Everyday Orphans

In you the orphan finds mercy. – Hosea 14:3

Take a moment and think about the first image that comes to your mind when you hear the word “orphan.” Most of us think immediately of a poor, desolate child staring at you with big eyes, and skinny arms and legs, with loose rags for clothes. This is a very true image of an orphan, yet the idea of an orphan is much, much bigger than that.

You and I run across orphans every single day. We talk with them and joke with them and conduct business with them on a daily basis. They are people who have no heavenly Father. Their deepest relation is with the Father of Lies who keeps them in bondage and slavery and neglects their needs. He withholds their daily bread, and inflicts harm on them by spoiling them with the evil desires of their hearts, and spares the rod. He is the antithesis to what a father is. And so those who do not know the Lord God as Father, are fatherless.

Now we may not be able to adopt them, but we can direct them to the One who can. After all, if you are alive in Christ, you were once an orphan. And as Hosea 14:3 states, have you not found mercy in the Lord? Just like He did with Adam and Eve, God took pity on you and clothed you, not in animal skins, but in Christ’s blood, covering your sins.

We have a responsibility to the parent-less children, by taking them into our homes, or providing others with the means to do so. But we must not neglect our responsibility to the countless others who are spiritual orphans. Though they may seem content with their lives, and walk around with a smile on their faces, they’re not happy. They may tell you they are, but like a rebellious orphan who has never known a home or love, they scoff at the idea of needing a Father to guide and direct them.

Easter is coming up. Have you invited anyone to church? Remember that while your eternal Home is secure in Heaven, there are millions of others who will be homeless in eternity. And remember that you once were homeless too. You’re not any better than the lost. You sin just as much as a non-Christian. The only difference between you is that you have a Heavenly Father to depend on, and they don’t. What is stopping you from showing mercy to the orphans of the world? Seek them out, be Jesus to them. Offer them the shelter of a church, the clothing of Christ, and the ever-extending hand of the Father waiting to take them Home.

Support Your Not-So-Local Missionaries

Hungry. No, starving. She hasn’t had a descent meal in over eight months. Rice is all she’s lived on. She’s grown weak, and she’s exhausted. She’s tried so hard to carry out her mission, but how can she when she feels so alone? Her clothes hang over her frail body like loose rags. It’s nearly impossible to drag herself out of bed in the mornings. She doesn’t just feel like she’s surrounded by people who hate her and don’t want her there, the people do hate her and wave her off, telling her to go back home.

But today is supposed to be a good day. Today she should be receiving a care package in the mail. Gifts from her brothers and sisters who care. Today is going to be a really good day.

She travels nearly twenty miles by bus to the post office. To her delight, the box is there, waiting for her, with her name on it. The contents inside of it are for her! Her fingers flirt with the flaps of the box on the bumpy ride back home, but she wills herself not to open it just yet. What will be inside? Pop tarts? Bars of soap? Letters of encouragement? This is going to be such a good day.

When she gets home she squashes another roach on the kitchen counter. For the first time, she’s not thinking about the heat. She is just thinking about the contents inside that box. She grabs the scissors and cuts the tape. She holds her breath as she looks inside.

The first thing she pulls out is a brown pillowcase with a hole in it. She sets it aside. She tries to feel grateful when she holds up the next item in the box – a little boy’s t-shirt with cartoon characters on it. A packet of saltine crackers is next, followed by two bottles of water and a 4-oz tube of toothpaste that will probably last her a week if she rations it. There are no notes in the box. Nothing to convey sympathy, support, or encouragement. Not even a phone number to call, or an email address. She had been right. No one cares.

 

I’m not making this story up. The girl is fictitious, but there are missionaries scattered throughout the world who live like this every day. These are brothers and sisters who have sold everything they own to move away for several years to be among a people who don’t want their company or their message. They have taken up the call to bring the Gospel to the ends of the earth and the best we can do is send them a bottle of water or some used clothes.

I read a while back that missionaries are grateful for support, but the thing they want most is company. Not all of us can drop everything and go visit the missionaries, but we can contact them, and find out from them directly what they need us to send. Let’s not just feel content dropping a few bucks into the offering plate. Contact the guy who’s in charge of missions at your church and get a directory of their names and emails right now. (And if your church doesn’t have a list of missionaries that it supports, find a new church!) Send them a message, a verse, anything – heck, tell them what they can pray for you about! Build friendships with our brothers and sisters… read their blogs, pray for them.

You may not hear very happy stories from many of them. But we are called to bare each other’s burdens. Listen to their stories, find out what they need, and act accordingly. We’re all called to spread the Gospel together. Let’s embolden each other to carry out that all-important task. It just so happens that on this day on March 29, 1943, the U.S. began requiring Americans to ration fat, meat, and cheese to help win World War II. These were just the beginning of the long line of sacrifices made on the home front. “Do with less so they’ll have enough,” read a poster from the Office of War Information. If Americans could sacrifice for a slightly lesser cause, how much more, then, should we sacrifice for our brothers and sisters, on the front lines of the great cosmic war?

 

Kung Fu Panda 2

Though Kung Fu Panda 2 wasn’t my favorite movie, I really appreciated the heavy themes of adoption and redemption. The two were married beautifully in this Dreamworks picture. Setting aside my personal preferences, I think it’s a wonderful movie for all families to see together. Check out this link for a more in-depth description of the movie by the vise president of Southern Baptist Seminary. http://www.russellmoore.com/2011/06/05/adoption-identity-and-kung-fu-panda/

Book Rec: Radical by David Platt

Here is a book where the author actually has the guts to practice what he preaches. Or should I say, who does what the Scriptures actually teach. If you’re like most people, myself included, you fantasize about the American Dream on a semi-daily basis. Someday you’ll have that car featured in that movie. Maybe this time I’ll win that house on the HGTV contest. I don’t believe there’s anything wrong with wanting those things, or even having them. But often it’s our pursuit of those things that cause our hearts to go awry. There’s nothing wrong with wanting a better life. Just be careful of wanting a better life now. When we set our eyes on the fleeting things of this earth, rather than what’s to come in Christ’s heavenly kingdom, we can easily become distracted from what’s important and grow cold and sour that we don’t have more.

That is not how God intended us to live.

Yet, we constantly find ways to fake-bless our things. As David Platt shares in Radical, we have become masters at twisting the Gospel to meet our needs right now in our comfortable culture. Even in our churches we have a line of programs and events and shows and games and we say it’s all blessed because we tag Jesus’ name on it. (The people who hear the Gospel as a cozy, entertaining show, like a lot of churches portray, will be sorely disappointed when they discover what Christianity is really all about.) Even one non-Christian friend I work with noted that most Christian books are self-help books that just throw God’s name on every other page. He’s right. But this is not one of those books.

I’ll warn you upfront. This is not a comfortable read. Pastor Platt asks two questions that ought to be keeping us up at night. Am I going to believe Jesus? Easy peasy. Even Hitler reportedly believed in Jesus. Here’s the part that ought to keep us tossing and turning at night: Am I going to obey Jesus? Sit on that for a while.

Concerning the way most of us are going about our comfortable lives, Platt says that we’re “conforming Jesus into our image.” He’s right. A lot of us have fooled ourselves into thinking that Jesus is a middle-class, easy-going American whose offering the next best business opportunity. But in this book, Platt shares a handful of stories of people who follow a more accurate, less comfortable Jesus. There are people who meet underground, in secret, just to pray. People who sell everything to live in some undesirable part of earth to be with seemingly undesirable people. I’d like to tag a thought on this. Some people probably think these Christians are the most foolish people on earth, with no aspiration whatsoever. I think they have more desire to grow rich than the man in his corner office overlooking Wall Street. He invested a lot to get to where he is. But the people who give it all away have invested the most and they know that the return on their investment will be much, much greater.

I leave you today with a passage from Radical and truly hope you pick it up. “He (Jesus) has created each of us to take the gospel to the ends of the earth, and I propose that anything less than radical devotion to this purpose is unbiblical Christianity.”

DON’T Go To Church On Easter

Easter is just two weeks away. Have you invited anybody to church?

Easter is a time for believers to gather together and celebrate the Lord’s resurrection from the grave and our redemption through Him. But it is NOT an exclusive holiday. When Christ returns a second time, it’s not going to be done in secret, quietly, behind the doors of a church. No way! It’s going to be loud and explosive and every knee will bow and acknowledge Jesus Christ as Lord of the earth. Folks, Easter is a dress rehearsal for Christ’s second coming, and all the world will see Him. So what are we doing keeping Easter a private family affair? When we signed up to become Christ’s followers, we agreed to take His message to the ends of the earth. The least we can do is take His message to the other end of our workplace. So here’s my challenge, unorthodox as it may be.

Don’t make plans to go to church on Easter Sunday if you don’t invite a lost person to come with you. Here’s why I make this challenge. First, it is a reminder that Easter is not about you. Second, how intimidating would it be to have to explain to someone that you didn’t go to church on Easter because you didn’t invite someone else to church? Now, I may be wrong, but how much less intimidating would it be to just throw out a simple invitation?:

“Got any plans for Easter?”

“No.”

“Want to come to church with me and my family?”

“Naw, that’s fine. Thanks, though.”

Easy peasy. Now you just need to keep praying for them and witnessing to them, since they now know you’re a Christian. Now you can celebrate the Lord’s resurrection with a clear conscious, knowing that you did what you could (and by all means, if the Lord is prodding you to do more, do it). And who knows? The most unexpected thing could happen and they might accept your invitation! And maybe… just maybe they’ll accept the bigger invitation to accept Jesus as their Lord and Savior and there will be an even bigger celebration in the celestial halls of Heaven than we could ever dream of here on earth.

Don’t make Easter about you. Make it about Jesus. And the thing Jesus is about, is bringing people from death to life.

Note: I understand that some readers may have faced (or may face) persecution or insults or hardships, especially my international readers. I do not mean to make light of inviting people to church and passing it off as something that is easy to do. But that does not negate the challenge (not mine – Christ’s). All of us believers must pray for the lost as well as fellow believers that God may grant them courage and strength. 

It’s Ten O’ Clock. Do You Know Where Your Orphans Are?

The table’s been set and the lid has been pulled off the pot of soup. Everyone has finally settled down around the table. The family joins hands and a prayer is offered up that starts off, “Dear heavenly Father…” Do we ever stop to think about the implications these words hold? We were to God what a single piece of bacteria laying on a cow’s stool off some Indonesian island is to us. But He sought us out, cared for us, and loved us. If He had done just that, it would have been cause enough for us to praise Him. But He went one step further. He adopted us.

God could have just created us, and left us to our own devises. But out of His kindness, He went beyond that. The first thing He did was take notice of us. When He did this, He humbled Himself, and He became actively involved in our lives. He is always among us, hearing our thoughts, lending His ear to our needs, and providing us with the essential needs to live. The second thing He did for us was love us. He did this by sending His Son down to die in order to redeem us from our sins. Thirdly, God put legs to His love by adopting us. This grants us permission to call Him Father, and therefore all that is His is inherently ours.

So what does this mean for us? As God’s image bearers, we are to follow His example. First, we are to humble ourselves and put aside the tabloids and the stock market for a moment and research stories of people who are in need. With virtually the world at our fingertips, we can educate ourselves about the world’s needs, where people are dying, wars are being fought, and where a little hand is reaching out from some neglected basin for someone to touch.

Secondly, we are to show love by preaching the Gospel. A lot of children will grow up in countries where the Gospel is banned and they will never hear the Good News. It is our responsibility to take that good news into the world and share God’s love with those who might never hear it.

I can’t put this final point any more clearly than James 1:27. “Religion that God the Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in distress…” What right do we have to claim the advantages of adoption by God, and not be willing to do the same for a child in need? Jesus said, “Whatever you did for the least of these … you did for Me” (Matthew 25:40). If we show love to Jesus by giving a glass of water to a stranger in need, then it stands to reason that we are hating Jesus when we deny a child a home. What would you say to someone who told the following story:

“My wife and I were eating dinner and there was a knock on the door. I got up to answer it and there was a little kid standing there. He had big buck-teeth and he smelled awful. He was probably eight years old. He said, ‘Can I have a piece of bread?’ He was sniffing my wife’s cooking. But I was so mad that he disturbed our dinner that I said, ‘Sorry. Try looking somewhere else.’ He started to cry, but that only made me more upset, so I slapped him. When he whined some more, I pushed him off my doorstep and told him never to come back then slammed the door and locked it.”

I doubt you know anyone who would do such a beastly thing. But our motives are not much different when we refuse to give money to orphan care, or even look into the idea of adoption, or support a couple that is struggling to raise funds for their adoption. If the only way to show true love to a friend is by witnessing, then it stands to reason that you’re showing malice toward them when you keep your mouth shut. In the same way, we are hating needy children when we deny them our money, our time, our effort, our prayers – and ultimately showing hatred toward Christ. It is time for us to think deeply about the things that are closest to God’s heart and act on these things.

Grass by Andrew Toy

 In celebration of spring, I dug into my archives and pulled this out. If grass could talk, what would it say?

I am a blade of grass. You might not think that’s such a big deal but I have a very important job to do. My job is to be a soft place for you to run on.

Being a blade of grass has its up and downs. One of the drawbacks is that it’s hard to stand out from the rest of the grass. After all, one blade of grass looks the same as the others.

In the springtime I enjoy watching the neighborhood kids play baseball across the park. Just one thing, though: If you happen to be one of those kids, please make sure you catch the fly balls, because it hurts to be hit by a baseball.

But I guess that’s better than when the kids play soccer. A blade of grass can’t really jump away from a rolling ball.

Lawn mowers don’t scare me as much as you would think. Really, they’re just loud. And I can stand to get my haircut every now and then.

In the summer time it’s nice having the sprinklers cool me off from the hot sun. Sometimes the grass around me doesn’t get any water, so they turn yellow from being too hot.

Once, I woke up from a nap in the middle of the day, and everything was dark. The whole time I could smell fruits and deli meats and fresh baked cookies! Us grass blades have a very good sense of smell.

When I could finally see again, birds swept down from the sky and stole food crumbs from all of us grass blades. I wonder where all that food came from?

I’ll tell you a secret. As a grass blade, I don’t like dogs. Dogs leave such big messes! So please, the next time you bring your dog outside on the grass, bring a baggie. I would be grateful.

You know what makes me sad? Sometimes, when it’s bright and sunny outside, no one comes out to play. I’ve been told that that’s because all the kids are inside their houses watching TV or playing video games. Things could get pretty lonely for a blade of grass.

In the fall it rains a lot so I can understand why no one comes outside to play. But just remember us blades of grass as we’re trying not to drown in the puddles.

And if you do happen to come out in the rain, don’t step on all the worms. Even though they look like giant monsters, they really are quite kind and help us grow.

And make sure to help your parents rake up the leaves, so we too can see the rest of the leaves change colors. No one wants to be buried under a leaf all day.

But when the rain and the leaves stop falling from the sky, the air gets colder and every night I get frozen. I’m not as soft as I was in the summer. Now I make sort of a crunch sound when I’m stepped on. No one enjoys playing on something that’s cold and crunchy.

The park is empty for months on end, and even though I’m surrounded by other grass blades, they’re frozen just like I am. So it’s extra quiet outside in the park. Even when the frost turns to snow we all just keep to ourselves and try to get warm.

When I sleep during those cold winter nights, I dream of sunny days and children playing in the park. And when it’s still and quiet all around me during the day, I even long to hear a dog bark. But all I can hear is the soft wind stirring in the snow above me.

But soon, the snow begins to melt away. The sun shines and I can see fellow grass blades standing up from the snow one by one. Suddenly, standing out from the others doesn’t seem so important, and I’m glad we all made it through the winter together.

But when the sun shines its brightest and I stretch my tallest, an ant just might pick me, of all the other blades of grass, to climb up and see the waking world.

And maybe we’ll see you coming out of your house to play.