The following student report was submitted by Ambassador League Agent Courtney B. during the 2008-2009 League.
Mission: Research - Justice & Mercy*
God is a compassionate and gracious god, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness. as is says in Psalm 86:15. God is also just in every way and punishes those who need to be punished. We just need to let him do the punishing and not us.
Even though God knows what he is doing we sometimes don't like how he punishes us or we don’t think he is being fair. In Nehemiah 9:32-35 they thought God was being just and fair but in Ezekiel 18:25-32 they didn't like what God was doing and dint think he was being fair. As 1 Peter 3:18 points out, God died for all of us, to set us free from sin and judgment, so no matter what, he we are getting better then we deserve.
God desires us to try and be like him in every way and to be righteous men and women. In Genesis 18:19 we are told that we need to direct his children to do what is right and just. Micah 6:8 tells us we need to act justly, love mercy and walk humbly with him. We need to do what is right and keep from doing evil as it says in Isaiah 56:1-2. In Zechariah 7:10 it tells us we need to be careful what we think about because thinking of sinning is just as bad as actually doing it. We should have died for our own sins, but since Christ did it for us, we should be extremely happy and have mercy on others, as He has on us. Instead we try to be selfish and do what we want instead of helping others. For example, in Matthew 18:23-27, a man owed a lot of money but the guy to whom he owed it to let him off the hook. The man's own servant Instead of being just to the guy that owed him money, but he sent his servant to jail because he couldn’t pay him back.If he had imitated Christ, he would have forgiven the debt.
God promises that he will take care of all of our sins and punish us in any way he sees fit. We will get what we deserve in the end for what we do. As Numbers 32:23 says our sins will find us, no matter what we try and do if we try to hide them. No one ever gets away with their sins. If God doesn’t punish us here on earth, he will when we die. Unless, of course, His judgment is to give mercy and wipe our sins away (Isaiah 1:18). Everyone has done wrong and everyone will be judged by for his thoughts and his actions.
Sometimes people will try and make excuses for their sins but in Ezra 9:13 it says that what has happened to us is because of our own evil deeds, But God has taken away our sins by dying on the cross. 1 Timothy 1:15-16 says that God wants to save us and cares greatly about us, but we have to be the ones coming to him and even when we do sin he has great patience with us. God treats us way better then he should considering what we did. Sometimes people don't accept the truth because we are stubborn and want to do things our own way. In the end it is our choice what happens to us, not God's. He did his part we just need accept His forgiveness. to do ours.
In Jeremiah 1:16 it says that we have brought on ourselves all the hard things that happen to us. Everything begins with us. Even though we are an evil people God treats us as his sons and daughters. We also need to realize that suffering produces perseverance and if we need to suffer, on Christ benefit. God will reward us for our suffering. We just need to set our hope on him. We also need to suffer with those who suffer and mourn with those who mourn, and carry each other burdens.
God is a just God and we need to follow in his lead and give justice and mercy to those around us. God didn't have to do what he did by dying on the cross. He did it because he loved us and in return we should do everything we can to please him here on earth.
*This combined report on two research assignments is permissable under Ambassador League guidelines, but is only counted as one point. Students wishing to achieve the most number of points possible must complete a full report on each research assingment.
