Pursued relentlessly!

God pursues us relentlessly and I’m so grateful He does and just like He pursues us, He is calling Jim and I and those of us adopting to pursue relentlessly our children He has called us to adopt.  We were orphans and He adopted us!  Amazing the similarities between our adoption as children of God and the adoption of orphans!  We are not all called to adoption BUT He has called us all in one way or another to take care and help orphans and the least of these!  This may be adopting, sponsoring a child, this may be helping fund someone’s adoption,  volunteering somewhere in your town, sending bibles to those in third world countries who desparately want to read God's word and just don't have a copy of it or whatever He lays on our hearts. 

Here are some AMAZING verses that spoke to Jim and I’s heart and I pray they will to yours also!  Like I said…we are not all called to adoption but over and over in God’s word He has called us and told us to take care of orphans and the least of these…may God continue to open our eyes more and more to the needs of this world and what He would have us do for His kingdom!

Psalm 82:3-4 ~ “Defend the cause of the weak and fatherless;
       maintain the rights of the poor and oppressed.  Rescue the weak and needy…”

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.”

Isaiah 1:17 ~ “learn to do right! Seek justice, encourage the oppressed. Defend the cause of the fatherless, plead the case of the widow.”

Proverbs 31:8-9 ~ “Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the rights of all who are destitute. Speak up and judge fairly; defend the rights of the poor and needy.”

Matthew 25:40~ “The King will answer and say to them, 'Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me.”

It cannot get any more simpler than that!  If we believe God’s word is true than His word tells us to speak up for those that cannot, to help rescue the orphans, to take care of the least of these and the widows.  Oh how I have failed at this and I am so thankful God is working in Jim and I’s heart and changing us!  I think one of the BIGGEST ways we can show Christ’s love and the for the church as a whole to be a light and example to the world is by doing what those scriptures tell us to do above!   We are to simply….LOVE!  The greatest thing is….LOVE!  For God so….LOVED the world!  Catch the theme here… :0)

I cannot believe I went so many years of my life not realizing this stuff, not thinking about it, not pursuing it, not realizing how important it is to God.  God’s eternal plan involved adoption, it cannot get much better than that!

While I sit here typing on my computer in my comfortable house that is heated, while my dog has a better place to sleep than most children around the world, while the water I use flushing our toilets each day is more than the orphans get in a week or more probably…there are more and more children every day becoming orphans, MILLIONS of children around the world who need LOVE, who would just like to know that they will have a meal coming later, would just like to have a pair of shoes on their feet or even have the opportunity to go to school.  IT BREAKS MY HEART that I cannot do more to help but I think God is putting this strongly on my heart and so many others because this needs to be made more aware of in our country and in our churches!  We in America have WAY TOO MUCH!  I pray God would continue to show me daily how I can help because unless we get out of our comfort zones and ask God to use us and show us how to help…these orphans will continue to live like this and have NO HOPE.

Those in Haiti, in Uganda and Africa are no different from us…God loves them JUST THE SAME, God has plans for them JUST LIKE US and Jesus died on the cross for them too JUST AS HE DID FOR US and the only difference really is that they live there and we live here.  I heard Aaron Ivey say that there were well over 380,000 orphans in Haiti BEFORE the earthquake, can you imagine how many now.  There are over 2.5 MILLION orphans in Uganda, the country we are adopting from.  Uganda is around the size of Oregon and yet has 2.5 million orphans.  Those are just TWO countries.  There are an estimated 163 MILLION orphans in the world today.  They are children, they did nothing to deserve this and we can do something about this!  Don't think that the problem is SO BIG that you cannot help...YOU CAN...let God use you for His kingdom in this mighty way of taking care and helping the afflicted.

There are countless ways you could help these orphans and if God has laid it on your heart to help but you don’t know how PLEASE feel free to contact me and I can share with you MANY amazing Christian non-prof organizations that help feed, school, clothe and sponsor these children.    I know this was a long post but this is what is on my heart!

Love to all,