Word Wednesday by KM Wilsher

God wants us to fight injustice and WE are his plan.



That is the theme at First Christian Church this week. This past Sunday we watched a video with Gary Haugen, International Justice Mission President and CEO. What an amazing ministry! http://www.ijm.org/




So today I was thinking I've never heard so much about fighting injustice from "the pulpit" before in my life. And then I thought back to my childhood, my heritage, and my examples of Christ's Love. . .



Granddad Frank lies in the hospital today in Healdton, OK with pneumonia. I wish you could spend an hour with him and listen to the stories he has about the Love of Christ, the Call of the Lord, the miracles he’s witnessed -- and injustice? I don’t know that he ever called it injustice, but he fought it.



Granddad had three children in the 1940’s when he received the call to preach the Gospel. Not the tri-city mega church with 20,000 members and a Jaguar, but simple towns with folks small on pocket change and big on heart. Those he was involved in converting even built the church buildings with their own hands -- farmers and other blue collar people putting their hands and hearts together to establish an extension of the body of Christ where once one did not exist.



My first memory of Granddad and Grandma is their work in Hogback, New Mexico on the Indian Reservation. The Reservation, most of them were third world-like communities right in the middle of the richest country in the world. The work was rewarding for my grandparents and their family. Teaching the children in VBS and Sunday school, studying the bible with the men and women, and raising up leaders for the next generation of rural America.



So when I think that I don’t know how to fight injustice, I think of Granddad in his hospital bed. He’s 91, and they say he may not walk but be in a wheelchair. I think of all those he spent time “pastor-ing”, those he baptized and helped grow in the Lord. And, as I ponder the ‘injustice” he fought by going beyond bible study and seeing a need and filling it --fixing peoples sinks, bringing in clothes for the kids, and listening to people’s disappointments and fears-- I think I have a great, personal example of a warrior against injustice. God’s warrior, Granddad Frank.



They say Frank may be wheeled out of that hospital. I say, “Ask his family and those of us that have benefited from those beautiful feet that brought the sound of good news, and the love of the King – we say: 'He’s God’s Warrior. He may surprise you.'”



This week as I research IJM and other local missions, I try to follow Granddad’s example and fight against injustice.



Isaiah 1:17 (New International Version)

17 learn to do right!

Seek justice,

encourage the oppressed. [a]

Defend the cause of the fatherless,

plead the case of the widow.



I love you Granddad.