{"id":3617,"date":"2016-10-24T18:10:25","date_gmt":"2016-10-25T00:10:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kensummers.org\/?p=3617"},"modified":"2016-10-24T18:10:25","modified_gmt":"2016-10-25T00:10:25","slug":"gods-people-in-government","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kensummers.org\/?p=3617","title":{"rendered":"God&#8217;s People in Government"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>BIBLE VERSE FOR TODAY&#8230;\u00a0<\/strong><em>&#8220;<span id=\"en-NIV-1238\" class=\"text Gen-41-42\">Then Pharaoh took his signet ring from his finger and put it on Joseph\u2019s finger. He dressed him in robes of fine linen and put a gold chain around his neck.<\/span><\/em><span id=\"en-NIV-1239\" class=\"text Gen-41-43\"><em><sup class=\"versenum\">\u00a0<\/sup>He had him ride in a chariot as his second-in-command,<span style=\"font-size: 10px; line-height: 22px;\">\u00a0<\/span>and people shouted before him, \u201cMake way!\u201d Thus he put him in charge of the whole land of Egypt.&#8221;<\/em> Genesis 41:42-43<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Joseph, Daniel and his three friends, Esther are all names that we associate as God&#8217;s people serving in positions of influence in &#8220;secular&#8221; governments. They were God&#8217;s people in the right place at the right time, honoring God, and being a source of wisdom and principle in a time of crisis.<\/p>\n<p>Joseph was in power to not only save the nation of Egypt, but to save the future nation of Israel, by providing a refuge for Jacob&#8217;s household during a famine. Esther became Queen and was in a position to save God&#8217;s people from a plot of annihilation. Daniel,\u00a0Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego choose to honor God and it resulted in them being granted positions of influence in Babylon.<\/p>\n<p>Each of these were in their position to fill a greater and higher calling than to just be a servant in government. God used them in a unique way that resulted in God&#8217;s name being honored by the highest officials.<\/p>\n<p>The advancement of God&#8217;s kingdom is not because of government. But God&#8217;s people honoring God in the places that He opens up for them is an opportunity for the wisdom of God to have an influence in a nation.<\/p>\n<p>When I was elected to the State House in 2006, I was pleased to find a number of individuals who were committed followers of Christ or those who held strong Christian beliefs. I know this was far different from the 1980&#8217;s when I was serving on a local school board and was acquainted with the dynamics and make-up at the State Capitol.<\/p>\n<p>In this year&#8217;s Presidential election cycle I know that there were at least four candidates who are individuals of strong, even outspoken faith. I saw the same thing in some candidate&#8217;s for the US Senate from Colorado. Many of these publicly espoused their deeply held faith.<\/p>\n<p>People often asked me, &#8220;Are there any committed Christians in government?&#8221; If you look at all levels of government, you will find God&#8217;s people &#8220;sprinkled&#8221; into various levels, filling all kinds of positions and roles. This is true on a state and national level. We live in challenging and changing times. We need to understand that God&#8217;s people are &#8220;out there.&#8221; We need to pray for them to be a source of wisdom, integrity and principle as they face difficult decisions, and a challenging job in a challenging environment.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Prayer for today&#8230;\u00a0<\/strong><em>Lord, we pray for Your people serving in various positions and levels of government. Grant them strength and wisdom and allow their influence to result in being a blessing to our land.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>BIBLE VERSE FOR TODAY&#8230;\u00a0&#8220;Then Pharaoh took his signet ring from his finger and put it on Joseph\u2019s finger. He dressed him in robes of fine linen and put a gold chain around his neck.\u00a0He had him ride in a chariot as his second-in-command,\u00a0and people shouted before him, \u201cMake way!\u201d Thus he put him in charge [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3617","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kensummers.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3617","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kensummers.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kensummers.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kensummers.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kensummers.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3617"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/kensummers.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3617\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3618,"href":"https:\/\/kensummers.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3617\/revisions\/3618"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kensummers.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3617"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kensummers.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3617"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kensummers.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3617"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}