Nehemiah 5 // justice

This could be an incredibly long post, so I’ll attempt to make it short. This morning I was given the privilege to speak at Cornerstone. (On a side note: In the past I’ve occasionally joked that I get the “not many people will be here today, so if Brian says something crazy it shouldn’t be that bad” Sunday’s. I regret ever making those jokes. My apologies if I’ve said it to you. Genuinely, I appreciate every opportunity I’ve been given to speak. Sometimes Often, I wish I could take things back.) Back on topic, the message was on Nehemiah 5 where Nehemiah calls out the people of Israel for enslaving one another at such a critical time in their history. The people hear the truth spoken. They are convicted. They respond in obedience. They respond swiftly.

The message seemed clear to me in that Nehemiah was confronting an evil, an injustice. He was fighting against the oppression of a people. He knew that slavery and oppression were antithetical to the movement God was doing to restore a people and to the very heart of God.

In preparing for this message, God was laying on my heart that we are called to do the same. We are called to fight injustice wherever it occurs. We are called to clothe the naked, feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, bind up the broken-hearted, unleash the chains of darkness and bring hope to the hopeless. This all sounds very weighty, very big. But honestly, I think it’s as simple as just loving people where they are when everything in this world is stealing their hope away.

This is a moment by moment battle. Just have to walk in obedience. I’m convinced he’s going to open my eyes more and more to this every day.

I’m grateful for opportunities to speak where I don’t walk away unchanged. Today was one of those days.