YES, JUST HOW DO YOU SEE ME?

I KNOW HOW MY LOVING HEAVENLY FATHER SEES ME, BUT THE IMPORTANT QUESTION TO YOU, IS HOW DO YOU SEE ME?

Apostle Winfree James R Sr, The Lord's Anointed And Faithful Messenger, Social Media Blogger, Churches, And Christ Nations Writer:

The Importance of Spiritual over Physical Kinship

Jesus’ ministry consistently challenged the limitations placed on Women. His response to a woman who “raised her voice and said to Jesus, ‘Blessed is the womb that bore you and the breasts that nursed you!’” ( Luke 11:27 ) is a good example.

In a context where Women were judged by their sons’ accomplishments, this Woman meant to pay Jesus a compliment: “Your mother was blessed to have a son like you!” But the Woman framed His mother’s blessedness in terms of her biology, She was not much more than a fortunate womb and breasts. Jesus, however, replied, “Blessed rather are those who hear the Word of God and Obey it!” ( 28 ).

Although the Woman in the crowd could not have known it, Jesus’ statement applied especially strongly in the case of His own mother, a young girl who was told by an angel that she would bear a child by the Holy Spirit. Mary knew that according to Old Testament Law, she could be stoned to death if she were found to be pregnant by someone other than her fiancé, but she accepted the risk in faith. Jesus said that what was truly admirable about his mother, or anyone, was that obedience and faith.

What was important about individual Women or men was not their ability to bear or father children, but rather that they heard the word of God, and obeyed it. This redefinition of blessedness opened the door to bonds that extend beyond physical kinship. Only one woman could be Jesus’ mother in the flesh, but by obeying the word of God, an infinite number of people, male or female, could enter into a familial relationship with him.4 Jesus even warned that doing God’s will would result in the rejection of believers by their non-believing families:

Brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child. Children will rebel against their parents, and have them put to death. Everyone will hate you because of me, but those who stand firm to the end will be saved. ( Mark 13:12–13 )

This statement may sound extreme to us, but it was even more shocking in Jesus’ context. Ancient patriarchy placed great value on family prestige, which could only be increased at the expense of other families. Eve is called the Mother of All living beings, So what do this make us, if We really do believe our Bibles?

Jesus’ claim that “Anyone who loves their father or mother more than Him is not worthy of Him; anyone who loves a son or daughter more than Him is not worthy of Him” ( Matt. 10:37 ) was equally challenging. Following Jesus required the renunciation of family ties based on self-centered concerns about prestige, power, and material accomplishments in order to embrace a new spiritual kinship group based on doing God’s will. By making the kingdom of heaven the source of their primary relationships, believers are redeemed from the materialism of the Fall.

Christ Kingdom Family Responsibility

Jesus did not intend for His disciples to abandon their biological families altogether, but rather He challenged them to abandon the ungodly, un-believing self-serving family structures, especially when these old allegiances interfered with their higher duty to serve God.

The New Testament includes many examples of disciples who continued to honor and enjoy family ties: One of the first people Jesus healed was Peter’s mother-in-law ( Mark 1:30 ), Apostle Paul taught that Apostles were entitled to have their spouses traveling with them ( 1 Cor. 9:5 ), Philip the Evangelist ministered with his prophetic daughters ( Acts 21:9 ), and Aquila and Priscilla were a husband and wife ministry team ( Acts 18 ).

Once we renounce our desire to cling to self-interest, reconciling duty to God with love of family is not difficult. We do it by making our family the first location for doing God’s work. Indeed, when reading in light of Jesus’ teachings and first-century family practices, Apostle Paul’s writings in Ephesians 5 and 6 emerge not as an endorsement of patriarchy, but as guidelines for structuring Christ Believers marriage and family without it.

For example, Elder Paul writes that children should obey their parents, a notion consistent with patriarchy. Fathers, however, must not use that obedience for their own purposes, as they had in the past. Rather, they now use it to serve their children, bringing them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord ( Eph. 6:3, 4 ).

Hear this Preachers!!!.... Jesus said that He came to serve, not to be served ( Mark 10:45;) ( Matt. 20:28 ). So when Brother Paul describes the husband as “head” of his wife as Christ is head of the church, he draws not on a metaphor of authority but on the metaphor of the head as the source of unity. The husband does this not by leading his wife, and certainly not by ruling over her, but rather by nurturing and serving her in such a way that they grow together, head and body, into one flesh and note this above every man is Christ, Not another man.

Jesus and Godly Family Values Today

In Jesus’ context, people married in order to have children to serve and care for them. In our context, people marry and/or have children in order to have someone to love and to love us in return. This represents a major and positive shift in motives; nonetheless, the fallen impulse to use other people to fulfill self-centered needs remains.

The imperative of Genesis 1:28 ( “Be fruitful and increase in number” ) is a blessing, not a commandment. I don’t believe that the Bible teaches a Christian obligation to marry or to have children. But if we do start our own families, Jesus taught that we have deep responsibilities to our spouse and children. In marriage, we must strive for a life-long, one flesh relationship. As parents, we have children not to meet our own needs for love, but to raise a godly generation who loves the Lord.

The family values that Jesus taught are indeed not “expedient” or profitable by worldly standards. These are family values of the kingdom of heaven, and truly the only values worth living and we must keep and put Spirit above blood, cause flesh and blood in not entering heaven, only those of us who are born again. Amen...

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Our God And Loving Heavenly Spiritual Father, Loves Grace And Cheerful Givers, But Not Old Covenants And Old Testaments Law Giving.

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