How is the study going for you? I'm really enjoying each chapter, they're short and easy to read but have lots to think about.... I read this chapter twice which I think was good.... I'd love to hear from a few more of you this next week even if it's just a sentence or paragraph....
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The verses that spoke to me this week were:
Ps 51:10 "Create in me a clean heart, O God and
just Spirit. It makes sense in that I can ask for clean heart but His Spirit will have to be working in me with a just response instead of the old way of thinking. When we pray this prayer to have God created in us a clean heart and give us a right Spirit it is only possible by God and His Holy Spirit to do that in us. A good test is to see if we are looking at this justly of if we go back to our old habits.
Ps 33:5 also speaks to me in that the Lord loves righteousness and justice. He loves those two things according to this verse so we are thinking thoughts that are righteous and just we are in His love.
"Right thoughts lead to righteous character and there are multiple promises regarding that:" looking forward to having more true, honest and just thoughts which not only changes our minds but our hearts too. (taken from pg 52)
Blessings, Cathy
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Synonyms: impartial, nondiscriminatory, reasonable, correct, ethical,
Antonyms: wrong, unethical, incorrect, partial, unjust, discriminatory.
Our
desire to do what is right, I believe, is often influenced and
compromised when we become part of and desire to remain part of a group
that doesn’t hold to what is right, because now we don’t just have the
normal pressure of the situation now we also have the added pressure of
friends telling us not to worry about it, that it’s not a big deal and
too much trouble to go back and pay the cashier who only charged you for
one meal and not the three that were ordered.
Jesus demonstrated facing unjust authority when (Matthew 12:9-14) He knew the Pharisees were very strict about people not doing work on the Sabbath and would keep people from even doing what was right on the Sabbath, and so He defied their authority and did what was right by healing a man’s hand.
I love the verse that “The prospects of the righteous are joy” (Proverbs 10:28) We may not have gotten any financial benefit when we returned that wallet we found in the parking lot,
Given
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Pondering on thoughts of "just" thoughts I realize that I have a lot of thoughts about what is just and fair, I think a lot of people do. He talked a lot about desiring justice for others, but I am unfortunately a lot more concerned with justice for me than I am about justice for "the other guy". I have a strongly developed sense of justice, rightness and what ought to be. I pride myself on doing the "right thing" and I don't know what to do with thoughts that others aren't acting according to this sense of right. As I ponder this I realize that I easily forget that the cross is where justice is found and it is only Christ's righteousness that covers me adequately therefore, I need to consider His righteousness an adequate cover for my "brother" .... Justice and thoughts of right start with Jesus and are only really possible through Him.
I also pondered this chapter in terms of education. This quote, "It is the mission of the teacher, not to make his pupils think, but to make them think right." - H.L.Mencken I listened to part of a podcast - Fairy Tales and the Moral Imagination
this week and think it connects in some way. He says that giving children stories like this help them to have true and right understanding of Kingdom principles. Children need to be helped to think "Right" thoughts. The things we choose to read to them and encourage them to read will help develop right thinking. Of course these principles work for our own thinking as well - what we expose ourselves to affect our thinking.
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