{"id":25979,"date":"2020-09-09T10:52:40","date_gmt":"2020-09-09T14:52:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/debmillswriter.com\/?p=25979"},"modified":"2020-09-09T14:42:12","modified_gmt":"2020-09-09T18:42:12","slug":"worship-wednesday-for-such-a-time-as-this-john-g-elliott","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/debmillswriter.com\/?p=25979","title":{"rendered":"Worship Wednesday – For Such a Time As This – John G. Elliott"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Photo Credit: Heartlight<\/a><\/p>\n

Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.<\/em>\u00a0<\/span> – Philippians 4:8<\/a><\/p>\n

The Apostle Paul, guided by the Holy Spirit, penned the instructions<\/a> above in part of a letter to the Philippian church. He was encouraging the church to deal with a presumed conflict between two of the believers, and then he went on to compel the church to be gentle with each other. Also, he called them not to be anxious but to remember, in everything, to pray with thanksgiving…with the fruit of the glorious peace of God. The “Finally, Brothers….<\/em>” bit of counsel followed powerfully.<\/p>\n

Paul could have been talking to the American church today, in the throes of a contentious political campaign. We as believers agree, for the most part, on Christ and who He is; we do not agree on all things political.<\/p>\n

It can get nasty…which is a shame as the world looks on.<\/p>\n

Just a couple of days ago, I was drawn into a Facebook conversation with two believer friends, both of whom I know to be gentle, God-fearing people. As more people joined the conversation, it got ugly (you’ve seen and lamented this yourselves, I’m sure). We would never have talked so frankly and harshly in real life.<\/p>\n

I pulled out of the conversation….<\/p>\n

Not so ironically Philippians 4:8 was our community group’s memory verse for this week.<\/p>\n

Pastor writer Scott Sauls<\/a>, author of A Gentle Answer<\/em><\/a>, addresses the subject of opposing Christian voices in the video below. He states the following: “Three things we all have to have to live in community together are humility, empathy, and putting our life where our mouth is.” <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

“There’s blood on the hands” of both our parties. Dr. Sauls goes on to talk about how Christians (together, no matter our political party) can come together and “be better at loving the world better than we [government] does” because we put our trust in almighty God and we stand together on behalf of the poor, the marginalized, the born and unborn.
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