Proverbs – Life SkillsPray the most dangerous prayer of your lives, for only then you will see what justice doled out with unconditional love, mercy and grace looks like. You will begin to see what drives the passion for justice. You will see from a new, higher thinking, perspective. You will begin to know God and His character. What is this dangerous prayer? “Lord, break my heart of those things that break your heart.”
Because of what is currently happening in our world today the words and message of this proverb leap to the forefront of a person who prays this prayer.
“Rescue the perishing;
don’t hesitate to step in and help.
If you say, ‘Hey, that’s none of my business,’
will that get you off the hook?
Someone is watching you closely, you know—
Someone not impressed with weak excuses.”
What if Jesus said, “Hey, that’s none of my business” or “believe what you want and I will believe what I want”? Where would we be today? Jesus came as the One and only Person who was Truth.God is Truth. Truth never changes. God is love and He wants us to love Him back. God wants a relationship with us that is intimate and cherished. God wants to call us Friend. Can you imagine the creator of the world wants to call us Friend? God is the only one who will bring justice in our sick world who knows not what true justice is.
Justice came to earth when Jesus was born. Jesus was the way, truth and life who doled out justice to the poor, sick, lame, blind, lost and demon possessed. Jesus taught us that justice is how we treat each other. Justice is a God-led concern and passion for fairness, peace, with a genuine respect for people. It is for ALL people who God created from the bloodline of Adam and Eve. Yep, we all came from the same parents.
Along with the word justice that the world is throwing around these days as “my rights” is expanded to justification in a believer’s heart who has found true justice from turning from this world’s thinking and behaving to how Jesus thinks. Jesus gives, the lost in sin, justification. Jesus the only true, perfect one who has the right to judge, justifies us from all sin. How did He do that? He paid the debt of all our sins for all who believe He did and believe in Him as Lord of our lives. “While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8)Jesus’ Justification–It is “just as if” we had never sinned. Our sin, not in part but the whole, as the old hymn says, is gone. Not to be remembered any longer. As justified, redeemed at the price of a cruel cross, saved by grace believers how can we treat anyone less than or more than our own saved selves? Christ died for all. “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”
Who does God send to rescue the unjustified, caught up in the way the world thinks? Who will help others find and follow Jesus, the Savior and Lord of all, who opens to door to an intimate relationship with God? Who will point the way to true justice in Jesus? The perishing are the ones lost without God. Justice is not a cause or a movement. Justice is Jesus who teaches us to love each other the way HE loves us. It is more than “treat others they way you would like to be treated”, it is showing love, concern, compassion for every God created human on the planet without judgement. It is laying down our own interests and desires, forgetting what we want, think we deserve or what is “fair”. It is truly loving each other the way Jesus loves us. To do that we must pray the dangerous prayer and by the power of the Holy Spirit in us begin to pattern our lives after Jesus, our Lord. When we really believe what we believe is real we will touch the surface of justice and treat others BETTER than we treat ourselves.
Paul, the judge, jury and executioner of Christians who was stopped and brought to his knees by Jesus, writes these words after repenting of his former behavior…
“Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others. In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus:
Who, being in very nature God,
did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;
rather, he made himself nothing
by taking the very nature of a servant,
being made in human likeness.
And being found in appearance as a man,
he humbled himself
by becoming obedient to death—
even death on a cross!
(Philippians 2:3-8, NIV)
Love. The greatest trait of God’s character is love. God’s Love is the equalizer that drives us to His justice. Love is the passion that requires us to rescue the perishing before it’s too late. Love seeks to serve others, not be served.
Proverb 24, The Message
Part 3 of 3
Intelligence Outranks Muscle19
24 1-2 Don’t envy bad people;
don’t even want to be around them.
All they think about is causing a disturbance;
all they talk about is making trouble.
20
3-4 It takes wisdom to build a house,
and understanding to set it on a firm foundation;
It takes knowledge to furnish its rooms
with fine furniture and beautiful draperies.
21
5-6 It’s better to be wise than strong; intelligence outranks muscle any day.
Strategic planning is the key to warfare;
to win, you need a lot of good counsel.
22
7 Wise conversation is way over the head of fools;
in a serious discussion they haven’t a clue.
23
8-9 The person who’s always cooking up some evil
soon gets a reputation as prince of rogues.
Fools incubate sin;
cynics desecrate beauty.
Rescue the Perishing
24
10 If you fall to pieces in a crisis,
there wasn’t much to you in the first place.
25
11-12 Rescue the perishing;
don’t hesitate to step in and help.
If you say, “Hey, that’s none of my business,”
will that get you off the hook?
Someone is watching you closely, you know— Someone not impressed with weak excuses.
26
13-14 Eat honey, dear child—it’s good for you—
and delicacies that melt in your mouth.
Likewise knowledge,
and wisdom for your soul—
Get that and your future’s secured,
your hope is on solid rock.
2715-16 Don’t interfere with good people’s lives;
don’t try to get the best of them.
No matter how many times you trip them up,
God-loyal people don’t stay down long;
Soon they’re up on their feet,
while the wicked end up flat on their faces.
28
17-18 Don’t laugh when your enemy falls;
don’t crow over his collapse.
God might see, and become very provoked,
and then take pity on his plight.
2919-20 Don’t bother your head with braggarts
or wish you could succeed like the wicked.
Those people have no future at all;
they’re headed down a dead-end street.
30
21-22 Fear God, dear child—respect your leaders;
don’t be defiant or mutinous.
Without warning your life can turn upside down,
and who knows how or when it might happen?
More Sayings of the Wise
An Honest Answer
23 It’s wrong, very wrong,
to go along with injustice.
24-25 Whoever whitewashes the wicked gets a black mark in the history books,
But whoever exposes the wicked
will be thanked and rewarded.
26 An honest answer
is like a warm hug.
27 First plant your fields;
then build your barn.
28-29 Don’t talk about your neighbors behind their backs—
no slander or gossip, please.
Don’t say to anyone, “I’ll get back at you for what you did to me. I’ll make you pay for what you did!”
30-34 One day I walked by the field of an old lazybones,
and then passed the vineyard of a lout;
They were overgrown with weeds,
thick with thistles, all the fences broken down.
I took a long look and pondered what I saw;
the fields preached me a sermon and I listened:
“A nap here, a nap there, a day off here, a day off there,
sit back, take it easy—do you know what comes next?
Just this: You can look forward to a dirt-poor life,
with poverty as your permanent houseguest!”
WHAT DO WE LEARN?
Injustice breaks the heart of God.
“It’s wrong, very wrong,
to go along with injustice.
Whoever whitewashes the wicked
gets a black mark in the history books,
But whoever exposes the wicked
will be thanked and rewarded.”
Dear Lord and Savior,
Help us. Heal us. Heal our land.
In Jesus Name, Amen
Daily Manna (Coffee with Jesus) 