Actions speak louder than words

I have been thinking a lot about how we as Americans and as Christians live here in America. When people come to know Jesus we find out that he has called us to a higher standard. Jesus' 2 greatest commandments were "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself." (Matthew 22:37-40)

In Matthew 15:8 Jesus says "These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me."

When we think of 'love your neighbor as yourself' do we only think of the family next door? As Christians we should believe that all people, no matter where they are on this planet, are our brothers and sisters. They are our global neigbhor's. This is the body of Chirst.

I sent my buddy a text, it read: "The things we buy. Won't we don't know won't hurt us...only others."

Our "blessings" here in America in reality are causing harm and pain to our brothers and sisters throughout the planet because we have given into the American way or if you want to call it "the American Dream."

Many of us like Chocolate. When buying it we don't think twice of who was working on the Cocoa farms. We don't realize that it was children forced to work. Do we consider fair alternatives? Usually not, because it takes too much effort.

Here in America we love our brand new clothes. Do we think about who made it? Do we consider if they have rights? Are they in servitude? These are our brothers and sisters they we may never know but that doesn't mean we don't have to care.

Jesus said to Love your neighbor as yourself. When I think of this I ask myself "If I were in their situation would I want someone to help me?" My answer has always been "yes." and this causes me to think and live differently.

There is a website called Responsible Shopper. The link is: www.responsibleshopper.com.

You can go to this website to see what companies are violating our brother's and sister's human rights and many other things. Until we start living differently we won't see this world change. Ghandi said "Be the change you want to see in the world."

At least 27 million people are in servitude today. More than any other time in history. America is about 9% of the world's population but we consume over 50% of the world's resources. That is not a good thing for this earth or the people that live on it.

A few weekends ago I went to an IJM (International Justice Mission) advocate training. International Justice Mission is a human rights agency that secures justice for victims of slavery, sexual exploitation and other forms of violent oppression. IJM lawyers, investigators and aftercare professionals work with local officials to ensure immediate victim rescue and aftercare, to prosecute perpetrators and to promote functioning public justice systems.

At the training I was blown away by a few things: 1) the snacks were M&M's 2) the beverage was Coca Cola 3) It was at a megachurch where when people left they were saying "wow! look at this, this place is awesome!

My response: This comes from Responsible Shopper "Hershey, along with M&M's/Mars, dominates the $13 billion dollar chocolate industry, much of which comes from the Ivory Coast. It has been found that children have been forced or tricked into leaving their homes to work as indentured servants on cocoa plantations. It is estimated that between 10,000 and 15,000 children work on these plantations, some as young as 11 years old. The children work an estimated 80 to 100 hours a week. The Ivory Coast is said to provide 43 percent of the industry's cocoa.

Labor unions have filled suits against Coca-Cola, alleging that in Colombia, workers at Coca-Cola bottling plants have had their safety threatened and even been murdered by Colombian paramilitaries for trying to unionize."

and lastly when it comes to the megachurch and the response of the attenders...

Matthew 13:1-2 says "As he was leaving the temple, one of the disciples said to him, 'Look, Teacher! what massive stones! What magnificent buildings!' 'Do you see all these great buildings?' Replied Jesus. ' Not one stone here will be left on another; every one will be thrown down."

I am not too sure Jesus would be too happy. As we entered the building I wanted to cry and I think Jesus would without a doubt be weeping if he entered the building as well.

The positive thing that came from this is that I wrote to the person at IJM and he told me that they made some bad calls and they, as an organization, are looking at how they can live differently. So they can "practice what they preach."

If we want to end slavery, we can't do things in our life that add to it.

James 2:26 "As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead."

It time to stop talking and start acting.