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Covid-19 Devotionals

The Podium and the Pulpit

Yes … we do … need to pray that America will become great again! I am sure this statement will be supported by every true follower of the Lord Jesus Christ because what we saw on TV last night at Capitol Hill is not the reflection of what real America is. Like many, I am interested to see how things pan out in the USA Senate, so I watched BBC News until about 1am this morning. Let me explain the following. If I was an American with a voting privilege, I would not be a Democrat, but I also would not support Mr. Trump. My reasons for not supporting Mr. Trump is that many years ago, the reality TV show known as The Apprentice exposed the true Mr. Trump to me, and time has proven yet again the Bible to be true:

Jer 13:23 Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard its spots? Neither can you do good who are accustomed to doing evil.

Those of us who have been around for a few years have seen dictators manipulate people in many countries across the world. Although only born after the Second World War, as I grew up Hitler and Nazism was spoken about often. Hitler’s Minister of Propaganda Joseph Goebbels said, “If you repeat a lie often enough, it becomes accepted as truth.” Does that ring a bell? Repeat the lie of electoral fraud and stolen elections enough, some people will believe it to be the truth.

It is interesting the when one considers “Bison Democracy”. When some of the herd want to graze in a certain valley, they will face in that direction. If most turn and face that way, it is agreed that that is where they will graze. That is what democracy in the First World or Western World is all about. Majority rules. So the November 2020 USA election, even though challenged with almost 50 court cases with each state and the legislature declaring a “true and fair” result, was lost by Mr. Trump … yet he refuses to concede lashing out with his propaganda, telling people, and some want to hear what he says, that the opposition stole the election.

What Mr. Trump did last night was to gather some supporters together in a “herd” and through repeated “lie propaganda” incited people into a “herd mentality” to blindly follow his instructions promising to join them in a march to the Senate and make their voices heard. He never fulfilled his promise to accompany them. What followed was the darkest moment in the USA history as a Federation of States. One protester was shot and died later. Another three died as well due to the violence. Surely their blood must be on the hands of Mr. Trump. David Corn from MotherJones.com says “Donald Trump is now a terrorist leader”.

The staggering reality is that this happens in so many Churches today … and a “herd mentality” is created. Then … the “herd” wants to hear certain things, and this plays to the leadership (often unspiritual, self-enriching, false teachers/preachers, call them whatever you like). The leadership become so influenced by the response of the crowds that they use emotive language and words that can be used in multiple ways, inciting the people to respond in ways they would not do without being psyched up. Consider the following excerpt of a Wikipedia article:

James Warren Jones (May 13, 1931 – November 18, 1978) was an American cult leader, preacher and self-professed faith healer. He launched the Peoples Temple in Indiana during the 1950s. Jones and his inner circle orchestrated a mass murder-suicide of himself and his followers in his jungle commune at Jonestown, Guyana on November 18, 1978.

(you can read the full article at en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JimJones) Jim Jones psyched his people up to gullibility … to herd mentality … to satanic abandonment. The Bible is clear about people like Mr. Trump and Rev. Jim Jones

2 Tim 4:3 For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. 4 They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.

Spiritual herd mentality is “what their itching ears want to hear”. They don’t want truth (“will not put up with sound doctrine”), they want their evil desires fulfilled (“to suit their own desires”). To reject Truth, they first “turn their ears away from the truth” to then enable hearing what their itching ears want to hear (“turn aside to myths”).

As there is power and authority at Mr. Trump’s podium, so there is power and authority in the pulpit. As Mr. Biden said, “The words of a President matter, no matter how good or bad that president is. At best, the words of a president can inspire. At worst, it can incite.” That is how powerful and authoritative that podium is … how much more the pulpit is when men speak from God or when men usurp the pulpit and people think the usurpers speak from God.

The men of God standing at the pulpit need to remember that that pulpit is God’s voice to His people. This means they cannot pursue their own agenda and present their own words. They may not use language that is ambiguous, confusing or carrying any ideas that undermine God’s Word and intention in His Word. Because there is so much “power” in the pulpit … and because clergy and preachers could have such sway over people … and because so many people are not thinking people, are gullible people seeking quick and easy solutions to life’s problems … any clergy, any preacher, anyone who has influence over souls that will live in either heaven or hell forever need to be thoroughly tested regarding salvation, spirituality, calling, understanding of Scripture and the Bible, Church doctrine and dogma, purpose and intent, etc. Unless anyone who is to exercise spiritual authority over the people of God is examined correctly, we must not as a church or denomination or federation use them. We need at all costs to protect the precious souls God gives us charge over. (See 1 Tim 3:1-7, 1 Tim 5:22, 2 Tim 1:13-14, 2 Tim 2:15, and 2 Tim 4:1-5).

Lord, You know and understand the heart and its intent better than we do. So often Your church has made mistakes relating to choices of leadership and pastoral ministry. We pray for the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ. Please protect us from appointing men whose intent is to lead the flock astray. Help us as members of local churches to protect the church as best we can under Your Divine Leadership … for Jesus’ sake. Amen.

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