Faith and Family

Background image credit

NOTE: This is Day Four of the devotional guide of our church, Filinvest Community Christian Fellowship, for the “Significance” series (a verse-by-verse study of the book of Ephesians).

In his “Faith of the Fatherless,” psychologist Paul Vitz of New York University showed that many famous atheists throughout history (such as German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, who declared that “God is dead!”, Scottish skeptic David Hume, British agnostic Bertrand Russell, and Madalyn Murray O’Hair, founder of American Atheists and who filed the lawsuit that won “a landmark Supreme Court ruling ending official Bible-reading in American public schools”[1]) “felt abandoned or deeply disappointed with their fathers.” [2] According to Vitz,
That a child’s psychological representation of his father is intimately connected to his understanding of God was assumed by Freud and has been rather well developed by a number of psychologists, especially psychoanalysts… In other words, an atheist’s disappointment in and resentment of his own father unconsciously justifies his rejection of God. [3]
Background image credit

Someone said, “Home is where life makes up its mind.” To paraphrase a Chinese proverb, “The strength of the nation and the church depends upon the strength of the family.” When the family goes, the church and the nation goes as well. That shows that the family is important to our God. 

Image credit

In fact, it is the first of the three institutions that He created (the other two were the government and the church). No wonder that, when the apostle Paul explained how we could walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called (Ephesians 4:1b), he devoted a detailed chunk of his letter to what scholars’ dubbed as “household rules” (See 5:21-6:9).

Simply put, our family should reflect our faith. That’s why the church should complement the family. “[The] Christian household was the basic expression of the Christian community.” [4] Whatever we teach and do as a church should make families Christ centered followers.

Significant Step

Pray for a family in our church. You may call or text them for their prayer requests. (But respect their privacy if they don’t want to share details about their needs.) Just assure them of your loving prayers.

[1] “Madalyn Murray O’Hair,” Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madalyn_Murray_O%27Hair, accessed February 27, 2015.

[2]  Lee Strobel, “Fathers & Faith: New Poll on Struggles with Dads and God,” Investigating Faith with Lee Strobel Newsletter, http://ow.ly/JIw9F, accessed February 27, 2015.

[3] Ibid. Emphasis added.

[4] Gordon D. Fee and Douglas Stuart, How to Read the Bible Book by Book (PH: OMF Literature, 2002), 351.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

God Knows Judas Not Pay

In the National Geographic Magazine (May 2006 issue), in its cover story, The Judas Gospel , Professor Eliane Pagels of Princeton University claimed that the so-called gospel of Judas “ changes the history of early Christianity. ” Even UP Professor Randy David took notice of the Judas Gospel: “Strictly from a sociological standpoint, I think the discovery of the Gospel of Judas makes Christianity a far more interesting religion than what centuries of metaphysical theology has made of it.” (A Gospel for the Postmodern, Phil. Daily Inquirer, April 16, 2006) That’s why I spoke in our Young Pro Fellowship a few days ago on God Knows Judas Not Pay (A Biblical Response on the Judas Gospel). I believe opportunities like this hype on the Judas Gospel or the Da Vinci Code opens a door for us to share the true Gospel. For those who did not attend last Thursday, let me share briefly why we reject the Judas gospel. I came up with the acronym J-U-D-A-S. J udas was portrayed as a traitor in the Bibl...
Read more

“Ubus-ubos Biyaya, Bukas Nakatunganga”

Image
That’s what my mother always told us when we were still kids. (Translation: “You spend everything today, you will have nothing tomorrow.” ) Image source: So, What's New ? Dionie did just that. Last April 2008, he won PHP14,125,032 in the Lotto 6/42 draw. Excitedly, he “lived the life of a millionaire, something he had been longing to experience. He lived in a P4-million house in a posh subdivision, drove around in a sports utility vehicle [which he bought the very same day he claimed his prize] , and gave goodwill money, ranging P1,000 to P 850,000, to relatives and friends. He also gambled daily, womanized, and went on regular drinking sprees.” (Source: Manila Bulletin ) He estimated that he squandered a minimum of P100,000 almost every day. He also lent money even to people he did not really know. “I just gave them and told them not to pay me back.” (Ibid) His bank had to issue him a special card so he can withdraw huge amounts of money quickly from the automated teller m...
Read more

Detour, Not A Dead End

Image
A dead end is “an end of a road or a passage from which no exit is possible.” Image credit A dead end, according to a dictionary, is “an end of a road or a passage from which no exit is possible.”  According to another dictionary , it is “a situation, plan, or way of doing something that leads to nothing further.” Screenshot from Merriam-Webster online dictionary There were times in my life when I thought I was in a dead end.  Impasse. No way out. Caught between the proverbial rock and a hard place. I was like Moses. There’s the Red Sea in front of me and the Egyptian army behind me. Only this time, I can’t part the sea.  I failed. Many times. My dreams became a nightmare. And my nightmare came to pass. (Of course, I can always blame others. The fact is, it’s not entirely my fault. But why waste time blaming? So, I’ll just take responsibility for where and why I failed.) I got burned out. I got myself into stress-related disorder when I pressure...
Read more