This time of year gives us reasons to pause. Thanksgiving turns our hearts toward thankfulness, and Christmas prompts us to reflect on the astounding reality of the incarnation—Jesus coming to earth and taking upon Himself the nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. This time of year compels us to pause—to give thanks, to reflect on all that Christ has done for us.

In addition to Thanksgiving and Christmas, I’ve been given a third reason to “pause” this season as I am coming off one hospitalization and likely facing a second. The first was to fight the effects of e. coli bacteria introduced into my blood stream by a biopsy, and the second will be to address the prostate cancer revealed by that biopsy. I have decided that it is especially important for me this year—given this unanticipated reason to pause—to fully embrace the first two reasons.

When I think of the heartfelt concern expressed by so many of you over the past month, my heart is full of gratitude. THANK YOU for your notes, cards, calls, and especially your prayers. My family and I have been buoyed by your love and support. God has been so good. 

Around this time every year it seems our conversations turn to how we get so busy so quickly. I can’t complain about that this year, nor can I use that as an excuse, as my calendar has been cleared for me. This is hard for me to accept as I thrive on activity and had really been looking forward to the trips and appointments I’ve had to cancel. So, during this time when I’ve been forced to “relax,” I’ve decided to heed the words of that old Thanksgiving hymn and count my many blessings and name them one by one. There is something very humbling about inventorying my life and saying each blessing out loud!

I’ve also been prompted to dwell in Philippians 2 for a while. There is great encouragement in the act of God sending His Son, His only begotten Son. I am going to read and reread this chapter, asking God to once again impress these great truths upon my heart.

I trust that you will allow the reasons for Thanksgiving and Christmas to give you pause, and that what you find in those pauses will enrich your hearts and your lives this season. For those of us who find ourselves with an unforeseen and unavoidable reason to pause, may we not waste or resent it, but embrace it and seek out what God might want us to discover and learn.

Blessings, Dave

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JESUS, WILL YOU KEEP YOUR PROMISES?
I find it interesting that the book of Acts begins with a question. The very first sentence after the prologue has the disciples asking the question that weighed heavy on their minds: “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?” (Acts 1:6)

This was a pressing concern for the disciples. Jesus answers, “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

When you break down the disciples’ question you discover they are concerned about three things. First, they are interested in timing. When will all this happen? We still worry about time. Second, the disciples are wondering how they’ll fit into this event. What about Israel?! It is a matter of identity. Third, they are concerned about integrity. Jesus, will you keep your promises? This is the kingdom question. That kingdom you were always telling us about—is that coming? Will that come true?

I think these are still our concerns today, but it is the third aspect of the disciples’ question that grabs my attention these days because I find it the most pressing in my own life.

Jesus, will you keep your promises? This is a very important question! A couple weeks ago as I was lying on a hospital bed sensing my life might be coming to an end, I thought a lot about the promises of God. God, are you going to keep your promises? I thought very carefully about that question in those moments.

We’ve all had experiences where people who do not keep their word. Some of those disappointments cause deep pain, some inflict profound wounds. I think it’s one of the marks of the human race to yearn for goodness. To seek out that person who can be trusted. To hope against all prior disappointments that this time promises will be kept. And there are moments in life when the answers to our questions lead us to things beyond this life.

Jesus surprises us with his answer. He doesn’t answer the disciples with specifics, although they had something very specific on their mind concerning Israel. Instead, Jesus answers their question at a deeper level. We discover in our Lord’s answer that we are the object of God’s good promises.

Jesus tells us, “You will receive power…and you will be my witnesses to Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the ends of the earth.” Everyone has a role! If you are a believer, then you are a witness of the Good News of Christ, and if you’re not a believer yet, then you’re a target. From Jerusalem to the ends of the earth…everyone is included. We are the recipients of the promises of God!

As promised through the prophets of old, Jesus came as the Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world. The Son is sent! Salvation is accomplished! When life hangs in the balance, we do not have to lie on our beds and wonder. God keeps his promises.

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Thanks to God for my Redeemer, Thanks for all Thou dost provide!
Thanks for times now but a memory, Thanks for Jesus by my side!
Thanks for pleasant, balmy springtime, Thanks for dark and stormy fall!
Thanks for tears by now forgotten, Thanks for peace within my soul!

Thanks for prayers that Thou hast answered, Thanks for what Thou dost deny!
Thanks for storms that I have weathered, Thanks for all Thou dost supply!
Thanks for pain, and thanks for pleasure, Thanks for comfort in despair!
 Thanks for grace that none can measure, Thanks for love beyond compare!

Thanks for roses by the wayside, Thanks for thorns their stems contain!
Thanks for home and thanks for fireside, Thanks for hope, that sweet refrain!
Thanks for joy and thanks for sorrow, Thanks for heav’nly peace with Thee!
Thanks for hope in the tomorrow, Thanks through all eternity!

- August L. Storm, 1891

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Good News About Injustice: A Witness of Courage in a Hurting World by Gary Haugen, 1999 InterVarsity Press
Terrify No More: Young Girls Held Captive and the Daring Undercover Operation to Win Their Freedom by Gary Haugen, 2005 W Publishing Group
Reviewed by David Korb

The good news about injustice is that God is against it. Good News is a call to have the courage necessary to follow Christ into the broken arenas of this world. Author Gary Haugen is president and CEO of International Justice Mission. He reminds us that we do not follow a “domesticated God” but a God who is in brothels, prisons, and all places where people are held in bondage. Haugen dares to suggest to us that the God of heaven is present in these violent and abusive places and invites Christians to courageously follow God into these evil contexts.

Haugen writes, “As Christians we have learned much about sharing the love of Christ with people all over the world who have never heard the gospel. We continue to see the salvation message preached in the far corners of the earth and to see indigenous Christian churches vigorously extending Christ’s kingdom on every continent. We have learned how to feed the hungry, heal the sick and shelter the homeless. But there is one thing we haven’t learned to do, even though God’s Word repeatedly calls us to the task. We haven’t learned how to rescue the oppressed. For the child held in forced prostitution, for the prisoner illegally detained and tortured, for the widow robbed of her land, for the child sold into slavery, we have almost no vision of how God could use us to bring tangible rescue. We don’t know how to get the twelve-year-old out of the brothel, how to have the prisoner set free, how to have the widow’s land restored to her or how to get the child slave released and the oppressors brought to justice.”

Haugen worked as a lawyer for the U.S. Department of Justice and served as director of the United Nations genocide investigation in Rwanda before he founded the International Justice Mission (IJM) to address the issues mentioned in the previous paragraph. The book is divided into three sections. In the first section Haugen opens our eyes to the reality of injustice in our world today. The second section presents four affirmations God makes about justice that should give us hope. The final section provides concrete guidance on how Christians can rescue the oppressed and seek justice throughout the world.

The second book, Terrify No More, contains stories of IJM interventions in many places around the world. The primary story is about IJM’s raid on the brothels in Svay Pak in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. The IJM team went undercover to infiltrate the brothels of Svay Pak to identify, video tape, and record conversations with the pimps, brothel owners, and elementary-school-age girls promising to perform specific sexual acts for foreign customers. The book relays in great detail how the raid and rescue mission was planned and carried out. Terrify No More is not a book for the faint of heart. The details are graphic as Haugen gives a real account of what happens when young girls are kidnapped and forced into a life of prostitution.

As the story of Svay Pak unfolds, Haugen weaves in other stories of IJM interventions around the world. In one of these he recounts the saga of Jyoti, a 14 year-old Indian girl who left home to work as a domestic servant in another village. After two months she had saved up enough money to return home to visit her family, but was abducted as she waited at the train station. Her captors drugged her, and when the drugs wore off three days later she found herself in brothel in a major city far from her home. For two months she refused to participate in the sex trade, so the brothel keepers beat her repeatedly, more than 50 times. “Finally the brothel keeper had had enough. Demanding a high price because she was a virgin, she sold Jyoti to an eager customer. Still resistant, Jyoti was beaten on her legs, then pushed violently into the room. …When he was finished with her, the customer paid the brothel keeper about two hundred dollars. Pleased that she had been a virgin, he gave her an additional twenty-two dollar tip. Jyoit took the money and threw it in the face of the brothel keeper.” Jyoti finally decided to give up the fight—outwardly at least—but still watched every day for an opportunity to escape. Over the next three years she was forced to have sex with an average of twenty-five customers a day, for approximately fifteen thousand sexual encounters before her rescue. After her rescue, Jyoti assisted IJM in a raid on that same brothel. More than a half dozen girls were liberated that day.

This book will shock you, make you cry, and break your heart as it opens your eyes to the horrors faced by girls as young as eight years old. It will also give you an idea of what it takes to rescue these girls and young women from their abusers. Going beyond the tales of rescues, Haugen also talks candidly about the necessity and challenges of aftercare.

Tucked in the midst of these tales of terror is the reminder that God—the God of the Bible—is in these places. We hate to think of our holy God being there in the room when these unspeakable things are happening to girls like Jyoti, but our God is there. Gary Haugen is convinced that if our God cares enough to be there, then we also must have the courage to go there and stop pretending that these things are not happening in our world today.

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