We should have had this application in the mail last Monday but Katelyn became ill all week and so we just got them in the mail yesterday. Adoption process had to be put on hold for the week. What's a week right? Or at least that's what I keep telling myself...
We, along with Katelyn because she is over 18, will now wait for our fingerprint appointment date to go and take our $1000 fingerprints. Once we receive approval from USCIS, we can get our documents on their way to China.
That's about all the excitement around here. Waiting to hear on some grant applications we submitted, super busy making necklaces which has been a HUGE blessing, and spending the passing days at the pool at swim meets because it's that time of the year again and I love it! It has been in the mid to high 70s here...perfect weather to be poolside! I also went on Thursday to see The Drop Box! If you missed this short showing in theaters, please be sure to look for it when it comes out on DVD! It is the amazing story of Pastor Lee in South Korea who began opening his home to the many children who were being orphaned on the streets. He eventually built a "drop box" that the babies can be put anonymously inside the box instead of leaving them to die in the cold. This man LOVES like God loves. He puts the needs of these children above his own needs. Truly a story that will break you and hopefully move you. You've heard this saying before but "we can't all adopt but we can all DO SOMETHING"! I hope you get to see it.
Here's your #6 Seeds of Change Devotional, enjoy!
Why do we do what we do for the sake of others? What motivates us? How does God view these motivations? Is the purest motivator a sense of Christian duty to meet the needs of the poor? Is faith the best stimulus in our doing for the sake of another? I am fond of Henry Drummond's writing on this matter. He explains, "We have been accustomed to be told that the greatest thing in the religious world is faith. That great word has been the keynote for centuries of the popular religion; and we have easily learned to look upon it as the greatest thing in the world. Well, we are wrong...in 1 Corinthians 13, Paul takes us to Christianity at its source; and there we see, 'The greatest of these is love'."
It is curious to me that in some translations of the Bible, the word love is translated in English as charity, which many of us today understand to mean financially giving to those in need. It is therefore important to look at the differences between these two ideas, love and charity. We find in 1 John that if we see someone in physical need and refuse to help him, then the love of God is not in us. In this sense it is impossible to love without charity. But the distinction comes when Paul, being inspired by the Holy Spirit, wrote in 1 Corinthians, "And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor and though I give my body to be burned, and have not love, it profits me nothing." Did he say nothing? Yes indeed, nothing! His charity could have indeed returned a blessing to him greater than what he gave, but it did not. It may have in some way helped the poor recipient, but because it was not out of love, this act of giving was missing the power of God and as a result it profited the giver nothing.
But how is it possible to be assured that love is our true motivation for giving when we are flawed and fleshly creatures and often do not feel loving towards our brethren? The Word confirms that "the heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it" (Jeremiah 17:9). Well, I believe that understanding our frailty and the weakness of our hearts is actually the place we must start in order to end up loving as God loves. We must begin with the recognition that apart from God, we can do nothing! All things of God, even and especially love, must come back to a complete dependence upon the Spirit of God in order that it may profit our souls now and for eternity. Only the flowing of the Spirit of God through a man's soul can produce the pure motivation of agape love.
May we consider others better than ourselves; let us make allowances for the faults of others and be quick to forgive and not judge falsely. May we put gossip and slander far from our lips; there is too much hurtful talk in our churches and in our homes-enough is enough; it is the time for Love. God desires and promises to impart a full life of peace and joy to those who are submitted to His ways, and He wants to use such souls to impart blessings to others. We cannot love without love Himself. May we stay attached to the vine so that we can bear much fruit! If, out of our dependence on God and His love, we will sacrificially serve and love those in need. God will perfect His love in us, and we will experience the fullness of God and all the blessings and profit that come from Him. As Drummond exhorts, "Where love is, God is. He that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God. God is love, Therefore love. Without distinction, without calculation, without procrastination, love!"
~Scott Hasenbalg
{LOVE}
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