Tag Archives: adoption

Alistair Begg

Alistair Begg – Open Adoption

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Alistair Begg

We wait eagerly for adoption as sons. Romans 8:23

Even in this world saints are God’s children, but the only way that people will discover this is by certain moral characteristics. The adoption is not displayed; the children are not yet openly declared. Among the Romans a man might adopt a child and keep it private for a long time; but there was a second adoption in public; when the child was brought before the constituted authorities, its old clothes were removed, and the father who took it to be his child gave it clothing suitable to its new status in life. “Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared.”1 We are not yet clothed in the apparel of heaven’s royal family; we are wearing in this flesh and blood just what we wore as the children of Adam. But we know that “when he appears” who is “the firstborn among many brothers,”2 we will be like Him, for we will see Him as He is.

Can’t you imagine that a child taken from the lowest ranks of society and adopted by a Roman senator would say to himself, “I long for the day when I shall be publicly adopted. Then I shall discard these poor clothes and be dressed in clothes that depict my senatorial rank”? Glad for what he has already received, he still groans until he gets the fullness of what has been promised to him. So it is with us today. We are waiting until we put on our proper clothes and are declared as the children of God for all to see. We are young nobles and have not yet worn our crowns. We are young brides, and the marriage day has not arrived, but our fiancée’s love for us leads us to long and sigh for the bridal morning. Our very happiness makes us long for more; our joy, like a swollen stream, longs to spring up like a fountain, leaping to the skies, heaving and groaning within our spirit for lack of space and room by which to reveal itself to men.

11 John 3:2 2Romans 8:29

Devotional material is taken from “Morning and Evening,” written by C.H. Spurgeon, revised and updated by Alistair Begg.

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The family reading plan for June 20, 2014 * Isaiah 55 * Matthew 3

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Our Daily Bread

Our Daily Bread — Adoption

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Our Daily Bread

Ephesians 1:3-12

He chose us in Him . . . having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself. —Ephesians 1:4-5

My wife, Marlene, and I have been married for over 35 years. When we were first dating, we had a conversation I have never forgotten. She told me that at 6 months old she had been adopted. When I asked her if she ever wondered about who her real parents were, she responded, “My mom and dad could have selected any of a number of other babies that day, but they chose me. They adopted me. They are my real parents.”

That strong sense of identification and gratitude she has for her adoptive parents should also mark our relationship with God. As followers of Christ, we have been born from above through faith in Him and have been adopted into the family of God. Paul wrote, “He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will” (Eph. 1:4-5).

Notice the nature of this transaction. We have been chosen by God and adopted as His sons and daughters. Through adoption, we have a radically new relationship with God. He is our beloved Father!

May this relationship stir our hearts to worship Him—our Father—with gratitude. —Bill Crowder

Loving Father, thank You for making me

Your child and giving me a place in

Your family. With a grateful heart, I

thank You for making me Yours.

God loves each of us as if there were only one of us. —Augustine

Bible in a year: Genesis 13-15; Matthew 5:1-26