Devotionals for the Heart: Commands

God’s Commands
A devotional by Carrie Del Pizzo

“And on the next day he arose and went away with them.” 

– Acts 10:23 (NASB)

The Bible is filled with examples of God asking His people to do things that sounded crazy: Noah was told to build a boat when he had never seen rain. Joshua was told to march around Jericho as a way to defeat the city. Gideon was told to face 135,000 Midianite warriors with an army of only 300.

And then we come to this passage in Acts 10. Ancient Jews did not associate with Gentiles, who were considered sinful and unclean. A Jew wouldn’t risk contamination from a Gentile because the purification process could be a lot of work.

So, the earliest Christians were Jews who shared the good news with their fellow Jews. But in this chapter, a Roman centurion named Cornelius reaches out to Peter—unheard of! And Peter willingly goes to him—insane!

Why would these men risk their reputations by defying the accepted standards of their culture? Because they both received clear instructions from God, just as Noah, Joshua, and Gideon had.

My husband and I have received a pretty clear command from God. But while the command is clear, the exact instructions are a little fuzzy.

Last fall (season), God told us to begin volunteering at the local crisis pregnancy center and to prepare the spare bedroom in our home for a young lady and her baby who would need a family. We were given the option to get our foster care license, just in case there was a girl in foster care who needed help. We decided to be prepared even though the maternity home rarely gets wards of the state.

Until today.

There is a young mom who is over 18, but she is struggling desperately. She has no family, no friends, and no place to live. The house parents at the maternity home are the only people who have been kind to her in the last year, so that’s where she went.

Because her situation is so dire, the house parents are faced with finding her a home or calling Child Protective Services. Their call to me is not unexpected. This is what we signed up for. What we didn’t sign up for is the fact she may not want to keep her three-month-old baby and could ask us to adopt.

Whoa! God, we did not talk about adoption.

I paused to think about what we did talk about … a young lady and her baby who needed a family. And that’s us.

Nothing is decided or set in stone or signed into law at this point. But we are earnestly praying about how God wants us to proceed. (Feel free to join in. We covet your prayers!)

Meanwhile, we are remembering these Bible-based truths:

· God used Noah’s boat to save eight people and the animals from a worldwide flood.

· God used the tired feet of Joshua and friends to crumble the walls of Jericho.

· God used the noise of 300 trumpets and broken pitchers to defeat the Midianite army.

· God used two unlikely friends, Peter and Cornelius, to bring the good news of His great love to a desperate and sinful world.

· And God will use my house and my family to share His Love with a girl and her baby.

What “crazy” thing is God asking you to do? Volunteer in the kids or youth ministry? Take in a stranger? Reach out to people you’ve never met?

Prayer Point: Instead of telling God, “No way! I can’t do it,” ask Him if He can do it. (Hint: the answer is always “Yes!”)

~*~
Author Bio:

In this world of texts, memes, and emojis, slowing down to truly communicate can feel like straining a muscle you haven’t exercised in far too long.

Seventeen years of business experience across a variety of industries has taught Carrie Del Pizzo the fine art of professional communications.

Partnering with corporate executives and entry-level employees alike, she has written and edited major project proposals, direct marketing pieces, sensitive client communications, employee handbooks, and user manuals.

Carrie’s love of literature and story has led her to develop and exercise her fiction writing skills as well. Aside from her personal creative efforts, she also edits for self- and traditionally-published authors and enjoys writing short dramas for church presentation.

Carrie is a wife, mom of three Americans and host-mom to numerous exchange students. Italian-by-marriage means she loves to cook and eat. She lives in Spokane, Wash., with her hilarious family who keep her in stitches and provides piles of material for great stories.

Devotionals for the Heart: Women of God and Mother's Day

Beyond ‘Mom’: Celebrating Women of God
A devotional by Jessica Brodie

This Sunday (May 13) is Mother’s Day, a day that used to have one meaning for me: an opportunity to make my mom feel loved and cherished in gratitude for enduring a twelve-hour labor with no pain medication and then raising me, a precocious, bookish girl, to maturity.

But like so many things over the years, this day has evolved. Today, not only do I celebrate my own mother, but also my equally outstanding mother-in-law, my sister and sister-in-law, my stepmother, my aunt, and my grandmothers (here on earth and in heaven). And, of course, my husband and four kiddos—two biological, two “bonus” courtesy of our blended family—celebrate me, too, which always seems entirely unnecessary but very, very sweet to experience as they gather homemade cards and crafts in my honor.

And yet I can’t stop there, for I also celebrate the other women in our world… my children’s stepmom and my stepchildren’s mom, both loving, strong people who adore those kids and help shape them into the great people they are becoming. I also embrace and appreciate all the other women who influence my kids right along with me. I might carry the title “mom,” but we all work together in this: their brilliant and compassionate teachers, their ministry leaders at our church, the moms in our small group Bible study who pray for our flock daily, my other mom-friends in our neighborhood who take turns with me in caring and loving on all our kids for playdates, carpooling, and sleepovers.

They say it takes a village; I say they’re right.

While I’m blessed to have a wonderful biological mother who is a Christian, many of my friends have mothers who have already passed on—and others have it far worse: Their mothers are not women of faith. Some are addicts, driven by a demon and looking to fill the proverbial hole with anything but God. Some, whether from fear or circumstance, have left their children behind. Some are in prison. Some they haven’t talked to in years.

Sadly, I also have friends who are adoptive and foster moms but not fully comfortable with their role; they feel like “false moms” (they most certainly are not!). Others struggle with infertility, like I once did, or have decided for a variety of reasons that birthing children is not something they intend to do, yet the holiday still haunts them.

Where I live, there’s a place, Epworth Children’s Home, that has chosen not to celebrate “Mother’s Day” at all but rather “Women’s Day.” Their director said Mother’s Day at Epworth does not bring smiles and pleasant memories but is often a reminder of broken promises and shattered dreams. So instead, they focus on what it means to be a woman in the eyes of God.

Here’s the thing: “Mother” is not an identity. And while it’s a lovely thing to take a day to celebrate the woman who birthed us or the women who helped shape us, in reality, our children are not “ours” but God’s—and we are not “mothers” first but rather “children of God.”

In fact, as a Christian, if I’m truly honoring my Savior, I’d do well to keep that open-ended concept of family in mind.

In Matthew 12, Jesus was teaching God’s word to a large crowd when someone told Him that His mother and brothers were standing outside, wanting to speak to Him.

“(Jesus) replied to him, ‘Who is my mother, and who are my brothers?’ Pointing to his disciples, he said, ‘Here are my mother and my brothers. For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother’” (Matthew 12:48-50, NIV).

Family isn’t mere biology or bloodlines. When we toss aside the mantle of the world and instead choose to follow Christ, we not only gain a new life, but also a new family. We are no longer daughters and sons of flesh and blood but children of the Risen God. Our parent is God, and our siblings are all who walk alongside us in faith.

Happy Mother’s Day, then, and Happy Women’s Day…to God, to my mom, and to women of faith everywhere.

~*~
Author Bio: 

Jessica Brodie is a Christian author, journalist, editor, blogger, and writing coach. 

She is the editor of the South Carolina United Methodist Advocate (AdvocateSC.org), the oldest continuously published newspaper in Methodism. 

Learn more about her fiction and read her blog at http://jessicabrodie.com/.

A Guest Post about Love and Open Hearts

Today, I am delighted to share a blog post with you written by our guest, Jennifer Watson. 

But before I share the post, I need to share a story. 

It’s wonderful how God brings people together to encourage each other on their faith walk with Him. One of those people in my life is Jennifer Watson. We connected about four years ago through her Broken Girl website. After I submitted a few encouraging comments about the posts written by Jennifer and Keri Lynn Bullington (with whom Jennifer co-founded the Broken Girl blog), Jennifer invited me to share my "broken girl story" on her blog. After thinking about it for like a minute, I agreed to share my story because I believe there are people in the world who may be encouraged in their life journey through reading my story about how God turned my broken into beautiful. 

So I wrote the guest post, sent it to Jennifer and it was published on Feb. 27, 2012. But our connection did not end with that one guest post, it continued in the form of an encouragement ministry. If I need prayer, I know I can talk to Jennifer who will not only pray but offer words of encouragement that help me in my journey through life. I value the prayer support and encouragement given through the words Jennifer shares with me and the world via the Broken Girl blog which I call a ministry. 

I hope you will appreciate and receive encouragement in your journey through life as you read the words from Jennifer’s heart presented in her first guest post for my blog! 

~*~ 

My Adoption Story: When Hearts Break Wide Open 

Written by Jennifer Watson 

Almost two years ago we welcomed a little boy into our home for four months, we were in the process of adopting him when his mother decided she wanted him back. Those four months were extremely difficult. I wanted the boy, just not all the strings attached and baggage that came from his family fighting us. But love is about welcoming the chaos and opening your heart wide enough for it to break wide-open changing you forever. I watched love change my heart as I loved a stranger like he was flesh and blood, no different from my children. 

I was never one to fall in love so easily, but sometimes love is like driving a car fast without any brakes. You brace yourself and hold your breath uncertain of the outcome. What once was invigorating and exciting hits the brick wall of change and you emerge different. The hope is that eventually the whiplash will fade to nothingness and your heart will be mended yet remain wide-open. 

Love is bringing in all the baggage and dirty clothes with stains. It's staying up late and rearranging all your space for one more. It's saying, “You belong here, please untidy all the things that I think have to remain in a certain place.” 

Love is letting go of your fears of loving someone you might not get to keep and loving so much it hurts in the best possible way. Love wrecks you turning you inside out, it's the furthest thing from selfish and the closest thing to sacred we could ever feel. It's messy and beautiful and worth it. The messy beautiful walk hand-in-hand and sometimes it hurts in ways words can’t express. 

People always ask me if I would open my home again and I say yes, a million times, yes. I'll leave the light on for you, little buddy. I'll take your baggage and all your stains because fear doesn't live here, love does. And I'll leave my heart wide-open for my sister who feels like her world and heart has been split wide-open. Come and sit on my couch, you can cry and I'll feed you chocolate. Together we can unpack your baggage, mending the tattered garments of your heart. 

In our churches, in our homes, and in our hearts let us leave room for all the broken, baggage carriers because at one time that was us. Let’s love each other enough and help them unpack their baggage. We will never regret loving fiercely and allowing our hearts to split wide-open. Love isn't about counting the costs and being careful; it's about saying it's worth it. Come on, love, wreck me. 

Loving the way Jesus does is risky, but with all my heart I believe it’s worth it. Jesus walked this earth with every intention of laying down His life for us, even for the ones who rejected and mocked Him. Laying it all down and living a life of putting others first is risky, but I want to love like that. My heart is full of gratitude for a cross, an empty tomb, and a risky, unending love. 

There is room enough in my heart to be wrecked, split wide-open for those in need around me and I want more than anything to stop being so dang careful. 

~*~ 

Author bio: Jennifer Watson is a self-professed girly-girl who is convinced that coloring your hair is addictive. She has an undying affection for refined sugar and red lipstick. She is a mother of two miracle babies and is an out-of-the-box minister’s wife. She loves weaving words together to speak to the hearts of women. You can hang out with Jennifer and her words at the Broken Girl blog.

A Guest Post by "The Writing Career Coach" Tiffany Colter

Tiffany Colter loves to write and she is fortunate to be able to do it for a professional career with her work appearing in national magazines, local papers, E-Zines and blogs.  

When I first found Tiffany, it was through an article she wrote for an issue of the ACFW Journal Magazine. The acronym stands for American Christian Fiction Writers. The article described Tiffany as "The Writing Career Coach” who provides “affordable options to aspiring writers”. As a person who loves to write, I knew I had to make a connection and thought perhaps Tiffany could coach me in my professional writing endeavors. So I found Tiffany’s e-mail (it was in her author bio at the end of the article) and I wrote a note. She responded to my inquiries and gave me a few pointers on how to take my writing to the next level. 

A few months into corresponding with Tiffany, I invited her to contribute a guest post to my blog, "God is Love" requesting that she write about an issue that’s on her heart and talk about how her faith in God helped her through the journey.  Tiffany came up with two themes: salvation and adoption and then wrote a story that beautifully correlates the two. So without further ado, here’s a word from Tiffany Colter. 

~*~ 

What God taught me about Salvation through Adoption 

By Tiffany Colter 

“The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by him we cry, ‘Abba, Father.’” (Romans 8:15, NIV) 

Three times in Romans, once in Galatians and once in Ephesians the apostle Paul uses the idea of adoption to describe the salvation message. I’d read it many times but just glossed over it. The idea didn’t hold much meaning to me. I knew people who were adopted. Growing up it was one of those secret things, something you learned about when you were an adult. To be honest, I used to secretly believe that I’d been adopted. I think it was my way of articulating a deep sense of rejection and “otherness” that I felt as a child. It wasn’t that my parents didn’t love and care for me. In fact, although my parents divorced when I was 5, my step-mom had had always treated my brother and I as her blood children. My mom and dad went to great lengths to give us a normal life and to show my brothers and I that they cared for us. My parents tried to express love to me, but I’ve always felt unlovable.

Despite my own issues, this story isn’t about me, my upbringing, or my hang ups. It is about what God showed me in March 2005, just before I began the hardest 7 years of my entire life. That month of that year we were in the midst of finalizing paperwork to fly from Detroit, MI to central Siberia to adopt a 4 ½ year old deaf little girl. We had 3 biological children, but we’d decided after our first was born that we’d give birth to 3 and adopt our 4th from Eastern Europe. This was a result of seeing a special report [I think on Dateline] about the large number of orphans over there. Since I was fluent in sign language we further decided that if all of our biological children were born hearing we’d look for a deaf child to adopt.

If you’ve ever tried to deal with the US government, you know it can be a trying experience. Now try dealing with TWO governments. And try doing it with 3 small girls [ages 6, 4, and 2] running around your feet. The cost of the adoption [including travel, legal documents, and all the rest] was about $55,000, slightly more than our family’s annual salary. We’d raised the money selling everything that wasn’t nailed down, getting donations from friends and, in the end, about $15,000 in debt. Even then there was no guarantee the Russian Court [through the Ministry of Education] would ultimately give us our daughter. I cried many nights from Aug. 2004 when we began the process until April 2005 when we boarded the plane. My heart broke each night knowing she was our daughter, but that she was over there going hungry. Each night she went to bed alone, not knowing that we were moving heaven and earth to get there as fast as humanly possible. She lived each day not knowing that on the opposite side of the globe, a 12 hour time difference, her family prayed for her every night.

And then, only about two weeks before we left America to go get her, I received a daily devotion in my email that had this verse at the top. Suddenly I saw it. I am a broken, fallible human who messes up every, single day. I am at times selfish, at times angry, and at times without faith. I pray at night that God will heal any wound I may have caused in my daughter’s hearts.

Yet even I, this imperfect human, anguished, suffered and sacrificed [along with my family, of course] to adopt this child we’d never known. She was our daughter before she even knew we existed. We loved her and welcomed her and fought for her harder than even our biological children who came…in shall we say…the usual way.

And if we could love and accept this little girl who’d never done a thing for us. If we could sell things we treasured most to pay the cost of her freedom. If we could welcome her in our family.

How much more God? How much more a loving creator who has loved me since the beginning of time? How much more the one who broods over us like a hen for her chicks?

The day I opened that email God began the process of intense healing. I saw that I was God’s little girl. He took what was most precious to Him and gave Jesus up to pay the cost of my freedom. And even though I’m imperfect and am not always a perfect Mommy, God is a perfect Daddy. He will never fail me.

After we adopted Viola we faced many challenges. Some were adapting to her, but also 6 months after the adoption my then 29 year old husband was diagnosed with Stage IV cancer. In my scary moments I curled up in my Heavenly Daddy’s lap and remembered that I was his adopted little girl. I remembered He loves me. I remembered that everything would be okay.

And now our little girl is 12 ½. On April 11th we celebrated her 8th Gotcha Day and my husband is 6 ½ years cancer free. She knows she was born to another country—another Kingdom, if you will—but she also knows that we are her family. Despite her language delays the sister closest in age to her recently explained salvation to her. Viola accepted Christ and told everyone about it. She understands the full meaning of adoption. She understands what it feels like to be suddenly plucked from loneliness and lack then delivered to love and provision. Those verses the Apostle Paul wrote will have special meaning to her as she grows older.

And they will carry her through dark days when they come, just as they carried me.

~*~

Author bio:

Tiffany Colter, The Writing Career Coach, is the author of dozens of books, CDs, webinars, DVDs and articles. This mother of 4 girls—tween up to teen—is married to her best friend, Chris, and they live the dream on their hobby farm with 2 sheep, a few ducks, 3 chickens, a dozen or so cats and 3 big guard dogs. [To keep the boys away]. She speaks across the country on radio, at conferences, to writer’s groups and at business events. She also shares tips on earning money with writing on her website, www.WritingCareerCoach.com.