I'm careful about what I read but I am not careful about how I love....
That was the thought that flowed through my head as I skimmed the article regarding the three women and child that have been found after ten years. Beyond the stories... the thoughts, that filled my head, were in regards to statements that were being made by some of those around me concerning the words, "torture," "in this day and age," "America."
Not known for really being quiet in these moments I was very quiet.
Taking it all in.
Even now there is much upon my heart. My rants aren't needed. I have learned that complaint and worry and fear do no one any good. So I sat on my bed after skimming that article with the word, torture, hanging in the air.
Music from this past weekend swirled in my head. Having met a father in the faith in regards to worship and prayer I could hear his voice singing and I could hear his fingers playing upon the piano. "What do the angels look at forever and ever, why do the elders bow down forever and ever... it's the Lamb of God."
Hope sprung up in my heart...
Hope for the victims...
Hope for their families...
Please understand the Kingdom and my heart and history... but how can we call ourselves Christians if we don't also allow hope to arise for the perpetrators.
In hearing the man's voice it was as if Father, Himself, was calling me to remember, "What do the angels look at forever and ever... Why do the elders bow down forever and ever.. IT'S THE LAMB OF GOD!
He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not. 4Surely he has borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. 5But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was on him; and with his stripes we are healed. …
AND WITH HIS STRIPES WE ARE HEALED....
I would love to have said to those in the crowd, that have no idea of my life or my story, how their being incredulous over how such actions that are being talked about in today's news only show their ignorance and how Westernized and Americanized their world view has become.
To champion the cause of ending slavery in today's day and age is a most beautiful endeavor. But not because it is some culturally relevant fad that 20 somethings can participate in so that they can feel good about themselves. (That is as much of a rant that you will get from me.) Because ranting does no good.
To remember what the angels look at forever and ever.. to remember how the elders bow down forever and ever.. to remember the Lamb of God!!! That is what does all the good.
Torture isn't some vague word in my heart.. in my mind... it has very distinct pictures that go along with it's definition. I never have to wonder how things such as these current events can happen, I have seen the brutality that men can enter into and have lived the years. BUT....
I have lived the years since!!! "And with His stripes we are healed..."
I don't take that lightly either... Those seven words have changed my life ... The man of who they speak even more so...
It isn't just the women, men, girls, boys, children .. adults caught up in the sex trade or slavery, or occult like activities.. it isn't the extreme cases of abuse and neglect and suffering and sorrow that need to know the Man, of who those 7 words, it is for everyone...
Lives are at stake...
We all need the Man of those 7 words to step into our lives... we all need the Man of those 7 words to have carried our griefs and our sorrows... our inadequacies... We all need Him.... The awareness of those that are forgiven much may understand that more than others.. but whether you are being placed in a dog crate and left in a dark closet for hours on end or you are the most powerful man that everyone and their brother wants to know, (but yet nobody truly knows)... we all need the Man of the 7 words...
Lives are at stake when adults are handing a small child like frame around for their sexual pleasure... The lives that are at stake are the lives of both adult and child.. perpetrator and victim. His love and His capacity to bring forth wholeness and redemption and grace and mercy and truth and forgiveness far extend any ability to comprehend it.. His love is immeasurable.. His compassion endlesss.. His redemption full...
The man of these 7 words changed my life... brought me from the darkest of realities into the most glorious reality of His light and His love...
My body and my memories still carry with them the realities of what life can be but it is His scars that have healed and are healing mine....
What lives are at stake? Yours.. mine.. in any place where we live less than that which we are as son and as daughter... our neighbors, our co-workers, our fellow students... the stranger that walks alongside us for but a few seconds within the walls of our local grocery story... The question that fills my heart as I look into the eyes of those that would surround me is.. "Do their hearts know that they are loved? Do their minds understand their intrinsic worth and value? Do they know how precious they truly are?"
Those that know their God will arise with strength and take action... it is because they are confident of His affections, they are confident in His truth, they are confident in the reality that He gives life and freedom to all that will declare the Man of the 7 words LORD... He is the Lamb of God... and the angels behold Him forever and ever.. the elders bow down forever and ever and one day so will we.....
He is the Lamb of God who has taken the sins of the world away.... We will behold Him forever and ever... our knees will bow down forever and ever...
Our sorrows He has born.. our grief is upon Him forever and ever...............
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