Podcast
The Christian Working Woman
Hosted by Mary Lowman · EN
The Christian Working Woman with Mary Lowman exists to encourage, equip and empower workplace Christians in the marketplace.
117episodes
Episodes
Newest firstAll episodes
Dealing with Guilt
3d ago00:14:28Tap to summarizeThere are few days in our lives that are guilt-free, and far-too-many of our days are filled with guilt. Life under a load of guilt is not the abundant life that Jesus came to give us. Guilt steals our joy, hinders our productivity, interrupts our peace, harms our relationships, and worst of all, makes us self-focused. Think about it—when you’re feeling guilty, you’re thinking about yourself; and I’ve learned that when I think about myself very much, it always leads to discouragement and despair. Have you lived with guilt so long that it has become your daily companion and you no longer recognize its evil source and the harm that it causes? Little wonder that the enemy of our souls wields this weapon of guilt so broadly and with such effectiveness. He has long since recognized how easily we put up with guilt and how difficult it is for us to dump it. So, if he can keep us guilt-ridden, he keeps us from doing all the good things God planned in advance for us to do, as we read in Ephesians 2:10. He steals our joy, and the joy of the Lord is our strength. While he may not be able to trip us up with some addiction or impurity or disgraceful public sin, it’s not that difficult to bombard our minds with guilt. Someone looks at us the wrong way and we take on guilt. One failure to jump through someone else’s hoop and we’re guilt-ridden. One memory of past sins and guilt moves in. But we often fail to see it as a tool of Satan because we feel like we deserve to feel guilty! What is guilt? Guilt is both a fact and a feeling. It is possible to be guilty without feeling guilty. It is possible to feel guilty without being guilty. And obviously, it is possible to be guilty and feel guilty. No doubt we have all experienced these three conditions. Being guilty without feeling guilty can be due to ignorance. I may be guilty of breaking a law because I am ignorant of the law. It is also quite possible to have a hardened heart that feels no guilt even when guilty. Hebrews 3:13 admonishes us not to be “hardened by sin’s deceitfulness.” I may drive at an excessive speed even though I know I am breaking the law without feeling a tinge of guilt because I’ve become hardened to breaking that law and it doesn’t make me feel guilty, even though I am. Feeling guilty even when we are not guilty is a more common struggle for most of us. This false guilt is caused by wrong thinking. We feel guilty because we allow ourselves to think thoughts that tell us it is our fault, whatever “it” is. In this condition, we ignore the facts, we wallow in self-recrimination, and we send ourselves into a downward spiral of despair and discouragement without justification. That’s because this false guilt is a feeling, not a reality. It has been said that feelings have zero I.Q. That means they’re not smart, and in dealing with my own feelings, I have found this to frequently be the case. My feelings can mislead me because they are often not based on reality. But feelings can be very strong and convincing, whether accurate or not. It is not God’s will for us to live in guilt. Galatians 5:1 says, “It is for freedom that Christ has set us free; stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.” Living with guilt is living with a yoke of slavery. It is allowing those feelings of guilt to choke the very life out of you. And Jesus came to set you free from this yoke. It’s time we start refusing to submit to the yoke of guilt. But, you’re thinking, that is easier said than done. Of course, it’s easier said than done! What isn’t? But that’s no excuse for not doing it! It is possible to learn to live without guilt! We have power to do it because we have God’s Spirit in us to empower us, providing of course, we have been born again into God’s family. Dealing with True Guilt True guilt is feeling guilty because you are guilty. That is what we feel when God is convicting us of some area in our lives that needs to be changed, and we are resisting that change. Harboring true guilt for any length of time will cause you great harm. It took King David way too long to repent of his great sin with Bathsheba. In Psalm 38 he describes the pain of true guilt. David’s physical health was dramatically affected. Literal physical ailments and conditions were the result of this true guilt that David experienced. And of course, he was plagued with emotional and mental pain, too. I wonder how many of our physical problems are caused by true guilt—by a reluctance to repent and turn away from sin? It is often the cause of depression and despair. David said, “My guilt has overwhelmed me like a burden too heavy to bear.” True guilt is too heavy for us, too. Whether you harbor some huge guilt like David’s or just keep refusing to face the “little stuff” in your life that needs to be cleaned up, that true guilt will eventually take its toll on you and cause mental, emotional and physical suffering. King David describes the great relief that comes when true guilt is eliminated by confession and forgiveness: Blessed is the one whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered. Blessed is the one whose sin the Lord does not count against them and in whose spirit is no deceit. . . I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord.” And you forgave the guilt of my sin (Psalm 32:1 – 5). God will keep his hand heavy on you and me when there is true guilt that needs to be confessed and forgiven. Not to be cruel to us, but to restore our fellowship with him and heal us. Dealing with False Guilt False guilt is what we put on ourselves when we keep remembering what God has forgiven and forgotten! False guilt is what we feel when someone appears to be disappointed in us. False guilt comes on us when we have to say “no.” False guilt is often a result of trying to please people. False guilt comes when we live with unrealistic expectations of ourselves, and when we allow others to dictate what and who we should be. We must learn to discern the difference between true and false guilt. When you start feeling guilty, stop and ask yourself: Is this true or false guilt? Have I done something which I can specifically identify for which I deserve blame? Or is this just that nebulous feeling of guilt I seem to get whenever I feel someone is unhappy with me, or I can’t be superwoman, or it’s something totally beyond my control? One of the first signs that you are dealing with false guilt is that you just can’t say exactly why you feel guilty. When you cannot pinpoint a specific reason for your guilt, it is highly likely you’re dealing with false guilt. Perhaps the false guilt we suffer from the most is guilt over our past. We all tend to go back and remember the sins of the past, and even though they are forgiven and God remembers them no longer, we don’t seem to be able to purge our memory. One night I was on my way home and my foot got heavy on the gas pedal. I was going 45 in a 30 mile zone, near my home, and so, two doors from my own home, I got stopped for speeding and the nice officer wrote me a ticket. As he handed it to me, he said that because I had a clean record, I could pay a $50 fine, and the speeding ticket would not show up on my record at all. He said, “There will be no record anywhere of this offense; it will be as though it never happened.” That’s what God does for us, but we don’t have to pay $50. By simple faith and confession, he blots out our transgressions, and he keeps no record of them. If you looked on his books, it wouldn’t be there. Oh, how we need to understand this beautiful truth and learn to let go of the guilt of forgiven sin, remembering there is therefore now no more condemnation for us. Do you know what girlish guilts are? Usually, the first response to a girlish guilt is: “Oh, I’m so sorry!” Here are some examples of what I call “girlish guilts”: A coworker says that while you were on vacation last week, the place fell apart and she had to work late every night. You feel guilty for taking a vacation. Your child says she got in trouble because she left her homework at home, trying to shift the blame to you for not reminding her to take her homework. You feel like you’re a bad mom, and you feel guilty. Your sister says she tried to reach you three times yesterday and kept getting your voice mail. She didn’t leave a message but still seems irritated that you were not there for her when she needed you. You feel like you’ve failed your sister and you feel guilty. Your boss asks you when you’re going to complete a job, but it is not your assignment. And when you try to explain, he/she just gives you that look, and you feel guilty. You promised to help at church and then you came down with a bad cold the night before. The tone in your friend’s voice was anything but sympathetic when you called to say you couldn’t make it, and you feel very guilty. Are you getting the gist of these girlish guilts? These are not major issues of guilt, but just an attitude that women often carry which says, “If I’m accused, I must be guilty.” Do you need to break your bad habit of apologizing for things for which you are not guilty and finding more appropriate responses than “I’m sorry”? Remember, you can empathize—put yourself in someone else’s shoes—without apologizing. Remember, Romans 8:1 tells us, “there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” so if God is not condemning you, you ha...
Transcribe →Think about What You Think About – 5
4d ago00:03:00Tap to summarizeI’ve been urging you to think about what you think about—to become more and more aware of wrong thought patterns. Those wrong thoughts are keeping you in bondage—in bondage to fear and doubt and sin of all kinds. I’ve been talking about bringing your thoughts into the captivity of Philippians 4:8, thinking about what is true, noble, right pure, lovely, and admirable. I want to examine the great benefits that come when you practice this biblical mind control. For right thinking we are promised two wonderful things in Romans 8:6: The mind set on the flesh is death, but the but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace (Romans 8:6). Life and peace. You can’t buy them, you can’t earn them, you can’t manufacture them. They come to you as a result of having a mind set on the Spirit of God, having a thought life that stays carefully within biblical boundaries. This is such an important Christian principle, that I’ve written a book on it entitled Think About What You Think About. I am convinced that in my own life, the pathway to freedom and joy has been greatly impacted by learning to think about what I think about and bringing my wrong thought patterns in line with Philippians 4:8. The book, which is newly updated and edited, gives you much more help in how to be set free from the wrong thought patterns of your life. Believe me, whether you realize it or not, you may be suffering greatly because you’ve developed some truly wrong thought patterns and they are holding you in bondage. You may have some deep ruts in your brain caused by wrong thought patterns that have caused you sadness and all kinds of problems. But you can learn to put this spiritual discipline in your life that will reverse those wrong thought patterns and set you free. I can testify to you, as one who is still learning this principle, that it has been probably the most life-changing guideline for me. It took me years to realize I needed to control my thought life, by God’s grace and to his glory. I just never thought about what I thought about. But when I began, I was amazed at how making some real changes in my thought patterns changed me, for the good! I recommend it to you very highly. If you think my book, Think About What You Think About, would be helpful, you can order it on amazon.
Transcribe →Think about What You Think About – 4
5d ago00:03:00Tap to summarizeYou’ve heard the phrase that our computer age generated: garbage in, garbage out. It’s not only true of computers, it’s also true of our minds. We’re examining how we can bring our thoughts into captivity, how we can change wrong thought patterns that keep us mired in deception and lies and misery. One important element in creating a right thought life is to carefully guard what you put into your mind. If you allow garbage in, your thought life will reflect that input. What do you read? Trashy novels, junk on the internet? Do you spend more time reading God’s Word and good Christian material than you do reading the world’s literature, even if it’s not necessarily evil? You will never change your thinking if you’re reading trash or failing to read the Bible consistently with top priority over all other reading. What do you look at on television and videos? What you see with your eyes has a stronger impact on you than what you read or hear—combined! If you’re pouring visual junk into your mind and not screening what you allow yourself to watch or see, your thought life will be filled with those images, and it is very difficult to get rid of them. Believe me, what you look at is determining to a large degree what you think about. What do you listen to? Are you soaking up the world’s music? Much of the lyrics are not within the guidelines of Philippians 4:8. What kind of conversations do you listen to? Do you subject yourself to off-color conversations, gossipy conversations, critical conversations? Your thinking won’t change with that kind of input going into your mind. If you will change the input into your mind, you’ll be amazed how your thinking will change. Of course, an essential is the Word of God, poured into your mind regularly and systematically. Scripture memorization is a fantastic way to program your mind correctly. Good reading has helped me immensely. I simply can’t overemphasize the importance of guarding your mind closely. The world we live in is full of garbage, and we’ve become desensitized to it. Remember, garbage in, garbage out.
Transcribe →Think about What You Think About – 3
6d ago00:03:00Tap to summarizeI’m examining our thought lives—the thought patterns we are often in bondage to because we have not learned to bring every thought into captivity and make our thoughts obedient to Christ. Philippians 4:8 gives us clear parameters for our thoughts. They are to be true, noble, right, pure, lovely, and admirable. Let’s look at how to begin that process. First, you have to truly begin to think about what you are thinking about at any given moment. You must literally examine individual thoughts, one by one to make sure they fit within the Philippians boundaries. I can testify captive thinking becomes more attractive the more you practice it. I remember once starting to get into some self-pity thoughts. And as I realized it, I said to myself, “I don’t want to be depressed. I don’t want to feel sad. I will not think these self-pity thoughts.” I brought those specific self-pity thoughts into captivity, refusing to let them intrude my mind, and I then was free from the burden of self-pity. That was when I began to actually practice this principle of bringing individual thoughts into captivity. It was a new reality to me—that I could actually decide not to think about what I should not think about! Now, once you screen and test those individual thoughts, the question is, how do you stop thinking the wrong thoughts? You can determine they’re wrong, but you can’t stop thinking them! You have to use what I call the Replacement Theory. Replace the wrong thought with a right thought. You will keep in perfect peace those whose minds are steadfast, because they trust in you (Isaiah 26:3). We have a replacement thought as Christians that is guaranteed to work every time. And that replacement thought is Jesus Christ. When in doubt, think about Jesus! You may have to replace wrong thoughts every minute or two. But don’t let that discourage you. Just keep replacing. You’re changing habits that are ingrained; you’re addressing thought patterns that have dug ruts into your brain, and you keep getting stuck in those ruts. Bringing thoughts into captivity, forcing yourself to refuse to get in those wrong thought ruts, is a battle. The enemy of your soul will continue to trap you in those ruts, but if you’re a Christian, you have the power of the Holy Spirit to refuse to let him win. Don’t give up; just replace the wrong thought with the right thought, as many times as necessary.
Transcribe →Think about What You Think About – 2
1w ago00:03:00Tap to summarizeDid you realize being open-minded can be very harmful if that means your thoughts are out of control and take you places you really don’t want to go. As Christians we need to learn to bring our thoughts into captivity and think within biblically prescribed limits, because what we think is what we are. I’m encouraging you to think about what you think about. In Philippians 4:8 we are given clear boundaries—important guardrails for our thought life. The first one is true. Untrue thoughts are not allowed, and that includes the untrue speculations and imaginings that we often indulge in. For example, do you imagine the worst and worry about things that have not yet occurred? You are not thinking true thoughts when you do. The second guardrail is noble, which means honorable, dignified, excellent. It’s possible to think something that is true, but not honorable. For instance, thinking “gossipy” thoughts about others, even if the facts are true, is not honorable thinking. There’s a third limit set on our thinking, and that is right. All of us dislike unfair treatment. And yet how often do we allow ourselves to think unfair, unjust thoughts about others. Sometimes we have prejudiced thinking toward people, even toward other races and cultures. That kind of thinking is not right. Then, our thoughts must also be pure. This covers immoral thoughts and sexual fantasies. No one is immune to these thoughts, and our society certainly promotes them. It is necessary to make certain our thoughts are pure. Next comes lovely. Is your thought life full of love, inspiring love or affection? Many times, our thoughts may pass all the other tests, but they’ll fall short on this point. In addition to true, noble, right, pure and lovely, our thoughts must be admirable or worthy of praise. If we could read what you were thinking, would we admire your thoughts? The guardrails are clear. Now, our challenge is to bring our thoughts into captivity—to stay within these guardrails.
Transcribe →Think about What You Think About
1w ago00:03:00Tap to summarizeI want to examine one of the most critical areas of your life—your thought life. Our thought patterns are controlling us in ways we often do not even realize. Truly we must learn to think about what we think about. In 2 Corinthians 10:5 Paul says we are to bring into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ. Honestly, we are in a daily battle as to who will control our thoughts. And when we practice this most important principle of bringing every individual thought into captivity—making certain our thoughts stay within biblical guidelines—it is absolutely transformational. Most of your problems begin with wrong thought patterns, and so often you are unaware of it because you don’t think about what you are thinking about. Philippians 4:8 gives us some clear guidelines for our thoughts. Finally, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things (Philippians 4:8). The secret to controlling your thought life is to agree to these limits and to bring your thoughts into these parameters. These are guardrails for your thought life, and when you stay within those guardrails, you avoid lots of accidents, lots of problems. If you’re driving on a mountain road that is curvy with steep drop offs, staying within those guardrails is the difference in life and death, right? In the same way, God has set boundaries for our thinking, and within those boundaries we have tremendous freedom. But when we choose to ignore the guardrails and drive wherever we wish, we lose our freedom because we become victims of our own wrong thought patterns. We find ourselves in a mental wreck of some kind, allowing wrong thoughts and thought patterns to steal our joy, ruin our peace, and cause us to say and do things that are not helpful. This is one of the most important and critical spiritual disciplines in the Christian life, and not too many of us take it seriously, to our own detriment.
Transcribe →The Idol of Self
1w ago00:14:28Tap to summarizeYou have everything you need. A good job, a house, the car that you want. Individual freedom to follow your dreams, be who you want to be, do what you want to do, go where you want, when you want, dress in the latest fashion—the god of freedom, an idol. Your desires define your path. That is your identity. And each day you strive to build on this identity because it isn’t fixed. It evolves based on what you feel and think. There is no rest in this identity. It is an endless pursuit of self. The idol of self isn’t like other things we can point to because the finish line is ever moving. We always want to be something or someone more than we are. How much are you thinking about these things? But when did this thinking of self begin? Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, “’You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’” But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil (Genesis 3:1-5). Eve. She desired to be something she wasn’t, having knowledge of good and evil like God. It wasn’t because there wasn’t perfectly good fruit in the rest of the garden. Eve fell to the idol of self. Satan got her to overthink about all she could have but didn’t. From that moment on, humanity began the race with itself, to run continually seeking to be something we are not. Overthinking about ourselves and forgetting to think about God. God created us in his image but not to be gods. Our present cultural norm of self-sufficiency says we don’t need anyone or anything to be successful. God? Why would you need God in your everyday decisions and thinking? What we forget is this deception in thought started in the Garden of Eden. The basic definition of self-sufficient is problematic in and of itself. “Needing no help in satisfying one’s basic needs, like food.” Last I checked, we are very dependent on not only others, but also on things wildly outside of our human control when it comes to food. Last I checked, we don’t control the rain or sunshine required to grow crops. While we have created technologies to help supply water when there isn’t any for crops or livestock during a drought, we control less than we believe. The secondary definition of self-sufficient is emotionally and intellectually independent. Eve was seeking intellectual independence when she ate the forbidden fruit. She wanted self-sufficiency. When I think about the Garden of Eden and the beauty, provision and abundance described, my mind drifts off to a place where there was peace and a oneness with the Lord. Yet Eve was tempted. In perfect communion with the Lord, she wanted intellectual independence from God! Thanks to Eve, we don’t live in Eden, and ever since the fall, the volume of temptation to self-sufficiency has been dialed up to a fevered pitch with everything in our midst competing against our thoughts of God! Peace and oneness with him seem elusive, even for those of us who have accepted Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior. Our days are filled with temptation to lean into idols that make us overthink about ourselves and think less about Jesus! Let’s call these the idols of self. Basically, anything that prioritizes thinking of “self” above everything and everyone else, most importantly, thinking about yourself more than God. That fevered noise in our culture about how we can overthink ourselves is anything but peaceful. Appearance. How much are you thinking each day about your appearance? Has this become an idol of self? This can manifest in so many ways so let’s just consider a few. Wanting to dress professionally and look nice for work is one thing, but has this become something that takes up a lot of your thinking? Do you worry about what other people are wearing? Do you comment on other people when they are dressed differently? What about your hair and makeup? Are you skipping devotional time with the Lord to make sure you look the best? Are you watching fashion reels on social media or shopping online instead of reading your Bible? Do you seek attention by what you are wearing and get an extra charge when someone compliments the way you look? On average, women spend between $1,500-$2,000 on clothing and $1,000-$3,700 on beauty products and services annually. Again, this is average, and most studies will tell you the more you make at work, the more you will spend on average. Other costs to consider are gym memberships and other cosmetic services many women are using to stay looking their best! None of this is truly “bad” but when you overthink it and it becomes an idol, anything good can quickly become a slippery slope leading you away from your identity in God and closer to what our noisy culture is demanding of you. Remember the Lord does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart (1 Samuel 16:7). If you overthink your appearance, what does this indicate about your heart? Sovereignty. Are you someone that always thinks you are right? Is the sovereignty of self an idol for you? Even believers of Jesus can get caught in this overthinking that lives to expect others to function by their own moral compass. Even if your compass is Jesus, are you lording over people with your views and pushing them away from the true gospel with your rules instead of being loving. For there are many who are insubordinate, empty talkers and deceivers (Titus 1:10). The Spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons. Such teachings come through hypocritical liars, whose consciences have been seared as with a hot iron. They forbid people to marry and order them to abstain from certain foods, which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and who know the truth (1 Timothy 4:1-3). God’s Word says these people must be rebuked! You cannot add “your rules” to God’s truth! Lately, we have seen people’s thoughts on full display through social media. Somehow, we have mixed culture and politics with a message about Jesus that truly does not add up. Judgements when others don’t believe what we do or how we do are quick. When you spend time overthinking how other people aren’t like you or doing what you want them to do instead of focusing on how God would want you to show up to those that are different from you, sovereignty of self may be an idol. There is only one lawgiver and judge, he who is able to save and to destroy. But who are you to judge your neighbor (James 4:12)? We are not supposed to be the judge of others. This doesn’t mean we should shy away from providing good feedback to others in a non-judgmental way, but we need to avoid thinking we are the end all be all! The only truth is in the Word of God! Only God can truly change things and the more we overthink about our way being the right way, the less we remember God’s way! Self-Promotion/Pride. Unfortunately, many who are overthinking about their way being the right way have a significant platform for self-promotion. Even if you don’t suffer with thoughts of self-sovereignty, are you thinking a lot about your next social media post or how many views, likes and follows you have? Is the idol of self-promotion taking ahold of your time? If you post something that you feel good about, are you overly disappointed if it doesn’t perform well? Maybe you only receive one “like”. How does this shift your mood? Are you angry or discouraged? On the other end of the spectrum, let’s say you have a following on social media—many likes and many follows. Are you spending more time thinking about these followers than you are about God? Beyond social media, how are you promoting yourself up at work? Do you think about the next meeting and how you will comment or get noticed? Do you worry when you don’t get the last word or when another colleague receives accolades? If you lead a team, how do you balance taking credit or giving it? Are you an I or a we colleague? I did this or we worked together… The Bible consistently warns about self-promotion and pride and not thinking of others. Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted (Matthew 23:12). Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord. For it is not who commends himself who is approved, but the one whom the Lord commends (2 Corinthians 10:17-18) Remembering pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall (Proverbs 16:18). In the pride of his face the wicked does not seek him; all his thoughts are; there is no God (Psalm 10:4). Bottom line, if you are thinking about exalting yourself and how it makes you feel, good or bad, more than you are thinking about what God tells you to do in his Word, you are overthinking about yourself! Covetousness. Do you spend a lot of time thinking about things you want or don’t have? Even covetousness, a fancy word for jealousy, can be another way of overthinking about yourself. Described as a harmful spirit in 1 Samuel, jealousy can “rush upon us” when we least expect it. In 1 Samuel we learn how Saul is truly j...
Transcribe →The Idol of Politics – 5
2w ago00:03:00Tap to summarizePresented by Lauren Stibgen We cannot repair culture with politics, but this is not what the candidates for any political party want you to think. The effect your faith should have on politics should remove from politics what it can never deliver—a redeemed and perfect kingdom. When candidates or laws are up for a vote, are you filled with fear for what that change might mean? Do you catastrophize what terrible things may happen based on the outcomes of an election? In an updated article for October of 2024 from The American Psychological Association titled, “Fear: A Powerful Motivator in Elections”, it is clear fear is a primary tactic when it comes to an election.[1] Why? Because it works! The author points out this could involve factual or misleading statements about the other candidate or that a potential victory for the other party would lead to disaster. Even this article provides practical advice to check facts and, yes, turn off the news if you are feeling anxious and fearful! This is great advice, and, as a believer, you need to remember placing your hope in a temporal political candidate rather than prioritizing and trusting in God’s sovereignty in all things can be an indication you are making an idol of the politics that are intentionally trying to make you fearful! Trusting in the Lord with all your heart and not leaning on your own understanding, submitting to the Lord in all ways and trusting that he will make your path straight can seem easier said than done (Proverbs 3:5-6). As believers we are promised that God is our refuge and our strength, an ever-present help in trouble. Trusting the Lord even if the earth gives way, and the mountains fall into the sea is counter to what culture tells us (Psalm 46:1-3). Politics promise to solve problems of social consequence like homelessness, hunger, poverty, human trafficking, murder, crime—and the list could go on. Like me, you have probably lived through enough election cycles to see the wash, rinse, and repeat. The promises and laws do not stop the injustice. “When the sin-sick soul stops being the central problem, then God’s provision of the person and the work of Christ stops being the central solution. When the travails of the here and now become the central problem, then politics become the central means of providing solutions.”[2] This quote from the article “Christianity and Politics” by Dan Bryant summarizes what we need to remember as believers—our God saves, not man. — [1] Waldroff, K. (2020, October 13). Fear: A powerful motivator in elections. American Psychological Association. https://www.apa.org/news/apa/2020/fear-motivator-elections [2] Christianity and Politics | Modern Reformation. (n.d.). Www.modernreformation.org. https://www.modernreformation.org/resources/articles/christianity-and-politics-2
Transcribe →The Idol of Politics – 4
2w ago00:03:00Tap to summarizePresented by Lauren Stibgen Do you excuse things that contradict your faith? What is important to God doesn’t have a label or a party. It is not a temporary term, nor can it be solved by human hands. Being true to Christ means standing for truth and justice and being honest about the temporary parties and candidates we may be supporting. The politics of the day are quick to point out the “sins” of one candidate but excuse the actions of the other. Consider these verses in John 8. The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman caught in adultery and placing her in the midst they said to him, “Teacher, this woman has been caught in the act of adultery. Now, in the Law, Moses commanded us to stone such women. So, what do you say? This they said to test him, that they might have some charge to bring against him. Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground. And, as they continued to ask him, he stood up and said to them, “Let him who is among you be the first to throw a stone at her. And, once more, he bent down and wrote on the ground. But, when they heard it, they went away one by one, beginning with the older ones, and Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before him (John 8:3-9). Behaving like the scribes and the Pharisees, are you excusing sin of a candidate in the name of perceived better alignment with your faith? This can be another indication that politics have become an idol. All sin and fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23). Jesus calls us to recognize our own sins. I don’t think it is a mistake the woman who committed adultery was standing one on one with Jesus when all the others had walked away. Jesus is the only judge and the only true “cure” for sin! How can you point someone toward salvation if you are excusing the sins of man in the name of winning? Instead of making excuses or comparing sins between parties, point out all sin is just that—sin in the eyes of God! There isn’t one better or worse. While we know the woman in John 8 was an adulteress, we don’t know the sins of the scribes and Pharisees. What we do know is they didn’t challenge Jesus to make excuses for their sin being better or less than adultery! Focus on telling people how you pray for the candidate’s recognition of their sin instead!
Transcribe →The Idol of Politics – 3
2w ago00:03:00Tap to summarizePresented by Lauren Stibgen From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers these things ought to not be so. Does a spring pour forth from the same opening both fresh and salt water? Can a fig tree, my brothers, bear olives, or a grapevine produce figs? Neither can a salt pond yield fresh water (James 3:10-12). These verses in James 3 can apply to all the words we speak. Have you excused your words about politics and think they don’t matter? Have you shared something on social media that is less than pleasant or something that incites a heated discussion? What about name calling and labeling of people? Your words can be an indication that politics have become an idol. While you may not be doing this at work, your personal life is far less hidden than it was in the past with the pervasive online presence most people have. In Matthew chapter 5, Jesus calls us to love our enemies and to pray for those who persecute us. This includes candidates and members of an opposing political view. With fellow believers the conversations become even more divisive as we start to judge someone’s level of justification and commitment to their faith based on who they voted for. You have heard this before. So and so cannot be saved if they voted for X. Only God can judge the intentions of someone. We cannot and should not. And God’s Word reminds us not to judge, or we will be judged in return (Matthew 7:1-2). How can you self-examine first? How can you remove the log in your own eye before you look at the speck in your brother’s (Matthew 7:3-5)? Believer or not, those that are on the opposing side of your views are also made in the image of God (Genesis 1:27). Jesus calls us to love our enemies. This includes candidates and members of an opposing political view. Think about those around you at work who are believers in Jesus. Would your words reflect your calling as an ambassador of Christ? Remember, our ultimate goal is to make disciples—not of candidates but of Christ! What can we do instead? Remembering sometimes the most peaceful thing we can do is be silent and let God fight our battles. We can pray for those who persecute us. We can choose to see the best in others.
Transcribe →