Great Families Don’t Just Happen
Acts 3:25 (NKJV) “You are sons of the prophets, and of the covenant which God made with our fathers, saying to Abraham, ‘And in your seed all the families of the earth shall be blessed.’”
Let me explain the context of this verse. This is after the Holy Spirit has been poured out on the day of Pentecost. Peter and John are headed to the temple for prayer when they pass a crippled man. He has been lame and unable to walk his entire life and his existence depends on his begging. Peter and John present him with the facts: We don’t have any money to give you but here’s what we offer, in the name of Jesus, you can rise up and walk.
The man chose to believe it, and a miracle happens. He is healed! It gets the attention of the crowded streets of Jerusalem and Peter begins to preach Jesus to them. He declares that Jesus is the prophet God has spoken of all through the pages of the Bible. He then quotes the promise that God made to Abraham, which includes these words, “And in your seed (speaking of Jesus) all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”
Here is my point. The blessing promised to Abraham is all about a family blessing. Trudi and I are called to preach on this all important subject of family. Family is the basic building block God created the earth to operate on. For this reason, the devil hates family. When you step back and look at human life on the earth, the family is under attack like never before.
“But Pastor Ken, you don’t understand. I’m a victim of a splintered family. I was raised without a father. I’m divorced and I don’t have custody of my kids, or I raised my kids right, and they are totally away from God. My family situation is just impossible.”
Two things I want to say about that:
1. If you find yourself in a situation where you just don’t know what to do about your dysfunctional family, you need to go to church. The church is not an organization. It is called “the family of God.” Find a good church that will love and shepherd you. I believe the church is designed by God as the place of healing from every hurt, including family hurt, that we all deal with.
2. Great families don’t just happen, they must be built a little at the time. You have to make investments in your marriage. You have to purposely train your children. It takes work and commitment. You need to get some teaching and read some books.
This is what our ministry is all about. We travel to churches and preach on family issues. I am the family pastor of a church here in Oklahoma City and we are constantly teaching couples the Word of God and how to successfully walk through marriage and child training issues. We produce teaching tools designed to build your family, but they can’t help you unless you invest in them. We are entering the most severe times of human history on this planet, but God will see us through to victory if we will apply our faith and be diligent to put in a little work.
I conclude with this, you may have some messy issues in your family to deal with. We have personally had some in ours, but when you walk through the family challenges you face by faith in Jesus, the Holy Spirit will actually use the things you go through to minister to others. That’s the way this deal is designed to work. Through Jesus Christ, the perfect seed that God sent, God wants all the families of the earth to be blessed. Thank you partners for supporting our mission, both in prayer and financially,
Ken and Trudi