Buckhead Church is launching an awesome series starting July 13, 2008 entitled “Letters to the Next President”. Andy Stanley will be heading up this series as he addresses the topic of the presidency and how it relates to the Church. In an effort to create a buzz for the series, they created a pretty neat website to go along with it. Check it out.

Here’s my letter to the president (if I could write one)…

Dear Next President,

I would first like to say that my words may go overlooked and my voice may go unnoticed, but I represent many people today whose voices are never heard at all. Today, I speak for them…

The presidency has lost immense respect not only from our nation, but from the world at large. This position of power and authority has been polluted, exploited, and corrupted through years of scandals, fraud, greed, injustice, and lies that have hid truth that we may never know. Today, voting has even lost its significance within our nation. As America grows as a capitalistic society, there is a decreasing desire to elect candidates that stand for moral principles, and an increasing desire to elect candidates who can promise us more money, better benefits, and higher security to protect our lavish way of living.

Mere selfishness!

I wonder are we as Christians more concerned with higher tax cuts, lower interest rates, and how much income the President can promise us that we can keep, or are we concerned with the issues of this nation that is pulling us further away from God? Why do we as Christians vote? Is our political view democratic, liberal, republican… or God? If Jesus ran for president, would we vote for Him?

Think about it.

My letter to you, Mr. President, is one that knows that it may never get read or seen by your eyes. It knows that your agenda is far more important to you than its mere words. My letter to you, Mr. President, is that of a challenge: A challenge to reThink what it means to “be” the president of the United States; to have the opportunity to leave a legacy – to change the world – to “be” the difference. This nation longs to see the day that we can witness a president filled with such conviction and compassion for people that resembles the very heart of Jesus Christ.

Will you be that interruption in time? Will you be the president that this nation and world will remember years and decades from now – as the one who chose to “be” the difference instead of merely “making” a difference?

If not, I vote Jesus for President.

Thank you,

Antwon Davis

Clay Scroggins – one of the teachers of the Buckhead Church leadership and staff – presented a thought-provoking message today during service as he dug into the nature of God relating to this question. He addressed questions that many of us have concerning God… “Is God angry? Is He mad at me? Does He desire to consume all of us in His raging wrath if we don’t become His subjects as He so desires?”

Many people’s perception of God is a raging, angry, and wrathful guy that sits off at a distance and lets the world fall apart because we’re bad. It’s like He’s the Incredible Hulk that reacts to our bad behavior with raging anger that results in our demise. But is that entirely God or a warped view of Him? Is there another side to Him worth investigating?

Scroggins unpacked this idea as he gave a clear and concise message using the story of Hosea. After giving us a 15-minute history recap of Hosea and the rebellious state of Israel, Scroggins showed in scripture how God used Hosea’s relationship with Gomer – a prostitute – to showcase His relationship with Israel. The idea behind this letter written by this minor prophet is that God’s love for us makes Him angry and jealous “for” us… not angry and jealous “at” us. There is a difference you know. He sees our Israelite-like habit of constantly choosing stuff over Him (which we are all guilty of in some way or another) and it bothers Him, and rightly so.

What rocked my face off was Scroggins’ vivid description of how God chose to deal with His anger. Instead of reeking-havoc on our minuscule and undeserving lives, He absorbed all of His anger through Jesus Christ.

Can you envision for a moment the Incredible Hulk – at the peak of his anger – about to take his anger out on those most deserving of it, and as soon as he throws his ultimate blow, some guy jumps in the middle and takes it for all of them. Clearly, any blow to the chest from the Hulk is a death sentence waiting to happen. But can you see… Jesus stepped in and took the blow to the chest for us… and it killed Him!!!

Wrap your mind around this…

Because God is righteous and just, there has to be some form of penalty for injustice. He can’t just let wrong slip through His hands unnoticed, or He wouldn’t really be just. So He places the penalty of the world on one person… one human… to take the blow and it cost Him his life. I don’t know about you, but I didn’t deserve that. It’s moments like these that we begin to understand the true character and nature of God… we see and experience first-hand that His love is quite indescribable.

“Oh, how He loves us!!!” – John Mark Mcmillan

I’m gonna end this series for now with this…

I believe that many of us as Christians just don’t know who we are in Jesus Christ. Many of us have grown up with distorted, incorrect, and exaggerated perceptions of Jesus Christ, God, and the Bible. Our identity has been damaged over years of religion, tradition and false teaching. Just as a baby has to grow and discover his/her identity in the world, a Christian has to grow and discover his/her identity in Christ. But how can people truly discover who they are if they are modeling themselves primarily after a church style or a particular church culture instead of the principles and teachings of Jesus Christ? How can people grow and mature and develop healthy spiritual lives if all they keep getting week after week are messages from the preacher that they add to their list of messages that they already can’t seem to figure out or apply (no offense to any men or women of God… you guys rock… thanks for answering the call to preach the Gospel)? But do you see what I am saying? We assume just because people classify themselves as Christians that they get it or that that they have a clear understanding of Jesus Christ, God and the Bible. You’d be surprised how many adults are just as confused as the kids are. I’m still in discovery myself and the more I learn the more I realize I don’t know much when it comes to God. I think that’s why Jesus kept stuff pretty simple in the first place. [...more]