0:00:00 - 0:00:35 I was mid workout just now and I was overcome by a series of thoughts and I would like to attempt to share some of them. They're about justice about God's justice. This is a theme that I have then taught a lot about. And this month it's October 2024. This is the three year anniversary of when my career 0:00:34 - 0:01:04 as a university professor was taken away from me under some very unjust circumstances. And it's uh it's interesting that that year I had spent the better part of a year almost exclusively writing a book on God's Justice. Um It's interesting that that week and it took about a week from start to finish 0:01:03 - 0:01:27 for me to get canceled. Um That week, I actually used the time when I was put on administrative leave, I was, I was actually quite excited because I was gonna have a whole week to work almost full time on my book. And it was ironic that I was writing a book on Justice when I was going through that while 0:01:27 - 0:01:52 I was going through that. But after I finished the book, I sent it to two people to get some feedback which is usually what I do. I get some outside proofreading help. And the Lord told me very clearly, uh not to publish the book as it stood and he directed me to rearrange quite a bit of it into other 0:01:51 - 0:02:16 materials and um indicated that the time for sharing those ideas would be at a later date. And what I'm about to share with you is certainly not even the slightest part of that content. But I say all this just to highlight that these things have been very much on my mind for quite some time. Well, my 0:02:16 - 0:02:49 mind and heart, the Lord says, vengeance is mine and I will repay. And he has indicated to us at a superficial level and also at a deeper, more detailed level that vengeance doesn't have a place in our duties. And that might cause us to conclude that we don't have a role in accomplishing God's justice 0:02:48 - 0:03:20 . And that would be a false conclusion in a very unfortunate one because there is punitive justice, but there's also positive justice. There's the reward side of justice. We know that exists. There are many scriptures about it. One good one would be Paul saying that you reap what you sow. God will not 0:03:20 - 0:03:47 be mocked, you reap what you sow. And so obviously, there are two parts to that one is punitive justice and the other one is rewarding justice. The question is, what role do we have in fulfilling the positive aspects of God's justice. Well, in the scriptures, we read about the duty of Christians to widows 0:03:47 - 0:04:19 and orphans. What is a widow? You probably would say a married woman whose husband dies. And that's true. But in a scriptural sense, it's much more than that. You can be a male widow and you could be a widow without losing anyone in the scriptural sense. So what does a widow pay? And what does she receive 0:04:18 - 0:04:49 ? Well, in the literal sense, she married a man and then he died. What is the price of marriage for a woman? She trades her youth and everything that goes with it to a man in exchange for what he can give her for the rest of her life. And it's a sacrifice that much like some of the animal sacrifices 0:04:48 - 0:05:15 in the Old Testament Temple. It's something that's consumed on the altar. There's no going back, there's no do over. You can't do it again. You can give these things away once that's it. Well, what happens when the man dies before he can fulfill his end of the bargain? Then you have a widow whose responsibility 0:05:14 - 0:05:45 is it to take care of her. Well, if they had sons, it becomes the son's responsibilities to care for the widow. But if the Sun doesn't have the resources or if she has no sons, it becomes the obligation of the church. In other words, God's people are called upon to pay the reward to the woman for what 0:05:45 - 0:06:20 she already paid for. She's made whole through the instrumentality of God's servants of God's Children. What other versions of widows exist? Well, it's a limitless number any time there's a person who has paid the law of cause without receiving the law of effect. And that effect is positive. That is 0:06:19 - 0:06:49 a widow in the scriptural sense. And it devolves upon the Children of God to recompense that person for the price that they have paid. You might say, wait a second, if vengeance is God's job and he leaves it, he commands us to leave it to Him. Why is rewarding? Not his job? Won't all things be made whole 0:06:48 - 0:07:20 or all justice compensated in the resurrection at the final judgment? Yes, absolutely. However, he gives us the opportunity to stand in his place and do what he would do if he were in our situation. And why is that such an opportunity? Because the joy that you can have in the eternities for doing what 0:07:19 - 0:07:50 you would do in your place is much less than the joy that you would have for doing what He would do in your place. The value that you appraise and enjoy and receive. It's very much a function of the price that you pay for it. And God giving us the opportunity to pay the price for greater joy is the gateway 0:07:49 - 0:08:21 to greater joy. Like all other opportunities to live up to his example or take upon us. His name as the phrase is used in the scriptures. What we have here is an invitation to act in a way that exceeds how we would act in order to receive more and better than we would otherwise receive in the judgment 0:08:20 - 0:08:48 . Those who take it upon themselves to recompense those who have been wronged or those who have not received what they deserve in a positive way. Their joy will be so much more because they won't be thinking about and remembering what they did as a person, they will have a share in what God did as a 0:08:48 - 0:09:17 God. What do you think eternal life means? It's to live more like God does. And in order to do that, you have to do things more like God would do. And that doesn't start here after it starts here. And now, now we mentioned widows. Now let's talk about orphans. Orphans are a different kind of justice 0:09:17 - 0:09:41 opportunity because whereas widows have paid the price for something good that they didn't get yet. Orphans are subjected to bad things that they don't deserve. Do you see how that works? And just like you can be a widow without being married or a woman, you can be an orphan without being a child and 0:09:41 - 0:10:18 in situations that have nothing to do with parentage. Now, there are examples of this all over the place, however, you probably have never seen them quite like you do now that have told you these things, for example, I have a, a good friend, meaning he is a man who is good and he's got two sons. And 0:10:17 - 0:10:55 uh whenever he talks about his sons, it makes me want to be a better father. So he, uh he adopted two boys and he has loved those boys with his whole heart. And those, those, those men, they're men now, they're grown up. But those men, they were in a situation when they were younger that wasn't their 0:10:55 - 0:11:38 fault at all. And my friend and his wife, they stepped in and, uh, they didn't just take care of those kids, but they took upon themselves the opportunity to be the real parents in every way that they could their whole soho. And that's the sort of thing that we can and should do. And it's not a, we have 0:11:37 - 0:12:09 to do situation. It's a, we get to do situation. My friend would be the first to tell you how much of a blessing these boys have been in his life. And, uh, the, the love that he has for them is so obvious and he wouldn't trade it for the world. Now, you might look at that. You might say, well, for whatever 0:12:08 - 0:12:38 reason, adopting kids is not something that I can do. Ok? Doesn't matter. The question is what opportunities exist in your life to recompense justice in positive ways on people. And if you look at those opportunities and you order them by expected impact. In other words, for the benefit of the world 0:12:37 - 0:13:17 , go down your list and start with the first one and you're going to see amazing changes in your life. One eternal principle is that as we pour out everything that God gives us in whatever way that might be, he replaces it with even more and even better. This is an eternal principle. In fact, it's part 0:13:17 - 0:13:47 of His justice and so whatever talents and resources he's blessed you with. If you apply the principles that I'm teaching you, now, you're going to see this and you're going to feel closer to him than you ever have. And one of the reasons that you'll feel greater joy is that through what you do, the 0:13:47 - 0:14:15 people you bless will also feel closer to him than they ever have. And that's a wonderful thing. You know, the magnitude of these things is very hard to convey. It's very hard to convey. But I promise you that if you, if you try these principles in your own life, you're going to see amazing things happen 0:14:14 - 0:14:45 . So I invite you to do that. We're God's Children and just like we do with our Children, he gives us opportunities to take part in his purpose and whatever part we can play in that will be better than anything else we could have done because he is so much better than us. So I invite you to think about 0:14:45 - 0:00:00 these things and apply them in your life. Look for widows and orphans and take the Lord's name upon you by blessing those people with the justice, the positive justice that they deserve.