God's Family

"Regardless of why or how or what happened, God loves people, and His love is always the answer."

EXCEPT THE LORD establish the family, we are working hard for nothing. Unless God brings the family into being, it will have no stability, but we will be exceedingly frustrated and accomplish nothing.

“Except the Lord build the house, they labour in vain that build it: except the Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain.” (Psalm 127:1)

• House: household, family
• Build: to establish a family
• Establish: to bring into being on a firm or stable basis
• Labour: work severely and with irksomeness

From the beginning, God established the family. He created woman and brought her to man, and what was one flesh became one again. From them would come descendants to replenish the earth. Adam and Eve would go on to have children and grandchildren. Noah would come from them. And Abraham. And King David. And Jesus of Nazareth who is the Christ. He was born in a family, with a father and mother who adore Him. Who He adores. He has brothers and sisters, cousins, nieces and nephews. And on a larger scale, through His offering on the cross and through the Resurrection of His body, a spiritual family. He is Father and Brother and Husband with a spiritual bride, who He delights in.

Over and over again, the Word of God speaks of the importance of family. Upon the principle of family, life on earth was established. Everything was designed for it. Eve was created the bear children. The Seed of Galatians 3:16 would be born of Mary because God set it up that way. A woman’s body is designed to conceive life and nurture a child until birth. A man’s body is made to fit perfectly into hers. Both of them in a covenant of marriage as spoken by the Spirit in Genesis 2:24 and Matthew 19:4-6.

God is merciful. He loves children. His forgiveness includes any sin. He never condemns. NEVER. A child’s life is of precious value and to be treasured and encouraged in the love of the Father, who knows each one, born and unborn. A husband is to dedicate himself to the love and protection of his wife. Children were to be created within the family as the Lord set forth when man and woman was made in His image and after His likeness.

It would seem that God’s ideal has fallen apart. Except God has not changed His mind, nor is He surprised by man’s ungodly alteration of it, nor has He or will He ever turn His back on children. I say this often—God is not panicked. In fact, before the earth ever was formed, He’d already decided on redemption through His Son. Before sin, before death was loose on the earth, He’d made for the Seed to be buried in the soil and die alone and bring forth new life (John 12:24). What Satan has destroyed, God puts back together, no matter in what manner for each individual person the devil has destroyed it.

There is, in Jesus Christ, great forgiveness and healing of the heart and the mind from whatever sin men have fallen into, from any abuse of marriage and the body, and the abuse of children. People are quick to take offense in this modern culture, quick to defend their stance for what the Bible says is wrong, and those on the other side of the coin are quick to condemn these for their unbelief. Neither side of the issue is correct. God is love. Jesus died for all sins. He forgives and cleanses from any unrighteousness (a churchy way of saying, things outside of God) regardless of why or how or what happened. He loves people, and His love is always the answer.

Jesus faced people who did not understand what He said all the time. His own people, the Jews, stared their Messiah in the face and condemned Him to crucify. They told Pilate they could not enter His judgment hall because doing so would defile them and they had to still celebrate the Passover. Jesus is the Passover. They also said, in their law, they could not put a man to death, yet they’d tried to stone Jesus more than once and another time, to push Him off a cliff. Having eyes to see, they could not see. Having ears to hear, they did not hear at all.

Revelation of Jesus as the Christ, the Anointed One, comes from the Holy Spirit, who was sent to live in mankind upon salvation, following His Resurrection. Inside of me is God Himself, is the Savior, who desires to live inside every man and woman on this planet. But the devil works to keep people confused and obstinate against Him. He blinds the minds of those who could see the Truth of God’s love for them, so that they will stay in bondage to the things which God speaks against. God would heal and save. The devil steals, kills, and destroys.

“We are not fighting against humans. We are fighting against forces and authorities and against rulers of darkness and powers in the spiritual world.” (Ephesians 6:12 CEV)

Jesus did not turn away any man or woman. He forgave a woman caught in adultery, though the Pharisees condemned her. He walked through Samaria, a people who did not like the Jews, in order to forgive a woman who had been married five times and was living with number six, out of wedlock. He healed lepers and a woman with an issue of blood, both of whom He should have avoided, under the Old Covenant Law. When hanging on the cross, He offered a convicted thief Paradise. He came to save, to rescue, and His compassion for people must be the church’s mindset. We show His love every single time and let the Holy Spirit do the correcting.

What God has put together man has tried to tear apart, but God is well able and, even more importantly, He aches to rescue, to heal and mend. He made the marriage covenant which Christ models to the church. As Jesus gave His all for us, a husband should give his entire being to his wife, and a wife adore her husband. They should raise the expected 2.5 kids in the instruction of the Lord. And when this doesn’t happen, when the ideal falls apart, when modern culture says we are “old fashioned” and “out of touch,” or “insensitive” and “intolerant,” we continue to display the love of God which came to earth as a man in order to save everyone.

There isn’t another option. God made no Plan B, either in the design for the family or our reaction to those who don’t follow it. No matter how awful the heartache of what someone has endured, no matter how horrible the destruction of mankind against mankind, no matter how deep the terribleness runs, or what people believe about it, God’s love is more than enough to heal and to rescue and to save. For those who need Jesus, who don’t know how deep His love is, and In us to display it.

“No one abuses his own body, does he? No, he feeds and pampers it. That’s how Christ treats us, the church, since we are part of his body. And this is why a man leaves father and mother and cherishes his wife. No longer two, they become “one flesh.” This is a huge mystery, and I don’t pretend to understand it all. What is clearest to me is the way Christ treats the church. And this provides a good picture of how each husband is to treat his wife, loving himself in loving her, and how each wife is to honor her husband.” (Ephesians 5:29-33 MSG)


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Suzanne D. Williams, Author
www.suzannedwilliams.com
www.feelgoodromance.com