For a limited time you can get a free download of the book Not for Sale. Click here to download.  Use code FEB2009 to redeem. This was one of the resources that motivated me to start the Free Chains Campaign to abolish child sex trafficking.  The book takes  you to different places where slavery occurs around the world.  The stories are horrific, but hopefully they will spur you on to help end slavery.  To take part in Free Chains, visit here and join us that ALL SHOULD BE FREE.

I watched Schindler’s List this past week.

It was the first time I had seen the film.

It was disturbing.  I am glad that Spielberg made it though.

Here are a couple of thoughts I had:

1. There is no other way to explain evil like the Nazi’s murdering than sin.  Just like sex trafficking today, it is an evil I can not wrap my mind around.
2. Most of the Jews were in slavery by the Nazi’s for 5-6 years.  That was horrible in it self, but it put perspective on the Jews in Exodus who were slaves for 400 years.  Imagine the feeling of walking out of Egypt after 400 years!  I can’t read Exodus now without thinking of this movie.
3. The most powerful scene is at the end of the film when Oscar Schindler announces the war is over and at midnight-everyone will be free, except for him.  As he is leaving his factory he breaks down and cries that he could have saved so many more.  You see, he spent his fortune buying Jews from Nazi camps to work in his factory to save their lives.  He cries that he “wasted” so much money.  When he sees his car, he says he could have got 10 more people with its value.  He sees his gold pin and says he could have saved 2 more people.  He saved over 1100, but once he realized it was over, he looked back with regret. He say’s I didn’t do enough.  What a strong message for today.  Will I look back with regret that I could have done more?

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lPHvLtitxug&hl=en&fs=1]

A powerful movie to say the least.  To see evil and sin so obvious and to see suffering beyond imagination makes me want to scream for justice.  The same evil exists today and we have an obligation to stand up and fight it.  We must fight against child sex trafficking.  We must fight against religious persecutions in the Middle East and Southeast Asia.  These issues are too big to fight alone.  We must work together.  In the movie, Schindler approaches another factory owner and tries to convince him to “buy” more workers so they can save more lives.  This is what we must do today. We must come together.

All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing-Edmund Burke

Mark Batterson said this in his newest book Wild Goose Chase, and it has been hanging in my mind a lot lately:

It is much easier to act like a Christian than it is to react like on.

Wow!   That has so many implications and applications.  I’m learning that reactions show the maturity level of an individual.

Here are some I’ve been thinking about.

Act:  Opening the door for your wife.

React: What do you do when she’s late?

Act: Put a few bucks in the offering basket.

React: What do you do when you see a homeless person?

Act: Going to church on Sunday

React: How do you react when someone cuts you off in the parking lot?

Act: Spending a few moments in prayer

React: What do you do when you read that millions of woman and children are used as sex slaves?

The list could go on and on.  The thought of the day for me is: choose to react in a way that will reflect highly upon Jesus.

By the way, if you want to help stop child sex slavery, visit Free Chains.

Had the opportunity to preach this past week in Woodstock, GA.  What a great night!  First of all, the youth facilities were freaking awesome.  I mean, I’ve been to many churches that are not that well equipped.  It was a great service of worship and the Spirit of God was really moving.  Worship was led by all students.  Before I got up to speak they had a few students who were being recognized for their active involvement in impacting their culture for Christ.  It was awesome.  Those are a couple future Centurions in the making.

The text I shared from was Isiah 58.  Going into the preparation time, I thought God was leading me to discuss the cultural trend of “Social Justice” movements and how they are not new.  In fact the idea of Justice, is a very Biblical and  Godly theme.  That ended up being a little bit of the talk, but the text really spoke more about how our actions have to match up with our hearts to honor God.  If we claim to worship but our hearts our not right, then God is not pleased.  Then, if we go on with our lives and do not care about the injustice in the world, God is not pleased either.

It was awesome to see students come up one by one or in small groups to pray at the alter.  God is using groups like this all over the country to change the world.  As a group they donated over $600 to the Free Chains Campaign!  That was a bunch of high schoolers.  What are you doing about the injustice in the world?

Here are some shots from Jeff of the night.

I finished up “Loving God” by Chuck Colson while on our trip.  Chuck has had a great influence in my life.

Chuck quoted John Calvin in one chapter and it has stood out to me in  huge way.  He said, “It is the first duty of the Christian to make the invisible Kingdom visible.”

WOW!  That is awesome.  What would it look like if all Christians made this their first duty?  How would the world be changed?  How different would culture look?

What are the ways that you see Christians doing this?

Here are a few that I’ll bring up:

Free Chains.  Project we started through World Causes trying to stop child sex trafficking.

Eleho: Organization by a friend in San Diego making a difference for the Karen People.

Innocence Atlanta: Friend in Atlanta trying to end sex trafficking within the city.

Fermi Project: A group trying to help Christians impact and influence culture

Prison Fellowship: organization by Chuck trying to bring truth into prisons.

Ethur: creative group dealing with issues like character and consumerism.

What are some ways or people you know trying to make the invisible kingdom known?

Mark Batterson talks about the importance of unlearning in his book, In a pit with a lion on a snowy day. Thinking Steps Not Programs is the practice that we have to unlearn some stuff, before we can effectively apply this practice.

Having a program is natural for those who grew up in church. You have a need, you build a program…its simple. But that is not necessarily the most effective way to achieve results. Here’s the difference.

A program is a system/project to meet a need.

A step is a series of actions taken to achieve a goal.

A program asks “what is the need?”

A step asks “where do we want people to be?’

The goal is to figure out where you want people, then create steps to get them there. You want to have teenagers have an intimate walk with Jesus, don’t just create a “youth program” create steps that will help get them there. There are numerous applications.

For World Causes, we want people to ultimately commit to being a part of the solution of the issues of poverty, injustice and epidemic disease. Commitment is the goal, and the steps to get them there are:

1. Raising awareness to the issue (this is one of our “wins”. To raise true awareness. To shorten the gap between our reality and their reality. Repeating a statistic is NOT awareness)

2. Getting people to respond to those needs.

3. Creating ways and possibilities to commit.

Commitment means altering lifestyles, changing behavior, changing character. Its big stuff. But that is where we want to take people and that is the only way that 2.5 million girls will be freed from sex trafficking, and 1.2 billion people can live on more than $1 a day. There are also distinct forms of commitment that we’ll be shooting for with different groups. Individuals, churches, business owners, students…commitment may look different for all the groups, so we’ll need steps for all different groups to get them there. Andy calls this “doing ministry with the end in mind.”

What are your steps?

Our new site is being finished up right now.  It is simple but I think that it’s going look sweet.  I’ll give a sneak peak.  We’re looking into doing a couple of concerts this summer. Right now it looks like Greenville, Charlotte, and maybe Atlanta.  More to come on that as the details are finalized.

Please help spread the word about the Free Chains Campaign.  A child gets caught in the sex trade every 2 minutes. We need all your voices to help.