Freedom Sunday

Today is Freedom Sunday. A day set aside for fasting and prayer by the Not For Sale Campaign for the over 30 million people who are enslaved throughout the world. Most of these slaves are women and children that are forced to sell their bodies to meet the demands of the commercial sex industry. It is a horrific reality that exists in every country - including ours. Some of the modern-day slaves have been kidnapped and sold into this slavery, others have been deceived or led into it blindly and still others become slaves willingly out of economic desperation. Whether willingly or unwillingly, slavery needs to be stopped. The Church is slowly awaking from slumber to realize the overwhelming need to be the hands and feet of Christ and to speak up on behalf on the oppressed. Jesus is a God of justice (Isaiah 30:18) and we cannot, as His followers, stand by and do nothing.

Open your mouth for the mute,
for the rights of all who are destitute.
Open your mouth, judge righteously,
defend the rights of the poor and needy. Proverbs 31:8-9

I asked the Lord today how I can become more involved in being a light for Christ to the exploited and oppressed. Currently, I am involved in a local ministry that reaches out to women involved in the sex industry. These women do what they do either out of coercion or sheer desperation. They have little hope and they are forgotten by the church of Christ. It is a hard ministry that is full of darkness, but Christ has called His people to dark places. We are not to settle for a life of comfort and ease. Christ Jesus Himself left the glory of heaven to enter into our dark world. He is the Light and He shines in and overcomes the darkness (John 1:5). We are called to follow Him and become like Him.

There was a special church service held in South Korea today in honor of Freedom Sunday. I watched it online earlier this afternoon. David Bratstone was the speaker and he told the listeners to ask themselves this question: "Who own's me?" Now, that is an interesting question because most of us would consider ourselves free. But are we really? His point was that many of us have sold ourselves to materialism and other similar things so that we are not really free to pursue Christ or to make a difference. For those of us who call ourselves Christians, we belong to Christ. He owns us. Jesus bought our freedom with His blood and He frees His people to be agents of redemption throughout the world. We are His ambassadors (2 Corinthians 5:20).

For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery. Galatians 5:1

Christ has set us free from sin and death and has made us right with God. But there are millions of people throughout the world who have neither spiritual nor physical freedom. They have no hope. It is up to us as the people of God to share the hope of Christ with them and to equip them to pursue a slave-free live because no one should be for sale.