The Justice of God

Justice is a word we hear every day. We use it in personal relationships, in social conventions, with respect to legislation, and to the verdicts rendered in court. As commonplace as the word is, it has perplexed philosophers who seek an adequate definition of it.

Sometimes we link or equate justice with what is earned or deserved. We speak of people getting their just deserts in terms of rewards or punishments. But rewards are not always based upon merit. Suppose we hold a beauty contest and declare that a prize will be awarded to the person deemed most beautiful. If the "beauty" wins the prize, it is not because there is something meritorious in being beautiful. Rather, justice is served when the most beautiful contestant is rightfully awarded the prize. If the judges vote for someone they do not deem the most beautiful (for political reasons or because they are bribed) then the outcome of the contest will be unjust.

For reasons such as the above, Aristotle defined justice as "giving a person what is his or her due." What is "due" may be determined by ethical obligation or by some prior agreement. If a person is punished more severely than his crime deserves, the punishment is unjust. If a person receives a lesser reward than she has earned, then the reward is not just.

How then does mercy relate to justice? Mercy and justice are obviously different things, though they are sometimes confused. Mercy occurs when wrongdoers are given less punishment than deserved or greater rewards than they earned.

God tempers His justice with mercy. His grace is essentially a kind of mercy. God is gracious to us when He withholds the punishment we deserve and when He rewards our obedience despite the fact that we owe obedience to Him, and so we do not merit any reward. Mercy is always voluntary with God. He is never obligated to be merciful. He reserves the right to exercise His grace according to the good pleasure of His will. For He says to Moses, "I will have mercy on whomever I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whomever I will have compassion" (Romans 9:15).

People often complain that because God does not distribute His grace or mercy equally on all people, He is therefore not fair. We complain that if God pardons one person He is therefore obligated to pardon everybody.

Yet, we see clearly in Scripture that God does not treat everyone equally. He revealed Himself to Abraham in a way He did not to other pagans in the ancient world. He graciously appeared to Paul in a way He did not appear to Judas Iscariot.

Paul received grace from God; Judas Iscariot received justice. Mercy and grace are forms of nonjustice, but they are not acts of injustice. If Judas's punishment was more severe than he deserved, then he would have something about which to complain. Paul received grace, but this does not require that Judas also receive grace. If grace is required from God, if God is obligated to be gracious, then we are no longer speaking of grace, but of justice.

Biblically, justice is defined in terms of righteousness. When God is just, He is doing what is right. Abraham asked God a rhetorical question that can only have one obvious answer: "Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?" (Genesis 18:25). Likewise, the apostle Paul raised a similar rhetorical question: "What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? Certainly not!" (Romans 9:14).

1. Justice is giving what is due.
2. Biblical justice is linked to righteousness, to doing what is right.

Injustice is outside the category of justice and is a violation of justice. Mercy is also outside the category of justice but is not a violation of justice

Details

“You shall speak to all the skillful, whom I have filled with a spirit of skill, that they make Aaron's garments to consecrate him for my priesthood. These are the garments that they shall make: a breastpiece, an ephod, a robe, a coat of checker work, a turban, and a sash. They shall make holy garments for Aaron your brother and his sons to serve me as priests. They shall receive gold, blue and purple and scarlet yarns, and fine twined linen.” Exodus 28: 3-5

 

A year ago, a pastor asked the congregation if they had the read the bible, from cover to cover. I can tell you my answer was no, but that day I took myself down to the local bible store and bought a one year bible. I made it part of my daily devotion time for me. In the past I just pick books out of the bible and study them, skipping the “boring” ones or the ones that were no interested to me. This is not how to study God’s word… and I found out just how important it was to read the bible as whole instead of skipping around to the stories that please me!

The first time I read about the tabernacle, I lightly read through it not digging into the “endless” detail about what needed to be done to build this moving temple. By me skimming the pages I missed the message that was bleed all over the pages of the bible. To me, at the time, it was endless detail… nothing too important to think about. So when I got to the tabernacle this year, I felt God pushing me to go deeper into His word. I first sat down in a quiet place and pray that God would help me keep awake during this endless details (Be careful what you pray for). When I prayed that prayer, I did not know that God was going to open my eyes to the details of His love and what it would mean for my life.

I started to read it slowly hoping that I would enjoy the reading of the details. It was not helping, and I really had to put the book down and think about making some hot tea to stay awake. I felt like I was failing God because I could not enjoy His word. I picked up the bible again and tried to read it slower.  Since I am a seamstress, by God gifting me with the skill, until I reached the design of Aaron’s garments did I felt the pages come alive. It came alive in the description on his robe and the robes of priests to come. It was like I was suck into the bible and I was on the stool in front of God taking notes of the garments that would be prepared to be worn to worship Him. I my hands shook, and hot salty tears began to run down my face; I could fell God’s wrap His arms around me and the truth sink in.

God was in the details! The great I AM carried so much for His people that He took time to let Moses know how to construct a garment, right down to the amount of jewels on the breastplate that would be worn by Aaron. Now take a step back and think for a moment, if God spent forty days giving Moses instruction on how to build the tabernacle, and everything in it, right down to the garments of the priests should were, don’t you think He is interested in you and the details that surround your life? Think about, God is always working for the good, and to bring glory to Him.  To many of us are too busy to stop and look at the small things that God does for us, not looking into the details of our lives where God has touch us with His love.

I can give you example of how I know that God is in the details of my life. I love hot tea! I even have a good friend who always brings me some from Kenya to drink. I love drinking it in the morning before heading off to work. Well the last couple of months I have not had the time to drink my tea in the morning. Most of the offices where I work are heavy coffee drinkers, and to get the coffee pot to process hot tea would be hard to do. I accepted that I just would not have my hot tea in the morning. Well a month ago the head boss started making something different in the coffee pot; my nose could tell it was something I had been craving in a while… yep you guess it, hot tea!  God was in the details! Just like I didn’t have money one day to buy milk for my daughter and while walk the dog, we just happen to find the right amount of money to buy milk? Once again God is in the details.

So if the great I AM can give Moses details about His moving temple, or details of the garments of the priest, or even make sure I have hot tea every morning, then He is interest in the details of your life. Just take a moment and thank Him, for being a loving God who cares about the details of our lives.

By Nikki McGann

Faith (Part 2)

Faith (Part 2)

“And without faith it is impossible to please [H]im, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that [H]e exists and that [H]e rewards those who seek [H]im.” Hebrews 11:6 [my correction].

Yesterday I started devotion about faith and what God called a widow to step out in faith. If you did not read it please go back and refresh before diving in to the last bit of this devotion…

 

I wish I could tell you that I had faith like that! That I trust God would keep my jars full through three years of a drought, after giving my last bit of food to a prophet. That I woke up one morning, and believe that God would provide all my needs and not to worry about anything. No it took a painful year of having things ripe out of my hands to truly face that my faith was built on sand and not the rock of God! I had to lose everything …. to gain the faith of unshakable today! God had to make sure that everything I lean on for my faith was taken away and all I had was God alone!  And to tell you the truth, I didn’t lean on him until the day I could barely get home one day and had to be talked home by a friend. That is when I knew I had nothing, but God and the only one to get me out of this pit was God! That is when my faith became an action!

I started slowly at first, but reaching out to certain people who had a godlike faith to help me taken those steps of faith. I had someone who called me daily to make sure I ate at least two times day and took me out once a week for a hot meal (thanks Mama Bisset), I had someone who prayed with me every morning (thanks Jeni Ducket), I had someone who gave me scripture daily (thanks Jenny Springstein), I had someone that made sure I got to church on time (Thanks Linda Fetherolf), and I finally had someone or some people who pray for me every day (thanks Koren and Sean Hilliard).

When you are hopeless and have nothing to live for, to take a step of Faith is something that is beyond your control, but I had to take that first step of faith for God to meet me. Once I began to take the steps of faith… I realized I didn’t need to depend on anyone but God. That is when my faith grew into solid ground instead of the sand it was built on. I had to learn to take those small steps of faith before I could start taking giant leaps of faith. To follow God’s commands to move to Africa to server him whole heartily was giant leap of faith, which seemed easy enough because I learned to take the small steps of faith along the way.

A person once told me that “Faith is believing that God will fulfill the promise He has given you, even thou you might not see one thing being materialized about the promise!”  God is at work all around us for His glory. We have to believe in that and have faith that God knows what He is doing. When God gives us an impossible task, it takes faith to believe that God will supply the means for the task even when we don’t see it happening. The widow took a step of faith to believe that God would keep His promise of never letting the jars run empty. I am taking a step of faith to believe that God will show me the correct way around the mountain that stands in front of me and His glory!

So think about it… what is God calling you to take a step out in faith? Is it to move across country, talk to a certain someone, to love an unlovable person, or to simple understand that God exists?  If you just have faith of mustard seed you can do all things through Christ who gives you strength!  So what are you afraid of… take that step of faith and watch as you see God meet you with each step. A life of faith is far more exciting then controlling everything and not be able to live for God!

 

By Nikki McGann

Faith (Part 1)

Faith (Part 1)

“And without faith it is impossible to please [H]im, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that [H]e exists and that [H]e rewards those who seek [H]im.” Hebrews 11:6 [my correction].

I came across this verse the other day and it blew me away! It is a verse that I have read several times, and I even taught this to children no bigger than my knee! (Yep was a preschool teacher for a church when my son was little). But something about this verse yesterday had me gasping for air, and face down on the floor thanking God for building my faith!!  I can go through the bible and point out several “giants” who had abounded faith, and what God did to build it. Hebrews 11 calls out the names of these giants, and what their faith did to bring glory to God. But I want to take a different route this time, I want to zone in on a woman who was out picking sticks to make her last meal (1 King 17). Not just her last meal of the day, but her last meal on earth and not just for her but also for the last meal her young son would eat too. Picture this woman riddled with sadness, as she has already lost her husband and is about to lose her son too. I can picture her crying as she is picking up the sticks and crying out to God why? She had lost all hope and faith and all she could look forward to was death. Everything was taken from her, and she could give nothing to the Lord… or that is what she thought.  

As she is gathering the stick as young man approaches her asking for a cup of water, which she processed to give him as he also commands her to give him a piece of bread from your hand. At this point I can see her wiping around and give the man a look of death. In my mind I would be screaming how dare you? I have nothing left! But the woman states she only has a little oil and flour left and that she will prepare for her and her son. Elijah looks at her and state “Do not fear; go and do as you have said. But first make me a little cake of it and bring it to me,” I would look at Elijah and say are you crazy, I just told you I didn’t have enough. Elijah continues “and afterward make something for yourself and your son. For thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, ‘The jar of flour shall not be spent, and the jug of oil shall not be empty, until the day that the LORD sends rain upon the earth.’” but this woman did something that would forever change her path in life. With faith she followed the command that Elijah gave her. YES, she made the cake, and handed it to him for his enjoyment! What faith!!! As most people would have chase Elijah away to only enjoy their last meal on earth instead of fulfilling a need of another!

Picture this woman going back to her house to make the last of what she had to give it to another person. She empty the last of her flour.. hitting the bottom of the jar to get every last bit out, then pouring the rest of the oil in the pan to cook the cake for Elijah. Picture her crying as she heads out of the house to hand the cake to Elijah; slowly doom fills her steps as she heads back to the house. The question of “will there be more in the jars when I get back into the house” runs through her mind. It would have been very hard to walk back to the house, knowing that I had empty both jars. My mind would be screaming… not possible, not possible. Satan is very good at discouragement. I don’t know if I could even looked into the jars with my mind set that the Lord will provide!  But this woman had faith that the jars would have more in them! And with great faith came great reward, not once did the jars become empty! She had them full for three years!!! Yes three years, each day emptying them out to make bread for breakfast, lunch, and dinner! And yes they were always filled!!!! Great faith in trusting the Lord would provide for her needs as she sacrifices her last meal to help the prophet….

To Be Continue….

Listen

“Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger” James 1:19

 

I knew I had a problem… I couldn’t even wait for him to “think about” the answer.  I wanted the answer now! But he was not producing the answer quick enough so I just texted back “From your lack of responds, I am taking it that you don’t care or love me anymore.” I push send, turned off the phone and hide the phone in a drawer! My thoughts were let him think about that for a while!

I was nowhere near the actions that the verse speaks, and it caused a huge rift in that relationship that only God can fix now! I look back on my actions, and I want to scream no!!! The answer is so worth the wait!!! But I was not quick to hear, slow to speak, or slow to anger. I was more like quick to speak, shut off the ears and let my anger burn! I wish I could say that God got my attention on this problem at that moment, but it was more like several more months before I formed the prayer “God help me listen better!”

I wish I could tell you that God swooped down, and fixed the hearing problem! Instead God did answer my prayer, but in a different way than I thought! Instead of zapping me to close my mouth, and turn on my ears He brought me several girlfriends. Now these girlfriends are people who soak in what is being said, and you guessed it! have to process it before giving an answer.  If I wanted advice from these godly woman I would have to… yes… wait!

 
If we take a closer look at the bible we can see there were many people who chose to “listen” to Jesus speak, but walk away the same person. Instead of really listening to the words of Jesus that transformed many lives… James was one of them. James got to sit at Jesus’ feet and soak in everything that was spoken. He was quick to listen and slow to speak. He took what he learn from God, and used it to help us to be transformed. For a moment think of what James would have been like if he had not learn to be quick to listen. Think about the bible, what would it be like today if the men did not take the time to listen to God’s voice while writing it.

James had seen the Creator of the Universe, sit patiently and listen to the ailments of the sick, both spiritually and physically. He watch Jesus call the little children to Him and sit and listen to their endless chatter. Yes,  James had learned and witness the great I AM quick to listen. If James learn this then so can we! We start by shutting down our minds and stop coming up with answers to questions that have not been spoken before listening to the person speak. We make eye contact and chose to listen to the person that is in front of us! To let them know that they are important to us and that we chose to listen to their life. When we are quick to listen, the small whisper of God is loud enough for us to hear Him. We can be able to move in His will and His timing.

Which brings me back to my girlfriends that slowly showed me how to be quick to listen. I learn that if I chose to listen to them, and slowly let my mind process what they were talking about and searching for a godly answer, I got something more out of the friendship. My relationship with these women drew me closer  and  help me become a processer. God helped me to become a quick listener and a very slow speaker. When God gives me the chance to explore this with the person in the begin of the story they will encounter a different Nikki. A one that God has transformed into a listener then a speaker.

 

Written by Nikki McGann

Brokenesses

Exodus 6:1 “Then the LORD said to Moses, ‘Now you will see what I will do to Pharaoh: Because of my mighty hand he will let them go, because of my mighty hand he will drive them out of his country.’”

I got the call one hot September day, the call that most people who follow Christ would jump for joy; at the time it was not the call I wanted to answer. It was the call that I would have love to do in a different time, and place in my life, but not while I was in this deep dark hole of depression. When you are asking God “why am I in this pit of Hell,” you don’t want God to say “I am calling you to Africa.” Wait a minute, I was just asking God to let me get through the next hour of my life, not lets pack your bags you are heading to Africa! At first I thought I had heard wrong and ask the question “How can God use a broken girl?”

Well let me just tell you, sometimes we have to be broken before we can truly see the wonders of God. We have to be so face down in the slimly pit of brokenness that we can truly see what God’s mighty hand can do. If we look at Exodus chapter 5, we see that Moses is talking to the Pharaoh about letting the Israelites go out into the desert, and worship the LORD for three days. Just three days to worship GOD, not a lot to ask from the king.  But with his harden of his heart, he refused for them to go and worship God. And on top of that he tells the overseers to not supply straw to the Israelites to make bricks, but they have to make the same quote daily. Talk about adding extra weight to the already burden of Israelites, not only would they have to find their own straw, they would have to keep up with the same amount of bricks that took them all day to make.

This caused hardship on the Israelites; to the point that Moses starts questioning and doubting God for bring him there.  Moses states in Chapter 5: 22-23 “Why, Lord, why have you brought trouble on this people? Is this why you sent me? Ever since I went to Pharaoh to speak in your name, he has brought trouble on this people, and you have not rescued your people at all” Can you picture Moses stomping his feet asking God why? He even claims that God has done nothing to help these people, and for putting him in this situation. It is as if Moses had forgotten that God called him out of the desert to deliver God’s people into the promise land. Once things got hard, Moses wanted to throw in the towel and quite, blaming God for the whole ordeal. Is this starting to sound like something you would say? Are you squirming in your seat ask yourself that can’t be right?

Why is it we get so caught up in the bad of the situation that we forget what God has promise us individual promises and as a whole promises? Have you every question God’s timing, or plan in what He has for you? I have and you better believe that I stomped my feet and asked Him why? But here is the kicker, God got my attention… yep my head was raised to the sky asking why and that is when He let me see that I had to be totally broken to see the next move.

If we go back to Exodus 6:1 God answers Moses with “Then the LORD said to Moses, ‘Now you will see what I will do to Pharaoh: Because of my mighty hand he will let them go, because of my mighty hand he will drive them out of his country’” Did you catch that with “MY” might hand, God just put Moses back into his place. God is clearly saying that this is being done through me not you!! Moses you are just the deliver not the one that is going to do the wonders. God had to put the Israelites and Moses upon their faces to show them that He was going to deliver the people out of Egypt.

God had to bring the burden on His people to get their attention to look toward the heavens for help. Once their focus was on heaven that is when God would move in His timing to produce on His promises. So back to that slimy pit I was face down in, if God had not gotten me on my face and called me to Africa, I would have done it on my strength and not HIS. God would never gotten the glory and I would be sitting at home still thinking about Africa.

Impossible

This week I am going to be posting devotions that I have written in the last month! I hope you love them:

 

“And Jesus said to him, ‘If you can’! All things are possible for one who believes.’ Immediately the father of the child cried out and said, ‘I believe; help my unbelief!”’ Mark 9:23-24

 

Have you every question God on His ability to produce a promise that He promise you? Have you ever looked at a situation and seen it through the world’s eyes and shook your head and said it is impossible. Have you had godly friends tell you that it was not going to happen, and you should just move on?  Have you looked at the promise that God laid out in front of you, and just walked away from it because it was impossible?

It is easy to say nothing is impossible for God… until you are standing in front of a mountain that is blocking you from the path that God want you to travel! Then you buckled and state “God this is impossible.” You throw up your hands and stop trying… hoping you heard God wrong! The problem with this is nothing is too hard or impossible for God!  The problem is your unbelief in the possible of what God can do. When God gives you a task that is impossible from your sights, you have to realize this is a chance for God to help you overcome your unbelief!

When we look in the bible, many people overcome the impossible with God’s help, Moses and the Pharaoh, David and Goliath, and Jesus and the grave, all this was done through the Great I AM!  So nothing is impossible to God, but that is not the issue with us, the issues is do we believe that God can do the impossible.  Do you have the faith and the fruits to step out and trust that God can do the impossible? The Father had it right when he asked Jesus to help him with his unbelief! He understood with his mouth that God could do the impossible, but he was unsure if it could happen. That is why he stated for Jesus to help him with his unbelief.

This has nothing to do with God and His ability, but it had everything to do with the heart of the young boy’s father. It is hard to believe that God will deliver on anything that seems impossible without having childlike faith! Yes, you need to abandon everything that is logic, and follow God with a unyielding heart! !! We all have that part of us that just lets logic come in, and mess with our childlike faith! You have to bring your unbelief to the cross, and ask God to help you believe in His promises. God can do wonders with us as long as we are truthful with Him about our unbelief! This is hard to do, because we have to rid our self of pride and  confess that we don’t have the faith to belief.  But that is ok, this is when God steps in and stretches you faith and turns your unbelief into unshakeable faith!!

Jesus could and did heal the boy, because the father confessed that he needed help with his unbelief. You better believe that every time that father looked at his healthy boy he believe that God could do anything.  So when God tells you to wait on someone that won’t give you the time of day, or to move half way across the ocean to serve Him, or that you can have a baby even when doctors say it is impossible, or you have some much time to live, but God is telling you He is not done with you yet… believe it. If you are faltering on unbelief take it to God. Ask Him to help you with your unbelief, because only God knows the ending story to you! You don’t know God’s timing, the next time you see that someone they might have the courage to say hi.  By this time next year,  you are living happily across the ocean doing God’s work. Nine months by now you might be holding your bundle of joy. And that six month death sentences turn into ten years of healthy living.  Believe that nothing is impossible with God!

 

By Nikki McGann

Priscilla's Bible Verse

 

Matthew 6:33

 

 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.

The School of Alba on Vimeo

For over forty years, there has been a long love story between Alba and Uganda. Their story has been agitated by war, struggle, and sometimes loneliness, but always they had overcome it. After Abla husband passed away, she, the Italian super mama, retired in 2001 and came back to Uganda to fulfill their common dream.

Today she runs a beautiful place called Balidhabene (Blog), where young women learn international cuisine, hotel management, tailoring and computer science.

Alba on Vimeo