The Judge Who Judges Justly

 

Tuesday, November 2, 2021

The Lord rewarded me for doing right; he restored me because of my innocence.  Psalm 18:20

For God called you to do good, even if it means suffering, just as Christ suffered for you.  He is your example, and you must follow in his steps.  He never sinned, nor ever deceived anyone.  He did not retaliate when he was insulted, nor threaten revenge when he suffered.  He left his case in the hands of God, who always judges fairly.  He personally carried our sins in his body on the cross so that we can be dead to sin and live for what is right.  By his wounds you are healed.  1 Peter 2:21-24

There are many ways to misunderstand (and mis-use) God’s Word.  One of the chief offenses is to read-into Scripture that which you want to see, rather than checking the context of what’s written so you can accurately understand.  The case in point is in full view in both the Psalmist and Peter.

In the Psalm it’s common to take an absolutist position, that God will always immediately correct what seems like injustice.  If you’re injured by another’s words or actions, God’s going to cream your enemy like a steam roller crushing a poached egg.  What’s often missed in the equation is how truly “innocent” we are in anything.  The injustice may be a correct assumption; whether or not we have other lessons to learn may corrupt our assumption.

In Peter’s letter he is helping his flock understand the meaning of suffering not only AS Jesus suffered, but FOR the cause of Christ’s redemptive purposes.  There are times when the suffering of those who are being abused and oppressed serve the purpose of God’s just judgment.  The cross is the prime example.  Christ, the wholly-righteous one, died a criminal’s punishment to bring redemption.  It was the stripes on Christ’s back that brought our salvation.  A terribly misguided way to weaponize that verse is to apply the stripes to the mere healing of our bodily infirmities; that is using an elephant gun to wipe out a mosquito.  Christ’s stripes were for the healing of our sinful souls…much bigger game than healing a hangnail or a case of lumbago.

For You Today

The largest sense for either of the two Scriptures today is keeping our minds, hearts, and lives humble before God to do the judging.  Praying as Jesus did, that God’s will be done[1], is still the center of the target.

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!   

[1] Title and Other Images:  Pixabay.com  Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation^©    

---

[1] Matthew 6:9-10

 

Ricky's Story - Bringing Heaven to Earth

 

Wednesday, June 30, 2021

Pray like this:  Our Father in heaven, may your name be kept holy.  May your Kingdom come soon.  May your will be done on earth, as it is in heaven.  Matthew 6:9-10

I met Ricky in the parking lot of the Veteran’s Administration Hospital this Monday.  He struck up a conversation with our dog, Wellie.  (Elizabeth just happened to be accompanying Wellie on his walk while Russell was getting checked out by various medical people on the 3^rd floor.) 

As I walked up to Elizabeth, Wellie, and Ricky’s conversation, I was greeted with a big smile (by Ricky…Wellie hardly ever smiles).  Ricky extended a handshake and introduced himself.  We exchanged a few words of greeting and Ricky began sharing the mission he’d been on ever since God got his attention.  I never heard the exact details of what grabbed this man’s focus and turned it to God, but when you’re in a Veteran’s Administration parking lot, and the guy says he’s on a “mission” you don’t question too deeply. 

It turned out Ricky’s mission was to help bring Heaven down to earth.  And it had to do with the Lord’s Prayer.  What had grabbed my new friend was the fact that, when Jesus taught this way of praying to his disciples, it was the first time it had ever been heard.  He was alluding to the reality that we hear it often in church, have it on bookmarks and bumper stickers, but it’s meant to be a framework for our daily life’s walk, not a mantra to be tacked onto the preacher’s Sunday prayer.

I can’t recall exactly how Ricky explained the mission, but it went something like: Lord, let me be part of bringing Your Heaven down to where it’s needed, here on earth.  Let that Heaven begin to interfere with all the killing, stealing and all the other unkindness we do to each other.  Heaven, here on earth, Lord!

Then Ricky made it personal.  He shared how trustworthy this faithful God is when it comes to working-out our part in this mission.  Ricky’s a truck-owner/driver by trade.  It seems a year or so ago, when this mission was just beginning to dawn on him, he had a mishap with his truck.  He ran into a big fence gate while making a delivery.  It was late in the day and there was no one around, so he just left.  The next day it was like a festering thorn under his skin that he’d left without somehow settling this with the fence’s owner.  So Ricky went back and found the owner looking at that mangled fence.  The man said, Just look at that…some fool just beat my fence all to pieces.  Ricky told me at that point he had tears starting to come down, and he just blurted out, Mister, I’m that one; I ran into your fence.  He promised he would pay for the damages, and gave the owner his contact information for when he got the bill. 

Later, after not hearing from the man, Ricky called him and asked if he’d found out how much it was going to cost; Ricky was ready to scrape together whatever was needed.  The man said, Son, you don’t gotta pay me nothin’.  I got that fence back to where it will open and close, and there’s no need to worry.  You don’t owe me; I’m just so thankful for the way you were honest about it.

That’s when the mission snapped into focus for Ricky; he could have gotten away with the thing, avoided the humiliation of facing someone he’d wronged.  But, he knew God wasn’t that way.  God had loved Ricky enough to die for him, so being honest about the fence was such a little thing.  As it turned out, it made the fence owner’s day, and helped Ricky see what a great God he was serving.  There was just a little bit of Heaven come down to earth that day for a business owner and a truck driver named Ricky.

For You Today

Meeting Ricky was a privilege.  He takes the time to tell what happened to him in an honest, intentional way, giving all credit and glory to God.  His honesty in coming clean with that fence owner reminded me of another friend’s sentence I heard years ago:  There’s never a right time to do the wrong thing, and never a wrong time to do the right thing; so trust God and do right!

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!   

[1] Title Image: Pixabay.com   Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation^©