I look around today in church and my thought is where are the William Wilberforce's? William was a man who realised that he was placed on the earth to do a task and that was to see the abolishment of the slave trade. He saw the hundreds of thousands of people enslaved and knew he had to do something about it He petitioned in parliament for over 20 years to have the slave trade abolished in Brittan and finally saw it happen in 1807. (abolition.e2bn.org)
Where are the Queen Esthers who have been born for "such a time as this?" Esther 4:14 Esther went and spoke to the king and that very act could have caused her to lose her life, she went to him to petition him to save her people from death as there was a decree in place for all the Jews to be killed. Not only would they have perished, but she would have as well. Esther 3-4
Where are the Shadrach's? Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego were three men who stood up to the king and refused to bow down and worship an idol that was created when the music played. They were told that they would face death if they didn't bow and worship. Yet the loved and feared God more and knew that they could bow and worship God alone. Daniel 3:14-30
Where are the mighty midwifes? Two midwifes whose names were Shiphrah and Puah, refused to follow the king's decree to kill all the new born baby boys, they chose to fear God not the king and they saved many people even most likely Moses. Exodus 1
These are just a few people in history who have heard the call, or rather a cry and have decided that they would not go silently into the night but that they would rise up to the challenge, that they would not be fearful for their lives but would live for God and therefore change history.
You may are probably not royalty, nor will you be thrown into a fire if you publicly worship God, you might not be a midwife or a politician, but God wants to use you.
A righteous anger
He has placed a righteous anger in you, a passion that stirs you to respond. He has given you something unique that he wants you to use "for such a time as this."
What I mean by this, is if you close your eyes and think about something that would make you so angry that you would want to jump up and scream that isn't right, that is not fair. What is the passion that God has laid upon you and said "so what are you going to do about it?"
When you look around at society there are so many things that can make you angry. Well, I am going to name a few righteous angers that God has and it might be one of yours (for time sake I have not named them all as it would take years, so yours might not be on the list but still vitally important):
- Over 6 billion people don't have a relationship with Jesus (648 million,11% of the world's population are Evangelicals or Bible believing Christians) christianity.about.com
- 340 million ppl do not have the Bible in their own language www.wycliffe.ca
- 45 million abortions are performed around the globe annually, that is 45 million babies killed a year! www.womenaid.org/press/info/health/bph022.htm
- 163 million orphans in the world (they don't have mommy's or daddy's to tuck them in at night) www.worldorphans.org
- 32 million ppl enslaved (child, sex, debt) www.notforsalecampaign.org
- Poverty- over 25000 ppl die a day from hunger related issues www.poverty.com
- Alcohol and drug abuse
- Over 2000 suicides happen in Australia every year. www.livingisforeveryone.com.au
- Misuse of Scripture
- Divorce
- Domestic violence
- Prostitution
- Hate crimes
- Bullying
- Single parents and having to raise children alone
- Broken, hurt people
- Helpless Elderly
- Sick
- Christians falling away from their faith
What is my choice?
Now that you have named your righteous anger, you have a choice, just like the men and women I discussed earlier, you have the choice. You can choose to say I am going to do something about this no matter what the cost, or you can say, I won't. What if Esther had said I value my life to much to walk up to the king? What if Wilberforce said it is going to be too hard to change people's minds about slavery?
But I am too young, I am too old, I don't have enough time, I don't have the money, I am too tall, I am too short, I can't publicly speak, I am not famous, I am too…… We have all been called to influence society, to change history, we may not ever be mentioned in the history books but God will know how you responded to His call.
We were never called to sit on the sidelines, it is time to get into the game, it is time to be a history maker. Once you have decided to be the change the world needs you need to know that it isn't going to be easy. Actually, to change history it can be quite hard.
There are mighty men
There is a mighty man in Australia, a father of seven who right now is sitting in jail because he stood up for what he believed. He decided that he could not sit by and watch while abortions were being performed. "Graham Preston, 56, Preston will serve 232 days in prison - seeing him out just in time for Christmas - for refusing to pay roughly $8000 in fines that have accumulated after ten years of non-violently blocking the entrances of four abortion clinics around Brisbane." (www.lifesitenews.com)
Another mighty man is Adominam Judson; one of the first missionaries to Myanmar (was Burma). When he went to Burma, he heard the call of God to go to Burma. He had a couple of goals and that was he wanted to see one church planted with 100 members and the Bible translated into Burmese before he died. The fact was that while following his passion he almost died of hunger, was thrown into jail, was really sick, almost died, lost three wife's and a several children, in the first ten years on the mission field he only saw 18 members in the church. But he knew he had a passion from God, and so he continued his mission, before his death, there were over 100 churches and over 8000 believers, he translated the Bible into Burmase and had started on a translation of a Burmese/English dictionary. (en.wikipedia.org)
You may lose friends, or family or your job. People are not going to understand why you are doing this; you are going to need God for strength. You are going to have to sacrifice various things such as: time, prayer, sleep, fasting, stepping out of your comfort zone, finances.
Only you know what it will cost. This choice is ours, the choice is yours. Think about your passion, and what if "you were born for such a time as this" Esther 4:14 to do something about it, to change eternity. What if we each did our part??
What if??
Genevieve Wilson is married with two children who served with YWAM for eight years in Brisbane and now serving in mission in Canada as a modern day abolitionist.
Genevieve Wilson's archive of articles may be viewed at www.pressserviceinternational.org/genevieve-wilson.html