{"id":21303,"date":"2017-02-21T00:10:56","date_gmt":"2017-02-21T08:10:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lccredding.com\/lcc\/?p=10092"},"modified":"2017-02-21T00:10:56","modified_gmt":"2017-02-21T08:10:56","slug":"february-21-2017","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/2017\/02\/21\/february-21-2017\/","title":{"rendered":"February 21, 2017"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

\u201cGod is the Judge: He puts down one, and exalts another.\u201d<\/em> Psalm 75:7<\/span><\/p>\n

Wisdom\u2019s Judgment<\/span><\/strong><\/h2>\n

I served on a jury one time where the judge was very strict in the courtroom. This judge had rules we all had to abide by. There was a certain decorum and attitude with which we had to walk in the door each morning. If we didn\u2019t appear to be on board with everything the judge required, we could expect a public confrontation and possible humiliation\u2014and we weren\u2019t even the defendant!<\/span><\/p>\n

This may be how we picture earthly judges, but we must be careful not to carry this definition of \u201cjudge\u201d into our understanding of our heavenly Judge. The Scripture above may lead us to think that God\u2019s standards and decisions are arbitrarily decided, based on His whims.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Indeed, a Day is coming when He will pour out His wrath in judgment against the wicked. But the Hebrew meaning of \u201cJudge\u201d is not quite what we imagine. When God is called Judge, it means that He has that divine faculty whereby He runs the universe righteously, handing down decisions that will maintain or bring about a right state of affairs.* Only One with all wisdom can decide matters so we\u2019ll live in a right state of affairs. Not \u201cright\u201d as in good or easy or fair at the moment (for He is not constrained by our moments), but for eternal purposes. That is righteous judgment.<\/span><\/p>\n

This knowledge helps me accept with real submission the hardest things in life. Right now, I am walking through the fact that God has judged it would be best\u2014in His righteous running of the universe, in His maintenance of a right state of affairs\u2014to halt an adoption process in our family. This much-anticipated baby will not be living among us. She will not have the name that was chosen for her. She will not wear the clothes nor play with the toys bought for her. I can feel angry about this, or I can say, as Job did, \u201cThe Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the Name of the Lord\u201d<\/em> (Job 1:21).<\/span><\/p>\n

We are the recipients of many blessings, but this baby is not to be one of them. God means this circumstance to bring good to us\u2014but the good will be something other than the baby.<\/span><\/p>\n

The baby things are put away behind closed doors. The nursery has been cleared of all reminders except one\u2014a wall hanging that says \u201cLo\"loveve You Forever.\u201d \u00a0We\u00a0are to love unconditionally, even from a place of deep pain and loss. This little one will be remembered and prayed for, and perhaps that is what it was all about in the first place: she needed people to pray for her. Who knows what she will face in life? We have a chance to advocate for her before the throne of God, and if it wasn\u2019t for this planned adoption, we would not have known about her.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cFather, may we learn to accept Your decisions. One day we will know why hard things were necessary. In Your time, give us understanding. Amen.\u201d<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

*Spirit-Filled Life Bible<\/span><\/em><\/h4>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cGod is the Judge: He puts down one, and exalts another.\u201d Psalm 75:7 Wisdom\u2019s Judgment I served on a jury […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[47],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21303","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-women"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p92wjD-5xB","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21303","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21303"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21303\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21303"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21303"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21303"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}