Gary is a graduate of Harvard University and the University of Chicago Law School. He worked as a trial attorney with the Police Misconduct Task Force of the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice. In 1994, he was seconded to the United Nations to serve as the Officer In Charge of the UN’s genocide investigation in Rwanda.
He previously worked for the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights, and has published numerous popular and scholarly works on international law and human rights.
Gary now serves as the president of the International Justice Mission.
___________________________________________________________________
One of the saddest things in life is to have the sense of going on a trip but missing the adventure.
Gary shared the story of when he was younger and went with his dad and his brother to Mt. Rainier outside of Seattle in Washington state. When they were about to go on the path to hike, Gary decided to stay at the visitor’s center, and in the end, missed the adventure of having a day with his dad.
At the visitors center he felt totally safe, but he also felt totally stuck. When they returned from the hike, his dad and brother had stories and memories, and all Rick had was a missed adventure.
Many of us go through life traveling with Jesus, but missing the adventure and one of the challenges of being leaders in today’s culture is getting our people OUT. Jesus is outside. We must prepare our minds with clarity of where Jesus is going – clarity of the world into which Jesus is going.
We face a struggle in our journey with human hurt and human need. One of the hardest things for people to believe is that God is good.
There are 1.5 billion people in the world without adequate medical care, AIDS running rampant in Africa, sex trade, slavery… what is God’s plan for making the fact He is good believable?
We are the plan. God doesn’t have a plan B.
In Matthew 5 Jesus tells us that we are the light of the world.
In seeing the needy and giving them a drink, food or clothing, we are doing things to help them see the body of Christ and help them to believe that God is good.
Many people in the world are suffering today because of injustice. Injustice (in the Bible) refers to a specific type of sin – an abuse of power to take away things God intended for us to have life and freedom.
King David, although he was a man after God’s heart, was unjust. He abused his power and took a man’s wife and ended the man’s life.
Ecclesiastes 4:1 – Again I looked and saw all the oppression that was taking place under the sun:
I saw the tears of the oppressed—
and they have no comforter;
power was on the side of their oppressors—
and they have no comforter.
In 1994 Gary led the US Depart of Justice’s investigation into the genocide in the nation of Rwanda. Many of the mass executions took place in a place where many people were gathered – churches. The people were crying out for God do withhold the hand of their oppressor.
It is estimated that between 20-27 million people are in slavery today. The people in slavery haven’t gotten used to it – they are people just like us – and every single day they dream about living in freedom. How can they believe God is good?
According to UNICEF, over 1 millions children are entered into prostitution.
How does God regard this suffering?
Psalm 10:17-18,
You hear, O LORD, the desire of the afflicted;
you encourage them, and you listen to their cry,
defending the fatherless and the oppressed,
in order that man, who is of the earth, may terrify no more.
The Good News is that God is against injustice. He yearns to bring rescue. What’s His plan? WE ARE. God does not have another plan.
Micah 6:8
He has showed you, O man, what is good.
And what does the LORD require of you?
To act justly and to love mercy
and to walk humbly with your God.
Isaiah 1:17
Learn to do right!
Seek justice,
encourage the oppressed.
Defend the cause of the fatherless,
plead the case of the widow.
We can feel so powerless with despair over the situation in our global community. We can be so paralyzed that we just stay in the ‘visitors center’ instead of going onto the mountain.
Gary talked about the feeding of the 5,000 in the Gospels. Jesus had been talking all day long and the disciples suggested that they send people home so they could eat, and instead Jesus instructs them to feed the people. There was nothing unclear I what Jesus said, but the disciples looked at the size of their need and their lack of resources and figured it wasn’t enough. All they had was a boy with some loaves of bread and some fish.
So many times we can just sit paralyzed out of despair.
Jesus asked them to give Him what they had – and He took responsibility for performing the miracle. He just asked the boy for what He had.
Gary shared the story of a young girl that they rescued from a brothel and when they went with her to the room where she had been held captive, they found she had scratched Psalm 27:1-3 in the wall:
The LORD is my light and my salvation—
whom shall I fear?
The LORD is the stronghold of my life—
of whom shall I be afraid?
When evil men advance against me
to devour my flesh,
when my enemies and my foes attack me,
they will stumble and fall.
Though an army besiege me,
my heart will not fear;
though war break out against me,
even then will I be confident.
If that girl, even in the midst of living in such terrible conditions had faith, who are we to sit back? We need to trust God. We need to take hope in the fact God still changes lives and still changes history.
Throughout time Christians have led the way in fighting injustice and slavery, and our generation needs to carry hope into some of the darkest places on earth and let the light of Christ shine through us.
Going back to his story about being at the visitor’s center, Gary said that he didn’t trust his dad. Our Heavenly Father is calling us – how do we express our trust? God is calling us to come up with Him on the mountain.
Why in a world with so much suffering and need to we, in the Western church, have so much? It’s crazy for us to have ‘great climbing gear’, but not even attempting to climb a mountain.
We need to pray for God to rescue us from all things small, and things done out of fear. We need to pray for Him to lead us out of the visitor’s center and onto the mountain. May God find us useful for doing what matters to Him.
