Many Christians despair of what the President of the USA is doing with a pen and a phone.

I am one of them. I see this behavior as completely outrageous from a constitutional standpoint because the Constitution is designed on the principle of separation of powers. As a citizen, who is also a Christian, I reject his justification of his behavior. I also see the behavior as completely outrageous from the standpoint of Christian teaching. The president uses his pen and his phone to make end runs around the will of the voters represented by the House and the will of the states represented by the Senate in order to achieve immoral objectives. The pen and the phone of the president of the USA are being used to destroy both culture and government.

Christians need not despair, even if the culture and the government disintegrate before their eyes, because each of us has a pen and a phone.

As long as Christians have pens and phones, they, too, have power. I am not advocating organized demonstrations. I am advocating that Christians put Christ first and live in true submission to the guidance of the Holy Spirit in our lives. The Holy Spirit within us leads us to grieve the moral and ethical collapse in the culture. It is the Holy Spirit within us that makes us grit our teeth every time we see executive overreach or judicial activism or legislative inaction that furthers Satan’s agenda on the earth. It is the Holy Spirit active in the hearts of Christians that can give power to the pens and phones of Christian people who commit themselves to be real salt and light in the culture.

Use your phone

I do hope that you will never use your phone in a way that expresses disregard for a person actually in your presence who wants to be your friend, cry on your shoulder, or just have dinner. That intrusive practice is among the things that are working to disintegrate our society. The inventors of smartphones thought of them as ever more skillful servants to humanity, not the bosses. Here are a few things you can do with your phone in order to let loose the power of Christ’s love into the culture:

• Call and visit with someone who is lonely or sick

• Call someone in local, state or national government who is influential in a cultural or political problem, and express your view as a citizen, a voter, and a faithful servant of Christ

• Call and catch up on the news with a friend or family member you have neglected

Use your pen.

Never think for one minute that your phone and your pen are somehow less important than those belonging to the president. You are an ambassador for Christ, and your phone and your pen are very important and very powerful. Every Christian’s phone and pen can spread salt and light, and there are a very large number of Christians in the USA. That fact translates into a lot of salt and light. Here are a few examples of ways to spread that salt and hold high the light of Christ:

• Write an email to an online friend and let her know that you are praying about her difficult job problem

• Write to your pastor and say, “I am praying for you.”

• Post a Facebook update that upholds Christ in the sight of all

• Write a blog post that expresses thanksgiving to God or praises his all-wise teaching in his holy Word

• Exercise your right and responsibility of citizenship by expressing your viewpoint on a cultural or political problem to a member of Congress or to your president or even to the editor of your local newspaper

• Do everything you can do with your pen to flood the public forum with the message of God’s love and grace through Christ

In the USA, everybody has a pen and a phone.

Use yours to exercise the power and influence of the Holy Spirit dwelling within you for his good purposes. The pen and the phone of the president of the USA cannot prevail against the kingdom of God when God’s people are working in harmony with God’s purposes.