THOUGHT: The Neglected Mission

Gary Haugen says it well in his preface to Good News About Injustice.

"As Christians we have learned much about sharing the love of Christ with people all over the world who have never heard the gospel. We continue to see the salvation message preached in the far corners of the earth and to see indigenous Christian churches vigorously extending Christ's kingdom on every continent. We have learned how to feed the hungry, heal the sick and shelter the homeless.

"But there is one that we haven't learned to do, even though God's Word repeatedly calls us to the task. We haven't learned how to rescue the oppressed. For the child held in forced prostitution, for the prisoner illegally detained and tortured, for the widow robbed of her land, for the child sold into slavery, we have almost no vision of how God could use us to bring tangible rescue. We don't know how to get the twelve-year-old girl out of the brothel, how to have the prisoner set free, how to have the widow's land restored to her or how to get the child slave released and the oppressors brought to justice.

"We can come to know the compassion of Jesus like never before as we go with him to look into the eyes of those who are in need of rescue. Moreover, we can be restored to the conviction that God is prepared to use us to 'seek justice, rescue the oppressed, defend the orphan, plead for the widow' (Isaiah 1:17 NRSV)."

I pray God will show us, you and me, what to do.

"What would Jesus have me do?" -Chris Blake