At first glance, it could not be any more clear.

Recently, Kamala Harris told Christians in her audience “you’re at the wrong rally,” when they declared “Jesus is Lord,” and J.D. Vance declared “Jesus is Lord” to a host of cheers and applause. If you believe Jesus is Lord, you should obviously side with the guy who says that, especially since your only other viable option is the woman who would kick you out for saying that.

There is only one clear thing to me from these exchanges:
There is a party that shushes saying that Jesus is Lord at a rally.
There is a party that welcomes saying that Jesus is Lord at a rally.
So what? That doesn’t tell you very much. A real Christian says, “but how do we live like Jesus is Lord?”

“Not all who say to me ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter into the kingdom of Heaven.” (Matthew 7:21)

In the first century, there was a people group that rejected the God of Abraham. Well, there were many, but Rome was the big one.
There was another group who had power, one that welcomed declaring the God of Abraham. The Pharisees.

Who killed Jesus? If you had to pick a “party” of people, who did that? Was it just one “side”?

The Romans and the Pharisees were diametrically opposed to one another. One was Jewish, one was Gentile, one was an open threat to Israel, one stood for Israel. One believed in the Messiah, and one laughed at the idea of Messiah. But at the end of the day, these groups collaborated in murdering the Messiah.

We’ve seen in the Democratic party little to no reference to Christianity in the past couple decades. Granted, we have seen the private faith of Democratic leaders, and at times they will discuss them in interviews. But it has become a party that is fine with private practice of faith apart from government, but largely not interested in declaring Jesus.

We’ve seen Republicans make very much mention of Jesus, God, the Bible, and some “Christian values.” It has become a party that is fine with open expressions of faith and inserting certain (but only some) Judeo-Christian values as edicts into codified law, but not at all interested in endorsing the Sermon on the Mount.

In the past decade we’ve seen a president hold up a Bible across the street from a riot. But we’ve also seen that same man make a promise to Christians that he will give them power if they follow him. Big red flag. Big temptation-in-the-wilderness kind of red flag.

And that scares me more. In light of the resurrection, Jesus being put to death doesn’t scare me. People taking up the sword to get power in his name scares me. Because if Jesus is my Lord, I want to serve him as he sees fit, not as I see fit. I, like Peter, naturally want to do things for him that make sense to the flesh. But I must put faith in my Lord’s mission, which at times looks like I’m losing, he’s losing, we’re losing. He is our promised victor. I must be humble. I must put down my grab for power.

It’s not enough to say that Jesus is Lord. He must rule your life. That means:

• You must abide by the Sermon on the Mount, including the beatitudes.
• You must bear the fruit of the Spirit.
• You must not give in to a fear of the other.
• You must not promote hatred.
• You must not tell lies about “the least of these,” and disparage immigrants.
• You must not incite rebellion when you lost an election.
• You must not grope women and tear them apart after they bear testimony that you victimized them.
• You must not profane the Word of God by using it as a political tool.
• You must not support a strong nation that invades a weak nation.
• You must not say with one side of your mouth that abortion is wrong, and with the other side of your mouth command the killing of post-born children with missiles and drones.
• You must not shake hands with the greedy and the arrogant to enrich your own standing with men.
• and so on…

Even the demons believe Jesus is Lord. But even the sign on the cross that he was butchered on told us that much. I’m looking for who takes up their cross to follow Him.

When Jesus warned that Israel was going to suffer a horrible fate within the lifetime of his apostles, he wasn’t just judging Rome an enemy of God’s people. He was also judging the Jewish temple complex for being an enemy to God’s people. They claimed to be the party of Yahweh, and Rome surely did not. But Jesus never came to Jerusalem to rule with the Pharisees, or Sadducees, or Herod, or Pilate.

Who told you to even take a side in this weird, American conflict? If you’re using your freedom of speech to pick out a lesser evil, then openly admit that’s all you’re doing. You’re not picking a hero and you know it. You’re doing your little part to make an earthly kingdom at least slightly less horrible than it could be, because the options they put before you are still trash. Or you can refuse either.

If Jesus is Lord, you don’t need another.

[As a side note, I will say openly this one time that I do not plan to vote for either Donald Trump or Kamala Harris. And I’ve already heard the tiring critiques of “wasting” a protest vote. I’m not telling you that you must do the same as me, or that you’re wrong for doing either. I’m more concerned about your speech and your actions than a box you check in a box you sit in for thirty seconds. God bless.]