Seeking His Face

"Father, reveal yourself to my spirit today as Abba, Father so I can find security in who you are and who I am.  Thank you.  In Jesus name, AMEN."

Holding His Hand

There were times in Old Europe where adoption was a widespread abusive system. In fact, some people were called “baby farmers” because they would buy babies from their mothers, officially adopt them, take out an insurance policy on the baby, then kill the baby to collect the insurance money. (Brenda Destro holds a D.S.W. from Catholic University of America)

          Later on, in America a Christian Methodist minister, Charles Loring Brace, noticed all the tens of thousands of homeless children in New York and other places and came up with a way to help children get adopted. The American Orphan Train was a literal train that operated from the 1850’s to the 1920’s. Orphaned children were rounded up and put onto a train, and then carried from town to town in order to find a home for them. It is estimated that somewhere between 150,000 and 400,000 children rode that train in search of a family. There were some success stories. The governors of both North Dakota and Alaska found an abundant life as orphans though the Orphan Train. The goal of the minister who started it, was to get kids off the streets and into families where they could live and be cared for. He believed that key for those children to have a full abundant life was for them to be adopted by a good family.

           God has a goal like that for you as well. His desire is for every person to get off the Orphan Train and be brought into the family of God. He has enough provision at the table for every person. You too, outside of Christ, were riding on the Orphan train. You were a spiritual orphan. Not able to care for your own spiritual needs. Not having someone to take care of you spiritually. Just scratching by. Instead God wants you to have an abundant life. 

• Poverty : Almost 75% of American children living in single-parent families will experience poverty before they turn 11 years old. Only 20 percent of children in two-parent families will do the same. --Source: National Commission on Children. Just the Facts: A Summary of Recent information on America's Children and their Families. Washington, DC, 1993.
• Drug and Alcohol Abuse: The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services states, "Fatherless children are at a dramatically greater risk of drug and alcohol abuse" --Source: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. (National Center for Health Statistics. Survey on Child Health. Washington, DC, 1993.)
• Physical and Mental Health: A study on nearly 6,000 children found that children from single parent homes had more physical and mental health problems than children who lived with two married parents. Additionally, boys in single parent homes were found to have more illnesses than girls in single parent homes. --Source: Hong, Gong-Soog and Shelly L. White-Means. "Do Working Mothers Have Healthy Children?" Journal of Family and Economic Issues 14 (Summer 1993): 163-186.
• Suicides: Three out of four teenage suicides occur in households where a parent has been absent. --Source: Elshtain, Jean Bethke."Family Matters: The Plight of America's Children." The Christian Century (July 1993): 14-21.

          We cannot overestimate the impact that fatherlessness has had on our nation. But if that is the impact of fatherlessness in the natural, what do you think is the impact of fatherlessness in the spiritual?! Could it be that many of the spiritually immature we find in the church today can be traced to a lack of revelation of God as our Father? Spiritual orphans have no inner security, no direction for their lives.  They are easily swayed by every wind of doctrine that comes along. They become spiritually hopeless. They do not guard their hearts. They become lost, in every sense of the word! They never grow up into mature men and women of Christ.