Kelly Crawford

As Christians ask the question after this election–“What now?” The answer reverberates loud and clear:

“Build your family”. Because a strong nation is built by strong families. Our nation seems to be coming apart at the seems, socialism is viewed as our only hope (“who else will fix this mess?”), and Christians are discouraged. Remember the stone wall…and build!

I thought this archived post needed to be revisited:

Yes the very basic idea of family is under attack. And just like every other destructive notion, it is slowly creeping into the church unawares.

(Just yesterday, visiting a church, we were met at the door, and before it had even closed behind us, we were invited to usher our children over to the “children’s building–it rocks”. After a polite decline, she was insistent that they at least needed to go check it out because “it’s so much fun they’d be sure to want to come back”.)

I’m not going to dive off into the ins and outs of children’s ministry, but there is a subtle, well-meaning advancement of family separation in the church that I don’t see as a positive thing.

What does it all mean? What’s the whole purpose? What does it mean to be different people but functioning together under one agenda?

Obviously, we must first be convinced that families are God’s idea. I heard someone touting the “hyper-family” model not long ago. The accusation was that some circles put too much emphasis on family.

I’m left scratching my head on that one. To me it’s the same as saying we put too much emphasis on breathing.

Family is the framework on which all else if built. Strong families lead to strong churches. Then to strong communities, and then strong nations. If we miss the foundation, the rest will crumble.

From the foundations of the world, family was established. Even if a person is single, he was always a part of a family. Widows are a part of a family. Paul referred to Timothy as his son. The very language of Scripture teaches us the importance of family. (Christ is the Groom, the Bride is His church…God is our Father, and the Bible is full of parent/marriage analogies.)

I think it’s an understood that whatever we are given to do from Scripture is worked out through the family.

Why else the serious qualifications of church leaders in Timothy? A man is not to even be considered eligible to lead in the church if he hasn’t first successfully led his family.

But we’ve lost this. The church wants to divide the family, even in the realm of ministry. We want a ministry for each individual member, and we want Mom here, and Dad there, and children over there…we really need to try to see the importance of carrying out the Great Commission through the obvious structure of family.

Our agenda then? What is the chief end of man? “To glorify God and enjoy Him forever”. Then that’s also the chief end of family.

What is the greatest commandment? “Thou shalt the love the Lord God with all your heart, soul and mind, and your neighbor as yourself.” Then we do that as family.

What are we given to do?

• “Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in Heaven.” Family.
• “Be given to hospitality…distributing to the necessity of saints.” Natural family work.
• “Go out and make disciples of all men.” (Discipleship is a walking alongside of people. There is no better way to do this than within the context of family. Because at any point one member of the family gives himself to discipling others on his own, he is no longer discipling/being discipled himself.)

We must see ourselves as members of one body, first as related family members, and then our families as an extension of the body of Christ.

It makes sense then why the father is to be the head. The wife his helper. The children extensions of that “command team”. We must all be on board with the same purpose and goals.

Financially, when families are operating under a team model, everyone is contributing to the making and saving of the family’s economy. Children are no longer viewed as leeches or liabilities. They are seen as assets who ultimately serve to improve the family’s economy.

Children should be viewed as “ambassadors” of their parent’s vision. And the vision is what holds it all together. When I know I am an integral part of a unit, I am valuable; I have purpose and am not just an individual out to fulfill my own selfish desires.

“That our sons may be as plants grown up in their youth; that our daughters may be as pillars, sculptured in palace style; that our barns may be full, supplying all kinds of produce; that our sheep may bring forth thousands in our fields…happy are the people who are in such a state; happy are the people whose God is the Lord!” Psalm 144:12-15

Ann Voskamp has awed me yet again…using my favorite words, “you become what you think”, which has monumental significance for understanding our role in life, especially as moms.

Do yourself a favor and read it…don’t forget to let me know your thoughts, though!

“How does an engaged, vibrant, passionate woman forever vanquish the nagging, satanic lies that she is nothing more than a stay at home Mom?

Get Perspective: Hold a sleeping babe in your arms, mouth agape and warm breath drifting, and stand before a map of this world. Which would you rather have? Paris, New York, Tokyo, London——or this flesh lying against yours, this one made in the image and likeness of the very Divine? This world is going to burn up, cinders for the universe….but your child is a soul without end, forever and ever existence. The world has pitifully, laughably little to offer in comparison to this holy opportunity to raise up a child.”

Read Ann Voskamp’s A Strange Disappearance

There is a heresy so rampant among the church today, so many being swept away by its tickling philosophy, that I shudder. It’s hard to define, to nail down a name for the new doctrine–almost like trying to nail Jello to the wall.

Which is why it’s so dangerous. Bits and pieces of it creep in…some subscribe to a smidgen of it, others fall in head-long.

There is something wonderful about staying where you are, where it’s comfortable. And since Jesus comes to us where we are, it’s seems logical that He doesn’t mind if we hang out there. But it’s not His teaching.

We were DEAD in our sins, and if He saved us, He brought us back to life! We are no longer sinners, but saints! We were once darkness, but now have been brought into light. We don’t want to hang out where we were.

The teachers of this “hang-out heresy” have one major problem: The Word of God. Some ignore it, some have re–written it, some only quote the easy parts, and wag a finger at those who dare to quote the rest.

Christians, we must understand the costliness of God’s grace. The irony of God’s overwhelming love simultaneously balanced with a His hatred of sin. His grace cost too much for us to refuse its redeeming power!

Dietrich Bonhoeffer saw this deadly teaching and wrote about what he called “cheap grace”:

“Cheap grace is the deadly enemy of our Church…. Cheap grace means grace sold on the market like cheapjacks’ wares. The sacraments, the forgiveness of sin, and the consolations of religion are thrown away at cut prices. Grace is represented as the Church’s inexhaustible treasury, from which she showers blessings with generous hands, without asking questions or fixing limits. Grace without price; grace without cost! The essence of grace, we suppose, is that the account has been paid in advance; and, because it has been paid, everything can be had for nothing….

In such a Church the world finds a cheap covering for its sins; no contrition is required, still less any real desire to be delivered from sin. Cheap grace therefore amounts to a denial of the living Word of God, in fact, a denial of the Incarnation of the Word of God.

Cheap grace means the justification of sin without the justification of the sinner. Grace alone does everything they say, and so everything can remain as it was before. ‘All for sin could not atone.’ Well, then, let the Christian live like the rest of the world, let him model himself on the world’s standards in every sphere of life, and not presumptuously aspire to live a different life under grace from his old life under sin….

Cheap grace is the grace we bestow on ourselves. Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, Communion without confession…. Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate.

Costly grace is the treasure hidden in the field; for the sake of it a man’ will gladly go and self all that he has. It is the pearl of great price to buy which the merchant will sell all his goods. It is the kingly rule of Christ, for whose sake a man will pluck out the eye which causes him to stumble, it is the call of Jesus Christ at which the disciple leaves his nets and follows him.

Costly grace is the gospel which must be sought again and again and again, the gift which must be asked for, the door at which a man must knock. Such grace is costly because it calls us to follow, and it is grace because it calls us to follow Jesus Christ. It is costly because it costs a man his life, and it is grace because it gives a man the only true life. It is costly because it condemns sin, and grace because it justifies the sinner. Above all, it is costly because it cost God the life of his Son: “ye were bought at a price,” and what has cost God much cannot be cheap for us. Above all, it is grace because God did not reckon his Son too dear a price to pay for our life, but delivered
him up for us. Costly grace is the Incarnation of God.

God said: “Be ye holy, for I am holy.” Impossible for the one still wallowing in self-pity and false humility, claiming to be a mere “scraggly sheep”. But inseparable from the one who understands the redeeming cost of love for his life. The child of God, a new creature, a blood-bought saint.

He didn’t say, “You are holy because I am holy”…He said “be”…it’s a state of doing, being, sanctifying, growing.

HOLY–hagios

*most holy thing, a saint

(From the same root as the following definitions:)

*exciting reverence, venerable, sacred
* pure
a) pure from carnality, chaste, modest
b) pure from every fault, immaculate
c) clean

Humility, real humility, is knowing that His grace covers me, and knowing that grace makes me new.

Go ahead, you know you want to break out in song…”Pickin’ coconuts from the coconut tree…nanna nah”!

How do I know there is a God? How do I know “my” religion is right?

Hard questions to answer, but there is an answer. The Lord providentially brought several thoughts/sermons into my hearing between yesterday and this morning. And whether you are a Christian or not, it would do us all well to ponder these universal questions that nag at the heart of every human.

I know that someone created my computer. I’ve never met him, don’t know his name and have no “proof” for his existence, EXCEPT this well-functioning (well, sometimes 😉 , intricate, complicated, orderly design on which I now type. I know it’s creator by the creation.

I know that there is a universal need in the heart of every human to feel secure, to be at peace, and to feel his own worth.

I know that the world at large is scrabbling around in neurotic fervor to try to fill the void that is in his heart if he has not humbled himself before His Creator.

I know that anger, fear, hatred and an unrelenting, nagging restlessness drives us to drown ourselves in entertainment, addictions and distractions.

And I know that when a person finally admits that he is not God, and he is not capable of finding peace and happiness within himself, and receives the indescribable, glorious gift of forgiveness of his human depravity that will ultimately destroy him, if not in this life, in the one to come, that person is born anew.

He becomes a new creation. His fear, his anxieties, his restlessness dissolves into a placid calmness that cannot be described with human words.

He is not “better” or higher than his fellow man. But he has the mercy given to him by an Advocate–the only One who can pay for the price he owes. And that mercy, open to anyone, washes over his life with such abundance that nothing in this life can move him.

How do I know God is real? Because I am not moved. Because I once was lost–so very lost, and now am found.

Because His mercy took my brokenness, my failures, my fears and torment, and in their place gave me joy and peace that passes all understanding.

Because He did for me what I could not do for myself, and I cannot but praise Him forever!

I know My Redeemer Lives…