Russell D. Moore - Adopted for Life: The Priority of Adoption for Christian Families and Churches

We often forget that the Christian walk is not merely about getting us into heaven, but it is also about getting heaven into us. This is why our Lord gave us the Beatitudes, the Sermon on the Mount, and the parable of the Good Samaritan. Thus, it is no surprise that the apostle James offers this injunction to the Early Church: Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world (James 1:27, KJV). In this wonderful monograph, Adopted for Life, Russell Moore offers to the Christian world a compelling account of these and other lessons of Scripture so that our communities of faith may put them into practice and become more like that shining city on a hill of which our Lord spoke.

FRANCIS J. BECKWITH, Professor of Philosophy and Church-State
Studies, Baylor University; author of Defending Life: A Moral and
Legal Case Against Abortion Choice

Russell Moores life has validated every word he has written. But most especially, his fathers heart has been vulnerable and broken. In this book he speaks from his heart, mind, and life to ours about the possibility of incarnating adoption as a fleshed out reality in the world of our own families.

MICHAEL CARD, musician and Bible teacher

Russell Moore reminds us in his powerful book Adopted for Life that the true Christian family reaches far beyond the biological. The poignant tale of the adoption of two Russian orphans by him and his wife Maria grows into a metaphor of Christian salvation. This book offers both practical advice and courage to every couple considering adoption. For all readers, it shows how the act of adoption actually reveals core truths about the gospel of Christ.

ALLAN CARLSON, President, the Howard Center for Family,
Religion & Society

Russell Moore, who is one of the bright young leaders in the Christian world, combines his own experience of adopting sons with a powerful message to the church about the key role it can play in promoting adoption. This is a wonderful book in which Russell very effectively weaves in mankinds own story of adoption by God. The personal accounts are particularly moving. To be pro-life, you have to be pro-adoption.

CHUCK COLSON, Founder, Prison Fellowship

The older I grow, the more I am personally convinced that the church is our Lords answer to the adopting of so many precious children who so desperately are in need of a good home. Dr. Russell Moore has done the church a tremendous service by reminding us in this writing of the call of God to meet the ever pressing needs of these little ones. Read with the intent to obey.

JOHNNY HUNT, President, The Southern Baptist Convention

Russell Moore is a gift of God to the Christian community and a gift of the Christian community to the nation. His writings on questions of the most profound human and moral significance never fail to instruct and inspire. In Adopted forLife, Dr. Moore draws on his familys own experience with adoption to help others understand that by adopting orphaned or abandoned children we can grow in love of God and neighbor and come to appreciate more deeply our own adoption into the family of God through the life, teaching, death, and resurrection of Jesus.

ROBERT P. GEORGE, McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence and
Director of the James Madison Program in American Ideals
and Institutions, Princeton University

Adopted for Life is truly an incredible book of hope in so many ways. I know of no other book that is so biblically rich, so very practical, and so authentic and heart-felt about the beautiful gift of adoption as this one. It a powerfully insightful book of how adoption is a beautiful act of love and mission for the gospel. I pray that God uses this book to encourage and impact many, many lives.

DAN KIMBALL, author of They Like Jesus but Not the Church

Russell Moore has out of personal experience and with biblical accuracy produced in this work an understanding of Gods purposes in adoption and its connection with gospel compassion. Every pastor should consider the responsibility he has in making adoption a priority for the church as a viable representation of the gospel doctrine of adoption.

JOHN MACARTHUR, Pastor, Grace Community Church,
Sun Valley, California

Thankfully, there are good books on adoption and good books on the gospel. But until the arrival of Adopted for Life, there has never been a book that puts the adoption of children so clearly within the context of the gospel of Christ. Adoptedfor Life is one of the most compelling books I have ever readboth deeply touching and richly theological. You will never look at adoption or the gospel in quite the same way after reading this book. How could the church have been missing this for so long?

R. ALBERT MOHLER JR., President, The Southern Baptist
Theological Seminary

Adopted for Life is the fruit of deeply felt personal experience shaped by prolonged theological reflection. Without by any means answering every question we might raise, Russell Moore invites readers to learn to think of adoption in the light of Christian faith. This is a book not only for those who have adopted, those who may adopt, or those who have been adopted, but for all who know themselves to have been freely adopted by Gods grace.

GILBERT MEILAENDER, Professor of Theology, Valparaiso University

Adopted for Life is a well-written rooting of adoption in biblical theology. Moore, who weaves in the story of the two Russian children he and his wife have adopted, shows how churches should view adoption as part of their mission. He shows what a difference it would make if Christians were known once again as the people who take in orphans and make them sons and daughters.

MARVIN OLASKY, Editor-in-chief, World; Provost, The Kings College,
New York City

Yes, yes, yes! Russell Moore has given the church a God-centered, gospel-saturated, culturally-sensitive, mission-focused, desperately needed exploration of the priority and privilege of adoption. He exposes misconceptions and uncovers misunderstandings that not only keep us from fostering an adoptive culture in our churches but that keep us from truly understanding the gospel by which we are adopted as sons and daughters of God. This book contains encouragement for children who have been adopted and the parents whove adopted them, practical advice for parents who are considering adoption and parents who have never considered adoption, and admonishment for the church-at-large to consider how to be obedient to scriptural commands to care for orphans here and around the world. Readers will find them-selves laughing on one page, crying on the next, and ultimately bowing before God, thanking him for adopting them into his heavenly family and considering how to show his love to the fatherless on earth.

DAVID PLATT, Pastor, The Church at Brook Hills, Birmingham,
Alabama

It is a remarkable story of how two parents chose and adopted two sons from the squalor of a Russian orphanage. It is a remarkable story of how a loving God chose and adopted us from the filth and squalor of sin. It is the remarkable story of an earthly father who lays his hands on the heads of his four sons each evening and prays for their salvation, for their godliness, courage, and conviction, and for them to be given godly wives. It is the remarkable story of a Heavenly Father who loves us so much that he gave his own Son to die for us. Anyone who has adopted, who is considering adoption, or who has been adopted should read Russell Moores Adopted for Life. And anyone who wants to a get a glimpse of the greatness of the Fathers love for him or her should read it as well.

THOM S. RAINER, President and CEO, LifeWay Christian Resources