“The Master will say, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant.  You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much.  Enter into the joy of your master (Matt 25:23).’

Commenting on this passage, Dallas Willard writes, ‘That ‘joy’ is, of course, the creation and care of what is good, in all its dimensions.  A place in God’s creative order has been reserved for each one of us from before the beginnings of cosmic existence.  His plan is for us to develop, as apprentices of Jesus, to the point where we can take our place in the ongoing creativity of the universe.’

God is grooming us for leadership.  He’s watching to see how we demonstrate our faithfulness.  He does that through his apprenticeship program, one that prepares us for Heaven.  Christ is not simply preparing a place for us; he is preparing us for that place…

We’ve been conditioned to associate governing with self-promoting arrogance, corruption, inequality, and inefficiency.  But these are perversions, not inherent properties of leadership.  Ruling involves responsibility – perhaps that’s why some people don’t look forward to it.  Some people live in anticipation of retirement, when responsibilities will be removed.  Why would they want to take on an eternal task of governing?  But what they think they want now and what they’ll really want as resurrected beings – with strong bodies and minds in a society untouched by sin – may be quite different…

Of course, not all positions of responsibility over others involve people.  Adam and Eve governed animals before there were any other people.  Some of us may be granted the privilege of caring for animals.  Perhaps some will care for forests.  Ruling will likely involve the management of all of God’s creation, not just people.

Some of the most qualified people to lead in Heaven will be those who don’t want to lead now.  Some who are natural leaders here but have not been faithful will not be leaders in Heaven.  Remember, it’s not the proud and confident who will inherit the earth and rule it; it’s the meek (Matt 5:5).  And even the meek will be stripped of their wrong motives and the temptation to exploit others…

Many people have told me they’re uncomfortable with the idea that mankind will rule the earth, govern cities, and reign forever.  It sounds presumptuous and self-important.  I would agree – if it was our idea to reign over the universe, it would indeed be presumptuous.  But it was not our idea, it was God’s.  And it is not a minor or peripheral doctrine; it’s at the very heart of Scripture…

[God insists] that He alone will establish a perfect government on Earth.  When have we ever experienced the ‘peace on Earth’ promised at Christ’s birth?  We haven’t yet, but we will:

‘Rejoice greatly, O Daughter of Zion!  Shout, Daughter of Jerusalem!  See, your king comes to you, righteous and having salvation, gentle and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.  I will take away the chariots from Ephraim and the war-horses from Jerusalem, and the battle bow will be broken.  He will proclaim peace to the nations.  His rule will extend from sea to sea and from the River to the ends of the earth.  (Zech. 9:9-10)

‘In faithfulness he will bring forth justice; he will not falter or be discouraged till he establishes justice on earth.  In his law the islands will put their hope.  (Isaiah 42:3b-4)

‘Behold, I will create a new heavens and a new earth.  The former things will not be remembered…the sound of weeping and of crying will be heard no more…For as the days of a tree, so will be the days of my people; my chosen ones will long enjoy the works of their hands…Before they call I will answer; while they are still speaking I will hear.  The wolf and the lamb will feed together, and the lion will eat straw like th eox, but the dust will be the serpant’s food.  They will neither harm nor destroy on all my holy mountain,’ says the LORD (Isaiah 65:17, 19b, 22b, 24-25).

Jesus said, ‘I confer on you a kingdom, just as my Father conferred one on me, so that you may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom and sit on thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel’ (Luke 22:29-30).

God’s purpose and plan will not fully be achieved until Christ confers upon us the Kingdom he has won.  This will take place after our bodily resurrection, when we will eat and drink at a table with the resurrected Christ on a resurrected Earth.  That this is an actual rule on a physical, earthly kingdom, not a ‘spiritual’ rule in a disembodied state, is demonstrated by the references to our eating and drinking at a table with Christ.”

Alcorn, Heaven pages 220-223

https://www.intentionalkingdomliving.com/416/

Oh my.

You may not believe this, but one of my main “countries” in the personality flag page is Peace. 

I know, it may not seem like it.  But I actually really, really dislike conflict.  It makes my stomach churn.  I really want everyone to love each other and, more specifically, to love me.

A close friend said something the other day that kind of put it in words, “You have the ability to make people feel like they really know you well.  Even though they may only know the first few layers of you.”

I’ve pondered that lots.  I don’t mean to ever be inauthentic.  And some of that is just different levels of relational intimacy.  But my point is, ask some of my good friends and I think they’d back me up: I’m concerned about peace, about hurting others, about relationships.

There.

Now. 

All that said, I’m going to link to two potentially volatile blog posts.  Not because I want to hurt anyone or stir any pot.  But because I feel so driven to spread the second message.

If you’re on Facebook, you might have seen the post “FYI (if you’re a teenage girl).”  She talks about raising three teenage boys and their rules for online exposure.  If you haven’t read it, it’s worth the read.  Lots of good points.

It is here:  http://givenbreath.com/2013/09/03/fyi-if-youre-a-teenage-girl/

I read it, nodded along with some of her points, and then felt…unsettled.  So I was interested when a friend on Facebook posted similar sentiments and said the following blog nailed what had bothered her about the post.

Here is the blog that responds to the previous post: http://putdowntheurinalcake.com/2013/09/dear-mrs-hall-regarding-your-fyi-if-youre-a-teenage-girl/

If you have time, they’re both worth the read and both have such excellent points.

But if you don’t have time, let me just say the point I’m most driven to put on this silly blog is the final one:

Second blogger writes, “The last issue I had with your letter was on the subject of second chances. “And so, in our house,” you wrote, “there are no second chances, ladies. If you want to stay friendly with the Hall men, you’ll have to keep your clothes on, and your posts decent.  If you try to post a sexy selfie, or an inappropriate YouTube video – even once – you’ll be booted off our on-line island.” 

And I guess, to be completely honest here, the reason this made me so sad is because I’m someone who needed a second chance as a young woman. And a third chance. And a fourth chance. Infinity chances, really. The difference then, of course, was there was no social media to check. Or ways for my insecurity, my disrespect of myself, my questioning, my doubts, my wandering, my desperate search to find myself, to find value, to find meaning… to be part of the permanent record.”

Um…yes.  And I’m still needing infinity chances.  I think we all are. She said the message she wants her daughter to internalize is this:

“We see you, sweetheart. We do. We see what you’re writing. We see what you’re posting. We see more of you than you think we do. We see sometimes down to the very center of your soul. And what you need to know is this: You are beautiful. You are valuable. You are worthy. You are your physical body, and you are so very much more. And you, baby girl, have infinite chances for grace and redemption and relationship and community and wholeness and LOVE. Always. Always and forever. Amen.”

Oh, what does that do to your heart?  I want to bawl like a baby just re-reading that.  And that’s the message our team wants to send to the women we reach out to.  We want to be “seventy times seven” forgivers and lovers.  Not just of them, but of our community, our families, our co-workers, our neighbors, ourselves. 

God has made me put my money where my mouth is on this issue over the last five years.  A dear friend of mine has made bad choice after bad choice because of some unhealed, deep wounds in her soul.  And each time He’s asked me to not give up on her.  To not judge her.  To love her right where she is at without condoning her behavior.  It’s like He wanted to see me be faithful with one of His precious creations before He sent me in to love on forty of His precious creations.  I pray I will be found faithful.

Now.  Please know, as a mama of two boys, I know the message of purity will come up.  And most definitely the issue of online accountability and honor will come up.  And maybe I’m not qualified to talk about all this because we haven’t reached that age yet.  But I do know one thing for sure.  I want our sons, when they are young men, to be able to look a young woman in the eye who is seeking attention in a sexual way and say with utmost tenderness and sincerity,

“You don’t have to do this.  You are loved just for who you are.  I can tell you all about Him and a group of people who seek to live like Him.” 

(And he could also probably say, “And my mom would love to mentor you if you’re available.”  Smile.)

Yes, I know – at least intellectually – what temptations he will be facing when he would have a conversation like that. 

But if all the young men who are being raised to have a higher standard for purity ignore girls like her (girls like me) who will be left to tell her the truth?  As a young man?  Because, see, she can hear it from older women or female peers who may be trying to reach out to her, but come on.  The attention she is seeking is male.  And a male needs to be bold enough to show her love with good boundaries.  She might possibly hear it from him.  Especially if she sees there are no strings attached in his befriending her.

I have a fear.  It may be irrational.  It definitely doesn’t seem on the horizon any time soon.  But here it is:

What if God opens the floodgates and a sea of women who work in the sex industry flow into our churches?  Not after they’ve cleaned up their act, but just as they are?

Are we ready?  Is the fight for purity going to be used in their favor?  To reach out to them?  Or will they feel too different?  Ignored?  Like God-fearing men couldn’t possibly befriend them because they are one of “those women”? 

And what if they flirt?  What if they dress in a way that’s inappropriate?  (My friend was kicked out of a church as a teenager when she was visiting family in another town because she had a shirt on that showed her midriff.  She had to wait in the car until the service was over.)

I really do wonder. 

I personally know plenty of men in churches – my church and others – who I don’t doubt for a second.  I’m not saying they won’t have to guard their minds and hearts.  I’m saying I know they are up for the battle because they know God will use them in the women’s healing journey if they are faithful.  The women will need older men who will show them safe, fatherly love.  They will need men who are their peers to show them safe, brotherly love. 

And I know many men who would do that with honor and integrity.

I know trust is earned.  I know protecting our community is important.  I know we need to set a higher standard.  But may we also be known for love.  For grace.  For patience. 

Jesus, please help us see ourselves clearly.  Help us know how to protect our sons and raise our daughters.  And help us also know how to love a lost world and walk them through finding freedom in You.  We are people of Second Chances.  Oh, praise You that we are!  We’re all goners without that hope.  May that kind of love flow from us daily.

We love You. 

https://www.intentionalkingdomliving.com/418/

Some of the most interesting concepts in Alcorn’s two books were about what we’ll do in heaven. 

As in, no, we don’t just sit on clouds playing harps.

It is much, much more exciting than that:

“Heaven will offer much-needed rest to the weary (Rev 14:13).  But rest renews us, revitalizes us to become active again.  Heaven will offer refreshing activity, productive and unthwarted – like Adam and Eve’s work in Eden before sin brought the curse on the ground.

In heaven, we’re told, ‘his servants will serve him’ (Rev 22:3).  This means we’ll be active, because to ‘serve’ means to work, to expend effort, to do something.  Service involves responsibilities, duties, effort, planning, and creativity to do work well.

We’ll lead and exercise authority in heaven, making important decisions.  We’ll reign with Christ (2 Timothy 2:12; Rev 3:21), not temporarily but ‘for ever and ever’ (Rev 22:5).  ‘Reigning’ implies specific delegated responsibilities for those under our leadership (Luke 19:17-19).  We’ll rule over the world and even over angels (1 Cor 6:2-3).”

Alcorn, pgs. 114, 115

I think of C.S. Lewis’ The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe when, at the end, the children rule as kings and queens of Narnia: King Peter the Magnificent, Queen Susan the Gentle, King Edmund the Just, and Queen Lucy the Valiant.

It’s a beautiful picture, but one we often don’t imagine of our lives in heaven.  Us rule?  When we’re in the presence of the Great Ruler? 

Says Alcorn, “Prior to Christ’s return, his Kingdom will be intermingled with the world’s cultures (Matt 13:24-30).  But his followers will be growing in character and proving their readiness to rule.  Through adversity and opportunity, as well as in their artistic and cultural accomplishments, they will be groomed for their leadership roles in Christ’s eternal Kingdom.  Their society-transforming creative skills will be put on prominent display in the new universe, where they will ‘shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father’ (Matt 13:43).

I can’t tell you how much more this motivates me to work on Christ-like character and servant leadership qualities!  If I’m just working on them to feel good about myself, I’ll get bored faster than fast.  Even if I’m working on them to better serve people I love, I’ve gotta be honest: I’m just selfish enough for that to motivate me only so far in this journey.  But if my character is being grown to rule for all eternity, I want in on that!  I want to hear, “Well done, good and faithful servant.  You have been faithful with a few things, I’ll put you in charge of many things.  Come and share in your Master’s happiness.”

Does that sound too selfish?  I don’t know.  Seems like God really wants us to be hedonistic in desiring Him and His ways (see also…well, anything written by John Piper).  It would be weird to command us to store up treasures in heaven if there won’t be any treasures in heaven to enjoy.  Or if we’re expected to not enjoy the ones we’ve stored up cause that seems too selfish.  It also seems silly for Paul to say, “If we endure, we will also reign with Him” (2 Tim 2:12) if we’re not supposed to want to reign with Him.

And let’s be honest.  The God Who didn’t spare His own Son for us isn’t interested in making us some kind of dictators.  He’s interested in fulfilling to perfection His original commission to Adam and Eve: “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it.  Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground” (Gen. 1:28).

How wonderful is that?  Doing that without sin or decay or bad motives or broken relationships?  In His presence for ever and ever?  On a New Earth with new bodies?

That’s motivation, even for someone as self-focused as I can be.

Do whatever You have to, Jesus, to transform us and prepare us for our eternal destiny.  Use us to change the eternal destiny of others.  We want to hear, “Well done.”  We want to store up treasures in heaven.  We want to love our neighbor as ourselves. 

We want to follow You because what else can we do when you have changed our lives?

You are worth it all.

https://www.intentionalkingdomliving.com/419/

“Every top athlete and athletic team has a coach.  In the world of athletics, nobody performs his way out of needing a coach.  In the world of leadership, however, we operate under the misguided assumption that because we are leaders, we don’t need to be led.  Once we are recognized for our ability to ‘perform,’ we think we don’t need outside input in order to enhance our performance.  Consequently, we measure our leadership against what others are doing rather than against our God-given potential.  And in the end we never become all we could have been…

Self-evaluation is helpful, but evaluation from someone else is essential.  You need a leadership coach.

We tend to measure ourselves against the people around us.  They become our point of reference.  A good coach will evaluate your performance against your potential…

Unlike a typical mentoring arrangement, a leadership coach doesn’t simply advise when asked.  A coach is going to be more proactive in his instruction and evaluation.  A coach is often on the scene watching rather than in an office waiting for a report.

In the world of athletics, the coach does not withhold his opinion until asked.  Neither does he sit back and watch his protégé make the same mistake over and over without saying something.  In the same way, a good leadership coach will do everything in his power to ensure progress…

Every follower is a volunteer.  Abuse your position as leader and you will lose those you lead.  Nobody has to follow.  You can’t force people, even subjects, to follow.  You might be able to force them into submission, but you can’t force them to become loyal followers…

When I make up my mind about something, I don’t really want anyone telling me it is not a good idea.  Every leader I know leans in that direction.  So God, in His wisdom, has placed men and women around us with the experience and discernment we often lack.

If we are wise enough to listen, they will help us go farther, faster.”

Andy Stanley, The Next Generation Leader

https://www.intentionalkingdomliving.com/420/

Short quote tonight.

Been thinking about heaven and relationships and love.

We had Caleb’s birthday party today.  He turns 3 on Wednesday, but we had family and friends over for a cookout today to celebrate.

Celebration.

“Will we know our loved ones in heaven?  Certainly.  We’ll know even those we didn’t know on earth, just as Peter, James and John recognized Moses and Elijah when they joined Jesus (Luke 9:28-33), though they could not have known what they looked like.  After entering heaven, the martyrs look down on earth and clearly remember their lives, fully aware of what’s happening there (Rev 6:9-11).  Heaven isn’t characterized by ignorance of events on earth but by perspective on them…

Heaven will be the home of relentless joy.  The greatest joy will be marrying our bridegroom, Jesus Christ.  If we love Christ, we long to be with him.  The next greatest joy will be reuniting with our departed loved ones.  I don’t like to be away from my family, but what keeps me going is the anticipation of reunion.  The longer the separation, the sweeter the reunion.  I haven’t seen my mom for twenty years, my childhood friend Jerry for nine years, my dad for five.  Some will be reunited with parents they’ve not seen for fifty years and with children lost long ago.  For Christians, death is never the end of a relationship but only an interruption to be followed by glorious reunion.”

– Alcorn, Money, Possessions and Eternity (pgs 114 and 115)

He quickly goes into our rewards in heaven as stewards of His resources on earth, going even deeper with the stewardship theme. 

But more on that another day.  Today I’m grateful for the community I have on earth and the one I will enjoy and get to know and play and work and learn and explore with for all eternity.

https://www.intentionalkingdomliving.com/421/

Uncanny timing:

“Spiritual leaders make two choices every time they make one decision.  First, they choose whether to rely on their own insights or on God’s wisdom in making their decision.  Their second choice is the conclusion they reach, or the action they take.  People don’t naturally do things God’s way, because people don’t think the way God does (Ps 118:8).

God doesn’t want people to do what they think is best: he wants them to do what he knows is best, and no amount of reasoning and intellectualizing will discover that.  God himself must reveal it…

Proverbs is peppered with safeguards against unwise decision making.  One of these safeguards is enlisting the aid of wise counsel.  The confirmation of other believers is the third way the Holy Spirit will guide leaders’ decision making…

Leaders should seek the best possible people to work with them and to advise them…They ought to be able to look at situations from a perspective different from the leader’s.  If, for example, a CEO is a rational, cognitive thinker who accepts guidance only from other rational, cognitive thinkers, they will consistently recommend the most logical direction for the company.  If, on the other hand, the leader also conscripts counselors who are emotional thinkers, the counselors will be more sensitive to interpersonal issues and will direct the leader away from actions that could appear callous and might needlessly antagonize people…

God is purposeful and progressive in the way he leads people and organizations.  He does not change his mind every time a new leaders arrives.  God does not rescind everything he has said once a new leader is installed.  Leaders come and go over the years but God’s plans, purposes, and presence remain constant.  Wise leaders understand their place in God’s overall plan and are content to lead on God’s agenda, setting aside any selfish or ungodly motives that may tempt them to ‘show what they can do.’

Harry Truman has been called a great leader because he had the ability to decide.  But more than that, he was willing to accept the consequences of his decisions.  Truman’s famous dictum, ‘The buck stops here,’ encapsulated his belief that leaders cannot shirk their responsibility to make decisions or bear the consequences of their decisions.

It is at this point that true leaders separate themselves from mere office-seekers.  When there are negative consequences to a leaders’ decisions, they refuse to blame their followers.  They do not cause others in their organization to suffer the consequences for their decisions.  True leaders accept the ramifications of their decisions.

Because leaders make so many decisions, they are particularly vulnerable to making mistakes.  Moreover, the results of their actions are often magnified because of the public nature of their jobs.  Most mistakes are not terminal in nature, however, and they can actually provide the greatest moments of personal growth that leaders experience.  Successful leaders are not successful because they never err in judgment, but because they continually learn from their mistakes. 

Mistakes are inevitable; true leaders understand this fact and are not devastated by it.  The only leaders who never make mistakes are those who never try anything, which is in itself a mistake.  Mistakes are often opportunities in disguise.  They are opportunities for followers to see that, though their leader is not perfect, he or she is honest.  Honesty, not infallibility, has repeatedly been listed as the most important quality followers desire in their leaders.”

Henry Blackaby, “Spiritual Leadership”

Have some decisions to make.  Have had some wise counsel.  Have been reminded that mistakes are okay.  God is good.

https://www.intentionalkingdomliving.com/422/

Oh my goodness.

I just love my boys.

Yesterday, Caden had his first tearful meltdown about school.

Everything is fine, he just got hurt feelings.

It really is hard not to get all fired up about silly stuff when it’s your ba-bay, isn’t it?

But I refuse.

Plus, these are the types of lessons we wanted him to start learning now. 

But, still.  Help him, Lord.

And help us guide him through these tough lessons well.

Little one is little one.

I will be so sad when he stops pronouncing breakfast ‘frefrast.’

Plus, if it’s all the same to us, he’s not interested in sitting on that porcelain toilet when his pull-up works just as well.  I totally know I need to just bust out the underwear and deal with the messes.  I think I’m waiting for the perfect 3-day-at-home window to go for it.  Or I’m waiting for Jesus to come back.

But, seriously.  Dan and I have had lots of people walk alongside us so far in this parenting journey.  We’ve read wonderful books.  We’ve watched those ahead of us that we admire. 

But I really can’t shake the feeling that we’re making this up as we go with God.  That we’re taking wonderful principles and examples and lessons to heart, but in the end there are no guarantees.  And when you love someone this much, all you want is a guarantee.

And it is interesting that all this is on my heart, while at the same time a section from The 7 Experiemnt is on my brain.  Sometimes I feel…bipolar?  I don’t know.  It reminds me of the intro Beth Moore wrote for When Godly People Do Ungodly Things:

“On behalf of all authors who seek the sole leadership of the Holy Spirit, please allow me to say that we don’t just pick and choose our subject matter.  In fact, sometimes God assigns us a message that is more radical than we’d ever want to invite!  I am being as honest as I know how to be when I say that I did not write these pages by simple preference.  I wrote them because had I not, the rocks in my yard would have cried out…

I may unknowingly err in interpretation or application, but the overall message of warning, redemption, and restoration are consistent with a God so merciful and courageous, He would dare to use a pauper like me…

I find my insecure self wanting to issue some kind of disclaimer about my mental and spiritual health.  I really am a pretty normal person.  I am a regular wife and mom.  (And does anyone happen to remember that one of the last books I wrote was a sweet, inoffensive mommy book?)  I’m just your average girl, for heaven’s sake!

I didn’t ask to write some of the kinds of messages God has appointed me.  My mother went to her grave wondering why I couldn’t ‘just be funny’ like I ‘used to be.’  Choosing God’s approval over hers was a monumental test for me.  I cannot write to please man as much as I’d like to at times.  So, when you’ve turned the last page, if you’re not pleased, kindly consider telling God and not me.  My self-esteem is shakier than His.”

Ahem. 

So on we travel.

“Paul said we are adopted children, heirs of God and coheirs with our Jesus, ‘if indeed we share in his sufferings’ (Rom 8:17). 

When we were stuck in the Ethiopian court system for our son, staring down an impending rejection for his adoption, we hit darkness.  Month after month stretched out, as our children waited for us, victims of a difficult, chaotic system.  A black cloud hovered over me and I could not shake it.

During that time, well-meaning friend offered many versions of this statement: ‘Chin up!  Find joy in this!  This is all in God’s timing, so don’t worry!’ Good reader, I know this came from loving hearts, but it would not pierce my grief.  My spirit would not receive this, no matter how much I prayed and faked it.

Finally I screamed in desperation, ‘I am worried, God!  I am devastated!  My children are on another continent wondering why we haven’t come back for them, and they are going to bed without a mom and dad tonight again, and my heart is broken!  I will not put my chin up!  I will not skip around like Polyanna!  I am angry and sad and hurting for them and raging against the political systems that keep children in orphanages and families in poverty!  If grieving for them is wrong, I do not want to be right ever again in my life!’

Very quietly, very clearly, God spoke to me: ‘When I asked you to adopt, I invited you into the suffering of the orphan.  That suffering includes all their losses, all their grief, all their fear.  You are suffering with them right now, because that is part of the deal.  You will suffer with them even more once they get home.  When you said yes to adoption, you agreed to enter their brokenness and live there with them until they were healed.  Obeying Me means suffering with those who suffer, which is dark and painful and it hurts.  You don’t get to live a happy, oblivious life while My vulnerable ones grieve.  Jesus was a Man of sorrows, acquainted with grief, and you are His disciple.’

We are no longer obligated to sin nature, but we are obligated to share in Jesus’ suffering.  For whom did He suffer?  Who broke His heart?  Who moved Him to action and mercy?

What sort of suffering does the church sign up for when we act justly and love mercy?

‘The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed…We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time.  Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.  For in this hope we were saved.  But hope that is seen is no hope at all.  Who hopes for what he already has?  But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently’ (Rom 8:19, 22-25).

Like Paul observed, this feeling of endless labor is not just around us but within us.  We feel it too, don’t we?  The earth is filled with groaning and waiting and frustration and bondage and decay.  One need not look far to find it.  Mamas are burying their babies and the sick are dying alone.  Hunger steals life in a world with enough food to feed us all.  Humans are sold as property; innocence is ruined.  Creation itself longs for liberation, anxious to be set free from the effects of human sin.

But there is also much good news in this passage, for Paul speaks of glory and eager expectation and freedom and redemption and hope.  No labor, however long, lasts forever.  We know Jesus will make all things new.  We know our hope is well placed.  We know tears will be dried and suffering will end.  We know God will make the last first and the least the greatest.  The meek will indeed inherit the earth.  Glory is coming.”

– Jen Hatmaker, The 7 Experiment (pgs. 176-178)

https://www.intentionalkingdomliving.com/423/

I’ve been thinking about that phrase I’ve been using “do justice.”  I wanted to share some of Keller’s insights into what it means.  But he’s very thorough, so a little at a time. 

For today…

“…There is a direct relationship between a person’s grasp and experience of God’s grace, and his or her heart for justice and the poor.  In both settings [where I preached – Hopewell, VA and New York City], as I preached the classic message that God does not give us justice but saves us by free grace, I discovered that those most affected by the message became the most sensitive to the social inequities around them. 

One man in my church in Hopewell went through a profound transformation.  He moved out of a sterile, moralistic understanding of life and began to understand that his salvation was based on the free, unmerited grace of Jesus.  It gave him a new warmth, joy, and confidence that everyone could see.

But it had another surprising effect. 

‘You know,’ he said to me one day, ‘I’ve been a racist all my life.’

I was startled, because I had not yet preached to him or to the congregation on that subject.  He had put it together for himself.  When he lost his Phariseeism, his spiritual self-righteousness, he said, he lost his racism.

Elaine Scarry of Harvard has written a fascinating little book called On Beauty and Being Just.  Her thesis is that the experience of beauty makes us less self-centered and more open to justice.  I have observed over the decades that when people see the beauty of God’s grace in Christ, it leads them powerfully toward justice…

I recently met with Heather, a woman who attends my church in New York City.  After graduating from Harvard Law School she landed a lucrative job with a major law firm in Manhattan.  It was a dream come true for most aspiring young professionals.  She was a high-powered corporate lawyer, she was ‘living the life’ in the big city, and yet it was all strangely unsatisfying.  She wanted to make a difference in the lives of individuals, and she was concerned about those in society who could not afford the kind of fees her clients paid her firm.

For a fraction of her former salary, she became an assistant district attorney for New York County, where so many of the criminals she prosecutes are those who have been exploiting the poor, particularly poor women.

When I was a professor at a theological seminary in the mid-eighties, one of my students was a young man named Mark Gornik.  One day we were standing at the copier and he told me that he was about to move into Sandtown, one of the poorest and most dangerous neighborhoods in Baltimore. 

I remember being quite surprised.  When I asked him why, he said simply, ‘to do justice.’

It had been decades since any white people had moved into Sandtown.  For the first couple of years there it was touch and go.  Mark told a reporter, ‘The police thought I was a drug dealer and the drug dealers thought I was a police officer.  So, for a while there, I didn’t know who was going to shoot me first.’

Yet over the years Mark, along with leaders in the community, established a church and a comprehensive set of ministries that have slowly transformed the neighborhood.

Although both Heather and Mark were living comfortable, safe lives, they became concerned about the most vulnerable, poor, and marginalized members of our society, and they made long-term personal sacrifices in order to serve their interests, needs, and cause.

That is, according to the Bible, what it means to ‘do justice.'”

– Timothy Keller, Generous Justice (pgs. xix – 2)

So back and forth we’ll go.  It’s all tied together, you know.  Storing up treasures in heaven, having no other gods before Him, living in simplicity internally and externally, doing justice, loving our neighbor as ourselves.  Hope I can actually connect them adequately on here!

https://www.intentionalkingdomliving.com/424/

God is not a man, so He does not lie.

He is not a human, so He does not change His mind.

Has He ever spoken and failed to act?

Has He ever promised and not carried it through?

– Numbers 23:19 NLT

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