Adoption Update: Entering the 2nd trimester of our pregnancy, A.K.A: "The Waiting"

Hello dear friends!

We are so glad to be able to finally sit down to give you an update.  We can’t be more grateful for all those prayers and questions we are constantly getting about our adoption. Your interest and support is so encouraging!  Here are the links to our previous updates for those of you who are new to our journey: Part 1, 2, 3, 4.

As always we will entertain you along with our pictures! Join us as we dream of how our little daughter would look like monkeying around with our family!!

There will be more a few more technical words on this update than the usual.  We hope this helps you understand where we are at in our process.  We also hope this is helpful to those of you asking as you are starting to ponder about adoption as a choice to expand your own family in the future.  This is the best compliment and encouragement that we can get: Inspiring some of you to embark on this wonderful journey yourselves.  However we also love to see how everybody can be involved to help these children in so many different ways. We are so grateful for all of you!



 

I bet she would love to visit the old Sugar mill with her family!

And would love to make her very own pancake at the table! I wonder what flavor would be her favorite?

Ok, let’s jump right in! As of March 5^th of this year we became what is called “LID” which stands for “Logged In date”.  This is a great milestone in the process. What this basically means is that our Dossier, (Or tons of paperwork) was logged in on the books of the China Center for Children’s Welfare & Adoption (CCCWA) which is the ultimate Chinese authority for international adoption affairs.  China has legally acknowledged us as a potential adoptive family now.  Super yay! So now, we have officially entered the “waiting” stage of our journey, where we can be matched with a child that could potentially be a good fit for our family.  At this point, we roughly estimate this wait can range anything from 3 to 9 more months from now.  What a long pregnancy, right? We’ve been carrying this baby for a long time! But we know it’s so worthy!

I bet she would get a kick of petting this pony along with big brother!

And she for sure would dress up to visit the local "Medieval Festival". =)

Since we are adopting through the “Waiting Child Program” –Another way to refer to adopting a “special need child from China”, the criteria leading to the matching process is based on what we submitted in our Medical Condition List or “MCC”.  This a comprehensive list that is used by the adoptive family to lay out the characteristics of the child we are open to adopt in terms of age, gender and the medical conditions that we feel able and comfortable to manage. 

Oh sister, I'm ready to sing along with you in the mornings while mum cooks us breakfast!!

And have fun making paramount messes!!

 There are dozens of different conditions listed ranging from minor/major heart diseases, limb differences, vision/hearing impairments, digestive conditions, to nervous/developmental, skin, blood or facial conditions like cleft lip and palate among others.  I know at first sight this may scare the bejeebers out of some of you!  But to keep it real, once you become familiar with all these conditions you become much more at peace with the idea of adopting a special need child.  All the medical treatments available now days are making prognosis more and more optimistic and all type of diagnoses much more manageable.  Actually learning about this has made us more aware of all the friends we have around who have different type of physical limitations, and can just live perfectly normal and fulfilling lives.  Many of these conditions are correctable with surgery and special therapy, so what many of this children need is just that opportunity to become all they were created to be.  We so want to be givers of that opportunity! There are SO MANY stories of children that were adopted with what may have seem scary at first sight, but who are thriving and living healthy and fulfilling lives after proper treatment has been provided. And again, we are so excited to be part of one of those stories!

I bet she'd enjoy helping daddy to practice for his "Bull run"

And throwing tomatoes at him just for fun at the "Tomato Festival"!!

So with that said, you can imagine how much we have been reading and learning about the conditions that we are open to.  We are very glad with all the resources that our agency CCAI has made available to learn more about many of the different conditions.  This is a link to a bunch of very educational videos on doctor’s perspectives on different medical conditions.   And this one is another link to some of the many organizations that specialize on specific conditions. 

 

She would love building sand castles with little brother...

And beating big brother on a homemade bowling match!

We are so grateful to be part of this time and era.  The information and support are definitely out there.  However, we know that we don’t have complete control over our story, and only God knows all the details, challenges and victories that lay ahead. So for that reason we covet your prayers!  The way our agency works “the match” with our family is through sending us the medical file of a child or a couple of children they think could be a good fit.  Upon receiving a potential match, we are to diligently work with our pediatrician, specialist, insurance company, and even our social worker to research the file so that we ensure that we are physically, financially, emotionally, and practically prepared to parent this specific child.

Oh, won't she look cute being part of our geeky family? I bet she will be super cute cheering up daddy's robotics team! We want you home Bush girl! The team needs you!

So as you can imagine, this is a great deal! One that can be very emotionally involved.  However, we know that God will never lead us to take more than what we can handle, as it would never be fair neither for us nor for our future daughter.  He is the designer of our family, so we really need you to continue lifting us in your prayers so that this would be a matching made in heaven! And that we continue trusting God and following His leading through this waiting stage. As I’ve heard a while ago: “The waiting is not arbitrary”, everything is beautiful on His time. Thank you again friends for helping us bring our little Bush girl home!

Xie, xie!

Paola

Don’t forget that we are still soaping ourselves with our homemade soap fundraiser “Bubbles for Hope! =) We are super grateful to those of you that have kept those orders coming! Help us spread the word. Check us out in facebook at www.facebook.com/bubblesforhope

Some Resources for your Personal Bible Study: Desiring God-The website

This is a post for those of you that are starting your journey on studying the bible and are looking for resources online.  I think we are such a blessed generation by having so much resources readily available to the tip of our fingertips.  We should not forget though that there is nor replacement to our personal and individual Holy Spirit led bible study.  A continuous and solid diet of reading and studying the scripture is vital to grow, mature and to face the complexities of life and be successful according to God's standards.  It's like seating by our perfect mentor and teacher, God, to learn, to be comforted, filled and encouraged.

With that in mind, one of the resources that I love to tap on when doing research on doctrine is the website: DesiringGod.org.  I know probably many of you are aware of this treasure chest of free books, articles and free podcast among other things. They have over 10,000 free resources to look at!  More than what you can read on a lifetime! I have found it very helpful on my quest to grow my faith, my understanding and my passion for God's word.  And I’m glad that it's a website so readily accessible to so many.  They’re reaching out to millions of people worldwide through their engaging, creative and biblically sound content.

 

 

Their resources come from many different sources; however John Piper is the main author.  I highly regard most of his ideas.  All his books and sermons are available in PDF format on this website. I specially enjoy listening to his daily podcast called: “Ask Pastor John”.  He receives questions from all over the world regarding all type of issues, from tattoos to suffering, from fighting porn, to C.S Lewis: All kind of issues.  He normally gives very insightful, biblically based answers, which are usually very helpful. You can listen to it directly from their website or via their App, Facebook, or Twitter if you’re on the go or if you are a busy mommy like me and just have available ears while doing not-mentally-engaging activities like folding laundry. There, I gave you a great idea to start looking forward to fold your laundry! =)

 

 

 I like this podcasts so much that I will be transcribing some quotes from some of my favorite ones.  This will help me get a bird’s eye view on ideas I don’t want to forget, and I hope it blesses you by giving you instant view to some neat concepts.  Also, I love how generously this website makes material available and encourage others to share it as long as the authorship is recognized. It says a lot of their commitment to make God known to as many people and ways as possible. I heard this before, but I can’t imagine what the Apostol Paul would have done if Internet would have been available on his time.  We are so blessed by having this medium to help us spread the gospel! Let all these resources empower us under the leadership of the Holy Spirit to make His glory known right on and from the place He has planted you!

What about you, what type of resources online have you found useful for your personal bible study? 

On Parenting with The Mirror

-“I want you to share your toys with your brother, GJ”, -Me, on an authoritative, yet loving tone of voice. –“No!! it’s mine!”, -GJ, snatching it away from his brother’s hands, taking off and igniting a tantrum which I have come to realize makes my mommy’s lower back pain worse.  Sounds familiar? I know this happens a thousand times in a house with little ones.  I’ve been trying to correct this behavior and teach the value of sharing and generosity for a while now, and yes! It can be frustrating, and double yes! It is exhausting! However I recently learned something that makes my efforts and exhaustion purposeful. A silverlining that I very much needed:  that moments like these are not only prime opportunities to instruct our children’s behaviors, or to instill Godly characters in them, but actually to preach the gospel to them: To get to the “heart of the matter” –Their heart, and show them their need fo God.

 

In the meanwhile I will also entertain you with our pictures from our "Weeding project" ..Yes, it looked really sad, hadn't been back there for a while!

 This is not originally my idea.  It actually comes from the bible. (See Ephesians 6:4).  I love the powerful way that a couple of books that I’m reading expand on the matter:  “Shepherding a Child’s Heart” by Ted Tripp, and “The Faithful Parent” by Stuart Scott. These two are superb resources which I highly recommend to parents of kids of all ages. These two books expand in much more than this, however, they make special emphasis on our sharing the gospel to our children as our main goal as parents. Such a special task, yet so humbling. No wonder they say that our children are our first mission field.  I think it’s totally true, who else in the world has such intimately access to somebody’s world at such tender and impressionable age? I know we don’t have the power to make them be born again. God does.  But we definitely have the power and the responsibility to diligently and faithfully teach them the truth of who God is and also who they are, and how the gospel connects those two facts.  How else can we assure that our children will have fruitful, meaningful and productive lives, but by ensuring that their hearts are surrendered to God? “For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks” (Matthew 12:34b).



But I had new recruits!

I am focusing today on one of the best ways to teach our children about who they are.  I know this may not sound very appealing, but that doesn’t make it less truth:  Our children are fallen sinners, desperately in need of God’s salvation and grace.  I remember not long time ago, when brand new to parenting, I use to wonder about the “age of accountability”.  I know there are different positions on the subject.  And I don't think I can state any specific age.  I actually believe this may change from child to child depending on their maturity level and development pace.  I am one that believes that newborn children and babies that die go straight back to God in heaven.  (See 2 Samuel 11:22), thus our hope to see our son again when we get there.  However, I don’t wonder about this age of accountability anymore.  I can just plainly see the answer with my eyes as they start to get older.  Those stinking cute little ones of mine, who melt my heart a thousand times every day, are starting to show the buds of the decaying seed implanted in them.  The selfish, self-glorifying, God-rejecting, sinful nature is there, and  I just know with my big loving mother’s heart that I have the pressing responsibility to teach my children that there is a change of heart, a change of seed that needs to take place.  And that they will be held accountable for it. That is the most loving thing to do.  After. Praying. A. Lot.  Lest they face the unfortunate challenge which makes sharing the gospel very hard in our day and age, the fact that most people don’t understand the concept of sin or even conceive they’re sinners.

 

The kind that loves playing with dirt!! =p

So going back to my example, simple acts of disobedience are wonderful windows of opportunity to lovingly, patiently and consistently teach our children about their sinful nature, and how this is one of the influencing factors of their behavior.  I know there is a lot more behind a child’s behavior than this.  I don’t pretend to simplify child psychology to just this area.   We have to do a lot of training, helping our children understand their emotions and how they can develop effective character tools like self-control and obedience, among many other things to cope with the upsetting or frustrating situations they will encounter every day.  But the primary root of the problem, their sinful nature, needs to be addressed if we want to really help them grow to be all God wants them to be.  So I don't think that just teaching them to behave, or to be self-aware or self-controlled, or to be good is enough. They just can't do it on their own, they need God to give them a new nature.

They actually really earned their keep! =)

Of course any of this will be literally impossible if we don't spend some good "quality AND quantity" time with them.  How else are we then going to catch those windows of opportunity? A good illustration for this is the process of "potty training". You can't potty train a child if you don't spend time with him catching her accidents and teaching her why, and what to do when she feels the urge to go.  You need to be close to them continuously to accomplish this.  However, even though this is a good illustration, we need to remember that we can't "outsource" our parenting role to preach the gospel to our children, in the same way we sometimes can let others, a childcare giver for example, potty train our child.  We the parents, are ideally the ones that are given this responsibility and opportunity.  I know this probably is an unlikely proposition for non-Christian families, and there is when we are called to be salt and light to them.  But for a family of believers, we the parents are to be the number ones sharing the gospel with our children.

Boys will be boys!



One of the greatest tools God put in our hands to facilitate this child training process is His Word.  Sometime ago I had the realization that if I learn to use the Bible as a mirror it will help me show them and lovingly tell them how dirty they really are, and how much they need a deep-inside-out cleansing by the gospel.   Otherwise they just will not know.  It works just in the same way as when we are told that we have a little bit of food on the side of our mouth in a social situation.  It is the kind and loving thing to do, and even though it makes us feel awkward at first , it makes us feel thankful as we can take care of it.  As parents we need to learn to lovingly hold this mirror in front of them, every chance we see them “covered in dirt”. 

"Noise with dirt on it! =p

Do you like my "bull dog" face? =P

So it seems to me that disobedience at an early age is not that bad after all.  I’m not claiming to be mastering the use of this “mirror” yet, I am at the very beginning of the process, but I’m very intentionally trying to memorize some passages that I can translate down into their level to use when needed. Some of the passages that I’d like to start using are: (Romans 7:19, Romans 3:23, John 3:16, & Psalm 119:11). Here it is a very good resource I found with short, handy bible passages to memorize with our children to help us on this training process. The name of the website is "Parenting with Scripture".  It is really good.



 

We even had the chance to pick up some calamondin oranges from our tree!

Baby brother couldn't resist, I guess what better lesson on "Sourness" than just to try it yourself huh!..But they're awesome for marmalades and baking goods! =)

I know some of you may be thinking as I wondered myself at some point:  Aren’t these way too abstract concepts for a child to understand? The idea of conceiving the Word as a seed that you plant and water every day has given me much peace about it.  Sharing the gospel with our children so they can grasp the concept to express saving faith later on is a process that takes time. And our faithful labor on it as parents day in and day out should give us the opportunity to plant as many seeds as possible specially during the highly fertile season of the early years, and any other seasons for those with older kids.

We actually did a good job, didn't we?..well, this is a good start! Thanks for cheering us up! =)

The timing is not completely on our hands.  We must remember after all, that the harvest doesn’t depend uniquely on our labor, or on our children’s choices, but primarily on God who is the one who calls each one by name and produces the growth. He does it on His perfect time and way, and wants us to trust Him for the results and of course to enjoy those little ones to the rims of our hearts! They are a gift to treasure, to teach and to grow old with!

My Personal Quest into "Predestination" vs "Freedom of Will", a letter to my children. (Part 2)

This is the second part of my series on this quest. If you didn’t get to read the first part, here it is.  This is a letter to my children; however I thought that making it public will benefit some that may want to embark on the same quest:

My dear children,

This debate is not new to me. I actually have been hearing about it in messages, books and articles through the years. It’s quite popular. However, it wasn’t until I read this passage the other day that the thought of finally organizing my thoughts about it through the exercise of writing things down came to mind. It was interesting to me that it wasn't Romans 8:29-30, which is classically the passage that most people addressing this debate quotes. I hope to be able to get to many other places in the bible that shed light on this issue. So this won't be a short process.

So today I want to address some insights on the few parables that I am using as springboards to launch me into this study.

-For first time in my Christian life understanding the parable of the Sower, the parable of the Weeds, and the parable of the Net has been a challenge to me. (Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23, 24-30,36-42, 47-52)*

-Jesus explained the first 2 parables, however at first sight when I looked at them from the lenses of the age time debate of Predestination vs Free-will (Calvinism vs Arminianism), it seems to me these parables may or not present potential facts regarding the validation of one or the other.

-Some of the questions that came to mind when I read this passage today were: How are God's sovereignty and  freedom of will represented in the types of soil Jesus is referring to? And also, how can we explain the concept of freedom of will, if both the "Weed seed", and the "Bad fish" where bad from the beginning?

-I believe that regardless of whether this text is indeed related to this debate, a Holy Spirit led inquiring into it is very important to the mature Christian for the sake of allowing one’s heart to take stances regarding our confidence to preach the gospel, and also to contribute to our view of God and our trust in Him. Do we really view Him as a God that is all powerful and who is really in control of all things? Do we trust God's sovereignty when facing evil or trials?

-If God is the one who does the choosing, then when praying for unsaved dear ones, we should primarily focus on praying that God would choose to open their spiritual eyes, and make the transformational work in their heart which is prerequisite for a person to even start being responsive to the Gospel, instead of praying that that person would just willfully decide to start listening to it.  I hope that getting a better understanding on this subject would give me more peace when facing the way others respond to the gospel, knowing that God is ultimately sovereign over who gets saved, and why.

-I believe that taking either position should not affect the believer’s assurance of salvation, or his willingness to readily preach the gospel and make disciples, as only God, and not us merely humans, knows who are the citizens of heaven regardless of who did the choosing. I believe we are still called to preach the gospel and spread the “seed” as frequently and widely as we can, and allow God to take care of the outcome.

-With this in mind I am going to try to embark on a personal quest to try to sort out my understanding on whether we are predestined to be God’s children or not.  I pray that some of my findings embolden my witness for Christ and my passion to delight in and live for Him. And to trust Him completely.

-On trying to avoid any presumption, I have to understand that this may very well be a quest to last a lifetime. However I pray that God rewards my desire to understand His will, and lead me to fruitful study. I also pray that some of my answers help my children embark in their own quest with God to grow in him and savor His eternal pleasures, after all we were created to get to know Him: “And this is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.” -John 17:3


To be Continued..

Our Adoption Journey - New Update: Steadely Moving Forward to Go Across that Ocean...of Paperwork!

Hello friends!

As promised, here's a super overdue update regarding where we are on our adoption process. Thank you so much to all of you who haven't stopped praying, asking us questions or showing interest in our adoption journey! We have been specially blessed to know that some of you have even been encouraged to become a forever family yourselves. Yes! For those of you that have recently joined our supporting group and haven't read our previous updates, here they are: Update # 1, #2, and #3. Also, to those that want to know how can you specifically pray for us at this point, there is an updated prayer request list at the bottom of this post. We covet your prayers!



As always we'll spice up your reading with some of our latest family pictures




And invite you to join our wishful thinking as we imagine our daughter being part of them!

 Ok, so without further ado, let us share where we are at the moment. We hope this is informative specially for those looking to adopt in the future:

At this point we believe to be at the tail end of the 2nd step of our "Paperwork pregnancy". Just as a reminder, and at a very high level, the five major steps of an Chinese adoption are:  Applying and Obtaining the Agency Approval,     Compiling the Dossier (Documentation to get approved by China and the U.S),  Being matched with our child,  Traveling to China to bring our child home and last Bonding and Post-placement.

We would love her to try the best Sweet potato casserole of the world, Daddy's!

Or just join our joyful noise as we sang carols after dinner during Christmas!

Every step mentioned above involves lots of action items. We don't want to bore you with details, but please free to ask us if you like to know. It is true, adopting a child requires lots of diligence in the way of legalities that need to be taken care of. And now being in the middle of the process we understand why. In the case of international adoption, making sure that you are dealing with a legitimate organization prevents fraud and abuse.  Human trafficking is rampant worldwide, including the U.S, but is even more rampant and less restrained in underdeveloped countries. Therefore the need for inter-country treaties like "The Hague Convention" which establishes parameters for international adoptions. If you are interested in becoming a forever family, one of the first things you have to make sure when choosing your agency, is that it is a "Hague accredited agency".  The Official Intercountry adoption website  is a good place to educate yourself about many of the details of international adoption. You can read about the status and requirements to complete an adoption from virtually any place in the world.

We dream with getting her 'Thing 3" family t-shirt

And watching  her devour her Birthday cake! =)

At this point we have completed most of our "Dossier", which is the compilation of all the documents required to be approved by the Chinese government. This is a list of roughly about 15 documents (Birth-marriage certificates, employment-income verification, financial statements, social workers interview, etc.) that need to be notarized, and certified by different local, state and federal officials, before they are sent for final approval by the Chinese government. That is how the expression "paperwork-pregnancy" was coined. Capiche?! No joke, dealing with so much red tape has felt a bit like morning sickness at some times.  But do not be discouraged, it's is doable. Our agency has been of great help to keep ourselves organized and going at a good steady pace at this stage of the process.

and to play and read silly stories with mommy and brother!

And to grab Daddy's other leg...wouldn't that be fun!

At this point we are specifically waiting for the last piece of document to add to our pile which is the approval by the Department of U.S immigration. Once this is received, the whole stack will be translated into Chinese and shipped to the CCCWA or the China Centre for Children's Welfare and Adoption, which is the office that finally approves our family to bring our daughter home.

We are eagerly waiting for you sister!

We have a lifetime of love & adventures  to share with you!

Ok friends I think this gives you an idea of where we are at now. The next time we will be sharing about our Adoption agency CCIA and why we chose to work with them. Again thank you very much for your continuing support and prayers. We are overly ecstatic for the success of our fundraiser "Bubbles for Hope".  We have for sure been super busy making soap, but what a difference when you are exhausted for a purpose! =)

We can't wait 'til the moment where we can hold your hand too! =)

Here is the list of specific ways you can pray for us now:

• Pray for God's protection over our daughter's life. That the Lord surround her with angels and compassionate people that would protect her thru whatever circumstances are leading her family to abandon her or giving her away.

• Pray for her health. (I'm tearing up here, this is hard to type) Please pray that God would touch her body with the power of His healing. That He would be her doctor and her main care taker. That He would provide compassionate people, physical and financial means to care for whatever physical challenges she's facing, whether these may be congenital, or any diseases coming from the orphanage setting. Please pray that God would supernaturally strengthen her immune system.

• Please ask God that she will be given favor and be assigned a foster mother that provide the care and love that she needs at her early age. If this is not possible, that she be surrounded by loving caretakers in her orphanage that would be passionate about caring for these little children.

• Please pray for protection against any abuse or any harsh circumstances that may cause her to be psychologically, emotionally or physically wounded. And please pray for us as we try to learn about compassionate healing parenting. That the Lord give us the wisdom, stamina, patience and means that we need to love her to health, thriving and to Him.

• Please pray that God's favor be upon us as we work on the tail end of our paperwork. Please pray specifically that the Secretary of State and the Chinese embassy would expedite the certification of documents and that immigration would give us our approval soon.

• Please pray that God would orchestrate the timing of our matching with her. That He gives us peace knowing that the waiting is not arbitrary, and that He's the author of our story.

Xie, Xie,

Paola

My Personal Quest into "Predestination" vs "Freedom of Will", a letter to my children. (Part 1)

Dear readers, this is a letter to my children. However I thought that making it public may benefit some that perhaps have faced the same questions at some point. Here it is.


My dear child,

Since day one, when we first open our lives to treasure God above everything else and start our pilgrimage towards that special heavenly home, questions will be knocking on our doors. Some questions will be perplexing; others discouraging, yet others may even feel hurtful.  Whichever the nature of questions or doubts you have, I want you to remember that we can always ask God. He wants us to ask him. Otherwise He would not have left the Holy Spirit to teach us all things. (See John 14:26)*.  When we humbly approach God for answers, He actually uses them to strengthen our faith and make our experience with Him the more enjoyable and our lives for His sake even the more fruitful.  Picture a father that sits down with his son to teach him with undivided attention and zealous devotion. This is how God likes to teach us. And everything, including the stuff that makes both the questions and the answers has its origins in Him. (Colossians 2:2-3)*. So rest assured that you will get more than you ask for, in God, you will always get not the answer that you’re looking for, but the answer that you really need.

So with this in mind, let me share with you, one of my current quests on documenting some of my personal understanding regarding the age old debate  on whether God chooses us to be his children, or we choose Him.  Many call this debate the debate between “Predestination” vs “Free Will”  or “The Calvinistic Debate".

Some questions like: “Why should I bother preaching the gospel if people are going to come to God if He wills anyway?” or, “Why should we make people accountable for their sin, if God doesn’t predestine everyone to go to heaven?”, or "why does God choose to withhold His truth from some people?", or “Why did God allow evil anyway?” steam from this debate.  And that’s why I think that every Christian should tackle these questions at some point of their pilgrimage.

I want you to know that being on either side of this debate doesn’t affect your salvation, you can be confident on your faith if you are standing on either side. However, a clearer understanding on this issue will definitely embolden your faith, especially when facing life trails.

Finally, I want you to remember that I am not theologian, but just a honest believer wanting to know and experience God. I will never get to all there is out there to read by doctors and theologians on the subject.  I just need to get enough answers trusting that God in His grace will provide them. After all he said that if we lack wisdom, we can confidently ask Him. (James 1:5). However, I hope that some of my findings, or even more, some of my questions, encourage you to dig deeper, bring your own questions, and even your own doubts to a God who is eager to teach you. He really is.

To be continued..

 

“We are Called to Treasure Him Because He Treasured us first” - A few thoughts on the Parable of the Hidden Treasure and the Pearl

In my efforts to write more this year I have decided to post some of the lessons and insights I will be getting from my study of the Bible this year. I had some sort of epiphany this morning -At least, I like to believe it was, which sparked my desire to sit down a write. Even though I believe the best journal, message and even book one can write with the lessons got from scripture should be “life itself”, “spoken words” and “daily choices”, I think there is a value to write things down…and share them. Not only to use it as a reminder for later on, but because others can be edified by it. When I was thinking about others this morning, the first ones that came to mind were my children.  And even though I seriously doubt they will be interested in reading my notes on hardcopies many years from now, which will probably be a rarity,  I certainly think, they may be interested in checking their momma’s blog. -Again, I like to think they will..I pray they do!  So anyway, since I am already doing some writing while I work on my BSF homework, I am as might as well, going to try compile my insights and post them in my blog. It’s not a super deep and exhaustive study, (I’m not using any commentaries at this point) but going a little deeper than a quick casual reading on short passages has proved to be of great help to me.   I hope to get better at succinctness with time and practice. So here it goes. Today the lesson was on the Parables of the Hidden Treasure and the Pearl from Matthew 13: 45-46:

 

“The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field.

“Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls. ⁴⁶ When he found one of great value, he went away and sold everything he had and bought it.”

 

My dear children, this is some of what I believe this passage is saying:

 

• The treasure represents God and His kingdom.  We are to treasure Him above anything else in our lives because we were created for Him, and nothing else in the universe can give us more Joy than this. When He is in the first place in our minds and affections, everything else falls into place. 

• Even though cross-referencing other passages against this one may raise some questions about the right interpretation of “Treasure”. The meaning at first could be perceived as ambiguous as it refers to “God” in some places, (See Psalm 73:25-26, Col 2:2-3)* and to us in some others.  (See Deuteronomy 7:6)* I favor both interpretations. I don't think they're mutually exclusive in the sense, that we treasure God because He treasured us first. We are intended to love God because He loved us first.

• In the same way “the Pearl” can mean "us" as the lost treasure that God came to rescue. He found it and bought it for a really hefty price: Jesus' blood. It can also mean "Jesus" as the treasure that God made available for us.  He’s the treasure that we must get to make sense of it all, and to have a real perspective on value. To find joy, meaning, and hope. To learn and experience what delight really is!!

• The “Merchant” in this passage refers to both "us" and "God" in the sense that He will never ask us to do anything that He hasn't already done. He doesn't only show us what to do, but also produces in us to will it and to do it: (See Phill 2:13)*. He actually modeled it and then wants to do it in and thru me. He is the ultimate mentor.

 

• “Selling everything" to buy the pearl from God's perspective may refer to leave His throne to become a man and die for our sins. From our perspective: To let Him have priority over absolutely everything else in our lives: Letting Him have precedence in our affections, and thoughts, and energy, and time, and money, etc.

 

I think Jesus didn’t interpret these parables because He left the Holy Spirit to teach us and explain to us all things. It is a joy to sit at the feet of the Holy Spirit and have Him explaining to you what Jesus meant thru these words. But most importantly to help you give them full meaning when they become a reality in your own walk with God (See John 14:26)*