The Strength of the King: Widows

Excerpt from The Strength of the King, by Sharon Karns & Marci Lewellen:

"Many scripture passages that talk of caring for orphans also call us to care for widows. God consistently calls attention to the widow and the orphan and he desires that his Church give them time, resources and protection.

 Some Rabbis say that the true meaning of the reference 'widow' refers to one who has lost her voice, her protector, or provider. [...]

God is calling the Church to make right this loss - to speak up and to stand in the gap for these who need a voice. We are to be a protector, a provider, and to extend ourselves to offer a helping, guiding hand to the fatherless. 

In many countries the role of providing help and protection to those in need has been given over to the government. The Church has lost her place in defending these that are so important to God. Acts 6 shows us how important caring for the widow was to the early Church. The disciples were careful to select the best people to oversee this important ministry.

Now in those days, when the number of the disciples was multiplying, there arose a complaint against the Hebrews by the Hellenists, because their widows were neglected in the daily distribution. Then the twelve summoned the multitude of the disciples and said "...seek out from among you seven men of good reputation, full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom, whom we may appoint over this business; but we will give ourselves continually to prayer and to the ministry of the word." And the saying pleased the whole multitude. And they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and the Holy Spirit, and Philip, Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicolas, a proselyte from Antioch, whom they set before the apostles; and when they had prayed, they laid hands on them." (Acts 6:1-6)

2 Kings 4 also gives us insight into how God's people should respond when we find a widow in need. Elisha asks this widow, 'What shall I do for you?' Elisha then trusts God for a miracle, knowing that it is God's desire to provide for this woman.

A certain woman of the wives of the sons of the prophets cried out to Elisha, saying "Your servant my husband is dead, and you know that your servant feared the Lord. And the creditor is coming to take my two sons to be his slaves." So Elisha said to her, "What shall I do for you?  Tell me, what do you have in the house?" And she said, "Your maidservant has nothing in the house but a jar of oil." Then he said, "Go, borrow vessels from everywhere, from all your neighbors - empty vessels; do not gather just a few. And when you have come in, you shall shut the door behind you and your sons; then pour it into all those vessels, and set aside the full ones." So she went from him and shut the door behind her and her sons, who brought the vessels to her; and she poured it out. Now it came to pass, when the vessels were full, that she said to her son, "Bring me another vessel." And he said to her, "There is not another vessel." So the oil ceased. Then she came and told the man of God. And he said, "Go sell the oil and pay your debt; and you and your sons live on the rest". (2 Kings 4:1-7)

The Church has access to the same power and provision that Elisha had to provide spiritually, physically, and emotionally for the hungry and the desperate.

Like Elisha, we can believe God for supernatural strength, power and provision when we reach out to help the widow and the orphan.

We read in Psalm 99 that God decides what is fair and just and often his ways seem counter to the wisdom of the world. In God's economy there is a high value placed on caring for the poor and the defenseless. When we reach out to help others we find ourselves helped and blessed. [...]

As we press into God's heart we feel his zeal and fire to show himself strong to those who are crying out to him. Working with the oppressed opens a doorway into the power and strength of a holy, mighty God. In this journey we can expect to see God show up to answer our prayers as he answered the prayers of Elisha and Elijah."

 

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Worship Song: 

"Beloved",
by Tenth Avenue North

The Strength of the King: Orphans

Some were forced to work in opium farms. Some were abused. Some were unknowingly strapped to explosives and used as suicide bombers. The rest were discarded. Rejected. Seen as worthless, and treated as nothing.

These are the orphans. The ones who belong to no one. The ones who have never seen love. The ones who have nowhere to go, but into the hands of their tormentors. These are the royalty of heaven, who have become the hated of earth.

It didn't used to strike me as a tragedy. We hear the command to "care of orphans and widows" so often in the Bible that I think we tend to overlook the faces behind those words. Growing up, my best friends down the street were adopted from China, Vietnam and South Korea. I knew it was sad for someone to lose their family... but they would be okay, just like my friends. Somebody would love them, someday. In the meantime, my life shouldn't be affected.

It brings me to my knees, to know how different those thoughts are from reality.

Alice Richards, an expert in the field, describes the following encounter:

"Battle-hardened soldiers were speechless as they peered into the dirty room. At first they appeared to be inside a primitive tomb filled with two-dozen lifeless bodies. As the soldiers’ eyes adjusted to the dim light, the emaciated bodies of twenty-four children chained to their cribs came into focus. The soldiers were inside an Iraqi orphanage 

for special needs children."

These... are God's royalty on earth. They are the highest in the Kingdom of Heaven. Jesus even says that anything you do unto them, you have done unto God Himself. And that is how our depraved world responds.

That kind of horror is not limited to the orphans of the Middle East. In America, there is a genocide of orphans happening every single day, through the abortion industry. Voiceless children are unwanted and unloved by their parents... so they are systematically exterminated. They are abandoned, without ever being given a chance at life.

And God's heart cries out. His justice for orphans is seen so clearly throughout scripture:


"It is not your Father's will that any of these little ones should perish."
-Matthew 18:14

"Jesus said, 'Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.'"
-Matthew 19:14

"You, Lord, hear the desire of the afflicted; you encourage them and you listen to their cry, defending the fatherless and the oppressed, so that mere earthly mortals will never again strike terror."
-Psalm 10:17-18

"A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows is God in his holy dwelling. God sets the lonely in families, he leads out the prisoners with singing."
-Psalm 68:5-6a


These are His beloved. God would give up His own son, to place the lonely in families; to adopt the orphans as sons and daughters. Spiritually, we were once in that position.... fatherless, with no hope. But, as Isaiah 59 says, the arm of the LORD is not too short to save, nor His ear too dull to hear. He answers the cries of the oppressed, and He will bring justice to these children.

Jesus was a refugee; He was also, in a way, an orphan. On the cross, in that deepest moment of need as He carried the sins of the world, He felt His Father turn His back. He cried out, as the forsaken. He knows the pain of orphans more deeply than any of us could. And He has promised to redeem them.

I believe that there will be a day, when He will come and wipe every tear from their eyes. When they will come to Him, and be held in His arms. When their pain will be only a dim memory, driven away by the glorious reality of seeing their Father face to face.

It won't be long. 

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Worship Song: 

"Justice",
by Irish Elk Media
(Listen here)

The Strength of the King: Refugees

3,982,439

That's the number of Syrian refugees today, according to UN sources.

Their stories are horrifying beyond comprehension. Online searches on the topic are filled with the survivor accounts. Seven year old boys with broken arms, having to care for their families because their fathers didn't make it out. Women, who had to leave some of their children behind. Families forced by circumstance to live in tents, thousands of miles away from those they loved.

Even more terrible were the untold stories of the ones who couldn't make it out. Monday, June 15th, my dad handed me a news article as we got in the car to head to Minnesota for nationals. On the front page was a crowd of refugees, making their way toward the barbed wire fence that marked the Turkish border. They were within sight of safety, when armed members of ISIS appeared in front of them, and forced them to turn back to the war zone of Tal Abyad. Tears burned in my eyes, as I looked at the picture. The members of ISIS were laughing.


Looking at images like those, and feeling the pain they arouse, it's easy to think that it's our heart that breaks over those events. But God feels the pain even more deeply.

About a week after I saw that news article, I was on the phone with a close friend, and the conversation turned to the topic of refugees.
"I was just thinking about how God understands their pain. You know, Jesus was a refugee."


I started to look deeper. I'm amazed how ingrained the theme of refugees is in the Bible!  God's people were refugees. In Exodus, the Israelites were slaves in a nation that was not their own. For generations, they were without a homeland. But God promised to make them a great nation, and He gave them victory. In the book of Esther, the Jewish people are forced under Assyrian rule, and threatened with death. But God stood with them. In the time of Daniel, God's people were driven from their homes, tortured and oppressed by Babylonian captors whose atrocities would easily have rivaled those of ISIS. But He delivered them. In Matthew 2:13-18, Jesus' family was driven by violence from their home nation, and forced to flee in to Egypt... just like many of the Syrian refugees of today. Jesus was a refugee.

Being a refugee in a place like the Middle East is excruciating, not only because of the natural pain of loss, but also because of the cultural implications. The Middle East is built in an "honor-shame" culture; Palestinian refugee, Tass Saada, explains that, unlike the western world and its focus on individualism, honor-shame cultures have a more communal focus. The ultimate Arab dishonor, he says, is having no land. No land equates to no name, and no honor. He describes the rejection and spite his family was shown in Saudi Arabia; they were strangers in a land that did not welcome them, and they were the lowest element of society. Living in America's diverse society, which is so eager to embrace people of virtually any background, it's almost impossible for us to wrap our minds around this. But Tass Saada, now a convert to Christianity, points out that the Bible was written to an honor-shame culture. Jesus was a refugee in that honor-shame culture. He was a seemingly illegitimate child who had been forced from his homeland, and was not even welcomed in his own home town. We can't understand the pain of refugees on that level. But the God of eternity can; He experienced it.

3,982,439

And He knows every single one.

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Worship Song: 

"King Jesus",
by Laura Hackett Park

Thoughts From a Senior

I'm a mess. Nationals is over. The awards have been given and the champions have shown us why they all deserved to win. 

So what do I do now? This huge, crucial, instrumental part of my life is gone. Finished. I will never compete in another tournament, never speak before a panel of judges. More importantly, I'll never have the same camaraderie with my opponents and fellow competitors, the hugs and smiles and tears that come in the midst of competition.  I will experience this world on the other side of the glass, so to speak. No matter how much my friends love me, it will never be the same. No matter how many times I come to hang out, there will never be a repeat of those mind-boggling, heart changing, earth shattering conversations. No matter how many tournaments I attend, I can never return to that world. 

But that's okay. Even though it hurts right now--and it hurts so much right now--I know that God is faithful. He put these experiences and people in my life for a purpose and has used them to accomplish beautiful things. And He hasn't abandoned me just because I graduated from high school. There will always be more experiences, more conversations, more friendships that lift me up and draw me closer to Him. God has used  NCFCA in this season and that is only a foretaste of the seasons to come. I trust that His love and wisdom are at work; His will is sovereign and perfect. 

I praise you, Lord, for your goodness and mercy. Thank you for your grace--your unmerited favor. You have given me so many gifts--unbelievably amazing friends, incredible opportunities to speak to judges, and countless ways to serve Your will. Show me, teach me, lead me in how to be content and joyful in pursuing Your will. Help me to wait patiently on you and not compare my blessings with those of others. 

Written by Magali