ADOPTION....

My husband preached an awesome sermon yesterday about adoption.  I'm gonna blog a little about it today!  I have such a passion now for adoption.  God really began to speak to my heart about adoption over a year ago.  I knew God was leading our family down this path, just not sure how.  I began to read blog, books, etc..  I began looking at types of adoption, adoption processes etc.  Still not sure how or what, I just kept praying.  I would mention it to Mark, and he was always in agreement.  I was really afraid to actually say, "Mark, I really think we are supposed pursue adoption, not just talk about it."  He was in total agreement.  God had been working on him all along too!  We really began looking at God's heart for adoption. 
Eph. 1:4-5 “Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes. God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure.”
We begin to see how we as Christians are adopted by God into His family!
When we are adopted into his family we are;
Given his name
Given the spirit of his son
Heirs and joint heirs with Jesus
Entering his household
Receiving his welcome
Possessing his image
Receiving his discipline
Receiving a future to live forever in his presence
How AWESOME is that?!!
We are all born as spiritual orphans, until we accept Jesus, then we become His adopted child!!  Just as we began to see God's heart for spiritual orphans, we began to see His heart for orphans in the natural (the world around us). 
You know the truth is that there 143 million orphaned children and 11 million who starve to death and die from preventable diseases and 8.5 million who work as child slaves, prostitutes, or under other horrific conditions and 2.3 million who live with HIV which all add up to 164.8 million needy children. At first glance that appears to be a big number, but to put that into perspective 2.1 billion people proclaim to be Christians. The truth is that if only 8 percent of the Christians would care for just one more child, there would not be any statistics left.  The truth is He loves these children just as much as he loves you and me! We began to see these statistics, and began to look at God's word.. James 1:27..
Pure and genuine religion in the sight of God the Father means caring for orphans and widows in their distress and refusing to let the world corrupt you.
Many other scriptures relate to this as well...  We know that we can't change the world, but maybe we can change a child or two's worlds for them!!  We aren't perfect people, don't have it all together, just want to follow God's heart for our family!  God uses ordinary people to do extraordinary things, David- a Sheppard boy that killed a giant....Mary- a young teenage girl, carried our Savior in her womb... Paul- a young man with a violent history, wrote close to half a the new testament & spread the gospel all over the world.  So you see just ordinary people..... 
So you say, what can I do?
 First realize God's heart for adoption... have you been adopted by God into His family?
 Second, is God calling you to help spiritual orphans to become adopted into God's family too?
 Third, ask God what can you do in the natural to help care for the orphans, No, not everyone is called to adopt, but we can pray for the orphans, become part of a ministry that helps care for the orphans, don't remain silent become active in sharing the real need for orphan care, donate to families that are adopting (international adoption is VERY expensive).  Just pray and ask God to give you direction.....  
This journey for us continues, we don't know what God has in store for us, we are just walking this journey out one step at a time!!!