Star Words - Justice

The folks at Westminster Presbyterian Church, Galveston drew stars out of a basket on January 8, 2017 as part of our celebration of Epiphany, the day that tradition says the wise men were guided to the baby Jesus by a star.   Each star had a different word on it.  We were challenged to ponder our words and consider how God might use these star words to guide us.  We are sharing the stories of how our words have been in our thoughts already.  Here is one of those stories.

Justice
By Jessica Clarke
January 14, 2017

My star word was Justice and I began thinking about it.  First I remembered an old joke I learned in college at LSU (1968) told by a girl from Houston, Texas who was one of my apartment mates that year.  The joke began: “There ain't no justice in this land …” and I shant put the rest down on paper, but oddly enough, it is one of the two jokes I was told in my whole life that I can recite without even thinking about it.  Both are short!  Then I thought about the old saying: "Judge not, that ye be not judged." (Matt 7:1-3)  In other words, we don’t have the right to mete out justice, if we ourselves are full of sins.

I looked up the word Justice on the computer and, of course, it means using “just behavior or treatment”, i.e., “a concern for justice, peace, and genuine respect for people.”  Its synonyms are: fairness, fair play, equity, impartiality, objectivity, neutrality, honesty, righteousness, and morality.  Wouldn’t it be wonderful if our politicians, leaders, friends, etc., as well as ourselves would adhere to all these terms all the time.   

And how timely to get my star word, Justice, since never in my life have I been as disturbed by American politics as I have with this recent election … really to the point of worrying “what is happening to our country.”  This is requiring a lot of prayer.

Then by chance I found an internet article entitled “God is Just” that summed it up perfectly: 

“The Bible tells us that God is just.  This means that He is fair and impartial.  It also means that He hates the ill-treatment and oppression of people and of nature, which He has created.  He hates lying, cheating, and other forms of mistreatment of others.  The fact that God is just means that He can and will judge between right and wrong and He will administer justice in accordance with His standards." —http://www.allaboutGOD.com/god-is-just.htm   

Don-ta-Don! (Beginning of Dragnet theme song played here)

Everyone, please read this blog at the above address!  It says to act justly, God is patiently waiting for us to accept His Grace, He wants us not to have to pay the penalty justice requires for our sins.

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Share your story in the comments below.  Also comment if you would like us to send you a star word.