Restoring Enterprise to its Place in the Body of Christ

Business as Mission, Kingdom Business, Great Commission Companies, Purpose-Driven Business, Enterprising Ministry, Kingdom Entrepreneurship - It goes by many names, but there is a new, and yet very old calling in the Global Body of Christ. Many believers are called to walk out their calling in the marketplace. A subset of those believers are called to plant and grow businesses that serve God and the rest of the church. It is their ministry, enterprising ministry, that we describe, support, and explore here.

Wednesday, April 7, 2010

America a Christian or Islamic Nation?

Someone near and dear to me recently asked me to check out the rumors that President Obama was turning this nation into a Muslim Nation instead of a Christian Nation.
I shared the following:

 As a Christ follower I am saddened, but not particularly worried about these events because The king's heart is in the hand of the LORD;  he directs it like a watercourse wherever he pleases. (Proverbs 2:1).

I personally value the fact that my country's leaders, which change all the time, will not be asked to define what it means to be a Christ follower. Frankly, a don't trust any man to do that. The church is enduring and standing and growing rapidly across the world, in contrast to man made religion.

A man made religion is where a group of people take a set of rules and try to improve our own nature and spirits by behaving better. Using this definition of religion, any set of rules can be followed, drawn or extrapolated from the Quaran, the Bahgda Vida, the Bible, or any cook book from which a set of behavioral rules can be assembled. When differing groups have to live together in a country that values freedom and justice, we are challenged to find a set of rules by which we agree to serve justice. America is a country like that, and since our founders were mostly Christian the rules (our Justice system) they created were based on the bible. From a historical perspective only a false revision of our history can change that,

This justice system never did make us a Christian nation. Since we are a nation of the people and by the people, we will not be a Christian nation unless every single citizen choose to follow Christ. While it is my primary job in life to be an ambassador for Christ, working so that every person in America and elsewhere has the opportunity to choose Christ, They must choose to accept or reject Jesus' gift of payment for the wrongs they have done  individually, on their own. It is between God and each individual.

My relationship is with Jesus, and I want to share that with everyone his gift with everyone I meet, but if I make people choose Jesus by setting up rules that say they have no choice, but to believe in Jesus in my country, they can no longer choose him voluntarily.

Do Muslims play by the same rules? Some do not. Salafist Sunni Muslims are taught that they are not obeying the rules of their book unless promote the plan that their leaders make everyone under their geographic control obey the rules of their book, whether they choose it or not.

A Muslim is a follower of Islam. Therefore you can have a Muslim nation. (a country made up of Muslims} or an Islamic Nation (Nation ruled by Islamic - Sharia- law). Unfortunately we have no such distinctions in Christianity. We are a nation of many Christians, not ruled by the bible, but principles drawn from the bible.


So is America a Christian Nation? It is a nation of many Christ followers, and I hope it never becomes a nation ruled by some man's interpretation of the bible until every individual freely chooses to become a Christ follower.

Is it a Muslim nation? Salafist Sunni Muslims believe their God already owns America and that it must be brought by his followers under his control. I will politically oppose any action that tries to make America an Islamic Nation by these terms. Will there be many Muslims? I hope God continues to send them to us from abroad, where I pray I will always have the freedom to speak my faith publicly, and pray that God's spirit moves in them as he did in me. But until they do I will live in peace with them.

Will I keep my faith separate from my politics? No. I declare I am a follower of Jesus, and a citizen leader, and will express my Christian principles at the polls, in my everyday life, my votes and my preferences. I can even try make myself available to share my values with other people  who do not share them. My country's constitution says it cannot ask me to bow my knee to any religion it defines for me, and in that environment the gospel of Jesus will continue to spread around the world, on its own merits, until  every nation has heard the name of Jesus.

Therefore I an not afraid of this Muslim cult, and am neither ashamed of the Gospel of Christ, because it is the power of God for salvation.

Lee Royal