I know that the bible is relative to the day, but it still gives me a moment of pause. And so I re-read what was written and it’s as if God says, “Yes, that’s what I wrote. What part of the “Living Word of God” did you not understand?” So, I’m reading through 1st Samuel and I’m in the 10th Chapter, reading the story of the anointing of Saul to be King. I need to preface this with a Facebook story. God woke me up at 5:30 ish this morning and I knew I needed to get up and read the word of God and see what He’d have me focus on today. But it was so toasty beneath the covers that so I lay there scrolling through Facebook and catching up on the latest meme’s, prayer request and antics of somebody’s baby. And low and behold, this will shock you, I came across an anti-Trump post. Now that’s rare in my Facebook world because most of those who are on my feed are Trump supporters or at least they’re not negative nellies. But one such character, a preacher no less, was a very vocal Obama and Clinton supporter and although we’ve not locked horns about the issue, his post bother me. So in frustration, I hop up out of bed and head to the living room to get into God’s word. That’ll teach me not to obey God the first time.
Not by happenstance, I’m in 1st Samuel 10.
Verse 9
And it was so, that when he had turned his back to go from Samuel, God gave him another heart: and all those signs came to pass that day.
Samuel had just laid the news on Saul that he was about to become King of Israel. Saul didn’t understand. He was of the tribe of Benjamin the smallest of the children of Israel, he didn’t have any training and he was just trying to find his dad’s wayward mules, not trying to become king. But God had another plan. It had never been God’s plan that His people would have another leader besides Himself. But they chose that path, and so God allowed mans will to become the way. But it still didn’t take God out of control. As Saul turned to leave Samuel, somewhat in shock I think, it says that “God gave him another heart.”
When Obama was elected in 2004 and 2008, I wasn’t happy. But he was President and I knew that God had allowed him to be President and who was I to question God. I spent those eight years watching as the American dream was flushed down the toilet and Christianity was mocked from one end of the country to the other. Yet, I still respected the office of President of the United States. So when 2016 came you better believe I was on my knees begging God for a change in our Nation’s leadership before the whole country found itself searching for God in the house of the Lord and having Him not be found. When President Trump initially ran, my first thought was “I don’t think that’s God’s man.” But as time went on I became a Trump believer. Not because he was a godly man, but because he was a man God could use. And then, when he added Vice President Pence to his team, a man of God and proud to be, I had my answer.
So when I scrolled across that post this morning of side by side images of Obama and Trump at the National Prayer Breakfast, with their opening words being used to tear at the political seams of our Country, I was upset. Obama had opened up with scripture, Trump opened up with a joke. Now, for the record I never watched Obama’s national day of prayer speeches because I fully believe the man is Muslim, not a child of God. At every opportunity he thwarted the efforts of Christianity and promoted Islamic terrorism. But back to the prayer breakfast… Trump was stirred up after he had heard Chaplain Barry Black preach one of the best sermons I’ve ever heard and a salvation message to boot! God is at work on the heart of Donald Trump, I believe it. So he opened up with a joke about who appointed Black and that his job was safe whether he appointed him or someone else. It was Trump trying to be funny… he doesn’t always master that. But what he mastered in his speech at the National Prayer Breakfast was the fact that he is willing to fight for Christian freedom. That was never Obama’s agenda.
I’ll shush at this point, because I really don’t like being political. But I needed to get that off my chest and I have a platform for which I pay a month subscription that gives me the right to do so. And I figure if you’re not a Jesus Chick fan, you’ll likely not read it anyway. And if you’re a fan of mine, you’re probably a fan of President Trump. Yes, I’m aware for the biblical scholars that Saul later failed. Trump’s not Saul and our story doesn’t have to be his. This is about who God appoints and the fact that we have no right to question but to follow scripture that says that we are respect authority.
The end of that chapter says this in verses 26 and 27.
And Saul also went home to Gibeah; and there went with him a band of men, whose hearts God had touched. But the children of Belial said, How shall this man save us? And they despised him, and brought him no presents. But he held his peace.
I see God moving in our country in a way that I’ve not experienced for a very long time. And I’m just saying for the record that those stirring division are not of God, because God unites Christians. Satan divides.