"Whoever serves me must follow me; and where I am, my servant also will be. My father will honor the one who serves me.
(John 12:26)
If we submitted to the great commission, "teaching them to obey
everything God have commanded you," and if we obeyed the great commandment, "Love God and your neighbor as yourself," issues of Justice could not be avoided.
Our journey should be characterized by Micah's great requirement: "What does the Lord require of you? / to act justly and to love mercy/ and to walk humbly before God" (Micah 6:8)
We would be a people who fought unemployment with job training, illiteracy with education, pollution with technology, oppression with Legal protection, disease with medicine, danger with safety, poverty with help, 'Chaos' with order, fear with love, hunger with food, and on and on.
We should grieve over injustice and oppression.
We would "Courageously" use our gifts and talents to 'Oppose' the results of the fall.
Unfortunately, Justice is not something that should ever be taken for granted.
Many like the world around us, like their comforts and balk at sacrifice or inconvenience.
While many endorse the notion of Justice, time and energy primarily goes into the personal development of material accomplishments.
What should be fulfilling to us at any given moment has more bearing on the call to create a society in which Justice and Love visibly reflection God's nature.
We never outgrow the need for prophets who remind us of the "great requirement."
We need to search our 'Hearts' and "See" where putting our own agenda's first makes us a part of the problem.
Eugene Peterson suggests that a Faith that doesn't serve Justice can end up making us worse instead of better.
It can actually separate us from God and his ways instead of drawing us to him.
Truth and Holiness are always matters of substance, not appearance.
Issues of Justice consistently involve allocation of real and substantive resources: money,time, opportunities, goods, and services.
The bible makes it perfectly clear to all that Justice is never about what one owns and faith is never a game where the one with the most Toy's wins. What we have and own is never simply our.
We are "Stewards" of what God gave us and 'Word' holds all responsible for what we did with what we have.
Follower of Jesus are to share their resources and work against the Evil that Robs the world of God's care and love.
Lifestyles and choices that love and value people more than things is the Litmus test of faith.
This truth hold a prophetic name: "Get over Yourself!.
Share reference: Spiritual Disciplines Handbook - Adele Calhoun.
"Humility and honesty are really the same thing.
A humble person is simply a Brutally Honest Person about the Whole Truth.
You and I came along a few years ago; were going to be gone in a few years. The only Honest response to Life is a 'Humble' one.
Richard Rohr.
Avoid favoritism by choosing downward mobility so others have more.
ReplyDelete"Do we approach God from a beggar's perspective or as His cherished child? If we have any difficulty seeing Him as our loving Father, we need to ask Him to help us develop a healthy Father/child relationship."
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