Ok this is a random blog - I wrote this some time ago, but I have not been able to think about blogging anything else until this has been posted. I hope it blesses someone!
'This is a thinking process in progress. It is only something I'm pondering over - not gospel truths necessarily so I don't mean to offend anyone in the process.
James 1:27
'Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.'
What does this mean? Who are the orphans and widows we need to look after? I don't particularly know many of them, and I don't know where to start looking. Yet why this command? I don't get it.
For ages I have been pondering over this command. It has been on my heart for a while now. I have been praying and asking God to show me what He means by this. And then BAM, yesterday when reading 'I Am your Father' by Mark Stibbe I had a revelation.
So what is an orphan? An orphan is a child without a Father (and mother).
What is a widow? A woman bride without her husband.
Upon thinking this over, I came to realise that a person without God (i.e. a non-Christian for want of a better word), is a person without their Father - God. In other words we might consider them to be an orphan.
In addition, if Christians form the body of the bride of Christ, a non-Christian is therefore not a bride or part of the body of Christ that is referred to as the bride, and is without a husband i.e. God. So that makes them a widow.
Therefore, in stating we should look after orphans and widows, is this meaning we should look after anyone who is not a Christian?
How quick are we to judge? How unaccepting of others who do not believe what we believe are we? How many times do we criticise non-believers, or bully them into adopting our way of thinking. We are told to 'look after' them. When was the last time you looked after or looked out for a non-believer as opposed to only looking after Christians. When did you do something for a non believer - clean their house, wash their clothes, buy them coffee, listen to them, give them a call.
There is a dying world out there and it is up to us to do something about it.
Let's look after the orphans and widows of the spiritual world - the fatherless, the needy, those who do not know Christ!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Please help me to do the same!!!!!!!!!!
Just a few thoughts.'
'This is a thinking process in progress. It is only something I'm pondering over - not gospel truths necessarily so I don't mean to offend anyone in the process.
James 1:27
'Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.'
What does this mean? Who are the orphans and widows we need to look after? I don't particularly know many of them, and I don't know where to start looking. Yet why this command? I don't get it.
For ages I have been pondering over this command. It has been on my heart for a while now. I have been praying and asking God to show me what He means by this. And then BAM, yesterday when reading 'I Am your Father' by Mark Stibbe I had a revelation.
So what is an orphan? An orphan is a child without a Father (and mother).
What is a widow? A woman bride without her husband.
Upon thinking this over, I came to realise that a person without God (i.e. a non-Christian for want of a better word), is a person without their Father - God. In other words we might consider them to be an orphan.
In addition, if Christians form the body of the bride of Christ, a non-Christian is therefore not a bride or part of the body of Christ that is referred to as the bride, and is without a husband i.e. God. So that makes them a widow.
Therefore, in stating we should look after orphans and widows, is this meaning we should look after anyone who is not a Christian?
How quick are we to judge? How unaccepting of others who do not believe what we believe are we? How many times do we criticise non-believers, or bully them into adopting our way of thinking. We are told to 'look after' them. When was the last time you looked after or looked out for a non-believer as opposed to only looking after Christians. When did you do something for a non believer - clean their house, wash their clothes, buy them coffee, listen to them, give them a call.
There is a dying world out there and it is up to us to do something about it.
Let's look after the orphans and widows of the spiritual world - the fatherless, the needy, those who do not know Christ!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Please help me to do the same!!!!!!!!!!
Just a few thoughts.'
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