God Assignments

I have been thinking about something our pastor has been discussing the last few weeks...God Assignments. He talked about how we have different kinds of God Assignments. There are Biblical Assignments, Corporate Assignments, and Personal Assignments. Here is the link to his sermon if you would like to hear it. http://www.restorationdfw.org/site/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=115&Itemid=258 Just click "Your Part in God's Plan." Here's my summary so you will understand where I am coming from.

1. Biblical Assignments (2 Timothy 3:16-17) - Clear assignments from God given in His Word. For example, "Love your neighbor as yourself." Matthew 22:39; "Honor your father and mother." Exodus 20:12/Ephesians 6:2
2. Corporate Assignments - These are assignments give to the local church body. For our church recently, it has been involvement with city leaders and officials to work to meet needs in the community around us.
3. Personal Assignments - Just that...things that God directs you, personally, to be doing.

So, I was thinking on these things this morning along with what we believe to be one of our Personal Assignments from God right now...adoption. We have been asked many times why we decided to adopt. If you are one of those people that have asked us, don't worry, it doesn't bother us to be asked. We want people to feel completely open to ask us questions and talk about it; however, I feel the words of my mouth in response to this question have not been an adequate expression of the passion and desires of my heart. I have been asking God to help me better express what I feel he has been speaking to us, so we can share it with those who inquire. I believe He is beginning to do just that.

Okay, so how does this all tie together? Well, this morning as I was thinking through when we originally began thinking about adoption, I realized that it was in God's Word. Now, I know you can probably quote the verse I am about to share, but please, stay with me for just a minute, because I have heard this verse for years, and until this last year, had never made quite this connection.

James 1:27 says, "Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world."

Look at that word "visit." Do you know, in this context, it does not merely mean to go and see? I didn't until I looked it up. Strong's concordance puts it this way:

Visit: to look upon or after, to inspect, examine with the eyes

1. in order to see how he is
2. to look upon in order to help or benefit, to look after, to care for, provide for: of God
3. to look (about) for, look out

That definition is certainly more involved to me than I had once considered. Then, this morning, it hit me. We are not adopting just because we feel like it is something God put on our hearts (though that would be reason enough!), which is what I so often tell people who ask, but we are adopting because it is part of a Biblical Assignment God has given His people...to look after, care for, provide for the fatherless. And, since there are "fatherless and widows in their affliction" around all of us, I believe that makes it a Corporate Assignment as well. Now, I do believe God's Assignment concerning orphans and widows may look different for each of us personally, but not exclusively. What I mean by that...I believe God's Word is clear that we are all to be involved somehow in caring for widows and orphans. It is not strictly a Personal Assignment God gives some. It is a Biblical Assignment for all of us and a Corporate Assignment for the Church.

That is why we are adopting. God told us in the Bible we were to be involved in ministry to orphans and widows, and when we began to seek Him as to how He wanted us to carry out this assignment, He led us in the way of adoption. We could not be more excited!

Nor could I be more excited to discover what other God Assignments I might have labeled someone else's Personal Assignment, when really it is a Biblical Assignment I need to be completing as well.

Thank you, God, for giving us your Word and your Holy Spirit to direct us in finding and fulfilling your purposes.