Priceless--Human Trafficking movie that every Christian should watch

Unofficial Reverand Alex

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"Is this not, rather, the fast that I choose:
releasing those bound unjustly,
untying the thongs of the yoke;
Setting free the oppressed,
breaking off every yoke?
...
If you refrain from trampling the sabbath,
from following your own pursuits on my holy day;
If you call the sabbath a delight,
the Lord’s holy day glorious;
If you glorify it by not following your ways,
seeking your own interests, or pursuing your own affairs—
Then you shall delight in the Lord,
and I will make you ride upon the heights of the earth;
I will nourish you with the heritage of Jacob, your father,
for the mouth of the Lord has spoken." --Isaiah 58

"Rescue the oppressed from the oppressor;
and do not be hesitant in giving a verdict.
Be a father to orphans,
and be like a husband to their mother;
you will then be like a son of the Most High,
and he will love you more than does your mother." --Sirach 4

In effort to properly honor the Sabbath, it isn't enough to just refrain from work. Treating the Sabbath as an excuse for laziness is quite dishonorable to God's purpose for this holy day. Christian tradition gives the much more Godly way to treat the Sabbath; a day to refrain from following our own pursuits, and turn our efforts towards helping each other.

Many people use the Sabbath to minister to people at nursing homes, homeless shelters, prisons, or anywhere else that people need to hear some hope from God. Personally, I'm very limited in what I can do at this stage of my life (especially being without a car in an unfamiliar city), but I don't let that stop me from doing something. In keeping with the theme of freeing the oppressed, laying aside my own pursuits to help the least of God's children, I always try to do something to help work against human trafficking. I try to be better educated, raise awareness, and pray the hell out of this wicked industry.

I just got done watching "Priceless" for the 4th time. It's a movie recommended to me by a very good friend who's spent a summer in Thailand with a group working against human trafficking. I very strongly recommend it to anyone unfamiliar with human trafficking, because it's not as vivid as "Ring of Silence" or other movies on the topic, but it gives a strong Christian view on the subject (vitally important, when you're looking straight into what's perhaps the greatest evil on Earth).

The movie is based on true stories, and theatrically, it's very well made. From that movie, there's also a website called "Priceless Movement" (link below) that directs people to organizations to learn about & get involved with, including a directory from all 50 states & DC.

Priceless Movement

I'm also including a link to a few versions of the ancient devotion called the Stations of the Cross, which has a version designed as prayers for ending human trafficking available in English & Spanish. Stations Of The Cross

Please consider looking for this movie, especially if you lead some sort of worship group. It will be a movie night that won't be very fun, but very heavy, and God willing it'll inspire people to learn about & fight against this evil. You can get it fairly cheap, maybe $15 with shipping included (or cheaper with Prime Video or paid on YouTube or a similar source). If money is still an issue, send me a Private Message with your address & I can ship it from my Amazon account; I don't want anything to get in the way of people learning about human trafficking (and please look up more about it online, too, there's an abundance of free resources out there.)

Here's a link to a free event coming up Thursday (Aug. 29, 2019) in Chicago, discussing evidence & interviews of sextortion in juvenile trafficking: Presenting evidence, Sextortion and Interviewing Juvenile Sex Trafficking Victims - Traffick Free

Please pray for an end to this industry, hope for survivors, conversion for the traffickers, empowerment of Christians & all people to go & do something about it (counseling, advocacy, front lines, anywhere), for the governments that allow this, and for the Spirit to fill all the areas that need prayer that we won't even think about.

May God bless us all, especially those who are directly involved in one way or another with this menace!

Priceless-2.jpg
 

Kenny'sID

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In effort to properly honor the Sabbath, it isn't enough to just refrain from work. Treating the Sabbath as an excuse for laziness is quite dishonorable to God's purpose for this holy day.

Easy now, the Sabbath is after all, clearly a day of rest, so whatever your point, very bad start.

And on the seventh day, God rested.

Edit: that's nt to say you don't have a good point, but I'd include the whole truth.
 
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grasping the after wind

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n effort to properly honor the Sabbath, it isn't enough to just refrain from work. Treating the Sabbath as an excuse for laziness is quite dishonorable to God's purpose for this holy day.

Was God being dishonorable to his purpose when he rested on the seventh day?
 
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brinny

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Thank you. I've seen the movie. EXCELLENT.

Praying and supporting those fighting the rampant sex trafficking of not only adults and children, but babies as well. (These human lives, including babies are considered "currency")

Much of this has been occurring, and still is, through the southern borders of this country. We need to pray that those squawking about "no borders" and who are so rabidly against maintaining our borders, that God intervenes as only He can.
 
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Unofficial Reverand Alex

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Easy now, the Sabbath is after all, clearly a day of rest, so whatever your point, very bad start.

And on the seventh day, God rested.

Edit: that's nt to say you don't have a good point, but I'd include the whole truth.

Was God being dishonorable to his purpose when he rested on the seventh day?
Fair points, thank you for bringing them up; I didn't consider my words being taken that way, but I'd rather someone call me out on it than let it go & just get mad.

What I meant by my comments on the Sabbath was largely derived from Isaiah 58's call to lay aside my own will. A day of rest is perfectly valid, and I did extra homework yesterday to make sure I could have more rest today (think of the Israelites in the desert gathering more manna on the day before the Sabbath); but on the flip side, laziness is still a sin, and the Sabbath shouldn't be used as an excuse to indulge in it. Rest, yes, we need a break! Especially after a rough first week of classes, I need today as a day of rest! But it shouldn't just be taking some time to recover & enjoy creation in a more relaxed way; I can use this day of rest to further God's kingdom as well.

Does that help clear it up? I'm about to leave the computer for awhile, but I pray for this post to lead you, me, and all of us to a bit more understanding of how to honor God's holy day.

May the Spirit fill us all with peace, gratitude, and understanding!
 
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Halbhh

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I do feel it's very good to rest some, in Him. And with that rest, sometimes more.

We also had that wonderful reading from Isaiah today in our church, and perhaps hearing the gospel reading to go with it will help!

10 On a Sabbath Jesus was teaching in one of the synagogues, 11 and a woman was there who had been crippled by a spirit for eighteen years. She was bent over and could not straighten up at all. 12 When Jesus saw her, he called her forward and said to her, “Woman, you are set free from your infirmity.” 13 Then he put his hands on her, and immediately she straightened up and praised God.

14 Indignant because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath, the synagogue leader said to the people, “There are six days for work. So come and be healed on those days, not on the Sabbath.”

15 The Lord answered him, “You hypocrites! Doesn’t each of you on the Sabbath untie your ox or donkey from the stall and lead it out to give it water? 16 Then should not this woman, a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has kept bound for eighteen long years, be set free on the Sabbath day from what bound her?”

17 When he said this, all his opponents were humiliated, but the people were delighted with all the wonderful things he was doing.

Luke chapter 13

Easy now, the Sabbath is after all, clearly a day of rest, so whatever your point, very bad start.

And on the seventh day, God rested.

Edit: that's nt to say you don't have a good point, but I'd include the whole truth.
Was God being dishonorable to his purpose when he rested on the seventh day?
Fair points, thank you for bringing them up; I didn't consider my words being taken that way, but I'd rather someone call me out on it than let it go & just get mad.

What I meant by my comments on the Sabbath was largely derived from Isaiah 58's call to lay aside my own will. A day of rest is perfectly valid, and I did extra homework yesterday to make sure I could have more rest today (think of the Israelites in the desert gathering more manna on the day before the Sabbath); but on the flip side, laziness is still a sin, and the Sabbath shouldn't be used as an excuse to indulge in it. Rest, yes, we need a break! Especially after a rough first week of classes, I need today as a day of rest! But it shouldn't just be taking some time to recover & enjoy creation in a more relaxed way; I can use this day of rest to further God's kingdom as well.

Does that help clear it up? I'm about to leave the computer for awhile, but I pray for this post to lead you, me, and all of us to a bit more understanding of how to honor God's holy day.

May the Spirit fill us all with peace, gratitude, and understanding!
 
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Kenny'sID

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I do feel it's very good to rest some, in Him. And with that rest, sometimes more.

We also had that wonderful reading from Isaiah today in our church, and perhaps hearing the gospel reading to go with it will help!

10 On a Sabbath Jesus was teaching in one of the synagogues, 11 and a woman was there who had been crippled by a spirit for eighteen years. She was bent over and could not straighten up at all. 12 When Jesus saw her, he called her forward and said to her, “Woman, you are set free from your infirmity.” 13 Then he put his hands on her, and immediately she straightened up and praised God.

14 Indignant because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath, the synagogue leader said to the people, “There are six days for work. So come and be healed on those days, not on the Sabbath.”

15 The Lord answered him, “You hypocrites! Doesn’t each of you on the Sabbath untie your ox or donkey from the stall and lead it out to give it water? 16 Then should not this woman, a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has kept bound for eighteen long years, be set free on the Sabbath day from what bound her?”

17 When he said this, all his opponents were humiliated, but the people were delighted with all the wonderful things he was doing.

Luke chapter 13

Yes, there is always that Ox.

Though there are exceptions, and there are other things ordered to do, but to say it's not a day of rest as well is just not correct.
 
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Kenny'sID

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Fair points, thank you for bringing them up; I didn't consider my words being taken that way, but I'd rather someone call me out on it than let it go & just get mad.

What I meant by my comments on the Sabbath was largely derived from Isaiah 58's call to lay aside my own will. A day of rest is perfectly valid, and I did extra homework yesterday to make sure I could have more rest today (think of the Israelites in the desert gathering more manna on the day before the Sabbath); but on the flip side, laziness is still a sin, and the Sabbath shouldn't be used as an excuse to indulge in it. Rest, yes, we need a break! Especially after a rough first week of classes, I need today as a day of rest! But it shouldn't just be taking some time to recover & enjoy creation in a more relaxed way; I can use this day of rest to further God's kingdom as well.

Does that help clear it up? I'm about to leave the computer for awhile, but I pray for this post to lead you, me, and all of us to a bit more understanding of how to honor God's holy day.

May the Spirit fill us all with peace, gratitude, and understanding!

We're on the same page.

The Sabbath law was pretty strict in the days of Moses, but Jesus, as he has done before, made some common sense changes. I want to say we just didn't have the common since to know where we could vary from the strict law, but in reality we were just afraid to, so Jesus loosened things up a bit.

Also, your post was a good reminder for me, on things we should be doing.
 
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Halbhh

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Yes, there is always that Ox.

Though there are exceptions, and there are other things ordered to do, but to say it's not a day of rest as well is just not correct.
It's definitely to be a day of rest generally. The exception is simply and exactly that we must always respond to help our brothers and sisters in need on the Sabbath, whenever they need us. The Gospel passage above is so beautiful in the example of the woman being set free. Sometimes the help is by prayer, and sometimes it's by physical aid from us.

I don't think of this as being people faraway I don't know normally, but at times that can be the case, such as when a natural disaster strikes and there isn't enough aid going to the victims already. Because many workers are at work to aid some groups we've seen in distress for a while, for those situations where helpers are already in the field, one might simply give financial aid to the helping group. Generally, it's very important to rest on the Sabbath even if only for a few hours, and be focused often on our Lord, keeping the wonderful gift of communion, dwelling with Him.

Physical rest isn't a bad thing, but totally necessary for many people, as they work so hard, but it isn't the main essential rest we are to do (just a good kind). "Resting" on the Sabbath most essentially means resting in God, staying with Him, not letting stuff we can do later prevent our focus on Him. Abiding in Him. While we can and should do this all days, on the Sabbath we should not let things take us away/break our needed communion in Him.

Fair points, thank you for bringing them up; I didn't consider my words being taken that way, but I'd rather someone call me out on it than let it go & just get mad.

What I meant by my comments on the Sabbath was largely derived from Isaiah 58's call to lay aside my own will. A day of rest is perfectly valid, and I did extra homework yesterday to make sure I could have more rest today (think of the Israelites in the desert gathering more manna on the day before the Sabbath); but on the flip side, laziness is still a sin, and the Sabbath shouldn't be used as an excuse to indulge in it. Rest, yes, we need a break! Especially after a rough first week of classes, I need today as a day of rest! But it shouldn't just be taking some time to recover & enjoy creation in a more relaxed way; I can use this day of rest to further God's kingdom as well.

Does that help clear it up? I'm about to leave the computer for awhile, but I pray for this post to lead you, me, and all of us to a bit more understanding of how to honor God's holy day.

May the Spirit fill us all with peace, gratitude, and understanding!
 
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Kenny'sID

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Physical rest isn't a bad thing, but totally necessary for many people, as they work so hard, but it isn't the main essential rest we are to do (just a good kind). "Resting" on the Sabbath most essentially means resting in God, staying with Him, not letting stuff we can do later prevent our focus on Him. Abiding in Him. While we can and should do this all days, on the Sabbath we should not let things take us away/break our needed communion in Him.

Agree. Some have backbreaking jobs, and even office jobs, both types require rest of the mind as well as body. It's something to look forward to once a week, that can be a great comfort. And yes, dwelling on God for that one day a week keeps us closer to him.
 
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Unofficial Reverand Alex

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It's definitely to be a day of rest generally. The exception is simply and exactly that we must always respond to help our brothers and sisters in need on the Sabbath, whenever they need us. The Gospel passage above is so beautiful in the example of the woman being set free. Sometimes the help is by prayer, and sometimes it's by physical aid from us.

I don't think of this as being people faraway I don't know normally, but at times that can be the case, such as when a natural disaster strikes and there isn't enough aid going to the victims already. Because many workers are at work to aid some groups we've seen in distress for a while, for those situations where helpers are already in the field, one might simply give financial aid to the helping group. Generally, it's very important to rest on the Sabbath even if only for a few hours, and be focused often on our Lord, keeping the wonderful gift of communion, dwelling with Him.

Physical rest isn't a bad thing, but totally necessary for many people, as they work so hard, but it isn't the main essential rest we are to do (just a good kind). "Resting" on the Sabbath most essentially means resting in God, staying with Him, not letting stuff we can do later prevent our focus on Him. Abiding in Him. While we can and should do this all days, on the Sabbath we should not let things take us away/break our needed communion in Him.
You worded it better than I could think of; thank you for sharing such wisdom!
 
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