Orphaned....

Orphaned....

I have been reading, again, of the "orphan trains" of the 1800's. As the current news speaks of something similar happening on our lower border, with thousands of children crossing the southern border.

"According to one estimate, the number of unaccompanied children caught on the southern border has exploded -- from 6,500 in 2011 to an estimated 90,000 this year, and nearly 150,000 projected for next year. " Fox News

"Riders on the Orphan Train
www.ridersontheorphantrain.org/orphan_train_history.html
Between 1854 and 1929 over 250,000 orphans and unwanted children were taken out of New York City and given away at train stations across America."

What changes this brought to thousands of children, families across the US.  My mother in law was orphaned with her siblings at eight years of age.  The first picture we have of her was she and her  brothers and sister on the orphanage steps.  She remembered saying that she could take care of them all if they would just let them stay together as a family...they were divided into three families....being orphaned affected her insecurities all of her life...she was able to reunite with all of her siblings and keep in touch in her adult life...

I remember meeting my husband's uncle and wondering if the baldness was going to be passed on later on life...it was..(.funny things we think of)....

Another  picture of my mother in law was a family gathering, a picnic which celebrated her baptism as well as others.  She was brought up in a Christian home... She had asked, sought and knocked for so many things in her life, a home, love, caring, family, education, a husband and a family...her life was not without trials....her home going was a celebration of life...because God had been her father...through it all...

I am so glad that each on my children had a father who loved them and continue to have a Father now who lives them even more....after their earthly father has passed away....life was not without trials... There are good memories and some not so good...But through it all...they have a Father...Thank YOU....


Psalm 10:14
But you, God, see the trouble of the afflicted; you consider their grief and take it in hand. The victims commit themselves to you; you are the helper of the fatherless.

Psalm 68:5
A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows, is God in his holy dwelling.

Psalm 82:3
Defend the weak and the fatherless; uphold the cause of the poor and the oppressed.

James 1:27
Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.
 
"Ask, Seek, Knock
Daily Devotional for June 10
From the Writings of Ray Stedman
 
From your friends at
www.RayStedman.org
Read the Scripture: Luke 11:5-13

So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened. Luke 11:9-10

Take careful note of what Jesus says, for he suggests that there are three levels of prayer: ask, seek, and knock. You can remember them, incidentally, if you will take note of the fact that the initial letters spell the word ask, a ask, s seek, k knock. There you have a little formula for prayer. Now mark these three different levels. The circumstances of each are vastly different, but the answer is the same.

The simplest and easiest level, of course, is ask. What he means is that there are certain needs which require a mere asking to be immediately and invariably met, and the range of these needs is far wider than we usually give credit for. For instance, reading through the New Testament, it becomes clear that our need for Christlike attributes lies in this category. If we need love, courage, wisdom, power, patience, they all lie in this realm. Simply ask, that is all, ask, and immediately the answer is given. Is that not what James says, If any man lack wisdom. What? Let him ask of God who giveth to all men liberally and upbraideth not, (James 1:5 KJV). And what? It shall be given. That is all, it shall be given. Let him ask and it shall be given.

A second level of prayer is denoted by this word seek. You cannot think of what it means to seek without seeing that our Lord injects here an element of time. Seeking is not a simple act, it is a process, a series of acts. Jesus says there are areas of life that require more than asking; there must be seeking, searching. Something is lost, hidden from us, and prayer then becomes a search, a plea for insight, for understanding, for an unraveling of the mystery with which we are confronted. Again, the answer is absolutely certain. Seek, and you will find!

There is still a third level which involves knocking. Here, both time and repetition are involved. A knock is not a single rap, it is a series of raps. It is a request for admittance, repeated if necessary, and it suggests situations where we seek an entrance, or an opportunity. Someone has perhaps erected a barrier against our witness or against our friendship and we are seeking to surmount that, to get behind the wall of resistance and to have an opportunity freely and openly to speak, or to share, or to enter into a life. That requires knocking. Perhaps we have an unshakable desire to begin a certain type of work or ministry from which we are now excluded. We long to move into that area, we feel God leading us, calling us, to be this or do that. That requires knocking. We hunger, perhaps, after knowledge or friendship or as the Word of God says, Hungering and thirsting after righteousness (Matthew 5:6). We are looking for an opportunity, seeking an entrance into an area that is now restricted from us. This requires knocking. We come before God and boldly and repeatedly ask, each time making an endeavor to enter in, for we are resting on the solid assurance that what Jesus says here is true, Knock, and it shall be opened.

Lord Jesus, I ask that these words may come with fresh and vital meaning to my heart; that there are things I need to ask for and take immediately from your hand, others that I need to seek for, still others for which I need to knock and wait, and knock again, knowing that in every case without exception your word is sure.

Life Application: Are we carefully noting the three aspects or stages of prayer given us by Jesus? Are we observing these as we make our requests of our Father? Do we have not because we are not even asking Him?

Related Message: This daily devotional was inspired by one of Ray's messages. Please read "Prayer's Certainties" or listen to Ray for more on this portion of scripture.

Devotions for June from Luke
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Copyright © 2014 by Ray Stedman Ministries — This daily devotion is from the book Immeasurably More: a year of devotions from the writings of Ray Stedman; compiled by Mark Mitchell. It may be copied for personal non-commercial use only in its entirety free of charge. All copies must contain this copyright notice and a hyperlink to www.RayStedman.org if the copy is posted on the Internet. "