Hi friends!

So I’m writing this blog in Eastbourne England, a town on the South Coast of the U.K.

Tomorrow I head up North to Birmingham, about 3 hours above London, to be part of an event called The Stand. Check out the promo video above.. It’s an all afternoon and evening gathering to raise awareness about Trafficking and to ask God to break our hearts with the things that break His.

Bluetree will be my backing band (thanks guys!) and it will be great to see them again after the great time we all had on the Canada tour a few weeks ago.

Here are some pretty strong verses on my heart, regarding justice/trafficking/worship:

Isaiah 58: True Fasting

Is this the kind of fast I have chosen,
Only a day for a man to humble himself?
Is it only for bowing one’s head like a reed
and for lying on sackcloth and ashes?
Is that what you call a fast,
a day acceptable to the LORD ?

Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen:
to loose the chains of injustice
and untie the cords of the yoke,
to set the oppressed free
and break every yoke?

Is it not to share your food with the hungry
and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter—
when you see the naked, to clothe him,
and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?

Then your light will break forth like the dawn,
and your healing will quickly appear;
then your righteousness will go before you,
and the glory of the LORD will be your rear guard.

Then you will call, and the LORD will answer;
you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I.
“If you do away with the yoke of oppression,
with the pointing finger and malicious talk,

And if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry
and satisfy the needs of the oppressed,
then your light will rise in the darkness,
and your night will become like the noonday.

The LORD will guide you always;
he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land
and will strengthen your frame.
You will be like a well-watered garden,
like a spring whose waters never fail”

WOW! What a challenge and a promise….. And now, some heavy words from Amos….

Amos 5:  A Lament and Call to Repentance

Hear this word, O house of Israel, this lament I take up concerning you:

This is what the Sovereign LORD says:

Seek the LORD and live,
or he will sweep through the house of Joseph like a fire;
it will devour and will have no one to quench it.

You who turn justice into bitterness
and cast righteousness to the ground

He who made the Pleiades and Orion,
who turns blackness into dawn
and darkens day into night,
who calls for the waters of the sea
and pours them out over the face of the land—
the LORD is his name-

You trample on the poor
and force him to give you grain.
Therefore, though you have built stone mansions,
you will not live in them;
though you have planted lush vineyards,
you will not drink their wine.

For I know how many are your offenses
and how great your sins.
You oppress the righteous and take bribes
and you deprive the poor of justice in the courts.

Seek good, not evil,
that you may live.
Then the LORD God Almighty will be with you,
just as you say he is.

Hate evil, love good;
maintain justice in the courts.
Perhaps the LORD God Almighty will have mercy
on the remnant of Joseph.

I hate, I despise your religious feasts;
I cannot stand your assemblies.

Even though you bring me burnt offerings and grain offerings,
I will not accept them.
Though you bring choice fellowship offerings,
I will have no regard for them.

Away with the noise of your songs

I will not listen to the music of your harps.

But let justice roll on like a river,
righteousness like a never-failing stream”

Those words have been echoing around my head ever since I studied them at Oxford.. and in recent months as I’ve prepared for the Canada tour (which had a strong Justice theme) and then on that Tour, God has been breaking my heart over the pain He feels for the injustices of the world. Mainly over the trafficking and horrors of the girls in the sex trade.

One night during the Canada/Bluetree tour I was on stage in the middle of my worship set. I began sharing about what God was impressing on my heart – about trafficking, injustice and the need for us as Christians to wake up and move into action. I’m NOT a regular crier – in fact my closest friends tease me that I rarely ever, ever cry!!

But that night in Canada, for the first time in my life I just broke down in front of the whole crowd…crying over the grief God feels for these girs and unable to hold it in. Since that night it’s been an increasing burden on my spirit…so I’m delighted to get to play at The Stand this weekend and to share about what God has been working in my heart.

Living a life of worship is NOT primarily about singing! We sing as the overflow of our actions, and we sing to draw near to God to fill us up. But only so that He can SEND US OUT! Sung worship is the commissiong BEFORE action, and the celebration AFTER action. Its not, on Earth, supposed to be purely an end in itself.

Otherwise we sing, growing more and more spiritually ‘fat’ and never give away the presence and love of God to others. When we get to Heaven, yes it will be an end in itself – praising for ever and ever. But while we are still Earth-bound I believe that sung worship is to fill us, send us, and then we return from PUTTING IT INTO ACTION to sing as we celebrate what God has done!

If we are just stagnantly singing, and doing nothing with the love and power of God in a world full of injustice, perhaps God says to US today what he said in Amos chapter 5:

“Away with the noise of your songs,

I will not listen to the music of your harps.

But let justice roll on like a river,

Righteousness like a never-failing stream”

Wow. Thoughts….? Let some great discussions begin here folks…lets challenge each other to change the world.

Love from England,

Vicky