Our main premise: Understand justice and contend for it.
Justice cannot exist when the heart is bitter. I know this to be a true statement not because I have been able to point it out in the Bible directly, but because I know that, in my own heart, when there is bitterness there is a lack of drive to do justly. What is even worse is when the justice itself makes the heart bitter. There are four ways that this happens:
1) Bitter Selfishness – In the past, justice, for me, has been social time. My youth group is extremely cliqueish, and it is nearly impossible to get one or two people to do something unless everyone in his clique was doing the same. Essentially, what I am saying is that mission trips and outreach opportunities tend to fall more in the category of social goings on in SEEK. It is dangerous when we forget the purpose of our mission trip or outreach opportunity for this reason: it then becomes all about the self. Then when we are called to an act of justice as an individual, we become bitter that we are left to be just on our own. We feel like we are abandoned, when in reality, Jesus is standing right beside us. I mean, really, let use our brains here, what is the very end of the Great Commission? “I am with you always, to the very end of the age”. Our finite minds keep us from this reality and make us bitter about being “abandoned” to do justly on our own.
2) Bitter Frustration – One revelation that needs to happen before one can really do justly is that the most important act of justice that can be done by a human being is prayer. The Father is the only true just being, He is the only one that can act justly, so it is our job to cry out for Him to do so (Luke 18:7-8). Many times He chooses us to be the embodiment of His justice on earth, sometimes He just wants us to leave it up to Him. There are times when all we can do is pray and there are times when all He wants us to do is pray. In the moments when He calls us not to act outside of the place of prayer, bitterness can well up if we are not careful. When our prayers are not answered right away, it is easy for us to become frustrated. We need to guard our hearts so that bitterness does not result from this.
I am going to take this one step further, so if you are lost, you might want to skip this section and move on to #3. As I said before, there are times when the Father calls us to “just pray”. There are also times when He calls us to “just pray” despite the fact that there is something else that we could do. This is a test of faith. When this happens and our prayers are not answered within our time frame, we become extremely frustrated and bitterness is susceptible to leak into our hearts. We are offended that the Father has withheld from us the solution and asked us to pray. When we are bitter about this, it shows in our prayer life. We cannot let this bitterness overtake our heart to the point where we are unable to pray in faith anymore. This is an extremely dangerous place for us to be.
3) Bitter Blasphemy – This could also be classified as “bitter selfishness”, but I a) I already used that one, and b) this one sounds cooler and fits better. It is easy for us to be offended when justice is given or not given outside of what we think is deserved. I call this point “bitter blasphemy” because the bitterness is rooted in the idea that we are omniscient when, in reality, only the Father truly is. We think that we know when justice is deserved (or not deserved), when really it is only the Father that searches and knows the hearts of men (I Chron 28:9, Psalm 7:9, Rom 8:27, Rev 2:23). It is easy to become bitter when the Father asks us to do justice to one that we believe does not deserve justice, but we cannot let a bitter heart take over lest our act of justice become an act of injustice.
Essentially, we are desperately in need to the heart of the Father. If we have His heart, we are always considering others above ourselves (Phil 2:3), thus eliminating our bitter selfishness. If we have His heart, we can know the hope to which He has called us (Eph 1:18), thus eliminating our bitter frustration. And, if we have His heart, we know that He is the righteous God that searches minds and hearts (Psalm 7:9), thus humbling our bitter blasphemy. We cannot be obligated to do justly, it needs to be a conviction and desire in our hearts to be like the Father. He is the only one that can clean our hands and purify our hearts. We need to let Him cleanse us of all bitterness before we can act in righteous justice.
Psalm 16:4 – The sorrows of those who have bartered for another god will be multiplied; I shall not pour out their drink offerings of blood, nor will I take their names upon my lips.
I have witnessed so many examples of when the pursuit of justice morphs from a righteous act into nothing less than a modern golden calf. One of two people fall into this deception. Person A is just a regular Joe that learned, in Sunday School, that he should strive to be more like Jesus. He reads that Jesus was a doer of acts of justice, so, thinking that he is able to become like Jesus with his own, carnal strength, he tries to act justly without the direction of the Father. The ironic thing about person A is that he fails to realize that the only thing Jesus ever did was listen to the Father’s direction – fail. Person B, on the other hand, is under the false notion that acting in justice is some sort of chore that will get him into heaven.
I am going to address them both in the form of a letter to each:
Dear Person A,
There is something you need to know, and if I were to never tell you, I would be doing you a huge disservice, so here goes: justice is the Lord’s. You went to Sunday School, so you should know by now that He’s got the whole freakin world in His hands (check out Ps. 24:1). Not surprisingly, that includes those that are in need of justice. Is 30:18 says that “the LORD is a God of justice.” Trying to take over God’s job is like saying that you are the creator of the universe. See my point? Because, if not, then you’ve got bigger issues to settle first before reading on.
What I am trying to get at is this: when man was created, he was just that, the creation, not the creator. Man began inferior to God because that is the definition of the relationship between a creator and his creation. Then, when man fell, he really, actually fell. What I mean is that he got even lower than he was before, just like falling as a result of gravity. Because of this, our human nature and God don’t really get along very well. Romans 8: 7-8 says it best when it says that “the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so, and those who are in the flesh cannot please God”.
When we try to bring about justice using our carnal strength, we are competing with God, and, let’s face it, that is pointless. When we commit to doing an act of justice, it should be because He has called us to do so. If we try to do justly because we believe that we can be like Jesus without the help of Jesus, then we become our own god, and injustice is the only true result.
Love,
Olivia
Dear Person B,
“If you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved” (Rom 10:9). That’s pretty much the extent of my letter. Yep, talk to you later! I’m just kidding. But really – it is through a legitimate confession of the heart that we enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Jesus is not looking for people who feel obligated to love Him, and He is especially not looking for people who feel obligated to act lovingly towards Him without any affection at all. He wants His kingdom to be overflowing with the ones that actually loved Him freely and without obligation.
Here’s a story for you: there once was a Man that devoted His everything to the girl He loved. She didn’t love Him back, but she really enjoyed the thought of being married to Him – He was rich, handsome, and could give her everything she could ever want, so she pretended to love Him. She did everything she could think of to keep herself busy, but she never thought to spend time really getting to know Him. Who knows, maybe she would have fallen in love with Him. But the two never got married. The man was devastated. How could this one that He invested so much in just walk away from Him? Well, the man ended up marrying a beautiful young bride that shared a mutual love with Him. When the woman saw the two together, her heart broke for Him because she saw Him for what he could have been to her.
The Man in this story could not have cared less about all the busy work that His first love did for Him, He just wanted to et to know her. Eventually she would have grown to love Him so much that doing busy work for Him would have become her joy, but she neglected to realize that there was only one thing He required of her.
This generation has forgotten that there is only one thing required of us to be saved – an honest heart confession. The rest will come with time, but without the first, we have nothing. If chores got us into heaven, I think this generation would be pretty screwed. Thankfully they don’t though. He just wants relationship then the work will come bubbling forth because our desires will become one with Jesus’ desires. The more we listen and get to know Him, the more justice we can do and will want to do.
Love,
Olivia
Sitting in the prayer room I’m just lifting up my heart before the Lord- inquiring about pain and affliction in the lives of men. I’m asking Him what the purpose in all of the horrible things that happen in the earth. Why are diseases not healed, why are innocent people with christian families killed and raped? Why are these things allowed to happen in the earth. My heart cry right now echoes that of Habakkuk 1:1-4. I’m also asking Him what it looks like for the righteous remnant in the earth to release true justice. what does that look like? what about the evildoers? What about unrighteous men and women? What about them? What is your mercy for them? What is your provision for them? What is your desire for humanity in light of injustice and pain? What is in the heart of God towards those who suffer loss and heartache? For those who are submitted to evil rulers and wicked legislation? What does God desire to develop in the human heart?
For us as the Justice Watch I feel that he wants us to sit before Him and get revelation on justice. I really feel that before we’re able to release it in intercession or in our lives that our hearts need to be tenderized and stripped. We need to enter into a level of brokenness before the Lord. We need to rend our hearts and our understanding. Our hearts must be softened in truth. not simply in human empathy or sympathy but in divine revelation of what God wants to do and reveal to humanity.
Deuteronomy 16:18-20
Isaiah 5:20
Habakkuk 2:4
Faith. Hebrews 11
All of God does all that God does. God views sinners as either atoned for or un-atoned.
….”Woe to those who call good evil and evil good.” The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.
The only way we can only have justice is for Jesus to return. he is the law maker and good ruler. He is the king.
…..Eternal Life is the knowledge of God.
We need to consider the plight of the guilty AND the innocent through the lense of justice. Why is injustice allowed to go forth? What is the point? what is the purpose in all of this….?
As I was reading Mere Christianity for homework today, I stumbled upon this quote:
“Justice, as I have said before, includes the keeping of promises” -C.S. Lewis (Mere Christianity; Book III; Chapter 6) *Note: This is not Lewis’ definition of justice, and I have not adopted it as my own. He is just making a point about one of justice’s many facets, and I am expounding on what I think of that point.
Lewis uses it in context to marriage. He makes the point that it is justice for a husband and wife to maintain the vows made to each other on the day of their wedding. So, I came up with two points of what I think about this quote:
Point #1 : If justice is inclusive of the keeping of promises, then what does that look like in regards to the justice of God? (Alright, now is the time in this blog that I am going to whip out my New King James and start spouting off some promises that God has made and intends to, in justice, keep).
“For I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me, 10 but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.” (Deut. 5:9-10). We’ve all heard this verse, but I think that sometimes it is hard to think of a declaration coming from God as a promise of God, but that is exactly what this is. God promises that He is a jealous God, and that, He will stretch out His hand of wrath AND His hand of mercy in justice as proof of His faithfulness in keeping this promise.
“‘You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’” (Matt 22:37). Again, we have to look at this not only as a commission, which it is, but also as a prophesy. It is inevitable, all men will love Jesus in the end, because they will finally see Him for who He really is without the deception of Satan still on them. Jesus intends to keep this promise as a way of showing His justice. The revelation of who He truly is is just and good.
Lastly (and, believe me, I could go on forever, but these were the first three that just popped into my head), “love is as strong as death, Jealousy as cruel as the grave; Its flames areflames of fire, A most vehement flame” (SOS 8:6). This is a huge promise that He has made to us. He promises that love is better and more powerful than the most powerful thing that we can conceive, and that no one escapes His jealousy. The really awesome part about this specific promise is that it never stops being revealed to us; we can never know how strong His love is or how demanding His jealousy is, not even though we are going to ponder it for the rest of eternity. Every time He reveals more to us about the cross, He is proving the keeping of this promise. Everytime He reveals to us that He is more jealous for us than we can ever imagine, He is proving the keeping of this promise.
Alright, take a little eye break and then we can dive right into my second point.
…
Good? Perfect! Let’s move on. It gets better.
Point #2 : Here is the deal – God is coming back to mary His bride (aka. you and me), so it must be in His justice to keep the vows that He will make to us on His wedding day (the “Day of the Gladness of His Heart” SOS 3:11). But if God really does not operate in our timeline, then He must be holding those vows as truth now too. So I looked up wedding vows and this one is the third one that I found:
I take you to be my partner in life and my one true love. I will cherish our union and love you more each day than I did the day before. I will trust you and respect you, laugh with you and cry with you, loving you faithfully through good times and bad, regardless of the obstacles we may face together. I give you my hand, my heart, and my love, from this day forward for as long as we both shall live.
Sounds sappy right? Now imagine Jesus saying that to you. Woah. You are His one true love. All of the sudden, we see eternal partnership with the God-man; more love as the days of eternity increase from the God-man; respect, unity, and faithfulness from the God-man. He never promises us all happy times in this lifetime, but He does promise to always see us through the hard ones. He promises to face our obstacles with us; us working in tandem with Him. He is giving us His helping hand, His unconditionally loving heart, and His perfect love from the day we receive Him until … . And get this: His justice is perfect, which means that the keeping of this vow is perfect and cannot be broken. God has said this to you, and God has said this to me. Dude, I don’t know about you, but I want some of that!
Alright, the end!
Peace.
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