Dear Caldwell,
We heard a powerful and sobering message Sunday from our partner Lisa Koons about the reality of human trafficking in Charlotte and the work of her organization, End Slavery in Charlotte, to overcome it. Her word followed our hearing about the work of Hagar, another campus partner, to fight slavery and human trafficking overseas.
Even for those of us who knew something about the prevalence of these horrendous crimes, Lisa’s sermon raised serious questions about what any of us can do. As Lisa reminded us, we can – and must – always pray; prayer and action for justice must always go hand in hand. But, for those who wanted to know or even do more, I wanted to share the link to End Slavery’s website here. It has clear links to action steps.
Also, Sally Herlong shared another web resource that brings this issue even closer to home. It connects our individual lives and habits to sustain human trafficking and commercial slavery, even providing a way to estimate how many in that kind of bondage may be necessitated by our personal choices and habits. That link is here.
What does God “command?”
As we move this week from Sunday to Sunday, whether it is thinking about issues such as human trafficking or something else, we are always faced with the question: How does God want me to live?
God provided one very clear answer to that question when Moses received what we know as the Ten Commandments. It’s easy, in one sense, to tell ourselves that the commandments bear little relevance on our lives. We may be inclined – subconsciously or not – to live them there in Exodus 20 as an artifact of history.
But the great reformer John Calvin said the commandments, also known as the Decalogue (ten words), provide us with a way to be with God on a daily basis, not so much a check list but a practice to choose actively each day how we will conduct ourselves in our life with God and with each other. That’s something I am focusing specifically on this month in my own life.
I have more to say about that Sunday – including an invitation for you to join me in a month of “living Deca-logically.” Until then, if you have any thoughts or questions about the Ten Commandments, please shoot me a note at Pastor@caldwellpresby.org.
In Christ,
John