Posts
This is for my anonymous responder.. Following the thread on "Relationships"
Thanks for the reply! Feel free to show yourself ;) Or not.
I agree, there are times when relational weakness masks itself by showing itself strong in "ministries" at the expense of family. This is a large problem. It is so very easy to give the best of ourselves over to everything and anything other than the family God has given us. May God help us from hypocrisy.
At the same time, I have also observed another form of imbalance. That is, families that hole themselves up at the expense of living/dieing for the Church. Richard Lusk has two fantastic sermons on the problem of patriarchalism, where the family becomes more primary than the "institutional" (if you will) Church. You can listen here: http://www.trinity-pres.net/audio/sermon05-09-18.mp3 The title is: "The Church and Her Rivals Part I: Against the Family. and Part II is: The Church and Her Rivals Part II: Focus the Family. It was Sep. 18 and 25 of 2005. They are very well done.
So, whereas the appearance of busyness in serving others can be a mask towards familial failure, it isn't always the case. I have definitely been in more traditional evangelical churches that could rebuke us in some chief relational ministries in which the Lord has blessed them. I will say though, they usually were at least Calvinistic or close thereto.
Thanks for the encouragement, and the Lord's blessing on you!
1 comment:
Yes, it's "Me" again, the "stranger"! Thank you! for your reply back. I totally agree with this post also! The problem of patriarchalism is indeed detrimental. "Families that hole themselves up at the expense of living/dieing for the Church" are a problem too, although, I think it is much less of a problem in our circles than the problem of prioritizing learning and practicing the biblical roles inside the familial structure and then solidly serving God in the church. By the way, I am not advocating stopping any ministry in order to do only "family" work. But the strength in serving others outside of our family only comes in proportion to the strength inside the family in which we are serving as our "closest neighbor" in the second great commandment.
May the Lord be merciful to us all and give us an abundance of the the Holy Spirit's fruit to lavish on our family and on our brothers and sisters in Christ!
Grace and peace be with you.
Post a Comment