Pure Religion

Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this:  to look after orphans & widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world. ~ James 1:27

James chapter one is chalked full of advice for followers of Jesus Christ.  We are told what to do if we lack wisdom, how to deal with trials, being tempted and even gives a warning about keeping a tight rein over our sometimes zealous tongue.  What else we are given here is the command to not only act religious, but to treat people with real needs with respect and love and look after them.  We are to be the guardians and protectors of people who have no one else to fight for them; no one else to help them in their daily lives.  Spend time with those who have nobody to help them do life together.  We are to love and adopt the fatherless and widows as Christ adopted us.  Today there are people out there who need Christians to step up and don't just talk the talk of loving others, but who actually walk the talk also.  We should be finding ways to help them with their distress and by doing so we show Christ's love.  A religious life is void of a holy life until and unless we show the love of Christ to those around us.  We can do all the right things, say the right things, go through the motions, but if we don't show love and keep ourselves out of the sins of the world, we have nothing new for the world.  It says in 1 Corinthians 13:1:  "If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.  If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing."  I don't know about you, but I don't want to be nothing, and I for sure don't want to be a 'resounding gong'; I want to be love.  We are "religious" in God's eyes when we keep ourselves from the world's sin and care for those in need with love.  With the Holy Spirit's help, we can stay away from our own selfish ambitions and ask God to open our eyes to those He would have us help; even the lowly of the lowly.  Lord, help me to be a servant to the needy and open my eyes to my own worldly sin so that I could be pure before you. ~ Amen