Pure Religion -A message from our ministry friend Donna

Like me you have probably noticed that this time of year there are many causes asking for financial support.  How do you determine who to give to?  Do you decide as a family to give to certain charities you feel led to support?  The Bible does not tell us where we should help but it does say very clearly that only in giving can we please God.    I was amazed at how many scriptures instruct us to take care of the fatherless, orphans, widows and the poor.  Here are a few that really spoke to me:

James 1:27 tells us, “Pure and genuine religion in the sight of God the Father means caring for orphans and widows in their distress and refusing to let the world corrupt you.”  

Isaiah 1:17 “Learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow’s cause.”

James 2:14-17 “What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food , and one of you says to them, ‘Go in peace, be warmed and filled,’ without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.”

Psalm 68:4 “Father of the fatherless and protector of widows is God in his holy habitation.”

Zechariah 7:9-10 “Thus says the Lord of hosts, Render true judgments, show kindness and mercy to one another, do not oppress the widow, the fatherless, the sojourner, or the poor, and let none of you devise evil against another in your heart.”

Galatians 2:10 “Only, they asked us to remember the poor, the very thing I was eager to do.”

Jeremiah 22:16 “He judged the cause of the poor and needy; then it was well. Is not this to know me? declares the Lord.”

Psalm 82:3 “Give justice to the weak and the fatherless; maintain the right of the afflicted and the destitute.”

Job 29:12 “Because I delivered the poor who cried for help, and the fatherless who had none to help him.”

 As winter approaches, please consider these scriptures and pray that God will show you the best way to practice “pure and genuine religion” toward the poor.  Merry Christmas!
Donna M