Relationship is central to who we are. We were created to be in relationship – with God – first and foremost – and with each other, too.
Family in God
Yesterday Roger and I watched and listened online to a service from Grace Church in Fredericksburg, Virginia. It is our home church when we are living in the USA. The Family Pastor spoke on why believers need to be connected; each of us as part of the Body of Christ on earth – God’s own family. His words, based on Romans 12:3-8 moved me very deeply.
I was moved, because I knew deep within me, by His Spirit, that the Lord is calling His family on earth together even more closely for the seasons ahead. So, for me, the message wasn’t just teaching – it was prophetic. We will – if we enter in as His people – be connected at even deeper levels in His love.
Estrangement from family
Estrangement is very, very sad. I read an article this morning about the dislocation that is occurring in our UK Royal Family right now between two brothers and their father and the wider family. It’s constantly in the news.
Estrangement is a pain that we know well in our own personal families; separated from the ones who don’t believe in the God of forgiveness and grace who we know and also fundamentally don’t like the truth of the Spirit who dwells in us.
Jesus brings separation and division
Some years ago, when feeling the deep sadness that estrangement from those we love brings, I was reminded by the Holy Spirit of prophetic words spoken by Jesus and recorded in Matthew’s gospel:
Do not think that I have come to bring peace upon the earth; I have not come to bring peace, but a sword.
Matthew 10:34
I wrote a poem some time ago called the Sword of Separation:
The Sword of Separation
The sword of separation
So painful, yet of God
To bring about division
On earth, where man has trod
Through centuries of compromise -
Of holding things together -
Suddenly life falls apart
In very stormy weather.
The sword has cut right through now
The split is clearly seen
And Truth and Justice are twin blades
On which man vents his spleen
"My truth is right. I'll rule the roost"
There's no objective line.
But there is One Who watches man
And has earth's grand design.
And God who sits in heaven
Allows man in his pride
To suffer consequences
That once He held aside
The sword of separation
His sword of Truth and Love
Has come upon the nations
Through Jesus Christ above
And through His great division
Great houses will now fall
Yet many will confess the Truth
That Christ is Lord of all!
18th February,2021
As I have been writing this post today I have been led by Holy Spirit to dwell further on the way that our loss of connectedness and relationship is part of the division that we are experiencing on earth through the cultures of peoples and nations who have rejected God; His Love and His Truth and Justice.
And I also found these words in Luke’s gospel which speak not of a sword but of fire! And these words are clear: Jesus says that He came to bring division on earth, rather than peace…
I have come to bring fire on the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled! But I have a baptism to undergo, and what constraint I am under until it is completed! Do you think I came to bring peace on earth? No, I tell you, but division.
From now on there will be five in one family divided against each other, three against two and two against three.
Luke 12:49-53 NIVUK
They will be divided, father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.’”
Reconciliation and restoration
While Jesus is clear that there will be both separation and division when He is present with His sword and His fire, He also talks about His Father’s heart of love which feels the pain of estrangement through broken relationship. Luke records what Jesus said in Chapter 15: 11 – 31
Jesus told us about the sadness a Father felt at the loss of a profligate son and then the joy that He demonstrated when that lost son ultimately decided that he couldn’t live at peace without his Father and the blessings of his family home and returned. The son is described as a prodigal – one who had previously been in relationship as a true son of his Father, but who had taken his family inheritance early and squandered it by deciding to follow the ways of the world instead.
His Father – who was constantly watching out for his return – ran to meet him, spotting him when he was still a distance away. Their hearts met. There was repentance followed by great joy and celebration – but quickly followed by another sadness, too, when the elder brother estranged himself from his family through his own bitterness, envy and resentment of his younger brother being so lavishly restored to the family fold.
True forgiveness
I believe that the hardest steps in reconciling with someone are swallowing personal pride and being willing to forgive and be forgiven. This is very difficult, especially when we believe we have been justified in our actions and we have been deeply wounded by the other person. I also believe that it’s not actually possible to have true depth of reconciliation without Jesus, because we cannot truly forgive in our own strength but only through the forgiveness Jesus purchased for us on the Cross.
I am very thankful that Jesus is my big brother! What a life – and death – of love, forgiveness and selflessness is His. I can’t begin to express what it means to know that, through Jesus, I have been repeatedly forgiven and welcomed home by my Father in heaven. I have tears in my eyes as I write this. This is a very deep revelation of God’s love – for people who don’t deserve it. And that definitely includes me.
A prayer
I just want to finish with a prayer.
Father, I thank You today for bringing me home to live with You and for the amazing revelation that Jesus is my older Brother, who actually came out to look for me when I was lost in my own mess. He – my Brother who is full of grace and truth and who is perfect love in every way – laid His own life on the line so that I could be restored to Your family and Your home. I ask that I will never take this for granted.
Today I ask for many more lost, messed up children to be rescued from estrangement from You, their true Father and to be reconciled to You and find their true family home. I ask this in the Name above all Names – Jesus – and for Your glory.
The Bakery 