Friday, April 25, 2008

Fried Green Tomatoes Moment

Kurto went out of town and my drywall went out of my kitchen. Too bad the camera's not working this one is a keeper. It isn't finished yet. The other night about 11pm I got to thinking about this ugly box in my kitchen otherwise known as the microwave holder. It sat in between my ugly plywood cabinets (I am very thankful, just calling a spade a spade here). I started hammering, unscrewing and going almost mad. I chucked that stuff curbside and then Kurto came home. Oh my loving husband. Told me it was just fine. Told me that anytime something new or surprising came about to tell him around 11pm after basketball because he'd be mellow. (note taken!) Now if only he would be arriving home from Kentucky around midnightish having played basketball in the van I'd be doing great. You see when Kurto left the cabinet was gone but all drywall was still intact. I have since been enjoying looking out my FRONT door while doing my dishes. This is a very much in process thing. Another side note (and really my kitchen cabinet is the side note not this important message) is that while I usually do not put our newsletters on my blog Kurto has been thinking and writing about adoption. We are processing this topic and seeing how exactly the Lord would have us take part in his mandate of taking care of the widows and orphans. That being said I thought I'd share will all who usually don't get our letters. This is part one in a series. How can we not be stirred up in our hearts? something to be thinking about...

The Spirit of Adoption
“Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after the orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.” James 1:27

“Stop bringing meaningless offerings! Your incense is detestable to me. New Moons, Sabbaths and convocations- I cannot bear your evil assemblies. Your New Moon festivals and your appointed feasts my soul hates. They have become a burden to me; I am weary of bearing them. When you spread out your hands in prayer, I will hide my eyes from you; even if you offer many prayers, I will not listen. Your hands are full of blood; wash and make yourselves clean. Take your evil deeds out of my sight! Stop doing wrong, learn to do right! Seek justice, encourage the oppressed. Defend the cause of the fatherless, plead the case of the widow.” Isaiah 1:13-17.

As I mentioned last month and in the paragraph above, Derek is adopting two handicapped kids from the Ukraine. He is literally rescuing them from death. In the Ukraine, if a child is not adopted by the time they are five, they are sent to an institution where they are kept in a small, dark room with no interaction and no toys. They are fed just enough to survive and most die very quickly. This is truer for handicapped kids than any other orphan because very few want the added responsibility that they bring.
In James chapter 1, the word and was added in our translations after the word distress. So the context in the original Greek is that we should look after the widow and the orphan to keep ourselves spotless from the world. (NKJV) In the Jewish way of thinking a widow was any woman without a husband. An orphan was someone without a father or parents so the application of this verse is not just adoption, it is also helping the single mom in the church and mentoring the kids whose father is not in the picture. The Lord is very serious about this and the verse in Isaiah says that He will not hear our prayers and will ignore our solemn assemblies. This is a very scary verse, especially to a 24/7 House of Prayer. As a community we have begun to look seriously at adoption and have about 20 couples who are in process. It is very important that if we are going to ask women not to abort their babies that we also have an answer for them. It is hypocrisy to do anything less.

Adoption is not for everyone. Many of you that get this letter are single or are already grandparents but there are other ways to help. I don’t have the space on this newsletter to fully disclose all of the plans that IHOP has but there are steps being taken to insure that we all have a hand in this. This is something that is just recently on my radar and I hope that you will bear with me as I continue on this subject for the next couple of months.

1 comment:

Ricci said...

Thanks for including this as part of your blog. I and Joe totally agree and have often thought about adoption, our prayers will be with you as you move through your proccesses of deciding if this is the direction God is calling you.