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

The Strength of The King

This week, the Supreme Court of a "nation under God" upheld a healthcare system that condones the murder of children who have not even taken their first breath. On the other side of the Atlantic, another terrorist attack was launched in France. And two days ago, ISIS killed another 145 innocent civilians in the Syrian town of Kobani.

We don't have to look far for the reminders of how broken our world has become. Isaiah 59 describes it perfectly:

"So justice is driven back,

    and righteousness stands at a distance;

truth has stumbled in the streets,

    honesty cannot enter.

15 

Truth is nowhere to be found,

    and whoever shuns evil becomes a prey."

                                                         -Isaiah 59:14-15

The media has given us so many thoughts, opinions, and statistics on these issues. The Supreme Court decision has been a focus of mainstream news networks all weekend. ISIS has made headlines consistently, whether it's killing innocent people, destroying ancient ruins, or endangering rare birds. We've heard the opinions of the world. But what is God's heart on these issues?

This summer, I want to press deeper into the heart of Jesus when it comes to injustice. Over all of these events, I believe there is One seated at the right hand of the Father, who is coming back to restore His Kingdom in righteousness. I believe the words He wrote in Isaiah 59, that, when He saw that there was no justice, He became our Intercessor, and, with His own right arm, restored justice. I believe that the nations are as a drop in a bucket before Him. And I believe that He is not removed from these situations. His word is still alive and moving, and so is His heart toward His creation.

It's so easy to look at the brokenness of our world, and wonder why God is not reaching out to bring restoration. But how quickly do we forget that we are called to be the hands and feet of Christ?  Are we allowing those hands to reach out, or have we become "Sunday Christians", who praise God with their lips, but not the essence of their lives?

The church is the house of God, but He will not be contained within its walls. God is not limited to a human temple, or the pages of His written word. He is living and active in the world. Christianity was not meant to be restrained and kept within the walls of our congregations. We were called to reach out. We were not called to be of the world, but we were clearly commanded to take the gospel into it.

If you're searching for God, you will not find the fullness of who He is inside the walls of a church, because He is not contained there. His heart is reaching out to the least of these... the broken, the imprisoned, the helpless, the persecuted. He is with the Fatherless, the refugee, the widow, the oppressed. The Strength of the King is justice and He has called His church to stand with Him in fighting for it.

How deeply do we desire to seek His face?  He has promised to give to those who ask, to reward those who seek, to answer those who knock. But are we willing to seek Him beyond what is comfortable?  Are we willing to love the least of these, as He did?

Do we want the uncreated God of the universe for who He is, or for who we want Him to be?  Are we worshiping the God whose image we bear, or have we created a god in our own image?  Are you trying to contain God, within the walls of your Christianity?  Or are you willing to seek His face, for who He truly is?

When we begin to discover His heart for justice, not only in the text of the Bible, but in the world He created, those divinely inspired words become living and active. He speaks to us, when we seek His face.

There is brokenness beyond the walls of the church...and even within them. There are lost, and it is painful to carry the burdens of His heart for injustice. But there is also hope, beyond imagination.

For the One who calls you is faithful.

"The Strength of the King loves justice

He has established equity

He executes justice and righteousness

through the line of Jacob. 

Exalt the Lord our God

and worship at his footstool,

for he is Holy."

                            -Psalm 99:4-5

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Worship Song: 

"Cannot Keep You",
by Gungor

A World Birthed of Love

"Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly; itdoes not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things."

- 1st Corinthians 13:4-8

Have you ever wondered why Paul characterizes Love as a person who acts in this verse? 

"For the one who does not love, does not know God, for God is Love."

- 1st John 4:8

Photo Credit: www.hcanarrowway.com

Boiled down, this is God, this is Christ. The entire world comes down to a story of God, His-Story for us. What is it a story of? Love. History is a story of God's love for man and for Himself. 

"In the beginning was the word... who was with God."

- John 1:1

God was love from the beginning, and in that beginning, and before the beginning God was Love. But if Love acts, it must have a subject, so before the beginning God loved within Himself. He was (and still is) Trinatarian God of Love. In the beginning was the earth, and God planted a garden on that earth, and took dirt into his hands to form a man, and then breathed His very essence, His breath, His life,His Love into that man. God created us, as beings of love, so that He could expand that fellowship of love. 

"By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.” John 13:35 "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another." John 13:34 Owe nothing to anyone except to love one another;" Romans 13:8 "but through love serve one another." Galatians 5:13 

Photo credit: J.T.Lowtry

"showing tolerance for one another in love," Ephesians 4:2 "and may the Lord cause you to increase and abound in love for one another," 1 Thessalonians 3:12 "for you yourselves are taught by God to love one another;" 1 Thessalonians 4:9 "and the love of each one of you toward one another grows ever greater;" 2 Thessalonians 1:3 "and let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds," Hebrews 10:24 "Since you have in obedience to the truth purified your souls for a sincere love of the brethren, fervently love one another from the heart," 1 Peter 1:22 "Above all, keep fervent in your love for one another, because love covers a multitude of sins." 1 Peter 4:8 "For this is the message which you have heard from the beginning, that we shouldlove oneanother;" 1 John 3:11 "This is His commandment, that we believe in the name of His Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, just as He commanded us." 1 John 3:23 "Beloved, let us love oneanother, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God." 1 John 4:7  "Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another." 1 John 4:11 "No one has seen God at any time; if we love one another, God abides in us, and His love is perfected in us." 1 John 4:12 "but the one which we have had from the beginning, that we love one another." 2 John 1:5 

Many, many times do the apostles tell us to do one thing, and that it to love one another. 

As Christians we are called to love, but as Christians Christ is simply reforming us back into what we were meant to be before the fall. So From the beginning we were called to love. 

After man sinned God put into enactment a plan that would rescue us. This was a plan that was patient through all mistakes, was kind, did not promote itself, was not self seeking, would not be provoked to anger, would erase all record of wrongs, would rejoice in righteousness and truth, would bear the sins of the world, and yet would hope and endure through every trial. 

That was the plan of salvation... that is a plan of 1st Chorinthians love.

You see God IS LOVE... All that he does is out of love. 

He created us out of Love; He Redeemed us out of Love; He loves us now, because HE IS LOVE; and all he asks from us is Love... That is our God, that is Love. 

Some how, Love is more than an emotion. I have come to believe that it goes a whole lot deeper, that in some unfathomable way it is the foundation of the world, it is what holds together the universe and is the fundamental nature of God. 

The Bible says God is love, it then describes love, and yet, if God is love, and the Scriptures are the Word of God, then all scriptures are love. We can also say that if the universe is created by God, if we were created by God, if our lives are directed by God, and if God's nature is love, and he cannot act outside of His nature, then all of this is out of Love. 

This is a world Birthed of Love...

Photo credit: http://cfdb.owmconsulting.netdna-cdn.com/

With out love then, there would be nothing... Love is the God we serve, and with out Love there would be nothing/0/zero! No creation, communication, freedom, reconciliation, knowledge. NOTHING

Love is big. Love is everything we ought to strive for as Christians. Love, not violence, can bring the world to a better place. Love, not logic, will fix our problems. Love brings health. Love brought Jesus to us, and us to Him. Only Love will do anything. 

So, love. 

1 John 4:7-21 "Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love. By this the love of God was manifested in us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has seen God at any time; if we love one another, God abides in us, and His love is perfected in us. By this we know that we abide in Him and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit. We have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son to be the Savior of the world. Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. We have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. By this, love is perfected with us, so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment; because as He is, so also are we in this world. There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves punishment, and the one who fears is not perfected in love. We love, because He first loved us. If someone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from Him, that the one who loves God should love his brother also."

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Worship Song: 

"Arms Wide Open",
by Misty Edwards

Written by Kathryn Traw

Shields of a Thousand Warriors

"Your neck is like the tower of David,
    built with courses of stone;
on it hang a thousand shields,
    all of them shields of warriors."

                          -Song of Solomon 4:4
When I first heard this verse last year, it inspired me. I thought I was invincible. I believed that I could stand against anything that came against me, and that nothing could touch me that hadn't first passed through the hands of Christ. I loved the thought of being protected, and being untouchable, when it came to the attacks of the Enemy.

Now, I feel anything but invincible. I've seen the attacks, and I've seen the way I give into them again, and again, and again. I wonder where the shields are, that were meant to defend me. I wonder why I still don't know how to wield them in my life.

We can all try to be invincible. For awhile, we might rest in Him, and fight the attacks in His unfailing strength. But slowly, we become subtly convinced that that strength is somehow our own, and that we can stand in our abilities. We would never admit to it. Growing up in Christian homes and going to church every week, it's easy to convince ourselves that we're living the Christian life as it was meant to be lived. That our lives don't belong to ourselves; that the only thing we live for is Jesus Himself.

But I would challenge you to look deeper into your life. What words or images consume your thought life?  What activities take up the bulk of your time?  What is the first thing you turn to, when you need help or comfort?  How do you spend your free time?  What things give you the most peace, or relief, from the chaos that life can so easily become?

And we wonder why we can't fight off the attacks.

So often, we feel helpless in the face of attacks, whether it's depression, insecurity, anxiety, or whatever else it might be. I heard a video sermon recently by Paul Washer, and one line really stood out to me. He said that, when it comes to fighting off attacks, "Your problem isn't that you're too weak; it's that you're too strong."

In our own strength, we are too weak to fight off that which would come against us. But in our own pride and self-sufficiency, we are too strong to admit that we can't do it on our own.

The place of victory is not in what we can bring to the table. It's not the ability to keep our heads up, or convince ourselves that we're good enough. The place of victory is the cross of Jesus Christ, where He would willingly pour out His everything, physically and spiritually, to rescue those so broken that they could not even acknowledge their need for Him. The Enemy had the upper hand, and humanity gave it to him. But He gave up His life not only to forgive us, but to free us. To give us His own strength to fight, with the promise that, no matter what the circumstances, He would go before us to give us the victory.

The secret to victory is as simple as it is beautiful, given by Jesus Himself in John 15:
"Remain in my love."

The One who has defeated death stands with you now, and longs to reveal Himself to you. In Him, we have the shields of a thousand warriors.

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Worship Song: 

"Strong Tower",
by Kutless