Pity poor Michael Pompeo, our secretary of state. And while you’re at it, pity his boss, President Trump.

I don’t mean that altogether facetiously. With all the other issues the administration has to worry about, consider what it must be like to have to develop a coherent foreign policy in today’s fractured world.

For starters, tell me which is the tougher challenge: North Korea or Iran? Where do you apply the pressure points in such a confusing and inscrutable lineup? 

When I argue, as I have in this space for the last 25 years, that we evangelical Christians should seek to codify just as little of God’s law as possible, it’s easy to be misunderstood. So let me clarify.

I start with two main assumptions—one about God, and the other about human government.

Concerning God, we assume (because the Bible tells us so) that His main method of bringing human beings into compliance with His law is through the gracious work of His Spirit.

Media reporting on the recent devastating flooding—in places as distant as Mozambique and as close as the Missouri River Valley—brought a new reminder: The doctrine of creation matters. 

It may have been only 20 weeks since Election Day, but we’re already hard at it again. So may I remind you, as I have before in this space, of a lesson that seems hard for us to learn: Government isn’t the problem.

You’d never know it from the way we allocate our time, our energy, and our dollars. “I can’t remember,” I’ve already heard a variety of folks say with all sincerity, “when there has ever been a more important election.” They’re talking, believe it or not, about 2020.

If it really happens that the socialist government of Venezuela is upended sometime during the next few months, the question will look bigger and bigger: Who gets to shape the government of Venezuela’s future?

It’s not a binary choice. Every student of foreign affairs should be reminded that the disappearance of one bad dude doesn’t necessarily mean he’s been replaced by an angel from heaven. 

Who might have guessed that already, right here in the U.S. of A., we’d be at a point where a growing number of candidates for public office seem to think it’s advantageous to refer to themselves as socialists?

For all of my lifetime, that’s been a putdown. Call someone a socialist, and you mean nothing good. You’re deliberately putting your opponent on the defensive.

But apparently we’ve now reached the place where so many voters have become so smart and sophisticated that you can offer them a real-life socialist—and be rewarded with a victory on Election Day. 

Now that you’ve got your W-2 form in hand but are feeling increasingly guilty that you haven’t got around to your tax return yet (you still have two months to go!), take a fresh look at one of the Bible’s most famous passages about taxes—Matthew 22:15-22.

Except that I’d like to suggest here, as I have from time to time, that when Jesus delivered His short “Render unto Caesar” speech, He had something other than taxes or church-state relations in mind.