As you know I have been advocating for Orphan Sunday. I've called numerous churches in my community. Their responses made me think of what happens in Matthew 19: 13-15.
Jesus is teaching and someone has the guts to bring some children to Jesus. The disciples see this and immediately shoo the children away. They can not be bothered by the children, they are too much of a distraction. After all, the disciples are busy learning, hearing what Jesus has to say, as is the crowd gathered around Jesus. Jesus intervenes and says "Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these". We're not told exactly what Jesus thinks about all this, but we know He was not impressed. Our Almighty God stepped in and set things right!
The responses I have gotten range from..."We need more notice", to "We're have a guest speaker come in on that Sunday" to "We are having baptism that Sunday and don't have time" to "We help out with such and such an organization, in fact we even held such and such an event" to "We do not neglect orphans".
These comments literally made me shake with frustration and anger! Seriously?!?! This is what our "Christian" community has come to???? This is what we're all about?!?
Notice in Matthew 19 what Jesus does...He was not given any notice at all. The kids simply arrived and He responded. I wish this local church would allow Jesus to be the guest speaker this weekend...I can only imagine what He would say. The irony of it all is that having a baptism does not allow for our orphans to be mentioned...SERIOUSLY???? Baptism is a public proclamation of whom we believe in, follow and love...not taking the time to mention Orphan Sunday is like saying we love Jesus....but telling HIS most precious and vulnerable children to buzz off!...sounds extremely hypocritical!! I KNOW WITHOUT A DOUBT that Jesus would help the kids and then baptize the people! Why not make room for both...we may even be surprised at how many others would step up and say "I want to live for HIM too!"
I know most churches do help orphans in some way...but at what point have our churches done enough??? I KNOW Jesus would say we've done enough when the need has been filled. And last of all...if we as a church "do not neglect orphans", then why do we still have so many orphans...about 147 MILLION!! Canada itself has about 30,000 kids needing forever families. And we say we do not neglect orphans??? Yes we do!! It would only take 7% of the Christians in each church to help one child and the orphan crisis would be eradicated!!! The irony of it all is that these same churches preach the importance of tithing...notice that 7% is less than the 10% mentioned in the Bible.
May God have mercy on us "Christians"!!
2 comments:
I do find it interesting how people then go on to say how they support or are glad that you feel such passion for this thing that God had called you to...really?? I don't recall only a few names listed in the Bible saying you few are called to look after widows and orphans. that goes for sharing the gospel as well. We are ALL called to do that. ALL Scripture is for ALL of us period!
I am discouraged that you have had such a poor response to your phone calls Marie, though I know I just have to look at myself and see that I have done nothing better. (P.S.I got your FB message and will reply soon!)
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