Today is Orphan Sunday.
Pure and faultless religion is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress. James 1:27
What are you doing to look after orphans?
Are you praying for them? Are you giving monetarily? Are you adopting?
Did you know there are hundreds of millions of children worldwide who have lost one or both parents.
Every 14 seconds an AIDS death leaves another child orphaned.
Approximately 88 million orphans live in Asia.
Approximately 45 million orphans live in Africa.
Approximately 14 million orphans live in Latin America & the Caribbean.
Approximately 1 million children live in public care in Central and Eastern Europe
More than 800,000 children pass through America’s foster care system each year.
These statistics do not even include the UNKNOWN children living orphaned both here and abroad that go uncounted, unnoticed and unloved.
Quoted from 147millionOrphans
Jesus loves the orphans deeply and commands us to look after them. Not just on Orphan Sunday, but always. He commands us to commit to praying and giving to the fatherless... and if He calls you, to adopting. These are real babies with real needs. "Orphan" isn't just a term we use and for a minute have pity on them and then go about our own business. We should have a passionate love for them, just as Jesus does. Scripture mentions the importance of caring for orphans, widows, and strangers more than sixty times!
Where do I start?
First, start on your knees before the Lord praying for these babies and children who need food, diapers, surgeries, families, and love.
A father of the fatherless, a defender of widows, Is God in His holy Habitation. God sets the solitary in families; he brings out those who are bound into prosperity. Ps. 68:5-6
Then, if God calls you to give, do it. Don't just feel sorry for the orphans and think it would be nice if you could give. Follow God's call and give. Skip eating out a night each week, go on a smaller vacation, sacrifice something in order to give. God doesn't provide us the things we have in order for us to keep them for ourselves. He commands us to use them for the glory of His Kingdom.
Freely you have received, freely give. Matthew 10:8
From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked. Luke 12:48
If God has called you to give but you don't know where to start, please contact me smcintire1229@cs.com. There is an orphan ministry very close to our heart that desperately needs funding. I will be happy to put you in contact with them so that you can follow God's call to give.
If God has called you to give but you don't know where to start, please contact me smcintire1229@cs.com. There is an orphan ministry very close to our heart that desperately needs funding. I will be happy to put you in contact with them so that you can follow God's call to give.
Lastly, God may be calling you to adopt, to give a child hope and a future. Adoption was part of God's original design. He has given us the perfect model of adoption because we all have the opportunity to be adopted into God's family through faith.
He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved. Ephesians 1:5-6
He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved. Ephesians 1:5-6
It was never God's original intention for millions of orphans to be sharing beds in crowded institutions or sleeping alone somewhere on the African prairie. No. This is a result of man's fallen nature and evil manifesting itself on the earth and destroying the very fabric of the family.
There are 2.1 professed Christians living on earth. There are 159 million people who claim to be Christians in the United States alone. With so many Christians in the world, is it so far out of the realm of possibility to imagine every one of those orphans being adopted into a family just as God has adopted us? If only 7 percent of professing Christians around the world responded, every single orphan in the world would have a home. ~Fields of the Fatherless
There are 2.1 professed Christians living on earth. There are 159 million people who claim to be Christians in the United States alone. With so many Christians in the world, is it so far out of the realm of possibility to imagine every one of those orphans being adopted into a family just as God has adopted us? If only 7 percent of professing Christians around the world responded, every single orphan in the world would have a home. ~Fields of the Fatherless
What will you do to look after orphans?
No more closing our eyes and pretending it's not there. Our family has seen and we are responsible to act.
So are you.
2 comments:
We heard a great message today! The guest speaker said that Pastor Rick Warren says that it is a sin to sit back and not do anything. We use every excuse we can think of not to help. Our guest speaker today challenged all families in our church to be praying about our part in the lives of an orphan. Thank you for answering the call of obedience. We are excited to see where our prayer journey leads us and what God will call us to do.
...Learning so much through you. Thank you for opening our eyes...
Post a Comment