The truth of Lady Liberty.

"Pure and undefiled religions before God and the Father is this: to visit widows and orphans in their distress [and] to keep one's self unspotted from the world." (James 1:27)
      The and, added by our English translators perhaps causes us to miss one of the most profound statements of what enables us to be unspotted from the world- Looking after widows and orphans in their distress.
       The destruction of Sodom was not ultimately in their sexual sin (a direct consequence), but that in their arrogance and careless ease they forgot the poor and the needy. (Ezekiel 16:49).
        Have we forgotten:

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,

With conquering limbs astride from land to land;

Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand

A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame

Is the imprisoned lighting, and her name

Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand

Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command

The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.

"Keep ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she
With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"
(Emma Lazarus) 

       Have we become so self indulgent that we have forgotten who we are? Why we are here? You and I, carries of the Kingdom, children of God. Do we long to be unspotted from the world? 

Then, let us care for the poor, the widow, the orphan, the one who has nothing and no one. What will awaken in your heart, but gratitude, joy and love? All things of the Kingdom- which we are promised is not made of meat and drink, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. (Romans 14:17)

       The culture of the world-the lies of the enemy have so groomed us to believe it is all about "me". But it's not. It's about Jesus. And what does He say? "Whatever you have done to the least of these, You have done to me." (Matt. 5:40)

        Let us learn pure and undefiled religion from the one who showed us how. It's not in what we do not focus on (I will not sin, I will not sin)... or any self denial or oppositely self indulgence. It's in fixing our eyes on Jesus- setting our minds on things above. It is in death only we find life. And, we are dead...our life is no hid with Christ in God. So living dead to the world and alive to Christ, let us love the least of these. And in this we will discover a much more excellent way. Jesus is the only answer to the plague on the land. 

                                  With all my heart.