Pure Religion

James 1:27

27 This is pure and undefiled religion in the sight of {our} God and Father, to visit orphans and widows in their distress, {and} to keep oneself unstained by the world.(NAS)

You ever visited a widow? You ever got involved spending time with kids who don’t have fathers to relate to because of divorce or death or abandonment?

James says, get involved in meeting needs here. These are two major areas where the church has fallen down as evidently must have been the case also in James’ day, or he would not have felt the need to address the issue. It says in that widows in their distress-I gather it is talking about not only when they are still getting over the loss of their other half, but also when they need help with things. You see, it is us, the church, who are supposed to help out the widows. Not the government. Not the state. It is on us to do those things that the widow cannot do because she has become a widow. Now depending on how old the widow is-some can go into the work force and do alright, but they may not be able to take proper care of their vehicles -such as not being able to afford it, or not knowing how. Other Christians need to step in and help here. Since women, since who knows when, in many cases can’t earn as good of a living as men, sometimes the cost of car repairs is above their heads. Others may need help with doctor visits-such as getting there-if they can’t afford a cab for instance-or can’t move around well. Others may need help on obtaining their groceries. There are all kinds of reasons widows can need help. And here I am referring to widows who don’t have adult kids to help them out.

Do you just go over and start doing things? No, you go over and find out what is actually needed, because there are folks out there, widows included, that are too lazy to do for themselves. But get to know the widows in your church, and learn whether they could use a shoulder to cry on, advice on finances, and other stuff, help with the yard or car or whatever. And since the Bible says, don’t count women who are widows, as widows requiring the help financially from the church, until they are over 60 and they don’t have family who can help take care of them. See I Timothy 5:3-10. Sounds like good advice.

What about kids who are orphans? Do you know why the Big Brother/Big Sister program started? Because the church fell down on the job of making sure the orphans of the world got their needs met - physically and psychogically and spiritually. And kids of one parent families-for one reason or another need to be ministered to within the church body too. If you are in a small church, it needs to take the attitude that everyone is family-real family. Not just folks you see on Sundays or Wednesday nights and politely say hello to. If you are in a large church, Lord willing you are in a small group of some kind that serves as a second family to help meet the needs of the folks in that group when the needs are revealed.

Folks, your religion of Christianity and mine, begins at the home front. Let us not neglect to minister to our family’s needs.

For further information on God’s Word on widows and some other issues, read all of I Timothy 5.

I may have said it before, but will say it again. James is a very practical Apostle. He dealt with people where they really were at, just like Jesus did and does. Let’s all learn from that great brother in the Lord and change our world as a result.

Before I close, I want to give you an up date on my brother-in-law, Billy. We will be taking him tomorrow(Friday) to the hospital to be operated on around 1 pm. He should be hospitalized about 3 days and then we bring him home. According to the doctor, he ought to be back to normal in about 2 weeks. And if he does heal fast, that will work out great for us-as we have vacation plans in about 2 weeks and he will be able to enjoy it more if he is feeling good. Pray for my husband’s and my energy, grace, patience, unconditional love, and everything else needed as Billy will prove to be a trial while in the hospital. He won’t understand why the pain, nor understand that the operation is necessary to prevent months of suffering down the road. So he really won’t even know that he is going to be operated on before the operation probably unless we or the nurses tell him. He will just know he is going to the hospital so the doctors can fix him.

Dealing with him is similar to dealing with someone with alzheimers or someone who is senile so there will be a bit of a challenge, maybe more than a bit, but God will see us through it. Praise the Lord for doctors! Praise the Lord for His healing power and Praise the Lord for His grace flowing down on all of us and Praise the Lord for Him being in control.

You have a great weekend and please do keep us in your prayers for this weekend. Many thanks, the Good News Lady