Carolina Hope Christian Adoption Agency currently has programs in Azerbaijan, China, Guatemala, and Cambodia (Cambodian adoptions are only available to non-U.S. residents). In December our Ethiopia Adoption program will open. Families wishing to adopt from Ethiopia can submit an application now to begin the process. Because laws in Ethiopia do not place unnecessary restrictions on intercountry adoption, young babies in need of homes are available (older children are available as well), and the process from matching to adoption of a child takes only a few months. Call us for details (864) 268-0570 or email office@CarolinaHopeAdoption.org.

(Carolina Hope is currently developing pages for our Azerbaijan and Ethiopia programs at our main website.)

Felicity Margaret Piper
September 23, 2007 | By: John Piper
Category: Written Posts by John Piper, Ministry Updates

In the hopes that you will pray for us, I’ll give you the news about Abraham’s daughter. Abraham is my son who serves as the Web Content Manager for Desiring God. He and Molly were expecting their second child on Sunday, September 23. Molly was big and healthy. Everyone was happy and excited about Orison’s little sister.

There had been no movement since Thursday. Nothing unusual, said the doctor, but you can come for a check-up if you wish. Saturday morning (September 22) they went to Hennepin County Medical Center. No heart beat. Ultrasound confirms: the baby is dead.

The phone call came to me first. It was Abraham through sobs, “We lost the baby.”

Noel and I arrived in a half hour. No explanation of the loss, not yet. After a couple hours they go home to get ready to induce later in the afternoon. At 1:30 PM they come to our home on the way to the hospital. Abraham’s brothers Karsten and Ben and their wives Shelly and Melissa are there. I read 2 Samuel 12:15-23, John 9:1-3, and 1 Corinthians 15:58 acknowledging that the word play on “labor” in verse 58 is not meant to be cute. We gathered around them and prayed. Ben drove them to the hospital. I went to church and dedicated 9 babies and preached from 1 Samuel 12:1-25, “The Sinful Origin of the Son of Man.” Then I went to the hospital to keep vigil.

At 11:54 PM, September 22, 2007, labor complete, Felicity Margaret Piper was born—lifeless. Abraham and Molly spent an hour or so with Felicity alone. Then the grandparents came in. Molly’s parents, Bob and Darlene Dillemuth had flown in immediately from Erie, Pennsylvania. Then Ben and Melissa and Karsten and Shelly and Millie and Talitha came in. All the adults held Felicity. I took lots of pictures and made a slide show to the music, “Be Thou My Vision.” It brings tears.

Abraham and Molly went home the next morning. The funeral is set for 11 AM Wednesday, September 26, 2007 at Bethlehem.

I have wept on Abraham’s shoulder with firm embraces. I have watched other men weep with him. I love the ready tears of strong men. I did not know Felicity. But I have known my son since he was Felicity’s age. When he is broken it affects me deeply. I cry when I see him and when I think about him. He loves being a father. He and Molly were both so excited about their girl. We are all numb with incomprehension. She was so ready and so healthy. The doctor who delivered her said the cord was tight around her neck and that was probably the cause.

Noel and I lay in bed at about 3 AM after coming home from the delivery thinking: strangling seems so preventable. By God and by man. Yes. So easy. But neither man nor God prevented this. Man, because he did not know it was happening. God, because he has his wise and loving reasons that we wait to learn with tears and trust.

Thank you for praying for us.

Many thanks to the following blogs for linking to my interview with Thabiti Anyabwile over at from hope to reality:

Desiring God
Gospel-Centered Pious Musings
Hantla.com
Spirit of Adoption
Like a Tree Planted
Place of Grace
Practicing Theology
A Full House
Between Two Worlds
The Littleton Family
Tim Challies
Adoptive Dads
Expanding the Albertsons
Serve Holly Springs
Provocations & Pantings
In Light of the Gospel
Spirit of Adoption
The Wrestling Mat
Thoughts from the Teahouse
Pensees
In All Things…God’s Glory
Adoption Resource
Vapor in the Wind

If I missed anyone, please e-mail me about it and I’ll gladly add them to the list (danc[at]CarolinaHopeAdoption[dot]org).

Carolina Hope’s adoption blog, from hope to reality, just published an interview with Thabiti Anyabwile entitled “Transracial Adoption and the Gospel.” I think you’ll find it very helpful.

My boys enjoyed a little dunk session recently. Noah, the first one to dunk in video one, is 3. Isaiah is 5.

One of my deepest desires is that the doctrine of adoption would be recovered within the Christian church, that it would be valued, treasured and articulated by pastors (and their people) and theologians even as the doctrine of justification is. Progress is being made, but there is much more needed—not only in its recovery but also in its proper understanding. It is a doctrine that makes known the great glory of God’s grace (see Ephesians 1:5-6). This is one of the reasons I am thrilled that Carolina Hope Christian Adoption Agency has commissioned me to study and articulate the precious, life-transforming doctrine of adoption.

“Of course it had never been doubted or concealed by any worthy expositor of the ways of God in salvation, that we are children of God by faith in Jesus Christ. Adoption is a Christian benefit. But much depends on the place in the mind given to a thought like this, and, especially, much depends on the dogmatic form it assumes, and the virtue allowed to it in the system” (Robert Rainy).

I recently posted a newspaper article over at from hope to reality that was written for the Greenville News by our adoption agency’s director, Laura Godwin. It addresses the way our society views the practice of adoption versus how it views abortion. The article is excellent and has generated a number of comments from individuals who are not Christians (a couple of which we were not able to post). Check it out below:

Make Adoption a Wonderful Choice

If you are an adoptive family (or are at least considering adoption), let me encourage you to read the book of Ephesians with your own adoptive family in mind. It is full of instruction that will strengthen and enrich relationships within adoptive families (or in any family for that matter). Jeanne Stevenson-Moessner, author of The Spirit of Adoption: At Home in God’s Family, writes:

“Shortly before he died, the New Testament scholar Bo Reicke was reworking his approach to Ephesians…In his revision, Reicke was going to assert that the last three [chapters of Ephesians], filled with practical application, were the heart of the book. Chapters 4-6 are filled with advice and admonitions about how to live and love as family of faith: Children of disobedience and wrath are to walk as children of light. Specific instructions are given as to how ‘beloved children’ related to one another. Household codes (rules of conduct) are offered in chapters 5 and 6.

“Why are these practical chapters the heart of the book? Read the rest of this entry »

This new book series from Driscoll & Crossway sounds very promising. Here are the first two scheduled books in the series:

Vintage Jesus: Timeless Answers to Timely Questions

Chapter 1 Is Jesus the Only God?
Chapter 2 How Human Was Jesus?
Chapter 3 How Did People Know Jesus Was Coming?
Chapter 4 Why Did Jesus Come to Earth?
Chapter 5 Why Did Jesus’ Mom Need to Be a Virgin?
Chapter 6 What Did Jesus Accomplish on the Cross?
Chapter 7 Did Jesus Rise from Death?
Chapter 8 Where Is Jesus Today?
Chapter 9 Why Should We Worship Jesus?
Chapter 10 What Makes Jesus Superior to Other Saviors?
Chapter 11 What Difference Has Jesus Made in History?
Chapter 12 What Will Jesus Do upon His Return?

Vintage Jesus is scheduled to come out this next February in conjunction with Resurgence’s Text & Context Conference.

Book two is Driscoll’s current project:

Death by Love

Many books debate the finer points of the doctrine of the atonement. What is often lost are the implications of Jesus’ death on the cross for those who have sinned and have been sinned against. This book will allow people to understand, appreciate, and trust in Jesus’ work on the cross for sins in a way that other books on the subject simply do not. The tone will be conversational, loving, heartfelt, and pastoral because it is based on real people and real sin.

Our hope is that Death by Love will be one of the most unique books ever written on the cross of Jesus Christ. It is a compilation of heartfelt letters written from me to people I pastor about the practical ways that Jesus’ death is the only hope for their life.

You can read more about these two forthcoming books here.

This was originally posted at from hope to reality. One of my co-workers, Josh, made an insightful comment on the post. I included it below.

The writers of the Heidelberg Catechism, one of the most influential confessional documents ever created, thought the doctrine of adoption was important enough to be included in this beautifully written question and answer document. I’m grateful they did. In it they briefly address the relationship between Christ’s Sonship and ours.

Question 33. Why is Christ called the “only begotten Son” of God, since we are also the children of God?

Answer: Because Christ alone is the eternal and natural Son of God; but we are children adopted of God, by grace, for his sake.

Josh’s comment in response to the above post:

It’s interesting that even before the era of positive adoption language, theological adoption is framed in the Catechism in terms of “natural” sonship vs. sonship by adoption — rather than “real” sonship vs. sonship by adoption. I conclude from this that you might be able to make an argument from theology for positive adoption terms. If we’re thinking about those theological parallels, then saying “they have 3 real kids and 2 adopted” is not just insensitive (a good social reason to avoid language like that), but it’s also theologically pernicious! If adoption doesn’t create a real parent-child relationship, then what’s our relationship to God?

This also has implications for the fringe anti-adoption movement that claims adoption creates a “legal lie” when it establishes a new parent-child relationship. This argument rests on the assumption that BIOLOGY = REALITY or HUMAN DESCENT = TRUE IDENTITY. But St. Paul tells us that under the New Covenant, human descent isn’t the primary issue anymore.

Hm … lots of theological implications that you can post about in the future, Dan. Thanks for your thoughts on adoption.

Charles Garland, co-author of “The Current Intellectual State of Affairs in America” with Tim Keller, preached a very helpful sermon on law and gospel from Exodus 20:1-3 on August 19th.. Listen to it here. Dowload it here.

Tim Chester on a better meeting place from Hebrews 8-9. He writes:

“At work … In the home … At school … You can be close to God. Maybe work or school feels a million miles away from church … When the pressure’s on at work, you may want to close your eyes, pause for a moment and remember that [you] can meet God in those moments and come before him boldly to find grace and help in time of need.”

I love the book of Hebrews.

Check out these two sermons by Charlie Boyd of Southside Fellowship.

How the Gospel Changes Everything: Rescued (Galatians 1:1-5)
How the Gospel Changes Everything: No Other Gospel (Galatians 1:6-12)

Timmy Brister announced his blog’s gospel-centered resources page. It contains lists of books, blogs, articles, and media to aid in enriching gospel-understanding. His plan is to update it regularly.

You can download Mike Bullmore’s “The Functional Centrality of the Gospel in the Life of the Local Church MP3″ for free now at Sovereign Grace Ministries Store. It’s excellent. Check it out.

One:22 blogs about a “preaching the gospel to yourself diagram.”

Download this free sermon from The Crowded House entitled “The priority of the gospel.” It’s the first sermon from their series on what The Crowded House values. I’ve been greatly challenged by them the last few weeks. Excellent stuff for sure.

:: click here for the previous post on gospel-centered talk around the blogosphere ::

Tim Chester and Steve Timmis write:

“People need to encounter the church as a network of relationships rather than a meeting you attend or a place you enter. Mission must involve not only contact between unbelievers and individual Christians, but between unbelievers and the Christian community. We want to build relationships with unbelievers. But we also need to introduce people to the network of relationships that make up that believing community so that they can see Christian community in action.

In our experience people are often attracted to the Christian community before they are attracted to the Christian message. If a believing community is a persuasive apologetic for the gospel then people need to be included to see that apologetic at work. People often tell me how they have tried telling their unbelieving friends about Jesus, but they do not seem interested. So they want to know what to do next. My answer is to find ways of introducing them to the Christian community” (Total Church, 56-57).

Tim Chester talks about their book, Total Church, here.

Abraham Piper writes:

“If we read fiction or poetry and we look for ‘the point’ instead of immersing ourselves in the experience, we ruin our faculty for truly enjoying it. We will see or read or listen to great art and only think of it as a cipher to be broken. The pleasure of the art will be replaced by the pleasure of ‘figuring it out.’ Sure, there is sometimes deciphering to be done, but that is not the point of a story or a poem.”

Read the full post here.

Let me know what you think about his article. What if the fiction author actually has a point that he intends for the reader to figure out? How much good fiction is written “without a point”?

(HT: MouseNaround)