Tag Archives: injustice

GOOD STILL SPEAKS…REVELATION – 11

July 18, 2026Christian Lifeinjustice, Rejection, revengeLuella Campbell

Revelation…one of the Holy Spirit’s greatest ministries is to reveal Jesus…that we may gaze…contemplate His glory and be changed into His likeness.

“And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.”

‭‭2 Corinthians‬ ‭3‬:‭18‬ ‭NIV‬‬

And so, in recent days, the Spirit still speaks…not so much to correct my waywardness…

“Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, “This is the way; walk in it.”

‭‭Isaiah‬ ‭30‬:‭21‬ ‭NIV‬‬

…but to reveal Jesus to me in ways I could never have discovered without His light.

I will post again one of those rare and beautiful moments when the Holy Spirit led me deep into the heart of Jesus…not only that I might catch glimpses of His glory but also that His glory might spill over into my life…that I, and those who would learn from Him, might understand His ways and follow Him.

Something caught my attention as I was pondering on a Scripture verse in Romans 8. I was searching the Scriptures to find out the real meaning of Jesus’ suffering. I had thought, in my ignorance, that what Jesus suffered was the terrible things that happened to Him when He was crucified, but then…the Holy Spirit began to show me from the Bible, that His suffering was much more than that.

“Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.”

‭‭Romans‬ ‭8‬:‭17‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Paul’s words puzzled me. What if I never suffer like some people suffer for their faith in Jesus? Does this mean that all the people, like me, who never suffer in this way, will not share in His inheritance or reign with Jesus?

So, I wondered, if I must suffer like Jesus suffered, what did He suffer?

Then the Holy Spirit began to speak. The first thing He showed me was that Paul didn’t say that we must suffer FOR Jesus. He said that we must suffer WITH Jesus…alongside Him and in the same way. Our identity and union with Jesus means that we have a part in what He suffered and in the way He suffered.

This thought led me to the next discovery. How and what did Jesus suffer?

Isaiah prophesied…

“He was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering, and familiar with pain. Like one from whom people hide their faces, he was despised, and we held him in low esteem.”

‭‭Isaiah‬ ‭53‬:‭3‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Rejection! He was rejected. He was dismissed and treated as though He were worthless…like rubbish to be thrown into the trash. This is the worst that one person can do to another. They cancelled Him! This must have been the nature of His suffering…so I thought.

So, was it rejection that caused Jesus’ suffering? No, rejection was not the cause, as the Spirit began to show me, but the trigger…

…could it be that His suffering went deeper than than rejection?

Injustice! Was it injustice to reject Him? Why did they reject Him? Why did they crucify Him?

Did Jesus suffer injustice? Yes, He did! Injustice of the worst kind because the religious leaders punished Him by crucifying Him for being who He said He was…the Son of God…

…did He suffer because of injustice …or was it something else?

Jesus could also have responded to injustice in the same way as we do because He was human. He had the same human nature as we have…He could freely have chosen to respond in the right way or the wrong way.

Hebrews tells us that…

“In bringing many sons and daughters to glory, it was fitting that God, for whom and through whom everything exists, should make the pioneer of their salvation perfect through what he suffered…Because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.”

‭‭Hebrews‬ ‭2‬:‭10‬, ‭18‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Now we are slowly getting nearer to the real meaning of Jesus’ suffering…not only what He suffered but also when and how He suffered. When did Jesus suffer? He suffered when He was tempted! His suffering was not about what people did to Him. His suffering was about the way He reacted to what they did to Him. Jesus’ reaction was about revealing what was in Him when He suffered…in His humanity, especially in the way He reacted to injustice.

Why injustice?

Why injustice? Injustice is the one thing that arouses our urge to retaliate. Everything inside us revolts against unjust treatment. “That’s not fair!” and hit back. We retaliate because the other person treats us as worthless, has no regard for who we are… that we are people of worth, created in God’s image.

This truth reaches deep into our souls, and affects us right from the moment someone says or does something unfair…even and especially in our early childhood. A child instinctively revolts! A careless, unthinking comment can damage a child for life even if no harm is intended.

Something like “You can do better…” when a child produces something imperfect, can cause a child to believe that the person was meaning, “You are not good enough,” or even, “You are not wanted.” From that moment on, a child might react to any words or actions that trigger the same belief even if the words are not true. Nasty words, rebellious actions, unruly behaviour…tell the story of retaliation against words or whatever has made them feel rejected by unfair treatment.

People retaliate against injustice by punishing everyone around them, and especially those nearest to them…by bad attitudes and bad behaviour…or punishing themselves by actions and behaviour that cause harm to themselves.

Think about it! A careless comment to a young child spoken even without intention to wound, can be a deep hurt that lodges in the soul and colours everything that is said to or about him/her. From that moment on, the child behaves, and usually overreacts, in a way that retaliates to the perceived hurt. Everything is viewed through the original wound.

“You can do better,” is interpreted as, “You are not good enough…” or “You are imperfect,” or ”I reject you because you don’t measure up to my standard.” Whatever the statement, it is filtered through, “You can do better.”

So, we come to the issue of Jesus’ attitude to retaliation. His life was peppered with rejection. How did He react? Did He defend Himself? Did He hit back? Did He take revenge? No! He refused to retaliate to injustice. He practised self-control…self restraint. He said “No!” to the temptation to vindicate Himself by punishing Himself or others…and therein lies the temptation and the suffering. He always spoke the truth, not out of emotion or out of what others thought or said about Him, but out of who He knew He was…the Son of God.

Consider these words that preceded Jesus’ greatest act of humility as the Son of God. He did the opposite of what any of us would do.

“Jesus knew that the Father had given him authority over everything and that he had come from God and would return to God. So he got up from the table, took off his robe, wrapped a towel around his waist, and poured water into a basin. Then he began to wash the disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel he had around him.”

‭‭John‬ ‭13‬:‭3‬-‭5‬ ‭NLT‬‬

Only someone who knew who he was could do that!

Imagine how difficult it must have been for Him to stay silent during His trial, when His judges accused Him of blasphemy and many other trumped-up charges. He had every reason to defend Himself, but He did not. Before the Sanhedrin…before Pilate…

“Then the high priest stood up before the others and asked Jesus, “Well, aren’t you going to answer these charges? What do you have to say for yourself?” But Jesus was silent and made no reply….”

‭‭Mark‬ ‭14‬:‭60‬-‭62‬ ‭NLT‬‬

“Then the leading priests kept accusing him of many crimes, and Pilate asked him, “Aren’t you going to answer them? What about all these charges they are bringing against you?” But Jesus said nothing, much to Pilate’s surprise.”

‭‭Mark‬ ‭15‬:‭3‬-‭5‬ ‭NLT‬‬

He only responded to the one question He was obliged to answer…and He did so with the truth that sealed His fate.

“Then the high priest asked him, “Are you the Messiah, the Son of the Blessed One?” Jesus said, “I Am. And you will see the Son of Man seated in the place of power at God’s right hand and coming on the clouds of heaven.”

Mark 14:62-62 NLT

Jesus answered this question…not in defence but in testimony. I AM! That was the last straw for His accusers.

“Then the high priest tore his clothing to show his horror and said, “Why do we need other witnesses? You have all heard his blasphemy. What is your verdict?” “Guilty!” they all cried. “He deserves to die!” Then some of them began to spit at him, and they blindfolded him and beat him with their fists. “Prophesy to us,” they jeered. And the guards slapped him as they took him away.”

‭‭Mark‬ ‭14‬:‭63‬-‭65‬ ‭NLT‬‬

Peter summed up Jesus’ attitude throughout His trial. Jesus was not looking for a way to wriggle out of His predicament. He willingly submitted to the Father’s purpose because He was a son who always submitted to and obeyed the Father… and because He knew the outcome. How He reacted to injustice during His last hours was a testimony to His victory over sin in all its forms, throughout His life.

Peter holds up Jesus’ example as a pattern for believers to follow…the only and effective way to respond to injustice…

“But how is it to your credit if you receive a beating for doing wrong and endure it? But if you suffer for doing good and you endure it, this is commendable before God. To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps.”

This is the way we suffer with Jesus, by adopting His attitude and doing what He did.

“He committed no sin, and no deceit was found in his mouth.” When they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate; when he suffered, he made no threats. Instead, he entrusted himself to him who judges justly. “He himself bore our sins” in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; “by his wounds you have been healed.”

‭‭1 Peter‬ ‭2‬:‭20‬-‭24‬

The key to the victory over the onslaught to our identity depends on which way we are looking. Inwardly…we are insulted…we retaliate. Upward…we are untouched. We entrust to the Father the right and power to take revenge because He is just

and He will act for us.

Paul affirms Peter’s counsel with a

command…

“Do not take revenge, my dear friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” says the Lord…Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.”

‭‭Romans‬ ‭12‬:‭19‬, ‭21‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Only by grace and through the power of His Spirit can we follow Jesus’ example. Retaliating to injustice has set the world on fire…everywhere! Refusing to retaliate stops the downward process in its tracks and puts the fire out.

So, why do some people speak and behave in cruel and unjust ways towards others? They are inadvertently giving evidence to their own deep hurt that festers inside themselves, and shows on the outside that their lives are poisoned by their own unresolved rejection.

What is the solution? Cut off the root by honest confession to God and the choice to trust Him for vindication… and the flow of poison will cease.

Do not retaliate! Retaliation in all its forms…anger, bitterness inside or revenge outside, will effectively disqualify you from inheriting the nature of Jesus when you see Him face to face. Confirm His nature being formed in you in this life by entrusting yourself to Him who judges justly. Then you will receive your inheritance in the life to come…the glory of Jesus!

There it is! Shining the light on Jesus, the Holy Spirit revealed to me one of the deepest insights into the character of Jesus I have ever understood… and one of the hardest lessons for me to learn…that I might also share in His suffering…and the glory…and the inheritance to follow.

To be continued

WHY DOES GOD SIT ON HIS HANDS?

January 22, 2021Bible Studyinjustice, violence, wrongdoingLuella Campbell

WHY DOES GOD SIT ON HIS HANDS?

The prophecy that Habakkuk the prophet received.

‘How long, LORD, must I call for help, but you do not listen? Or cry to you, “Violence!” but you do not save? Why do you make me look at injustice? Why do you tolerate wrongdoing? Destruction and violence are before me; there is strife, and conflict abounds. Therefore the law is paralysed, and justice never prevails. The wicked hem in the righteous, so that justice is perverted (Hab. 1: 1-4).

I have chosen this short prophetic book from the Old Testament for our next meditation because it is as relevant for us today as today’s newspaper. In my country, I could be reflecting on information from any of our national newspapers. If ever there was a time for us to heed this message, it’s now because it would be so easy for God’s children to be thrown off balance without God’s perspective on earthly circumstances.

This short message was not directed at the prophet’s people or the nations round about him. This was his personal encounter with God. From his perspective, things looked pretty bad. In spite of the fact that his people were God’s people, wherever he looked, he saw violence and injustice. They were in a covenant relationship with God. They were supposed to obey Him and follow His ways so that they could be a witness to the ungodly people around them that their God was the true God and that He was holy.

But they were no different from the heathen. Why? Because they had abandoned the God who delivered them from slavery in Egypt, and replaced Him with the vile idol gods of their neighbours. Wherever Habakkuk looked, he saw the effects of their idolatry. His own people were just as evil as the heathen and he could not understand why God allowed them to carry on living wicked lives. Why did He not step in and do something?

Sounds familiar, doesn’t it? How often I hear the same complaint, not only from God’s people but also from those who don’t even acknowledge Him. “If God is a God of love, why did He allow this, that or the other to happen?” For His own people, the goings on around them is a cause for doubt and fear. For the unbeliever, it’s an excuse to reject His authority and ignore their accountability to Him.

First of all, this way of thinking comes from a misunderstanding of who God is and how He works. People, and even His own people, think that God is some kind of puppeteer who has people on a string and makes them move the way He wants them to move. They forget that God honours the gift He gave humankind when He made the first man – free will – and He never overrides their freedom to choose, not matter what they do. He cannot and will not make people do what they do not choose to do or be.

Secondly, they forget that man chose to overthrow God’s authority over hm. Adam was deceived. He listened to the devil’s insinuation that God was unloving and unfair. The result is the mess the world is in right now. What goes on in the world is not God’s fault – it’s ours. Human wickedness created the chaos without God’s help because we chose to make our own rules, and now the world is ensnared in its own evil ways.

Thirdly, God must follow His own rules. He is perfectly just. He cannot simply step in and arbitrarily change the way people behave. He is not indifferent to their suffering. In fact, He has reassured His people again and again that He is always with them. He suffers with them. He grieves over what people do to each other. This is not what He intended the world to be like.

However, He can only work through people’s choices. Does this mean that God is powerless to intervene in an apparently hopeless situation? Is He subject to human beings? What kind of a God is He? How can we have confidence in Him when it seems that man is in charge? What’s the use of praying when God seems not to hear us or when He sits on His hands and does nothing?

Don’t you love Habakkuk’s honesty? God did! He did not swat him out of existence for questioning Him. He is like that. We are allowed to question Him as long as it not in defiance or disrespect. God always responds to us when we come to Him in humility – remembering that He is God and we are not. Whatever we may think, and however wrong we may be, there is no excuse for losing our holy fear of God or speaking to Him disrespectfully.

Habakkuk was genuinely looking for answers. So was another of God’s righteous people, Job, but God did not answer Job in the way He answered Habbakuk. Job accused God of being unjust and God did not take his accusation lightly. In Habakkuk’s situation, he was puzzled because of God’s seeming indifference to the situation and His inactivity in spite of the prophet’s urgent pleas for help. God wanted him to understand the bigger picture because, as a prophet, he had a job to do – to be a spokesman for God to the people. He had to interpret current events in the light of God’s character and ways.

God responded to Habbakuk’s questions with a surprising and disturbing answer – which we shall discuss tomorrow.

Check out my blogsite at www.learningtobeason.wordpress.com

FORGIVENESS – A TRUE STORY

July 16, 2018Testimoniesforgiveness, grace, injustice, oppressionLuella Campbell

The scene is a Truth and Reconciliation courtroom in South Africa.

A frail black woman rises slowly to her feet. She is something over 70 years of age. Facing across the room are several white security police officers, one of whom, Mr van der Broek, has just been tried and found implicated in the murders of both the woman’s son and her husband some years before. He had come to the woman’s home, taken her son, shot him at point blank range and then set the young man’s body on fire while he and his officers partied nearby.

Several years later, van der Broek and his cohorts had returned to take away her husband as well. For many months she heard nothing of his whereabouts. Then almost two years after her husband’s disappearance, van der Broek came to her house to fetch the woman herself. How vividly she remembers that evening, going to a place beside a river where she was shown her husband, bound and beaten, but still strong in spirit, lying on a pile of wood. The last words she heard from his lips as the officers poured petrol over his body and set him aflame were,” Father, forgive them…”

Now the woman stands in the courtroom and listens to the confessions offered by Mr van der Broek. A member of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission turns to her and asks “So what do you want? How should justice be done to this man who has so brutally destroyed your family?”

“I want three things,” begins the old woman calmly but confidently. “I want first to be taken to the place where my husband’s body was burned so that I can gather up the dust and give his remains a decent burial.”

She pauses, and then continues. “My husband and son were my only family, I want secondly, therefore, for Mr van der Broek to become my son. I would like for him to come twice a month to our township to spend a day with me so that I can pour out on him whatever love I still have remaining in me.”

“And finally,” she says, “ I want a third thing. This is also the wish of my husband. I would like someone to come to my side and lead me across the courtroom. I wish to take Mr van der Broek in my arms and embrace him, to let him know that he is truly forgiven.” As the court assistants come to lead the elderly woman across the room, Mr van der Broek, overwhelmed by what he has just heard, faints. As he does, those in the courtroom, family, friends, neighbours – all victims of decades of oppression and injustice – begin to sing, softly but assuredly, “Amazing grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me.”

Why Does God Sit On His Hands?

May 3, 2015Bible Studycall, help, injustice, listen, saveLuella Campbell

WHY DOES GOD SIT ON HIS HANDS?

The prophecy that Habakkuk the prophet received.

I have chosen this short prophetic book from the Old Testament for our next meditation because it is as relevant for us today as today’s newspaper. In my country I could be reflecting on information from any of our national newspapers.

This short message was not directed at the prophet’s people or the nations round about him. This was his personal encounter with God. From his perspective, things looked pretty bad. In spite of the fact that his people were God’s people, wherever he looked he saw violence and injustice. They were in a covenant relationship with God. They were supposed to obey Him and follow His ways so that they could be a witness to the ungodly people around them that their God was the true God and that He was holy.

Thirdly, God must follow His own rules. He is perfectly just. He cannot simply step in and arbitrarily change the way people behave. He is not indifferent to their suffering. In fact He has reassured His people again and again that He is always with them. He suffers with them. He grieves over what people do to each other. This is not what He intended the world to be like.

But He can only work through people’s choices. Does this mean that God is powerless to intervene in an apparently hopeless situation? Is He subject to human beings? What kind of a God is He? How can we have confidence in Him when it seems that man is in charge? What’s the use of praying when God does not hear us or when He sits on His hands and does nothing?

Habakkuk was genuinely looking for answers. So was another of God’s righteous people, Job, but God did not answer Job in the way He answered Habbakuk. Job accused God of being unjust and God did not take his accusation lightly. In Habakkuk’s situation, he was puzzled because of God’s seeming indifference to the situation and His inactivity in spite of the prophet’s urgent pleas for help. God wanted him to understand the bigger picture because, as a prophet, he had a job to do – be a spokesman for God to the people. He had to interpret current events in the light of God’s character and ways.

God responded to Habbakuk’s questions with a surprising and disturbing answer – which we shall discuss tomorrow.

Available on www.amazon.com or www.kalahari.com in paperback, e-book or kindle format, or order directly from the publisher at www.partridgepublishing.com.

Check out my blogsite at www.learningtobeason.wordpress.com

Who Said Life Is Fair?

April 22, 2013Christian Lifebribery, false witnesses, injusticeLuella Campbell

WHO SAID LIFE IS FAIR?

“That stirred up the people, the religious leaders and religion scholars. They grabbed Stephen and took him before the High Council. They put forward their bribed witnesses to testify. ‘This man talks nonstop against this Holy Place and God’s Law. We even heard him say that Jesus of Nazareth would tear this place down and throw out all the customs Moses gave us.’

“As all those who sat on the High Council looked at Stephen, they found they couldn’t take their eyes off him — his face was like the face of an angel.” Acts 6:12-15 (The Message).

Talk about bribery and corruption! The gloves were off and from now on the fight was on, not only against the leaders of the church, but also against anyone who claimed allegiance to Jesus.

Because of his godly life and powerful witness, backed up by the miracles God was doing through him as a testimony to the truth about Jesus, Stephen got the unwelcome attention of a group of freed Jewish slaves who were members of the synagogue of Freed Men, according to Luke. With lies and bribery they cooked up a story about him and dragged him before the Sanhedrin — the same group of men who had it in for Jesus and His followers.

Was there any hope of justice from these prejudiced leaders who had already shown their true colours in their dealings with Jesus and with the apostles? Their agenda was not about what was right but about who was right, and they thought they were and they used their clout to prove it, or so they thought.

They were willing to give their ear to anyone who told stories to their advantage. At least these men who had arrested Stephen had the good sense to bribe more than one witness! Jewish law demanded the testimony of two or three witnesses to find a man guilty of the charge. Interesting that their charge was the same one that was thrown at Jesus, a twisted version of His statement, “Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up again.” John 2:10 (NIV)

The first question we are tempted to ask in this terrible situation is: ‘Where was God in all this?’ How can God allow this kind of thing to happen to His own followers? It’s the same question we ask when we are treated unfairly. Why does God sit on His hands when life throws us a curved ball?

God is sovereign. He has the power to intervene in any situation but He doesn’t. Why? Firstly, He gave man the gift of choice and He will not override that even to prevent people from destroying themselves or others but…every person will have to give an account of the choices they made.

Secondly, in a way beyond our understanding, He turns even the worst that humans can do to His children to our good and to His glory. What they did to Jesus is a case in point. Even losing our lives is not the worst that God-haters can do to us. Our lives are secure in Him, but His kingdom grows on the testimony of those whose love and loyalty cannot be destroyed by the threat of death.

The story of Stephen is an illustration of the miracle of God’s ways. Every seed sown in the ground produces a multiplicity of seeds. It was so with the life of Jesus and it so with every person who lays down his life for the Master.

Does that mean we have to die to be of any value in God’s kingdom? Yes, but not necessarily in the literal sense. A true disciple of Jesus is one who denies himself, takes up the cross daily and follows Him. Perhaps the daily inward dying is more difficult than the once-off physical dying for Him.

A dead person is beyond resenting the unfairness that life dishes up to us. Dying to ourselves frees us from the emotional storms we experience at the choices other people make that affect us. Our times are in God’s hands and He is able to make all things work for the good of those who love Him and are called according to His purpose, because He is shaping us into sons like Jesus.

Ebenezer Family Church

HE IS RISEN!