Extended Family

EXTENDED FAMILY

Ephesians 3:12-15

12 “In whom we have boldness and access with confidence by the faith of him. 13 Wherefore I desire that ye faint not at my tribulations for you, which is your glory. 14 For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, 15 Of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named,”

Zechariah 12:11-14: 11 In that day shall there be a great mourning in Jerusalem, as the mourning of Hadadrimmon in the valley of Megiddon. 12 And the land shall mourn, every family apart; the family of the house of David apart, and their wives apart; the family of the house of Nathan apart, and their wives apart; 13 The family of the house of Levi apart, and their wives apart; the family of Shimei apart, and their wives apart; 14 All the families that remain, every family apart, and their wives apart.

EXTENDED FAMILY:

In the beginning God created human kind. He created them in his likeness and they became His family members in the flesh. The first Adam was set aside for great and mighty things; it was up to his own will. Outsiders, Satan and his family, crept in and tore the family asunder. Time and happenstance scattered God’s family into all the world by the billions. He monitored their activities but they never gave Him a second thought. Down through the ages of time, God’s extended family knew not God or their family members.

There came a day when God grieved that He had ever developed His children because of their evil thoughts and no knowledge of He who created them. One man found favor in Gods heart. Warned, he erected a large ship into which God sent samples of all life, Noah and his immediate family. A great flood covered the earth to above the tallest mountain top. All life not aboard the ark was destroyed.

Genesis 7:22 All in whose nostrils was the breath of life, of all that was in the dry land, died. 23 And every living substance was destroyed which was upon the face of the ground, both man, and cattle, and the creeping things, and the fowl of the heaven; and they were destroyed from the earth: and Noah only remained alive, and they that were with him in the ark. 24 And the waters prevailed upon the earth an hundred and fifty days.

Geneses 8:3 And the waters returned from off the earth continually: and after the end of the hundred and fifty days the waters were abated.4 And the ark rested in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, upon the mountains of Ararat.

All was barren and death abounded. Noah and his three sons ,in due time, released the cargo of life and gathered themselves together to view the carnage left behind and to plan. God had condensed His extended family to only seven persons with whom he would begin again to have fellowship with His creation. Alas Satan brought his crew and disrupted, once again, God’s effort.

Moses talked to God and establishment written laws. Abraham came with God’s circumcise covenant, then Issac who produced Jacob. Jacob, who God renamed Israel began a line after God’s heart. Israel had twelve sons and from these grew twelve tribes of chosen people. Evil reigned over the world but were blocked from His chosen by His mighty power. A great plan was in place. King David, King Solomon, the building of a temple in which God would dwell, fulfilling prophesy of a rescuing messiah for floundering law practices. God’s chosen rejected His plan. The civilization of gentiles “dogs” never knew Him. His extended family, once again, crashed. But, out of the kayos walked a man called Jesus. God begat a son in whom He was well pleased. Jesus brought the final covenant by His shed blood. We call it Grace, God calls it a “family reunion.” Through Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross at calvery, we who were once alienated from the family of God now can become the sons and daughters of God. Never again to be a part of an extended spiritual family but adopted by God through faith into His family as children like unto Jesus Christ His only begotten son. Know God, know peace. Amen 12-08-2019 BLL (Inspired by Charlie Robinette)