Perversion of Justice

As I stepped into the courthouse once again I had a shivering feeling that this was not a place meant for justice and righteousness. Oh it is meant to facilitate the law all right, but one walk through the place and you can feel the oppression dripping all over and see the wearisome evidence on people’s faces.

We were not here for ourselves, this time. But unfortunately there had been several events that had lead to us having to come to that room, face those judges, and hear the law administered to suit someone’s reasoning all be it twisted.

Now don’t get me wrong I myself am a law-abiding citizen.

It just so happens that in this day we are in the law is sort of upside down. Our communities teach family and create programs that are meant to correct and facilitate healthy families, yet the law decides every single day things that destroy families and hurt children. That rip families apart. Our community promotes teen sex, abortion and the right to some pretty evil freedoms for our youth, yet in turn decides evil against them when in the court room are being charged for the very acts the community has promoted. Our community teaches that drugs are wrong, substance abuse is harmful and unhealthy, yet the law passes judgment that actually enables and oppresses those caught up in drugs, rather than work towards true healing and freedom. One friend that actually went through teen challenge to get clean and sober and finally held a job for five years ended up arrested and in jail because the law deemed teen challenge a non-approved treatment program, no matter the evident positive changes. Perversion.

Jon Foreman eloquently sings about the perversion we face:

How miserable I am
I feel like a fruitpicker who arrived here
after the harvest
There's nothing here at all
There's nothin at all here that could placate my hunger
The godly people are all gone
There's not one honest soul left alive here on this planet
We're all murders and theives
Setting traps here for even our brothers
And both of our hands
Are equally skilled
At doing evil
Equally skilled
At bribing the judges
Equally skilled
At perverting justice
Both of our hands
Both of our hands
The day of justice comes
And is even now swiftly arriving
Don't trust anyone at all
Not your best friend or even your wife
For the son hates the father
The daughter despises even the mother
Look! Your enemies are right
Right in the room of your very household
And both of their hands are equally skilled
Equally skilled
No, don't gloat over me
For though I fall, though I fall
I will rise again
Though I sit here in darkness
The Lord, the Lord alone
He will be my light

I will be patient as the Lord
Punishes me for the wrongs
I've done against him
After that he'll take my case
Bringing me to light and to justice
For all I have suffered
And both of his hands are equally skilled
At ruining evil
Equally skilled
At judging the judges
Equally skilled
Administring justice
Both of his hands
Both of his hands are equally skilled
At showing them mercy
Equally skilled
At loving the loveless
Equally skilled
Administring justice
Both of his hands
Both of his hands

It is indeed a perverted day in which we live. But we have only to look to the Lord for true justice, and leave the work of administering it to Him.

As for believers He already took our case, and because of what has been accomplished on the cross, we are justified. Amen.

So much can change in a day!

Over the past several years this has been a re-occurring theme in my life.

The Lord impressed on my husbands heart some years back the story in 2 Kings 7. The children of Israel where surrounded by the Aramean army and trapped in their city for weeks. Food was scarce and they feared death but Elisha heard from the Lord, this time tomorrow the prices of food would go down dramatically, there would be abundance. This seemed impossible. People questioned that even God could do such a thing. They did not know however nor could they see that God would confuse the army causing them to flee. And four leapers would discover the provision from the Lord. In one single day their entire circumstances changed.

The thing is we were going through some difficult times financially and personally. And there were many days when fear could have swallowed us whole. No jobs, very little income if any and no resources whatsoever. But the Lord kept reminding us that He was our Father, that He was provider and that He would not fail us. This story became a great reminder and symbolic as we would remind each other over and over, so much can change in a day!

And it often did. God brought provision out of nowhere, He made ways and opened doors that seemed impossible. $400 dollars left at our door step, $1000 brought to the church for us, bills paid, groceries, a weekend get a way, a car, a washing machine, a missions trip for my son and so much more. We had not even told anyone, we only prayed. He was allowing us to go through some difficult times to teach us who He is, His name PROVIDER.

He was teaching us to trust Him even when we can not see the way ourselves. There were days when I could not even breathe because the basic elements of food and shelter seemed out of reach for us or at the very least threatened. Yet God would speak to me to rest in Him and wait on Him. It is impossible to rest when you are consumed with worry. I would ask the Lord, how? How do I rest and wait? And He answered simply, by My Spirit. A new discipline began to develop in my life. I would sit with Jesus until the fear passed. He would not let me go in my quiet time for the day and His peace washed over me. Some days this took minutes and other days hours. Praise the Lord it always came, His peace and rest would enter my soul and fear subsided and I could just wait on Him.

I can not say I would want to go through this season of testing again. But I am so grateful for the greater perspective of God I learned and growing in relationship with Him truly made it worth all the heart ache.

Many days sense then I have faced troubling circumstances and God has given me the grace and peace to say, so much can change in the next day, I will let it roll off on Him that is able to make it change.

Getting into the conversation...Love and marriage.

I recently read this post by the love sick soul. Who asked what we think about a conversation on love and dating that has carried in our community for several days now.

As a mother of young adults this conversation is vital to me. I pray every day for my children to have the courage to let their hearts love and to take action on that love. I previously wrote about encouraging my young men to date in another post, Kiss Dating Goodbye, Why? This may have been a little misunderstood but I don't encourage them to be serial daters but to not fear dating that they can learn relationship and mature to take a wife. Or in my sweet girls case a husband.

I do not believe it is a healthy state of our culture to be anti-marriage and so self dependent, self reliant. I believe it is a sign of the sin in our world and the state of wounded-ness and broken people.

One of the most beautiful pictures of Christ's love for the church is the imagery of the bride of Christ. This teaches us about a God that not only died for us and has adopted us into His family or Fathered us, but more importantly and even more complex is that He, God is a passionate lover of our soul. If you are not convinced of that statement, you are not alone, many believers do not receive that and are in need of some healing and learning of God because His word says He is, many times over.

As a women who prayed several years for that revelation I know from experience the love of God that Paul so passionately prays for the church in Ephesians 3:14-19.

What does that have to do with marriage? It is the selfless love of Christ that people need to see mirrored in our lives and it is a gift and favor from the Lord to be blessed with a family actively pursuing this kind of love to model.

God is able to do this, able to keep two very diffrent people from completely different backgrounds together in marriage. Able to overcome our personal histories, our wounded hearts, our fears, our false ideals. God is able to make our lives look different from those in our society. God can conquer the pain of divorce and the brokenness of abandoned children.

I say we are in a time that is so close to the last days, God would redeem the concept of marriage and family in our Christian communities, if we let Him and I am stirred to pray for it.

The question has come up about how absent the topic of dating actually is in the bible. I have a few observations on this topic. First that they married much younger, for the most part, and that they also had arranged marriages. Negotiations were made and the choice was a family decision and there was not this waiting of a love to fall on your heart out of nowhere that would be your SIGNAL to marry. But rather a choice was made, a decision and plan set in motion I believe that was the work of God and then I believe following that choice, love was stirred.

One of my favorite stories of love in the Old Testament is Isaac and Rebekah. What wonderful trust and belief in God Isaac displayed in sending his servant to go to find him a wife among the acceptable choices of his family. And how even more beautiful this servant asking the Lord for the direction in that and then this young girl so ready and willing to follow the will of her God to be taken to marry a man she barely knew of and had never seen.

Do I think we should be arranging marriages? Not realy but the concepts here are amazing. Courage, decision, action, prayer, faith in God not the person, wise council from a close trusted source, and then love. Such love.

I have been married 22 years. Lionel and I are from broken families. Marriage was not sacred. But with God in our hearts and faith in our lives we set out to do something daring, something no one in our families had done before, to break the chain of divorce and pass on a heritage of healthy love in our family as a testimony to God. We were young and dreamers and didn't know any better than to believe that God would and could do it in us, praise Him, He is!

Praying for all of our young adults! Praying against the enemy trying to steal this God designed plan from the church. Praying for healing in families and marriages and healthy right thinking from the Lord about His heart for love and marriage.

Living single is not a curse, but marriage isn't either. And if you are single and reading this and have found your heart saddened in anyway, please know that I am speaking for you. And please ask the Lord to reveal to you what is in your heart that He wants to bring to light and bring into truth. He is the lover of your soul and will fill you completely in or out of marriage, as it should be.

Love you all!