Daily Devotional For Monday, June 23, 2025

Good morning Southside. We all are back in the grind of things unless you are retired or a student now on summer break. For ten years and 3 countries and lots of money, Audrey and I went through adoption agencies and processes. We had been approved for a baby when we started the process. But then we aged, (I didn’t) but Audrey did (Ha!). Because of our advanced age, we were not allowed to adopt a baby. So our paper was updated and we then were then approved to adopt a girl and a boy 5 years old or older. On June 14, 2014 we received a call from our agency called ALL GOD’S CHILDREN. We were presented with the option of adopting a 13-year-old Bulgarian teenage girl. Her name was Emilia and as we prayed for her, we instantly fell in love and without hesitation, said YES. After we brought her home in March of 2015, people who did not know she was adopted would say, “Well, she looks like her father,” meaning me.” Then we tell them she is adopted. And sometimes they ask, “Do you know her parents?” My thought  is, “Yes, you’re looking at them.” I know they mean her biological parents, but we are Emmie’s parents. We are not Emmie’s fake parents. We are her parents.

Since bringing Emmie home from Bulgaria, she has enjoyed eating our American food. We do get her some traditional Bulgarian food, but she loves ice cream, pizza, watermelon, mac-and-cheese and McAlister’s Sweet Flavored Ice Tea. My point is, Emmie is our daughter. She is not part daughter, part-Stanley, or part American, or kind of Stanley. She loves contemporary Christian music, 70’s and 80’s, classical, country western (but not Bluegrass or heavy metal) and older Disney tunes. When we watch TV, she no longer needs close captioned because she has our language down pat. If you talk to her now, you will not detect any kind of Bulgarian accent (we can at times). Most people are shocked to learn she came here not knowing English and now speaks it fluently as if she was born here. She has even picked up some ways her mother and I say certain words or phrases. As in marriage, she is our daughter for better or worse, richer or poorer, in sickness and in health for as long as she has life on this planet.

When we brought Emmie home, she did not know us nor did she trust us. Emmie knows we are her parents not because we traveled to Bulgaria to bring her home, but because of the love we have shown her today. Yes, a judge in Bulgaria made it legal that she is our daughter, but love made her relationally our daughter. What is true for Emmie with us is also true of us with God. Look at these verses below:

• Ephesians 1:5, “He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will” (NASB).
• Galatians 4:5, “So that He might redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons” (NASB).
• Romans 8:15, "For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, “Abba! Father!” (NASB).

When we go to the Old Testament, scholars say that God is called “Father” only 15 times; but in the New Testament, God is called “Father” 165 times. A good example from Jesus is found in The Sermon On The Mount with The Lord’s Prayer In Matthew 6:9, “Pray, then, in this way: ‘Our Father who is in heaven, Hallowed be Your name” (NASB). For Jesus’ Jewish hearers, this would come as a shock. They saw Abraham and Moses as their father, but God, whew, that was a huge leap. 

New Testament scholar and pastor J.I Packer writes this: “What is a Christian? The question can be answered in many ways, but the richest answer I know is that a Christian is one who has God as Father. . . . If you want to judge how well a person understands Christianity, find out how much he makes of the thought of being God’s child, and having God as his Father. If this is not the thought that prompts and controls his worship and prayers and his whole outlook on life, it means that he does not understand Christianity very well at all” (Source: J.I. Packer, Knowing God, pp. 200-201).

Some of you might recognize the name of John Wesley. He was a preacher and evangelist used by God to spread the Gospel in and through the Church of England. But in his own words, visiting prisoners, orphans, sharing the Gospel, even coming to America to take the Gospel of the Native Americans, when he returned from Georgia to England wrote this: “wrote, 

“I who went to America to convert others was never myself converted to God . . . I had even then the faith of a servant, though not that of a son” (Source: John Wesley, The Journal of The Reverend John Wesly).

So, how was he able to do all that he did and not be a Christian, a son or child of God? Oh, we can do things for God, but that is all we are doing. There is a huge difference in doing things for God and discipling others for God. We can fake our way, but we can’t “faith” our way. There is a huge difference in pretending to be a child of God and in being a child of God.

Assignment: How about you? Do you really know God as your Father? Now before you say “YES!,” remember, John Wesley thought he was also. Is your response to God more of a slave or of a son? Are you just going through the motions of our faith void of the emotions of it? Do you have the same attitude as Jesus? Does your relationship to Christ affect your worship, your witness, your word, and your worldview? 

Scripture To Meditate On: John 1:12,”But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name” (NASB).

Prayer To Pray: “Dear Father, thank You for adopting me into Your Family. I want to live my faith as Your child, not as the dreaded step-child. Jesus, You did not have to adopt me, but I praise You that You did. I don’t want to live my life going through the motions of my faith. I want to live in the joy of my salvation. I love You Lord. Thank You Jesus, Amen!”

I love you Southside! – Pastor Kelly