We Were And Are Family 

 I find that the similarities of this family that I still love and cherish to this day, are surprisingly similar to a different family we read about in scripture… “The Church”. Like being in the service, we are often taken far away from the places of origination we came from. Personally, I was born and raised in Western Oregon, however I spent the vast majority of my 39 years of life in Idaho, out side of some first and second cousins, and a Great Aunt and Uncle, all of my biological family lives in Western Oregon, while I live in Idaho. If I’m lucky I see my family once a year. This if were not careful can leave us feeling isolated and alone from many peoples support system.

Although I am remind that Jesus that talked much in the gospel about leaving our family and following Him. It was like he understood that following Him, would take His followers far away from their family and friends. Peter, later became the “Bishop of Rome” a catholic title granted, Paul traveled as far away as Spain in Christian tradition, Mathew to India.. Many Apostles went far from home to spread the news of Christ, and many of them never returned home…Tradition holds that all the Apostles minus John died for their faith, and even John when we find him on the island of Patmos, had been exiled there…

When the Church is Family

So we see that the church in many cases became the actual family of Christians, maybe because their families had abandoned them for their faith, or through the persecutions of Saul and others like him the Christians had been dispersed from their home, or lastly their mission had taken them from homes. In many ways the Christians that they worshiped with became the only family that they knew.

In our modern culture or context this makes sense to us, many Christians don’t live near their biological families like myself, others live close too their families, some even go to the same church with their families. But for those who don’t have the blessing to go to church with their families, the church becomes a sole source of support for a Christian, especially a young or “new in the faith” christian… This is why attending Church is so stressed, if you cut off your main source of encouragement and support, what do you supose would be the outcome? If you cut off the blood supply to your hand when you sleep wrong, what is the sensation you get? Numbness?

So too when we cut ourselves off from the body of Christ we can become numb, and prone to attack, or disease. This is why this family is vitally important to the spiritual health of a Christian…And I should add that it isn’t that you can’t have a relationship without the gathering, however a healthy Christian is one that does all of this, prayer,spending time in scripture, and being apart of the Body of Christ…we are instructed to “Don’t forsake the gathering” for a specific reason, the enemy loves to divide and conquer, Satan isn’t attacking the herd head on, but rather from the shadows, stalking his prey… that is why the Apostle Peter talks about the enemy as a ravenous lion, hunting the way lions do…

We are tasked with not letting ourselves become isolated, not allowing ourselves to become easy prey for the enemy. So we must cling close to our Family the Church body!