I just finished writing the Go Deeper for the worship folder for this week's message of the Justice Journey series, Reach Out. As I was writing it I received a twitter from Gary reporting that he was headed to Victoria's Peak, the highest spot in Hong Kong to compose the companion message for this Sunday!

What an inspiring perch from which to write about Reaching Out to a world of injustice to bring light and hope and justice! I can't wait to hear it! And to see the man who will deliver it in person! To think he is there thousands of miles away and a half a day ahead creating what God will deliver on Sunday!
In the meantime I thought I would give you a sneak peak at the Go Deeper. I would love your feedback.
READY Read Micah 6:8 (New International Version and New Living Translation)
8 He has showed you, O man, what is good.
And what does the LORD require of you?
To act justly and to love mercy
and to walk humbly with your God.
8 No, O people, the Lord has told you what is good,
and this is what he requires of you:
to do what is right, to love mercy,
and to walk humbly with your God.
To do justly…the New International Version says to do what is right…who defines what is right these days? What does it look like for you to “to what is right”? What happens when you “love mercy”? And, oh my, what does your humble walk look like with God?
SET Who are we to say what is good?
I remember being involved in a Beth Moore study, Jesus the One and Only. I had just traveled to India once and was contemplating returning. Beth had shot the video for the series and taught in a church in India. On her last day there she had gone to a medical clinic and experienced the multitude of people desperate for care waiting in long lines. The new mental picture it gave her of Jesus healing the multitudes was incredible! However she said that as she was standing there she was overwhelmed with the thought that the very next day she would be leaving India and would be transported from this poverty-stricken people and land of billons to her comfortable home where she wants for nothing. The irony, injustice and contrast was more than she could handle! She broke down and wept and began to cry out to God, “Why? How can that be, God? How is that fair? I can leave here tomorrow but they, they will never leave this place or their plight in life!! How is that fair or just? I don’t get it!”
Beth said that she instantly heard God in her spirit reply with a question for her, “Who are YOU, to say what is good?”
That question has been reverberating in my ears during this Justice Journey series and my recent trip to India. Who am I to say what is good? We visited a small village only an hour and a half from the city of Salem, a city of over a million people where we stayed for five days. The village was comprised of only about 200 people. The church had been established some twenty years ago and was pastored by a young man, the son of the founding pastor; and his mother, the wife of the founding pastor. It was a small building with no furniture and an open doorway, clean swept and inviting but the epitome of simple.
We had traveled on our last day in India to tour the village and see a skill center where the India Gospel League trained women to weave on a manual loom and men on a power loom. Our van stopped in front of the church and next to a woman squatting in the dirt grinding corn with a stone pedestal in a stone bowl while her curious toddler watched wearing only her smile. As we walked around the village, looking at the simplest of homes IGL had built for some of the families and the first water well, we collected an entourage of curious villagers, mostly women and children.
They wanted to touch us and have their pictures taken. We were humbled and delighted to interact. One of the greatest joys of these trips is to connect with the people in their own culture, habitats and everyday surroundings. They are curious to interact with us and there is a small but significant exchange and connection that we are both better having experienced. As we climbed into the van to travel a few miles further into the village, a woman rushed to the doorway and begged to tell her story. She had walked 3 kilometers to the village because she had heard that we were going to be there and she wanted to ask if we would please pray for her family. Her husband and some of her family do not know Christ.
We were humbled and amazed at her heart, her faith and her desperate need for the community of prayer and agreement. We were touched and honored to join our hearts with hers in agreement with the scripture, wherever two or three are gathered there His is!
We drove away moved by God’s presence and faith in the life of this woman His follower. We ventured on to the place where the larger power loom was housed as well as the real “power room” for the village and the believers in the area. Beside of the facility where the power loom provided income for the people by producing work for the villagers to weave material for silk sarees, we met a couple who have lived in the area for 30 years and have been praying for the church and people to find their way back to God and experience Him. For 30 years they have lived there and been praying! We were received into their “home” which was a one room hut with a curtain doorway. They were the most gracious of hosts with chairs and 7up for our convenience. As the man and his wife greeted and served us, she could not stop smiling. When we asked why she was so happy, she said that she had great joy because foreigners had come to her home! We were blown away! Humbled! Who were we?
I, too, was haunted by the realization that the next day I would be transported out of there and back to the land of plenty (and plenty of waste) perplexed at the contrast! How do we bridge the gap? How do we make a difference here? How do we help? Where do we start?
I guess I hear God saying, Start where you are. I don’t need another Beth Moore. I have one, thank you. But what about being you! Be who I made you to be! I don’t already have one of those and I won’t!
Look at the needs around you. Is there someone in close proximity to you, a family member or neighbor who is in need? It could be spiritual need (we all are there), financial need, emotional need…Can God use you to meet it? Will you act justly to those around you?
Is there a social injustice or cause that sparks your interest? Is there something that you cannot stop thinking about? Can you contribute to a cause above and beyond your tithe? What about sponsoring a child in India, China or Mexico? How do you love mercy?
GO How do you walk humbly? Try this!
I was studying the Psalms last winter. The portion we were studying was called the Psalms of Ascent. They were the collection of songs that the people sang as they traveled up to the city of Jerusalem. The writer of the study, Stepping Up, said that she believed that the way up in our spiritual walk starts with an actual descent. She said that in order to go up, we must go down. She challenged us to start each morning of the 10 week study on our faces, literally, before God. Not just kneeling down but laying prostrate, FLAT, with our faces on the floor. I found it to be a most humbling experience and a whole different perspective. Nothing to distract me but the rug in my face as I focused each morning on His presence before starting my day and my list of needs and requests. So I challenge you to try it this week. As soon as your feet fit the floor, hit the deck and ask God how you can walk act justly this week? Ask Him how you can express mercy and love this week to those in your realm of influence? Experience a new perspective on your world and God from face down on the floor before Him? What would He ask you to consider doing for Him? Are you willing to visit a third world country? Is He asking you to contribute to the cause of advancing the Good News of Jesus Christ in a world of injustice? Where? How? Ask. And then be still on your face and listen for His answer.
I would LOVE to hear about your facedown experience! Comment below.
Memory verse Micah 6:8 of course, any version.