A new President

“Tonight is the answer. The answer that stretches around schools & churches in numbers this nation has never seen. By people who waited 3 hours and 4 hours, many for the first time in their lives”

We have a new US President (well, from January 09) and in many ways it was a momentous result when you consider US history over the last 100 years, I don’t think there is much disagreement on that score.

The only reference to God Obama made in this speech was after 16mins 30 secs when in conclusion he said “God bless you and God bless America”. This for me was a little disappointing but if you look beyond the initial speech he has been more encouraging elsewhere.

Faith “plays every role” in his life… “It’s what keeps me grounded. It’s what keeps my eyes set on the greatest of heights,” Obama told members of the Redemption World Outreach Center in Greenville, S.C., according to The Associated Press.

Faith, he said, is “what propels me to do what I do and when I am down it’s what lifts me up.” Obama, who is a member of the United Church of Christ – considered one of the most liberal mainline Protestant denominations, also said God “is with us and He wants us to do the right thing,” such as breaking down divisions between Democrats and Republicans and among religions, according to AP.

Obama is currently ranked as the Democratic Candidate that invokes religion the most, according to religious Web site Beliefnet.com’s “God-o-Meter” – which measures “God talk” in the presidential campaign.

Obama concluded Sunday’s address from the pulpit by asking the members of Redemption church to pray for him and his family to remain on the right path. “Sometimes you can become fearful, you can become vain, sometimes you can seek power for power’s sake,”

Obama confessed, according to NBC. “Pray that I can be an instrument of God,” he pleaded.

Extracts from http://www.christianpost.com/article/20071009/obama-breaks-god-talk-tradition.htm

I don’t know about you but whenever I see a nation and indeed a world unite in their interest for a leadership figure such as the next US president I often think I wish the same could happen for an inspirational evangelist or a Billy Graham type figure. Somebody who has the gift and the power to get the message of the Gospel over. The opportunity that comes from being President of the one of the world’s super-powers is huge. People listen to you, nations partner with you and as President you can make change for the better.

I guess one of the reasons why it is unlikely that any such evangelist figure will enjoy the same position is because politics for many is the religion of this age. They see it as where the power resides, where decisions are made that affect us in the day-to-day.

That is why the answer for many “stretches around schools and churches in the numbers this nation has never seen before”.

Wouldn’t it be great if this line around churches was for people who were not interested in voting but actually wanting to go inside on a Sunday morning and meeting the risen Lord? Sometimes it is possible to get a glimpse of what it might be like to have such a movement toward God, perhaps at a Christian concert or conference or in some of the larger churches that are vibrant and on fire for God. Maybe you have felt that.

As the body of Christ it really is up to the “church” to rise up and move with one voice, to unite around the things that bind us rather than get bogged down with doctrine that divides, whilst respecting the differences. It is clear that the world is crying out for change, is yearning for something more, a world that is beginning to appreciate that much of what we base our lives on is folly and is so easily brought down. That economies and banks can be crippled with just one profit warning.

So listening to the new Presidents speech and seeing the crowds, some in tears and many hugging each other and waving their flags – I just felt in my heart, I wish that was for God. I wish the world could unite for him and have the same reaction, perhaps we can.