Steps Of Justice, a story

I originally began this journey towards 6 years ago. I started seeing the need for awareness in the church of Justice issues ie. the poor, the oppressed and the broken. I also started seeing more and more in the Bible a command to do justice. I still saw the verses that I had always seen about salvation coming out of believing in your heart that Jesus is God and confessing with your mouth that God raised Him from the dead, but now I started seeing verses that I had not read, or heard before too. I read that true Religion is to look after orphans and widows in their distress. I also read verses that said that “the Lord requires us to do Justice” (Micah 6:8). In addition I read stories where Jesus told people that if they love him they should be caring for the sick, feeding the hungry and welcoming the stranger. Those who did this went to spend eternity with Him, but those who did not were separated from Him for all eternity.

I began speaking of justice issues to anyone who came into my life, both in formal teaching times and in time of casual hanging out. I could tell that I was passionate about these issues as people would come up and ask me about them. Justice was starting to become a huge part of who I was. I realized that this was a call from Jesus on my life. I started asking questions like “What is next? What else can I do? Who else can I tell?” I started teaching more and more on these issues, reading more and more books about issues of injustice and engaging with media and people who were like minded.”

The more I started immersing myself in these issues, the more I saw how huge the problem is. I started thinking “There is no way I can do anything significant about the issue of extreme poverty (1.25 million people living on less than $2 a day), children dying daily from preventable disease and women and children being sold into the sex industry as slaves.” It was then that I heard Jesus speak and say “Just start taking steps.” That was it… just take steps. If you were at the base of Mount Everest and your guide said to you, “Climb that mountain, I’ll see you at the top,” you would be totally overwhelmed and destined to fail. If however, they said to you “just start walking, take steps and go as far as you can”, you would do it and it would be attainable. This is how I realized I had to start looking at areas of injustice. I just had to take steps, steps of obedience from Jesus in the direction of fighting for justice.

Last year I had a dream of putting together a beautiful book that simply taught people how to do justice. For me it had been a long journey of searching out books, resources and people who could tell me about these issues, but I wanted to make it easier for others to engage. The book was to become a manual on what injustices are going on in the world. It was also to be an informational guide to help direct people to resources on justice issues. Finally, the book was to be a very practical handbook intended to give people steps on how to get involved and see change happen in areas of injustice.

This year my dream became a reality in the form of The Steps Of Justice 30 day Action Guide. This guide is a 72 page, full color handbook that encompasses all the dreams in the above paragraph. It is intended to help engage youth groups, schools, churches and individuals in areas of injustice. This book for me was a step, a step towards doing Justice and serving the church. The next step was to get a web site put together. With the help of Wayne Shauan, Scott Bothel and many many others these dreams and steps have come to reality. It has cost time, energy, money and emotion, but doing justice does not come without cost.

My encouragement to you and to me is to continue to ‘Do Justice’. Don’t let this become another fad that sweeps over a generation and is lost a few years later. Don’t let this be another thing that is forgotten because it is not in front of your face on a daily basis. Let this be a movement, a commitment that changes our lives and the lives of others for ever. If you care about these issues, then this book is for you. This book was created and was a gift from God to me and to you. Please pick up this guide and continue taking steps towards justice with me. You can pick up the book here and also sign up to be on the newsletter, that would rule too.

Thanks for walking with me in this.

Philter