It is better to remain silent and be thought a fool......

"Let everyone be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God." Romans 13:1

I just read A Tale of Three Kings: A study in brokenness by Gene Edwards. It focused mainly on the life of David.. but there were several resounding points throughout the book. Today, after reading this book, I saw someone's status on Facebook that made a bold statement. I took the statement to speak very pridefully of how right we are - we're right because we're Christians.

Someone commented on the status and pretty much said something like "yeah, those who bash Christians are usually *&$@^! who like Obama." The one who posted the status followed with "they really don't know anything if they like Obama."

What? Who is going to like you (Christians) if you act like that? At this point I always think of a quote from Ghandi. . . "I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ."

So back to the book by Gene Edwards...

When we're reading the story of David, how do we see him? He was recruited from sheepherding, he shot Goliath with a little stone, he became king... he was a hero! For the most part, we see the whole story.

But remember when David was running from King Saul?

"He was feared, hated, lied about, and plotted against. He shook hands with murder on several occasions. These were David's darkest hours. We know them as his pre-king days, but he didn't. He may have assumed this was his lot forever." (pg. 32)

So why didn't David kill Saul? Why didn't he even try fighting back? Because Saul was the Lord's anointed - in other words, David had complete faith that God sets up and takes down rulers. David waited on God to do the taking down.

We're so eager to judge rulers, kings, presidents. Is it because we have trouble seeing the whole picture? We can't believe that part of God's plan is to have a certain someone in authority?

Saul did not seem like a king anointed by God, but guess what, he was. Other times we may be so sure that God backs someone (like Reagan or Bush I) when maybe they aren't anointed by God. But Gene Edwards theology was.. how do you know? How do you know when a king (or president) is a Saul or a David?

But most importantly, so what. David lived under a Saul and he let Saul live. David believed in God's authority and "authority from God is not afraid of challengers, makes no defense, and cares not one whit if it must be dethroned." (pg. 48)

We like to make bold claims as Christians. "Look at me, I'm standing up for Christ". But do we really think that's a challenge? We said some words, wow, we're tough.

We like to make bold claims.. and yet, we can't take any bold stances in our lives. We barely read the Bible yet we are endowed with wisdom about political leaders. We say a few quick prayers once a week and suddenly we think we have the ability to defend Christ to a classroom.

"My, how certain we mortals can be . . . of things even the angels do not know." (pg. 49)