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I was visiting with a friend recently about my times as Mayor of Muskogee and how excited I am to start new chapters in my life. We laughed and talked, mostly about leadership and politics and during that conversation he said to me, "the world is on fire."

I paused, then asked him what he meant. We talked about the war between Israel and Hamas, ongoing unrest in the middle east, Russia versus Ukraine and China and North Korea's growing relationships with Russia, the ill effects of climate change, the embarrassing timeframe in electing a U.S. Speaker of the House, and the nasty, visceral nature of politics today.

I realized he was right, the world is on fire, and in hindsight of that discussion, I thought to myself, when will the fire stop? Is there an end to any of the madness taking place across the globe? Who, if anyone, can lend a voice of calm and reason to bring about peace... everywhere?

Of course, the canned response by many Christians is Jesus. But isn't that why Jesus trusted His church to be His voice, and His witnesses to a world gone completely mad? It is easy to say Jesus is the cure while we sit back and wait for him to do something, but as believers, we were saved to carry out his message of redemption and be his witnesses to all matters.

2 Corinthians 5:20 says "We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God." Listen, we are the voice of God through the strength of Jesus Christ our Lord. God literally makes His appeal to this world through us. If the world is going to be a better place, and have any chance of surviving, it will be because we speak truth to crises, imploring the world to be made reconciled to God through Jesus Christ.

Believers must stop using the name of Jesus as an excuse for what we should be doing. Jesus' work on calvary was a redemptive work, and His resurrection from the grave was victory of death and sovereignty over Satan and the power of sin. Jesus is not coming back to earth in the flesh to do works that He has not entrusted us to do. So, the next time someone says Jesus is the answer, our reply should be yes, He is, through our hands and our witness.