I have recently begun to figure something out about myself. Usually that is good thing but not so much this time.
I have learned that I have a really good theology of the Bible. I believe it is inerrant, inspired, sufficient, and true. I believe it is God’s Word from creation of this world to the creation of the next. I also have learned that I might not have as good of a theology of obedience.
I have been thinking about this more and more the last couple of months in preparation for the ‘Wait No More’ conference that was at Crossings Church, in Oklahoma City, Oct. 26. This conference was sponsored by Focus on the Family and had as its goal to find homes for the more than 300 children in DHS custody who are currently adoptable and without families.
While both domestic and international adoption is gaining popularity within the church, the adoption of older kids, often with incredible histories of abuse is still a glaring need.
Who better to meet this need than the Church of Jesus Christ? More than 300 kids who need a mother and father, who need love, who need to experience what the rest of us experience every day and often take for granted. This is not easy. It is hard work, very hard work.
The call of Christians to adopt is rooted in the fact that we were all adopted by our Heavenly Father. And redemption was hard work for Christ. Hebrews 12:2 tells us that ‘for the joy set before Him, Jesus endured the cross…’ That was hard work.
Things that are important to God should be important to us as well. The scriptures are full of evidence that adoption and orphans are important to God. Maybe the most well-known is James 1:27, “Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction and to keep oneself unstained from the world.“
This is God’s heart for the orphan. One of the questions that was asked at the conference was “If not you, then who, and if not now, then when?” How would we as individual believers answer those questions? How would our churches?
Proverbs 24:10-12 offers an interesting perspective for us to consider. “If you faint in the day of adversity, your strength is small. Rescue those who are being taken away to death; hold back those who are stumbling to the slaughter. If you say, ‘Behold, we did not know this,’ does not he who weighs the heart perceive it? Does not he who keeps watch over your soul know it, and will he not repay man according to his work?”
What an opportunity for Christians and churches to demonstrate the gospel by providing ‘forever families’ to over 300 children who are in such a need for the most basic and important relationships.
What role will you and your church play in helping them ‘wait no more?’