God's LOVE In a Dark Place

This past weekend taught me a great deal about God’s LOVE.  As Christians, we strive to be “more like Jesus” daily and I must say that I saw great examples of that from God’s servants.  Let me back up and explain for those who aren’t sure what I’m talking about. 

The city of Richmond hosted an Adult Expo at a local hotel on Saturday.  Initial reactions to this from many (myself included) consisted of anger, disbelief and sadness.  How dare the city allow this! Why would anyone want to attend something like this? How sad that this is considered entertainment. 

Several organizations that work in the city and surrounding counties (including New Creation Women’s Center) began to dialogue about what could be done to stop the event.  Ultimately what developed was so much greater than anything any of us could ever imagine or have planned. 

God revealed that our response would be one of LOVE.

So, preparations began and the weekend started on Friday night at Cornerstone Church.  It moved to the Clarion Hotel and Grove Avenue Baptist Church on Saturday and ended for me back at Cornerstone worshiping God and being broken at His feet on Sunday morning.

LOVE moments were plentiful throughout the weekend:

Ø  LOVE bags were made from items bought with LOVE to be given to those entertaining and selling things at the expo

Ø  Prayers were lifted up by people from many churches, from different ethnic backgrounds, both genders, all ages for the event to be a way to share God’s LOVE with His people.

Ø  Teams of people went to the expo with no motive other than to LOVE people.  They reached out to touch people with LOVE, they washed feet with LOVE, they offered gifts with LOVE, they prayed with LOVE.

Ø  Hotel management was encouraged in LOVE not condemnation. 

Now, don’t get me wrong.  This wasn’t a “lovey dovey” thing.  Through LOVING people, we were able to share truth and bring light to the darkness that was trying to win out.  This was not acceptance or even tolerance.  This was God’s desire to LOVE people so much that there had to be people in place to be his hands and feet and to share His heart.

You see this isn’t something that is acceptable or tolerable.  This event is evidence of the increased perversion in our society.  There is an attitude about sexuality that anything goes and that our bodies are not representative of the way God created us but are representative of “the world” and how the media portrays the idea of sexuality and even morality. 

While we were not there to condemn people, the very idea of the entire event was prayed against from the first mention of it.  The idea that pornography is a secret and hidden away sin was exposed as false when this showed up on the radar as adult entertainment.  Glamorizing prostitution, gentlemen’s clubs and adult magazines in no way reflects God’s heart for His people or His intentions for how our bodies are used.  What is being “sold” as entertainment is rightly named exploitation and cannot be accepted or tolerated.  It must be exposed as sin. 

We don’t have the details yet, but history would tell us that there was an increase in crime in the area Saturday night.  There was likely at least one sexual assault report and possibly more.  While it is unlikely that there will be an increase in reporting, there will be an increase in domestic violence that could be tracked back to men attending the event. 

Hopefully our preparations and presence had some impact.  Some preliminary praise reports:

Ø  No one turned down the request to pray with them.  Many offered prayer requests.

Ø  Softening of hearts and brokenness was witnessed in several women.

Ø  The event organizer responded to my post on Facebook about delivering the bags thanking us for caring about them and showering them with gifts – WOW!!!

Ø  Thankfulness for our presence by the hotel management.

Ø  The collaboration of area agencies with hearts to serve women and combat the social injustice of human sex trafficking and exploitation.

One vendor was overheard saying – “I wonder where the church is?”  I was curious about what he meant.  He thought that there would be picketing and protesting.  He was surprised but encouraged when he found out “the church” was there in full force!  It took away the need to be defensive and helped pave the way to be LOVED by “the church”.

So, God’s LOVE was present along with His truth and grace.  I’m so glad to have been a witness to it first hand and am hopeful that there will be a continued effort to honor and glorify God, not accept or tolerate the sin of sexual immorality.