August 21, 2025

GOD’S WORD FOR TODAY:

“Now what have you against Me, Tyre and Sidon and all you regions of Philistia? Are you repaying Me for something I have done? If you are paying Me back, I will swiftly and speedily return on your own heads what you have done. For you took My silver and My gold and carried off My finest treasures to your temples.” (Joel 3.4-5)

TODAY’S REFLECTION ON GOD’S WORD TO US:

Again, we hear this sense of “called out.” The challenge is extended to those who have stood against God by standing against Israel. (Be warned, all those who have not learned from history or be doomed to experience the truth of God’s promise for justice to all people.) Here we find God challenging His accusers, asking for the logic of their complaint and their actions. It is not an unfamiliar complaint which we have heard many times in our own circles. How many times do we know of those who hold God responsible for their own demise. The belief that God is capricious and acts in randomness for His own pleasure without regard or respect to those upon whom His actions are rendered is a known theme and complaint. On the opposite end of the spectrum, we also have listened to those who put upon God the complaint of emotional, physical and spiritual distance. The expression of such would be that God does not care and does not love because “Good things happen to bad people just as bad things happen to good people.” The reality is that good and bad things happen to all people. In a broken and sin-fected world, this is the reality of life. It is not as God intended. It is as God discerned it would be even within His creation because the “gift of love” allows the freedom of choice. The choice is clear even in the midst of the confusion of the world. Those who choose the goodness are choosing the path of God. Those who choose evil are choosing their own path acting as if they are their own god. There can be and is only “one God.” To claim the good one experiences in their own lives as the product of their own industry declares the lie to be the truth. In the teaching of Jesus, we hear “A true father only gives good gifts to the children.” (Matthew 7.11) As our earthly “fathers” gift us, imagine how our Heavenly Father gifts us with gifts that cannot be diminished nor lose their effect for eternal life. God, our Heavenly Father, desires for us to dwell with Him forever. It has always been this way. There is only “one way, one truth and one life” which leads to the joy of God, our Heavenly Father. To deny the bad that happens in our own lives having anything to do with our own inaction to steer clear of unrighteousness and pursue righteousness likewise makes of the truth a lie. Jesus would also say in that same sermon as mentioned above, “Seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness and all that is needed [for eternal life even here on earth] shall be provided.” (Matthew 6.33) It is not a lie.

The truth is that there is a vast chasm between the righteousness of humankind and the righteousness of God. The “righteousness” of humankind is defined by self-intent to serve one’s own interests above that of others. The “doing good” and “being good” that person pursues does provide good fruit which is that parenthetical “here today and gone tomorrow.” It may even be a part of the legacy one generation leaves another as an enduring inheritance. It endures for a time but not for eternity, at least not in its essential goodness. To keep the focus on one’s self as the primary recipient and “gifter” leads one away from God. The good which they do is not sown into the field of eternal peace and joy. It will rise up and be known as it was sown with the focus on “bitterness and sorrow.” To focus on avoiding such still makes it a priority regardless of how much the intent is to avoid it. If that is the focus, then that will be the field of vision which is inhabited. Sadly, what we “ask” for is “what” we get. So, then, was it and is it for those who come against God because life is not going as they had considered it. God is not to be ordered about as a servant of human will and whim. God is indeed a servant of righteousness, true righteousness, to bring about the authentic product of His goodness which is mercy and grace. That is what we are able to experience in this broken and sin-fected world. In His field of mercy and grace there is hope, joy, peace, kindness, goodness, self-control, love, mercy, patience and gentleness. This is the fruit which produces life that has no boundary except against the forces of those who seek themselves over God. It is there God is found returning back the question of intent and purpose which is not His own. The very actions that are felt to be justified because of God’s “injustice,” or unjustice, are returned. The weight of them is crushing. Only God could bear up under them. Humankind cannot. It is true justice, the fairness and accountability of one before God who sees the full effect of God’s righteousness, that will overcome and lift up. That true justice from the human perspective in the court of God is called “confession.” Those who confess their sins in the presence of the goodness of God which is without fault shall receive mercy. Even in the midst of difficult times, they will receive peace and fortitude to bear up under the weight of a broken and sin-fected world. For those who will not confess their own sins and plead their case for mercy with a contrite heart and an humble spirit, the very actions of “entitlement and vindication” will find their way back upon themselves. [I often wonder if this is not the case with the older brother of the prodigal son! Instead of maintaining the course and standing with and for his father and his brother, he stood only for himself. In the face of his father’s mercy, he became bitter and reaped the fruit of his despair as his true inheritance. Even then, the riches which he had been given by his father’s promise, “you have always been with me and which is mine has been yours,” become empty and fruitless. There was no spirit of peace and joy there.] So, it has been and will continue to be in this world. We may not see it in the present moment but we, by faith, know that it will be made known. God’s will be done on earth as it is in Heaven. As the world “calls out” God, they will find themselves being “called out” as well. God is never called out of His kingdom, but woe to those who believe they will be better as not a part of it.

TODAY’S PRAYER IN RESPONSE TO GOD’S WORD:

Father, in these days we are finding the need to believe even more than ever before. We all have known trouble, some in greater ways than others, but You are offering us the assurance that we will not be consumed by it forever. Regardless of the “time” we are in and the “time” we have been given, we ask for Your Holy Spirit which Jesus asked You to share with us, to lead and guide and direct us in the paths we should go. Teach us what we still need to learn. Empower us to put that learning into action. Bless our actions not as a works righteousness but as righteous works of faith, hope and love in Jesus’ name. AMEN.