Don't let politics distract you

[HKHaugan]

It was my 79th birthday last Thursday and things have really changed in that short time. But the changes are pointing more and more to the deeper needs of mankind rather than the threats of political restructuring. What we see in the international unrest column, the socialist trending and the shifting tectonic economic plates, is the call the call they present on the spiritual horizon.

When Jesus said go into all the world He meant that the human heart will always be His objective. IF ever there was a time that needed the Gospel it is now. Our concentration is too easily diverted from the real issue of the heart to world circumstance.

I remember in the movie On the Beach the dreaded nuclear conflict had happened and a radioactive cloud was swallowing up the earth. The American submarine captained by Gregory Peck simply headed back to America so that its crew could die there. There was only one scene in the movie that made any sense and it was a downplayed scene where a Salvation Army captain was preaching the Gospel to a dwindling crowd. To me the real call now is not to be led into a nuclear cloud of fear and die in its political confusion but to encourage, stimulate and spread, heart by heart, the truth of Jesus and stand on the promise that "If my people who are called by my name will turn from their evil ways and repent I will heal their land."

There are many signs that this is taking place but our media don't know how to cover the cloud of spiritual realities Jesus has introduced by His presence. Since His coming we have been living in the end times as far as the world is concerned. The media have a narrowed outlook of the world. Catastrophe, mayhem, intrigue, conflict---keep the pot stirred and the people watching. It makes money. Keep the focus on the world condition. Offer no answer only the hopelessness that isolates, alienates and draws attention to them. The sophisticated looking talking heads that seem to really believe their analyses can save the day. Unless the Body of Christ really sees its mission, Jesus' mission, to see everything in a much larger context, the spiritual context, touching every human heart, thinking and acting in a spiritual perspective, then the devil's harbingers of profit and loss will have their day. But that is not the way I read the end of the story.

There was never a more discouraging world than the one in which the first disciples of Jesus lived. The morality, the secular power and demonic poly-religious atmosphere of Rome were obstacles far broader than any we know today. How few were the disciples yet they were the start of a movement in which faith in the risen Jesus changed the entire course of the world. We have been blessed to be part of that movement. It is not political, economic, military or social power but "...by my Spirit," says the Lord.

The Body of Christ needs to reaffirm, recover, retain, re-up to its mission and keep the spiritual recovery of each human heart as its primary objective. Scripture shows us the in the Old Testament that political and economic issues are symptomatic of broken spirituality. They resulted from sinful rejection of God's presence and direction. If we can shift to seeing our world's political and social condition in a spiritual perspective (and that is the must in all our preaching and teaching and gatherings) we will find that the solution is always returning the heart to God in Christ, then the world is reconciled and put right.

While that is a global statement, the Lord gives us the command to operate locally, one on one, person to person, heart to heart. He has the global task. Ours is to be locally practiced. Of course there will always be this tension between the spiritual context and the pressure of immediate circumstance. "In this world you will have tribulation but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world." Paul tells us to keep in step with the Spirit exactly as Jesus prompted at Pentecost. When He prevails in the heart that heart is the change mover in that part of the world.