{"id":335,"date":"2008-05-09T09:45:14","date_gmt":"2008-05-09T09:45:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/redletters\/2008\/05\/adl-florida-a.html"},"modified":"2008-05-09T09:45:14","modified_gmt":"2008-05-09T09:45:14","slug":"adl-florida-a","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/2008\/05\/adl-florida-a.html","title":{"rendered":"ADL – Florida and a Devotion"},"content":{"rendered":"

The last two days I’ve been in sunny Florida. It was nice to be someplace warm, we dipped down to 32 degree again last night here in Colorado. WHERE IS SPRING? I was there promote my new book, Confessions of a Good Christian Guy<\/a>, on CTN network’s Herman and Sharron Show.<\/a> It’s funny to me how many men say I’m writing their story. And, they say, “I hope my wife doesn’t read this, because she’ll know how I think!’<\/p>\n

I was also able to connect with some blogging friends, Greg and Brandi McElheny<\/a>. Actually Brandi is the the blogger, Greg’s the glogger, but that’s another story. Let me tell you, wonderful people. Check out her blog<\/a>. They’ve adopted from Liberia and have a huge heart for Africa. Give us a few days together and we’ll solve half the world’s problems! Lots of good synergy together as we open Uganda, and possibly Liberia in the future. <\/p>\n

Quick Devotional Thought – Luke 11: 37-41(The Message), “When he finished that talk, a Pharisee asked him to dinner. He entered his house and sat right down at the table. The Pharisee was shocked and somewhat offended when he saw that Jesus didn’t wash up before the meal. But the Master said to him, “I know you Pharisees burnish the surface of your cups and plates so they sparkle in the sun, but I also know your insides are maggoty with greed and secret evil. Stupid Pharisees! Didn’t the One who made the outside also make the inside? Turn both your pockets and your hearts inside out and give generously to the poor; then your lives will be clean, not just your dishes and your hands.”<\/p>\n

To me this verse speaks for itself. A Pharisee, a religious leader, thinking he had all his churchiness taken care of. He kept the law, showed up at the temple, even washed up before every meal. What a guy! It wasn’t a germ thing in the 1st century, they didn’t know about germs. It was a religious thing. But all his religion didn’t bring out the one thing in his life that was necessary: Love, specifically, love for his neighbor and love for the poor. I love how Jesus brings this back around again, give generously to the poor and your life will clean, you’ll be transformed from the inside out. What an amazing statement. Jesus does this again and again in the scriptures. His focus should be our focus. Caring for the weak, the poor, the oppressed. I want to be be clean on the inside, how about you? <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The last two days I’ve been in sunny Florida. It was nice to be someplace warm, we dipped down to 32 degree again last night here in Colorado. WHERE IS SPRING? I was there promote my new book, Confessions of a Good Christian Guy, on CTN network’s Herman and Sharron Show. 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A tireless advocate for fatherless children, Davis has spent most of his adult life calling U.S. believers to become the hands and feet of Jesus Christ to the 143 million orphans living around the world. Through those connections, thousands of orphans now have the bright and hopeful future--one that is filled with opportunities and the love of the one true Father. Davis speaks hundreds of times each year at churches and conferences, mobilizing the church to action on behalf of the poor. He is the author of four books. His most recent novel, SCARED is a fictionalized account of his first-hand experiencing living and working with orphans in Swaziland, Africa. Davis' blog is the premier resource for the latest developments in Christian orphan ministry. Davis also currently teaches courses as adjunct professor at George Fox University in Newberg, OR. When not traveling the globe, Davis resides in the mountains of Colorado in the small community of Palmer Lake. He and his wife Emily have seven children, including two adopted daughters from Russia.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/author\/tdavis"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/335","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/87"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=335"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/335\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=335"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=335"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=335"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}