True Religion

Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world. James 1:27 (KJV)

I admire Mother Teresa of Calcutta. http://history1900s.about.com/od/people/a/motherteresa.htm

She lost her father at a young age. Her mother had to work in textiles and to do embroidery to make ends meet.

Mother Teresa was a picture of love in action. She had a calling within a calling, when God told her to help the poor by living among them in Calcutta, India.

She took some medical training, learned some language skills, and went into poor villages to teach the children. Since there wasn’t a formal schoolhouse, she would write in the dirt with a stick. People brought friends and family members to her when they were ill. She would help the best she could. God truly used Mother Teresa in so many ways.

She started a clinic for people who were dying. They would be bathed, cared for, and when they passed away, they died with dignity, instead of on the streets alone.

Mother Teresa was “love in action”. She wisely lived out the verse above, about true religion. Although Mother Teresa was Catholic, she knew Jesus as her Lord, and followed Him as a disciple would.

Mother Teresa was human, but her strength was enormous, and came from God. She was not shy about speaking the truth about abortion, birth control, and so-called family planning. She loved life and children, and the family unit. She hated seeing innocent lives destroyed. She was sad about divorce, and the breaking up of and family unit.

“The problem with the world is that we draw the circle of our family too small.” –Mother Teresa

She also had this to say about the family: “More and more people realize that unless we bring back prayer and love into the family we will never have peace.”

The family unit, when it is broken, extends to the condition of the world. There are so many orphans, homeless men and women, broken families, widows, and elderly who are not cared for. If we could be more like Mother Teresa, what a difference in our communities we could make!

Mother Teresa did not practice religion alone. She brought together like-minded people, and others who were interested in working with the sick and the poor. She mentored them, and showed them how to help, and how to love.

She was also persecuted for her beliefs. People thought she should do more to heal the dying people, instead of just helping them die with dignity. She received anger from pro-abortion groups because of her quotes to dignitaries such as this one:

“By abortion, the mother does not learn to love, but kills even her own child to solve her problems.  And, by abortion, the father is told that he does not have any responsibility for the child he has brought into the world.  That father is likely to put other women into the same trouble.  So abortion leads to more abortion.  Any country that accepts abortion is not teaching its people to love, but to use any violence to get what they want.  This is why the greatest destroyer of love is abortion.”
–Mother Teresa of Calcutta, National Prayer Breakfast (February 3, 1994)

If only I could be a little like this woman of great faith, I too could move mountains! I will try to do better at practicing that true religion that James talked about in this verse — to visit the poor, the widows and orphans in their affliction. And I will try to guard my heart closely, so that I will not be polluted by the world.

Dear Lord, please send workers for the harvest. Help me to be a true disciple of Yours, and to practice that true religion that you find no fault with. I do love you! Please help me to extend Your love to others around me. Thank You!

-Dawn-