At the Haitian pastors conference (sponsored by HORT) next Wednesday (April 21) Jason Weber (Hope for Orphans) and I are tag-teaming as we present Scripture’s teaching on spiritual adoption and its implications for indigenous orphan care and Haiti’s current restavek system. Please pray for us!
Author Archives: Dan Cruver
"Is there any word from God?": Preaching the Gospel to Yourself (Part 1)
April 13, 2010 – 7:30 AM
Here is some wonderful instruction from Ralph Erskine about how to preach the gospel to ourselves whatever our faith-struggle may be: Go to God and say, O “do as thou hast said.” Consider what he hath said, and take him at his word, and put him to it, that he would do to you accordingly. Whatever [...]
Confidence to Approach God -- Together
March 10, 2010 – 12:18 PM
Hebrews 10:19-25 is a text I return to fairly often, especially when I am preparing myself for corporate worship. My default mode is to read “enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus” and “draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith” from an individualistic perspective. I can read those words and think primarily about the great privilege I have to approach the Majesty on High (Hebrews 1:3) privately. But the writer of Hebrews is not so much thinking of believers approaching God privately as he is about believers approaching God corporately. Just consider the repetition of “let us” in these verses (vv. 22, 23-24). The writer is thinking primarily about believers drawing near to God together. Approaching the Majesty on High as a corporate body is the incomparable opportunity and privilege of the blood bought church.
The Gospel Does What Media Coverage Can't
January 21, 2010 – 9:21 AM
I’m grateful for the media’s coverage of Haiti’s crisis. It confronts me with graphic images of human suffering. Where I live, life is simple and safe. I have more than enough to eat each day and a comfortable place to sleep each night. Compared to most everybody else in the world, my life is very [...]
10 Prayers for the Sake of Orphans in 2010
January 13, 2010 – 8:32 PM
Listed below is what I’m asking God to do in the church in 2010 for the sake of the orphan. Will you join me not only in praying but also in striving to be an answer to our own prayers?
The Love of God, Christmas, and Caring for Orphans
December 22, 2009 – 2:29 PM
As you celebrate the birth of Jesus, take some time to reflect upon the relationship between the incarnate love of God and the church’s responsibility to care for the fatherless. Ultimately, it is God’s incarnate love that moves us outward “to visit orphans in their affliction” (James 1:27). The love we celebrate at Christmas is [...]
The Seduction of the World and the Spirit of Adoption
December 17, 2009 – 10:50 AM
When we look at Romans 8:14-15 in light of the full context of Romans 8, we discover that God the Father sent the Spirit into our hearts to cry “Abba! Father!” so that He might intensify our longing for the day when we will live on a renewed earth as His children. If you think about it, “Abba! Father!” is a cry that leads us through the wilderness of this life (Hebrews 3-4) to the future when “the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea” (Isaiah 11:9).
What Orphans Need: Christians Who Live in the Joy of Their Father's Delight
December 11, 2009 – 7:43 AM
When Christians are unsure of their Father's delight in them, real Christian joy is absent and passionate Christian living is lacking. It is almost impossible (if not entirely impossible) to mobilize Christians who are unsure of God's delight in them to care for orphans over the long haul, or at least to mobilize Christians who will serve orphans with unflappable confidence and joy.
Caring for Orphans While Soaked With the Sense of Exile
December 5, 2009 – 7:05 AM
Yesterday, I was deeply moved by something that I read in a letter that J.R.R. Tolkien wrote to his son Christopher. As I reflected upon his words, it occurred to me that he touches on something that is profoundly relevant to the global orphan crisis. Tolkien writes: We all long for [Eden], and we are [...]