"The Lord said, 'I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt.  I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering.  So  I have come down to rescue them...and bring them...into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey.... I have seen the way the Egyptians are oppressing them.  So now, go.  I am sending you...'"  Exodus 3:7-10

God sees and hears and is concerned about those who are suffering.  He came down to rescue and to bring the Israelites to a land of milk and honey.  Not only does He deliver His people from harm, but He delivers them to GOOD.  God's heart is really for His people.  He sees and hears their cries (He does not turn a blind eye or a deaf ear), and He is concerned about suffering.  He does not want His people to experience suffering.

I think this should be something on the top of our list of the "purpose and mission" of our family.  God is concerned about those who suffer, so we should also be concerned and do what we can to help alleviate their suffering.

He called Moses who himself says, "Who am I that I should go?"  All of us can relate in some way to where Moses is coming from.  We come from weird, imperfect family dynamics or have odd childhood histories, and we've somehow overcome that and found our way in this world somewhat -- with our jobs, our routines, our friends, and our families.  That's Moses' story.  He had a complicated childhood (being left in the Nile, being adopted, being nursed by his biological mother; his adopted grandfather never accepted him and tried to kill him after he accidentally killed someone, etc), he got married, had a child, had a job (shepherding), knew God vaguely but certainly not deeply nor intimately, and God called him out (an ordinary guy with a somewhat complicated history - not one a politician would want, mind you) and said, "I care about these people who are suffering.  Go do something about it for me, and I will be by your side." 

It doesn't matter where we are or what we're doing now, (our plans, agendas or priorities), God wants us to help those who suffer.  Whether Sam and I are "busy" in seminary, working secular jobs or missionaries, we need to help those who suffer -- whether it's foster babies or people with broken hearts.  This is what's on God's heart.  Hearts were not made to be broken.

"Anyone who has two shirts should share with the one who has none..."  (Luke 3:11)  Tonight my New Testament professor taught us that the people who were being preached at in this passage lived in such poverty that they really only had one shirt.  It was a rarity that anyone would actually have a change of shirts.  Yet, here, John the Baptist is saying that if you wanted to live out the Kingdom and happened to have a spare shirt, you ought to give it away to someone else who has need.  That really puts things into perspective! 

We studied the Gospel of Luke this past week and learned that one of the many themes that is prominent in this gospel is salvation for outsiders.  You can't read Luke without seeing the emphasis on Jesus' love for the poor, the oppressed, the marginalized of society.  In fact, it is in Luke uniquely that we find Jesus saying, "Blessed are the poor...blessed are you who hunger now."  Poor, not poor in spirit.  Hunger, not hunger for righteousness.  Jesus really meant the physically poor and the physically hungry.  In His inaugural sermon in Luke 4, He said that He came for the poor, the prisoners and the oppressed.

So as believers how do we be obedient to Jesus' call to us to care for these "outsiders"?

Growing up in middle class suburbia, the only attempts my group of friends ever made was to go down to a soup kitchen to serve food to the homeless and sometimes distribute sandwiches in downtown SD.  Anything more than that was beyond our imagination and our capability.  But somehow I think these things, though nice, do not fully embody what Jesus meant.

Perhaps what Jesus meant was something more like what happened to me a few years ago.  I was hanging out with a friend of mine and nonchalantly complimented her on her shirt.  Pretty routine stuff.  That's just what girls do.  But rather than the usual, "Thanks," in response, she completely took me by surprise when she asked instead, "Do you want it?"  She wasn't kidding.  She was really offering me her shirt!  And as I contemplated how surprised I was, I realized also that I shouldn't be surprised. She was just living out the Gospel.

But things like that do surprise us.  We don't know what to do with it when someone truly follows Jesus.  It's weird.

After class tonight, I talked to one of my classmates, and she said that she felt so riled up; she felt convicted and inspired to use all of her mind, body, and hands to serve God's people, but she wasn't sure who or how.  I was excited with her and felt the same way... but as we ended the conversation, I realized that I knew who and how.   When Sam and I were first married, I kept writing about the "tax collectors and sinners" and our knowing, growing conviction to do something about them -- but the only problem was that we had no idea who and how.  Walking out the seminary doors tonight, I felt this affirming hand on me urging me forward in welcoming a little one into our home.  To be foster parents -- to use the abundance (material and spiritual) that God has given us to bless a child who has no true home or true parent or family -- this is what the gospel is about.

Adoption is different from being born into a family.  It's different because the one who was alone, abandoned, abused, neglected and unwanted gets to be swept up in a whirlwind of love, acceptance, affection, closeness, warmth and welcome.  The one who is adopted goes from being the unwanted one to being the wanted one.  He or she becomes the chosen one.  He or she becomes chosen!

Being chosen.

I only know a bit about not being chosen.  When I was in elementary school, we would have PE once a day.  Sometimes during PE, we would play sports like soccer or softball, and because I was terrible at sports, I would always stand there thinking, "Pick me, pick me," knowing full well that the two captains would not pick me until the very end when they absolutely had to.  I hated that feeling -- the embarrassed, awkward feeling of not being chosen, not being wanted.  It was always such a relief when at last someone would pick me to be a part of their team. 

I can very easily put myself back in my little tennis shoes from the 4th grade and remember that aching feeling of being unwanted.  It is not much, but it is definitely something that helps me understand and put myself in another's shoes when I am reminded that God tells us that true religion that He accepts as pure and faultless is to look after the orphans and widows in their distress (Jas 1:27).

The orphans and widows.  How many are out there who feel abandoned, neglected, unwanted, unloved?

I know much about being chosen.  I've been chosen to belong to Jesus Christ (Rom 1:6).  I, who was once the prodigal daughter, was adopted by the Father to be his child and a co-heir with Christ.  I belong, I belong, I belong.  And how now do I respond to such generous love in a way that is pure and faultless? 

Sometimes we hear things or see things or read things that we can't forget.  Sometimes we wish desperately that we could forget them.  Sometimes we're willing to give every ounce of all we are to keep on remembering.  Sometimes it's a mixture of both.

I just can't get it out of my mind -- this passage in Prov 31 about poverty and justice.  Do you remember it?  It's the verse that says to let the poor drink beer so that they could forget their misery and anguish.  It won't stop running through my mind that there are people so poor that Wisdom would say to let them drink so that they won't have to remember their misery!  The amount of despair that is revealed in these verses makes my heart ache so much I wish I could forget it.  And yet this amount of very real, everyday heartache that people experience is something I don't want to forget. 

Because.  I want to do something about it.
It is clear this desire I have is something God desires.
The verses that follow those previous verses say,

"Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the rights of all who are destitute.  Speak up and judge fairly; defend the rights of the poor and needy." 

This is our job.  We must speak up for others - be a voice for the voiceless.  This call has become increasingly poignant to me; it increasingly pierces my heart and demands action.  God really cares about justice, doesn't He?  I was never really aware of this before, but now I see it so clearly.  Because I am made in His image, the passion for justice burns within me.  I want to defend the rights of others that they may have all that God dreamed up for them. 

May all men and women, rich and poor, and people of every tribe and tongue in all the earth know their value, dignity and worth in God's eyes.  May they experience the degree to which He values and esteems them through all the human beings they encounter in their lives.  And may I come to know the part which I can play to answer this call for justice.

We're in the Bay for the next few days, and I'm getting a chance to show Sam around where I used to live in that special season in my life (which I always reflect back upon with a smile).  We're staying with our good friends up here (Colleen & Bernard).  They brought us around the City tonight and gave us a mini-tour/explanation of the TL.  TL, that's short for Tenderloin.  It's the more seedy part of the city, where the poor, the immigrant, the drugdealers, the prostitutes hang out.  C&B used to spend a lot of time there reaching out to these marginalized, back in the day.  I had passed through there before, but it was different this time.  Seeing all these things this time and connecting them to all the thoughts I have had in the last year was different - it was different seeing as opposed to just hearing or reading about them.  One response is, "Yuck!  Get away!"  and "Danger!  Get me away!"  But those are the thoughts and feelings I want to fight back.  I don't want that to be my response.  Rather, I want it to be the opposite.  Love.  Compassion.  Get me near them.

The other day I came across this passage in the Bible, "Give beer to those who are in anguish; let them drink and forget their poverty and remember their misery no more.  Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves...defend the rights of the poor and needy."  (Prov 31:6-9)  I almost choked on the words as I was reading them aloud to Sam.  It's been awhile since Scripture has moved me to tears, but I was so struck by the amount of despair that is revealed through these words.  There are people who are in so much anguish and destitution that Wisdom would actually say, "Let them drink in order to forget."  Reality check.  In reality, I have no idea what that experience is like.  But it's not only that.  God's call for us as believers is not to just leave them in their drunkeness.  No!  He also says that we must speak for those who cannot speak for themselves.  Defend them.  That's the call.  What's our answer?

Last week, my mom wanted me to accompany her to LA to make some purchases.  I wasn't sure where we were going when I got into the car with her but soon found myself one of many walking around an 'alley' of open air markets.  There was a great deal of items being sold in the small shops and stalls.  Some shop keepers were very shrewd business-owners, unwilling to budge on their prices, while others standing right up front, waved their hands and shouted deals, eager to draw in customers. 

We walked around for a long time without making any purchases - until we came across a girl selling some DVDs.  Five DVDs for $20.  What a deal!  I thought.  So as we were sifting through the DVDs, with four DVDs in our hands, another girl suddenly swooped in and took the whole selection away.  I guess I should've been clued into the impropriety of the dealings when I saw that she was selling her wares out of a big black bag but due to some strange naivete on my part, I had been blinded until this point when I heard it said, "Maybe they're afraid of getting caught (by police)."  Doh!  Me, 'Searchingfortreasures', a conspirator in illegal dealings?!! 

With that dawning realization, I was able to walk around that alley with new eyes.  No longer a suburbanite looking for good deals, I remembered that I was a child of the Creator and Lover of all souls.  Here, in the flesh and right before my eyes, were dozens of immigrants doing the best they knew how in order to create a means to survive.  These were some of  "the poor" that Sam & I have been talking passionately about for the last few months.  And what can we do to help them?  Do we buy into their 'knockoff' brand-name items?  Or do we boycott in order to help them out of this corruption?  As we drove home that afternoon, the questions continued to hang in the air.

Meanwhile, Sam spent that same afternoon talking to the Vice President of  Smilecare Dental.  A few weeks ago, we had two horrible experiences at one of the offices in this chain.  They treated us terribly.  Sam, being absolutely my hero, wrote a scathing letter of complaint and submitted it repeatedly until we at last heard from them.  The VP allowed Sam to voice our complaints, apologized for the ill-treatment we received, and gave us an alternate dental office.

That night, as we shared our separate experiences, we found that God had one message for us.  Sam said that it was such a great feeling to be able to have a voice and to be heard.  I was among people all day who did not have a voice and who could not be heard.  Who would speak for them?  It was clear to us that we need to be a voice for the voiceless.  But how?  That's the question.

The tc&s ("tax collectors & sinners") have been heavy on our hearts for these last few weeks.   The poor, the widows, the orphans, the homeless, the prostitutes, the marginalized... these are whom Jesus came for, these are whom we have affectionatedly and collectively called the tc&s, these are whom we seek to love.  We're not sure how, but we are seeking.  (all the while knowing with humility that in the poverty of our hearts, we too are among the 'sinners' that Jesus came for, being in no way 'better' than the tc&s.)

Journal thoughts of my meditations the last few days...

Mark 1:40-45  Keyword:  compassion
     Compassion is different from pity.  Pity is feeling sorry for someone at a distance; compassion means emotional involvement that moves you to action.
     Jesus touched the man with leprosy because He was filled with compassion.  He touched him to bring healing.  That was probably the first time that man had been touched in years.  For as long as he had leprosy, he had to live in isolation and loneliness, banished from society, love and affection.  He was ostracized and totally alone because of his disease.  Jesus didn't have to touch this man to heal him, but He knew that his disease had eaten away more than his skin.  Jesus' touch brought this man back to life, and this "life" was beyond simply inhaling and exhaling every second.  This is what compassion is and does.

Mark 2:1-12  Keyword:  authority
     Jesus has authority on earth to forgive sins (2:10) - to heal a paralytic man (2:11-12), to teach with authority (1:22), to cause evil spirits (1:27) and even the wind and waves (4:41) to obey Him.  He can even read minds and hearts.  I love this verse, "Immediately, Jesus knew in His spirit that this is what they were thinking in their hearts."  (2:8)
     Jesus has authority, and I need to worship and esteem Him so.

     Unrelated... Also, how inspiring that it wasn't necessarily the paralytic's "faith" that healed him, but it was as a result of the faith of his four friends who took apart the roof to lower him down.  Our prayers of intercession in faith on behalf of others could be enough to heal them.  (Yes!!  Praise the Lord for this reality!!)

Mark 2:13-17  Keyword:  saw
     "As he walked along, he saw Levi..."  (2:14)  While most of the Jews at that time regularly passed by tax collectors, discounting them as nothing but traitors to their people; Jesus actually saw Matthew and called Matthew to be on His team, a part of His group, in His family.  "It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick.  I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners."  (2:17)  Jesus doesn't discriminate, stereotype, overlook or dismiss anyone.  He looks and He sees people.  Am I someone who looks and really sees people - beyond what they do, how they behave and dress, their race, gender or class?  Do I see the way Jesus sees?

Jesus spent time among society's outcasts.  He loved the 'unlovely' and spent time with them to such an extent that it brought about criticism, confusion and complaints from others who did not understand.  He raised eyebrows from His shocking and radical love toward all.  In what ways do I love as radically as Jesus?  How can I love the outcasts?  Lord, can you help me see hearts the way you do?

The disciples went to look for Jesus.  "Everyone" was looking for Him, they said.  Am I looking for Him?

Instead of grabbing my Bible to find out 'what happened', I need to engage my heart and look for Him.

Those who look for Jesus find Him either praying or preaching.  When I find Him, will I have my own agenda which I want to pull Him back to or will I follow Him to where He is at and do what He is doing?

The disciples had an agenda.  "Everyone is looking for you to heal them!  Let's go back and meet their needs."  They were pressed by the urgency of all the physical needs they saw around them, and besides, that was what Jesus was doing before.  But because Jesus spent time in prayer, He was able to re-focus on His mission:  preaching and meeting spiritual need.  It was time to go preach in nearby villages. 

The disciples had an agenda, but when they found Jesus and found that He had something different in mind, they followed.  When I find Jesus -- no matter where He might be -- how will I respond?

"The righteous care about justice for the poor, but the wicked have no such concern."  Prov 29:7

On Saturday morning, I was thinking about this verse and praying over it, asking God to give me more concern for social justice and praying that He would bring Freedom to the oppressed.  I feel like my prayers continue to be answered -- as even just this morning, I came across a post about the rampant sex trafficking in San Francisco -- the article is long but worth reading because this sexual slavery is happening literally in our backyard.  I encourage you to read it, as reading brings about awareness, and awareness is seeing, and seeing causes feeling, and feeling inspires prayer, and prayer is a catalyst for action. 

As another answer to prayer, this morning, a contractor came in to inspect some water damage in our home, and on finding out that I am "God's scribe", he shared with me that within the last five months, he and some others started a nonprofit organization to help the poor of Uganda.  It was so encouraging talking to someone who has taken pro-active steps of faith to carry out justice.  Their website url is "HeWillProvide."  His testimony reminded me that the Lord will provide a way to bring about justice, and the average joe like me can take steps to do it.  (Perhaps the International Justice Mission may be of service toward that end.)

In the last few weeks, I have felt a very distinct burden for women who have no voice because they have been unjustly silenced.  It all started when Sam & I watched a video sermon we got as a wedding gift called "Marriage God's Way."  Sounds benign, right?  Well, we didn't get very far into to the sermon when we were startled with the speaker's adamant, "Ladies, in the chain of command, your husband is God to you.  He carries the authority of God and you are to submit to him as if you are submitting to the Lord."  He quotes the Eph 5 passage and said, "You see, ladies, if you are obeying your husbands as if he were God, then you are giving reverence to your husband (and obeying the Scriptures)."  To the husbands, "Men, in the marriage relationship, you are the Savior...That's what headship is."  He proof-texts the following arguments by using 1 Cor 11:3 (conveniently forgetting v. 11&12, of course, not to mention Paul's original intention in writing that entire section):  "So there's God the father, God the son, the man, the woman, the children in this chain of command.  If you abuse this chain of command, if you neglect the duties of this chain of command, then you are stopping the flow from the top, because the flow of authority, command and blessing, comes from the top, from the father to the son to the man and then to the wife.  In other words you are cutting your wife off from the blessings of God.  See, God created her in this role of serving her man."  In other words, according to Michael Pearl's theology, there's a chain of command that God the Father is above Jesus the Son, so Jesus submits to the Father -- just as Husbands are above their Wives, and Wives ought to submit to their Husbands.  His theology for the subjugation of wives to their husbands is based on bad theology.

What 'bad theology'?  The claim to hiearchy of men over women based upon the hierarchy of Father over Son (1 Cor 11:3).  But don't we all believe that the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are all equal?  That would be correct theology.  Incorrect theology says otherwise.  But this is what the Bible says:  the Father is not above the Son.  God is not above Christ.  They are one and the same in power and glory and honor and authority (Phil 2:5-11) (although distinct in 'persons').  In the same way, the man is not above the woman.  The wife is not subordinate to the husband.  They are both to "submit" -- to cooperate and give in to one another -- out of reverence for Christ (See Biblical basis from the following articles:  Submission, Headship, Testimony, Overview). 

And while it's true that some people can go along happily all their lives applying bad theology (Michael Pearl's wife seems to love being subject to her husband), it's difficult for me to stand by and watch God's truth being distorted.  For the sake of all the other women whose voices have been snuffed out due to abuse of the Scriptures, I am burdened to seek and discover the truth and reveal it to as many people as I possibly can.

God really cares about justice.  In fact, He is passionate about it.  I want to care about justice and fight against the injustices, which rob people of the freedoms they ought to have in Christ -- in life.  I want to be a revealer of the truth and a fighter for justice.