I Will Have Mercy

Right outside Brandon, Florida, a suburb of Tampa, there are a number of "strip clubs" that use young girls and provide a forum for the lusts of men. In 2006 a permit to open a club in Brandon called "Showgirls" was applied for and it raised the ire of the community, especially the Christian community. There was a meeting held in one of the Brandon churches in which people were invited to air their concerns in front of the County Commission. There were no collective prayer meetings, no call for fasting, and no call for widespread repentance among the believers. Several months after this meeting the club opened and is now doing a brisk business, the "great crowd" of objectors has moved on to other things. Here are some thoughts along with a fictional story about a girl name Kim whose story probably loosely mirrors many such girls.


Matt.9:10-13 - And it came to pass, as Jesus sat at meat in the house, behold, many publicans and sinners came and sat down with Him and His disciples. And when the Pharisees saw it, they said unto His disciples, Why eateth your Master with publicans and sinners? But when Jesus heard that He said unto them, They that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick. But go and learn what that means, I will have mercy and not sacrifice:

As I continue to drive past the new Showgirls strip club in Valrico I am struck by several thoughts. I'm really not sure how to pray so I ask the Holy Spirit to pray for me according to God's will. Here are some of my thoughts:

• Plummeting real estate values should never be a Christian consideration, it just shows our worldliness and love of money. It would be a major concern for your atheist neighbor also.
  
• We need to pray for revival! It is obvious that we don't even have legislative power, much less Spiritual power. We seem to be blind to our own Spiritual plight before God while we attempt to influence the zoning of a piece of dirt.
• If we as the community of believers were so concerned about a club moving into that building, why didn't the churches together buy it and sell it to a respectable business, or buy it and turn it into a ministry that reaches thousands of girls that are caught in that lifestyle? (We have our own real estate to worry about)
  
• Since there was a packed meeting to "air out" our disapproval of such an establishment, why don't we now hold a meeting to "air out" our disapproval of the sins in the lives of church members? We love meetings about sins we don't commit, how about drugs, affairs, pornography, alcohol, cable movies, divorce, sexually explicit theatre movies, gambling, complaining, anemic Bible reading, and prayerlessness? We don't seem to schedule meetings to express our disapproval of these sins.
  

Kim's Story

Her name was Kim. She was born to a single mom who was an "off and on" drug addict. Little Kim never knew who her daddy was, but she realized at an early age her mother had many stay over boyfriends. By age three Kim mostly fed herself, and by age eight her mother was in and out of prison and she was left with her mother's boyfriend. Now after years of physical abuse and rape by the boyfriends, Kim left home at age sixteen and went to live with the first boy who would have her. He, of course, beat her up regularly and Kim was deeply scarred in every way from a nightmare that everyone else called "childhood". Kim felt worthless and rejected, and without any work skills she went to work at a strip club.

It was just another chapter in her life of abuse, and the money she made at the hands of lustful men just added to her deep pain. Drugs, alcohol, and thoughts of suicide were her constant companions. She had never known what true love was. One day Kim heard that a new club would be opening in Valrico and she made up her mind to get an apartment in Brandon and start working there, after all, the owner of the club she worked at now made her commit sexual acts for him personally in order to keep her job. The money was great but the sense of shame was overwhelming.

Now Kim, at age 19, had never been to church, but the new club owner told her that they were having a meeting at a church in Brandon to discuss this new club. So Kim and a friend slipped into the church and sat in the back pew to see what this was all about. As Kim listened she realized they were trying to stop this club from opening. She heard them talk about immorality, sinful activity, real estate values, and that "the religious community wasn't going to stand for this". As Kim left the church depression again filled her heart. Let's see, she was rejected by her mother, she was rejected by her unknown father, she was rejected and abused by her mother's boyfriends, she was rejected and abused by her violent boyfriend, she's been abused and rejected by the men at the club, and now she feels rejected by God.

Two months after the meeting, immersed in hopelessness, Kim took her own life at age 19. But at least she didn't contribute to the declining real estate values in Valrico. In 2006 the club opened without Kim, but with a full compliment of other "Kims". Who will love them? Who will show them mercy? Who will reach out to them? Who will care more about their souls than our real estate? Who will be Jesus to them?

The Cursed Neighborhood

There was once an indescribably sinful and horrible neighborhood filled with murder, adultery, child molestation, homosexuality, greed, and every sin imaginable. It was zoned Cursed 1, and the real estate value was nothing. Everyone thought that the land owner would rezone it, remove everyone, clean it up, and rebuild to make a profit. But instead the owner left His pristine, gated neighborhood and moved into this filthy one. He seemed to love these sinners, He spoke words of warning and hope, and although He obviously had never participated in any of the debauchery that permeated their neighborhood, the people seemed inexplicably drawn to Him. Whores, drunks, drug addicts, thieves, and many others had found an escape from their hopeless lives in Him. In the end the neighborhood murdered the owner. But millions in that dirty neighborhood through the years were so moved by the owner's sacrifice that they fell in love with Him, trusted what He said, walked through His sacrifice, and eventually moved into His eternal neighborhood. The owner's offer still stands today, and the gates of His exclusive neighborhood are still wide open for "whosever will". Kim doesn't live there...

To all the Kims for whom Jesus died,
We are sorry, we cared more about your sins than we did about you

"I will have mercy and not sacrifice..." - Jesus 26 A.D