Count Me In!

The Block children; serving full time with their mom & Dad at the Eagles Nest Orphanage in Guatemala. If you want to donate money to this great ministry, please visit their blog listed below. They need us!!!

Matt and I went out for coffee Monday night... Left the kids with my in-laws. We were talking about whether or not it's wrong to buy/have frivilous things, or even a little latte here and there when we are aware of so much need around us and in other parts of the world where people are suffering and dying. Why are we so numb to it? This conversation came from reading Amy Block's blog yesterday. According to scripture, we are to visit the orphans and widows in their distress and keep ourselves unstained by the world. (James 1:27). The sin of those in Sodom was that they were arrogant, overfed, and unconcerned; they did not help the poor and needy... therefore God did away with them. (Ezekiel 16:49). Whoever oppresses the poor shows contempt for their Maker, but whoever is kind to the needy honors God (Proverbs 14:31). If anyone has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but has no pity on them, how can the love of God be in that person? (1 John 3:17).

We are just slow to get it sometimes, unless it directly affects us. We are immersed in our culture and it is hard to see anything outside of it sometimes. I was SHOCKED to hear that in some parts of this country there is still racial division going on. In a small town in Mississippi, just 4 years ago, there was a documentary filmed on this town's FIRST EVER blacks/whites combined prom. It stirred up a hornets nest amongst the community. Many of the students were ok with it, and some of them welcomed it, but several of the parents were fit to be tied. Hearing the things that came out of their mouths shocked me. It's like they are stuck in a time warp. How does that happen??? They don't "get out" much, that's how. They are stuck in a rut of sin, passed down from generations before them and trapped under the fear of what other's will think if they stray from it. They are short-sighted and ignorant. I think we are all short-sighted and ignorant in some areas of our own personal lives. It just seems like some things should be more obvious than others; like racial discrimination and starving, fatherless children. And don't even get me started on abortion in America and how many of the same people who would fight for a "woman's right to choose" are usually the very same people forking over great sums of money for the sake of the dolphins and whales. Kill the unwanted babies, but make sure your dog has organic food and a designer wardrobe.

It's also necessary to recognize that not every believer has delighted himself in the things of the Lord. "Delight yourself in the Lord; and HE will give you the desires of your heart. TRUST also in HIM and HE will do it." (Psalm 37:4-5). There is a big difference in the fruit of a believer who has surrendered his life to Christ and the one who is still very much a slave to this world. Being sold out for Christ calls us to action and we are moved from within to do something. When we are listening expectantly through prayer & reading the scriptures to hear from Him we open ourselves up to receive His calling. If you're not asking Him for direction on where He wants you to go, you won't (in your humanness) just be willing to say, "Here I am Lord, send me!" Your thought process may go something like this, and I know this because these have been my thoughts: "Oh, I couldn't do anything to sacrifice the safety of my children, or take them away from their life here where they have sports and friends and a great education and good health & happiness. I don't want for them to resent us or God for taking their "lives" away from them. I mean, God wouldn't want that right? He wants us to be happy and safe, doesn't He? I mean, that's why He gave us this great life, right? So we could enjoy it. He wants us to enjoy this great life that He's blessed us with and we are very thankful. We help people in need. When I see homeless people I stop and give them some cash if I have it. When we hear of someone in need, we reach out to try and help. When my kids outgrow their toys & clothes I try to give them to someone who really needs them, I take meals to people, we serve faithfully at our church, we give money to charities, we support missionaries, we tithe, we pray, we...." Sound familiar?

Let me introduce you to Caleb & his buddy Joshua, my new Bible superheroes...
God told Moses to send out some men to spy out the land of Caanan, the promised land that God was giving to them. So they did. They returned 40 days later with the fruit of the land. They said, "Oh it was certainly filled with great fruit, milk, and honey BUT the people who live in the land are strong, and the cities are fortified, and very large, and..."
Then Caleb (one of the men who spied the land) spoke up and said, "We should by all means go up and take possession of it, for we will surely overcome it."
Then the other men said, "We are not able to go up against the people, for they are too strong for us. They will devour us... Our wives and children will become plunder."
Then all the congregation lifted up their voices and cried, and the people wept that night. ALL the sons of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron and said, "We would have been better off dying where we were in Egypt! Why is the Lord doing this to us? Our wives and children will die! We'd be better off going back to Egypt where we were slaves! Let us appoint a new leader and head back to Egypt!"
Moses and Aaron fell on their faces in the presence of the entire assembly.
Joshua and Caleb tore their clothes and spoke up and said, "The land which we passed through to spy out is exceedingly good land. If the Lord is pleased with us, then He will bring us into this land and give it to us. Do not rebel against the Lord; and do not fear the people of the land, for they will be our prey. Their protection has been removed from them, and the Lord is with us; do not fear them."
The congregation wanted to stone them, but the glory of the Lord appeared to all the sons of Israel. In a nutshell, He wanted to wipe out the grumblers, but Moses spoke up on their behalf; "Lord, you are slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness, forgiving iniquity and transgression; but You will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and forth generation." Moses asked the Lord to pardon the people according to His lovingkindness and He did. But God said, "Surely all the men who have seen My glory and My signs which I performed in Egypt and in the wilderness, yet have put Me to the test these 10 times and have not listened to My voice, shall by no means see the land which I swore to their fathers, nor shall any of these who spurned Me see it. BUT, my servant Caleb, because he has had a different spirit and has followed Me fully, I will bring into the land which he entered, and his descendants shall take possession of it."
The Israelites still grumbled along the way to the promised land and the Lord heard every bit of it. He said to Moses,  "Tell the people: Your corpses will fall in this wilderness, even all your numbered men, according to your complete number from 20 years old and upward, who have grumbled against me. Surely you shall not come into the land which I swore to settle you, except Caleb and Joshua. Your children however, whom you said would become prey- I will bring them in, and they will know the land which you have rejected."

That really spoke to me. I heard God say, "Rebecca, when I call you to do something, trust Me. I am in control, not you. If I ask you to do something for Me, I have not forgotten your children. I will take care of them. I am their protector. Your obedience to Me is their protection and also yours." Who do we really think we are? The worldly thoughts that I mentioned above were mine just a few short years ago, and honestly, they still creep in every once in a while. Just last week I told Matt that if it weren't for our kids, I'd not hesitate for one second to move to EE or China to serve full-time in an orphanage. Matt reminded me that although he cares about our kids, if God calls us to do just that, we're going and the kids will be just fine. Then I read Numbers 13 & 14 (scripture above) on Monday. That's one of the really awesome things about God. He knows our thoughts. So when we go digging in His word, He guides us to exactly where we need to be.

So to wrap this up...
I believe God has called all believers to act. He calls us all to lay down our lives, daily. We all "know" this. We just don't always acknowledge it. However, we will be held accountable. We choose not to look at the ugly things in this world that don't directly affect us. It is a choice because we all know it's there. It really does exist. And we really do have excess. I picture standing before the Lord and giving an account for my life and saying, "Lord, I could have given so much more." I fear that I will have great regret and shame for keeping so much of what God has blessed me with for myself when I could've shared it with someone in need. There is great reward for our faithfulness and sacrifice. The Bible says so. "Whoever is kind to the poor lends to the Lord, and He will reward them for what they have done" (Proverbs 19:17). "And do not forget to do good and to share with others, for with such sacrifices God is pleased" (Hebrews 13:16).  "In everything I did, I showed you that by this kind of hard work we must help the weak, remembering the words the Lord Jesus himself said: It is more blessed to give than to receive" (Acts 20:35). 

Proverbs 24:12
"Once our eyes are opened, we can't pretend we don't know what to do. God who keeps our hearts and weighs our souls, knows what we know, and holds us responsible to act."

Blessings,
Rebecca