Has trump proven self doer of God's Word or merely hearer who redundantly deludes self and others?

James 1:22-25

22 But prove yourselves doers of the word, and not merely hearers who delude themselves.

 23 For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks at his natural face in a mirror;

 24 for once he has looked at himself and gone away, he has immediately forgotten what kind of person he was.

25 But one who looks intently at the perfect law, the law of liberty, and abides by it, not having become a forgetful hearer but an effectual doer, this man will be blessed in what he does.

The secret lies in the prosperity gospel.

MANY titles bestowed on Donald Trump—from president to commander-in-chief—are hard for non-supporters to digest. 

But the honorific that most puzzles the world, perhaps, is that bestowed by American conservatives who praise the swaggering tycoon as a man of God.

Where Skeptics remember Trump stoking sectarian rage at campaign rallies they also remember which White House aides called President Trump a leader bent on uniting the great faiths, who will bring a “message of tolerance and of hope to billions” during stops in Saudi Arabia, Israel and Rome.

Being 'doer of the Word' means rejecting hypocrisy, cover - up(S).

Webster’s Dictionary defines the word application as "the act of putting to a special use or purpose."

Every day we read the Bible. Every day we pray. But not every day do we act like a Christian. Why?

It’s because we forget to become doers of the Word. The Bible is very clear that if you and I don’t become doers of the Word, we are like the man who looks in the mirror and forgets what we look like after we walk away.

All the knowledge of the Bible and all the sermons in the world will not make you a good Christian unless you actually apply what you know and what you hear to your walk. For example: Love your neighbor. If you don't know or get to know you neighbor, how can you love them?

Another example: The Lord’s Prayer says, “Forgive us as we have forgiven our debtors.” Is that a prayer we really want to pray? Lord, forgive just like those I forgive? Would God actually forgive you if that were the case? Have you really forgiven others? If not, watch out what you pray for. 

Are you and I really applying the words of God to our life? Or are we just going through the motions? The dictionary says application means "the act of putting to a special use or purpose." For what special use are you using God’s Word? Is it for knowledge? That’s not too special.  

God wants us to share His Word. He wants us to apply what we learn and hear to our lives, our families’ lives and to each person we come in contact with.

So I ask you: Are you a forgetful hearer or an effectual doer of God’s Word? There is a difference.

Five Definitive Characteristics of Righteous Leadership.

America do something this morning which is seldom done under Trumpism, connect with the Scriptures, put together a coat of arms, have a motto that summarizes  goals in life, what is meant to achieve as a child of God, and the way faith was going to carry on it's work as under God healer in nation and of nations. 

So, Americas thought life must begin where yes, I'll take that motto and although challenging will try to live up to that as to be doers of the word in recognition requires taking all of the Scriptures, everything in these Scriptures will now be taken very seriously in Trust. 

It also means not only the scriptures, but Jesus. Do you remember in the prologue to John's Gospel, "In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God, and the Word was God … and the Word became flesh."? Jesus is the very Word of God. So you look at his life and you try to model yourself.

If you're going to listen to the word, you have to listen to Jesus. Again, this becomes very challenging. If you just take today's Gospel, what was Jesus upset about? Because people were pretending to follow God, but they had made up their own human traditions. Jesus says, "You're hypocrites. You claim to follow God, but you're following your own ways." Following God means listening to Jesus and not being hypocrites.

When we think about that and how Jesus challenged those scribes and Pharisees, we should right now recognize the failure(S) of our leader(s) especially where the false pride of Trumpism and its devils advocates were allowed to dominate and become all we've heard over the past weeks. Disgraceful!

What must be recognized while dealt with is the reality behind why the GOP allowed its incumbents to go back to work and repeat crimes over and over again as one of the worst calamities that has ever happened in national history.

If you're a doer of God's word, you would not be protecting  and moving  around from one place to another where  abuse happens again and again. Being a doer of God's word would mean rejecting that kind of hypocrisy and living a life of full integrity. We have failed. It's a huge challenge for America  now under the leadership of Donald Trump to try to bring us back to a real integrity of following the word of Jesus. 

I'm sure some of you remember Vatican Council II over 50 years ago now, as the time you began to understand the church, not just as the hierarchy, the bishops and the institution, but as the people of God. All of us are the church. 

The document from the council called "The Church in the Modern World" opened with the statement: "The joys and the hopes, the griefs and the anxieties of the men of this age, especially those who are poor or in any way afflicted, these are the joys and the hopes, the griefs and anxieties of the followers of Christ."

What that document was teaching us (that was the first sentence), was not that the church is here to help us get into heaven, no, the church is here to help us to transform the world, enter into the world as church, the body of Jesus, the teachings of Jesus that can transform the world into the reign of God. That's what that document was teaching us, not just that we're trying to get to heaven, but we're trying to transform the world doing action for justice. Just a short time later, a few years later, the Synod of Bishops meeting in Rome in 1971 issued a document called "Justice in the World."

Among the things that document teaches is very challenging. This teaching that action for justice and participation in the transformation of the world — these are constitutive parts of the teachings of the church. Action for justice and participation in the transformation of the world constitute the very work of the church. That means we have, again, to try to enter into what's going on in the world, transform it, change this world until it becomes the reign of God where everyone is treated with human respect and dignity, everyone has an opportunity for a full life.

Transforming our world to make it a world of justice and peace is a work that is very profound, but it's one that all of us are called to. I recognize over the years whenever I see that passage about being doers of the word, I'm challenged. I'm challenged to not just take this message and read it, and then put it aside some place, but to read it and to try to bring it into the life of our church, the life of our world, and to follow Jesus who is this Word of God. Be a doer like Jesus was where he reached out to the poor, reached out to those who are vulnerable, welcomed them, and welcomed the refugee. He himself was a refugee.

Jesus shows us so much if we only watch him and listen to him. 

That motto continues to challenge us in the Hope all of us were challenged as we listen today to the words of St. James, 

"Be a doer of the word." Enter into the work of the church to transform our world into the reign of God, the reign of God where everyone has the chance for a full human life where we build a world of peace and justice. This is what we are called to do if we follow Jesus, if we are doers of the word who is Jesus.

Fear not, you worm Jacob, you men of Israel! I will help you, says the Lord; 

your Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel.

God is on your side and God has got your back in Christ Jesus Name.

We have too many leaders who believe their position mandates their influence shall lead by forced coercion - a “my way or the highway” mindset that makes them more like dictators.

“You can’t just say, ‘We’re going to keep people out.’ You have to deal with the constant osmosis of population.”

Trump has said his wall will cost $8 billion; CNBC estimates it could really cost $15 billion to $25 billion, plus more for maintenance.

SAUL’S DISOBEDIENCE AND ITS CONSEQUENCES – LEADERSHIP LESSON

Christian Leadership requires obedience to God’s preferences, impulses, and desires above your own! The failure of obedience can have heavy consequences, much more than being taken to your room.

The Populist Appeal of Trump's Narcissism.
The fact that he often comes across as an egomaniac is irrelevant to the message, almost beside the point.
Populist messages rely on simplistic answers to complex problems and promote an us-versus-them warfare mentality. 

Like Mr. Trump, populists engaged in battle have traditionally ridiculed their opposition; but in the narcissistic endeavor to prove himself a winner at the expense of all those “losers,” Trump relies on righteous indignation, blame, and contempt as weapons of war. Many disaffected voters are drawn to him precisely because of those traits and not in spite of them.

Pride, false pride: Knowing the difference.

Modern civilization is based on the notion of pride and false pride.
The notion of (false) pride has spilled over into identity politics.Thus, we support a particular candidate because his or her election gives "my" community a sense of pride. 


Is not identity politics nothing more than the extension of false pride based not on the candidate's capabilities but rather on his or her arbitrary characteristics such as race, religion, ethnicity or gender?

Perhaps that is why the Talmud teaches us: "If ever a man becomes proud, let him remember that a flea preceded him in the divine order of creation (Tofesta: Sanhedrin 8:8). The same sentiment is expressed in the Midrashic literature when it notes that King Solomon asked a tiny ant in the palm of his hand: "Is there anyone in the world greater than I? The ant's answer: "I am, since God sent you to carry me!"

Overcoming Bias.

Prejudice distorts what it sees, deceives when it talks, and destroys when it acts.

Paul’s words to the believers at Colosse instruct us today, saying that our speech and behavior toward fellow Christians should reflect our oneness in Christ.


“[You] have put on the new man,” Paul said, “where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcised nor uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave nor free, but Christ is all and in all” (Col. 3:10-11).

Self-pity resides in our sin nature, which the Bible refers to as our “old man” (Rom. 6:6) or “flesh” (8:12).

King Saul indulged his self-pity until his soul was barren, his spiritual walk halted, his anointing lost, and his destiny aborted. We must eliminate, not indulge, self-pity.
Self-pity’s effects are powerful. It traps us in a revolving door of spiritual stagnation that keeps us from finishing the race set before us.

It renders us weak and unfaithful in duty and encourages self-indulgence (excessive self-comfort). It moves us to slander our adversaries. It distorts our view of others, events, and ourselves.

9 Essential Qualities of a Godly Leader.

President Theodore Roosevelt once said, “The leader leads, and the boss drives.” The Boss often plays the Boss Card. They force obedience, strictly because of their position and status. But, as author and expert John Maxwell says, “Leadership is not about titles, positions or flowcharts. It’s about one life influencing another.”

After you have read this, odds are you are picturing someone known in a leadership position that drives more than they lead and It’s up to us the american general taxpayer to demand out of our incumbents too put their human tendencies aside and embrace these principle under God as God wants them to be.

Presidential non-negotiable's in regards to what makes any incumbent the effective Spiritual leader - under God - a great nation founded upon principles deserves.

When it comes down to it, the most important elements of leadership are very simple as summarized in these ten fundamental commandments:

1. Thou shalt model what you preach

The most powerful leaders are those who walk in private what they preach in public. Those leaders who personally live out the principles they expect from others maximize their influence and effectiveness as leaders.

2. Thou shalt develop leaders of leaders who can succeed you

As soon as a person becomes a senior leader they need to start working themselves out of a job by empowering others to do what they are already doing. Those they pick should fulfill the qualifications Paul laid out in 2 Timothy 2:2. Consequently, when a person is able to do a job about 80% as good as the senior leader, the senior leader should delegate the job responsibility over to them.

Those who don’t have this attitude are never entrusted with more by God because they limit their capacity due to having too much responsibility, and thus no leverage to go to the next level of assignment. Those who refuse to delegate will only produce followers who don’t mind being limited in regards to leadership capacity because they don’t like to think for themselves.

Conversely, the highest and hardest calling for senior leaders is to develop leaders who develop other leaders of leaders. Most leaders never develop anything more than followers. Leaders who develop leaders of other leaders are able to produce themselves in those who leave a legacy of developing leaders for many generations.

3. Thou shalt prioritize investing in people more than programs and marketing. It is very tempting for a senior leader to put all their focus on implementing programs and marketing that will draw more people into the church or organization. 

Yet our first priority should always be pouring into people. Those who spend most of their time administrating programs will never develop strong and deep disciples because the biblical discipleship process takes years and can only be done through personal interaction (both intense and informal).

4. Thou shalt communicate a divine, compelling vision worth following

It doesn’t matter how gifted a leader, a speaker, or a strategist you are — if you do not have a compelling vision from God, then other key leaders with potential will not follow you. Those with high leadership caps not only look at the leader they want to follow but they need to feel an emotional and divine tug regarding vision that speaks to their need for having a purpose (Acts 11:23).

5. Thou shalt learn to release others to help fulfill the vision. Effective leaders are not lone rangers and do not try to accomplish a vision without a team. After investing in the lives of other potential leaders, the next priority is to discern where to place those you are mentoring.

Like a sports coach, the key to high performance in an organization is to release each person to serve in a team in the areas best suited for their personality, gifts, and calling. The leader’s vision must become a shared vision if it is to come to pass!

Some are more suited for administration and minutia, and others are more suited for the big picture and people. Trying to put a big picture person you are mentoring in an administrative role would not only hurt the organization’s performance but could crush that person’s confidence and frustrate them.

6. Thou shalt hold yourself and your followers accountable

All effective leaders allow for much freedom when it comes to ministry but have high standards of personal accountability when it comes to their marriages, families, and walk with God. Those who don’t hold their leaders accountable in their ministries and home life could eventually lose the respect and focus of key people in their organization. In the worst case scenario, people might begin doing their own thing and developing their own vision, which will result in division.

7. Thou shalt practice Matthew 18:15-17

Along with holding other leaders accountable, senior leaders need to insist that everyone who serves in the ministry with them must walk in the principles outlined by Jesus in Matthew 18. This has to do with walking in the light and in transparency with one another, without which people who work closely together will eventually develop bitterness and resentment, and give themselves over to gossip, which could destroy the culture of an organization.

Senior leaders who are too afraid or passive to confront other people in their organization will eventually self-destruct due to holding back bad feelings. This could lead to physical and emotional stress, marital failure, and deeply rooted resentments and bitterness.

8. Thou shalt affirm those who bear fruit and redeem those who fail

Effective leaders learn to praise those who minister effectively and try to redeem those who are failing. If you quickly throw those who fail under the bus without trying to redeem them, then you will not develop the loyalty needed to have a strong core. This could result in a lot of turnover on your staff. Those people senior leaders successfully process out of failure into success will more likely be loyal to the senior leader for believing in them instead of dropping them. This kind of gratitude and loyalty will then spread and become part of the culture of the organization.

9. Thou shalt hold to high standards of excellence and integrity in service

Along the lines of accountability, every leader needs to hold high standards both for their own life, ministry and performance as well as those who are serving along with them. 


Everyone and everything in the organization must have a spirit of excellence: the administration, communication, accountability systems, teaching, and physical appearance. If any of these areas become sloppy it could bring down the quality and culture of the entire organization.

10. Thou shalt walk in wisdom and humility regarding the future

All effective leaders must be able to see where their organization needs to go in the future based on demographic and cultural shifts. Leaders who do not change their approach with changing times will eventually be bypassed by the next generation who will gravitate towards those who speak their language and meet their needs.

In order to do this effectively, leaders must always be humble enough to question themselves regarding their personal walk, their goals, their methods and the way they are attempting to meet the needs of their community. Those that are presumptuous and too arrogant to ask themselves these questions will eventually marginalize their influence.

Fear not, you worm Jacob, you men of Israel! I will help you, says the Lord; your Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel.

The Word of God is at Work - are you Listening?

Vigilantly guard your souls.

Trump-induced existential anxiety has torn the nation apart, but it's fixable.

No matter who you are, or what side of the political spectrum you fall on, it is likely that President Donald Trump has significantly increased your anxiety levels, distorting your perception of the world and negatively affecting your behavior in ways you are unaware of. 

But the good news is that these cognitive biases and behavioral changes can be reversed if one becomes cognizant of their existence and makes a conscious effort.

The human brain is a statistical machine that must constantly be making judgments and predictions based on beliefs, feelings, and past experiences. Trump’s fear mongering and fiery rhetoric is designed to heighten emotions and alter beliefs, offsetting this fine-tuned and calibrated system. If there’s one thing that Trump understands, it’s how to benefit politically from manufacturing fear and division. He may only be following his gut instincts, but it’s strategic psychological manipulation nonetheless.

Trump provokes anxiety in both the right and the left perhaps equally, albeit in very different ways.

For the right, he fuels their fears about minorities and dissimilar others, calling Hispanic immigrants “murderers and rapists,” and stating in blanket-fashion that “Islam hates us.”


His demonization of the “liberal media” and the Obama administration has transformed many right-wingers into full-fledged conspiracy theorists and for the left, President Trump is the fear. 

His narcissistic personality and unpredictable, unrestrained behavior makes him a dangerous commander-in-chief as one likes to get the U.S. into  games of chicken with countries led by similarly erratic leaders.

Trump’s policies and willingness to please his most extreme supporters threatens the rights of gays, transgender folk, and women across the country. The only thing liberals might fear worse than Trump himself is the sentiment he brings out in his supporters, which has already proved deadly in Charlottesville, Virginia.

As a result of the amplified fear and anxiety on the right and the left, the nation is more polarized than ever, and tensions seem to be at an all-time high.

So how is this heightened collective anxiety affecting us, exactly? 

What measurable effects does it have on our cognition and behavior?

Mortality salience increases tribalism and aggression toward out-group members.

Hundreds of studies in peer-reviewed journals have shown that when people are reminded of their mortality or exposed to a perceived existential threat — in other words, mortality is made salient, the result is a clear and predictable change in our attitudes and behavior toward others. Specifically, stimuli or events that conjure up thoughts about death cause people to cling more strongly to their cultural worldviews, increasing their support for those who share their national, ethnic, or political identity, and increasing their intolerance and aggression toward those who do not. According to Terror Management Theory, this happens because cultural worldviews — like religions, political ideologies, and national identities — help curb existential anxiety by instilling life with some form of meaning and value. Essentially, intense anxiety over a perceived threat to one’s well-being promotes tribalism, and no one is immune to it.

In fact, studies have shown that when participants are primed to think about their mortality, with something like a video or a story about death, their nationalistic bias significantly increases. We can see evidence of the psychological effects of Donald Trump’s fear mongering in the dramatic increase in nationalism and xenophobia displayed by the alt-right movement.

More evidence for this effect comes from a psychology study that found that making mortality salient increased support for extreme military interventions by American forces that could kill thousands of civilians overseas, an effect that was present only in conservatives.

By constantly emphasizing existential threat, Trump fuels the fears of Americans who will bolster their support for him in an attempt to feel safer. While this strategy keeps his supporters energized and loyal, the whole country suffers from the prejudice, aggression, and division it creates.

But the existential fear associated with Trump’s reign doesn’t just affect those on the right side of the political spectrum. 

Mortality salience can cause centrists and moderate liberals to shift their voting towards the right, and it can also cause liberals to be pushed further to the left. 


Since mortality salience fosters aggression towards those with opposing cultural worldviews, the perceived threat posed by Trump and his supporters has shifted many liberals towards more extreme positions than would be normally expected. In accordance with this concept, America has seen the rise of the militant left-wing group known as Antifa, whose tactics have progressively grown more violent towards the alt-right and neo-Nazis in a number of recent real-world confrontations.

Liberals who fear the nationalist surge the nation is witnessing become less tolerant of those they see as supporting Trump and his views towards immigrants, and more sympathetic towards the violent antics of Antifa because they are seen as well-intentioned, despite the fact that violence will ultimately be counterproductive to the liberal cause. Additionally, due to the worldview bolstering effects of existential fear and anxiety, liberals who feel threatened ideologically will tend to enforce their left-wing norms more than usual. While this might seem like a positive thing on the surface, given liberal ideals, a recent study has shown that the over-enforcement of PC norms actually serves to increase support for Donald Trump.

So, what’s the solution? How do we break the polarizing positive feedback cycle that Trump-related anxiety and fear has established? How do we reverse the division and aggression and begin to come together?

First, we must become acutely aware of the polarizing effect of Donald Trump’s presidency on both sides of the political aisle. We must openly acknowledge that the anxiety and fear created by Trump is pushing us all to our extremes, leading to tribal behavior and biases that can cloud our rational judgment.

Second, we must act in ways that alleviate these effects, and that means making a conscious effort to de-escalate confrontations and curb aggressive attitudes toward those who don’t share our worldviews or national identities.


Don’t just delete those friends on social media who have opposing political opinions, no matter how much you may despise some of those beliefs. We must engage each other in rational discourse, and we must strive to see the legitimate points made by all sides, regardless of the abundance of illogical ones. And throughout this engagement process, we must stay calm and collected, as aggression only makes the division worse by increasing mortality salience. While this idea might seem futile to many liberals who have long given up on trying to talk sense into Trump supporters, we must remember that trying to heal the division is our only option. Simply letting it get worse will only lead to further chaos in America, and could contribute to another four years of this administration.

Lastly, we must not only try to build bridges when possible, we should monitor ourselves from becoming too extreme, especially when behavior towards ideologically dissimilar others becomes aggressive and violent. 

When that happens, the moral high ground is lost. 
As satisfying as it might be to watch a neo-Nazi like Richard Spencer get punched in the face, it is imperative that we remember that, in the words of Martin Luther King, Jr., “Hate begets hate; violence begets violence,” a concept that is supported by the results of Terror Management Theory and mortality salience studies.

John 2:5. Mary sees a need and appeals to Her Son to satisfy it.

 He does it.

If we all truly strive to make these efforts and resist getting discouraged by the inevitable challenges, then the nation will slowly begin to come together, and a new, stronger form of order will emerge from the current sea of chaos.