“I have given you an example, that ye should do as I have done.”
Medical Missionaries and Their Work (Continued)
They “shall be in the midst of many people as a dew from the Lord.”
Chapter 13—The Helpless Poor
Widows and Orphans
The widow and the fatherless are the objects of the Lord’s special care.
“A Father of the fatherless, and a Judge of the widows,
Is God in His holy habitation.”
“Thy Maker is thy husband;
Jehovah of hosts is His name:
And the Holy One of Israel is thy Redeemer;
The God of the whole earth shall He be called.”
“Leave thy fatherless children, I will preserve them alive;
And let thy widows trust in Me.” Psalm 68:5; Isaiah 54:5, A.R.V.; Jeremiah 49:11.
Many a father, when called upon to part from his loved ones, has died resting in faith upon God’s promise to care for them. The Lord provides for the widow and the fatherless, not by a miracle in sending manna from heaven, not by sending ravens to bring them food; but by a miracle upon human hearts, expelling selfishness, and unsealing the fountains of Christlike love. The afflicted and bereaved ones He commits to His followers as a precious trust. They have the very strongest claim upon our sympathy.
In homes supplied with life’s comforts, in bins and granaries filled with the yield of abundant harvests, in warehouses stocked with the products of the loom, and vaults stored with gold and silver, God has supplied means for the sustenance of these needy ones. He calls upon us to be channels of His bounty.
Many a widowed mother with her fatherless children is bravely striving to bear her double burden, often toiling far beyond her strength in order to keep her little ones with her and to provide for their needs. Little time has she for their training and instruction, little opportunity to surround them with influences that would brighten their lives. She needs encouragement, sympathy, and tangible help.
God calls upon us to supply to these children, so far as we can, the want of a father’s care. Instead of standing aloof, complaining of their faults, and of the trouble they may cause, help them in every way possible. Seek to aid the careworn mother. Lighten her burdens.
Then there are the multitudes of children who have been wholly deprived of the guidance of parents and the subduing influence of a Christian home. Let Christians open their hearts and homes to these helpless ones. The work that God has committed to them as an individual duty should not be turned over to some benevolent institution or left to the chances of the world’s charity. If the children have no relatives able to give them care, let the members of the church provide homes for them. He who made us ordained that we should be associated in families, and the child nature will develop best in the loving atmosphere of a Christian home.
Many who have no children of their own could do a good work in caring for the children of others. Instead of giving attention to pets, lavishing affection upon dumb animals, let them give their attention to little children, whose characters they may fashion after the divine similitude. Place your love upon the homeless members of the human family. See how many of these children you can bring up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. Many would thus be greatly benefited themselves.
https://m.egwwritings.org/en/book/135.993#993
Dear Heavenly Father, Thank You for Your guidance in all things that we might experience all that You have in store for us, as we faithfully follow Your lead. Thank You for Your tremendous love and unwavering patience to deliver each of us from the burden of sin and sorrow and poverty and even filthy, ill-gotten wealth. Please bless us to open the windows of our soul heavenward, in appreciation of the divine gifts, to trust in the power of Your Word and to truly believe in Your measureless love and mercy to save souls that we might become effective witnesses for You and faithful servants according to Your will in this world. Thank You because we pray in the Awesome and Almighty name of Your Son, Jesus, our Saving King. Amen.
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A HUGE THANK YOU to those of you who expressed your gratitude for these devotionals by helping Uchee Pines launch Gospel Radio Station WHGR 91.5 FM for Hurtsboro (my childhood home town) and surrounding areas, including Tuskegee, Alabama.
WHGR 91.5 FM went LIVE noon on Thanksgiving Day 2025!
If you want to support Christian programming for these final days, please visit
https://www.ucheepines.org/radio
Thank you!!!
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I coordinate wonderful health and worshipful events and conferences online and onsite as a gospel medical missionary at Uchee Pines, a total plant-based health retreat, where doctors and practitioners specialize in lifestyle medicine. For more details, visit https://www.ucheepines.org/events
Therefore, if at any time you fail to receive this post as a text, please visit
https://baiom.org/author/audreystovall/
where devotionals are first posted daily (almost without fail). From there devotionals are publicly shared to my page on FB, LinkedIn, and Signal (in My Story), and to a response-restricted group on WhatsApp (once again when I am able to find the time to successfully rebuild it).
NOTE: These began as daily texts to encourage my academy roommate and dear friend of nearly 50 years, until she suddenly passed March 2023. Now I continue to compile and send them to anyone who will receive them and to her family in honor of their mom.
Lately, I have begun featuring consecutive chapter portions of a select Bible-based book.
If you agree to continue receiving them, then this is my personal gift to you; and in this way, I not only honor God but the memory of a very dear friend whom I desperately miss.
My personal prayer is that God will bless me to find ways to multiply this gift, so that we all may be encouraged to be found faithful in the sight of a Holy God, whenever Christ returns or our eyes are shut in the sleep of death.
It is a prayerful process that leads me to share from my personal study.
So please feel free to forward to your loved ones or to anyone, as God leads you. I’m calling them Barb’s Devotionals.