Free the Captives conference

On Saturday, we went to the Free the Captives conference in Houston.  It was really neat to see a group of people come together specifically to learn more about social justice.  There were some really great topics including personal stories from two women who were exploited in this country, and an FBI agent who worked these kinds of cases here in Houston.  We heard from an organization called Redeemed Ministries that works with the victims of human trafficking in Houston. 

On their website is an eye-opening video about how prevalent human exploitation is in this city.  It really hit home for me when a man from Spring was talking about how he took his kids to their local barbershop and ended up stumbling on a massage parlor right next door in the strip center.

The video is here.

I signed up for more information about a group that ministers to girls on probation from the juvenile detention center, most of whom have been exploited and abused in their lives.

I don't know where God is going to take me on this journey.  But I do know that now my eyes are open and I can no longer go back to where I was.

This chapter of Isaiah 58 has been speaking to my heart lately.  (I know it's long, but it's so good!  Worth reading all the way through.)

¹ “Shout it aloud, do not hold back.
   Raise your voice like a trumpet.
Declare to my people their rebellion
   and to the descendants of Jacob their sins.
² For day after day they seek me out;
   they seem eager to know my ways,
as if they were a nation that does what is right
   and has not forsaken the commands of its God.
They ask me for just decisions
   and seem eager for God to come near them.
³ ‘Why have we fasted,’ they say,
   ‘and you have not seen it?
Why have we humbled ourselves,
   and you have not noticed?’
   “Yet on the day of your fasting, you do as you please
   and exploit all your workers.
⁴ Your fasting ends in quarreling and strife,
   and in striking each other with wicked fists.
You cannot fast as you do today
   and expect your voice to be heard on high.
⁵ Is this the kind of fast I have chosen,
   only a day for people to humble themselves?
Is it only for bowing one’s head like a reed
   and for lying in sackcloth and ashes?
Is that what you call a fast,
   a day acceptable to the LORD?
 ⁶ “Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen:
to loose the chains of injustice
   and untie the cords of the yoke,
to set the oppressed free
   and break every yoke?
⁷ Is it not to share your food with the hungry
   and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter—
when you see the naked, to clothe them,
   and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?
⁸ Then your light will break forth like the dawn,
   and your healing will quickly appear;
then your righteousness^[a] will go before you,
   and the glory of the LORD will be your rear guard.
⁹ Then you will call, and the LORD will answer;
   you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I.
   “If you do away with the yoke of oppression,
   with the pointing finger and malicious talk,
¹⁰ 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.
¹¹ The LORD will guide you always;
   he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land
   and will strengthen your frame.
You will be like a well-watered garden,
   like a spring whose waters never fail.
¹² Your people will rebuild the ancient ruins
   and will raise up the age-old foundations;
you will be called Repairer of Broken Walls,
   Restorer of Streets with Dwellings.
 ¹³ “If you keep your feet from breaking the Sabbath
   and from doing as you please on my holy day,
if you call the Sabbath a delight
   and the LORD’s holy day honorable,
and if you honor it by not going your own way
   and not doing as you please or speaking idle words,
¹⁴ then you will find your joy in the LORD,
   and I will cause you to ride in triumph on the heights of the land
   and to feast on the inheritance of your father Jacob.”
            For the mouth of the LORD has spoken.

Wow.  Last year, before I learned about human trafficking and before I went through the Radical study by David Platt, I read through Isaiah.  I read this chapter and this is what I took from it:

God doesn't want us to pretend to be seeking after Him and yet living our lives just as we please.

That is true but there is so much more to that chapter that I completely skimmed over.  The passage goes on to describe that true spiritual discipline includes

loosing the chains of injustice

spending yourself on behalf of the hungry

clothing the naked

sheltering the wanderer

Do I do any of those things?  No.  I am no better than the Israelites, fasting and praying for God to hear them, all the while living as they pleased and ignoring the plight of the needy.

I am so grateful that God doesn't give up on His children and is constantly working in my heart to open my eyes and draw me closer to Him.

Isn't the Bible neat?  It is truly alive and active, sharper than any double edged sword, and I love how you can pass over a passage one time and then it jumps off the page at you the next!