Today we will be looking at the family structure as God has intended with particular attention to the story of Ruth and Boaz.
There are many advantages to being in a family. While it may seem obvious that children need someone to take care of them, there are advantages for adults, too. Would you believe people are healthier? After decades of studies, married men have been found to have fewer heart attacks. Married men live longer and have more emotionally healthy lives. Not only that, but according to a book which draws on a 20 year US Department of Labor survey of 6,000 men, married men get better jobs than single men.
According to an Australian study, the death rate figures reveal single people, especially men, have death rates between two and four times higher than married people. This study found that the death rate for married men aged 35 to 39 is 0.9 for each 100,000 but for unmarried men in the same age group the rate jumps to 3.6.
Nu
merous advantages exist for a country with strong healthy families. Families have been called the building blocks of a stable society. When families are damaged and disintegrating, society suffers. Children do best being raised by a father and a mother who provide for their needs. When the child is neglected or abused by their family, they can grow up to be menaces to society. Evidence is overwhelming that the majority of criminals come from dysfunctional, hurting families. Children from God-centred families are likely to grow up to be responsible contributors to society.
A healthy family is important to the church. Healthy families can be said to be the building blocks for God's kingdom. The famous preacher of the 18th century, Jonathan Edwards, said "But the due regulation of your families is of no less, in my mind, and in most respects, of much greater importance. Every Christian family ought to be as it were a little church consecrated to Christ and wholly influenced and governed by God's rules. And the family education and order are some of the chief means of God's grace. If these fail all other means are likely to prove ineffectual."
In modern English, Jonathan Edwards was saying that when the Christian family is not what it should be, the work of the church is weakened. What we are as a family is what we are as a church. The church is a family made up of families, and a household made up of households.
The family is the most basic social unit in building a Kingdom for God because from the family, values are taught and institutions are perpetuated. That was true in the old covenant with Israel, and it is true with the new covenant and the church. The family in the mind of God is a kingdom matter.
Please feel free to come and talk to us at any time,
Dave and Heather
There are many advantages to being in a family. While it may seem obvious that children need someone to take care of them, there are advantages for adults, too. Would you believe people are healthier? After decades of studies, married men have been found to have fewer heart attacks. Married men live longer and have more emotionally healthy lives. Not only that, but according to a book which draws on a 20 year US Department of Labor survey of 6,000 men, married men get better jobs than single men.
According to an Australian study, the death rate figures reveal single people, especially men, have death rates between two and four times higher than married people. This study found that the death rate for married men aged 35 to 39 is 0.9 for each 100,000 but for unmarried men in the same age group the rate jumps to 3.6.
Nu
merous advantages exist for a country with strong healthy families. Families have been called the building blocks of a stable society. When families are damaged and disintegrating, society suffers. Children do best being raised by a father and a mother who provide for their needs. When the child is neglected or abused by their family, they can grow up to be menaces to society. Evidence is overwhelming that the majority of criminals come from dysfunctional, hurting families. Children from God-centred families are likely to grow up to be responsible contributors to society.A healthy family is important to the church. Healthy families can be said to be the building blocks for God's kingdom. The famous preacher of the 18th century, Jonathan Edwards, said "But the due regulation of your families is of no less, in my mind, and in most respects, of much greater importance. Every Christian family ought to be as it were a little church consecrated to Christ and wholly influenced and governed by God's rules. And the family education and order are some of the chief means of God's grace. If these fail all other means are likely to prove ineffectual."
In modern English, Jonathan Edwards was saying that when the Christian family is not what it should be, the work of the church is weakened. What we are as a family is what we are as a church. The church is a family made up of families, and a household made up of households.
The family is the most basic social unit in building a Kingdom for God because from the family, values are taught and institutions are perpetuated. That was true in the old covenant with Israel, and it is true with the new covenant and the church. The family in the mind of God is a kingdom matter.
Please feel free to come and talk to us at any time,
Dave and Heather
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