Well, I am sitting here in tears tonight because God has let me know it's time to get off my butt and get back to the ministry he has called me to. Someone once told me that the easist way for Satan to keep us from God is to keep us busy, isn't that so true? Anyway I have been doing research tonight for the ministry and it is soooooo much harder this time to work on it. When God first called me to it a year and a half ago we weren't even planning on adopting for several years so it didn't hit home as much as it did tonight.When I look at some of the faces of the 143 million children in the world that are orphans it breaks my heart. Children starving, children in pain, children who need surgery, children that have never been loved, children just like Jaxson that just want a home. These kids don't care if your fat, skinny, rich, poor, have a big house or a very small one. All these kids want is someone to love them and take care of them. Sometime's I wonder if Christians have any idea how close orphans are to God's heart. If every church started teaching James 1:27 then we would have a lot more of these children cared for and loved. Did you know that over 50 verses in the Bible mention orphans? Below is a list of some of those verses.Lift up your hands to him for the lives of your children, who faint from hunger at the head of every street. Lamentations 2:19 (NIV)
James 1:27Religion 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. Exodus 22:22
"Do not take advantage of a widow or an orphan. Deuteronomy 10:18He defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and loves the alien, giving him food and clothing.
Deuteronomy 14:29
so that the Levites (who have no allotment or inheritance of their own) and the aliens, the fatherless and the widows who live in your towns may come and eat and be satisfied, and so that the LORD your God may bless you in all the work of your hands.
Deuteronomy 16:11
And rejoice before the LORD your God at the place he will choose as a dwelling for his Name-you, your sons and daughters, your menservants and maidservants, the Levites in your towns, and the aliens, the fatherless and the widows living among you.
Deuteronomy 16:14
Be joyful at your Feast-you, your sons and daughters, your menservants and maidservants, and the Levites, the aliens, the fatherless and the widows who live in your towns.
Deuteronomy 24:17
Do not deprive the alien or the fatherless of justice, or take the cloak of the widow as a pledge.
Deuteronomy 24:19
When you are harvesting in your field and you overlook a sheaf, do not go back to get it. Leave it for the alien, the fatherless and the widow, so that the LORD your God may bless you in all the work of your hands. Deuteronomy 24:20
When you beat the olives from your trees, do not go over the branches a second time. Leave what remains for the alien, the fatherless and the widow.
Deuteronomy 24:21
When you harvest the grapes in your vineyard, do not go over the vines again. Leave what remains for the alien, the fatherless and the widow. Deuteronomy 26:12
When you have finished setting aside a tenth of all your produce in the third year, the year of the tithe, you shall give it to the Levite, the alien, the fatherless and the widow, so that they may eat in your towns and be satisfied.
Deuteronomy 26:13
Then say to the LORD your God: "I have removed from my house the sacred portion and have given it to the Levite, the alien, the fatherless and the widow, according to all you commanded. I have not turned aside from your commands nor have I forgotten any of them.
Deuteronomy 27:19
"Cursed is the man who withholds justice from the alien, the fatherless or the widow." Then all the people shall say, "Amen!"
Job 22:9
And you sent widows away empty-handed and broke the strength of the fatherless.
Job 24:3
They drive away the orphan's donkey and take the widow's ox in pledge. Job 24:9
The fatherless child is snatched from the breast; the infant of the poor is seized for a debt.
Job 29:12
because I rescued the poor who cried for help, and the fatherless who had none to assist him.
Job 31:17
if I have kept my bread to myself, not sharing it with the fatherless-
Job 31:21
if I have raised my hand against the fatherless, knowing that I had influence in court,
Psalm 10:14
But you, O God, do see trouble and grief; you consider it to take it in hand. The victim commits himself to you; you are the helper of the fatherless.
Psalm 10:18
defending the fatherless and the oppressed, in order that man, who is of the earth, may terrify no more.
Psalm 68:5
A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows, is God in his holy dwelling.
Psalm 82:3
Defend the cause of the weak and fatherless; maintain the rights of the poor and oppressed.
Psalm 146:9
The LORD watches over the alien and sustains the fatherless and the widow, but he frustrates the ways of the wicked.
Proverbs 23:10
Do not move an ancient boundary stone or encroach on the fields of the fatherless,
Isaiah 1:17
learn to do right! Seek justice, encourage the oppressed. Defend the cause of the fatherless, plead the case of the widow.
Isaiah 1:23
Your rulers are rebels, companions of thieves; they all love bribes and chase after gifts. They do not defend the cause of the fatherless; the widow's case does not come before them.
Jeremiah 7:6
if you do not oppress the alien, the fatherless or the widow and do not shed innocent blood in this place, and if you do not follow other gods to your own harm,
Jeremiah 22:3
This is what the LORD says: Do what is just and right. Rescue from the hand of his oppressor the one who has been robbed. Do no wrong or violence to the alien, the fatherless or the widow, and do not shed innocent blood in this place.
Jeremiah 49:11
Leave your orphans; I will protect their lives. Your widows too can trust in me."
Ezekiel 22:7
In you they have treated father and mother with contempt; in you they have oppressed the alien and mistreated the fatherless and the widow. Zechariah 7:10
Do not oppress the widow or the fatherless, the alien or the poor. In your hearts do not think evil of each other.'
Malachi 3:5
"So I will come near to you for judgment. I will be quick to testify against sorcerers, adulterers and perjurers, against those who defraud laborers of their wages, who oppress the widows and the fatherless, and deprive aliens of justice, but do not fear me," says the LORD Almighty.
John 14:18I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. Are we not to be the hands and feet of Christ?