It's the first day of Lent....

(No, our church doesn't historically observe the traditional church calender, however, 40 days of preparation seems especially meaningful this year...)

AND is the huge kick off to Forty to Forever! Today all funds raised go towards the guest of honour, Sweet lil Lina , and ROOF, a Russian orphan adoption ministry. There's a beautiful devotional as well, talking about the historical background of the Lenten season, a reading in Isaiah 64, and a challenge. You should do today's--it's pretty managable. :-)

But MOST OF ALL, please be challenged to PRAY. This is not the last thing, the thing we do when we feel we have nothing left to offer, but should be the first weapon we draw in this spiritual battle. Let's face it; to quote Voddie Baucham, we're decorated dust, we have NOTHING to offer a Holy & Merciful God. But we also have a Saviour, who has shown us the way, through His cross, to go boldly before the throne and petition the very God of the universe on behalf of these children. Please LOOK at their faces, choose just one, put their picture on your fridge with all the other treasures that accumulate there. PRAY for that child. There is a home & a family. I won't be naive; God is not a vending machine with a prayer in, petition out policy. Sometimes, He calls these sweet babies home to His forever family. And He's still GOOD. I can say that with some certainty, knowing my own two sweet boys are safely with Him. But we know we are not outside His will to pray for early families, because His Word assures us that he places the fatherless in homes. (Psalm 68 )

New International Version (NIV)

6 All of us have become like one who is unclean,
and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags;
we all shrivel up like a leaf,
and like the wind our sins sweep us away.
7 No one calls on your name
or strives to lay hold of you;
for you have hidden your face from us
and have given us over to[a] our sins.

8 Yet you, Lord, are our Father.
We are the clay, you are the potter;
we are all the work of your hand.
64:6-8

{Blogger's being a putz about hyperlinks, so y'all are going to have to copy & paste this one Forty to Forever www.fortytoforever.org }