Today begins my 19th year as a Christian. Eighteen years ago today God said “Let there be Light” in the brooding darkness of my soul (2 Cor 4.6). Though I had grown up a church rat and sat through a thousand gospel appeals, it took the sovereign grace of God to make me believe in Jesus. My problem wasn’t ignorance. It was rebellion. On April 1, 1995, I didn’t necessarily […]
Listen, O daughter, give attention and incline your ear: Forget your people and your father’s house; then the King will desire your beauty. Because He is your Lord, bow down to Him (Ps 45:10-11). Psalm 45 was a song written for the king’s wedding. Israel’s handsome, valiant and humble king was joined to a radiant woman who “is all glorious within” (v13). In vv10-11, we hear the bride’s father giving […]
Like any unusually difficult season of life, the aftershocks of a failed adoption come with their own degree of pain. For those whose only means of having children is adoption, it’s their version of a miscarriage or infant death. That will be hard for many to understand (as are many of the particular sufferings of others), but it is nevertheless true. We spent a month in Maryland giving ourselves to […]
The Gospel Coalition published yet another great post from the insightful and provocative Kevin DeYoung. Entitled “Dude, Where’s Your Bride?”, the article addresses what DeYoung considers a paucity of marriagable Christian men. This trend, as DeYoung cites, is part of the larger trend among all men. There is simply a generation of men without “substance” and “plans.” In typical DeYoung fashion, he provides helpful correctives for women-seeking-men and churches […]
While I often have my bones to pick with the Southern Baptist Convention, I could not be more proud of their 2009 resolution on Adoption and Orphan Care. May we be resolute!
Then the king will say to those on his right, “Come, you who are blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I . . . was a stranger, and you invited me in” (Mt 25.34, 35c). A recent Tennessee Baptist & Reflector article provoked me to consider whether or not the church takes Jesus seriously. It seems the 118-year-old Tennessee […]
In the Jan/Feb 2009 issue of Touchstone Magazine Stephen Baskerville wrote a penetrating article entitled “Divorced from Reality.” In it Dr. Baskerville connects dots between no-fault divorce, child abuse, the child support industy and the welfare state. They all ultimate derive from a government-sponsored assault on the family. Having interacted somewhat with the state foster care system I’m afraid he may be right. I entice you with his closing excerpt: […]
But when the fullness of time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, so that He might redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons. Because you are sons, God has sent for the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” (Gal 4.4-6) There is a fraternal relationship among those in the “adoption […]
“. . . we ourselves, having the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our body” (Rom 8.23). New Year’s Eve 2008 will be much different for us this year. We would otherwise join most in an afternoon watching BCS also-rans and wiping Rotel dip from our chins. We will, however, squeeze into family court where […]
We love adopting children. With one adopted daughter (Lidi) we look forward, Lord willing, to adopting her aforeblogged brother and sister next year. Amy and I would’ve loved to have children biologically but God custom designs our sanctifications; therefore, we’ve increasingly delighted in his Maxwell-specific plan. Natural childbirth carries with it a glorious thrill found nowhere else. The same holds true for adoption. Both biological parents and adoptive parents can […]