To Take Action

One topic led to another and I started to talk about all that I witnessed at IJM Reception on Tuesday night. How we tend to forget those who are poor and how we spend our money…

We were about to talk about how how badly North America churches are at managing the resources that God bless them with…

…that’s when I put my cup down and said..

“Look, we can talk about the church but unless we take individual responsibility and personal actions at how we spend our money, this whole talk is just a talk. We can pull facts and find out how badly the church is at, or find how many are suffering. The point ain’t having a good talk or debate and go home..then repeat the same talk two weeks later. We have to live it out personally.”

There was an awkward silence afterwards.

There is much luxury in discussion without action.  What surprise myself is the lack of response that I give…if I see injustice and do nothing about it…is that a life that bring Glory to the Lord?   I am much more sad by this than be scared of what God will do to me.  He has every rights to struck me down.  Yet I am still here.  I am sad because I told God I would seek Him first.  Because of what I value as Christian living.  To be living in two worlds, between the rich and the poor, with disparity so great, I stand doing nothing.

There are many discussions these days about whether Christian should go out and do more and not…and I love to talk. Love to show the other side is wrong.  Love to win over that argument.  Love to proof that I am right.  Love to talk and have nothing to show for…is that what a Christian is called for? To discuss worldly matters over a cup of drink while half of the world is bondage in suffering? Hmm…The parable of rich man and Lazarus comes to mind.

I am once reminded by a letter I read last year. This is written by John Wesley, one of the early church fathers, to William Wilberforce concerning abolishing the slave trade in 1800s. William Wilberforce petitioned against the slave trade act in the British Parliament for 26 years before he succeed in abolishing the act.

John Wesley wrote:

Dear Sir:

Unless the divine power has raised you us to be as Athanasius contra mundum, I see not how you can go through your glorious enterprise in opposing that execrable villainy which is the scandal of religion, of England, and of human nature. Unless God has raised you up for this very thing, you will be worn out by the opposition of men and devils. But if God be fore you, who can be against you? Are all of them together stronger than God? O be not weary of well doing! Go on, in the name of God and in the power of his might, till even American slavery (the vilest that ever saw the sun) shall vanish away before it.

Reading this morning a tract wrote by a poor African, I was particularly struck by that circumstance that a man who has a black skin, being wronged or outraged by a white man, can have no redress; it being a “law” in our colonies that the oath of a black against a white goes for nothing. What villainy is this?

That he who has guided you from youth up may continue to strengthen you in this and all things, is the prayer of, dear sir,

Your affectionate servant,

John Wesley

I am most encourage by this..that John Wesley…one of the most influential church leaders back in the day, applauded William Wilberforce for his perseverance against slavery…Even John Wesley saw the evil lurking in such vile industry…and such, it must be stop.

Tonight, I read the report from The Evangelical Fellowship of Canada entitled, Human Trafficking: A Report on Modern Day Slavery in Canada.

One glaring sentence stood out:

Although both men and women are victims of trafficking, from cases that have been reported, sexual exploitation appears to be the most highly represented form of exploitation, and the victims of this particular crime tend overwhelmingly to be women and children.

How often defend-less and voice-less are the victims…bring true to Isaiah 1:17:

Defend the cause of the fatherless, plead the case of the widow.

Unless God has raised you up for this very thing, you will be worn out by the opposition of men and devils. But if God be fore you, who can be against you? Are all of them together stronger than God? O be not weary of well doing! Go on, in the name of God and in the power of his might, till even American slavery (the vilest that ever saw the sun) shall vanish away before it.