Today (Thursday) was the fifth day on the Tohono O’Odham Indian Reservation in southern Arizona with our youth group. It was a great day and we will go back out tomorrow and then begin the two day trip back home on Saturday. I’m so proud of our youth. They have been physically and spiritually challenged and have responded with some awesome growth in their relationship with God. I’m humbled by their desire to live for God and share His love with others. They will certainly have their share of struggles over the next months and years, but I’m so excited about what God is going to do through the lives of these young people.
This is also my last post regarding this missions trip. I will return to the regular devotional messages on Monday. This was the first time I have ever posted this kind of “real time” messages and I pray it has been a blessing.
I’ll end this series with a strong exhortation about something which God has placed on my heart over the last several months, confirmed on this missions trip, and shouted with clarity during my quiet time this morning.
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.”
This is another one of those passages which you need to read and allow to sit in your ponder bucket for a time. Does the Bible really mean what it says? Can we truly read this as the Word of God? If so, then I don’t see any other way to read this except that the only religion acceptable to God is the one which looks after orphans and widows. In the context of the time of Christ, this means those who are the outcast of society who have no means to care for themselves.
Many people around the world live in communities and attend churches without a large orphan and widow population. But there are also many, many communities around the world where the majority of the population is made up solely of orphans and widows. Though our own immediate community may not have a great need, the call from God remains – we are to care for the orphans and widows. If the need is not apparent in our own community then we must begin to look outside and around the world.
What are we doing to provide care for those in need? And please believe me that the need is huge! Let’s begin to evaluate our place of worship, our family and personal priorities, and determine if we are being obedient to the call of God. Let’s recommit to being part of a religion which is acceptable and pleasing to God and take some very definite steps to answer His call. This is my last report from the nation of Tohono O’Odham – Day 5.
Have a Christ Centered Day!
Steve Troxel
God’s Daily Word Ministries
