Psalm 19 Records The heavens declare the glory of God....shouldn't we?

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	Honor the king  1 Peter 2:13-25 13 Therefore submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake, whether to the king as supreme, 14 or to governors, as to those who are sent by him for the punishment of evildoers and for the praise of those who do good. 15 For this is the will of God, that by doing good you may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men-- 16 as free, yet not using liberty as a cloak for vice, but as bondservants of God. 17 Honor all people. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the king. (emphasis added)  With the elections being today, I wanted to cover a topic that the church really needs to grasp. Honor the king. We need to learn that when we disrespect the authority over us, then we disrespect God. Romans 13:1-2 says, "Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God. Whosoever therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God: and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation." He who resists the authority placed over them, resists God. Power here is exousia, which in Greek is authority, magistrate, jurisdiction. I like that word, jurisdiction. Resist the one that has jurisdiction over you and you resist God. We Americans tend to think that we have a right to gripe and complain about authority, but the Word says that if we gripe about those in authority, then we gripe about the one who put them there. For "there is no jurisdiction, authority, power that is not of God." Resist is antitassomai, to arrange oneself against, to oppose. Sure, as Americans we have the right to speak out against the authority and what we see them doing wrong. However, if we are to be like Christ, we must lay down our rights and will and pick up the will of God. Christ said that He can do "nothing of Himself, but what He sees the Father do; for whatever He does, the Son also does in like manner." (John 5:19NKJV) Let’s go back to that word, ‘honor’. The Greek word ‘honor’ is timao. This word translates as to esteem, to fix a value upon. In other words, we are to value as precious those in authority over us. Tell me something, if we question everything they do and gripe about them constantly. If we ridicule and mock them, do we esteem them as precious? I don’t believe so. If you truly value someone as precious you don’t ridicule or question everything they do. I would never ridicule my wife or question what she does. And she would never ridicule me or question my decisions. We value each other as precious, we honor each other.  The Word does tell us what we should do. In 1 Tim 2:1-3 God says, "I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men; For kings, and for all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty. For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour." So we are to pray for them and give thanks for them. This is the way we will live a ‘quiet and peaceable life’. We need to pray that God gives them wisdom. Even if they do not follow God, He controls their heart. Proverbs says, 21:1 "The king's heart is in the hand of the LORD, as the rivers of water: he turneth it whithersoever he will." So God is in control. Don’t fret about what the President does or doesn’t do. As long as he doesn’t tell us to do something that goes directly against God’s Word, then give him the honor and respect due his office. And pray for him that he has wisdom and understanding and that he would come to know God as his Lord and Saviour.   So as the elections come to a close today. Let us remeber to honor the President and pray for him, whomever he may be.	The new CD, You Alone are God, is almost ready to purchase. I just need to copyright and get the songs to the distributor.   It has 8 songs on it and most of them will be unfamiliar to you.  Keep checking in the store for availability.
	© 2011 Danny Groff  All rights reserved