Blog #88 June 10, 2024
Psalms 89:14-15
89:14 Justice and judgment are the habitation of thy throne; mercy and truth shall go before thy face.
89:15 Blessed is the people that know the joyful sound; they shall walk, O Lord, in the light of thy countenance.
As we grow in the ways of the Kingdom we come to find that rules and laws become burdens in the same way grace and mercy cease to be just rewards for a job well done. Growing closer to the oneness we seek with God, both of these become so much more. In a time to come when God's ways become our ways, too, we will come to recognize both justice and mercy as helpful way to describe the tools God teaches us to use as we labor with Him to build His Kingdom. It becomes abundantly clear without mercy justice becomes a redundant unenforceable liability, and without justice mercy is a useless lie. We need both if we are to become God's people. We must support and endorse both if we are to be His Kingdom. The proper balance between God's justice and His mercy nurtures the growth of the Kingdom in the hearts and lives of all of God's children.
Proverbs 11:1 A false balance is an abomination to the Lord; but a just weight is his delight.
Leviticus 19:35-37
19:35 Ye shall do no unrighteousness in judgment, in meteyard, in weight, or in measure.
19:36 Just balances, just weights, a just ephah, and a just hin, shall ye have; I am the Lord your God, which brought you out of the land of Egypt.
19:37 Therefore shall ye observe all my statutes, and all my judgments, and do them; I am the Lord.
Our God is a righteous God and His righteousness creates a standard, which allows us to clearly compare obedience to rebellion. A just balance becomes much needed wisdom when we compare the acts of man to God's principles of righteousness. Within this comparison, God reveals to each their individual worth. By this comparison, each of us comes to realize our strengths that support the Kingdom, our frailties that challenge the ways of God, and their place within our heart. Because of this comparison, all gain knowledge, understanding, and direction.
Alma 19:99 Now, how could a man repent, except he should sin? How could he sin, if there was no law? How could there be a law, save there was a punishment?
As His children and by the standards and laws He gave us, we are able to compare God to that which is righteousness. In this, the distance between God and us is made clear and the path to Him is made plain. In the light of His truth, we find that the way to God travels through repentance and that true redemption can only happen if we reconcile ourselves fully to His ways. Justice describes those ways. As we grow to grasp them fully, we find the ways of justice to be more than just rules to obey. When we discover that the ways of justice are those ways, which create both righteousness and life we have opened our eyes to the fullness of God's mercy.
Alma 19:104 But there is a law given and a punishment affixed, and repentance granted; which repentance, mercy claimeth: otherwise, justice claimeth the creature, and executeth the law, and the law inflicteth the punishment; if not so, the works of justice would be destroyed, and God would cease to be God.
God’s just weights and balances are ours to learn, ponder, and understand. They never vary and are the same yesterday, today, and forever. Within them, we flourish and grow. Outside of them we fail in the ways of the Kingdom. They are the standards to which all will be compared. We can compare both God and Christ to these standards and they will be found acceptable. By comparing ourselves to these standards, we find God, Christ, His Holy Spirit, and their place in our lives.
Proverbs 16:11 A just weight and balance are the Lord's; all the weights of the bag are his work.
When we choose to use God's justice as a way to guide our life, His Spirit opens our hearts to a path of for us to follow. We will soon come to realize that the path we walk is the fullness of God's mercy. Through His mercy, we become able to determine for ourselves the place we inhabit as compared to the place we seek to be. It allows us to choose with more understanding, the attitudes we need to add or subtract from our lives that we might grow closer to God and more complete in His wisdom. In humility to God's Spirit we learn how to add to our life all that builds the Kingdom in our hearts, and subtract from our life those "things" that cause us to see the Kingdom as a burden to great to bear.
Philippians 4:8 Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just; whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.
As we grow in God's ways we will begin to see and understand how God offers us ways that adhere to just weights and balances.
Proverbs11:2 When pride cometh, then cometh shame; but with the lowly is wisdom.
Pride is a disease of the soul, which degrades the wisdom of God. It directly opposes humility and clouds our mind with the importance of worldly standards. It perverts God’s own righteousness and hides us from the true love of God. It tips the balance in favor of chaos causing us to turn away from God and travel paths that lead to death. Even those that knew God and have tasted of His ways and His love can be infected with this dread disease.
1 Nephi 2:69-76
2:69 And they did press forward through the mist of darkness, clinging to the rod of iron, even until they did come forth and partake of the fruit of the tree.
2:70 And after they had partaken of the fruit of the tree they did cast their eyes about as if they were ashamed.
2:71 And I also cast my eyes round about, and beheld on the other side of the river of water a great and spacious building;
2:72 And it stood as it were in the air, high above the earth;
2:73 And it was filled with people, both old and young, both male and female;
2:74 And their manner of dress was exceeding fine;
2:75 And they were in the attitude of mocking and pointing their fingers towards those who had come at, and were partaking of the fruit.
2:76 And after they had tasted of the fruit they were ashamed, because of those that were scoffing at them; and they fell away into forbidden paths and were lost.
1 Nephi 3:93 And it came to pass that I saw and bear record, that the great and spacious building was the pride of the world;
Though pride is an awesome challenge to our walk with God and a source of bondage that the world heartily approves of, in God we have a choice. Integrity is God's answer to the challenge of pride. Integrity humbles itself before truth and protects the innocent from the ravages of lustful pride.
Psalms 26:1-3
26:1 Judge me, O Lord; for I have walked in mine integrity; I have trusted also in the Lord; therefore I shall not slide.
26:2 Examine me, O Lord, and prove me; try my reins and my heart.
26:3 For thy loving-kindness is before mine eyes; and I have walked in thy truth.
As we reach out to others sharing God's ways it becomes crucial that the world around us can depend on the integrity of both our words and our deeds. Children act in innocence because of their ability to trust completely those who teach them. Until they gain sufficient knowledge and understanding to form their own integrity, they rely on the integrity of their teachers. Like the child, we rely on the integrity of God through the Spirit. Only our complete trust in His ways will allow us the growth that will create within us an integrity which can overcome the lust of the world and the bondage of doubt it can foster within us. The wisdom of God carries with it the integrity we seek. In that wisdom, we not only know the ways of God; we grow to trust them enough to make them our own.
Leviticus 19:36 Just balances, just weights, a just ephah, and a just hin, shall ye have; I am the Lord your God, which brought you out of the land of Egypt.
God promises us that in all "things" there will be just weight and balances. Are we assured here that we will always understand God's methods and that we will grasp fully all that God has let come to pass? No, sadly we are still just His children all to familiar with the ways of man. In man...."things" happen. With no rhyme or reason, they just happen, and though it fills us with sorrow; we have come to expect and accept the ways of man as sorrow. What God promises us is that all that He does is done for a reason that finds it purpose in the Kingdom. Brethren, we can trust that, but God promises us more. Not only will we be offered the knowledge to understand and accept what was does; we will come to support it and endorse it.
1 Peter 3:15 But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts; and be ready always to give an answer with meekness and fear to every man that asketh of you a reason for the hope that is in you:
In the fullness of truth we will be able to willing sanctify God before the world of man. It is so very important that we understand fully our place in God's Kingdom and the labor our covenant with God brings with it. Priesthood reaches out to the world with the Gospel of the Kingdom. Priesthood gathers the people together that they might be able to accept and live the ways of the Father. Priesthood teaches us how to open our hearts to the Spirit that we might walk a path of redemption together to the Father, but it is our ability to be a people living a testimony of God at work in the world of man that will open the hearts of the world to the Kingdom of God on earth as it is in Heaven. The ability to know and recognize God's just weights and balances strengthens our determination to allow God to be our God and us to be His people.
Know God and
Have joy in the knowledge.
Fred
Create With me Our Testimony of God at Work in the World of Man.