Thanks for your generosity; $176 was raised, and combined with excess dinner money accumulated over previous weeks, we’ll be able to give at least $200 to World Vision’s Pakistan floods appeal. If you’d like to read more about what World Vision is doing to help, or donate online if you didn’t manage to on Sunday, here’s the place to go.

Praise God for the many organisations (like World Vision, TEAR, Open Doors, GFA) – especially the many founded by Christians – that make it possible for us to be involved in giving aid to those who most need it.

“Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?”

The expert in the law replied, “The one who had mercy on him.”

Jesus told him, “Go and do likewise.”

Luke 10:36-37

Here’s a photo of E&G and their support crew

You can read up about Teen Challenge and what they do here.

Event #1 – Teen Challenge’s “Live Free Walk”

The prosecutor at the trial is reported to have said, “She’s likely to have serious psychological distress if not problems as a result of this.” At least. Abuse of any kind leaves profoundly deep scars, and sexual abuse especially. I hope you’re appalled and grieved to hear of heinous crimes like this.

Of course the fact is, it happens a lot, everywhere, even right under our noses. Forgive me for not quoting anything specific, but stats recording sexual abuse of women and children in Australia are abysmally high (eg. here, but the details are a bit hazy).

And it (abuse including sex trafficking of children) also happens in unpoliced, broad daylight in many countries like Cambodia. We were glad to see this positive coverage on SBS news last night, of ‘American missionaries’ in Cambodia who work to rescue children from the sex industry. (Go the International Justice Mission!)

I don’t have much more to say other than I’m convicted that reformed evangelicals (including myself) are much too silent on issues of social injustice. Society hears from left-wing radicals (of all kinds) and Liberal Christians about these things, but too little from us. Shame on me, shame on us. Of all people, we have the most reason to be active and appropriately vocal about ‘pushing back evil’ in this world – because we believe in all facets of the Gospel -

• the realities of a world created good
• the entrance of sin, Satan and evil
• God’s judgement of these
• God’s offer of salvation, redemption, and transformation through Jesus’ substitutionary death on the cross
• God’s command to us to make disciples of (and in) all nations by proclaiming and ‘enacting’ His gospel
• and God’s plan of re-creation for all He’s redeemed.

So what am I going to do about it? Well apart from using my voice here rather than staying silent, I am finally going to sign Steve and me up for this Facebook event – Rescuing Children from Prostitution – that we were invited to several weeks ago. We committed mentally but haven’t yet done anything about it actually. I’ve checked out the Destiny Rescue website and from what I’ve read, it seems to be a reputable Christian organisation doing valuable rescue work.

So – can you give $40 and wear a pendant for 26 days to promote the work of Destiny Rescue? Sign up too if so!

Or can you write letters to your local MP or to Kevin Rudd himself, encouraging our government to increase its efforts to abolish child / human trafficking worldwide?

Can I urge you to do something, because what is it that pleases our God? The practice of true religion – believing whole-heartedly in Jesus Christ as our only Lord and Saviour, and backing up that faith by our good works in His world.

“…and if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry

and satisfy the needs of the oppressed,

then your light will rise in the darkness,

and your night will become like the noonday.”

Isaiah 58:10

• a21 Campaign
• International Justice Mission
• Destiny Rescue

The Bible in general, and the book of Proverbs in particular, reveals an unbreakable connection between our character, our conduct, and the consequences of our actions. These three are inseparable and woven by God into His created order.

But if you think CJ’s post is all about how bad Tiger Wood’s sin is, it’s not. The quote above is an incisive pastoral summary just introducing some of the issues raised by Tiger Wood’s ‘indiscretions’.

Please do click on the link above to read the entire post – it is gracious and points both us and Tiger Woods towards grace – because all of us need this great gift found in Jesus.

What does it mean to live out our faith in a world full of pain and suffering? How can we watch SBS news and not feel totally overwhelmed at all the injustice in this world? I’ve found that it’s so easy to get numb and distant from the plight of the helpless and hopeless. I find that it’s easy to ignore issues ‘out there’ when I have enough issues of my own. But that only works until I read stories like the following. Keiyeng mentioned Sara Groves in a recent post. Here is how she’s trying to live out her faith, and make a difference in the here and now. It’s challenged me to action. Hopefully it will challenge you too:

Sara explains, “I believe God invites us to add to the beauty of his plan, letting us participate in his redemptive work. But I found myself asking, ‘How have I applied this idea?’ I had groomed and groomed and groomed my personal faith, but to what end?”

Her answers came in a series of global conversations and experiences, from the flood-ravaged gulf of Louisiana, to the genocide memorials of Rwanda, to the testimonies of Southeast Asia sex trade survivors. These experiences showed the disparity between some of the American [and Australian] pursuits of comfort and wealth and the joy of joining the difficult work of social justice and engaging in the suffering of the afflicted.

“One of the main inspirations behind this album is a girl named Elisabeth,” Sara says. “I knew about human trafficking and modern day slavery at some sort of global level, but I didn’t truly understand the personal stories behind what was happening until I met Elisabeth in Washington, D.C.”

Elisabeth’s story is both heartbreaking and phenomenal. The oldest of seven children living in Southeast Asia, the teenager had just finished her sophomore year of high school and decided to take a job in a neighboring community to save money for Bible college. But, tragically, she was betrayed by a traveling companion, kidnapped and sold to a brothel owner. She found herself days later in a foreign country, unable to speak the language, forced into a life of prostitution.

Sara relates the rest of the story: “Elizabeth prayed every night for God to rescue her, even though the other girls in the brothel mocked her. After eight months, an International Justice Mission operative was able to secure her freedom. While retrieving her belongings, they saw Psalm 27 written on the wall above her mattress in her tiny room: ‘The Lord is my light and my salvation. Whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life. Of whom shall I be afraid?’

“The phrase ‘social justice’ can be loaded. To some people it is a political or a liberal conversation, but to me, it is a Kingdom conversation. There are people behind these stories and statistics, and God’s heart for justice burns on their behalf. I wanted to write songs that drew attention to the people like Elizabeth who know God deeply because of their suffering. There is a commonality in all of these friends, and that is the perseverance of hope.”

Much of what Groves has learned has come through her new friends at International Justice Mission, an organization that stands in the gap for victims of violence, sexual exploitation, slavery and oppression when they are left without an advocate.  Her interactions with IJM, as well as recent mission trips to Rwanda and New Orleans, have brought a fresh sense of purpose and excitement to Sara’s life-long Christian faith.

“Much of what I had done before along the lines of service was guilt induced. When I would hear a horrific story, I would want to respond quickly, write a check, and be done with it. But I have met many incredible people who are responding with their lives, and that has exposed something in me. I have been given a lot of joy in life, but I’ve also missed something. All of my life I have been grooming my faith, but have missed something about the purpose of that grooming. If I understand scripture at all, I have to know that to enter into the suffering of the poor and the oppressed is to know Christ and his suffering.”

The Groves’ family look forward to learning more about how their lives will be useful in bringing hope to individuals like Elizabeth.

That night in Washington D.C., Elizabeth was asked to share the Psalm she had written on the wall as part of her testimony, but Elizabeth refused, stating that Psalm 27 was for the brothel. Instead, she said, she would read Psalm 34: ‘I sought the Lord, and He heard my cry. “When I met Elizabeth, I felt like I was in the presence of royalty,” says Sara. “She is a college graduate now, and with tremendous courage, has used her story to inspire action. I couldn’t get her out of my mind as I was writing these songs. She knows something about God that I will never know. Those verses are real to her in a way that I have never experienced. After meeting her, genocide survivors, and others who  suffered great oppression, I was humbled by my lack of understanding of life, of love, of courage, and of Christ, and was filled with a hunger to know more.”

Do you want to know more? Do you want to do something about it too? Then:

1. Come to church this Sunday as we learn about the Persecuted Church, and then pray for them (you’ll receive a 31-day prayer guide for North Korea – recently ranked #1 by Voice of the Martyrs for the 7th year running as the most persecuted people in the world).
2. Check out the International Justice Mission website and see what they do.
3. Also, Grace told us about the following organisation: The A21 Campaign. Check out their website – they have a list of 21 things you can do to help those caught in the horrifying slave trade. Last week, our challenge was to pray for the Persecuted Church in general. Next week we’ll focus on North Korea. This week, click on this following link and join me in praying for those in slavery.

Remember those in prison as if you were their fellow prisoners, and those who are mistreated as if you yourselves were suffering(Hebrews 13:3).

We have been saved and the church has been established among other things, to ‘push back evil in the world’.  I really appreciate this phrase borrowed from Pastor Matt Chandler.  Steve and I are convicted and convinced that 5:17 church needs to be doing more to push back evil in the world.  I hope we can all get some ideas going about how we can do this (more) as a church.  I’ll put two down below.

One of our favourite Christian musicians, Sara Groves, reflects on injustice globally and the effects of the sex trade specifically in three songs on her album Tell me what you know. Having met with Southeast Asian survivors of the sex trade herself, as well as being an advocate for IJM, Sara’s reflections are powerful.  We can’t recommend her music highly enough and hope you might borrow some from us or have a listen some other way so that you can reflect and respond along with her.

And that brings me back to IJM. From their website:

International Justice Mission is a human rights agency that secures justice for victims of slavery, sexual exploitation and other forms of violent oppression. IJM lawyers, investigators and aftercare professionals work with local officials to ensure immediate victim rescue and aftercare, to prosecute perpetrators and to promote functioning public justice systems.

What an enormous need our world has for (Christian) organisations such as this.  Please have a look at their site because the world also needs us to be educated and active about these issues and the real humans behind them.

And finally, here are the issues that have cropped up in my Inbox this past week or two that I’m thankful God didn’t let me ignore.  Can we encourage you to take some time to respond to them too, as a way of applying our Amos series from July, as well as telling forth the Gospel of forgiveness, liberation, life, and hope through our actions as well as our words.

1. Sign an E-Petition for the protection of unborn children by upholding current abortion laws in Queensland.
2. Sign an E-Petition to remove pornography from children’s view in Australia.