Adoption News
I don’t do this often here, but another milestone, another Ebenezer has been raised in the saga of the Smith adoption.
So, I think we signed the last document necessary on this side of the Atlantic prior to becoming guardians and eventually parents of three beautiful children. Those documents shipped and should arrive in Africa on Tuesday, 11/9/10.
Now, I don’t know what to do. We’ve been in the adoption process for so long and had so many obstacles to overcome that I am a little afraid to trust that we might actually be on a plane before the end of the year. If that happens, being true to form, we’ll be away over Christmas. I never thought I might miss a Christmas morning in order to make this whole thing happen, but God is definitely trying to mold and shape us as parents, as a married couple, and as His kids for something else and maybe many something elses with the ultimate something else being Home. Not to mention God is shaping our children through this whole ordeal as well. So, while I don’t want that to happen, and will pray that we are home by Christmas, we’ll do whatever He has designed.
Part of being God’s Kid isn’t that we figure everything out, but that it all makes sense in retrospect. We trust and follow, and then we get to make sense out of it all. For everyone else you just live with regret, shame, failure, and disappointment. A multitude of time and energy is wasted on determining where to place the blame and then seeking vengeance. Praise God we can be free from that struggle.
“11 For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all people.12 It trains us to reject godless ways and worldly desires and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, 13 as we wait for the happy fulfillment of our hope in the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ.14 He gave himself for us to set us free from every kind of lawlessness and to purify for himself a people who are truly his, who are eager to do good.” – Titus 2 NET
Tuesdays are for TALENT! (And Smiles)
I stumbled on these guys. The dude singing is pretty amazing, but the guy who produced this is also the one playing all of the instruments. His name is Kurt Schneider, and he has tons of stuff on YouTube. He’s worth checking out. Nothing like a good mashup!
[yframe url=’http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HkHJ2-zoSB4′]
Salty or Not?
Many of us are familiar with Jesus’ words in Luke 14:34, “Salt is good, but if salt loses its flavor, how can its flavor be restored?” But until today I have never understood what in the world that meant.
I won’t bore you with chemistry, but as a chemist I know that sodium chloride will be salty unless one of two things happen; either the consumer loses the ability to taste or sodium chloride becomes something else and ceases to be sodium chloride.
What made reading this verse today different from the numerous other times is circumstance combined with context. The circumstance is that I happened to be reading The Great Omission by Dallas Willard, and more importantly Chapter 2 entitled, “Why Bother With Discipleship?” while at the same time I read Luke chapter 14.
In essence Dr. Willard says that being a disciple of Jesus is not something a Christian aspires to be, but being a disciple of Jesus is what a Christian is supposed to be. People, saved by grace through faith, will not excuse their unwillingness to participate in the life of a disciple of Jesus, but repent of that unwillingness. People, covered in the supernatural shed blood of the Lamb of God, are not called to some life that is less than a completely devoted, eternally convinced, supernaturally inspired student of the God-man, Jesus of Nazareth.
Simply, if you are not enabled to and compelled to live your life in deed, thought, action and speech after the life of Jesus as exposed in the Bible and led by the Holy Spirit, then you really are not…dare I say it, a Christian. If you are trying to be a good person, or trying to earn God’s favor by studying your Bible or praying or going to a worship service and you are not compelled to do those things then we need to talk.
Back to the Luke 14:34 passage. In the context of all of Jesus’ teaching there is no “almost salt.” You can’t be an “almost adopted” child of God. There is no such thing as an “almost disciple.” What are you or have you been excusing in your life because “almost” has been enough for you?