Today is a really exciting day. www.orphanologybook.com officially went live this morning. Many of you have known that the website was out there, but it has been a work in progress over the past couple of months as content has been coming together. Today, all of the pieces are together, and the site is officially 100% a go!!!! Praise the Lord!!!! From today, that means that we are about 4 months away from the book's release. Today is a great day of anticipation and a great day of thanksgiving.
God is up to something in His Church for His Glory on behalf of the fatherless, and I am so excited to be swept up on the crest of the wave. As Tony and I have continued to talk to people about God's heart for the fatherless and the theological and practical implications of ministering to the orphan, we continue to see that God is up to something. This is not something that men and women are manufacturing. God is moving, and we are merely being swept up in the current of God's active grace! For a long time, the Church has seemed to lose the image of God as Adopter, but we are beginning to see Him that way afresh. To His Glory, we are learning to love him more, to respond to Him differently, and to mirror Him in a way that has been lost to many evangelical believers for generations. If our objective is to truly Know Him and make Him known, then orphan ministry has to be part of our missional strategy, period! O.K., enough preaching, but I am excited. I am ready for the book to be out as a catalyst for action and to encourage others to explore ways to live out theology by coming after, loving and caring for the orphan in the same way that God pursued, loved, and adopted us!
I am also anticipating some big news regarding Orphanology that we can't quite share yet....but hopefully soon! Give us a few days....It's big and exciting.....trust me ;-)
As for being thankful, I am thankful for a lot today as well.
I am thankful for a great co-author like Tony. It is such a privilege to get to do a project like this with such a close friend. Our lives and families have been so intertwined over the years, and I am thankful that God has given us the years to minister together for the sake of the Gospel. We are having a ball, and there really isn't anyone I would rather do this with! Thanks bro...I love you and your family!
Jonathan Howe at New Hope Publishes has become a great friend through this process, and he is an amazing gift. The website is his baby, and he has worked hard to produce most of what you see. Much props, my friend! You are the stuff!
Tanner Cade, the Video Director here at Temple, did a great job in helping us put together the video on the website. Thanks @tcade! Ummm, uhhhh, mmmm, that was very professional of you!
Tony and I have joked as endorsements have come in for the book that they are a little intimidating because they may actually be better than the book! Really, we are humbled by our friends and the affirming and gracious things they have said about the book. In particular, the book's foreword which has been written by our good friend David Platt has been posted on the website. I just saw it for the first time last night. When I read it, I cried like a baby! Wow! It sums up the heart of our message, and what we hope to inspire our readers to be equipped to live out.
I am thankful for my family. Every day they teach me the real life lessons of Orphanology. Lots of days, we are a mess. I told someone the other day, that life for us seems like it is being lived in a blender. But, through it all we are learning about the grace and the sufficiency of God that has been made known and available to us in Christ Jesus our Lord. In 8 days, Denise and I get on a plane to head to Ukraine. If the Lord wills, we will be expanding our family by two teenage girls. I can't even imagine what that will be like. This is what I do know....
11 For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. 12 Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. 13 You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart. - Jeremiah 29:11-13
***Shameless Plug Alert***
In case you are interested, the book can be pre-ordered now at Amazon.com or BarnesandNoble.com and it will ship as soon as they are in stock or it will be available from the Oasis or LifeWay Christian Stores in early March. Sorry for the plug, but between the Meridas and the Mortons, we have 9 junior college tuitions to pay for (and many of you have seen both my boys run...just sayin')!
Blessings,
Rick
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