Caring: August 4, 2010

Today's Word for Wednesday August 4, 2010

CARING

DEFINITION
A troubled state of mind; a cause of worry or concern to devote great care to ones work; protection; charge; to be concerned; to desire to make provision; to watch over.

SCRIPTURE

"If anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for his immediate family, he has denied the faith and is worse then an unbeliever." I Timothy 5:8

"Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their trouble, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world." James 1:27

KNOWLEDGE AND EXPERIENCE

These scriptures remind us that as parents we have not only a physical responsibility but also a spiritual responsibility to care for those in our family. There are also many references in God's Word telling us of our responsibility to CARE for the orphans, the widows, the hungry, the poor and the needy.

God instructed the children of Israel under Moses, when they were wandering in the desert, that they were to take care of their families, and not only their families but also the widows, the fatherless and their neighbors. You may be thinking that caring like this is not an easy task -- and it is not, but the closer you are to God, the more you will have a heart for others and God will show His love through you if you will only ask.

Loving and caring for others should be our major life's work and caring for those of our "own house" is our highest and holiest work of all.

All of our lives we have had, what we consider to have been, the privilege to work with missions where we have been able to CARE for the poor and needy. It began over 53 years ago when we were in Korea with the assignment to set up over 145 orphanages to take care of the "GI" babies after the Korean War. It continued then for us in later years as we cared for the children living in the slums and in refugee camps in Africa. We will never forget caring for over 10,000 children that we saw living on top of a massive garbage dump in the Philippians.

Our hearts were broken when we saw children in Honduras dying with cancer with no medical equipment or medicine in the country to help them. We could have but one response which was to get to them equipment and medicine to show that we cared for them. These few examples, we pray, will be enough to challenge you to care for someone you meet today that has a need, someone that needs your love and a word of encouragement, and someone who is waiting for you to CARE for them.

LEARNING

Our memory verse for this week is found in Philippians 1:21:

For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain.

PRAYER

Make this a special day for me today, dear Lord, by leading me to someone that needs to be cared for. Soften my heart and allow me to care just like You cared for this world that we live in. Thank You for the many blessings that You have given and continue to give my family. But for the grace of God, I realize that we could even have been these children living in Africa, Korea or Honduras looking for someone to care for us. Thank You Lord for who You are and I praise You for being my Lord and my Savior.