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This is a guest post from Steve Hamilton, a young Vineyard pastor in Maryland who is  active in mobilizing the church to help the victims of human trafficking.  Steve hosts his own blog, verse by verse.

The pathos [sorrow, suffering, pity are synonyms] of God is on the prophet. It moves him. It breaks out in him like a storm in the soul, overwhelming his inner life, his thoughts, feelings, wishes and hopes. It takes possession of his heart, giving him courage to act.”

- Abraham Joshua Heschel

You know how when you are in a conversation with someone and stumble upon some topic that they are really into, and they start getting all passionate and animated, and it makes you take a step back and say “Okay…tell me how you really feel about that…”; well, I believe for God, that issue is justice or what we might more precisely call biblical justice.  Biblical justice is the more precise term that I prefer, mostly because it reflects the range of justice issues that I see God clearly and deeply cares about, as witnessed in scripture and in my own experience.  The issues of biblical justice are social, economic and environmental.  They are also intertwined and interconnected.
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There is a struggle underway among American evangelicals. Thank God. It’s a struggle to regain the heart of Jesus, which is a heart that leans toward the poor. Evangelicalism is a movement fueled by spiritual awakenings.

These awakenings typically begin with the poor and spread to the rich. Without the poor, there would be no evangelical movement in the United States. So this struggle is for the existence and the future existence of the evangelical church here.
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