luke 11:46-52
Jesus: Well, now that you mention it, watch out, all you religious scholars! Judgment will come on you too! You load other people down with unbearable burdens of rules and regulations, but you don’t lift a finger to help others. Woe to you; you don’t fool anybody! You seem very religious—honoring the prophets by building them elaborate memorial tombs. Come to think of it, that’s very fitting, since you’re so much like the people who killed the prophets! They killed the prophets; you build their tombs—you’re all in the same family business!
This is why the Wisdom of God said, “I will send these people My prophets and emissaries, and these people will kill and persecute many of them.” As a result, this generation will be held accountable for the blood of all the prophets shed from the very beginning of time, from Abel’s blood to Zechariah’s blood, who was killed in the temple itself between the altar and the holy place. I’m serious: this generation will be held accountable.
So, religious scholars, judgment will come on you! You’re supposed to be teachers, unlocking the door of knowledge and guiding people through it. But the fact is, you’ve never even passed through the doorway yourselves. You’ve taken the key, left the door locked tight, and stood in the way of everyone who sought entry.
What do Jesus’ words mean for us today?
We are three days past the election in the United States and we’ve never needed to hear words like these more than today. Yes, Mr. Trump has won the Electoral College and will be the next President. And yes, it appears Mrs. Clinton will win the popular vote and lose the election. Those whose candidate won have rubbed it in the face of the losers, called names, demanded immediate change when no one has taken office yet. Those whose candidate lost have taken to the streets in protest and said Mr. Trump isn’t their President. I’ve been pretty amazed at the way people who say they are Christians have reacted on both sides of the fence.
What ever happened to grace? The election is over and whatever your personal opinion, the presidency has been decided. The framers of our Constitution were really brilliant men when they wrote the rules for electing the national leadership of the country. Even in the nation’s infancy, they knew a representative democracy allowed the smallest voices to be heard. So those who decry the outcome of the popular versus the Electoral College should look back in history at the other four times this has happened. Look at the election results by country and discover that the small and mid-sized towns went one direction and the metropolitan areas went another.
The country is divided urban against suburban and rural. Which life is better? Neither. They are different. Which one do you like? It’s your preference. Half the country lives and works in one, half the country lives and works in the other. Half the country voted for one candidate. Half the country voted for the other. This time, it just so happens those that feed the nation, the places considered the rural areas won the right to choose the next president. Is that bad? Not according to them. Is it good? Not according to the urbanites.
So what should we do? If the nation is so divided along the country lines described by this election? Should the rural areas just stop sending food to the cities since their political views are so different? Should the cities stop sending electricity and other metropolitan services to rural areas since they can’t seem to see eye to eye? Who wins in such a nation?
I mentioned Jesus earlier words, “A kingdom divided against itself will collapse.” So what will we do in the coming days? As Christians we can teach our brothers and sisters to act like Christ rather than the scribes He speaks to in the words we heard today. We can stand in the way and build those barriers. We can continue to criticize the other side and talk about how terrible the other party is and how corrupt the opposition has become. We can complain about how poorly run the government will be because of the divide and how nothing will get done.
Or we can do something remarkable as Christians. We can lift every newly elected official in prayer. We can send them messages of encouragement and stand behind them as our leaders regardless of their party affiliation. We can determine that together we can bring unity to our land, not a party member, but as an American. We can forget about color and gender and race and socioeconomic standing. We can begin to show the love of God to all the people who live in our neighborhood and show them what really matters is belonging to the Kingdom of God and nothing more.
Did your candidate win? It doesn’t matter because God allowed Mr. Trump to win the Electoral College vote. Never forget that! God allowed the 45th President of the United States to have never held a public office, never served in the Armed Forces, never been a government employee. God allowed the election to turn the way it did. This has not surprised Him. So what do we do now?
“If My people, who are called by My name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.” See, we have not elected the right candidate in a long time. It’s time we get down to business, quit complaining, quit acting like the scribes and Pharisees, humble ourselves, turn from our wicked ways, and pray folks. Our nation needs it, our leaders need it, we need it, I need it. It’s time.
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