{"id":609,"date":"2006-09-19T16:17:58","date_gmt":"2006-09-19T16:17:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/redletters\/2006\/09\/the-devourer-of.html"},"modified":"2006-09-19T16:17:58","modified_gmt":"2006-09-19T16:17:58","slug":"the-devourer-of","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/2006\/09\/the-devourer-of.html","title":{"rendered":"The Devourer of Orphans"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Swazi_jeanine_111\"<\/a><\/p>\n

"Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour." I Peter 5:8<\/p>\n

Here’s a sad fact: when it comes to orphans, the truth of this scripture is overwhelming. The enemy rapes, pillages, destroys, and devours the life of every single orphan he can get his hands on. That’s the kind of low life he is. He takes advantage of the orphan, because the little orphan  girl is helpless to protect herself. There is no natural, parental covering, no spiritual covering, rarely even a community covering. They are caught, all alone, in a blizzard of abuse and they are exposed to all of the elements. So our enemy devours them.<\/p>\n

To devour means to destroy something rapidly and completely. Yes, I’ve seen this too many times in places like Russia and Africa. Now, there are over 2 million children enslave to forced prostitution – this number has drastically increased in the last year. An estimated 171 million children are working in hazardous conditions and with dangerous machinery, and forced to work as slaves. Hundreds of thousands of children are caught up in armed conflict as combatants, messengers, porters, cooks, and sex slaves for armed groups. In many cases they have been forcibly abducted. If you want to be sickened to your stomach and be informed about how the enemy has devoured children, see UNICEF’s State of the World’s Children Report<\/a>.<\/p>\n

I firmly believe that the orphan is precious to God. He created them in His image, He loves them, and His heart is broken for them. His answer to this tragedy is YOU and me. We have to utilize our influence, our relationships, and our talents to fight this enemy. As long as we sit on our hands he will continue to unleash hell and savagely kill the innocent.<\/p>\n

Dare we continue to just watch it happen?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

"Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour." I Peter 5:8 Here’s a sad fact: when it comes to orphans, the truth of this scripture is overwhelming. 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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\/609","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=609"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/609\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=609"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=609"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=609"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}