"BUT IT'S NOT FAIR!! IT'S WRONG!!"

Romans 12:19, "Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God's wrath, for it is written: 'It is mine to avenge; I will repay,' says the Lord."

There are few things that are more painful to me than to find out that I was betrayed by someone who I thought I could trust. Or to find out that someone who I thought was my friend was saying slanderous things about me behind my back. Or that they were falsely accusing me of something. When it happens, my knee jerk reaction is to either lash out in revenge or set the record straight in a way that I will put them in their place.

Of course, the greatest example of someone who was wrongfully accused was our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. The accusations brought against him were completely false and yet he allowed himself to be punished wrongfully in order to save us. But there's another great example of a man who was wrongfully accused, Joseph.

You may remember the story of Joseph, how he was sold by his brothers into slavery in Egypt. He was bought by Potiphar. His wife had a crush on him and tried to seduce him. When he refused, she accused him of trying to sexually assault her. It was bad enough that she falsely accused him, but she accused him of the very thing that SHE was guilty of.

Sometime later, Joseph has the miraculous day where he wakes up in the prison, but goes to bed in the palace. In one day he went from being a prisoner to the prime minister of Egypt. He was the second most powerful man in the world at that time.

One thing I find interesting about the story of Joseph is that there is no indication that he ever attempted to set things straight. He certainly could have. Nothing is said about whether he went back and dealt with Potiphar and his wife. But we do know how he dealt with his brothers who had done such a hateful thing to him. Genesis 50:19-20 must have sounded like beautiful music to his brothers:

"But Joseph said to them, 'Don't be afraid. Am I in the place of God? You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving many lives."

God had actually used the evil actions of his brothers to save the lives of the people of the near east; which ironically, included them, and possibly Potiphar and his wife (assuming they were still alive).

But you may ask: Is God really using the injustice done to me for good? Romans 8:28 says that God works in ALL THINGS (my caps) for the good to those who are called according to his purpose. So the answer is, yes.  He is using everything to mold and shape us into the image of his son, who:
"when they hurled insults at him, he did not retaliate; when he suffered, he made no threats. Instead, he entrusted himself to him who judges justly."(1 Peter2:23). 
Sometimes when these things happen, and we are slandered and unjustly accused, God may be orchestrating events in order to position us to be used in a mighty way for his glory. It was certainly the case in Joseph's case. And he could see that the sovereign hand of God had been moving in order to put him in the place where he would become the ruler of Egypt. It does happen, and it's not uncommon. But if we allow ourselves to be eaten up by bitterness, unforgiveness, and a desire for revenge, we will completely miss out on what God may be doing. I recently heard someone say that we must be in a position that God is able to work in our lives. And that means having our hearts and minds in tune with him.

I don't believe that it means pretending that it doesn't hurt. Some things hurt! And they hurt bad! But it does mean that when it hurts really bad, that we cry out to our heavenly Father and give it to him in surrendered trust. Don't focus on trying to get justice through your own efforts. Let God, "who judges justly", do what he is going to do and let him implement his own plan.

The most important thing is if we do allow God to handle the situation in the way he wants to, we will come out on the other side looking more like Jesus. And if we look more like Jesus, we become much more useful servants to our Lord and Master, and God may implement a greater plan than what he had us doing before.

Go with God and may you be richly blessed.

Don't Allow Weeds to Grow in The Church

The Parable of The Weeds (Matt 13:24-29)

Just to paraphrase the Parable of the Weeds, Jesus tells the story of a farmer planting good seed in his field. During the night an enemy came and planted weeds among the wheat. Of course both came up and the servants asked if they should go and pull up the weeds. The farmer said not to because the servants might end up pulling up the good wheat along with the weeds.

This is later explained that the wheat are the children of the kingdom and the weeds are the children of the evil one. Both are allowed to grow and live together until the judgment. Then Jesus will separate the good from the bad. The children of the evil one will go to their judgment and the children of the Kingdom into glory.

Often this is explained that the church will contain both children of the kingdom and of the evil one. Too may times it is used as an excuse to not properly exercise church discipline. However, Jesus clearly explained that it is NOT the case. In verse 38 of chapter 13 Jesus said, "The field is the world". He didn't say that the field is the church.
When you understand that the field is the world, it is easy to understand what he meant when he said that if the servants uproot the children of the evil one at the present time, they might end up pulling up the children of the kingdom.

In 1 Corinthians 5: 9-11, Paul explains that when he says not to associate with immoral people, he is not refering to the people of the world, but to those who call themselves believers but persist in immoral lifestyles:

"I have written you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people --not at all meaning the people of this world who are immoral, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters. In that case you would have to leave this world. But now I am writing you that you must not associate with anyone who calls himself a brother but is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or a slanderer a drunkard or a swindler. With such a man do not even eat." 

Using a little imagination one can easily understand the implications if God judged the wicked now. The entire infrastructure we depend on would collapse. Food and fuel would not get delivered. The power would go out, and so on.

The point is that the church is not supposed to look like this. Rebellious sin is not to be tolerated within the church body. Of course, there will be unbelievers within the walls of the church buildings. And there should be. The fact is, almost all of us at one time were unbelievers attending a church gathering. The hope and goal is that one day every unbeliever attending a church gathering will one day become a believer as well. Or, if not, after a time they will no longer be comfortable and will leave. The church should not be a place where a "weed" can flourish as a weed. We are to be distinct. 1 Peter 2:9 says:

"But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light."

If the church looks like the rest of the world or allows herself to be contaminated by the world, it will not be able to declare his praises. Instead the church may be guilty of profaning his name among the nations just as the nation of Judah had done. (Ezek. 36:22)
May it not be said of us that we profaned God's name because we wanted to be like the rest of the world.
May God bless you.

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