suffer well.

recklesssurrender:

“Though the fig tree should not blossom,
nor fruit be on the vines,
the produce of the olive fail
and the fields yield no food,
the flock be cut off from the fold
and there be no herd in the stalls,
yet I will rejoice in the Lord;
I will take joy in the God of my salvation.
God, the Lord, is my strength;
he makes my feet like the deer’s;
he makes me tread on my high places.”

Habakkuk 3:17-19

listen to the invitation that God gives us…

Isaiah 55:1-3

1“Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. 2 Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy? Listen diligently to me, and eat what is good, and delight yourselves in rich food. 3 Incline your ear, and come to me;
hear, that your soul may live.

Yet, we go and deeply know everything and everyone else…all the while neglecting the greatest invitation in humanity’s history.

[the great discovery] from the valley of vision

glorious god, 
i bless thee that i know thee.
i once lived in the world, but was ignorant of its creator,
was partaker of thy providences , but knew not the provider, 
was blind while enjoying the sunlight,
was deaf to things spiritual, with voices all around me, 
understood many things, but had no knowledge of thy ways, 
saw the world, but did not see jesus only.

o happy day, when in they love’s sovereignty thou didst look on me, and call me by grace.

then did the dead heart begin to beat, 
the darkened eye glimmer with light, 
the dull ear catch thy echo, 
and i turned to thee and found thee, 
a god ready to hear, willing to save.

then did i find my heart at enmity to thee,
vexing thy spirit;

then did i fall at thy feet and hear thee thunder, 
‘the soul that sinneth, it must die’,

but when grace made me to know thee, 
and admire a god who hated sin, 
thy terrible justice held my will submissive.

my thoughts were as knives cutting my head.

then didst thou come to me in silken robes of love, 
and i saw they son dying that i might live, 
and in that death i found my all.

my soul doth sing at the remembrance of that peace;

the gospel cornet brought a sound unknown
to me before that reached my heart - and i lived -
never to lose my hold on christ or his hold on me.

grant that i may always weep to the praise of mercy found, 
and tell to others as long as i live, 
that thou art a sin-pardoning god, 
taking up the blasphemer and the ungodly, 
and washing them form their deepest stain.

The Spirit of Adoption

You don’t often hear sermons about adoption. As someone who grew up attending church, I cannot remember hearing a single one. And as a kid, I never gave adoption much more than a passing thought. Never once did I consider the deeper role that adoption would play in my own family or the deeper meaning it would reveal concerning my relationship with God. But as an adoptive father, I have found that the theme of adoption has gripped my life and my thoughts in ways I never imagined possible.

Adoption is not simply a creation of mankind. It is more than a method for growing a family. And it’s more than a way to stop the biological clock from ticking so loudly or a bandage to soothe the ache for a child. It is more than simply providing a home for a waiting child. At a deeper level the church itself has an innate culture of redemptive adoption.

I have often told my son that – out of all the children in the world – we got to pick him. I tell him that so that he will know how special we think he is and to remind him that we love him deeply. But those words occasionally come ringing back in my ears to remind me that God picked me just like that. We often forget that fact as we go through life at a breakneck pace. And we often think about God from a self-centered perspective, thinking that we made the choice to be His, but in reality, we didn’t choose God, He chose us.

The apostle Paul tells us in his letter to the church at Ephesus that God chose us and predestined us to adoption before the beginning of time. “Blessed is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realm in Christ. For he chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world that we may be holy and unblemished in his sight in love. He did this by predestining us to adoption as his sons through Jesus Christ, according to the pleasure of his will – to the praise and glory of his grace that he has freely bestowed on us in his dearly beloved Son” (Ephesians 1:3-5 NET).

God chose us before the foundation of the world.  Before the world was even created God put together a plan that included you and me. He knew that we would choose to sin, therefore ruining our chances at having a relationship with Him. We would orphaned ourselves from God by choosing to embrace sin. God also knew that He would have to send His son, Jesus, to get us out of our mess. Through relationship with Jesus, we are adopted into God’s family. John Piper says that “Adoption is bigger than the universe!” Adoption not only happened before the creation of the universe, but our adoption was the intended purpose of the universe.

Scripture gives us a picture of our adoption day in Christ: “And when you heard the word of truth – when you believed in Christ – you were marked with the seal of the promised Holy Spirit” (Ephesians 1:13 NET).

This concept of our adoption being sealed (or completed) immediately reminds me of the day that my family went to court to complete the adoption of our son. The judge made an official declaration to the world that our son was ours alone and belonged to nobody else. He put an official seal of approval on our adoption. The Bible tells us the same thing – God declares that we are His children by putting His seal of approval on our adoption.

God Cares about Orphans

God makes it clear in His word that He has a heart for the orphan:

“He is a father to the fatherless and an advocate for widows” (Psalm 68:5 NET).

“I will not abandon you as orphans, I will come to you” (John 14:18 NET).

“The Lord protects those residing outside their native land; he lifts up the fatherless and the widow, but he opposes the wicked” (Psalm 146:9 NET).

“You defend the fatherless and oppressed so that mere mortals may no longer terrorize them” (Psalm 10:18 NET).

God cheers for those considered underdogs: orphans, widows, foreigners living in a strange land. And He cares for those who have nobody else on their side or find themselves oppressed or coerced into difficult circumstances. Orphans around the world are still being exploited every day. Slavery, sexual exploitation and physical abuse are real issues for orphans who have nobody to look after them. UNICEF puts the count of orphans at 143 million children world-wide. Many of those have been orphaned by disease or war. There are 129,000 children waiting for adoption from foster care in the US right now.

God Calls His People to Care about Orphans (… that means you too!)

God care about orphans, and asks his followers to care about them too.

“You must not afflict any orphan or widow” (Exodus 22:22 NET).

“Pure and undefiled religion before God the Father is this: to care for the orphans and widows in their misfortune and to keep oneself unstained by the world” (James 1:27 NET).

“Defend the cause of the poor and the fatherless! Vindicate the oppressed and the suffering!” (Psalm 82:3 NET).

“Learn to do what is right! Promote justice! Give the oppressed reason to celebrate! Take up the cause of the orphan! Defend the rights of the widow!” (Isaiah 1:17 NET).

What does that mean for you? You may doubt your capability to adopt, give or serve. But the options are wide open to you. God does not looking for specific qualification from His servants, but simply a willingness and availability to serve. Look at these different ways that people are serving orphans with HISchild Orphan Care Ministry right now:

• Some have been called by God to adopt.
• Some have been called to serve as foster families.
• Some cannot adopt or foster but serve adoptive and foster families in many ways.
• Some donate funds so that others may be able to afford adoption.
• Some donate funds to assist orphanages with operating costs.
• Some travel overseas to serve orphans around the world.
• Some will volunteer to serve foster children and orphans in other creative ways.

Pray for God to reveal to you how you should be serving orphans. The truth is that God wants you to serve orphans in any way that you can. Your prayers will not go unanswered.

Each of us can play a different part in serving orphans on God’s behalf. I know it’s not realistic to think that every family has the means and resources to adopt or to take foster children in their home. But I firmly believe that more could be done … more should be done … and that more will be done. The good news is that there is a growing movement toward orphan care ministry within the Church today.

Adoption is a reflection of what God has done for us by saving us. And for orphans worldwide, it’s more than a new beginning or a chance to experience a forever family. It also exposes orphans to the God of the universe and a chance at an eternal spiritual family.

reblogged from hischild

an important principle in reading the Bible

Sometimes readers of the Bible see the conditions that God lays down for his blessing and they conclude from these conditions that our action is first and decisive, then God responds to bless us.

That is not right.

There are indeed real conditions that God often commands. We must meet them for the promised blessing to come. But that does not mean that we are left to ourselves to meet the conditions or that our action is first and decisive.

Here is one example to show what I mean.

In Jeremiah 29:13 God says to the exiles in Babylon, “You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart.” So there is a condition: When you seek me with all your heart, then you will find me. So we must seek the Lord. That is the condition of finding him.

True.

But does that mean that we are left to ourselves to seek the Lord? Does it mean that our action of seeking him is first and decisive? Does it mean that God only acts after our seeking?

No.

Listen to what God says in Jeremiah 24:7 to those same exiles in Babylon: “I will give them a heart to know that I am the Lord, and they shall be my people and I will be their God, for they shall return to me with their whole heart.”

So the people will meet the condition of returning to God with their whole heart. God will respond by being their God in the fullest blessing. But the reason they returned with their whole heart is that God gave them a heart to know him. His action was first and decisive.

So now connect that with Jeremiah 29:13. The condition there was that they seek the Lord with their whole heart. Then God will be found by them. But now we see that the promise in Jeremiah 24:7 is that God himself will give them such a heart so that they will return to him with their whole heart.

This is one of the most basic things people need to see about the Bible. It is full of conditions we must meet for God’s blessings. But God does not leave us to meet them on our own. The first and decisive work before and in our willing is God’s prior grace. Without this insight, hundreds of conditional statements in the Bible will lead us astray.

Let this be the key to all Biblical conditions and commands: “Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.” (Philippians 2:12-13). Yes, we work. But our work is not first or decisive. God’s is. “I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me” (1 Corinthians 15:10).

-DesiringGod-