As a pastor I love reading your Substack every week! In the past three months I have used some kind of Swoboda quote in my sermons about every other Sunday!
This is very beautifully written, A.J. I hadn’t thought about this perspective before on elections. It’s definitely influenced me to care more about my local elections going on! Thank you.
The way God tells us to seek the prosperity of the city rather than the nation reminds me of the way Jesus instructs us to love our neighbors (the people near us) rather than everyone on earth.
I think a lot of the time it is easy to give our attention to far-off issues we can't directly do anything about and it kind of gets us off the hook, mentally, for the situations at hand, which may not make as impressive headlines but actually demand a lot more from us.
Praying peace and prosperity over our cities daily.
So much insight and wisdom here…I knew I was smart for subscribing!!! Seriously, every point you made is a way to redirect our thoughts back to God and what He’s doing - which is the reclamation of the world, in His time, using His people. Right where we live. Now I get to adopt the challenge to fill in those blanks on my voter’s form with a bit more purpose. Thanks, AJ 👏
Well must seek to make a difference in our locality, and we must cast a vote on the national level, which affects our collective environment as a people, yes exiles in the land, but we can not afford to be apathetic. 🙏🏼
As a pastor I love reading your Substack every week! In the past three months I have used some kind of Swoboda quote in my sermons about every other Sunday!
Balanced wisdom. We can all learn from that.
This is very beautifully written, A.J. I hadn’t thought about this perspective before on elections. It’s definitely influenced me to care more about my local elections going on! Thank you.
P.S. When are you coming back to Roseburg?
The way God tells us to seek the prosperity of the city rather than the nation reminds me of the way Jesus instructs us to love our neighbors (the people near us) rather than everyone on earth.
I think a lot of the time it is easy to give our attention to far-off issues we can't directly do anything about and it kind of gets us off the hook, mentally, for the situations at hand, which may not make as impressive headlines but actually demand a lot more from us.
Praying peace and prosperity over our cities daily.
Good words, AJ. Thank you.
So much insight and wisdom here…I knew I was smart for subscribing!!! Seriously, every point you made is a way to redirect our thoughts back to God and what He’s doing - which is the reclamation of the world, in His time, using His people. Right where we live. Now I get to adopt the challenge to fill in those blanks on my voter’s form with a bit more purpose. Thanks, AJ 👏
Loads of wisdom in this post! Thank you!
Well must seek to make a difference in our locality, and we must cast a vote on the national level, which affects our collective environment as a people, yes exiles in the land, but we can not afford to be apathetic. 🙏🏼
Wonderful post and wise. Thank you.