Establish your identity in Christ...

We in the United States of America are calling tomorrow's election the most historical of our times. This may be so, but what troubles me has been how Christian men and women are wrapping themselves up in a particular political party. Pastors and laity alike have been taking sides. "Evangelicals of Obama, or, "You aren't Christian unless you vote Republican," are just two of many bumper stickers I have seen in the past few months. But my question is, should we be taking sides? Can Christians really only vote one way? Should we really be forcing Christ to camp out on one side of the spectrum or the other?

It troubles me how excited and "fired up" Christians are getting over this year's election, but remain silent about their relationship with Christ, who is the only absolute truth in this world. Should we be more vocal about our political views or about the freedom we have experienced in Jesus Christ? What should we be grounding our identity in? Should it be in political parties and their candidates that come and go? Or, should it be in Jesus Christ, who will never leave you or forsake you?

Teens, I challenge you to put your trust in Christ first. I challenge you to ground your identity in him and only him. We are part of a country where we have the oppurtunity to vote and we SHOULD vote. With that said, do not get depressed if your candidate loses or do backflips if your candidate wins, but instead weep for the lost of this world and rejoice that your names are written in the book of life.

Presidents come and go. Taxes, economic reccessions, political parties and their agendas come and go, but Christ Jesus remains forever.

So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men's sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ's behalf: Be reconciled to God. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. (2 Cor. 5:16-21 NIV)