Seeking Justice

 "He has told you, O man, what is good;

    and what does the Lord require of you

but to do justice, and to love kindness,

    and to walk humbly with your God?"

Micah 6:8 (ESV)

 "For Mordecai the Jew was second in rank to King Ahasuerus, and he was great among the Jews and popular with the multitude of his brothers, for he sought the welfare of his people and spoke peace to all his people." 

Esther 10:3 

We are told to seek justice, but I always had a hard time with balancing justice and revenge. I would ask God how I was supposed to seek it without it being about retribution or vengeance. Recently He has begun to reveal to me what He meant when He gave that command.

He wants us to do justice for others and not ourselves. For those who live around us and across the globe. He places a burden on our hearts to right the wrongs being done to fellow believers and non-believers in order that we may seek to bring justice. Just as Mordecai did in Esther we are to do today "he sought the welfare of his people and spoke peace to all his people".  We are to seek that the oppression be lifted off the backs of those around us. We are to seek for the salvation of the souls of those we come in contact with. We are to seek that the hungry be made full with food and Christ (this includes the monetarily rich people). We are to care for the widows and the orphans... (Isaiah 58) There are many ways that the church can do such things.

 These can be done through prayer if you are someone who God brings to their knees in prayer, giving finically to Christian organizations or missionaries that are seeking to eradicate any type of oppression if your gift is generosity, volunteer your time if God has given you the gifting to fight for justice on the front lines, seeking God in faith if faith is your gift, and so many more. People will try to tell you that you have to do every single one of these yourself but God made each person in the church to be an extension of each other which allows us to focus solely on the gift God gave us without the pressure of having to do it all. If we all do our part, whether it be bringing awareness to the issues, supporting them in prayer/financial means.... so much can be done for the kingdom of God.

Fearing God

"27 Then Pharaoh sent for Moses and Aaron, and said to them, “I have sinned this time; the Lord is the righteous one, and I and my people are the wicked ones. 28 Make supplication to the Lord, for there has been enough of God’s thunder and hail; and I will let you go, and you shall stay no longer.” 29 Moses said to him, “As soon as I go out of the city, I will spread out my hands to the Lord; the thunder will cease and there will be hail no longer, that you may know that the earth is the Lord’s. 30 But as for you and your servants, I know that you do not yet fear the Lord God.” 31 (Now the flax and the barley were ruined, for the barley was in the ear and the flax was in bud. 32 But the wheat and the spelt were not ruined, for they ripen late.) 33 So Moses went out of the city from Pharaoh, and spread out his hands to the Lord; and the thunder and the hail ceased, and rain no longer poured on the earth. 34 But when Pharaoh saw that the rain and the hail and the thunder had ceased, he sinned again and hardened his heart, he and his servants. 35 Pharaoh’s heart was hardened, and he did not let the sons of Israel go, just as the Lord had spoken through Moses." Exodus 9:27-35 NASB 

Repentance not driven by fear of the Holy God is not true repentance. The fear of God keeps our feet on the straight and narrow because it leads us to Him, the only One who can truly save us. It shows us that we are unable to justify ourselves."But Samuel replied: "Does the LORD delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the LORD? To obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed is better than the fat of rams." (1 Samuel 15:22)

When we don't Fear God.

Why is fear rarely present in our hearts when we talk about God? Why do we no longer tremble at the sound of His name? Why are we unable as a church today to understand how against sin God is? Why does our sin no longer leave us begging for God's mercy? I believe it is because we have had the message "God is Love" without the message "God is Holy and demands that we be Holy as well". We are no longer told that God means what He says in verses like "Behold, I am coming soon, bringing my recompense with me, to repay each one for what he has done. I am the Alphand the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the Rnd. Blessed are those who wash their robes, so that they may have the right to the tree of life and that they may enter the city by the gates. Outside are the dogs and sorcerers and the sexually immoral and murderers and idolaters, and everyone who loves to practise falsehood. (Revelation 22:12-15)", "so because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold I will spit you from My mouth (Revelation )", "and if anyone takes away from the words of this prophecy, God will take away his share in the tree of life and in the Holy city, which are described in this book. (Revelation 22:19)" 

Fear of God

Read Exodus 9:27-35

"But as for you and your servants, I know that you do not yet fear The Lord God." Exodus 9:30

In this passage the 8th plague is currently besieging Egypt and destroying their crops and flooding the land with water (vs 33) and Pharaoh finally humbled himself and repented of his sins before Moses, and declared that the Iraelites could go from the land. But Pharaoh did not do this out of fear of God but out of the desperate want to rid his land and life of the trial. More often than not this is also our reason for repenting and humbling ourselves before the Creator of the World. This motivation is not the type that leads you to surrendering your life completely and unreservedly to Him. This motivation leads only to a works and result based relationship with Him that fades away once the trial is lifted and the result is received. 

God does lift our trials when we humbly repent even when it is not lead by the Fear of God so that He may show the world that everything in it is His (vs 29). But just as Pharaoh, when the trial ends we will turn back to our ways, hardening our hearts towards the God who alone can alone redeem us (vs 34). For example having gone through cancer God has allowed me to see intimately how people deal with tragedies. For many God is just a crutch to get through the hard times and then He is put in the storage room for the next time that they need His help to move the where they want to go.

"3 And He spoke many things to them in parables, saying,“Behold, the sower went out to sow; 4 and as he sowed, some seeds fell beside the road, and the birds came and ate them up. 5 Others fell on the rocky places, where they did not have much soil; and immediately they sprang up, because they had no depth of soil. 6 But when the sun had risen, they were scorched; and because they had no root, they withered away. 7 Others fell among the thorns, and the thorns came up and choked them out. 8 And others fell on the good soil and *yielded a crop, some a hundredfold, some sixty, and some thirty. 9 He who has ears, let him hear.”... 18 “Hear then the parable of the sower. 19 When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what has been sown in his heart. This is the one on whom seed was sown beside the road. 20 The one on whom seed was sown on the rocky places, this is the man who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy; 21 yet he has no firm root in himself, but is only temporary, and when affliction or persecution arises because of the word, immediately he falls away. 22 And the one on whom seed was sown among the thorns, this is the man who hears the word, and the worry of the world and the deceitfulness of wealth choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful. 23 And the one on whom seed was sown on the good soil, this is the man who hears the word and understands it; who indeed bears fruit and brings forth, somea hundredfold, some sixty, and some thirty.”' (Matthew 13:3-9, 18-23) 
Having read this many times I always thought that it only meant that when hardships such as sickness, death, tragedy or persecution comes, in regards to preaching and living out the Word of God, come people fall away. I never thought that He could also be meaning that when life is "good" people forget their need of the Gospel and turn back to their own ways. In this passage the thorns can be the pleasures of this world; the birds can be the cute guy/girl, new phone, party with the cool kids or the dream career happening; the rocky places can be the same. Anything that draws us away from that initial conversion is what Jesus is talking about and they tend to be in the good times more that the bad. 
Recently there have been disastrous tornados, school shootings and so on and despite what many people think it has drawn people towards God more than it has driven people away. People fall away and stop seeking God direction when life goes back to normal. This is because they did not truly fear God, they just sought Him for comfort and not salvation, guidance and not lordship. Just as Pharaoh, they wanted God to take the trial away yet they weren't ever willing to fear Hod and take Him at His word. 

Fairy tales: the reflection of Christ

Just ask anyone on the street or even in your church if fairy tales exist and they'll probably say no. We are told by the world that it is unrealistic to think that any guy would take a girl back time after time. We are told that happy endings where our Prince Charming comes to save us from the evil dragon and then we live happily-ever-after with no hardships don't really happen because for one, dragons don't exsist. But what if I told you that the reason why when girls watch these types of movies are drawn to them and for even a short tiny second have hope that it might actually exist somewhere is because our Saviour made us to desire this.

I have grown up with 3 brothers and have been told by them, my father and their friends that girls shouldn't watch chick flicks because they place an unrealistic expectation inside our heads of how guys should behave. That this a lie straight from the pit of Hell. Guys know they'll never be able to attain this "perfect standard" and so they say nobody can do it, that it should never be brought up again, but Jesus did meet it and continues to meet it everyday. You see He is an even greater and purer version of the men we see portrayed in these movies because He is the one our soul longs for (song of Solomon 3:4). He is the fairy tale that we long for. 

Throughout the Old Testament we are shown of God's undying love for His very unfaithful wife, Israel (which happens to be us). No matter what she did to Him, whether it be worshiping other Gods, mocking His name, trusting in others for salvation or even pleasure, He always took her back. In books like Jeremiah, Isaiah, Hosea and many others we are told of God's undying love for His people. He always took them back when they called upon His name. Everything He did was to show them that He was and is the only one who can satisfy our longings. He promises us happily-ever-after.

Many times in the New Testament we are told that we are the bride of Christ awaiting the day that He comes back to take us to the wedding feast and that then He will slay the dragon which terrorizes us day and night (read Revelation). The tiny ounce of hope that sparks inside our hearts when we watch these movies is that hope that Christ has set in our hearts. The hope that we are told about by the apostles and prophets in the Word of God. The hope of happily-ever-after and a guy who never abandons us no matter what. 

Men will always fall short of the standard that fairy tale movies give and that's okay because it's not for them to attain, but for Christ. So the next time you watch a chick flick where the guy takes the girl back or slays a dragon or two, it's okay to dream about it as long as we remember that the man we should be dreaming about it waiting in heaven for the okay to come and rescue us from this dark dungeon.