Thursday, February 6, 2003
Tom is an acquaintance of mine who just became a daddy. Now, he didn't go to the local hospital for his baby - he and his wife went all the way to China. She's a little girl - and since families are restricted to one child in China, little girls can have a pretty rough time. This one did. She was found by a doctor, abandoned on a doorstep in the middle of a cold night. She was taken to an orphanage where they named her "Precious Treasure" in Chinese. It's almost ironic in light of her being abandoned, isn't it? It took several months, but Tom and his wife were eventually able to arrange the adoption of this precious treasure. She's got a mom and dad now who love her very much - who will never forget the first moment they took her from the folks at the orphanage and held her in their arms. Believe me, she's not an orphan anymore.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Abandoned No More."
There are a whole lot of folks who had a mother and father - but have felt orphaned, in a way, for much of their life; abandoned, left behind, misunderstood, left alone. Maybe you know the feeling.
Well, just like that little "precious treasure" baby, someone went a long way to get you, someone who chose you because He wants you to be His, someone who loves you with a love you can't imagine and no one else can give you. He's adopted a lot of spiritual orphans into His family, and He's ready to adopt you.
In John 14:18, our word for today from the Word of God, Jesus Christ made this hope-filled promise: "I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you." He wants to do that for you. We've all been cut off from the Heavenly Father we were born to belong to. God didn't abandon us - we abandoned Him. We were created to live for the One who created us and we haven't. We've done things the way we want and in the process gone out of His bounds more times than we could ever count. Our sin has left us spiritually fatherless in this world - orphaned.
But God's Son came a very long way to rescue you - all the way from heaven to that awful cross where He gave His life to pay for every wrong thing you've ever done. Don't ever doubt that He loves you beyond measure. The Bible tells us that God's Holy Spirit is the "Spirit of adoption and by Him we cry, 'Abba, Father.'" (Romans 8:15) "Abba" means "Daddy." When you let Jesus remove the wall between you and the Heavenly Father, God literally becomes your forever "Daddy."
Your adoption into God's family begins when you reach out to Jesus and tell Him you're giving yourself to Him - to forgive the sins He died to forgive, to bring you into God's loving arms. That could be today, if you'll tell Jesus that you're ready to begin your personal relationship with God through Him. If you want that, then I want to send you the booklet I wrote about belonging to Him - it's called "Yours For Life." Just get in touch and let me know that you want it.
And you can be sure that once you belong to Jesus, you're abandoned no more. Not after He came all this way and paid so much to get you. This could be the day that God picks you up in His loving Father's arms and calls you His child - from this day on.