Are You Adopted?

Several years ago, I was working in my office when I received a phone call.
It was a phone call from a man whom I had never met by the name of Daniel
Whitworth.

Daniel said, "David, I have an unusual question to ask you."

"Uh, okay" I responded. "What is your question?"

"David, are you adopted?"

"Well," I responded, "I don't think so, but I can ask my parents. Why do
you ask?"

Daniel began telling me that he and his two brothers were adopted out to
different families when they were all very young. They could not keep in
contact with one another as they were growing up because none of the
brothers knew where the others had gone. Daniel said he had been able to
find and get reacquainted with one of his brothers. Now they were trying to
find their other long, lost brother. They wondered if I might be their
brother.

Daniel had seen my picture in the Magnolia Messenger, an informational and
instructional religious publication edited by A.L. Franks of Kosciusko, MS.
Daniel thought that there may be some family resemblance in our looks, so he
decided to call and ask if I had been adopted as a child.

My parents, Glenn & Sara Sargent, assure me that I am their biological
child. But if I were not, they would still be my loving parents! They have
taken care of me since I was born into the world, and they still bless me
with their wisdom, their example, and even frequent meals and occasional
help with household projects! (I am blessed to live about a mile away from
my parents.)

Even if I wasn't related to them biologically, they have loved me as their
son, and I have loved them as my parents. If I had not been born into their
family, I would count it a privilege to be adopted by them.

There is something very special about parents choosing a child to love and
nurture as their very own. Adoption is a beautiful thing, especially the
opportunity that each of us has to be adopted into God's family!

Each one of us had been "orphaned" because of our sin, but God loves us so
much that He wants to "adopt" us into His family. Please read Romans
8:15-17 and Galatians 4:4-7. At just the right time, God sent His Son to
redeem us from the bondage of sin and to give us the opportunity to be
adopted into His family (the church) as His children -- with all the
privileges, responsibilities, and rewards that He has for His children.

God adopts and accepts us into His family when... we place our faith and
trust in Him (Acts 16:30-31), turn from our sins in repentance (Acts
17:30-31), confess Jesus before men (Romans 10:9-10), and are baptized into
Christ for the forgiveness of our sins (Acts 2:38; Galatians 3:26-27).

Friend, God wants to adopt YOU into His family, but YOU have to accept His
offer.

Won't YOU?

P.S. Daniel, I may not be your brother in the flesh, but because of Jesus,
you and I are brothers in the Lord! What a blessing to be "blood-related"
(by the cleansing blood of Jesus) in God's Family, the church!

David A. Sargent