BONDE BY NIGEL WINDER
Children's and Families Ministry Leader, SUNZ
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NIGEL WINDER | SUNZ Children and Families Team Leader
ow you are no longer strangers to God and foreigners to heaven, but you are members of God’s very own family, citizens of God’s country and you belong in God’s household with every other Christian. —Ephesians 2:19 (Living Bible)
where fair discipline reinforces that choices have consequences and an unyielding loyalty develops between those living together in close proximity and sharing common experiences. This too can also be our experience of church.
Why would God describe His church and people as family?
‘Blood is thicker than water’
Isn’t family a place where siblings fight and quarrel, chores get nagged about, and rooms are left untidy? Isn’t it where we let our daytime persona relax and we take out our frustrations and moods on those we are closest to? Isn’t it where some of our deepest hurts are inflicted — and by those whom we expect most of? Well, I guess that could describe our experiences of church too. Family can also be a safe place to come home to. A place where lifetime bonds are formed, character is tested and refined, and unconditional love is experienced. A place 4 www.sunz.org.nz
According to ‘Dr Google’, this proverb refers to the bloodshed in battle bonding soldiers more strongly than simple genetics or family. As the family of God we, too, are bonded together not by genetics but by blood—the blood of Jesus. We enter into a new spiritual family forged in an epic spiritual battle for our souls. The unity of God’s Spirit binds us together, as we enter into an eternal relationship with our common Spiritual Father. We are all, equally, sinners saved by faith in Jesus. This should out-trump our quibbles, quarrels and petty differences. We should expect the
