from hope to reality

I had the privilege of preaching at Grace Church of Memphis yesterday on the cosmic significance of adoption within the story of redemption. You can listen to it here.

One of the ways our family seeks to serve orphans is by praying for them at supper time. I’ve had the opportunity to travel to orphanages in China and Ethiopia. So I printed out pictures of orphans I’ve had the privilege of meeting on those trips and put them on our refrigerator. [...]

Russell Moore: When did you first begin thinking theologically about adoption?

Russell Moore is the Dean of the School of Theology at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and one of the speakers at Together for Adoption Conference 2008. Carolina Hope is one of the conference exhibitors.

Michael Monroe, leader of Irving Bible Church’s adoption ministry Tapestry, believes that the church should be “the safest place on earth for adoptive and foster families.” Unfortunately, it often is not. Read Michael’s two-part series on this important topic: The Safest Place on Earth - Part 1 and Part 2.
Check out Tapestry’s many [...]

As many of you know, in honor of his daughter Maria Sue, Steven Curtis Chapman wrote a CNN article entitled, “Our Tragedy and God’s Love for Orphans.” It is a great example of how vertical love (God’s adoptive love for us) can move horizontally (our adoptive love for an orphan). Steven’s article about Maria and [...]

Steven Curtis Chapman and family were interviewed on Good Morning America today about the death of Maria Sue Chunxi Chapman. Watch the interview here (Note: Interview begins with a short clip of the interview, moves into a commercial, and then shows the full seven minute interview).

Registration for Together for Adoption Conference 2008 is now open! Please join us for this unique event as we explore what our adoption in Christ means for us and for orphans.
Conference Speakers: Rick Phillips, Russell Moore, Carl Robbins, and Tullian Tchividjian.
See conference schedule here.

This is a reworked and reformatted article. To read the article, click on the image below, and you will be able to download the article as a PDF.

To read the article, click on the image below, and you will be able to download the article as a PDF.

Helping Your Adopted Child: Understanding Your Child’s Unique Identity by Paul David Tripp
Publisher’s Description: Long before you decided to adopt, long before your child was born, God planned to put your adopted child into your home. Your child is an amazing gift from God, but nurturing an adopted child also brings unique challenges.
Understanding your adopted [...]

Check out Jason Kovacs’ excellent post on adoption at Desiring God’s blog. It is entitled “Glorifying the Father of the Fatherless.”

I wanted to make you aware of the new Gospel Coalition website. One of its great new features is links to audio sermons by TGC council members. I was pleased to discover that it devotes an entire page to council members’ sermons on adoption. There are sermons on adoption by John Piper, Mark [...]

Commenting on Ephesians 1:3-6, Dr. Michael Barrett writes:

“The adoption of children is specifically defined as being accomplished through the agency or mediation of Jesus Christ (v. 4).  The Lord Jesus as the Second Person of the Holy Trinity is the eternal object of His Father’s love.  Christ testified to this eternal love in His great intercessory prayer: [...]

“Adopting grace is the proof of the Father’s undying love for dying sinners. In adoption we learn the truth of Jesus’ words: ‘The Father himself loves you’” [John 16:27] (Philip G. Ryken, The Message of Salvation, 212).

Kevin Twit, RUF campus minister at Belmont University, gave this lecture on adoption at Belmont’s convocation:
Audio Lecture (mp3): The Doctrine Of Adoption (pdf of notes)

For those who need to help finance their adoption with an interest-free loan, Family Legacies is a Christian organization that raises funds and disperses them as loans for the purpose of adoption. Read more in this post.

Even though the term adoption occurs only five times in Scripture (all in Paul’s epistles), its “marking” function within redemptive-history demonstrates its theological significance. Vertical adoption (i.e., God adopting us as His children) plays a key role from the beginning of the unfolding story of redemption (before god even created the world) all the [...]

NPR interviewed one of our blog’s writers, Dorothy Bode, about transracial adoption. You can listen to part one of this interview (7 min 44 sec) here. Dorothy did an excellent job!

Here’s a clip of Nashville news coverage of Maria Sue Chapman’s Memorial Service:

If you haven’t yet watched our Ethiopia video, let me encourage you to take the next 3 1/2 minutes and watch it.