The Family I Have Always Wanted

Many people desire to be in a family or to belong to a community. This is a value because these people are given a sense of worth. They contribute to this family and the family in turn contributes to them. So, for many this is deep desire to want to be in a family. God has given us a family. God has given us his family. This is, “the family I have always wanted.” I am reminded of Abraham and how his family started. I am also reminded of my own family and the loss that we suffered. I am lastly reminded of the church, who is God’s family. Looking at these three examples of family will show us how God can and will give of the family we have always wanted.

Abraham was nearing one-hundred years old and he and his wife Sarah were with out a child to continue their family. This was especially important in those days. At was during this time that God spoke to Abraham saying:

I have made you a father of many nations. I will make you very fruitful; I will make nations of you, and kings will come from you. I will establish my covenant as an everlasting covenant between me and you and your descendants after you for the generations to come, to be your God and the God of your descendants after you. The whole land of Canaan, where you now reside as a foreigner, I will give as an everlasting possession to you and your descendants after you; and I will be their God" (Genesis 17:5c-8).

What was Abraham’s response? Abraham fell facedown; he laughed and said to himself, "Will a son be born to a man a hundred years old? Will Sarah bear a child at the age of ninety” (17:17)? Even though Abraham at first laughed at the idea, God still kept his promise to give Abraham not only a son (Isaac) but a great family. God promised to bless his family. Unexpectedly Abraham received “the family he always wanted.” This family was going to be God’s family. They would call the LORD God their God.

Since I can remember, I have had the desire to belong to a family. As a young child, my mom was sick and unable to care for me in the way that she wanted. She passed away of complications from diabetes, when I was 12 years old. My dad moved away after this and I lived with my grandparents. I was grateful for them but my family was somewhat incomplete. I felt this even more when my grandfather passed away later that same year. Was there a family out there that could give me a sense of worth? Was there a family out there that could comfort me? Was there a family out there that could be the family I always wanted? Thank God for his family!

In the New Testament the Apostle Paul talks about the family of Abraham. Paul says, “So the promise is received by faith. It is given as a free gift. And we are all certain to receive it, whether or not we live according to the Law of Moses, if we have faith like Abraham’s. For Abraham is the father of all who believe” (Romans 4:16). So we are included in Abraham’s family if we believe! It is a free gift! The promise of an everlasting covenant, the promise of blessing Israel and Israel being a blessing, and the promise of being in God’s family is for all who believe! We a part of God’s family. This is a family I want to be a part of. This is the family I have always wanted.

I very much desired to be a part of something greater than myself but at the same time provided me a place to belong. Many of us may feel the same way. We have suffered loss. We have been hurt. We struggle with depression. We struggle with loneliness. The list goes on but remember that God’s family includes you, if you believe in Christ. It is an unexpected family but it is the family I have always wanted!

Thanks for reading,

Marcelino

Suffering and the New Life

Dr. Ron Williams spoke at Living Water Foursquare on May 24^th. If you have not heard Ron Williams’ testimony, I suggest that you hear it some time. God truly moved in Ron to bring about extraordinary healing in him that saved his life. God increased his life as Dr. Williams referred to God increasing the life of King Hezekiah (2 Kings 20:6). One of the things Dr. Williams said (which I will paraphrase here) was that with the terrible/tragic events that happen to us we end up asking the question, “Why is this happening?” When perhaps we should ask, “What can I learn from this?” This is the topic that I will reflect upon, that is, suffering and what God wants us to learn from it. Not only this, but God brings new life through our suffering. When I see Dr. Williams, I see God’s new life breaking in. This is because of the physical and spiritual work that God has done in him.

We as humans naturally ask the question, “Why?” But as we come to worship the Lord in our lives, we come to realize that our suffering has a purpose. Dr. Williams mentioned Romans 5:3-5 which states:

We also boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.

Dr. Williams discussed how suffering produces endurance (consistency), character produces hope and so on. I could see how he believed this was true in his own suffering. God had truly done a work in him not only physically but God had made him more spiritually mature. He said, “Real men don’t cry but they have heart attacks, and ulcers” but he learned that through his suffering that this was not how to be a “real man” or truly human. Men as well as women within the Christian community are to be there for each other through the good times and hard times. They are to rejoice and mourn with each other (Romans 12:15). Suffering producing a mature person is also discussed in the book of James 1:2-4 which states:

My brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of any kind, consider it nothing but joy, because you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance; and let endurance have its full effect, so that you may be mature and complete, lacking in nothing.

These two passage in particular deal not with the “why” question but with the “what” question. God wants to move us from our “fallen self” to a “complete self” or a person who is truly who they were meant to be. So instead of dreading difficult times (persecutions, trails, suffering, or whatever), a person should consider it joy because a person becomes the “complete self” that God wants for them through their suffering. If however a person does not "consider it nothing but joy" they become more like the “fallen self” that God saved humanity from through his son, Jesus Christ.  

This is the new life God has for us. As Jesus suffered and died, and rose to new life, so we too must suffer and die to gain a new life (Romans 6:1-11). This is done for us through the dying and raising of Jesus, which enables us to do the same. This new life is not just when we are literally raised to new life but this new life breaks through now, as with Dr. Williams. The challenge is laid before us, as Christians. Do we embrace suffering for what it can produce in us? Or do we shrink away from it and thus shrink away from the “complete self” God wants for us?

Thanks for reading.

Marcelino

Where will amazing happen?

It has been quite awhile since I have blogged. Seminary has kept me very busy. I have been learning a lot and I have been challenged both academically and spiritually. I am glad to say that I am going to pick up blogging again.

The NBA has been advertising all year that their league is "where amazing happens", which I think has been a successful slogan. Now that the playoffs have started they have shown past clips of spectacular plays of the playoffs of past years. They have asked, "Where will amazing happen this year? To find out the answer fans need to watch this seasons playoffs. I asked myself, what if we ask this question outside the sports or basketball world and ask the Apostle Paul this question and then leave the question to Christians?

"Where will amazing happen?" 

The answer to this question is wherever God's new creation breaks in! The Apostle Paul says that Christians will be raised to newness of life and will be restored along with God's creation. God will raise believers from the dead and restore his creation (see Romans 6, 8). This is what we are look forward to. But Paul does not leave it there. Christians are to do the "work of the Lord" and Paul says some how our work will not be in vain but will be affirmed in God's new creation (1 Cor 15). Paul also says that we are new creations even now and it is everything (Galatians  6:15). So though this new creation will happen in the future it is happening even now. It happens when people come to faith in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ and it happens whenever and wherever the Church of Jesus Christ does the work of the Lord. "Amazing" happens among those people that "are" new creation and "do" new creation.

So as I prepare to watch the Lakers tonight, I won't be looking for what is truly amazing, instead I will look to God and is church for "amazing" or "new creation". I am remind of N. T. Wright's appeal to "dream the dream of God's new creation". What would it look like? To quote Kanye West "Amazing!" I never thought I would quote Tom Wright and Kanye West together! Anyway, I am encouraged to ask this question and then as Paul would say go out and "do the work of the Lord!" I hope you are encouraged as well.

God Bless,

Marcelino