Tag: family

Categories
Christian Living

The Christian Life is not a Private Matter. It is Life Lived Together.

Many people think that their spiritual beliefs and the way they live out the Christian life is a private matter that no one else has a right to speak into.
photo of a chain with the word "private" to keep people off the property, symbolizing our Christian life is not a private matter
I’ve heard people say things such as, “I go to church, but in regard to how I run my business, the church has no right to say anything.” I’ve also heard, “Well, what he does in his private time is between him and God. That’s not a matter for the church.”

Completely false. Church is a family. And what you do matters to your family. Being a Christian gives you a new name and a new Father. And your actions either glorify His Name or dishonor Him. And the Church family that you have committed to has a responsibility to hold you accountable to glorify His Name. When you join a church family, you are indicating to them that you are willing to be held accountable for your behavior.

I’ve been encouraging you to be in a Discipleship Group. And maybe you were even thinking: “But isn’t my faith a private matter?” And as I just said – Actually it is not.

But don’t take my word for it. Instead, take God’s Word. The Bible gives us many verses about how the Christian life is life lived for Christ together. Look at the list that Robbie Gallaty points out:

    • Love one another. (John 13:34)
    • Be in agreement with one another. (Rom.12:16)
    • Accept one another. (Rom. 15:7)
    • Instruct one another. (Rom. 15:14)
    • Greet one another. (Rom. 16:16)
    • Serve one another. (Gal. 5:13)
    • Be kind and compassionate to one another. (Eph. 4:32)
    • Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. (Eph. 5:21)
    • Admonish one another with all wisdom. (Col. 3:16)
    • Encourage one another and build each other up. (1 Thess. 5:11)
    • Confess your sins to one another and pray for one another. (James 5:16)
    • Be hospitable to one another. (1 Pet. 4-:9)

Gallaty explains:

    While some of this can be practiced on a Sunday morning, in reality, a D-Group is an ideal setting for living out many of these commands. For example, consider confessing your sins. Larger contexts such as Sunday school or small groups aren’t well-suited for this. But it’s something we need to do regularly, since sin festers and grows in isolation. A d-Group is significantly less threatening for addressing sins, and believers may be more apt to open up about present struggles in this context.
    Dietrich Bonhoeffer emphasizes the dangers of isolation: “Sin demands to have a man by himself. It withdraws him from the community. The more isolated a person is, the more destructive the power of sin over him.” This is why participation in a group is essential.
    The concept of a “passive participant” doesn’t make sense either. Everyone comes prepared to contribute. Through community with like-minded brothers and sisters in a discipleship setting modeled by the Master, spiritual growth is made possible, but only insofar as it is based on the firm foundation of God’s Word.

Your Christian faith and your Christian growth and your Christian life is not a private matter. Your Christian life is about being together with others who will help you walk the narrow road well.
Get in a group!
Get growing!

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Categories
Church

Family: The Gospel Unites Us in a Way Nothing Else Can

photo of the inside of a sanctuary where a church family meets each week
A Church? Nope. An Empty Sanctuary. The Church Meets Here Each Week.

In his book Love in Hard Places, D. A. Carson discusses the fact that church is a family:

The church itself is not made up of natural “friends.” …What binds us together is not common education, common race, common income levels, common politics, common nationality, common accents, common jobs, or anything of the sort. Christians come together…because they have been saved by Jesus Christ and owe him a common allegiance. In the light of this common allegiance, in light of the fact that they have all been loved by Jesus himself, they commit themselves to doing what he says….

In this light, they are a band of natural enemies who love one another for Jesus’ sake.

Do you view your church as family?
Are you bound together in love by Jesus Christ with those you worship with each week?
Are you not that committed to your church because you don’t view them as family?

We gain so much by being part of a church family.
Make sure you have one.
And make sure to love the people in it!

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Categories
Worship

How to Hate Your Family

What? Why Would I Want to Hate My Own Family…

Well…Because Jesus commanded it:
“He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me; and he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me.”
sunrise
1. Christ must be loved Supremely – above ALL else, even family;
2. We must be willing to suffer shame & even death for Christ; &
3. We must give up all of our own desires to adopt His desires.

I say “MUST” because if you refuse to do so, then he says you are not “worthy” of Him… Not worthy of being called or counted as one of His disciples.

In another place, Jesus states it even more strongly – “If anyone comes to Me, and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be My disciple.” This One known for supreme love tells us to hate our own family? But in other places He tells us to love others as we love ourselves. So what is He saying? That your love for Him must be so great as to make all of your other loves look like hate in comparison.

Our first and strongest loyalty is to be to God.

The reason for this is that the only One who can control your life without destroying it is Jesus Christ. When you take control, you will damage and/or destroy your life. Many of us can testify to the fact that we have seen life begin to fall apart when we put God over on the sideline and tried to take control ourselves.

In the same way, Terrible things happen when family relationships are put before God. Families cannot be what they should be without God. No family can reach its full potential without God. Without God as the key Leader, a family will lack spiritual growth, will lack the Holy Spirit’s strength and conviction, will lack true commitment to one another, and will lack a guiding purpose. There is only One who can control your family without destroying it. Without Him as the family leader, there is a lack of spiritual strength to face the trials and crises that confront the family during life together.

The point is this: we must love God supremely, putting Him before all others, even before our own family members. When we do, our families are assured of being everything they should be and of being looked after and cared for by God. Therefore a person’s decision to follow Christ is the best decision he can make for his spouse and his family.

John Piper wrote it this way to his son on the occasion of his marriage – “Love her more by Loving her less” – By loving God supremely, He will help you love her more completely.

So let us love our families more, by loving them less.

Categories
Relationships

Upwardly Mobile

As Americans, we are in a society that prides itself on climbing the ladder of success. We find ourselves striving to stay upwardly mobile – gaining more position, more status, more salary, and with all of it… more stress. And though we endure the stress, we tell ourselves that this must be the “good life.” We also might look down on others for not being the go-getters that we are (even though they sure seem less stressed).
ladder with blue sky and clouds behind representing our upwardly mobile desires
Those who aren’t striving to climb the ladder like us sometimes get labeled as lazy – like the mountain people of Appalachia in the book Christy:   “The highlanders were often accused of being lazy and shiftless. As I got to know them better, my conclusion was: relaxed, yes; shiftless, a few of them; greedy, scarcely ever. …”It’s today. I must be livin’.” summed up their philosophy well—a philosophy that aggressive people would spurn.

“Yet which is right? Human life is short. Each of us has limited number of years. So are we going to go through those so few years with little time for our family and friends, and unseeing eyes for the beauties around us concentrating on accumulating money and things when we have to leave them all behind anyway?

“I began to wonder, if the mountain values were not more civilized than civilization’s. At least I found the absence of greed and pushiness as refreshing as a long cool drink of sparkling mountain spring water.”

I have found this true in my own life as I have traveled to other countries in the past few years. At first I found it difficult to sit around and visit for so long when there was so much work to be done. Coming from a “Ready, Fire, Aim” society, it was difficult to sit still. But by the time my first week was complete, I was experiencing that same feeling of being refreshed just by seeing how relaxed they were and willing to enjoy one another. It also made me wonder if our civilized, upwardly mobile way was really as good as we say it is.

We are so busy scaling the ladder that we often do so to the neglect of our family. We work hard to accumulate so much stuff that we can’t take with us. The only real treasures that I will take with me when I die are my relationships. Maybe some of the values that have disappeared from our culture are less civilized that those of our great-grandparents or those of cultures that we do not consider as sophisticated as our own.

I pray that I will learn contentment in Christ and in my relationships, and that I will not allow society to push me toward being upwardly mobile just ‘cause everyone else says that is what the good life is all about.

Have you found an effective way to fight against the culture’s pressure to focus on the ladder? How do you fight to focus more on building relationships?