A Strong Family Unit

December is traditionally a month when we spend extra time focusing on family and community, so what better time to write about the two.  Nationally, we are in crisis, fighting for freedoms we once took for granted.  Internationally, we live in a religious war zone, nation against nation, brother against brother.

“Both in individual nations and in the overall world the widespread use of of political terrorism has become one of the phenomena of the age.”- Frances Schaeffer

We pray for God’s chosen nation- Israel, hurling prayers towards heaven for her and those who stand  against her.

The book of Nehemiah opens with:

“The fledgling Jewish community in the Land of Israel was under siege and disintegrating.  They were physically threatened.  They were intermarrying.  They were desecrating the Sabbath.  They were assimilating.  It sounds like headlines in this week’s newspaper, but it describes the situation 2,5000 years ago at a major crossroads in Jewish history.”  –www.jewishhistory.org

“And they said to me, The remnant there in the province who escaped exile are in great trouble and reproach: the wall of Jerusalem is broken down, and its [fortified] are destroyed by fire.
When I heard this, I sat down and wept and mourned for days and fasted and prayed [constantly] before the God of heaven.”- Nehemiah 1:3

Nehemiah was the cup bearer to the Persian king, Artaxerexes, following the seventy years of exile in Babylon and the three returns.  Many Jews were still in Persia, but there was a Remnant in the holy city, they were reportedly in ‘great trouble and reproach’.  The wall of protection around the city of Jerusalem – in ruins.

Our nation, just like the promised land-Israel began as a godly nation, but deteriorated. We  live in a Babylonian, post-Christian nation with an elite group providing arbitrary absolutes and media providing a  vehicle for manipulation.  I do not want to dispute our nation’s foundations, I would rather focus on the Christian’s foundation which should remain the same regardless of the form of government or the culture.  Are we weeping and praying for the foundation of the Christians?  For the foundation of family which the society is built upon?  

Nehemiah has a wonderful framework for rebuilding a family, a community and a church. For the next several weeks, I will be digging into this wonderful book of rebuilding foundations and sharing golden nuggets here on my blog.