Slavery On The Rise (part 2)

When I was around 15, a Hattian man walked up to our church after services (of course we did not know that at the time). He asked for food and drink. We honestly only had some stale chips and flat soda, but we offered and he accepted. He then asked if we could give him a ride to the bus station, which my father and I provided. We would later learn on the local news that he was an escaped slave from a local farmer. We had helped him escape and get back to friends who got him in contact with authorities who arrested the farmer.

We never know what is going on right down the road, or ever next door. We have this way of thinking that these kinds of problems are always somewhere else in the world. Truth is, this s type of thing happens all around us, and we are often oblivious. As Christians, we cannot afford to live in ignorance -- The world cannot afford for us to live in ignorance.

In the last post, I shared Revelation 18:9-18. We see that in the end times, the merchants of the world will get rich selling many things, including people. Work slavery and sex slavery are more rampant that we want to admit today, but will be mainstream during that time. According to this passage, there will be a return to slave ships. The merchants described are maritime merchants and they keep their ships at a distance as Babylon burns.

In the news today, the World Health Organization made a statement that abortion is a life saving procedure and encouraged countries to abort more babies. Abortion is murder. Innocent lives are taken and in the vast majority of situations, it is because they are an inconvenience. We live in a society that devalues human life. This is because the value of life comes from God and most of the world denies God. When life has no value, then a person is nothing more than an animal and so the leap to viewing people as cattle to do with as the owner pleases is a short jump.

Abortion is not the only practice that devalues human life. There is also a state supreme court case in which a man is fighting for the "right" of assisted suicide. God is the giver and taker of life. Our value comes from the fact that we are made in God's image. Humans are the only segment of creation that God sent His Son to redeem. It is because of this value that Christians have led the way in fighting against slavery.

Father, may we always see the value in every human life. You sent your Son to die so that we could be saved. May we always be bold to proclaim the gospel and the value of each human life.