How to fulfill your unique calling

My beloved Sweetheart Church:

We are going to be preaching through the book of Daniel beginning in January, a wonderful study about a man who was living as an exile in a foreign land and yet found a way to be both faithful to God and useful to his culture.

In a very real sense, we are spiritual exiles! This earth is not our home; heaven is. If we place our hope in this world and its power structures, we will inevitably be disappointed. AND STILL…we are called to be good citizens, to pray for and work for the good of our community.

One way to exercise this holy call is to vote. I charge all of you to do so tomorrow. To not exercise that supreme privilege is Christian malpractice!

Another way to fulfill our unique calling, as Daniel demonstrates repeatedly, is to fast and pray. I invite you to do that, as well. Join Cyndi and me in fasting for all or part of Tuesday. Join us in praying that God’s will be done in our election process, that our unity as a nation be restored, that we be protected from violence.

And remember what I said on Sunday: widen your hearts! Make room in your hearts for your brothers and sister in Christ with whom you might disagree but with whom you are bound in an eternal covenant as siblings in God’s family of the Redeemed.

Whatever happens tomorrow…whoever makes it into the White House and our state houses…God is very much on the throne. As we fast and pray…and vote… it will remind us of that essential and sustaining truth.

I love you all. Keep your chins up. We DO NOT LOSE HEART!

Pastor Mark