Today, the sin of sexual abuse is still prevalent in both the US and abroad. This is most clearly seen in the prevalence of global sex trafficking. Here are just a handful of the disturbing stats on the global sex trafficking crisis, according to International Crisis Aid:

• According to University of Pennsylvania, an estimated 300,000 youth in the US are at risk of being sexually exploited for commercial purposes
• The CIA estimates that 45,000 to 50,000 young girls are trafficked into the USA each year
• One in 12 youth experience sexual victimization, including sexual assault and attempted or completed rape
• 1.2 million children are trafficked every year globally, this in addition to the millions already held captive
• The average age of a trafficked child is 12 to 14 years old
• The total market value of illicit human trafficking is estimated to be in excess of $32 billion

Statistics like this should make you very angry, and the Bible is clear that they make God very angry. It’s only by God’s grace and his promise to Noah not to do so that we aren’t wiped out by yet another flood.

Inherent in the story of the Flood is a story of redemption. Rather than wipe out all of humanity, as God would have justly had the right to do, he chose to preserve his creation through Noah and his family.

Mankind is still wicked to the core. Unspeakable acts are still committed globally. Sin is still prevalent. God is still grieved. Thankfully, we have the opportunity for salvation through Jesus’ work on the Cross and his resurrection, and for the world to be redeemed and ultimately restored to the point where God can say about creation, as he did in Genesis 1, that it is good.

The Bible is clear that it is only Jesus who changes the hearts of men. And it is only through Jesus that this broken and sin-soaked world will be changed and redeemed. Jesus is the hope of the world.

This lead’s me to the video for this week about a man named Jacob.  “Jacob’s Story” is a mini-documentary about a man that once made his living by trafficking women & children for the purposes of commercial sex.

Jacob worked as a trafficker for a crime syndicate in Johannesburg South Africa.  In this film, he speaks openly about his work as a brothel manager and he explains how syndicates all over the world operate as they exploit the weak and powerless. Most importantly, you’ll hear about the life transformation that’s taken place in Jacob’s life.

From trafficker to rescuer. Only in the Kingdom of God.

Jacob is living proof that when the Gospel changes the hearts of men; everything changes.

[vimeo http://vimeo.com/31795904]