what does God want from us?
17 10 2007Okay, let’s try starting a dialogue about what we’ll be focusing on for this next Monday Night, so go ahead and post your thoughts, comments, and questions (e.g. feel free to think out loud).
Jesus said that “the world will hate you because it hated me first.”
This statement tends to bring up thoughts of being persecuted for our faith. Now, I’ve heard people talk many times about being ’persecuted’ in our country for being Christian, but I find it hard (and this is just my personal opinion) to really rank anything I’ve experienced as true persecution. For instance, if a co-worker makes fun of me or thinks I’m ridiculous for following the way of Christ, well, I have a hard time placing that in the same category as someone getting their tongue cut out or having their family murdered because they decided to align themselves with Jesus and live in God’s version of the Story.
Regardless of the actual severity of our ‘persecution/suffering,’ I’m curious as to whether we assume that God enjoys it when we suffer “in His name?” When we’re getting beat down and ostricized, do you think that God is pleased with us for that?
Which leads to another set of questions: when the world hates us, are they hating us for truly valid reasons? Specifically, are they hating us because we’re in line and actively seeking what God desires for the world…or because people can’t stand our pride or judgementalism? Is everything we do as Christians that the world hates us for actually worth the division and indifference it causes between us and the world?
In Hosea 6:6 God says: “I desire mercy, not sacrifice.”
Does this change our idea about what God wants from us and what we allow ourselves to be hated for?
I personally think that God isn’t pleased when we as Chirstians are persecuted. In fact, I think that it grieves Him when we are faced with that. but rather He is happy to see that we are willing to go through that kind of intellecual, spiritual, physical, emotional, and social pain for Him and His dream for creation.
Isaiah 61:8 says “For I, the Lord, love justice; I hate robbery and iniquity. In my faithfulness I will reward them and make an everlasting covenant with them.”
Reach Up, Out, and Over!
Kristi
“For I, the Lord, love justice….”
You hit on a pretty strong verse…that God seems to desire justice. So if He seems to be for it, then maybe we should key in on that. So what IS justice? How do we go about it?
I looked up justice, and Wikipedia says “Justice can be thought of as distinct from, and more important than, benevolence, charity, mercy, generosity or compassion.”
Now, I’m not entirely sure what all that means, but what I do know is that justice is kinda like character. It’s where you do what is right. What is right? I think ‘right’ is doing what pleases God. Makes sense, considering that God loves justice.
So, I geuss what I’m saying is that justice is doing what’s right because it pleases God and it gives you a chance to stand up for the weak, which is good. Plus, it feels good to do good.
We’re going to spend some time tonight looking at what justice means, so I won’t go into it here…but I think you’re on the right track.
One danger, however, is that we can “over-spiritualize” things, and by that I mean that we just come up with catch-all abstract principles or ideas. For instance, if we just boiled it all down to, “Do what pleases God”…where does that leave us? As you said, doing “right” pleases God. That’s good, of course, but what does it that LOOK like? In every day life, what does that consist of? And what does God consider to be “right?” And how well does our idea match up with His?
Tonight we’ll spend some time breaking this apart and seeing how it takes shape and form in the world around us.
You know, after hearing what was said tonight, I think that my idea of what’s ‘right’ and ‘justice’ has changed a little, but only because some things were made clearer to me than what I could come up with in my own head.
See, one thing that I remembered was that I once heard from someone (or many people) that life hangs in a balance. Like with the fair trade thing: that is hanging in an equal balance. while things like people getting paid less than a buck for their labor, that’s also in a balance. It’s unequal, but a balance all the same, it’s a balance. And when we try to shift the balance, like not buying brand-name clothes, somebody gets pinched. And it always ends up being the little Argentino dude who is just trying to get by. Now, it could first pinch the Big Boys (i.e., America), but they can wiggle out of it and send it down to the Argentino.
Anyways, The point I was trying to make is that doing what is ‘right’ and ‘just’ maybe really hard now, but I believe that the impact that it makes will make an inprint on the future, whether that be in someone’s life in a few years or when you see it play out when God’s kingdom and heaven comes to earth.
You know, one thing that is going in my heart right now is a saying that I wrote down about a month ago: “Ther is that little thing ticking inside you that lets you know that you are still a kid.” I didn’t know what it meant when I wrote it, but now I think that what it means is since I am a child of God and Heis in my heart and is speaking to me, that is the kind of hope I need to keep on doing what I have been led to believe is ‘right’ and ‘just’.
To quote one of the movies that gets me thinking: “That’s all I have to say ’bout that.”
“…doing what is ‘right’ and ‘just’ maybe really hard now, but I believe that the impact that it makes will make an imprint on the future, whether that be in someone’s life in a few years or when you see it play out when God’s kingdom and heaven comes to earth.”
And that right there is the rub, because we live in an extremely consumeristic society (including Christianity). We want what we want, and we want it right now, and we want it with minimal (preferably no) inconvenience. We don’t want to go through a hard stage, a difficult stage that might cost us something. But Jesus comes with a way that is equitable for everyone, and he asks if we’re willing to sacrifice and suffer as we walk that new way, for the sake of God’s justice and His putting all things back to right.