Sabbath. Study. Serve.

Sabbath, Study, Serve 

Taking the Sermon Into Our Week 

Scripture of the Week: Luke 23: 32-43

From the Sermon:

We value _______________________ because they have something to teach us about how we live our lives today as followers of Christ

As Jesus hung on the cross he prayed: _______________________________________________

Jesus very publicly prayers that God extend ________ and _____________.

Reflection Questions:

How would you have felt if you were Simon of Cyrene and had to help Jesus carry his cross?

Who do you need to either extend forgiveness to or humbly ask forgiveness from?

Who do you need to tell about the message of hope that is found in this season - as Jesus prayed that we would be forgiven?

Prayer:

Lord, when we hear the powerful words that you prayed from the cross, we often forget that are calling us to forgive others with that same grace and power as well. Break our hard hearts. Teach us to love and free us to forgive, we pray in the name of Jesus the Christ. Amen. 

Honesty - Matthew 7: 1-6 and Matthew 5: 43-48

     When I think about pieces of scripture where people just bare their honest hearts before God, the first thing that comes to my mind are the Psalms. The Psalms compose this collection of one hundred and fifty prayers that are lifted up before God for all sorts of occasions. Some are joyful. Others are filled with pain. Some are confessions and laments. Others praise the name of God. But whatever the Psalmist is thinking and feeling is laid out for God.
     Sometimes I think that we get too worried that we are going to hurt God's feelings if we aren't filled with joy all the time. So we end up hiding from God, very similar to Adam and Eve from Genesis 3. But when we hide from God, we are also hiding from God's self-examining presence that can free us from the sin that is holding us bondage.
    What would it look like if we were honest with ourselves and honest with God? What would it look like to pray honest prayers and ask God to come into our lives in a powerful way? What could change if we admitted that we needed God instead of trying to protect God from our innermost thoughts and feelings? What could change in our lives today?

Honesty Devo - Matthew 7: 1-6 and Matthew 5: 43-448

March 24th, 2019

Devotional

“Honesty” - Matthew 5: 43-48 and Matthew 7: 1-6

Keep the sermon topic and Biblical text preaching all week by following Pastor Michelle on twitter @tinypastor and reading her sermon blog www.revmichelle.blogspot.com

Monday: “Judge” - Matthew 7:1-6

  Jesus, through a very interesting image today, is telling us not to judge others. But some of our struggle is that we use the word “judge” in English in so many different ways. We use it to mean that we deciding about something, weighing our options, just as much as we use it to mean that we are condemning a person. 

In this particular passage, Jesus is using it in the later sense, talking about condemning others when really we, too, struggle with sin. But this does not mean that we should not discern. 

When we are discerning, we can use concepts like Wesley’s three simple rules - do good. Do no harm. Stay in love with God. Or the Wesleyan Quadulaterial - looking to scripture, tradition, reason, and experience to guide our actions. 

Let us be a people of discernment not a people of condemnation. 

How do discernment and not judging others go hand in hand?

Prayer: God, we thank you that you are God and we are not. We thank you that you alone are judge. Instead of placing ourselves in positions to be judges over others, instead let us have a humble posture of discernment so we can perceive how best to reach out to others in love. Amen. 

Tuesday: “Love and Pray” - Matthew 4:43-44

  At the end of the day, Jesus’ commands boil down to the idea of loving your enemies, those whom you would not normally associate with. This is a derivative of loving your neighbor as yourself from Leviticus 19. Jesus is reminding us that not only the people we consider to be our neighbors like us, but our enemies as well. Love is not about separating ourselves from people, but looking another human being in the eye and seeing the piece of Divine love that lead to their creation. And when we see that Divine spark it should be harder to bring that person shame. It is easy to love those we like, but it is moving towards perfection when we begin to love those we do not like, those whom we have built a wall between in order to keep ourselves from becoming contaminated in our minds.

Who do you need to be praying for today that you may consider your enemy? 

How is prayer an act of love?

Prayer: God, somedays it is hard to pray for your enemies, we confess. We can only do this by your power alone. So send your Holy Spirit to us this day and bring to our hearts and minds those that we need to be praying for, in Jesus’s name. Amen. 

Wednesday: “Love Your Enemies” - Matthew 5: 40 -45

Who would be sued for a coat? Probably not a rich person with many coats, but someone on the edge of being destitute, who has lost everything else in life and thus only has one thing worth being brought to court for. The article of clothing that acted as a lifeline, acting as a blanket, shelter, and storage area. And now someone else wants to take it away to repay an impossible debt. Imagine the shame! Yet, Jesus commands that the person being asked for their coat to give their cloak – or undergarment – as well. In other words, you would be naked. This would not be to your shame, as the debtor, but to the one who was suing you, as you handed over your coat and cloak while everything else hung out. Once again it is nothing short of an active way of speaking out against injustice. Perfection has a sense of humor to it, and most certainly is not prudish or stingy, as we are admonished to “give to everyone who begs from you and do not refuse anyone who wants to borrow from you.”

Love looks like different things in different situations. But we are called to love, which is contrary to everything that we may do by instinct. We can only love like this by grace alone. 

Tell of a time that God empowered you to love by grace. What was that experience like for you?

Prayer: Almighty God, we thank you that your love has changed us and that your love can change others as well. Use us as agents of this love as your transform this world for the sake of your Kingdom. Amen. 

Thursday: “Reward” - Matthew 5: 39, 46-47

Roman rule, like Jewish law, was based on an honor-shame society. You were judged by your actions, as well as your families. “But if anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn also the other.” This verse has been construed as Jesus saying that we should subject ourselves to shame and abuse at the hands of another. But how many of us are quelling this misperception by teaching a bit of history to our congregations – that to turn the left cheek to be slapped would require the victim to reclaim their honor as if stating that one slap alone could not shame them. Further, the hand positioning is key. The striker cannot backhand slap the person with his or her right hand. The only other option would be to punch the person with a fist, and punching and slapping are not the same thing. To slap shows power, while to punch affirms someone as an equal. Turning and offering the left cheek resulted in a quandary for the person who originally slapped the individual that would ultimately cause her or his shame, not the person’s being slapped.

Perhaps it would make us rethinking our reaction to evil – it is not passive, but active. Perfection is not passive or unimaginative. It calls for us to think outside of the constrains of our culture in order to put forth a radical message of resistance. It also calls us to treat others, even our enemies in a counter-cultural way. 

How do you love your enemies?

Prayer: God, thank you for your Word that both strengthens us and challenges us. Help us to re-imagine what it looks like, not to just to love those who love us back, but to love our enemies in the name of Jesus as well. Amen. 

Friday: “Be Perfect” - Matthew 5: 48

Jesus seems to be laying out an impossible task in this verse– to be perfect as God is perfect. And oh how we’ve abused this verse and the proverbial statements that precede it. We’ve created an image of perfection in our heads that few would even want to obtain –nonsensical, prudish, unimaginative, and perhaps even gruff. Someone who doesn’t smile or laugh or have fun. As a United Methodist, one of the tenants of our tradition is that we are moving on towards perfection, but if these characteristics mark perfection it is most certainly not who I want to be, nor is it who I wish to lead people to discover as their pastor.

Yet isn’t that all too often how we envision God? Aloof, lacking a sense of humor, asking us to strive for something never to be reached. Further, these commands that Jesus give are unattainable at best and damning at worst. They seem to point out everything that we fail to be in our walk with God: forgiving, charitable, and unconditionally loving. As we note our own failures in these areas, our tendency is either to dismiss God as being irrational, which can perhaps explain the exodus of young people from our congregations, or to over-correct our behavior. We abuse God’s commands in order to make ourselves feel humble, even if our zeal for perfection is misguided.

What does the word “perfect” mean to you and your faith walk?

Prayer: God, we thank you that while you call us to face the impossible, to walk towards perfection, that we know that we do not walk alone. Strengthen us for the call and use us along the way, we pray. Amen. 

Saturday: Preparing for the Word

You are invited to read and pray this week’s text and topic to prepare for worship: “The Women of Christmas: And Our Eyes Shall See Him” - Matthew 2: 1-11, Luke 2: 21-35.

Sabbath. Study. Serve.

Sabbath, Study, Serve 

Taking the Sermon Into Our Week 

Scripture of the Week: Jonah 3: 1-10

From the Sermon:

Jonah finds himself spit up on the dry land. Just think of what relief he must have felt! God heard his prayer. God _________ him.

God doesn’t give up on God’s __________. And God doesn’t give up on ______.

But Jonah must have been startled by what took place. This is not what he __________.

We ultimately become the judge of others, taking over God’s job, deciding who is even good enough to hear the message of _______________.

The Lord is quick to forgive and show mercy, but he also desires _____________.

Reflection Questions:

How do you react when God gives you a second chance? Is this the same way you respond when God shows mercy on your family members? On your enemies?

How has the Lord restored you on occasions when you have been disobedient? Did it make you more or less likely to follow God’s prompting in your life?

Have you ever been used by God in a situation you found unbelievable? What did you learn from this experience?

Prayer:

O Loving God, when I return to You, You do not give up Your plan for my life. Give me the strength and courage to follow You, wherever You may lead. May I have ears to hear Your call and a heart to respond. Teach me Your ways. Shape me as Your disciple.  Amen. 

Sabbath. Study. Serve.

Sabbath, Study, Serve 

Taking the Sermon Into Our Week 

Scripture of the Week: Matthew 5: 43-48

Matthew 7: 1-6

From the Sermon:

In order for self-examination to truly change us, we need to be _______ with ourselves.

We would rather ignore what we are facing when we cannot manage it, and we are so fearful of others realizing our flaws and shortcomings and sin, that we try to _______ them and their perceptions of us, then face what is in front of us.

Why do we ________ others? Because we don’t want to own up to the sin in our own lives.

Reflection Questions:

Who do you consider an enemy that you need to be praying for this week?

What sin have you been ignoring in your life that you need to be honest at this week?

Prayer:

Gracious Lord, we confess that sometimes we judge others because we do not want to look into our own hearts. It is so much easier to project onto other people what we are feeling then to face it and ask for your forgiveness. Give us the strength this week to stop hiding from our sin and instead bring it before your throne of grace. Amen. 

Self-Examination - Psalm 51

Sometimes the things that we regret happen really fast - a sinful decision made in the flash of a moment. But other times, like David, it is a series of poor decisions that lead to much larger issues as they build upon one another. And often the things we regret happen because we ignore the signs that we should have known. 

It can be hard to shake our regret. But as Christians, we are offered in Christ, the ability to set aside our regrets, turn away from sin, and start anew. Think of Zacheasus’s story in the Gospel of Luke. He was not making good decisions. He was deeply hurting the people in his community, who quite frankly saw him as a traitor. But Jesus stopped and told him that he was coming to his house that day.       

The real question about regret is it something we are going to avoid, or are we going to hand it over to God and be asked to be made a new - in the words of the Psalmist to be washed clean. There is no sin so large that it cannot be covered by the grace and blood of Jesus on the cross. 

When we become stuck, we also find that sin steals our potential and purpose. We think that God could never use someone like us, with all of our brokenness for the sake of the Kingdom. We think that our sin is bigger than God’s love and redemption. And that brothers and sisters leads to the lie that we can never share our faith with others because we are not worthy, when it could be exactly your story of how Jesus changed you that could draw someone into a saving relationship with Jesus Christ. 

Self Examination Devo - Psalm 51

March 19th, 2019

Devotional

“Self-Examination” - Psalm 51

Keep the sermon topic and Biblical text preaching all week by following Pastor Michelle on twitter @tinypastor and reading her sermon blog www.revmichelle.blogspot.com

Monday: “Wash Me” - Psalm 51: 1-2

  Psalm 51 is believed to have been written shortly after David had taken another man’s wife as his own. The story goes that David, King of Israel, stayed behind for some unknown reason when his men, his troops, were off preparing for battle. He caught the site of a married women, Bathsheba, bathing on a roof, and he had he brought to the palace where he lied with her. Then she became pregnant. In order to attempt to cover up his sin, David called for Bathsheba’s husband to come home from battle and tried to convince him to sleep with her - only he refused, for it was improper for him to sleep with his wife when other men were in battle.

  Finally, David went Uriah back to the front lines of a battle with a letter for his commanding officer, essentially stating to make sure Uriah gets killed in battle. Which he did. And David took Bathsheba as his wife.

David’s priest Nathan came and spoke to him about what had taken place - telling the story of a small lamb that was taken by a man who had all the lambs in the world. David became enraged until Nathan pointed out that he was the man who stole the lambs - he had taken Bathsheba as his wife after having her husband killed. This Psalm is written after all of that had taken place - and David is guilt-ridden, calling out to God for forgiveness and mercy.

Who is someone is your life that helps point out the blind spots of your sin?

Prayer: God, we thank you this day for the people in our lives like Nathan - people who help us to see what needs to be confessed and open us up to your forgiveness. Cleans us, O Lord, as we confess that which we need forgiveness for this day. Amen. 

Tuesday: “My Sin” - Psalm 51: 3-5

  Part of this Psalm’s power is while it was certainly written in a particular time in David’s life, we can find ourselves in it as well. When we hear the words of this Psalm does it not remind us of our own fallenness and entanglement in sin?

David’s prayer also becomes our prayer. Blot our our transgressions in your mercy. Wash us throughly of our iniquity. For none of us are free from the hold of sin in our lives. Since the days of Adam and Eve, when they intentionally made the choice to rebel against the ways of God, we have been making the same choices. We have been choosing to not love God and not love our neighbor with our whole hearts. 

We need this time, this season of Lent to seek repentance. We need a time of self-reflection and penitence. Because when left to our own devices, we like to pretend that our sin doesn’t exist, but the truth is pretending does not make it go away. It only makes it fester.

What does self-self-reflection and repentance look like in your life?

Prayer: God, help us to see the sin in our lives clearly, Precious Lord, so that we can acknowledge it and confess it before you. Search us with your Holy Spirit and embolden us to be a people of confession, we pray. Amen. 

Wednesday: “Clean Heart” - Psalm 51: 10-12

God wants to create in us a clean heart. A heart where we can proclaim that we are yes, sinners, but that we are saved by grace. Have you ever noticed that folks tend to focus too much on one side of this statement or the other? People either become focused on their depravity, forgetting God’s gift to us, or become so caught up in the gift of grace that they forget why we need it in the first place. Today we stand before God saying that we are sinners, in need of God’s grace, and then we accept that beautiful and powerful gift with open hearts - allowing God to clean and transform us from the inside out. God not only saves us from our sin, but gives us new lives!

What does a clean heart mean to you?

Prayer: Almighty God, we cry out to you this day, along with the words of King David, to create a clean heart within us. Renew us, O Lord. Help us to keep our eyes focused on you, the cross, and the grace that was shared this. All in Jesus’s name. Amen.  

Thursday: “Deliver Me” - Pslam 51: 13-14

David didn’t feel guilt about what he had done until Nathan called him out and invited him into a time of repentance. He was perfectly happy not examining his actions or how they damaged his relationship with God and his relationship with others. So it is with us. We need these 40 days. We need a time of confession and turning our hearts back to God. We ned a time to cry together that we need God’s mercy.

  Even if we want to pretend that we don’t know our transgressions, want to pretend that there aren’t consequences, we know they exist. We need a time to let them come to the surface in order to be cleaned out.

What happens when you ignore sin in your life?

Prayer: Almighty God, we know in our hearts that we cannot ignore our sin, yet we try so hard to anyway. We know that we cannot run from your presence, yet so often we try to hide, like Adam and Eve, from the wrong we have done. Free us to stand before you and confess our sin, so we can fine the assurance of your pardon, O Lord. Amen.  

Friday: “SacrificeAcceptable to God” - Psalm 51: 15-19

As we come to God today, what do you need to confess? What do you need to ask God to cleanse from you? What sin needs to come to the surface so God can blot it out? But as we come, we don’t just confess - we repent - asking God to change us. And we don’t just repent but we also seek reconciliation in our relationship with God and with others. We seek to be renewed and made new in the love and mercy and grace of our Lord. Let us bring ourselves during the entire season of Lent, as a sacrifice for our Lord, who gives us victory over the power of sin. 

What unconfessed sin do you need to bring before God today?

Prayer: God, we want to present our very selves as a sacrifice that is pleasing in your sight. Free us from the tangle of sin. Send us forth to proclaim what you have done for us. Amen. Amen. Amen.

Saturday: Preparing for the Word

You are invited to read and pray this week’s text and topic to prepare for worship: “Honesty” - Matthew 5: 43-48 and Matthew 7: 1-6. 

Sabbath. Study. Serve.

Sabbath, Study, Serve 

Taking the Sermon Into Our Week 

Scripture of the Week: Psalm 51

From the Sermon:

When we know that we have acted in a way that is contrary to the ___________, instead of examining our own hearts and asking for God’s forgiveness, we start to look around and draw attention away from ourselves in any way that we can, towards what we perceive to be the sin of someone else.

We need a space in our lives for __________________.

The truth is we cannot confess that which we do not ______.

In order to place ourselves in an attitude of self-examination we need to realize three things.

1.

2.

3.

Reflection:

Something I would like to confess today is…..

Prayer:

Lord, you see into our hearts and know, O Lord, our intentions. We comes before you today and ask that you forgive us for our sins. Free us from that which we are confessing. We pray in Jesus’s name. Amen. 

Forgiveness - Luke 15: 11-32

In the Gospel of Luke we find a parable that Jesus tells that is often coined “The Parable of the Prodigal Son” and it tells the story of a son that sinned more then we could ever imagine, but when he left that life behind, broken, to return home that he was greatly celebrated. Such a celebration is waiting for us. We leave behind burdens to find great joy. We confess our sin and we find hope in the future, and hope in the present. For we can be changed on this earth and we are also changed in eternity. 

Brothers and sisters, leaving our sin at the foot of the cross is both the easiest and hardest thing that we will ever do. It is easy when we can no longer deal with our sin. No longer run from it. And know that there is no other place to take it. But its difficult because it requires trusting that God wants to do a new thing in our lives. It takes courage to truly let go of the past and not look back. And we may have to drop off our trash several times, because we keep going back and picking up bits and pieces not fully trusting in God. But Jesus was serious when he asked to take our suffering, our burdens, our sin. And there is a new life waiting for us when we fully let go, just as it was waiting in the arms of the father, upon the return on his son. 

Forgiveness Devo - Luke 15: 11-32

March 10th, 2019

Devotional

“Forgiveness” - Luke 15: 11-32

Keep the sermon topic and Biblical text preaching all week by following Pastor Michelle on twitter @tinypastor and reading her sermon blog www.revmichelle.blogspot.com

Monday: “The Parable” - Luke 15: 11-32

  How many of us have heard the parable of the prodigal son before? How many of us remember when Jesus told this story? Not as many. This story takes place after Jesus is having yet another run in with the pharisees about his table practices. The religious leaders accused Jesus of eating with sinners - and this parable was his response.

  The parable of the prodigal son is one that we have probably engaged countless times - in devotions, Sunday School, and sermons. I know I have over the years. But the story keeps speaking. Keeps inviting us in. When I was in college, chapel attendance was required. After years of chapel services three times a week they would seem to blend together after a while, but I still remember a series where the preacher looked at this parable three separate days from different perspectives - the father, the older son, and the younger son. I have a colleague who once preached this sermon to college students from the perspective of the pig farmer who hired the younger son, and that stuck with me as well.

This parable is powerful because it invites us to examine our lives from different perspectives and check in on our relationship with ourself, others, and God. To the ancient hearer before we even get into the part of the story that we so often like to celebrate in church, about the younger son returning how, they would have been shocked. Shocked at the younger son’s crass request. Shocked that the older son looked on and said nothing. Shocked that the father actually gave the son his inheritance early without a word!

What continues to surprise you about this parable?

Prayer: God, invite us into this parable anew this week we pray. Open up our hearts to receive what you may have for us, and invite us to examine our own lives through it, all for your honor and glory. Amen. 

Tuesday: “Inheritance” - Luke 15: 11-14

  I have questions about the Prodigal Son, identified in today’s Scripture as simply the younger son. Did he know what he was doing when he told his father, while he was still living, to give him the property that belonged to him. Did he realize how rude he was being? That he was essentially saying ‘I don’t want to wait until you’ve died to get what’s coming to me’? It’s a dishonorable request in any day and time. 

Then the younger son wanted an adventure. He liquidated the property he was given and spent the money in any way imaginable. He traveled far away and spent the money on “dissolute living” until the famine came. Until he realized that he didn’t have a plan or any money. Or a family. It was fun while it lasted but now the fun was over. 

Tell of a time when you did not think through the consequences of your actions. How did it hurt other people or God?

Prayer: God, we confess that we are a fickle people. Our impatience often results in us trampling on the feelings of other people and rushing into sin, even if we do not realize it at the time. Forgive us, O Lord. Help us to seek to do good and do no harm in all that we do and say. Amen.

Wednesday: “Famine” - Luke 15: 15-21

The famine hits and the younger son is left in the most uncomfortable position - penniless, working with pigs, which would have been unheard of at the time, as the listeners to Jesus would have considered them unclean. This was rock bottom. And as often comes with rock bottom, clarity starts to emerge. The younger son thinks that even the hired help at his father's house has it better than this - so he needs to go back home and beg for a job. Not beg to be reinstated as a son, but beg to simply be the hired help. 

What does rock bottom look like for us brothers and sisters? What causes us to realize that we’ve screwed up and strayed from God? What makes us go back into the arms of God’s grace?

What are the things in your life that have called you back to God?

Prayer: Almighty God, we thank you for both the peaks and valleys in our lives and the knowledge in our hearts that you never leave us nor forsake us. Even when we wonder off, you invite us back, continually. Use ever moment in our lives to connect us to your grace, truth, and love we pray. Amen. 

Thursday: “Home” - Luke 15: 22-24

Priest and author Henri Nouwen in his book The Return of the Prodigal Son, says that so often we focus on this story from the perspective of the younger son and how he screwed up (maybe because we can identify with that as people who go astray), but really at the heart of this parable is the message of a forgiving and loving God the welcomes us back in ways far better than we deserve.

For as the younger son approached home the father came running out to him. He showed acts of reconciliation, offering to the son fine robes and rings and sandals. He even threw the younger son a party because he was so overjoyed! 

How do you celebrate when people who once were lost become found?

Prayer: God, thank you for seeking after us, even when we stray. May we join in the Heavenly celebration when people come to know you as Lord and Savior and come home! Amen! Amen! Amen!

Friday: “Older Son” - Luke 15: 25-32

  This Parable was told by Jesus when he was charged with fellowshipping around the table, partying if you will, with those that the Pharisees deemed to be sinners. Do you get what Jesus was trying to say? That it’s not for us to judge who is beyond God’s forgiveness and grace. It is not for us to judge who is welcomed into the Kingdom of God. The Pharisees were acting as if they had been snubbed because Jesus was eating with the sinners instead of them, as if the presence of those they didn’t like kept them from being at the table. But the truth is, God gives us all more than we deserve. God welcomes us back, if we have a repentant heart. God let’s us start anew, seeking after a purity of heart, and God rejoices in that. Let us rejoice too, when the lost ones, including our very selves, come home to the family of God. 

Who do you identify with most in this parable? Why?

Prayer: God, break open our heard hearts when we act like the older son. Allow your grace to seep into us and transform us - transform the way we see others. Let us seek after your heart, anew, we pray. Amen. 

Saturday: Preparing for the Word

You are invited to read and pray this week’s text and topic to prepare for worship: “Self-Examination” - Psalm 51 and Psalm 139. 

Sabbath. Study. Serve.

Sabbath, Study, Serve 

Taking the Sermon Into Our Week 

Scripture of the Week: Luke 15: 11-32

From the Sermon:

For the life, death, and resurrection of Christ all point out that we are broken people in need of ______________,  forgiveness that can only be offered by a Savior. 

This young man would have been considered one who had_________ more than anyone could have ever imagined.

 The older son also needs forgiven, for he had a ______________.

We, too, are in need of forgiveness for there are so many ways that we alienate ourselves from _______ and from _________.

The starting point of all forgiveness isn’t us - it’s _________.

Reflection Questions:

What are you in need of forgiveness for this day? Take it to the foot of the cross. What is weighing as a burden on your heart? Hand it to Jesus.

Prayer:

God, we confess that often we make a list in our head, not of what we need to be forgiven of, but rather why we aren’t as bad as someone else. We confess that this distorts us from the truth - that we are all sinners in need of your grace. Forgive us we pray. Amen. 

Nahum 2: 1-13: The Justice of God

         Justice. When I say this word, what is the first thing that comes to your mind? For me, it’s Judge Judy. A beacon of the court system, who has no time for those who don’t follow the rules or those who try to exploit the system, she is tough, but fair. But God is not Judge Judy.

God’s sense of justice extends well beyond our limited view of justice through the human court system. Our sense of justice is in order to do what is best for us – justice may involve separating some people from others, or enforcing fines in an attempt to get people to follow the rules.  But our sense of justice is also tainted – sometimes the justice system is actually unjust. But God’s sense of justice is not about what is good for God; it is about what is good for those whom God loves. 

         God’s sense of justice does not  come from making sure that everything is fair or right, but out of God’s deep sense of love for us. Jesus cried out in our defense, and God forgave us! When we recognize our sin and confess it, Jesus again cries out to God to forgive us, for we cannot comprehend what we are doing. Cannot fully imagine that we are hurting God, ourselves, and others. He continually asks God to forgive us, if only we would ask Christ to forgive us our sins. 

As Christ has sought justice for us, we are seekers of justice for others. We may not be able to have the same kind of justice that doesn’t make everything fair or even, but clean, but we can at least strive to love people in this world. In the book of the prophet Amos, we read that God commanded that justice flow down like a river and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream. (Amos 5:24) Or as another translation puts it, a flood of justice and an endless river of righteous living. The phrase that used to describe followers of Christ who try to seek to live justly on this earth is “social justice” or “peace with justice.” While we may not be able to eliminate the wrongs in this world, we can try to correct them and see those often mistreated in society with the eyes of Christ. 

       Remember, seeking justice is not always popular because it forces us to examine our own shortcomings and continually reclaim God’s loving justice in our lives. It also makes us face how we have not been a good neighbor to others, and puts us into relationship with those whom our path may never cross otherwise. 

What does it look like to claim God's justice in our lives? How can we seek justice on the behalf of the forgotten, ignored, and oppressed? And how can we remember that God's justice covers all?