Day 30 - James 1:27

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Extreme Faith Workout

James 1:27 - "Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widow in their affliction and to keep oneself unstained from the world."

One of the workouts from this part of the message last week (James 1:22-27) was to read several articles from togetherforadoption.org

"The Forgotten Part of James 1:27" - Dan Cruver
3 of my favorite quotes-

1. "The world tells us that our fundamental identity is determined by our performance. It seduces us to find out main sense of significance in what we do...By his life, death, and resurrection Jesus has forever secured the Father's pleasure and acceptance for us. i have bee adopted by God, not because of my performance but because of Jesus."

2. "If there's anything that will keep us unstained from the world, it is the gospel of grace. Only the gospel has the power to free us to visit orphans in their affliction and to patiently love and embrace our brothers and sisters in Christ at the same time. Only the gospel can produce 'religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father'."

3. "In a sense, we cold say that both the world and Christianity are performance-based. The world calls us to look to our own performance; its paradigm of living is me-centered: 'I care for the orphan; therefore, God accepts me.' Christianity invites us to look to the performance of another; its paradigm of living is Jesus-centered: 'God has already accepted me because of Jesus; therefore, I care for the orphan'."