Following from the first question, “why adoption”, the next logical question is “why international adoption?” That is a really good question and it makes logical sense when you think of all the needs here in our own nation and the additional resources it takes to adopt a child from another nation. Our answer here is not a universal for anyone who considers adoption because each family has to follow God’s lead in their own hearts and He has led many to adopt domestically.
A similar question is typically asked about missions as well saying, “why go to other countries when there is so many lost here?” I think Robert Coleman said it best in his book The Master Plan of Evangelism where he said, “Contrary to our superficial thinking, there was never a distinction in [Jesus’] mind between home and foreign missions. To Jesus it was all world evangelism.” Too many times we draw lines between “us and them”, showing where our hearts really are. This was a lesson even the disciples did not understand early on. Jesus told them in John 10:14, “I have other sheep not of this fold. I MUST bring them also.” The same concept applies to adoption, there is no “us and them”. Every single child needs to be shown the love of Christ regardless of where they were born. And the real truth be told, many why ask that question about why go to other countries for missions instead of doing missions here have not shared the Gospel with anyone recently and are full of excuses why they have not.
After establishing there is no difference between “us and them”, now the questions are related to what are they being taken from. Typically our first thought goes to their physical living conditions. As we discussed this is not the primary reason, but just to put things into perspective, most children in foreign countries live in conditions we cannot even imagine. This video was made by someone at our former church and it is MOVING. Please take 5 minutes to watch.
Not only is their living conditions so much worse than ours, their spiritual poverty is so much darker than ours. Here is a couple links to sites that put the current condition of the spread of the Gospel around the world.
As you can clearly see, the US is far more reached that many foreign nations.
Lastly, Jesus commanded us to “Go, make disciples of all nations” in Matthew 28:19.
Therefore, as He said, “there are other sheep” that “MUST” be brought. Therefore, since we love Him above all else, we must “GO”!
No comments:
Post a Comment