With great power, comes great responsibility
Ha, sorry to be cheesy and quote Spider-Man in this, but this phrase really has great meaning for what you are about to read. These past two nights here in Bangkok, me and fellow brothers in Christ have gone to a couple of red light districts here in the city, Nana Plaza and Soi Cowboy. I could write blogs and blogs about the prostitution, sex trafficking, well the sex industry in its whole, but it doesn’t really matter. We glamorize the industry really. I mean all we do is watch videos and feel sorry for the girls in the business, throw a little of our cash to an organization, which may, or may not go towards the girls. We look at the worldly and physical means of the industry. What we see with our eyes.
But let me ask you this question, do you see what God sees? Sit and think about it. Ponder it. Do I see what God sees in these places? No. we don’t. We immediately look at things, and just feel sorry and want to go in these places, beat up the bad guys, put the women over our shoulders, and blow the place up or something. Worldly. I know I’m guilty of this. The first night of just walking around Nana Plaza, I went in with I hatred towards the men. But that’s not what the Holy Spirit let me feel. It is not my place to justify the situation.
Galations 2:15-21 says, “We ourselves are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners; yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified. But if, in our endeavor to be justified in Christ, we too were found to be sinners, is Christ then a servant of sin? Certainly not! For if I rebuild what I tore down, I prove myself to be a transgressor. For through the law I died to the law, so that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose.” See that death to the law? Death to self as well. It is not our place to try and condemn these men.
Romans 5: 1-11, “Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.”
We have, and I mean HAVE, to show these mean grace. They are as trapped as those girls in those places. Sin is sin. In God’s eyes, they are all equal. Think of it this way, the only thing that separates us, from them, is Jesus. The only thing! It was by grace we are saved, so it is grace that will also change their lives as well.
Like I said, I walked in with a hatred towards the situation, but through me praying with God and staying in communication with Him while I was in this place of pure darkness, the Holy Spirit convicted me and reminded me of grace. Remember, Christ hung from that tree and shouted out towards God, “Forgive them, they know not what they do!” these people are lost. They know not what they do. They have no conviction. Grace is such a beautiful blessing. What God is showing me through MTS, I was able to use the things in spiritual warfare. Even though what is going on is wrong, I had to put death to the law in me (death to self). And with that spiritual walkie talkie called prayer, I was able to clothes line any kind of sinful thought that the enemy would try to throw at me. “With great power, comes great responsibility.” I have this power in Christ, now a have the responsibility following Him and His command. There’s no battle to be fought with the enemy when God resides in your soul. It feels so sweetous to be able to say that. Praise to God how awesome His power is!
So tonight, Kyle and I went to go with the couple of guys that minister in these places. Now in this kind of ministry, God teaches you patience and trust, because this is an awkward ministry. I mean it’s very difficult to find ways of talking to these men because of the situation, but with prayer and fellowship, God is definitely giving us some ideas on how we can better the ministry. The Lord uses the most unlikely of people, and in this case, a half drunken Australian man who has been a struggling Christian for awhile was it. We were contemplating on whether we need to try and sit in bars were not a lot of anything goes on, just lounging and men getting drunk before they go to the go-go bars. Basically, God gave us the answer from this Australian man named David, and the answer was yes. That’s what we need to be doing!
So please, be praying for new ideas and ways we can find to minister to these men. Whether it being able just to conversate with them, share our testimony, or just to be there in those places. We learned through the Engel scale, that becoming a believer of Christ is a long process, some can be short, and some can be a very long time. Patience is a virtue. Pray for the things God has in store for these red light districts.