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At least as much as most people have that we can tell . . . . I BELIEVE YOU MR. PRESIDENT! 

I was sitting home watching the news on NBC when I heard this and it utterly blew me away.  I wish most evangelicals could give a witness as strong as he did.  Someone in a backyard asked him why he was a Christian and he answered it clearly. I have always taken President Obama at his word, just like I did and do President George W. Bush, that he was a Christian, President George H. Bush 41, President Bill Clinton, President Reagan, President Carter, President Nixon (ain’t grace good!), and the rest who said they were.  It doesn’t mean I agree with their morals.  It doesn’t mean I agree with their political positions or even that their ethic has been completely impacted by that Gospel. But mine (and yours?), I suspect, hasn’t either. None of us have arrived at complete Christ-likeness, yet we can rely on our confession of Jesus as Lord and His amazing grace. If you look at my life, there are ethical positions I have changed attitudes or actions about as have I grown in my understanding of God’s Word. I would want to offer the same room to others, even as we encourage and exhort them to Christ-likeness. It just means they are naming the faith to which they ascribe.  I’ve never met President Obama, but have two close evangelical pastor friends who have spent time with him, one before being President and one after, and they are convinced he has accepted Christ.  They are as orthodox as they can be as evangelicals.  Only God knows, both for him, and all the rest of us. 

Here are some things, Mr. President, you said that I really liked a lot:

First, you said it was a choice.  Many Americans are born into Christian families – they think that automatically makes them a Christian – it doesn’t.  Following Jesus is a personal decision that every single person has to make.  I don’t know Jesus because my Father did.  My son doesn’t know Jesus because I do.  Each of us must make our own decision.  In a nation that historically has been “Christian” and where many are opting out – that choice factor is the only way Christianity is going to survive in America and I think that’s good.  Christianity has its strongest impact by people who make a deliberate choice.  I also like that, Mr. President, you did that as an adult, which makes that choice far more deliberate and thoughtful.  In John 3:16 the “whoever” implies personal choice. 
John 3:16 “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

Second, you said you liked the precepts.  These are the truths we build our lives upon as followers of Jesus.  They are contained in the Sermon on the Mount.  The Sermon on the Mount is the template of what a follower of Jesus should look like and how they should live and what should drive our heart.  The kingdom of God is a kingdom of the heart – it isn’t a physical kingdom, geographical, etc.  This Christ life, when lived out, fulfills what Jesus wanted for us.

John 10:10 I have come that you might have life and you might have it abundantly.

When we follow his kingdom we get everything else that really matters.

Matthew 6:33 But seek first his kingdom and all these things will be added to you.

Did you know, Mr. President, that Gandhi, though not a Christian, used the Sermon on the Mt (Matt 5-7) as the basis for what he did and read it regularly?  Martin Luther King, in studying Gandhi, was taken right back to the Sermon on the Mount.  E. Stanley Jones, a famous Methodist preacher said, “Gandhi did more with his half understanding of the Gospel than most Christians do with a “complete” understanding of the Gospel.”  Gandhi didn’t believe in one God and that Jesus was that one God.  Gandhi did believe that living the truth that Jesus taught about how to relate to others could change the world – and it did start a change in India.  God’s will isn’t just to reconcile us to him, but all people, and all broken things.  Matthew 25 makes it clear that Jesus cares about the poor, hungry, naked, those in prison - every hurting human condition.  He expects his followers to do all they can to serve others.  This is the power of the Holy Spirit at work in us – because we can’t do it without his strength.
Third, you said that Jesus died for your sins.  I believe that also.  The Christian understanding is that God is a holy God and our sins had to be forgiven.  What began in the Garden when Adam and Eve sinned and caused separation, led to Jesus on the cross dying for our sins so we could have that relationship mended and be brought back to him.  Jesus didn’t merely die as a moralist, he died as our brother so that our sins could be cured – his death was our inoculation against an eternity separated from God.  This is why, when we follow him, he calls us “sons of God” because he sees us as his children and he sees us as his family.  That is how much he loves us.  You’d do the same thing for your two daughters.  The story of God becoming man, living a sinless life so he could redeem us, dying on the cross, and then the resurrection is a story of radical identification with the creatures he created and the ultimate sacrifice for the creatures he created because he sees us as family.  It is a powerful and beautiful story – even to those of other religions who would deny it happened. 

Romans 10:9 If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead you will be saved.  V.10 For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.

Finally, you said it was about God’s grace.  I really believe that also, Mr. President.  Some people have the idea that they can be good enough for God.  How good does that have to be?  When do you cross the line in the bad?  If we don’t have God’s grace and mercy, there is no hope for any of us.  Romans 3:23 says: We have all sinned and fell short of God’s glory.  I sure have.  I love this verse:
Eph 2:8 For by grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, V. 9 not of works lest any man should boast, V. 10 for we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

All that means is that the only way we can come to God is that he allows us to because he loves us.  Grace is God doing something for us we can’t do for ourselves and mercy shown to us that we don’t deserve.  Attaining a relationship with God is totally by grace.  Do good works matter?  Yes – but not to get us to heaven, instead to fulfill God’s plan for our life and to serve out of love – not trying to get “goodie” points to get into heaven. 

This is why Billy Graham has boldly preached, and then asked people to acknowledge that Jesus is God, that he came to die on the cross for our sins, and if we will ask him to forgive us and invite him into our hearts and lives he will do it.  This is why millions of us have done this – and he has changed our hearts, our lives, and our eternal destinies. 

Sorry, Mr. President, for those Christians, especially my tribe - evangelicals, that don’t know how to disagree in a polite and humble manner.  Truth should make us kind and humble – not arrogant bullies, and hateful people.  It’s more about them and broken things they still have not allowed grace and mercy to heal, than it is about you.  I don’t agree with you on everything, call me and I’ll tell you about it!  I do agree with you on some things – this is one of them.  If you’d only ask my opinion and do everything I say – then I’m sure our country would be in a lot better shape.  Alas, I can’t even get my wife to do that! 

Father, I pray for my President this morning.  I ask you to fill him with your Holy Spirit in a powerful way so he can know you in a deep way.  Keep his heart pure, his mind clear, his hands open, his feet fast, his mouth slow and clean, his ears alert, and his eyes reading moments to seize them with courage and boldness.  May he never forget one eternal Father loves him and will hold him accountable much more than 300 million voters will.  May he act in truth and principle, and may he know that there are those of us who consider him our brother in Christ and pray for him.  Holy Spirit, say to him, those things we are concerned about, that you have laid on our hearts, that neither time nor possibility will allow us to say to him individually. 

Mr. President, you really should come to http://www.globalfaithforum.org - I’ll personally buy you a pair of Luccheses and a really nice Texas hat if you come. 

Matt Carter at Austin Stone Church in Austin Texas will be coming to the Global Faith Forum - Here’s why and what he wrote.