{"id":4680,"date":"2013-05-01T08:54:42","date_gmt":"2013-05-01T13:54:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/cwr\/?p=4680"},"modified":"2013-04-22T15:55:01","modified_gmt":"2013-04-22T20:55:01","slug":"freedom-for-the-oppressed-in-india","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/cwr\/2013\/05\/freedom-for-the-oppressed-in-india\/","title":{"rendered":"Freedom for the Oppressed in India"},"content":{"rendered":"

Stephen Sharkey, pastor of Highrock Covenant Church in Quincy, Massachusetts,\u00a0and a member of the CWR advisory team who recently visited India with CWR.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Vijay<\/p>\n

Vijay shares his faith at a street rally in New Delhi, India.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

It\u2019s not often that we get a glimpse of what Paul\u2019s\u00a0ministry might have been like. Recently I was\u00a0afforded the opportunity to see God moving like\u00a0most of us only hear about in Sunday school.<\/p>\n

I had been in New Delhi less than twenty-four\u00a0hours when I met Vijay, a member of Truthseekers\u00a0International, whose mission is to set India free from\u00a0its 3,000 year-old caste system that today results in\u00a0hundreds of millions of Indians living in abject\u00a0poverty. Their message is simple\u2014the caste system is\u00a0a lie holding India captive, but Jesus is the truth that\u00a0will set them free. The message of that freedom so\u00a0moved Vijay that he left Hinduism altogether. He\u00a0rejected the lie that he was inextricably defined by\u00a0his caste and embraced the truth that his identity is\u00a0defined by a God who has set him free.\u00a0Before hearing the good news of Jesus,\u00a0Vijay was a stonecutter. Over the years\u00a0he had perfected the art of carving\u00a0Hindu gods, which he had made into a\u00a0successful career. Vijay had been\u00a0participating in and perpetuating the\u00a0very system that holds him and his\u00a0country captive.<\/p>\n

Isn\u2019t it so true that freedom always\u00a0comes at great cost? Nowhere has that\u00a0been clearer to me than in this New\u00a0Testament-like street gathering as we\u00a0listened to Vijay. The same system that\u00a0enslaved him was also the same system that\u00a0provided income and security. Yet for the sake\u00a0of true freedom, he laid it all aside.<\/p>\n

Report This Post<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Stephen Sharkey, pastor of Highrock Covenant Church in Quincy, Massachusetts,\u00a0and a member of the CWR advisory team who recently visited India with CWR.\u00a0 It\u2019s not often that we get a glimpse of what Paul\u2019s\u00a0ministry might have been like. Recently I was\u00a0afforded the opportunity to see God moving like\u00a0most of us only hear about in Sunday […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":124,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[279],"tags":[286,364],"class_list":["post-4680","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-community-development","tag-india","tag-justice"],"yoast_head":"\nFreedom for the Oppressed in India - CWR Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/cwr\/2013\/05\/freedom-for-the-oppressed-in-india\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Freedom for the Oppressed in India - CWR Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Stephen Sharkey, pastor of Highrock Covenant Church in Quincy, Massachusetts,\u00a0and a member of the CWR advisory team who recently visited India with CWR.\u00a0 It\u2019s not often that we get a glimpse of what Paul\u2019s\u00a0ministry might have been like. 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