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“wash and make yourselves clean. Take your evil deeds out of my sight! Stop doing wrong, learn to do right! Seek justice, encourage the oppressed. Defend the cause of the fatherless, plead the case of the widow.”- Isaiah 1:16-17
LOL! I cracked up when I read the first part of this verse this morning. I think the biggest "negative" impact having children has had on my life has been in the way of personal hygiene. Seriously... showers have become a luxury. So, as I sit here, in my PJ's and fuzzy robe, UN-showered (sorry, but I refuse to publicly admit when my last one was) I am going to - in the most hypocritical way possible - write about the importance of being clean. God sure loves irony.
Thank God for a different experience today with His Word. Looking at this verse, I think I could write a whole sermon (if not sermon series) on this verse. I will try to BRIEFLY mention the main points I received from it this morning:
1. Wash and Be Clean: I need to make sure I am not so low on my own priority list that I fail to practice personal and spiritual hygiene. I cannot stop doing evil and learn what is right unless I have taken time to "clean up" through prayer, fellowship with other believers, reading His Word, proper rest, eating right, staying fit, and maintaining order (and, let's face it, the occasional shower).
2. God expects us to act. A lot of the time, I hear Christians talk about how everything we do is done in the power of God, or how it is the Spirit in us that overcomes. These are true statements of Faith. They are not excuses for inaction on our own part. God has given us some degree of "power" over our lives. If he is "yelling" at us to "take our evil deeds out of his sight, stop doing wrong and learn what's right" then obviously we have the ability to do these things. Yes, we need to pray for God's help. Yes, we need to be filled with the Spirit. But we also need to just be obedient. I would never insist that my kids perform a task they are developmentally incapable of accomplishing. God won't either. A lot of the time my children will begin to whine when I ask them to do something. "I caaaan't. I need yoooour help. You need to dooooo it" the whimper. Honestly, it makes my blood boil and I want to smack them! Why? Because I know they are perfectly capable of doing what I have requested without me. Sometimes I will give in and help, sometimes I won't and I will insist they do it on their own. What if God is like this, too? God: "Stop doing what is wrong." Me: "I caannn't. I need yoooour help. You need to dooooo it." God: "Good grief, Erin. I have given you all you need to be able to do this on your own. Do it. Now. Because I said so." Yup... I don't think I can use "needing the Spirit" as an excuse for disobedience. If I'm smart enough to see through that one with my kids, I am betting God is smarter.
3. (Last point, because, I happen to know all "good" sermons are "Three-point sermons." :P) Defend the cause of the fatherless and plead the case for the widow.
OK - Who of us actually does this? Seriously. If you are reading this and can give me a TANGIBLE (praying for orphans and widows does not count) way that you specifically defend orphans and/or plead the case for widows, I want to know about it. I am pretty sure God cares a lot about these two people groups (He mentions them a bunch!) and I am pretty sure I personally totally let him down here. Don't try to make me feel better by telling me, "you adopted." We all know defending the fatherless was NOT my motivation in adopting. Don't bring up Meme either - she hates it here and is moving out in February. I guess the one way we do anything for either of these groups is to support a Compassion International child and an EEO family. But honestly, that feels so removed and is dangerously close to a "check that off our list" approach to something God sure seems awful passionate about. I need to discuss this one more with David. How can we as a family effectively defend the fatherless and plead the case of the widow? I'm anxious to hear your ideas! In the meantime, I think I should go take a shower!
2 comments:
Great point! I loved your commentary today. You took my adoption argument away! LOL but seriously it as a call that we have all failed to heed to. We as Christians have given up this obligation to the government and it is a shame. Although I disagree slightly with you on prayer. Prayer is a big and tangible thing that is helpful. We have the kids pray for an orphan that we find on websites and keep praying for a good Christian home to adopt them.....then it is a true blessing to see that child you were praying for find a home! We also as a family send packages through an organization here in the states to Zeke and Jayme's old orphanages in Russia and the Ukraine but honestly this is not enough. They are really in bad shape and simple things like clothing or toothbrushes, blankets etc. make a big impact. That is some tangible things that we can do.
BUT what about locally? That is up to your local church. Our church has a ministry called the House of Hope that is a woman's shelter for homeless women with children. We have many of our women at the church give time with biblical counseling and helping them to get there feet on solid ground again. Also when it comes to widowed or divorced single mom's we as a church family try our best to support them through various means. It is the role of the local church and is one that my wife is very passionate about.
I know that sort of seems like a check list but those are some tangible things that we can do. Also Paul in I Timothy lays out our responsibility and under what conditions we should be supporting a widow. Bottom line is you are correct in that we don't do enough when it comes to this need.
I didn't mean to suggest prayer is not a valid response or is not tangible. But I do think we tend to use it as a convenient way out of doing more. It is too easy to simply offer up a prayer and move on to the next thing. It takes a lot more effort to go out and do something. The way your family has integrated prayer is a much more active, thoughtful approach than what the role I imagined prayer playing and I really like it. Thanks for sharing your thoughts! These are some great ideas. I look forward to discussing them with David.
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