Broken Windows and Leaky Faucets
“But if anyone does not provide for his own, and especially for those of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.” 1 Timothy 5:8 NASB
Does not provide – By Michael Moen
In today’s world we all grow up in different households with different family dynamics. The experiences we have with our families are in many ways unique. However, despite the differences we may share in our experiences with our families, God makes it very clear that family is of extreme importance, and should be valued the same by all who follow God’s instructions. This is because in the Hebraic way of life community is of utmost importance, and a strong community stems from healthy households. When a family is broken it affects the community. There is no way to get around this. So when the family itself cannot fix the issues within its household, the community must take action. The longer a household in the community is in disarray, the more the community at large is influenced by the family’s disunity.
This is drastically opposed to the notion we find in our current culture. We act as if it no one’s business if it doesn’t affect them. But this myopic view doesn’t follow the biblical pattern. Paul’s verse isn’t highlighting anything that wasn’t already known and practiced in the Jewish community. A strong community is only possible when the households within that community are unified and harmonious. This means that a household that is broken, without an interest in reconciliation, is a household that is poisonous to its neighbors and community at large. From the Old Testament to the New we find examples of how God expects us to act within our households. “He who troubles his own house will inherit wind, And the foolish will be servant to the wisehearted,” Proverbs 11:29. The problem today is that in our modern western society the community no longer plays a major role as compared to the biblical example. When we take a good look at our current family structure, we find that more households in the community are broken than healthy. Today’s culture puts more emphasis on fixing the broken windows and leaky faucets than on mending the broken relationship with our parents, siblings, and extended relatives.
Joseph is a great example of how we are to understand the issues we have with our family members. Very few people can claim to have been sold into slavery by their family, yet Joseph holds no grudges or hatred for what his family did to him. Despite the fact that Joseph had an experience that is far worse than most, he is the one who seeks to unify his family. Think about your own family or household. Is there something that is straining your relationship with a parent, sibling, spouse, or extended relative? Stop avoiding the actions that you could take to reconcile these relationships. Build back the community that God had originally intended for humanity, one family at a time!
Topical Index: family, provision, community, 1 Timothy 5:8
Ouch, this hurts, being divorced …. but still seeking reconciliation!
I have pushed for years to bring my family together, well my children, I have 6, the part that has troubled me is when I help with provision when one isn’t able to find a job and has a child and the rest want to tell me to stop being an enabler guess this shows me what I have felt within my heart and the inability to turn away from their needs isn’t so far from the truth after all!
As I divorced woman, I didn’t even know the ways of God until I was passed the age of 45. We will always learn and stumble, learn and stumble, but we just keep on keeping on until we see Jesus.
The Gift That Keeps on Giving
(Complete Joy)
May I? May I “kick this up a notch?” Everyone on this green planet should have three families. An “earthly” family- a mom, a dad and “you” the kid, a “church” family- “let’s do life together!”- and a heavenly family with whom we shall spend eternity.
May I, (again?)..- “I’m so glad to be part of the family of God! Good morning, brothers! Good morning to you, sisters! Hello, brother Bob, and a good day to you, sister Sally! Our Father has many children! You sir, and you m’am are the ones I will be spending “eternity” with! I may not know you now, (I only know in part!)- but, -I will know you then- and we will have “stories to tell!”- and songs of deliverance unto our Savior, whom we shall know (then) ever more intimately than before! We shall behold Him!- and yes, “face-to-face!”
It was God who “structured” the family, (and yes, -from the beginning)- male and female made He “them,”-Adam and Steve.., er…(sorry), -Eve,- our great-great, (not so great) “mom and dad.” Even in a “perfect” environment there lived (long,long time ago..) two “imperfect” people!
May we? May we review our own “family” history? How can you know where you are going, if you don’t know where you’ve been? Here is the point of this (in advance) for all whose attention span is that of a rabbit: – There is ONLY ONE “Perfect Person” ever to have lived!!
Get it? Got it? Good.
Adam (#1)- sinner. Eve (mother of all living) -sinner. Next in line? – the kids.. sinners also. One of them rose up in a fit of jealous anger and killed his own brother! (I just know Adam was less than thrilled..). Even those who we (imperfect people) “canonize” or may even call “saints”- Moses, Noah, David- every single one of these (all these “famous names” in the Book of books!) are less than “perfect.” Moses may “confess”.. “I have sinned.. Noah knows.. “I (too) have sinned.. David declares: “I have sinned..” Shall we continue with this sordid list of sinners? (Need we “name names?”)
Are we not yet convinced? All have sinned and fallen short of the “mark?” “All” (btw) surely includes the man (or woman) in the mirror! My (own) honest confession? “I (too) have sinned and am no longer worthy to be called Your son!” But.. (kapow!!!!) May I?
Oh, friend!!- There is a Savior!! and yes, (Hallelujah!)- there is forgiveness!! There is ONE (and only ONE) who (on earth and in heaven) has the authority and the power and the willingness to forgive us our sins. And the Bible, – the word of God says? “If we (as in, any one of us!) will confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins AND.. (yes, there is more!) to cleanse us from ALL (did He just say “all?”) unrighteousness!!”
We may be familiar, we may know “unforgiven” – and what a miserable state this is!!- but who among us (sinners) knows (beyond knowing!) the forgiveness, the cleansing, the restoration of relationships!!- the renewing (clean slate) power of forgiveness? Oh, Hallelujah!! – (are you listening?)
~ and the blood of Jesus Christ, (God the Son) cleanses us from (what?) “all” sin ~ (1 John 1.7)
Here is (in it’s glorious entirety) some “good news” from God:
The Word, which gives life!
He existed from the beginning.
We have heard Him,
we have seen Him with our eyes,
we have contemplated Him,
we have touched Him with our hands!
The Life appeared,
and we have seen it.
We are testifying to it
and announcing it to you —
eternal life!
He was with the Father,
and He appeared to us.
What we have seen and heard,
we are proclaiming to you;
so that you too
may have fellowship with us.
Our fellowship is with the Father
and with His Son, Yeshua the Messiah.
We are writing these things
so that your joy may be complete.
And this is the message which we have heard from Him and proclaim to you: – God is light, and there is no darkness in Him — none!
If we claim to have fellowship with Him while we are walking in the darkness, we are lying and not living out the truth. But if we are walking in the light, as He is in the light, then we have fellowship with each other, and the blood of His Son Yeshua purifies us from all sin.
If we claim not to have sin, we are deceiving ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we acknowledge our sins, then, since He is trustworthy and just, He will forgive them and purify us from all wrongdoing.
If we claim we have not been sinning, we are making Him out to be a liar, and His Word is not in us.
~ ADONAI, You are kind and forgiving,
full of grace toward all who call on You ~
And because God has forgiven us, are we not then fully able to forgive those who have “trespassed” against us? Especially those who are of our own household?
~ A maskil. Blessed (how happy!) is the one whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered ~ (Psalm 32:1)
Did it “cost” Joseph to forgive his brothers? (Remember, “love is benevolence towards another at cost to myself!”)
But what did it “pay” for Joseph to forgive his brothers? (complete joy!!- what a fellowship!- what a joy divine!!) Relationships restored.
Is forgiveness – (always) the “right thing” to do?
Then Peter came and said to Him, “LORD, how often shall my brother sin against me and I forgive him? Up to seven times?” And He said to him, “I do not say to you, up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven.…”
The Gift of Forgiveness.. – pass it on! – (pay it forward!)
~ FOR I WILL BE MERCIFUL TO THEIR INIQUITIES, AND I WILL REMEMBER THEIR SINS NO MORE ~ (Hebrews 8.12)
Ouch is right!
I’m not sure what “reconciliation” or “restoration” means in dysfunctional families. When a good, solid foundation of mutual respect and protection, wanting the best for each individual as well as the group, doesn’t exist, what’s to “return to?” The issues in today’s modern world families are very dark and convoluted. (Israel is as big a mess as the rest of us to be sure! The nation, at this very moment, is preparing to offer “free” abortions! They already kill 20-25% of their babies in utero! A total slaughterhouse!) There is no “tribe” or “village” in America, except for maybe perverted “clans” who abuse their children all the day long and keep their “secrets” hidden. There is no accountability. Our society is toooo self-indulgent to care about healthy relationships– the church being the most guilty of all!
“Family” is a very fluid term these days. I remember my 2 daughters telling me that, when they first entered the college world, they noticed that most of the “kids” seemed to have no need, obligation, nor concern for their biological families (except $$ for tuition and expenses of course!) They just simply turned their current friends and relationships into “family.”
Our “family” is broken on many different levels and, in some arms of the “fam” there really isn’t any foundation at all. “Reconciliation” in some arenas of our family would mean to return to abuse.
Please be so very CAREFUL when you decide to “reconcile” with evil, hurtful people. They are more like roaring, blood-thirsty lions than “the parents/kids/siblings/etc” you want to be close to.
And then sometimes it’s just not possible. No excuses just saying.
Ro 12:18 If it be possible, as much as lies in you, live peaceably with all men.
Unfortunately, like many of us, I am divorced…not by choice, but nevertheless divorced. Since the divorce, my ex-wife has literally “bought” our two young adult children by providing them with large sums of money and “poisoned” them by filling their heads with myths she has made up about me in order for her to justify the divorce. Prior to all this, I had a very good relationships with both of my children. But now, they have cut off all contact with me. I yearn for my kids and one of my greatest desires is to reconcile with them, to hug them, and to show and tell them how much I love them. However, there isn’t much I can do now except to continue loving them and praying for them. My hope and prayer is that someday they will see and understand what is happening and then show up on my doorstep. Hopefully they won’t wait too long!
On a more positive note, God led me to an incredible, wonderful, beautiful (in many ways) woman that I can love (and do love) in the way that our Abba wants me to. We were married almost three years ago, already. Amazing how time flies. And as an added bonus, I got four great young adult step children as part of the deal. And I have great relationships with everyone of them. I am attempting, with God’s help to restore love and support to my new family, something that was sorely missing in the past. This is now my “adopted” family, however, I love everyone in my new family as much as I ever loved my original family. It’s important for us to remember that fact about YaHWeH also. Unless we are Jewish, we, as Gentiles, are adopted into God’s family. But that doesn’t mean that YaHWeH loves us any less. In fact, as adopted kids of his we may experience even more love from him. The reason is that he chose us. He specifically wanted each of us to be part of his family. He chose us and forgave, both before the formation of this planet earth. And Yahweh’s death on the cross guarantees that death has been conquered and we can spend eternity with him. Praise YaHWeH!
Wow, thanks mike! So so so true! Sho, joseph was an incredible selfless man indeed, learned so much out of this example.