King David, who ruled three millennia ago is often considered the greatest king. He becomes an interesting model for us because he manifested the same human weaknesses as we all share. And yet, he represents victory over our human weaknesses to do good for the people, which we all desire to do. Even more significantly, it is worthwhile to benefit from his wisdom on leadership gained in his 40 years of governing. In his very last recorded words, he described the kind of leader who should govern:

The one who rules the people with justice, who rules in the fear of God (2 Samuel 23:3).
King David described two characteristics that the ideal governing official would display:

1. Ruling the people with justice.
2. Ruling in the fear of God.

Truly, this would be a very special person, and these characteristics cannot be automatically expected of a mere mortal. Where do we, in fact, find this person? And is there any hope that we can we become such a leader?

Our Creator describes a process by which He can remake us into a person new and different than anything that could be experienced by human ability. It is described as being remade in our Creator’s image or remade in Jesus’ image. Our Creator describes the end result of this process this way:

He is a new creature [reborn and renewed by the Holy Spirit]; the old things [the previous moral and spiritual condition] have passed away. Behold, new things have come [because spiritual awakening brings a new life] (2 Corinthians 5:17).

It means to be new and different than anything we ever were, new and cleaned up from the self-serving life that we began with, and to be better able to care for and serve others. It is this life that one of God’s servants spoke of when he described being:

fully mature in Christ (Colossians 1:28).

King David graphically described what accompanied this change in his own life:

He [God] put a new song in my mouth (Psalm 40:3).

Truly, this is a person who is made new, and has the capacity to be the person King David described:

The one who rules the people with justice, who rules in the fear of God (2 Samuel 23:3).

But we must listen carefully to the context to understand the process:

Therefore if anyone is in Christ [that is, grafted in, joined to Him by faith in Him as Savior], he is a new creature [reborn and renewed by the Holy Spirit]; the old things [the previous moral and spiritual condition] have passed away. Behold, new things have come [because spiritual awakening brings a new life] (2 Corinthians 5:17).

Here, this process is described as being “in Christ”. Listen to our Creator’s description of the process:

For you died [to this world], and your [new, real] life is hidden with Christ in God (Colossians 3:3).

– that is, died to the goals of mere mortals – self-promotion and self-aggrandizement – instead, allowing the life of God to live through us, as we do so in obedience to Him, and as His instrument. God goes on to tell us what step we must take in this process:

Put to death what belongs to your worldly nature (Colossians 3:5).

He then goes on to describe and address those who have accomplished this:

You have stripped off the old self with its evil practices, and have put on the new [spiritual] self who is being continually renewed in true knowledge in the image of Him who created the new self (Colossians 3:9-10).

Hence, the new person:

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away, and look, new things have come (2 Corinthians 5:17).

What is so special is that it is not just for some select few. It is available for all of us. We must allow our Creator to open the channel into our lives so that He can literally live the life of Jesus through us. Opening this channel involves embracing Jesus’ sacrificial payment for our sin that blocks our relationship with God. Jesus said:

I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me (John 14:6).

Jesus is stating clearly here: “My death is the one and only payment for the penalty for your sins which separate you from your Creator.” As a result, we must embrace Jesus as our Saviour, thereby allowing God to open the communication channel between us and Him. And then our Creator elaborates on how we must use this channel of communication with Him to operate as this new person. It requires actively taking the approach that His servant described:

I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me (Galatians 2:19-20).

To understand how the new person can function differently, in reality, our lives can be broken down into hundreds of smaller decisions each day. If in making each of these decisions we should ask “How would I choose if Jesus was making this decision instead of me?” Then if I were to act precisely that way, whose life would others see? In reality, it would be Jesus instead of the person I previously was. Practically, we would truly be made new – a brand new person!

As a part of maintaining this valuable asset, we must continually resist the pull to enjoy the benefits that the power of office tempts us with. That is why our Creator reminds us:

For if you are living according to the [impulses of the] flesh, you are going to die. But if [you are living] by the [power of the Holy] Spirit you are habitually putting to death the sinful deeds of the body, you will [really] live forever (Romans 8:13).

With the help of God living within us, we must put to death the temptation to assert lordship over our lives and our actions, instead allowing ourselves to become the instruments King David envisioned for the benefit of mankind:

The one who rules the people with justice, who rules in the fear of God (2 Samuel 23:3).

Becoming such a governing official, then, involves embracing the work of Jesus to break down the barrier that otherwise stands in the way of our relationship with our Creator.

The end result is:

For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters (Romans 8:29).

This is the huge privilege we have to allow God to live through us as His instrument and to be the special kind of leader King David described.

APPLICATION TO THE STATESMAN.

Do I wish to be the kind of leader that King David identified to serve our nations in bringing the best quality of life to our people?

Am I willing to allow myself to be made into the brand-new person that King David and our Creator envisioned?

The post The Statesman Embraces the New Person Necessary to Govern appeared first on CENTRE FOR STATECRAFT.

Our Creator has defined the quality of life that He has designed for each member of His creation to experience:

a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity (1 Timothy 2:2).

The context of this promise makes clear that the decisions of governing officials are critical factors in achieving this. Clearly, this quality of life is our Creator’s goal for Government decision-making. This reality causes us to pause and reflect: Have we achieved this quality of life?

Clearly, we have a responsibility from our Creator to provide the best possible quality of life for our people. As we do so, we recognize brokenness within our world. We see violence that we have difficulty explaining. Henry David Thoreau commented on this issue a century and a half ago when he said “Most people live lives of quiet desperation”. What does this mean and why should this matter that “Most people live lives of quiet desperation”?

In meeting the needs of our nations, we must recognize that it is a broken world. And it is in this broken world that Government administers nations. Can we be comfortable overlooking this reality? What happens when we allow those within our population to live in quiet desperation? This becomes a fundamental issue that must be recognized and addressed seemingly before other issues can effectively be addressed. If not addressed, we have individuals who act irrationally, even causing harm to self, to family members or to others in society.

Furthermore, as a practical matter, desperation clouds judgment. Realistically, we cannot trust such members of society to correctly diagnose what they really need. This becomes a critical issue for popular government. The rationale for popular governance is a wise people selecting the best leadership through the electoral process to make decisions that affect their lives. Hence, if we leave our people in a state of quiet desperation, we cannot expect such people to select the best leadership. Furthermore, the reality is that they will even place into Government people who themselves are in a state of quiet desperation. It is unreasonable that we should be able to depend upon such leaders to guide us and that we should expect to achieve optimal well-being as a result of their decisions.

Lives lived in quiet desperation are not our Creator’s plan for our people and it is not His plan for us. King David testified to the quality of life available to us based on his own experience as he addressed his Creator:

You make known to us the path of life. In Your presence is fullness of joy. In Your right hand are pleasures forever (Psalm 16:11).

The life described by King David is the opposite of one lived in quiet desperation. The life described by King David as the antidote to the life lived in quiet desperation is the life that is lived in God’s presence, in dependence upon Him, filled with His joy. This has always been God’s intent for us. And I am confident that this quality of life is available to us today to help avoid living “lives of quiet desperation”. God’s intent was always for His creation to experience a quality of life in contrast to the life lived in quiet desperation. Listen to the promise our Creator first made with ancient Israel, which He chose as the model through which He desired for all other nations to experience His blessings:

If you listen to and are careful to keep these ordinances, the Lord your God will keep His covenant loyalty with you, as He swore to your fathers. He will love you, bless you, and multiply you. He will bless your descendants, and the produce of your land—your grain, new wine, and oil—the young of your herds, and the newborn of your flocks, in the land He swore to your fathers that He would give you. You will be blessed above all peoples (Deuteronomy 7:12-14).

Does this sound like a nation whose people are living “lives of quiet desperation”? To be clear, these blessings were first promised to a single nation – ancient Israel – that was to be a model for all the other nations, expecting that all the other nations would wish to experience the same blessings. This was made clear when God promised to ancient Israel:

I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing.…in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed (Genesis 12:1-3).

His clear intent was that all people should experience this blessing. What is our responsibility within this promise? Remember the first words in God’s promise:

If you listen to and are careful to keep these ordinances, the Lord your God will keep His covenant loyalty with you, as He swore to your fathers. 

The requirement is our obedience to God. Humanity has largely rejected this offer and it can be concluded that no nation has ever fulfilled our Creator’s requirement of obedience to Him necessary to experience His blessing. This was a legitimate offer from God. However, it was not achieved practically because it required obedience to God. With the coming of Jesus, we have a new avenue for experiencing this blessing.  It is based upon God’s offer of grace – forgiveness for our disobedience resulting from our sinful nature. It is through Jesus’ sacrificial death on our behalf, and Resurrection, that God accepts as the basis for forgiving us from the deeds of our disobedient nature. As God tells us:

For God loved the world in this way: He gave His One and Only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life (John 3:16).

What is required is that we avail ourselves of this offer from God and Jesus to us:

Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved (Romans 10:13).

At the individual level, we have the opportunity to experience God’s personal blessing through the offer of forgiveness, leading to receiving and experiencing the quality of life described by Jesus:

I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full (John 10:10).

If anyone is thirsty, he should come to Me and drink. The one who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, ‘From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water’ (John 7:37-38)

– a life overcoming one of “quiet desperation”. How does this work practically? The first step is to accept God’s promise that the antidote to desperation is confidence in God based on Jesus’ sacrificial act opening the way to an intimate relationship with Him. Based upon this, we have this promise based upon our complete confidence in Him:

Don’t worry about anything, but in everything, through prayer and petition with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses every thought, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus (Philippians 4:6-7).

It is this peace of mind from God that counteracts the quiet desperation. Let us take this a step further. We are admonished:

Give thanks no matter what happens. God wants you to thank Him because you believe in Christ Jesus (1 Thessalonians 5:18).

The power in thanking God is that this expresses confidence in God and His promises even in the midst of challenges. God’s forgiven children continually maintain confidence that He has His hand of protection and blessing upon our lives. The resulting life is described:

I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me (Galatians 2:20).

I submit to you that this is the life intended by our loving Creator – with Jesus living through us – not one lived in quiet desperation.

CONSIDERATIONS FOR THE STATESMAN

How would it affect the administration of my nation if every individual would experience this same blessing through Jesus?

Can I envision our citizens enjoying this life of forgiveness and experiencing overflowing blessing from God, including spiritual, emotional and material?

Must I personally take the steps to experience a life victorious over a life of quiet desperation?

The post The Statesman Addresses the Goal of Quality of Life appeared first on CENTRE FOR STATECRAFT.

As we approach Easter, we are about to celebrate the greatest miracle ever. I will understand if you wish to argue that the greatest miracle was that the God of the universe entered human history as a baby born of a virgin. However, just as important to me is the miracle accomplished as Jesus gave up His life.

As Jesus was being crucified, we learn much from His interaction with the two criminals who were being crucified alongside Him:

Then one of the criminals hanging there began to yell insults at Him: “Aren’t You the Messiah? Save Yourself and us!” But the other answered, rebuking him: “Don’t you even fear God, since you are undergoing the same punishment? We are punished justly, because we’re getting back what we deserve for the things we did, but this man has done nothing wrong.” Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when You come into Your kingdom!” And He said to him, “I assure you: Today you will be with Me in paradise” (Luke 23:39-43).

The first criminal acted as if he did not believe there was anything beyond this life. He was appealing for an earthly solution. The second criminal understood, albeit imperfectly. This criminal knew he deserved punishment. In spite of the life he had lived, he clearly had sufficient fear of God to make this request. He also recognized Jesus’ nature to forgive when he implored Jesus “Remember me when You come into Your kingdom!” We can surmise that this criminal had a repentant heart and sufficient fear of God to be afraid of what lay ahead for him and hope that Jesus had a solution. Jesus demonstrated that He accepted the criminal’s repentance and extended grace toward him ‒ grace that the criminal knew he did not deserve in his words to the other criminal.

Let us pause to reflect on the truths behind this. The Apostle Paul clarifies the situation for us:

For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23).

Even if, in our own eyes, we have not sinned as badly as the repentant criminal, every one of us has sinned against our morally perfect Creator. The Apostle Paul proceeds:

For the wages of sin is death (separation from God) (Romans 6:23).

However, the Apostle Paul does not stop there:

but the gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord.

 And it is this that Jesus promised to the repentant criminal on the cross.

 We know that this earthly existence is not the end of our existence. At the end of this earthly existence, we stand before God to be judged for the way we responded to Him while on this earth. As a consequence of that judgment, every human faces an eternity of intimate relationship with our Creator in heaven or an eternity of separation from Him in hell. Thus, the repentant criminal speaks for each one of us at the point of facing death and God’s judgment: “Jesus, remember me.”  We know we do not deserve the privilege of entering God’s presence. The criminal’s words show a boldness, or a hopefulness, in asking for something we do not deserve — to be forgiven and allowed into God’s presence. We need His help in overcoming this dilemma and anticipated eternal separation from Him. Thus, the power of Jesus’s words to the criminal:

I assure you: Today you will be with Me in paradise.

This is Jesus’ unmistakable promise of forgiveness for our acts against God – whether on purpose or even unknowingly – forgiveness not deserved but forgiveness based on Jesus paying the penalty for us through His death on the cross on our behalf. “You will be with Me in paradise.”

Apparently, the criminal did not know that Jesus’ forgiveness of him would be based on something Jesus would accomplish within moments of this conversation. But he was confident God would accomplish this miracle.

But there is one more element. Jesus said “Today.” Jesus added this nugget to the repentant criminal. Both Jesus and the criminal were going to lose the physical bodies that had housed their spirits. However, the criminal could know that the essence of his being would go on without interruption. His spirit would go immediately into the presence of God and the essence of his life – his spirit – would be uninterrupted. I realize there is a debate among Church scholars. However, Jesus – God – described us as going directly into the presence of God at the moment of the death of our physical body.

 Jesus added this promise: “I assure you.” Jesus invoked the integrity of the King of the universe to give us confidence. Is there anything that could be more assuring?

This truth sets us free! We are human beings first and foremost before being public servants. Based upon the confidence in our relationship with our Creator and our confidence in eternity with Him, we can now be free to serve His sheep. Reflecting on this promise to the criminal on the cross, this comes at an especially significant time. With the coronavirus pandemic haunting us, there are those of us who will enter eternity early. Furthermore, many who are dependent upon us will enter eternity prematurely. This is a truth that everyone needs to understand.

Let us rejoice in being set free through this promise from God Himself! And let us do as the repentant criminal, and with the same confidence:

Jesus, remember me!

The post The Miracle of Easter as It Applies to the Life of the Statesman appeared first on CENTRE FOR STATECRAFT.

Much of the world will soon celebrate Christmas. However, that same world has largely lost sight of the significance. It is not about enjoyment. Family is really secondary. It is about the significance of what Jesus brought to us from God Himself ‒ what He makes available to our lives.

Jesus said:

I came that they may have life and have it to the fullest (John 10:10).

The LIFE to which Jesus referred is much more than physical. It is to be so intimately intertwined with our Creator that we know He holds us by the hand in the midst of every challenge we face.

Jesus came to help us achieve what the Creator ‒ He and the Father and the Holy Spirit – intended from the very beginning: that we could have an intimate friendship with the God of the universe, one that would not even be interrupted by the death of our physical body. In fact, that LIFE will become even deeper when we finish our journey on this earth.

Jesus came to meet the greatest hunger the human heart can ever experience ‒ to have an intimate relationship with our Creator and our Lord. It is this that Jesus referred to when He said:

I am the bread of life. No one who comes to Me will ever be hungry, and no one who believes in Me will ever be thirsty again…The one who comes to Me I will never cast out (John 6:35-37).

Jesus made it very clear that He came to provide a solution for our inability to resist self- interest ‒ sin ‒ that interferes with our relationship with our Holy God. This would be through His death on our behalf to pay a penalty we would be unable to pay by ourselves.

He came to help us carry the load on our shoulders, for which the consequences of our sin is one.

Then there is the weight of our human responsibilities. Humanly speaking, there is no more grueling responsibility than carrying the weight of the needs of our population upon our shoulders. And yet, our loving Father intends for us to have LIFE in the midst of administering a nation – LIFE to the fullest. He intends for us to have a Shepherd to whom we may go to lift the burdens from off our shoulders and place them onto His shoulders.

As I have studied the lives of those considered great leaders ‒ Statesmen ‒ a common denominator is that many, if not all, sought the LIFE we are speaking of.

Jesus challenged us:

Come to Me, all of you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest (Matthew 11:28).

The Statesman recognizes this applies to him or her. I am convinced that the LIFE Jesus came to bring us is the only way to survive the stress of administering a nation. It is little wonder that the angel announced the birth of Jesus:

I bring you the most joyful news ever announced, and it is for everyone! The Savior— yes, the Messiah, the Lord—has been born tonight in Bethlehem! (Luke 2:10-11)

Humanly speaking, what Jesus described as His purpose for coming to earth may seem to be a mystery. However, God the Father challenged us:

Call to Me and I will answer you and tell you great and incomprehensible things you do not know (Jeremiah 33:3).

While others may be reveling, let us rejoice in the reality of “the greatest news ever announced”.

And let us make sure that in our own lives, the reality of Jesus coming is truly “the greatest news ever announced”.

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