I was so sad after reading Adeye's post. She and her husband have bee"n called to adopt many special needs children. She shares the ups and downs and encourages other families to look at the children that might not otherwise get a home. After all, the bible does say, 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. (James 1:27).
Do I think everyone should adopt orphans...after all, I have adopted an orphan? No, I don't .... I think everyone is called to help in some way... Donations to those who do feel called to adopt, feeding of orphans that wouldn't get enough otherwise, clothing them, medical care for them, etc. (However, adoption isn't the call of 100% of the church body...even if I would choose it to be so).
I see an inflexibility in the Christian body to let the Holy Spirit direct one person to do one thing and allow someone else to do another. Why is this so? Why do we feel that we all must do the exact same thing the exact same way? Scripture is called that we aren't suppose to do that.
If the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I am not of the body,” is it therefore not of the body? And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I am not of the body,” is it therefore not of the body? If the whole body were an eye, where would be the hearing? If the whole were hearing, where would be the smelling? But now God has set the members, each one of them, in the body just as He pleased. And if they were all one member, where would the body be? But now indeed there are many members, yet one body. (1 Corinthians 12:15–20)
God has blessed us each with unique gifts. When your gift is used properly in the church, you serve your function and contribute to the body. We must not demand that we all be feet.... or ears.... or eyes, etc! Don't attack the eye for being an eye!
1 Corinthians goes on to say.....
27 Now zyou are the body of Christ, and amembers individually. 28 AndbGod has appointed these in the church: first capostles, second dprophets, third teachers, after that emiracles, then fgifts of healings, ghelps, hadministrations, varieties of tongues. 29 Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Are all workers of miracles? 30 Do all have gifts of healings? Do all speak with tongues? Do all interpret?
Here are some disheartening things form Adeye's blog...
Though the Internet has been wonderful in so many respects and has certainly made the world a much smaller place, it has also given evil a place to sit behind a computer and have their say—no matter how much it hurts the recipient or how much damage it does to their lives.
People don’t care that they tear down instead of building up.
Over the past couple of years, I have seen this form of harassment and abuse escalate in a community of people who are meant to do and be the opposite. Christ followers!
Tell me something, body of Christ. What is it with this mentality?! How can people so easily put one another in a box, and lo and behold, should they ever take on anything other than that one thing that they are known for…well, they’re nothing more than pathetic Christians who have deviated from the narrow road?
How can it be that we so easily cast judgment and condemnation…
…when we know NOTHING about a person’s life and why they are doing what they do!
When did we ever become a group of people who convict more and extend grace less?
What gives any of us the right to decide what is best for our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ? God forbid they should do anything less than what we had planned for their lives!
Forget Jesus and His unique calling on each of our lives. Forget the grace that we so freely have been given and are meant to give back lavishly. I don’t get it. This mentality has permeated the Lord’s Church.
http://www.nogreaterjoymom.com/2013/10/love-more-judge-less.html
May we all repent and see that Jesus did turn over tables.... did get angry.... but it was in response to the religious people who took no pity on the people around them and were going through the motions of religion looking for profit for themselves. (Matt 21:12)
Even the Pharisees asked Jesus, "Why don't your followers obey all of the law?" See how Jesus answered it in Matthew 15. (Below). May we be quick to see our own sin and quick to give mercy and grace to others....as we love them, wash their feet, serve them, as Christ modeled so well. When we see our own sin, and dwell upon the amazing undeserved forgiveness given to us by a holy God, how can we not pass on forgiveness and love?
Matthew 15
Then some Pharisees and teachers of the law came to Jesus from Jerusalem and asked, 2 “Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? They don’t wash their hands before they eat!”
3 Jesus replied, “And why do you break the command of God for the sake of your tradition? 4 For God said, ‘Honor your father and mother’ and ‘Anyone who curses their father or mother is to be put to death.’ 5 But you say that if anyone declares that what might have been used to help their father or mother is ‘devoted to God,’ 6 they are not to ‘honor their father or mother’ with it. Thus you nullify the word of God for the sake of your tradition. 7 You hypocrites! Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you:
8 “‘These people honor me with their lips,
but their hearts are far from me.
9 They worship me in vain;
their teachings are merely human rules.’”
10 Jesus called the crowd to him and said, “Listen and understand. 11 What goes into someone’s mouth does not defile them, but what comes out of their mouth, that is what defiles them.”
12 Then the disciples came to him and asked, “Do you know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this?”
13 He replied, “Every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted will be pulled up by the roots. 14 Leave them; they are blind guides. If the blind lead the blind, both will fall into a pit.”
15 Peter said, “Explain the parable to us.”
16 “Are you still so dull?” Jesus asked them. 17 “Don’t you see that whatever enters the mouth goes into the stomach and then out of the body? 18 But the things that come out of a person’s mouth come from the heart, and these defile them. 19 For out of the heart come evil thoughts—murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander. 20 These are what defile a person; but eating with unwashed hands does not defile them.”
See what Jesus says about them: Matthew 23
23 Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples: 2 “The teachers of the law and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat. 3 So you must be careful to do everything they tell you. But do not do what they do, for they do not practice what they preach. 4 They tie up heavy, cumbersome loads and put them on other people’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to lift a finger to move them.
5 “Everything they do is done for people to see: They make their phylacterieswide and the tassels on their garments long; 6 they love the place of honor at banquets and the most important seats in the synagogues; 7 they love to be greeted with respect in the marketplaces and to be called ‘Rabbi’ by others.
8 “But you are not to be called ‘Rabbi,’ for you have one Teacher, and you are all brothers. 9 And do not call anyone on earth ‘father,’ for you have one Father, and he is in heaven. 10 Nor are you to be called instructors, for you have one Instructor, the Messiah. 11 The greatest among you will be your servant. 12 For those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.
Seven Woes on the Teachers of the Law and the Pharisees
13 “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You shut the door of the kingdom of heaven in people’s faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let those enter who are trying to. [14]
15 “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You travel over land and sea to win a single convert, and when you have succeeded, you make them twice as much a child of hell as you are.
16 “Woe to you, blind guides! You say, ‘If anyone swears by the temple, it means nothing; but anyone who swears by the gold of the temple is bound by that oath.’ 17 You blind fools! Which is greater: the gold, or the temple that makes the gold sacred? 18 You also say, ‘If anyone swears by the altar, it means nothing; but anyone who swears by the gift on the altar is bound by that oath.’ 19 You blind men! Which is greater: the gift, or the altar that makes the gift sacred? 20 Therefore, anyone who swears by the altar swears by it and by everything on it. 21 And anyone who swears by the temple swears by it and by the one who dwells in it. 22 And anyone who swears by heaven swears by God’s throne and by the one who sits on it.
23 “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices—mint, dill and cumin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law—justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former. 24 You blind guides! You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel.
25 “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. 26 Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean.
27 “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of the bones of the dead and everything unclean. 28 In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness.
29 “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You build tombs for the prophets and decorate the graves of the righteous. 30 And you say, ‘If we had lived in the days of our ancestors, we would not have taken part with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.’ 31 So you testify against yourselves that you are the descendants of those who murdered the prophets. 32 Go ahead, then, and complete what your ancestors started!
33 “You snakes! You brood of vipers! How will you escape being condemned to hell? 34 Therefore I am sending you prophets and sages and teachers. Some of them you will kill and crucify; others you will flog in your synagogues and pursue from town to town. 35 And so upon you will come all the righteous blood that has been shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah son of Berekiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar. 36 Truly I tell you, all this will come on this generation.
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