Refugees / Illegal Immigrants

Refugees / Illegal Immigrants By Pastor Joe

A lot of discussion has been flowing back and forth concerning the plight of certain immigrants and refugees who have been entering the United States. The beauty of being an American is we are all entitled to have our own opinion. For most of us who call Hawthorne Assembly our home fellowship, we agree on many of the same Christian/Biblical values. The overwhelming majority of this fellowship would not approve of preaching declaring many roads to heaven, other than Jesus. You should be alarmed if anyone stands behind our pulpit and started adding or subtracting from basic biblical tenants of faith.

Imagine your Pastor next week preaching there is no resurrection from the dead, you better ask him if he is feeling alright. Yet there are some issues of faith where we are going to have differences of opinion on things such as: current 5-fold ministry, a woman as pastor of a church, speaking in other tongues, divine healing, prosperity, style of preaching, types of outreaches, who can serve as a deacon,(watch for an upcoming article about responsibilities of deacons) and the list goes on. The same can be said about the ongoing refuge/immigration debate in our country.

About 3 years ago well-known evangelicals signed their names to an article voicing their concern and disappointment in former President Trumps travel ban. Many other evangelical Pastors did not have a problem with the temporary travel ban. Both sides of the issue are sincere evangelicals who feel the exact opposite about these kinds of debatable matters . Let’s look at this issue through the eyes of my mother who had to wait a number of years to even apply to become an American.

She had been married to my father for almost 4 years before even requesting citizenship. Let me clarify she never became an American citizen; the process became to challenging for her. Yet today she will on a regular basis reapply for her green card. She is a legal alien with permanent residence in the U.S. She did it the right way!

We are still the #1 nation in the world for legal immigration and refugee relief. If you listen to CNN, MSNBC, FOX, or any major network you will ultimately be making a judgement call about the current ban, based on their opinions. God (Jesus) has called us to love our enemies, and refugees/illegal immigrants should be a few classifications higher than this group. Here is the best answer Pray and ask the Holy Spirit to reveal truth!