Come Lord Jesus

Truly, I can not stand to look at the picture below.  I posted it on my blog quite a while back when it was sent to me by a personal friend of the lady who took it.  This was taken in an Eastern European "laying room."  These are the conditions that many of the children that America can no longer adopt live in.  This is the picture the media needs to show the public.  The truth.  These children are treated like animals, yet we are going to embroil them in a political battle that no one can win and the only real losers are the innocents.  Politicians in favor of this ban have stated that there is no need to "turn this into a tragedy."  Friends, this is a tragedy!  Look a little closer at that picture.

This is a tragedy!!

I want you to do something for me right now, stop reading and go over to A Place Called Simplicity to my friend Linny's blog.  I agree 110% with what she says.  This is playing out in Russia, but it is not really about Russia at all.  It is about the church.  It is about America.

Did you read it?  Did you hear her heart?  If you don't already read A Place Called Simplicity then maybe you don't know that Linny and her husband Dwight just completed their 9th adoption, bringing their grand total to 12 children!  Their 19 year old daughter Emma is leaving in just 9 days to move to Uganda as a full time missionary to the orphan.  Linny and Dwight are the founders of International Voice of the Orphan and Dwight left a position as a pastor to fulfill God's call on their lives as missionaries to the least of these.

We are beyond blessed to call them personal friends.  They are invested and they are the real thing.  They live what they claim to believe and when they speak about hearing from God - I sit up and take notice.  I have never known anyone in my life who spends more time fasting and on their knees before the Lord than this couple.

Friends, the church in America is apathetic at best.  Our culture is so caught up in the next electronic device, the next popular fad, and the next thing that will make our lives more convenient that we completely forget that there are children, humans made in the image of God, who live in these horrendous conditions.

 Look at the picture again.  I know you don't want to see it.  I don't either, but we must.  For their sakes, we must.

We have to stop thinking only of ourselves and our so called "problems."  There are people in this world with real problems.  I know there are people in this country with real problems too.  Devastating illnesses, frightening financial situations, and tragic loss like we just experienced in Newtown, CT and like the losses from Hurricane Sandy.  I do not in any way want to make light of those things.  However, more often in our nation there is apathy.  There is self absorption to the point of being just plain ridiculous.  We are so concerned that our lives be "fair" and that no one offends us or we don't offend anyone else, that we run over or ignore anyone in our way on our path to utopia.

Church, these babies need you.  They need for us to stop talking about the plight of the orphan and do something about it.  They need for the real men in this country to stop crunching the numbers to see if it all works out just right and just take a giant leap of faith.  They need for the pastors in this country to stop worrying about offending someone and start preaching the truth.  "Pure and undefiled religion in the sight of God is this, to care for widows and orphans and keep yourself unstained by the world."  If churches spent as much time and effort on the most vulnerable among us as they do on building projects and programs that tickle everyone's ears, then we wouldn't have an orphan crisis.

These babies need mommies to kiss them goodnight, daddies to wrestle with, and brothers and sisters to play (and argue) with.  We have got to stop thinking about what it is going to cost us and get something done.  Jesus did not ask us to crunch the numbers, or worry about how our other kids might "miss" something with too many siblings.  He did not ask us to make sure we had it all together before we obeyed Him.  No, He clearly said, "Take up your cross and follow me.  Whoever loses His life will find it."  He said He is the defender of the fatherless.

He is.

He will cover all the petty excuses we give for inaction.  But, I believe like Linny does, that He is lifting His hand of mercy.  I pray it isn't so, and on Saturday, the 29th, I will be joining the Saunders family and many others around the world for a day of prayer and fasting, begging Him to stay His hand.  To have mercy on these babies and on us, though we hardly deserve it.

Will you join us in prayer and fasting?  Will you say, with Linny, "Not on my watch!"  Will you DO something for these precious ones?  Together, let's humble ourselves before our Heavenly Father, humbly seek forgiveness for our callous attitude, and pray that He moves mountains and crumbles the barriers we have built up in our hearts.  Please, friends, I can't get these children out of my mind.  They are waiting and waiting for someone to come for them.

Together, we can be the hands and feet of Jesus, right in your backyard or around the world.  Please, just do something.