Father of the Oppressed

I don't consider myself one that gets angry easily.
I'm passionate about issues of injustice: sex trafficking, human trafficking, unfair trade laws...essentially any instance in which a human is treated unfairly is one in which I get a little riled up about.
Recently, the UN released a Global Commission on HIV and the Law, suggesting that internationally all laws against prostitution be repealed, along with the laws against illegal injection drug use to fight against HIV.
Words cannot describe how outraged I have been off and on since I read the article. And even now, sitting here thinking about it, I start to get angry and frustrated all over again.
But when I start to pray about the situation, Jesus quietly reminds me of the passage in John 2.

13 The Passover of the Jews was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. 14 In the temple he found those who were selling oxen and sheep and pigeons, and the money-changers sitting there. 15 And making a whip of cords, he drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and oxen. And he poured out the coins of the money-changers and overturned their tables. 16 And he told those who sold the pigeons, “Take these things away; do not make my Father's house a house of trade.” 17 His disciples remembered that it was written, “Zeal for your house will consume me.”

18 So the Jews said to him, “What sign do you show us for doing these things?” 19 Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” 20 The Jews then said, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will you raise it up in three days?” 21 But he was speaking about the temple of his body. 22 When therefore he was raised from the dead, chis disciples remembered that he had said this, and they believed the Scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken.

I've heard this passage talked about multiple times. But the part that stuck out to me this morning was that when Jesus was referencing the temple, He was referencing His own body and His sacrifice. As Christ-followers, our body is His temple and when we misuse it, when our hearts aren't right--then we're making His temple a house of trade and lies. Our actions begin in our hearts. When the heart isn't right, nothing is going to be right.

This realization brings me to my knees. 

As much as I would love to walk up to some UN people, ask if we can have coffee and then go talk this thing out...

That's not where the battle of injustice is fought.

The battle of injustice begins, continues and ends in the hearts of people--in the souls of man. The only way that justice will ever be brought is through Jesus Christ. The only way that we as Christ-followers can seek justice at its core is through prayer. 

Brothers and sisters, PRAY FOR THE OPPRESSED.

ADVOCATE FOR THEM ON YOUR KNEES.

BE A VOICE FOR THE VOICELESS TO THE MOST HIGH GOD.

Our God, the Creator of the Universe claims them in His identity. The fact that He tells us over and over again in His word that He is the Father of the oppressed means something.

It's something that we need to start taking seriously.

Like, right now.

And as hard as it is, we need to pray for the oppressors JUST AS MUCH as the oppressed, because Jesus died for us all.

Let's be the hands & feet of Jesus by abiding in Him, advocating for the oppressed, and moving where He moves. Anything outside of Him will fail, but everything with Him and in Him will be for His glory and through that the broken that He has died for--all of us--will be saved.

Psalm 140:12
12 I know that the LORD secures justice for the poor
and upholds the cause of the needy.

Psalm 146:7-9
7 He upholds the cause of the oppressed
and gives food to the hungry.
The LORD sets prisoners free,
8 the LORD gives sight to the blind,
the LORD lifts up those who are bowed down,
the LORD loves the righteous.
9 The LORD watches over the alien
and sustains the fatherless and the widow,
but he frustrates the ways of the wicked.

Real fasting & the Greatness of God

Tomorrow marks the beginning of the Islamic Holy Month of Ramadan. During this time, Muslims devote themselves to dawn-to-dusk fasting, good deeds, and prayer.
Tomorrow 2.1 billion people will continue in their works-based religion with the hope that partaking and strictly observing Ramadan will add to their salvation. 
The biggest thing I've heard about Ramadan is the dawn-to-dusk fasting. I've heard various things, but the common consensus is that for some (I will not say most, because I have never been with Muslims during Ramadan) life just becomes hard: not eating or drinking anything, going through prayers and doing good things because they have to. 


This summer I've been learning a lot about abiding in Jesus. As a Christ-follower, that's what we're called to do--abide in Him. Justice, mercy, discipleship and sacrificial living are an outpouring of this. During this always refining process, when we abide in Him more there is a desire for prayer and serving others--not because we have to, but because those things are an outpouring of our relationship with Jesus Christ.


I've also been learning about fasting--real fasting. 
Isaiah 58 :6-14says--

"Is not this the fast that I choose:

to loose the bonds of wickedness,

to undo the straps of the yoke,

to let the oppressed go free,

and to break every yoke?

Is it not to share your bread with the hungry,

and bring the homeless poor into your house;

when you see the naked, to cover him,

and not to hide yourself from your own flesh?

Then shall your light break forth like the dawn, 

and your healing shall spring up speedily;

your righteousness shall go before you;

the glory of the Lord shall be your rear guard.

Then you shall call, and the Lord will answer;

you shall cry, and he will say, 'Here I am'.

If you take away the yoke from your midst,

the pointing of the finger, and speaking wickedness,

10 if you pour yourself out for the hungry

and satisfy the desire of the afflicted,

then shall your light rise in the darkness

and your gloom be as the noonday.

11 And the Lord will guide you continually

and satisfy your desire in scorched places

and make your bones strong;

and you shall be like a watered garden,

like a spring of water,

whose waters do not fail.

12 And your ancient ruins shall be rebuilt;

you shall raise up the foundations of many generations;

you shall be called the repairer of the breach,

the restorer of streets to dwell in.

13 “If you turn back your foot from the Sabbath,

from doing your pleasure on my holy day,

and call the Sabbath a delight

and the holy day of the Lord honorable;

if you honor it, not going your own ways,

or seeking your own pleasure, or talking idly;

14 then you shall take delight in the Lord,

and I will make you ride on the heights of the earth;

I will feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father,

for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”

True fasting is not a dramatic, selfish burden. True fasting is sacrificial--making less of us to make more of Him through loving Him, abiding in Him and living for Him.

Tomorrow, my mother and I are going to observe and fast for Ramadan. Instead of legally following a set of man-made rules, we are going to be crying out on behalf of those who have never heard the Lord's name. Our prayer is that little will be made of us, and that all will be made of Him. 
I love the West Africans that I have been blessed to know. They've changed me. But it is only through the Father that they will come to know Him.

Please join us in crying out and interceding on behalf of our Muslim friends, neighbors and those that live all over the world. 

As Christ-followers, we are responsible for interceding on behalf of those who don't know Jesus. This is a seemingly large task, but when we remember how great our God is, the yoke is easy.


Isaiah 40: 9-31--The Greatness of God

Go on up to a high mountain,

O Zion, herald of good news;

lift up your voice with strength,

O Jerusalem, herald of good news;

lift it up, fear not;

say to the cities of Judah,

“Behold your God!”

10 Behold, the Lord God comes with might,

and his arm rules for him;

behold, his reward is with him,

and his recompense before him.

11 He will tend his flock like a shepherd;

he will gather the lambs in his arms;

he will carry them in his bosom,

and gently lead those that are with young.

12 Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand

and marked off the heavens with a span,

enclosed the dust of the earth in a measure

and weighed the mountains in scales

and the hills in a balance?

13 Who has measured the Spirit of the Lord,

or what man shows him his counsel?

14 Whom did he consult,

and who made him understand?

Who taught him the path of justice,

and taught him knowledge,

and showed him the way of understanding?

15 Behold, the nations are like a drop from a bucket,

and are accounted as the dust on the scales;

behold, he takes up the coastlands like fine dust.

16 Lebanon would not suffice for fuel,

nor are its beasts enough for a burnt offering.

17 All the nations are as nothing before him,

they are accounted by him as less than nothing and emptiness.

18 To whom then will you liken God,

or what likeness compare with him?

19 An idol! A craftsman casts it,

and a goldsmith overlays it with gold

and casts for it silver chains.

20 He who is too impoverished for an offering

chooses wood that will not rot;

he seeks out a skillful craftsman

to set up an idol that will not move.

21 Do you not know? Do you not hear?

Has it not been told you from the beginning?

Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth?

22 It is he who sits above the circle of the earth,

and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers;

who stretches out the heavens like a curtain,

and spreads them like a tent to dwell in;

23 who brings princes to nothing,

and makes the rulers of the earth as emptiness.

24 Scarcely are they planted, scarcely sown,

scarcely has their stem taken root in the earth,

when he blows on them, and they wither,

and the tempest carries them off like stubble.

25 To whom then will you compare me,

that I should be like him? says the Holy One.

26 Lift up your eyes on high and see:

who created these?

He who brings out their host by number,

calling them all by name,

by the greatness of his might,

and because he is strong in power

not one is missing.

27 Why do you say, O Jacob,

and speak, O Israel,

“My way is hidden from the Lord,

and my right is disregarded by my God”?

28 Have you not known? Have you not heard?

The Lord is the everlasting God,

the Creator of the ends of the earth.

He does not faint or grow weary;

his understanding is unsearchable.

29 He gives power to the faint,

and to him who has no might he increases strength.

30 Even youths shall faint and be weary,

and young men shall fall exhausted;

31 but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength;

they shall mount up with wings like eagles;

they shall run and not be weary;

they shall walk and not faint.

Father's Faithfulness

Before I left for Africa, I bought a new bible. This was a necessity, because I needed to take a Bible that had not been written in. If I were to have taken the bible that I study with, the Africans I worked with would think that I did not regard the scriptures as Holy.For them to see markings in my Bible would make them think that I do not respect God's Word.
I learned a lot from my family that I lived with in regards to Holy Scripture. They taught me what it meant to regard something as Holy. They treat their book with more reverence than anyone I have ever seen--always placing it in a position of honor, never doing anything to deface it, and defending it for what they believed it to be.

Before I went to Africa, I would set my bible on the floor, I would make notes in it, highlight passages, and well..I treated it like I treat any other book.
But since then, I've realized how we are to treat God's word. Yes, it doesn't really matter what the cover looks like, or how the pages are, but this book is HOLY, SACRED. For me to place it on the ground, or to write in it is just wrong. There is nothing that I can add to this book to make it more than it already is: the inspired Word of God.
Now here's the really cool part.

So, pre-africa, I marked up my bible. A. lot. In fact, I carried a pen inside of it (not the best for the binding, I've now learned) so I could underline, star (how ridiculous is that notion? What was I thinking? Who am I to pick out a 'favorite' part of this inspired book?!) or notate anything a pastor or teacher said. Well, recently I was looking through my beloved study bible, with its worn pages and places that it flips open to automatically (Joshua 1 & Isaiah 41). When I started flipping through the notes that I made before I left, and the scriptures that I marked...they are the same verses that God has been reminding me of since I have returned to the United States. Not only that, But there are passages that I read while I was in Africa that I have noted in this Bible.
This long, confusion story leads me to the point that I could have started with: God's plan is perfect. He equips us and trains us when we don't even know we're being trained. I remember at the time being confused when the Father showed what seemed to be random verses to me. But now I am overwhelmed with His faithfulness, and His constant hand in my life.


But you, Israel, my servant, 
Jacob whom I have chosen, 
the offspring of Abraham, my friend;
you whom I took from the ends of the earth,
and called from its farthest corners,
saying to you, "You are my servant, 
I have chosen you and not cast you off":
fear not, for I am with you;
be not dismayed, for I am your God;
I will strengthen you, I will help you
I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.
Isaiah 41:8-10