This weekend we were blessed beyond measure to attend the Answers in Genesis conference with Ken Ham, Buddy Davis and Dr. Gary Parker, at Colonial Baptist Church in Cary, NC. As we were leaving for a lunch break today, I heard my name being called out from the crowd. I turned to see a young mom in the playground with several children, both white and brown. As I turned and walked toward her, she looked familiar but I wasn't sure where I knew her from. "Do you remember me?" she asked. Then it hit me, "Yes, I do! You were at the Pure Religion Adoption & Orphan Conference I spoke at last August." "Yes! I was sitting next to you crying when Pastor Sean Cordel was speaking. You gave me tissues and we talked. Then my husband went to your session and that changed everything for us! I have been talking about you ever since and wrote about you on our blog.(www.roepnack.blogspot.com) After hearing your testimony, we knew we were supposed to move forward on our adoption. I have been wanting to contact you to tell you we got home 3 months ago with "Moses" & "Miriam" from Ethiopia! I stood there looking at these precious children and my whole body just shook with goosebumps literally all over me! She then turned to all our littles and said, "It was because of your story that we were encouraged to adopt our two babies!" All five of them got wide eyed, smiled with joy and began hugging and kissing on "Moses & Miriam". They were overjoyed to know the Lord is using them and their story for HIS glory! What a JOY to see her and yes, we were in tears again! But this time, to be able to hold and kiss her precious children was more than I could have imagined! I literally looked up to the sky and thanked the Lord for this honor and privilege of seeing some "Fruit" of speaking at that conference last August. He moved the mountains and gave them miracles!
Here is a note I got from her this afternoon.....
"Eileen, what a joy it was to see you today. I can only think that it was YOU today that God planned for me to see when I thought I was going to see Ken Ham. Thank you for giving my family an unbelievable joy, your gift is now my family's legacy. Missy"
I am so encouraged because I believe this is the purpose of our ministry. The Lord has called us to encourage the saints to be about HIS business of orphan care and adoption. Every time HE gives me the honor and privilege of hearing a testimony like this, I am hopeful that the book HE wrote for our family to share will also be an encouragement to others and more children will be welcomed into HIS family as a result. There is nothing more important than to love and teach the next generation the Holy word of God with the hope that they will receive the Lord Jesus as their Savior. Every child deserves the opportunity to be in a loving family, protected from harm and to be taught about the Savior of the world. It is my prayer and hope that our book, "More Than "I" Can Handle" will result in more testimonies like this. May all Glory Honor and Praise be to the Lord!
"Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in sinful man, in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit.
Those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. The mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life, peace; the sinful mind is hostile to God. It does not submit to God's law, nor can it do so. Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God.
You however, are controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ. But if Christ is in you, your body is dead because of sin, yet your spirit is alive because of righteousness. And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit, who lives in you.
Therefore, brothers, we have an obligation ---but it is not to the sinful nature, to live according to it. For if you live according to the sinful nature, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live, because those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. (Adoption) And by him we cry, "ABBA Father." The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God's children. Now if we are children, then we are heirs--heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.
I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of god.
We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what he already has? But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.
In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God's will.
And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose." Romans 8:1-28
"That if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved. As the Scripture says, "anyone who trusts in him will never be put to shame." For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile---the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him, for, "everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved." "Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ." Romans 10:9-13,17
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