livin'

.TERRIFY NO MORE.

Psalm 10
"...you hear, O Lord, the desire of the afflicted; you encourage them, and you listen to their cry, defending the fatherless and the opressed, in order that man, who is of the earth, may terrify no more."

One week in the DTS a girl named Bethany, who worked with International Justice Mission came to speak to our students. While my team was in Thailand, we met with a guy who worked at the Thailand IJM Office. He told us more about IJM and what they were doing in Thailand. It's an amazing organization. They've been on Dateline at least once that I know of as well.
So i've been reading this book, "Terrify No More". It's written by the president of IJM - Gary A. Haugen. I encourage you all to check out their website and get yourself a copy of this book.

God has been developing within me a passion for those who face injustice. One thing that's stuck with me is something that I've heard a number of times already, and is also said in this book: "....And quite simply, in the moral universe engineered by a holy God, knowledge carries responsibility." Once we know, we can't just do nothing. Its like knowing that a child is choking, and walking into another room. Sometimes we ignore out of this feeling of helplessness. Sometimes it's fear, or this feeling that the ones desperately in need of justice are too far away; and so we become apathetic. We see so much on T.V and have grown up in a society that breeds an "every man for himself" attitude. We've become desensitized to anything that doesn't directly affect us. Whatever it is, I'm convinced it's upsetting to a God who cares deeply about justice. Isaiah 1:17 - "...seek justice, rescue the opressed, defend the orphan, plead for the widow."

"....I am convinced that any serious contest with evil requires a painful confrontation with the truth. The greatest and most shameful regrets of history are always about the truth we failed to tell, the evil we failed to name. The greatest enemy in our struggle to stop oppression and injustice is always the insidious etiquette of silence." - GARY A. HAUGEN

posted by Amanda @ 11:29 AM