Here's a question i've found most helpful in the past few years, and am having a great time with it now. "Do you think God cares about this?" IV at UWSP is sponsoring a fundraising drive to help "The Thailand Project," which aims to put an end to child sex trafficking in Thailand. Many people these days think that Christians are mostly self-absorbed and close-minded and thinking about their own affairs (which is understandable when i think about the best-selling Christian books and Christian TV programs...). Anyway, people seem to be taken aback when i ask if they think God cares about child sex trafficking or the AIDS crisis or the environment or their souls. Their answers are often something like "I'm sure God cares, but I don't think most of His 'followers' do."
Maybe they're misinformed, but maybe they have a good point. Anyway, i think here in Stevens Point environmental issues take a front seat, even more than humanity issues. So i think i'm going to work on caring for the environment here some more, maybe get some students on board. I can't think of a better way to build some relationships and begin sharing the gospel than that. We should care for God's creation and be good stewards, especially since so many around these parts enjoy it.
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Lickel,
Sorry I've been MIA for so long. We've actually been in Thailand for the last 3 week. The situation there is quite heart-wrenching. From the child sex trafficking, to males being forced to become transvestites from a young age, to seeing old greasy white guys walking down the street with young Thai girls (& guys), it really makes you both sick to your stomach and incredibly sad.
Does God Care? Of course! Is it obvious, especially when I think less than 1% of the population is Christian and people are incredibly enslaved to Buddhism and idol worship...not really.
It's really difficult to be in such a spiritually dark place and see a people whose hearts are so hard to the gospel and seem so far from receiving the grace of God.
The question I always ask and would like to get others' feedback is: Without the gospel breaking through first and changing lives and the culture, can we use social programs like this, especially when a culture is so entrenched in a religious system and a sexual sin cycle as deep as the one in Thailand?
The same question can be asked about any problem in any country. I had some good conversations with others while we were in Thailand and it's obvious that they are not any more "sinful" than your average American who is enslaved to pornography and worshipping the idols of Hollywood or _____ (fill in the blank). It's just more obvious on the outside.
I have a whole bunch of other thoughts concerning social justice and morality as it relates to our current political situation in America and the church's role in all of it. If anyone is interested in discussing those things I can elaborate further.
So Lickel, God does care. "The Lord is slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, forgiving iniquity and transgression, but he will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, to the third and the fourth generation." He cares enough to care. He cares enough that He sent His Son to die for wretches like us. He cares enough to not wipe every wicked city off the face of the planet like He did with Sodom and Gomorrah. I can't even fathom the coexistence of God's wrath and love apart from the cross. It is a beautiful thing. Thank you God for caring!
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