A sign from God?

Could the Lord be trying to tell me something? On Sunday my wife and I had a talk about having another baby, should we wait, should we have a third, what about adopting, we used to talk about adopting a child when we were younger and more idealistic, and how it would be such a strong expression of God's love, of Christian faith, etc. We are torn between trying to have a third child and hoping for a boy, and feeling like we can't handle a third, and feeling like what about adoption. I said to her, what we need to do, is ask God to give us a clear sign that He wants us to adopt, and not only that, to show us whom to adopt. That way we will know what to do. Today, in the morning I had a few minutes before the girls woke up. I decided to sit down and have a devotional, a too rare thing in my life I'm sorry to say. I knew I only had 10 minutes at the most, and I couldn't find the Bible and I might wake them if I entered our bedroom to fetch it. So I reached for this book that I've opened maybe one or twice, but never read. It's called, Prayers That Avail Much by Germaine Copeland. I don't know anything about this book or the author. It was sent as a gift by my mother in law a couple of years ago, around the same time they also sent us The Purpose Drive Life, no doubt, in the hope that I'd get my life more together...So I don't know where to begin and I decide to just read a prayer prayerfully. I open the book. It's over 550 pages. I begin to read somewhere in the middle of the prayer:

"Lord, we are embracing this child (Your best gift) as our very own with Your love, as Jesus said, "Whoever embraces one of these children as I do embraces me, and far more than me--God who sent me"(Mark 9:37 MESSAGE).

Father, take this child up and be a Father and Mother to him/her as we extend our hands and our hearts to embrace him/her. Thank You for the blood of Jesus that gives protection to this one whom we love.

We thank You for the man and woman who conceived this child, and pray that You will bless them, cause Your face to shine upon them and be merciful to them...

Mercy and truth are written upon the tablets of your hearts, and You cause us to find favor and good understanding with You and with man--the adoption agency staff, the judges, and all those who are involved in this decision-making process. May everyone be careful that they do not despise one of these little ones over whom they have jurisdiction--for they have angels who see Your face continually in heaven...

The name of the prayer is "Adopting a Child". I'm stunned. I begin the prayer from the beginning: Father, in Jesus' name, we come boldly before Your throne of grace that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in our time of need. We are trusting in You, and seek to do good, so that we may dwell in the land and feed surely on Your faithfulness.

We delight ourselves in you, and You give us the desires and secret petitions of our heart. We believe our desire to adopt a child is from You, and we are willing to assume the responsibility of rearing this child in the ways of the Master.

Father, we committ our way to You [roll and repose each care of our load on You]. Our confidence i sin You, and You will bring this adoption to pass according to Your purpose and plan.

Lord, Your Son Jesus demonstrated your love for children when He said, ..."Let the children alone, don't preven them from coming to me. God's kingdom is made up of people like this"....

thoughts on modern times 1

http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?BRD=1091&dept_id=425723&newsid=17197440&PAG=461&rfi=9

Hank Kalet wrote:

I won't disagree that the years in the wilderness didn't produce some great music -- "I and I" is as good a song as he produced during that period and one of his better generally, but I don't think you can compare "Empire Burlesque," an uneven record, with "Love and Theft." I think if he would have released three records in the 1980s, culling the best material from "Shot of Love," "Infidels," "Empire Burlesque" and "Knocked Out Loaded" we wouldn't be having this discussion. I liked "Oh Mercy" a lot, by the way, but just think time has not been as kind to the production.

Thanks for the response.

Hank

Hank,

It's a pleasure to hear from the author. I apologize if I came across rudely. You hint at something vital in appreciating work from that period, and that is that you can make playlists and burn them now so that one can come up with their own versions of albums. For sure I would agree that Knocked out Loaded, Down In the Groove, and Empire Burlesque are worth one album. They were released between 1985 and 1988, so lets say he started work on them in 1984. I wonder what was the rush? Had he waited till 1988 with the best material from these.... Of course that didn't happen. Lucky for us, we can correct this with digital media and not throw away the few precious babies with the bath water. If he had chosen the right songs for Infidels, and done a better job with Oh Mercy in this regard too, knowing now what else came out of those sessions, Infidels and Oh Mercy would now be seen great works, I think--not Blonde on Blonde, mind you, but very strong, deep, and satisfying. So in that spirit, I have "corrected" versions of these two album in iTunes, even though I do like the originals very much.

I'm still wondering what to make of Modern Times. Some of the songs I swore off after a couple of listenings, I'm liking very much now. I haven't been able to come around to Nettie Moore yet, but strangely enough, I find myself thinking random lines from it that stuck in my mind. I can't decide if I like the production, or if Dylan robbed some of the tracks of the vitality they were meant to have by having turned down do much. I enjoy listening to the band in all the tracks, but I find myself wanting them to let loose like they did on Love and Theft, an album which has grown in my estimation since it was released.


Hank Kalet wrote:

I won't disagree that the years in the wilderness didn't produce some great music -- "I and I" is as good a song as he produced during that period and one of his better generally, but I don't think you can compare "Empire Burlesque," an uneven record, with "Love and Theft." I think if he would have released three records in the 1980s, culling the best material from "Shot of Love," "Infidels," "Empire Burlesque" and "Knocked Out Loaded" we wouldn't be having this discussion. I liked "Oh Mercy" a lot, by the way, but just think time has not been as kind to the production.

Thanks for the response.

Hank

hello

Hello World. Welcome to my unknown blog. If you are reading this, I find that strange. I created this to be able to comment on someone else's blog. I doubt I'll find the time to put anything in here. But if I do.....