The Together for Adoption Web-Site has put together summaries of all the talks at the recent Together for Adoption conference.
Click here for a list and links of all the talks.
One of the messages, by J.D. Greear, spoke on "The Gospel and Church-Centered Orphan Care."
The summary notes of his message are below:
Think about all the stats about adoption and foster kids that we hear all the time. That is not a number. It is a number of individuals who are created in the image of God who have the same needs that we do. When we reduce it to numbers we grow numb to what is really is.
These are real people. We can’t forget that. It is easy for our churches to be social clubs and be served. It is easy for us to gather around those who are just like us with our same interests.
Why is that our churches are known more for political posturing than for laying down our lives for those who are broken and in need?If we understand our liberation we will pursue those who have not been liberated. We will lay down our “rights” and our lives for those who are needy and have not heard about this Jesus. Once you get this you will naturally pour our your life for those in need. This will be your trajectory.
Our lives are not our own. We have been rescued, thus we rescue. The sign of our message for Jesus is our laying down our lives for those in need who don’t know him yet. When was the last time you amazed someone who doesn’t know Jesus with your generosity? This is how the world will learn that we are for real. It’s all talk until we act. What makes the church grow? What makes a cynical society look with wonder at the church? Love on display is the ultimate apologetic. Adoption is different than going to the soup kitchen.
This is a life for lifelong. Only God can sustain you when you take on another’s life. God has placed in the church the power to rescue the fatherless.
The apostles saw Jesus feed the five thousand. Bible says he did this to test them to see if they knew what he would do. They failed the test. Jesus takes the bread and fish and makes a “Hebrew Happy Meal”. (Direct quote). This scene would be burned in their minds and they would have to know that they can’t handle all those situations they would face, but they would know that God takes what they give and does more than they ever thought possible.
It will be the same for us.
No comments:
Post a Comment