Overheard at Table 3: Talking with the Pastor

Deacon: This has kinda been on my mind for the past few weeks, Pastor.  You know the passage from Kings "If my people who are called by my name"...

Pastor: "... will humble themselves and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from Heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land."  It's 2 Chronicles, actually.

Deacon: I always keep hearing that in sermon after sermon, and also I hear politicians use it for America.  I mean, the point is "no gay, no abortion, no transgenderism" I get that ... but in context, this passage is specific to when Solomon finished the temple, and God said, "Hey, Sol, great job!  Like it. I'm gonna live here, and just as a promise to you, if I ever cause a drought or disease to rip through the population, then if you remember the covenant - "if my people, etc" - then I'll make things right again."  That's what it seems like God is saying, "You make Me center of your life" Since as believers we are taught that our personal bodies are now the temple of the Holy Spirit, and He'll restore us if we stray.

Pastor: That's one way of looking at it.

Deacon: I've been reading Jeremiah, and there's a passage in there that might seem to be a better fit for this whole "re-focus America" thing.  Chapter 7, God says specifically, "If you change your ways and stop oppressing the foreigner, the orphan, or the widow, then I will let you live in the land that I gave you."  Just sounds more appropriate to us and where we are now.

Pastor: I agree!  It's speaking against what just happened this week in Kansas, where they voted to keep aborting innocent babies!

Deacon: ...uhh, I was thinking more about Governor Abbott trucking immigrants to New York City, so I'm not sure were talking about the same thing here.

Pastor: It's just so sad, what's happening in Kansas.  Sometimes Democracy is not really a good system.  I mean, look at what happened when Moses went up the mountain and Aaron let the people vote and they made the Golden Calf!

Deacon: Do I want to know where you're going with this?

Pastor: Just saying that our system needs to change.

Deacon: Well, as Churchill once said, "Democracy is the worst form of government, but it's better than all the rest."

Pastor: I love Churchill.  Read all his biographies.  That shows you what a strong leader can do when God puts strong leaders in power at the right time.