Vote out Poverty

"Day after day they seek me out;

they seem eager to know My ways,

as if they were a nation that does what is right

and has not forsaken the commands of its God...

loose the chains of injustice, set the oppressed free,

share your food with the hungry, provide shelter for the poor,

clothe the naked."

Michael and I have been struck by how much the Lord calls us to social justice and caring for the poor. We have committed ourselves to reading Isaiah 58 daily for a month and praying the Lord will direct us in how exactly we can help. I was amazed by this chapter a few months ago as I was reading the book "Just Courage." Then, earlier this week when I came downstairs in the morning Michael had left his Bible open to that chapter and a message for me on the answering machine (since we generally wake up hours after he leaves) saying "we need to talk about this chapter." When he got home he said "What are we going to do about this?" It's so obvious that the Lord's heart is for his people to be serving the oppressed and the poor, yet our daily lives don't reflect that. Did you know that there is more human trafficing and slavery going on today around the world then when Wilber Force (Amazing Grace guy) fought to end the slave trade. What am I doing? How can I live out Isaiah 58?

Michael and I figured it was too big of a problem to solve in the ten minutes we have to talk a day (sad but pretty true, he gets home around 8:30 or 9:00 and I've usually put the kids to bed and have started working) and to read Isaiah 58 everyday for a month.

I love how the Lord brings things together, I just got home from listening to Jim Wallace from Sojourners talk to a large group of us at University of Detroit Mercy about our role as Christians to change the political environment in America. He encouraged us to "be the wind" of change. There are 30,000 people that die everyday of starvation, we need to stop this. We need to make noise about getting rid of poverty in our rich nation. He spoke about revivals and how a revival is only considered a revival when it changes something. Our churches need to come together and fight for poverty to end. The UN has Millennium Development Goals to end extreme poverty over the world, I had never heard about this until tonight. How crazy is that since it's been going on since 2000 and the goal is to elliminate extreme poverty by 2015. I guess I need more education. I also heard tonight that the United Kingdom came up with a plan to half poverty in 10 years and it's working. America needs real plans that are put in action and measurable to end poverty here. It's not so much about which candidate is perfect but about Christians coming together to "loosen the chains of injustice, to set the oppressed free...Then your light will break forth like the dawn, and your healing will quickly appear" again with Isaiah 58....

Sojourners may be a little liberal for some. I definitely don't agree with everything they say, but I think they are on the right track....encouraging Christians and churches to live how we are called to. Their goal is to Vote Out Poverty. Let's do it.

I for real need to go to bed. Addie's due to wake up in about a half an hour and do some crazy middle of the night, scratchy voice yelling and Nathan due to come and cuddle with me in about 2 hours. I'm real busy even in my sleep:)

“The church must be reminded that it is not the
master or the servant of the state, but rather the
conscience of the state. It must be the guide and
the critic of the state, and never its tool. If the
church does not recapture its prophetic zeal, it
will become an irrelevant social club without
moral or spiritual authority.”
—MARTIN LUTHER KING JR.
Strength to Love, 1963.