{"id":13713,"date":"2014-01-13T06:00:06","date_gmt":"2014-01-13T11:00:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/todayslegacy.wordpress.com\/?p=13713"},"modified":"2014-01-13T06:00:06","modified_gmt":"2014-01-13T11:00:06","slug":"pure-and-undefiled","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/todayslegacy.net\/index.php\/2014\/01\/13\/pure-and-undefiled\/","title":{"rendered":"Pure and Undefiled"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cPure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God and Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world.\u201d James 1:27<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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I love this verse and I hate this verse.<\/p>\n

This verse nails me to the floor every time.<\/p>\n

My husband did a great, God inspired, job of preaching a sermon on this verse many months ago (maybe even a year ago now). It was one of those sermons I haven\u2019t been able to shake from my head. One of those sermons that revisit me periodically to poke\u2026 and push\u2026 and chisel away at me, that I would look more like Christ.<\/p>\n

I love this verse so much\u2026 and my flesh hates it so.<\/p>\n

Widows, orphans. I want to make those the cute little people in Hallmark worlds, so far removed from us. Annie, the classic redheaded example of an orphan. And then pictures begin flashing through my head.<\/p>\n

See, this verse uses these terms in their specific contexts of literal widows and orphans, but it also applies beyond the fatherless and the spouseless. It refers to the \u201cleast of these\u201d. The filthy. The \u201cleft for dead\u201d. The abandoned by society and the world. The hated. The devastated by culture and community. The utter and completely undesirable.<\/p>\n

And it\u2019s meditating on this verse that draws the pictures of those hostages in the brothels, and their captors. Those walking the shores half-naked after a tsunami. Those faces I have seen of children and families trapped in poverty all around the world. Those rendered useless because they are too disabled to hold a job. Those penned as mentally unstable, and therefore are wandering the streets.<\/p>\n

And my flesh cries out, \u201cI don\u2019t want to go there!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t want to sit down in the filth and the pain and the destruction! I don\u2019t want to walk a mile with that burden I\u2019m called to help carry.\u201d<\/p>\n

But then the Spirit within me reminds me of my own filth. My own utter desolation and destruction without Christ and even my own ugliness when I operate in my flesh while IN Christ.<\/p>\n

The filthy rags of the orphan and the widow still smell putrid. \u00a0The hurts are still real. And deep. And there are still so many unanswerable questions. And sitting beside the girl on the brothel floor may not remove her from the brothel. But is Christ still Beautiful in a brothel?<\/p>\n

\u201cPURE and UNDEFILED religion\u201d<\/p>\n

Oh there are certainly times I wish God didn\u2019t define work with widows and orphans as \u201cpure and undefiled religion\u201d and yet He has opened my eyes. He has given me His heart. Even though I so don\u2019t deserve it.<\/p>\n

See, religion is and can be pure and undefiled when I am not in it. When it\u2019s not about me. When it\u2019s all about Christ.<\/p>\n

See, my flesh doesn\u2019t want to \u201cvisit\u201d, which in its context is not talking about a one-time affair but instead is referring to a \u201cliving with\u201d or \u201ctraveling with\u201d affair \u2013 a \u201cwalking alongside\u201d and \u201ccarrying their burden\u201d kind of visit. Yeah, my flesh doesn\u2019t want to visit\u2026 so I have to leave it at the door to accomplish this command.<\/p>\n

I am forced to shed my desires, my wants, my reservations, my discomforts and instead put fully on the robe of Christ. Maybe, just maybe that\u2019s what Christ was referring to when He said \u201cIf you abide in Me, and My words abide in you\u2026\u201d (John 15:7). Maybe that\u2019s what it means to let His Words abide in me. Let Him abide in us\u2026<\/p>\n

Oh that He would even stoop down and find me desirable \u2013 not in any way needed for His mission \u2013 but desirable to be a vessel of His unconditional love.<\/p>\n

\u201cPure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God and Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world.\u201d (James 1:27)<\/em><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It nails me every time.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

“I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.” Galatians 2:20<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cPure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God and Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world.\u201d James 1:27   I love this verse and I hate this verse. This verse nails me to the floor every time. My husband did a… Continue Reading →<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,7,8,19,31,36,15,9,25,16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13713","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-communicating-trust","category-faith","category-gods-heart","category-honesty","category-hope","category-just-me","category-life-thoughts","category-my-heart","category-orphan-care","category-thankful-and-grateful","clear"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/todayslegacy.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13713","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/todayslegacy.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/todayslegacy.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/todayslegacy.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/todayslegacy.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13713"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/todayslegacy.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13713\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/todayslegacy.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13713"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/todayslegacy.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13713"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/todayslegacy.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13713"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}