Adoption

I have a simple question. How many of you are adopted? Do you know that if I asked that question in a classroom of 100 people, the likely hood is that 50 of those people will raise their hands. That is half the class! Half the class will raise their hand and state that they were adopted. I am adopted. I am adopted child. So, this subject is very important to me. It is important to me that all of you should understand what it means when a child is adopted. It is a subject that is very dear to me.
So, what is adoption?
Adoption is the legal and emotional acceptance into your family of a child not born to you. This child will have your name and the same legal rights as a child by birth. After the adoption is approved by the court, you will receive an official decree and a birth certificate with your name listed as the birth parent. It is now your responsibility to feed, clothe, house, and educate your adopted child. The adopted child should receive the same love and understanding as a child born to you.
Adoption has been going on for longer than, I think, most people realize. The first time America records it taking place as a legal act, was in 1851. Massachusetts passed the first modern adoption law, recognizing adoption as a social and legal operation based on child welfare rather than adult interests. Historians consider the 1851, Adoption of Children Act, an important turning point because it directed judges to ensure that adoption decrees were “fit and proper.” How this determination was to be made was left entirely to judicial discretion.
In the days of the bible, it talks about a brother stepping in and caring for his dead brother's family. This family now became his. Adoption is a big deal. Now, there are some who look down on it and say that it is not real. There are some who even say it is not a good thing, that it is too risky a thing to do. However, there are somethings that I would like to share with you. When a child is adopted by a family that does not share common blood running through their body the same as yours yet still choses to call you their child, when a mom and dad look at a child and fall in love with them and decide that this child will be theirs forever and ever, even though they may never be able to say where the scar on her left cheek came from or they may never understand why he is deathly afraid of water...these parents don't care where you came from, what you have seen or what you have heard. They want to love you and have you become their child. They want you to have a new life, a life where they will tell you things and show you things that you may never have been able to see or hear before. Sacrifice!
So, I know you are all thinking...why on earth is she giving us a history lesson about adoption during bible study?
This is my reason. I have one reason for doing so. Now, God may have more than one, but, I am telling you all this about adoptions so that you know and understand more deeply the love that God has shown you. Adoption is important to God.
" Now, when my time came and I placed my faith in Jesus, God instantly granted me a great salvation. He forgave me of all of my sins, past, present, and future. He made me His child, adopting me into His family. He gave me the gift of the Holy Spirit, who gives me God's power, who pours out God's love within my heart, and who tenderly communicates to my spirit that I am a child of God and an heir of eternal glory in heaven. In saving me , God also freed me from slavery to any and all my sins. I no longer have to sin again, for sin's mastery over me has been broken!"
Here are some verses I want to share with you. Colossians 2:13 , Psalm 103:12, Ephesians 1:5 , John 1:12 , Acts 1:8 , Ephesions 3:16 ,Ephesions 1:13-14, Romans 8:16-17 ,Romans 6:6-7-14
Any one that has placed their faith in Jesus has been adopted. Now, just because we are adopted doesn't mean that we live like we are. I know many people that have been adopted by loving families and yet they refuse to believe that they are loved and that they can live a different life. They think that at any moment their adoptive parents' love will end. They choose to live as orphans. There are people who have given their life to Christ. To Him they are His child, righteous before Him yet they choose not to live like that. They think that at any moment they will sin and that will be the deal breaker. They wait for that one unforgiveable sin that will seprate them from the love of their Father God. They remain the aloof orphan...distant and not trusting, waiting to be returned to the orphanage. I am going to tell you that it can't happen. You can't be unadopted. Once Christ adopts you you are given His name YOU ARE HIS CHILD FROM THEN UNTIL....FOREVER!!
Romans 8: 35
I understand more than most, that it is hard to change your thinking. It is hard to believe that nothing can change the way Christ looks at you. It is hard to go from the thinking that at any moment your are going to be cut off from His love to trusting and believing that what He says it real and true. But when you do, you will then start to look at the Gospel with truth and understanding. You will truly begin to see God's love for you.
I have something to ask of you. On a peice of paper I want you to write three things. I want you to write to God telling Him the ways you have been acting like an orphan and not His child. Then, I want you to hold onto that list and pray over it from time to time. I want you to notice that, when you are doubting and waiting for that final deal breaker, that you can pull out that list and say LIES!! I am a child of God and NOTHING, nothing can separate me from Him or from His love!