Adoption is for Every Child of God (by Frank Nakasone)

Many of you know my brother, Pastor Harlan.
Since 2004, he has led a small church in
Honolulu called Fellowship Baptist, and it
ministers to the very poor. Pastor Harlan and his
wife Dana are very active in their ministry work,
weekly tutoring elementary age kids, leading
Bible studies, and monthly passing out food and
tracts to the homeless and low income housing
areas.

Inspired by James 1:27 “Religion that is pure and
undefiled before God the Father is this: to
visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to
keep oneself unstained from the world”, Pastor
Harlan and Dana started on their Foster
Parenting journey. They were quickly notified of
two young brothers (9 & 11 yrs old) who’ve
already been in five foster homes. Previously,
these boys were living in a tent, on the streets,
BY THEMSELVES – FOR TWO YEARS!! WHAT?!
Harlan & Dana acted quickly and graciously
became their foster parents. That was in March
2018.

Let’s look at what the Bible says about adoption.
The Apostle Paul states in Romans 8:14-17 “For
all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of
God.  15  For you did not receive the spirit of slavery
to fall back into fear, but you have received the
Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba!
Father!”  16  The Spirit himself bears witness with
our spirit that we are children of God,  17  and if
children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs
with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order
that we may also be glorified with him. (Eph. 1:3-7
& Gal. 4:4-7 corroborate).
Being “led by the Spirit of God” (Holy Spirit)
means you have accepted Jesus as your Lord and
Savior, and that the Holy Spirit has made your
heart His home. The “children of God” phrase is
an interesting one. Are all humans children of
God? Nope. As verse 15 states, only those who
have “received the Spirit of adoption (salvation)”,
only those who have been united with Christ are
“His children”. In verse 16, we see that the Holy
Spirit is doing His job of letting us know that
we’re “children of God”. It gets even better, as
verse 17 states that not only are we God’s
children, but “fellow heirs with Christ” - WOW! An
heir is someone who receives an inheritance.
Constant communion with God, a new fully
functional body, everlasting life – sign me up for
that! Suffering and hardship – can I pass on that?
Look at Romans 8:17 again, “provided we suffer
with him in order that we may also be glorified
with him.” Suffering for the kingdom of God is a
part of being a child of God, a fellow heir. Yet,
even when suffering comes, we know God will
supply and care for our every need.

The beauty of the gospel and adoption spurred
Pastor Harlan and Dana to officially adopt the
two boys on October 1, 2019! It has been a
rough road, but both of the boys have accepted
Christ and been baptized!! They have been
adopted by Harlan and Dana and adopted by our
heavenly Father!!! Praise to the One True God!!!
Have you ever considered foster care or
adoption? God might be calling you to live out
the gospel in this way or supporting a family
doing the same like Pastor Harlan and Dana.