“Jesus was a convicted felon”just further evidences how far God, incarnate in Jesus Christ, was willing to go to identify with the broken humanity He came to redeem….. even bearing the taunts and humiliation of ridicule of pointed fingers of mobs and authorities to reveal the depth of his love, to die for us and reveal the power and authority through the fullness of the Spirit of God to defeat death, such a feared tool of the enemy.
That statement doesn’t elevate anyone to the stature of Christ. It simply reveals one more burden placed on the back of Christ that is often also born by people that has no bearing whatsoever on an individual’s capacity to rise above the shackles put on one by men and fulfill one’s purpose in God’s plan.
Having a felony doesn’t diminish who one is or one’s ability to fulfill one’s purpose in God’s eyes. No judgment by man is the final word on a person’s life, especially if such a judgment is obtained through a perverse and manipulated process of political influence and personal destruction by one’s enemies.
It seems to me that those whose loyalty is to the institutions of man at work among us have sought to install themselves on the throne of God, dismissing Jesus altogether, and grieving the Holy Spirit in extremis. I will not be surprised by any judgment God brings upon such institutions and their idolatrous worshippers. I am quite sure all of us, the just and unjust, will suffer. But I am confident in God’s presence, goodness, sovereignty, and love for His true children to know that ultimately good will result for those who love the Lord and are called according to His purpose. God can and does use everything and everyone, all the spoiled fruit of humanity’s freewill choices toward His ultimate goal. It becomes composted fertilizer for the next season of sowing. Some of those things and people will be good examples. Others will be horrible warnings…
It doesn’t seem to matter what colors are worn or flown, the ranks are filled with scoundrels. As the Bard of Avon observed, “A pox on both their houses!”
Our nation is so fraught with horrible warnings at this point, it seems God must surely be ready to discipline us all through such “warnings.” Either way this year’s election goes, it’s going to be ugly. Though I pray our nation does not see political division become violence, there are likely many with concern as to whether or not Trump will live to see Nov 5th. We all know full well how low those desperate to grasp or retain power will stoop.
And that is a shame. To think what Christ endured for us and the broken mess we make of His world……..
I’m prayed up and ready, no matter what the future brings. Working with as many people as I do with felonies, I am quite put off by the media and politicians’ use of the phrase “branded a convicted felon,” as applied to anyone, especially in the manner in which the current scenario has been handled.
Viewed from a higher vantage point…. Institutionalism, idolatry of government and of governmental agents, and the societal and cultural entropy which is inevitable without the boundaries of shared values, agreement on the virtues under which those values operate to define the policies, processes, and actions of a body is a rank cistern. Our body politic (government) is diseased and our body ecclesiastic (church, i.e., organized religion) is subject to the same diseased state to the extent that it compromises the gospel in order to use government or to allow itself to be used by government to further government’s intrusion on and control over every aspect of our lives and forcing us into a cultural and societal cesspool that destroys everything it sets its sight on.
The position and role of the presidency and that of Congress have been so perverted by compromises, self-aggrandizement, bureaucratic entrenchment, deceitfulness, and pursuit of personal wealth and power by elected and appointed “servants” of the people and manifesting such blatant evil that there are no statesmen or virtues of statecraft evidenced there. Nor is there any pretense of accountability evident any longer to guide their actions. And in recent decades, it appears that the judiciary is being steered toward similar motivations. All institutions of government eventually seem to become self-serving elitist institutions…… it doesn’t matter what party tag its occupants wear. And the vitriol and depth of people-using and people-destroying tactics to which any political side is willing to stoop leaves all of us at the mercy of whoever and whatever they believe they can gain the most from in any given moment. Our only hope for protection lies in the local and state levels, closest to where the impact is felt by families and communities. If the rot of lust for wealth and power settles there, too, we have only God and one another to depend on……. And maybe that is exactly why God allows the decay and destruction of powerful would-be empires…… to bring us back to the truth of where humankind’s true security and significance lies…. In loving, living for, and trusting God and loving, encouraging, and supporting one another.
Though disgusted by all of the political antics and the rotten fruit of their works, my disappointment and disgust with the rife perversity and destructive work of those whose loyalty is to the idolatry of institutionalism does not deter my joy in the present, my hope for the future, my ability to see goodness in individuals, or to witness to the glory of God present in the world.