Justice:Movement Beyond Emotion

We started a new series yesterday that we're calling Justice:Movement Beyond Emotion. Over the past few years, we have been trying to 'show the face of God' to our community and world in a variety of ways. We've been involved with issues of child soldiering, human trafficking, AIDS, poverty, refugees, among others. These activities have 'felt good and right' for us to be involved in, but have led to some questions:

• Can we really make a difference?
• If not, then why do we keep talking about all this stuff?
• How important is this to God, where does it say it in the Bible, and how important should it be to His church?

These are great questions and this series is our attempt to address them and create a deeper discussion that will (hopefully) give us some answers and direction. The podcast is here and if you regularly attend on Sundays, you should listen to this one. The rest of the series is in part based on it.

Some of the comments people made after the service were regarding experiences they had with situations of injustice. Some reflected on the Hebrew concept of justice and how charity and justice are viewed as the same thing. And one person questioned whether or not we have a Scriptural obligation to justice and/or charity outside the community of the church. All were great comments/questions and I put this post up because I'd love to discuss it further. Feel free to post anonymously as well.

some books i finished

just finished this a few days ago. i don't say this often, but you have to read it. it's about a boy in sierra leone who loses his family in a civil war and manages to avoid being abducted into an army for a while, but eventually is a part of the government army for a few years before he goes to a rehabilitation camp for child soldiers. a crushing story that ends with a ray of hope. i have it if you want to borrow it. here's a great review of it by a friend that used to live in raleigh...

also finished philip yancey's 'what's so amazing about grace'. you need to read it, too.