from the book of Isaiah
12 “ When you come to appear before Me,
Who has required this from your hand,
To trample My courts?
13 Bring no more futile sacrifices;
Incense is an abomination to Me.
The New Moons, the Sabbaths, and the calling of assemblies—
I cannot endure iniquity and the sacred meeting.
14 Your New Moons and your appointed feasts
My soul hates;
They are a trouble to Me,
I am weary of bearing them.
15 When you spread out your hands,
I will hide My eyes from you;
Even though you make many prayers,
I will not hear.
Your hands are full of blood.
16 “ Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean;
Put away the evil of your doings from before My eyes.
Cease to do evil,
17 Learn to do good;
Seek justice,
Rebuke the oppressor;
Defend the fatherless,
Plead for the widow. "
Its so easy for me to take a scripture like this and always relate it to someone else, how someone else is doing something wrong, and how they need to change. A lot of times when I'm reading I find myself pointing the correction towards someone else, which may have its place, but it can only be after we've examined our own hearts. Jesus said "first remove the log from your own eye, before you try to remove the twig from your brother's eye". Finding the log in your eye, can sometimes be an obvious thing, but sometimes it can be difficult and you only find it when you really meditate on how you are affecting or not affecting your world by your actions.
This can really happen when you immerse yourself in different social justice issues. You see all of these terrible things and you want to call people out on it. It may be the right thing to do, but do I have the right to do it?
God show me the injustice I cause! Is there blood on my hands?!
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
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Y E S!
ReplyDeleteThis is the scripture that inspired the blog I wrote on balance..
I can't stop coming back to it.
And I never want to.
"Let justice and praise become my embrace.."
Thanks for pointing out that it starts with us. We have to examine ourselves, our own actions, before we start calling other people out. I absolutely believe this is a huge thing God has put on each of our hearts, and I don't think it's a call that's going to fade out.
Finding the log in my own eye proves to be difficult for me. Because in order to meditate on my life requires my inner parts to be quiet, and that's not something that comes easily.
ReplyDeleteTaking a step back and breathing everything in as a whole seems to be the integral part of moving forward in truth, instead of delusion.
I love, and want to second, your prayer of "God, show me the injustice I cause!"
May we become the change we desire to see in our world.. because then our efforts will be given authority to bring about the redemption of our world through our life.
ReplyDeleteFather, wash away our iniquities and open our eyes to the injustice that we ignore each day. We want to become a force of Love and Liberty...