{"id":557,"date":"2007-02-07T22:55:11","date_gmt":"2007-02-07T22:55:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/redletters\/2007\/02\/pure-religion.html"},"modified":"2007-02-07T22:55:11","modified_gmt":"2007-02-07T22:55:11","slug":"pure-religion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/2007\/02\/pure-religion.html","title":{"rendered":"Pure Religion"},"content":{"rendered":"

Today, I had a great talk with Beth Kanter<\/a>, a blogging consultant guru. I never knew blogging was so complicated. As it turns out, there is a whole new world of marketing and communication out there that I have been missing. If you have a blog, a strongly suggest you check out her blog for some advice and pointers. <\/p>\n

A question has been plaguing me as of late:  What is our responsibility to the world’s poor, the oppressed, the orphan? What is my responsibility? Am I responsible, or can I be absolved of my responsibility – can I bow out? Can I leave the job to someone else? Another organization maybe, or a great humanitarian with a name and a platform. It’s a question we all must answer.<\/p>\n

If the answer to this question was left to mere worldly opinions, I can’t imagine having any responsibility. But, I at least, answer to a higher power. If God has a concern for the poor, then I have no choice but to care about the things on his heart. Without any doubt, God makes this answer clear to me in scriptures like James 1:27, "Pure and undefiled religion is visiting widows and orphans in their distress." <\/p>\n

If true, each of us must decide how we live that out. Whether through prayer, fasting, giving, or influencing – our involvement is required by our King. Other matters are but trifles compared to ‘pure religion." And according to Matthew 25<\/a> it is the very thing that will matter most when we stand before the Lord in eternity. So, what is the answer to that question? And how do we live it out?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today, I had a great talk with Beth Kanter, a blogging consultant guru. I never knew blogging was so complicated. As it turns out, there is a whole new world of marketing and communication out there that I have been missing. If you have a blog, a strongly suggest you check out her blog for…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":87,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-557","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-swaziland"],"yoast_head":"\nPure Religion - Red Letters<\/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\/redletters\/2007\/02\/pure-religion.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Pure Religion - Red Letters\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Today, I had a great talk with Beth Kanter, a blogging consultant guru. 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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\/557","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=557"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/557\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=557"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=557"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=557"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}