"I am the Lord who demonstrates unfailing love and who brings justice and righteousness to the earth and I delight in these things.” Jeremiah 9:24
My Dad has always had a huge heart for justice. As president of a union in the Bay Area, he works hard to ensure that people are being treated fairly and that they’re protected. He has also become the answer to many other causes and just seems to spread love to everyone he meets. Much like my Dad, I've found I have a deep desire to protect and love people who may not always have a voice too.
Likewise, we reflect the image of our Abba Father who is Justice Himself. He sent His Son to make all things right and justified us through His shed blood on the cross. Since Christ became justice for us, we get to express and communicate that to the whole world. We carry it on the inside of us. The law would say that justice is punishment, revenge or "getting what they deserve." But the new covenant's definition is: Receiving all Jesus paid for on the cross. All mankind reconciled, fully acquitted, made right, whole, redeemed back to their original design. Or as Paul Manwarring has put it: "Justice is a man and woman walking into divorce court and coming out reconciled." Justice is salvation for ALL, just as God intended it from the very beginning.
I have a deep passion to see justice in the area of human trafficking, not only in other nations but right here in the U.S. where young girls are forced into slavery every day. Though the statistics are alarming and the victims' stories heartbreaking, God has encouraged me not to keep my focus on the problem but on the solution. This doesn't mean I'm ignorant to what's happening but I no longer "camp out" there. Sometimes sympathy can keep people locked into a problem, but the compassion of God draws them out. Heaven sees things very differently. We have been invited to see from that perspective. "Since you have been raised to new life with Christ, set your sights on the realities of Heaven where Christ sits in the place of honor at God's right hand." (Colossians 3:1 NLT) Jesus always asks me, "How do you want to be the answer?" One way Wildfire answered this question was by selling their prophetic art at BFC and donating the funds to a shelter in the Bay Area that houses and brings restoration to survivors of human trafficking. YOU supported this and were part of the solution! Because we are walking representations of Christ on the earth, we just can’t help but be the answer the world is looking for.
We don’t need to gather around who we’re against but around who and what we're for. As we celebrate and honor the life of Martin Luther King Jr. this week, I've been reminded that he changed the course of world history through DREAMING with God. He carried a vision in his heart and kept his focus on the answer, the dream. What is your dream? What moves your heart and stirs up passion? How does God want to be the answer through you? I want to encourage you that Christ in you is shining forth and you are carrying Him, who is the answer, everywhere you go!
“But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. And so we’ve come to cash this check, a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice.”-Martin Luther King Jr.
I love you Family,
Karena Lout
My Dad has always had a huge heart for justice. As president of a union in the Bay Area, he works hard to ensure that people are being treated fairly and that they’re protected. He has also become the answer to many other causes and just seems to spread love to everyone he meets. Much like my Dad, I've found I have a deep desire to protect and love people who may not always have a voice too.
Likewise, we reflect the image of our Abba Father who is Justice Himself. He sent His Son to make all things right and justified us through His shed blood on the cross. Since Christ became justice for us, we get to express and communicate that to the whole world. We carry it on the inside of us. The law would say that justice is punishment, revenge or "getting what they deserve." But the new covenant's definition is: Receiving all Jesus paid for on the cross. All mankind reconciled, fully acquitted, made right, whole, redeemed back to their original design. Or as Paul Manwarring has put it: "Justice is a man and woman walking into divorce court and coming out reconciled." Justice is salvation for ALL, just as God intended it from the very beginning.
I have a deep passion to see justice in the area of human trafficking, not only in other nations but right here in the U.S. where young girls are forced into slavery every day. Though the statistics are alarming and the victims' stories heartbreaking, God has encouraged me not to keep my focus on the problem but on the solution. This doesn't mean I'm ignorant to what's happening but I no longer "camp out" there. Sometimes sympathy can keep people locked into a problem, but the compassion of God draws them out. Heaven sees things very differently. We have been invited to see from that perspective. "Since you have been raised to new life with Christ, set your sights on the realities of Heaven where Christ sits in the place of honor at God's right hand." (Colossians 3:1 NLT) Jesus always asks me, "How do you want to be the answer?" One way Wildfire answered this question was by selling their prophetic art at BFC and donating the funds to a shelter in the Bay Area that houses and brings restoration to survivors of human trafficking. YOU supported this and were part of the solution! Because we are walking representations of Christ on the earth, we just can’t help but be the answer the world is looking for.
We don’t need to gather around who we’re against but around who and what we're for. As we celebrate and honor the life of Martin Luther King Jr. this week, I've been reminded that he changed the course of world history through DREAMING with God. He carried a vision in his heart and kept his focus on the answer, the dream. What is your dream? What moves your heart and stirs up passion? How does God want to be the answer through you? I want to encourage you that Christ in you is shining forth and you are carrying Him, who is the answer, everywhere you go!
“But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. And so we’ve come to cash this check, a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice.”-Martin Luther King Jr.
I love you Family,
Karena Lout
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