Sometimes Truth is stranger than Fiction!
Many times in life we find ourselves in the Courtroom game. Sometimes playing the Judge, sometimes the Accused! The truth is none of us need to play this game anymore. Read on to find out why….
1. Are we worthy to be seated in the jury box?
I don’t believe that any of us will ever be qualified enough to play Jury. Let us look at some of the qualifications required:
a)The jury should be incorrupt:
Ringing in my ears is the wise, non-judgmental and compassionate words of Holy Jesus. “Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” ………“Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?”“No one, sir,” she said. “Then neither do I condemn you, go and sin no more.” John 8:7-11
How ironical that the one person who could rightfully judge her, is the person who actually acquits her!
b) The jury should have all the facts and evidence:
When we point fingers at someone, do we really know what they are going through? A well known saying goes like this: “Don’t judge a man until you have walked a mile in his shoes.”
John 7:24:“Do not judge by appearances, but judge with right judgment.”
Many times what appears to be right may not necessarily be so and what appears to be wrong may not also be so.
c) The jury must give the accused a chance to defend himself:
Do we ever bother to actually give the accused person a chance to explain his actions and the reason behind them? Aren’t we sometimes victims influenced by the words of others and silently write off people whom we really know nothing about?
2. Do we need to play the Accused?
Sometimes we find ourselves at the other end of the table with accusing fingers pointed towards us: We may wrongly be accused about something we are innocent of. In Job 1:6-12 we read the account of satan accusing Job whom God was commending.
We must remember our Lord’s perfect example 1 Peter 2: 23:“He did not retaliate when he was insulted, nor threaten revenge when he suffered. He left his case in the hands of God, who always judges fairly.”
I’d like to share you the final words of Charles Cowman which can give us strength when criticized/misrepresented unjustly:
“Men may misjudge thy aim, think they have cause to blame,
say thou art wrong –
Hold thou thy quiet way, heed not what men may say;
Christ is the Judge – not they;
fear not, be strong!
Be brave, and dare to stand alone against the foe;
thy Savior stood alone for thee
long, long ago.
Be not a coward in the fight - look up! Be strong!
The morn of victory is near –
the day of song.”
say thou art wrong –
Hold thou thy quiet way, heed not what men may say;
Christ is the Judge – not they;
fear not, be strong!
Be brave, and dare to stand alone against the foe;
thy Savior stood alone for thee
long, long ago.
Be not a coward in the fight - look up! Be strong!
The morn of victory is near –
the day of song.”
The truth is we really do not need to play the Accused any more since He took that role from us already. Rom 8:34 “No one can condemn us , only Jesus who died for us and was raised to life for us, and he is sitting in the place of honor at God's right hand, pleading for us.”
3. No longer the Accusers, nor the Accused but the Peace-makers:
Mathew 5:9: “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.”
This means that we must try our best for reconciliation even when we have been wronged. Math 18:15:"If your brother sins against you, go and confront him while the two of you are alone. If he listens to you, you have won back your brother.” We need to strike a balance between accusing anyone without giving him a chance to explain himself and ignoring the offense without giving him a chance to correct himself. Hence I’d say the win-win solution is to openly confront, but always in love. When this is done, the matter is usually solved and the relationship is restored. Often however, we may not get the response that we expected but if it doesn’t, we need not worry about that. This is the true meaning of the “If it is possible” in Rom 12:18:“If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. Reconciliation is possible only when both people want it and sometimes it will require some more prayer on our part for it to reach that stage. At such times, we need to tarry in prayer with the faith that the matter is now out of our hands and safely in His.
Let us decide to stop this Courtroom game today itself. The Courtroom is actually in the heavenly realms and the players are already assigned: CHIEF JURY IS GOD, CHIEF ADVOCATE IS JESUS CHRIST and CHIEF ACCUSER is Satan.
I’m sure that you will agree with me that we have got much better things to do in life than play COURT!
Have a blessed week!
Take care, God bless
Sparky Laurie
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