Transforming Family
God introduced us to His Family because He foreknew that our earthly families would fall short. Right from the beginning, the first brothers fought despite God’s warning about sin until Cain killed Abel, and Cain was banished to wander the earth forever. Today’s headlines prove this story is still being repeated the world over!
God’s Family does not look like our earthly families. God’s Family is empowered by Holy Spirit to be unoffendable because Jesus was never offended by what the world said or did to Him. The evidence that we love the Lord is that we walk the earth as Jesus did, empowered to demonstrate the family love of the Father to everyone to whom He directs us.
It is easy to confuse our experience of our earthly families with our experience of God’s Family. Some people experience offenses so painful they have clenched teeth all the days of their lives—unless God empowers them to forgive. God has left you on the earth despite your experience of offense and pain for a reason that is far greater than what’s in your heart. He is pursuing you because He wants you to look like His Son.
Better to be a fool for Christ and love as He loved than to be wise in the world and not know the Father’s love. It may look foolish but we are called to walk right up to the obstacles in our lives and trust that God will do something new to make a way. Why? Because Jesus came to make a way, to retrieve that which was lost, and to remove every obstacle to receiving the Father’s love. Loving one another is a demonstration of the freedom we have in Christ. He sets us free indeed to be able to choose not to take offense. Loving one another without jealousy or offense is a sign of maturity in Christ.
God never intended it to be just you and Him. The natural extension of where God is calling you is “Family”—the Family of God. He wants to demonstrate His eternal mercies toward the world by using you and me to love one another without taking offense. It’s not possible in the flesh, but through Christ we can do all things because He strengthens us! Colossians 3:16-17 in the Passion Translation says this:
Let the word of Christ live in you richly, flooding you with all wisdom. Apply the Scriptures as you teach and instruct one another with the Psalms, and with festive praises,and with prophetic songs given to you spontaneously by the Spirit, so sing to God with all your hearts!
17 Let every activity of your lives and every word that comes from your lips be drenched with the beauty of our Lord Jesus, the Anointed One. And bring your constant praise to God the Father because of what Christ has done for you!