{"id":4749,"date":"2009-04-08T14:01:44","date_gmt":"2009-04-08T14:01:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/jesuscreed\/2009\/04\/a-brothers-wisdom-31.html"},"modified":"2009-04-08T14:01:44","modified_gmt":"2009-04-08T14:01:44","slug":"a-brothers-wisdom-31","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesuscreed\/2009\/04\/a-brothers-wisdom-31.html","title":{"rendered":"A Brother’s Wisdom 31"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"TomDavisOrphan.jpg\"<\/span>Clearly some of the most memorable words James ever uttered are in 1:26-27:<\/p>\n

26<\/a> <\/span>If
\nanyone considers himself religious and yet does not keep a tight rein
\non his tongue, he deceives himself and his religion is worthless. 27<\/a> <\/span>Religion
\nthat God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look
\nafter orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from
\nbeing polluted by the world.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The claim to be religious that is coupled with careless use of the tongue destroys the fabric of that faith. Pure and faultless religion, James says, is acceptable to God because, instead of aborting the birth of love and compassion, it gives birth to compassion.<\/p>\n


\nThe picture above is of Tom Davis, who wrote the book Fields of the Fatherless: Discover the Joy of Compassionate Living<\/a>\"\"
\n<\/strong><\/em>, and who has a ministry about rescuing and adopting orphans. Any religion that claims to be a “follow-Jesus” religion will be a religion that shows compassion for orphans and the widows. By doing something.<\/p>\n

Now my question: What do you know is being done, locally, about these two marginalized and vulnerable kinds of humans?<\/p>\n

I will be making an announcement on this blog soon about a challenge I’d like this blog community to take up as its own. Stay tuned.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Clearly some of the most memorable words James ever uttered are in 1:26-27: 26 If anyone considers himself religious and yet does not keep a tight rein on his tongue, he deceives himself and his religion is worthless. 27 Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":70,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[58],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4749","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-james"],"yoast_head":"\nA Brother's Wisdom 31 - Jesus Creed<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesuscreed\/2009\/04\/a-brothers-wisdom-31.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A Brother's Wisdom 31 - Jesus Creed\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Clearly some of the most memorable words James ever uttered are in 1:26-27: 26 If anyone considers himself religious and yet does not keep a tight rein on his tongue, he deceives himself and his religion is worthless. 27 Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesuscreed\/2009\/04\/a-brothers-wisdom-31.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Jesus Creed\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2009-04-08T14:01:44+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/jesuscreed\/files\/import\/imgs\/TomDavisOrphan.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Scot McKnight\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"A Brother's Wisdom 31 - Jesus Creed","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesuscreed\/2009\/04\/a-brothers-wisdom-31.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"A Brother's Wisdom 31 - 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