offensive much???

F#ck!

 

Orphans are everywhere. They are alone, unloved, and separated from their forever families.  Many will die in their orphanages today, many more will die this year.  It doesn't matter though, does it? "They are just orphans."

 

Seriously, why are you still hung up on the word "f#ck"?  

Does it make you feel a little uneasy?  Maybe a little upset, or even appalled?

So how come I can say "orphan" and it doesn't have the same affect.  

One is just a crass word, but the other, it means separation. 

It means sadness.  

It means loneliness.  

It means forgotten.

 

Jesus called people who got more offended at words than at inaction, whitewashed tombs. Do you feel the weight of that point?  David Platt notes on the subject HERE

 

Matthew 23:27 New Living Translation (NLT)

“What sorrow awaits you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees. Hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs—beautiful on the outside but filled on the inside with dead people’s bones and all sorts of impurity.

 

God has called ALL to orphan care.  All.  Period.  All.  Done.

Prove me wrong!

That does not mean that all are supposed to adopt. That does mean that everyone plays a part in caring for the least of these. 

 

There is simply not enough time to continue beating around the bush.  

Here's a multiple choice question:

What part in an orphans life are you playing? 

a. Adopting

b. Supporting an adopted family

c. Advocating for orphans

d. Creating awareness of the epidemic.

e. None of the above

 

So how'd you do?

The good news is you had an 80% chance of answering correctly.  

 

I grew up fearing hell.  Anyone else grow up fearing hell?  

I grew up hearing hell, fire, and brimstone messages about the pain and the agony of hell. 

The catalyst to salvation was a solid fear of hell.  Quite literally, I had the hell scared out of me, or more accurately, the me scared out of hell.  

I heard so much about it, that I wanted to do whatever I could to get out of it.  

Hell is a terrible place, but it is not the reason to surrender a life to Christ.  

The real reason, is separation from God. While hell is so vial, what's more is the eternal damnation of separation from our father for all of eternity.  

Hell is punishment. 

Prison is punishment.

 

But, I heard a "prisoner for life" the other day talk about how he will never be able to throw ball with his son again.  

The prison is punishment, but the separation is the greater loss.

Do you see the parallel?

 

Orphan is separation.  We were, and many still are, separated from our father, our creator, our eternal purpose.

Hell is a terrible place, but God did not save us "FROM" hell.  

He saves us "TO" himself.  

 

I have the honor of working out with two of the greatest men I know.  They are firefighters.  

Day in and day out, they go into situations to save souls from fire.  

You know, I've seen a couple of car fires in my lifetime, and I've come to notice something. I have never seen a fire truck full of suited up firemen, pull up to a fire, and then yell from the truck to the victim, "Get out of the burning vehicle and come join us in the safety of our truck!"

 

No, these men, and I mean men, get out of the truck, with full gear, often running against the flow of scared onlookers, they rely on their training, and then go into the battle zone to rescue a dying soul.  A person once in certain separation from life, now sees the mask of a firefighter coming to their rescue, and with an outstretched fireman's hand, the lost soul takes hold of a life saving relationship with that brave rescuer, that beautiful redeemer.  

 

That is what it is to rescue an orphan.  

We came into this world as spiritual bastards. The byproduct of a broken relationship.  The ridicule of all that is good. 

 

But God...there it is!!!  That heart wrenching, climatic moment.....

 

But God....loved us so much that he chose to take us into his family.  We were orphans.  We were homeless, aimless.  Purposeless.  

And he looks at us, and tells us that even if it costs him his very son, he is going to take us in.  We can become his very own, forever.  

That's crazy!  That's insane! That doesn't make sense!

As the book that I'm reading right now is so aptly titled, this is "The Insanity of God."

It is careless, it is messy, it is dirty work.

But it is his chosen path from orphaned to adopted.

Why then are we any different?

 

JJ, my seven year old, was walking around the other day in daddy's shoes.  He likes to do this.  He likes to see how in the world dad walks around in these size 12's.

I think he even wonders sometimes if it makes him look more like dad.

 

Walk in your father's shoes.  Look like him, because if you are surrendered, then He lives in you and through you. He will complete every good work through you.  

 

And, you find that you will look more and more like him, doing the thing that he does so well each and every day. 

Adopting orphans into his forever family. 

 

How could we be any different?  I'm scared we already know that answer.

 

"But when the right time came, God sent his Son, born of a woman, subject to the law. God sent him to buy freedom for us who were slaves to the law, so that he could adopt us as his very own children. And because we are his children, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, prompting us to call out, “Abba, Father.” Now you are no longer a slave but God’s own child. And since you are his child, God has made you his heir. "

Galatians 4:4-7