From Oppression to Blessing 9-8-05

Good morning, Lord Jesus. You must increase and I must decrease. In every dimension of Your Being -- Father, Son, and Holy Spirit -- guide my steps and direct my path. Whether You lead me to use words or not, let me communicate the truth of Your love to everyone I encounter this day. ... Racial oppression and forced labor was the sin of Egypt at the hands of Pharaoh that moved Your heart to deliver Your people. Like the caste system of India, those in power abuse their power to suppress and oppress those they judge to be beneath them as a people in dignity and worth. It became a means of control through abuse and fear for selfish gain, generation after generation, until the hope of change was crushed from the spirits of Your people. "Therefore they set taskmasters over them to oppress them with forced labor. They built supply cities, Pithom and Rameses, for Pharaoh. But the more they were oppressed the more they multiplied and spread, so that the Egyptians came to dread the Israelites. The Egyptians became ruthless in imposing tasks on the Israelites, and made their lives bitter with hard service in mortar and brick and in every kind of field labor. They were ruthless in all the tasks that they imposed upon them" (Exodus 1.11-14). You heard the cries of their suffering and rose up to enforce justice against their oppressors. You came to bring deliverance to those bound in captivity -- yet not only to deliver them out of the land of their oppression, but also to place them in a land of blessing. "Then the Lord said, 'I have observed the misery of My people who are in Egypt; I have heard their cry on account of their taskmasters. Indeed I know their sufferings, and I have come down to deliver them from the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey" (Exodus 3.7-8). Today, we will go down to a southern region of Tamil Nadu, India with the Aftercare Team of International Justice Mission to encourage a people who are coming to know the God of their deliverance. For generations they were oppressed by upper castes who said they were untouchables, only worthy to labor in the fields and brick kilns under the oppression of forced labor and abject poverty. Then You sent Your deliverance and enforced Your justice to set the captives free and liberate the oppressed. You not only set them free from the places of oppression, but established them in places of blessing. Now their generations will learn freedom and not oppression, as they are free to work for their own families. You have even blessed them with their own brick kiln in a community of free people. You are the God who is faithful to complete all You begin and You do all things well in Your perfect timing and in Your perfect way (Philippians 1.6). In Jesus' name we pray, Amen. Be encouraged this day! In the Love of Jesus, Tommy Hays To subscribe/unsubscribe, please send a note to me at Messiah Ministries MessiahMin@aol.com -- "Preparing the Way of the Lord." Our address for ministry and contributions: 2800 Tates Creek Rd.; Lexington, Kentucky 40502. Come to The Fountain the 3rd Saturday night of every month. Daily archives: www.morningbymorning.blogspot.com andwww.morningbymorning.injesus.com