When Justice Rolls

"...With liberty and justice for all." Perhaps our founding fathers and the writer of the Pledge of Allegiance spent some time reading Amos. Maybe these men spent some time reading Matthew 25. Perhaps we, the evangelical church in America today, would find that revival would come if-- among other factors-- we better understood and applied the over 2,100 Biblical references mentioning poverty.

Concepts like "liberty and justice for all" are not human-inspired. God created the idea and God is still waiting for us to believe in it. I know that the evangelical church in America is changing lives by the hour with the saving news of Jesus Christ. I know that this same church contains the most charitable people and sacrificial givers. I believe the tide of the new generation being raised in the church will bring us closer to the goal of "justice for all." But I also know that God will not leave us with an excuse when we come before Him and try to explain why we stopped so short of bringing justice to the poor and needy.

The Son of Man will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left....Then the King will say to those on his left, "Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me." They also will answer, "Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?" He will reply, "I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me." Then they will go away into eternal punishment... (Matthew 25: 33, 41-46)

Similarly, God (through Amos) repeatedly warns Israel what would befall them because they continued to trample the poor. The book of Amos begins with the condemnation of the Gentile nations around Israel. Their sins were immense and horrendous, including atrocities such as oppression to the point of many deaths of Israelites in threshing teeth; selling Israelites into slavery; and ripping open pregnant women.

After the condemnations and prescribed punishments for such lewdness of the Gentile nations, God turns the focus to His own people, Israel. We must remember that God holds Abraham's seed-- of which the evangelical American church is an adopted heir-- to higher standards: "From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked" (Luke 12:48).

What could God's foremost grievance against His people be? If God has a grievance against us, it would behoove us to listen up! Pay attention! Israel, church of America, my followers: "[You] sell the righteous for silver, and the needy for a pair of sandals. [You] trample on the heads of the poor as upon the dust of the ground and deny justice to the oppressed" (Amos 2:6-7).

It seems God could say today, "My church in America, a country I have blessed since its inception, a land I have made fruitful, and land with so much abundance, why are there poor among you? Why are the oppressed not brought justice? Why are you hoarding my blessings? Take a look among you and your blessings, then see the great need around you and in the rest of the world."

• More than 1 billion people live on less than $1 per day
• A child dies every 3 seconds from AIDS and/or extreme poverty
• Sub-Sahara Africa spends $14.5 billion repaying debts to the world's richest countries and institutions, many spending more each year on debt repayment than on health care or education
• The worldwide number of orphans is 132.7 million
• (www.worldvision.org/about_us.nsf/child/enews_aids_200610?Open&lid=orphans) (one.org/issues and one.org/aids)

The old adage, the rich get richer and the poor get poorer, applies to America today, just as it applied to Israel in Amos's day. Compared to the rest of the world, we who live in the United States are the rich-- even the poorest among us. We are a giving people, a charitable people. The church in America has done incredible things with God's inspiration and power to help the poor, the needy, the orphan and the widow. Yea church!

But we run the risk of giving to charity, being charitable, then wallowing in our complacency: "Woe to you who are complacent in Zion..." (Amos 6:1). We have not come close to finishing the job. Part of our apathy and complacency may be due to a large misunderstanding. Everyone likes to feel good by charitable giving: in fact, it is rewarded by tax breaks. But what if charity is not the issue?

This [reaching out to the poor and AIDS-inflicted people in Africa] is not about charity in the end, is it? It's about justice.... And that's too bad. Because we're good at charity....But justice is a higher standard. Africa makes a fool of our idea of justice; it makes a farce of our idea of equality. It mocks our pieties; it doubts our concern, and it questions our committment...This is not about charity: This is about Justice and Equality. (Bono. Bono: Keynote Address at the 54th National Prayer Breakfast)

We have substituted the word "charity" for "justice". These are vastly different words with vastly different connotations. Amos lamented against injustice, how we trample the poor, turning "justice into poison" (Amos 6:12) and "deprive the poor of justice in the courts" (Amos 5:12). Charity involves little responsibility: justice requires much of us.

The concept of justice in America is linked to equality-- everyone should have equal opportunity and all are as valuable as you. God's standard is much higher than this: "Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves" (Philippians 2:3).That which God asks is that another's justice is more important than me feeling justified. This statement is a far cry from the trampling of the poor and needy to which we are getting dangerously accustomed.

Trampling the poor, oppressing the needy, neglecting the widow and orphan are acts of disobedience to God. Our disobedience leads to God's judgment of wrath upon us, His rejection of our sacrifices and offerings, even his not listening to our songs and prayers, according to Amos 5.

But what effect would delivering justice to the poor and oppressed, as God has commanded, have on the evangelical church in America, if we let "justice roll on like a river, [and] righteousness like a never-failing stream" (Amos 5:24)?

Revival. God's continued blessing. An acceptance of our sacrifices and offerings. God's ear turned to our prayers and hymns. Eternity with the King.

When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his throne in heavenly glory. All the nations will be gathered before him and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separated the sheep from the goats. He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left. Then the King will say to those on his right, "Come you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me somthing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me someting to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.

Then the righteous will answer him, "Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?"

The King will reply, "I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me" (Matthew 25:31-40)

Breath of Heaven

Breath of heaven, hold me together; Be forever near me, Breath of Heaven. Breath of heaven, lighten my darkness; Pour over me your holiness, for you are holy. Breath of heaven.

This was my Christmas anthem my freshman year of college, half a lifetime ago. I would wander Minneapolis through the night with this song playing and replaying on my Walkman. Careless and dangerous, yes, but it was invited danger.
Hold me together. My life was torn apart and thrown to the wind. I felt no bearing anymore and didn't think I cared.
Be forever near me? My questions were: Where have you been God and where are you now? Do you even love me? Do you even know? How could you love me?
Lighten my darkness. I had plunged headlong into the great darkness of my life. The great darkness of evil. The great darkness of sin. I had stopped stumbling around in it. Instead, in the darkness, I just fell and waited. I was waiting for someone to even notice my darkness and my defeat. My cries in the night seemed to freeze in the winter chill; my pleas stifled by season's snow. God knows that I was waiting for a Savior, my Savior, the God of my youth.

My reflections have me wondering how many freshman-year "Julie's" surround us in 2010? My Savior, of course, always loved me and was there for me through the bewildering dark. Most people do not have this hope this Christmas. I need to be the one who notices someone else's darkness that Jesus may shine His light on them through me. Watch and pray for opportunities to introduce someone to their long-awaited Savior, the Messiah, Jesus Christ.

Come, thou long expected Jesus, born to set thy people free; From our fears and sins release us, let us find our rest in thee.

Writing in Charcoal (eyeliner)

My lips unclean, my best works filth
I cannot summon any worth
I am undone, I shield my eyes
A beggar's stance-- my own demise
Sin my death, a long, dark road
Depraved and base, no place for home
The shadows fall, familiar veil
Torn assunder, death will prevail

A blinding light shines on the lost
The only hope, a tattered cross
The scales fall off my eyes to see
The King of Glory died for me
I die to sin, die to self
To gain a piece of heavenly wealth
His righteousness alone I need
Jesus shed the blood for me

His risen glory at the throne
To plead my case and to atone
His righteousness alone I need
I rise again, fall at His feet

What God are You Worshiping?

I have come to the realization lately that I am not worshiping the same God I was 5 years ago. 5 years ago, I was worshiping the God of "Small Miracles Through Coincidence", the God of "He Can Heal, But Will He?", the God of "He Doesn't Need Me to Do Anything (But Maybe Just a Little Bit)". With God's grace, I now worship:

The God of Abraham, who made him a father while it was deemed humanly impossible, made him the father of many nations, who provided a ram

The God of Isaac, who made covenant through his line, who remains faithful to his descendants, who gave him his heart's desire

The God of David, who slaughtered the giant (because, stealing from Max Frazier, David's God was at LEAST 9'10"), who crowned a shepherd boy king, who called David a man after His own heart even though this same man had committed adultery and murder

The God of Peter, who chose him, who was patient with the impetuous temperment, who forgave a traitor, who gifted the ordinary, who fellowshipped in suffering

The God of Paul, who loved a murderer, transformed a sinner, strengthened him in need, blessed him with His Spirit

I could go on, but I would rather that you would leave comments to add to the list. Please, "COMMENT" away! (please.)

An Inconvenient Truth

Truth must be objective or it is not truth. Call it anything else you want, but not truth. Truth is reserved for objective reality, no matter our feelings or opinions on the matter. That is how we have perverted the gospel message-- by changing the objective truth of the gospel into a subjective reality, defined by our inner being, added to by our experiences and feelings. Truth can either rejected or accepted: perhaps you find that inconvenient.

The inconvenient truth is not that global warming is... warming the globe. The real inconvenient truth is that we-- you, I and everyone else-- are sinners and there is absolutely nothing we can do about it. The inconvenient truth is that we are desitned to and for hell. Yes, hell is an objective truth because the Bible tells us so. It is not a subjective imagining nor analogy nor metaphor. The worst of the inconvenient truth is that God is ready to pour out His wrath upon sinners, those who are not absolutely perfect.  (Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell. Matthew 10:28 and Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect. Matthew 5:28).

Even more inconvenient is what God declares in Isaiah 64.6: All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away. Even Mother Theresa's countless good deeds were presented to God as "filthy rags", literally, "used menstrual cloths".

Replace "All" with "I" in the following familiar passage (since "I" is a part of "all"): I have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Paul goes on to explain that "The wages of sin is death..." (Romans 3:23 and 6:23)

DEATH. Can you imagine death's pronouncement to Adam in the garden: From dust you were made, to dust you shall return.? Death, hell, eternal damnation and separation from God-- this is what we are born into: now that is inconvenient.

For the wages of sin is death but...


For the wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life in Jesus Christ our Lord.

And that, friends, is the greatest truth. Since there is nothing we can do to make ourselves perfect before Perfection Himself, no way to satisfy His righteous wrath, God sent His son as a gift to us who are perishing.
Christ's completed work on the cross is an objective truth that you can accept or reject.

Since Jesus was perfect and sacrificed Himself, the full atonement means that He covers us. Therefore, when God judges us, He will not see our depraved state of sin and works that are imperfect. He will see Christ, our once for all atonement. Salvation is a gift only God can and did give. The awesome message of the cross will either offend and turn away people or, for those who accept it, turn people into disciples-- followers-- of Christ. For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God (I Corinthians 1:14).
 We do not decide on our salvation: Christ already provided it. Based upon how we act upon that truth, our decision will be whether to be a disciple of Christ or not. So, on the last day, when you approach the judgment throne before God Almighty, will you present to Him the inconvenient truth of sin, depravity, wretchedness and works or will you present to Him Christ, the greatest truth?

The Miracle of Suffering

Hebrews 2:9-10
But we see him who for a little while was made lower than the angels, namely Jesus, crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone. For it was fitting that he, for whom and by whom all things exist, in bringing many sons to glory, should make the founder of their salvation perfect through suffering.

Most of the time I have hurried past the cross to run to the empty tomb. I have seen the resurrection as the greatest miracle of all. I no longer believe it is; perhaps it is the second greatest. That the Great I Am, the Author of Life, raised Jesus (Himself) from the dead is a miracle, but it is no trick for God to put life into lifelessness. He spoke creation into being.

Jesus' absolute humility on the cross is the miracle that can never be topped. Miraculous enough was His agreement to become man. He made Himself a little lower than the angels (Hebrews 2:7). But He was made perfect in suffering. He atoned for our sin once for all by becoming sin: He is the Passover Lamb, our scapegoat. And it was His choice. The greatest miracle.


Jesus' suffering conquered evil. 

Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery (Hebrews 2: 14-15).

Jesus' suffering set us free from fear, from death, from sin, from ourselves, from God's wrath.  

It has been in my own suffering that I have drawn close to God.  ...we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope.  And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us (Romans 5:3-4).


God gives the strength to rejoice in our sufferings as He draws us closer to Himself. The apostles knew fellowship with Jesus through their suffering:

They called the apostles in and had them flogged. Then they ordered them not to speak in the name of Jesus, and let them go. The apostles left the Sanhedrin, rejoicing because they had been counted worthy of suffering disgrace for the Name.  Day after day, in the temple courts and from house to house, they never stopped teaching and proclaiming the good news that Jesus is the Christ.  Acts 5:40-42

Notice to what means was their suffering, however: "for the Name." When by sin or circumstance we suffer, we are not promised to draw nearer to God through fellowship in suffering with Jesus. Jesus' suffering had a point. He was the founder of salvation made perfect by death. The founder of salvation, "...through death...destroy[ed] the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver[ed] all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery (see my earlier Hebrews references).

Like their Master, the apostles suffering was not in vain or for self-gain. They were excited--ecstatic, if you will--to "suffer disgrace for the Name", namely Jesus.  This can only be possible through the transformative work and filling of the Holy Spirit, for I believe God, in Triune, is the only one who could provide rejoicing in suffering.

God is the only one who could provide His greatest miracle by nailing Himself to a cross. Is the Jesus that hung on a cross and miraculously resurrected after His death worthy of our suffering? By the grace and strength of the Holy Spirit, let us pray that is it so.

The Indictment of the Sadducees

Jesus said to them, "Is this not the reason you are wrong, because you know neither the Scriptures nor the power of God?"  Mark 12:24

Is this not the same indictment that could be leveled at the church today? At me? At you?

The Sadducees attempted to use the law-- the very law God established, to entrap Jesus, author of the law. How foolish! They proof-texted Scripture for their ruse: they tried to use the law to prove that the idea of the resurrection does not coincide.

We, in the church today, have become masters of proof-texting. That is to say that we have our opinions and, in order to pass these off as Biblical, we pick out Scriptures to "prove" our opinions are correct or true.

How about finding truth by studying the Word of God in its entirety and then forming-- not opinions-- but convictions according to the will and purpose of God? But many are not up to studying and seeking out the Bible to find out His purpose. In the course of our call to be Christ-followers, some are still in pre-school, not past the elementary principles of the faith.

Christianity 101 is supposed to be a fairly short course, but some Christians have made it into a lifelong event. The exasperation of the writer of Hebrews is evident, as he penned:

"....by this time you ought to be teachers, [yet] you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food, for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child....Therefore let us leave the elementary doctrine of Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God..." (5:11-13-6:1)

 Biblical illiteracy leads to an immature understanding of who God is and the power of God. "You do not know the power of God." Often neglected by Christians, the Old Testament is a power-filled work on the power of God. If you contemplate the pages, it does not take long to sit, kneel, stand or fall down in awe of our mighty, powerful God. This obviously holds true into the New Testament, but you cannot understand the New without the study of the Old.

"...have you not read in the book of Moses, in the passage about the bush, how God spoke to him, saying, 'I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob'? He is not God of the dead, but of the living. You are quite wrong" (Mark 12:26-27)

Don't stay wrong. Read, study, digest the Word of God and you will also learn of His power and how He wants to work through the Holy Spirit. It is time to move past Christianity 101, past infancy to solid food.

"...solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil" (Hebrews 5:14).