SEXUAL ABUSE: SEX SLAVERY

Genesis 1: 26 Then God said, “Let Us make man(human) in Our image, after Our likeness, to rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, and over all the earth itself and every creature that crawls upon it.”So God created man(human) in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.

There is always a big misconception when it comes to identity to a victim of sex slavery. Especially women victims of sex slavery. Since sex slavery is so intense and severe the victim experiences extreme self denial. A victim is manipulated into believing she is the property of her pimp or master. She is manipulated to believe she is what she does. Most of the times her name is even not used anymore and she is given a new name or a number or a mark and she becomes someone she never knew should could be. 

Isaiah 61:3..to provide for those who grieve in Zion, to give them a crown of beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, and a garment of praise in place of a spirit of despair. So they will be called oaks of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that He may be glorified. '' God had promised; out of the ashes, will come beauty.

A victims of sex slavery will say she died everyday doing her work. It means inside her the person she was before the slavery keeps on being erased day after day to nothingness. It is a very conflicting reality which they have to endure every single day in the hands of the torturers.

It is important for sex slavery victims to know their true identity. It is important for them to realise who the really are. In this serious case there is a dire need to separate, what is happening to them or what happened to them, who their pimp says they are, who the society says they are, who they think they are and who they truly are. This is a serious and careful process to go through. Since this will separate the truth from the lies.

There after it is important for a victim to take hold of who she is; not her name, not her age, not her family, not her education status but her true identity which is all of mankinds identity. Genesis 1:27 that we are human, we are created in the Likeness and the Image of God. That is who we are. Since it is the loss of identity that makes the victim sink deeper and deeper into hopelessness. There is a freedom that comes from realizing who you are.

Love is the language of heaven. In heaven people from all ethnicity will understand each other. Love is so twisted to victims of sex slavery, especially love from a man. Since men express their love physically through sex more than emotionally through words, victims of sex slavery believe if sex is love then love is evil. They go farther to resent sex and men all together. This is not the case to all but to most, especially victims who were brought into sex slavery when they were very young.

Because the definition of love is so twisted only gentleness can get into their hearts. The only man who can win the trust of a victim is the one who is gentle and loving in a non sexual way. In the Bible there is a story about Mary Magdalene. She was a prostitute. The Bible does not tell us how Jesus casted out seven demons from her, it only tells us that Jesus casted demons from her and other women. Since people went to Jesus to be healed I believe Mary Magdalene together with other prostitute women went to Jesus and asked Him to help them and He delivered them.

When Jesus delivered Mary Magdalene He went on with His ways and Mary went on her ways. Later Mary came to Jesus in a house where He was having super with the priests and without permission she feel onto his feet and started crying. How could this be? why was she crying? What did Jesus do that she could not contain herself but cry on his feet. I believe Jesus was the only man who ever helped Mary Magdalene without caring she was a prostitute and she was considered an outcast of the society.

Jesus`s nonjudgmental act towards her showed her that this man was different. He did not ask her for her money, nor to return any favor but offered her freedom freely and went on his way. She was so used to exchanging love in form of sex for money. There was no man who had ever given her anything freely that is why she thought she owed Jesus her most expensive possession and that was a bottle of fragrance. Which she stored for her most expensive customer, but she broke it and poured it on the feet of Jesus without saying a word but her sobs.

Even then Jesus did not push her away but praised her in public and said her story will forever be remembered. It is important for victims of sex slavery to differentiate affection from sex and love from abuse. With this story of Jesus we see how Jesus displayed affection without physical intimacy which Mary Magdalene was not used to. She probably did not know that the healer was her creator and that He loved her because He made her in His image. "Genesis 1:26 And God said, Let US make man(human) in our image, after our likeness". He knew her, He already loved her from the beginning, there was no need to demonstrate that in any form that to give her what she really needed which was freedom; the ability to live her life anew.

There are other stories about Jesus and prostitutes, and even a hero who saved Israel by helping war spies. She was en-grafted into the tribes of Israel and was married to an Israelite man and later was mentioned in the lineage of Jesus Christ as the great grandmother of David King of Israel. How redemptive is our God? How great is his mercy? How wonderful His grace?

Jesus never despised prostitutes because He created them, He knew their hearts and He loved them because He created them. He spoke to them as if they mattered and helped them. For every victim of sex slavery, it is important to know that she is a child of God before she became a sex slave and she the truest love which is the love from the one who formed all of us is nondiscriminatory.

The most powerful thing about sex slavery victims is the ability to know an free opportunity. Since they have always wanted to escape once they get the slightest of chance they know how to make full use of it. With that they know escape happens once and what awaits after escape is a better than what they endure. So they never misuse opportunities, and are always grateful. That is why Mary Magdalene did not care that everyone knew she was a prostitute and she was unclean to touch a spiritual teacher. She did not care of their stares and all their judgement since she knew that may be was her only opportunity to say thank you to the man who helped her.

Another powerful thing about sex slavery victims is they have the resilient to make themselves strong day after day, they know they have to make themselves stronger each day because what they do needs a strong heart. With that a little hope they get, they maximize it to keep them moving each day. That is why it is important to shine the light of Christ into their hearts to remind them of the true hope, the true love and the true freedom and identifying their true purpose.

Read aloud and repeat Bible verses.

Genesis 1:26, Deuteronomy 31:6 , Matthew 28:20