We are a family...

• Because we recognize that God has ordained the institution of the nuclear family and called us into  

   the greater familial community of the Body of Christ, 

   we celebrate and strive to build strong families within 

   individual homes and across the generations within our church.

FAMILY: “God has ordained the family as the foundational institution of human society it is. It is composed of persons related to one another by marriage blood or adoption.

Marriage is the uniting of one man and one woman in covenant commitment for a lifetime.” The Baptist Faith and Message 2000, Article 18

“Then God said, 'Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.' So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. And God blessed them. And God said to them, 'Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.'” Genesis 1:26-28

“It is God's unique gift to reveal the union between Christ and His church…” The Baptist Faith and Message 2000, Article 18

"In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church, because we are members of his body. 'Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.' This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church." Ephesians 5:28-32

Marriage provides “for the man and the woman in the framework of intimate companionship, channel of sexual expression according to biblical standards, and the means for procreation of the human race.” The Baptist Faith and Message 2000 Article 18

“Children, from the moment of conception, are a blessing and heritage from the Lord. Parents are to demonstrate to their children God's pattern from marriage. Parents are to teach their children spiritual moral values and to lead them, through consistent lifestyle examples and loving discipline, to make choices based on biblical truth.” The Baptist Faith and Message 2000, Article 18

“It is of the greatest importance for every married man to pay closer, more thorough, and continuous attention to the health of his child soul than to the body child so than to the body which he has begotten, and to regard his child as nothing else but an eternal treasure God has commanded him to protect, and so prevent the world, the devil from stealing the child away and bringing him to destruction." Martin Luther

Application: Knowledge is a blessing. But without wisdom it can become a curse. We must have the standards (i.e God's general revelation and scripture) by which we can develop a heart of wisdom that is attuned to the goodness, mercy and character of God.

There is a path of blessing that will bring generational heritage to families (Deuteronomy 6:3,18,24).

"Hear therefore, O Israel, and be careful to do them, that it may go well with you, and that you may multiply greatly, as the Lord, the God of your fathers, has promised you, in a land flowing with milk and honey." Deuteronomy 6:3

Our home should ring with laughter and joy and 

deep gratitude.

We should strive to think with a mind that is loaded with the truth of scripture.

ReSources:

"California LGBT+ Law Builds ‘Wall of Secrecy’ Between Parents and Kids" (thegospelcoalition.org)

"How Does God Define Family?" (desiringgod.org) 

Questions:

Do you agree that the statement from our core values regarding the family would have been considered somewhat boring 15-20 years ago, but today is considered to be on the edge and out of step with so much of our culture? How has this happened?

What do we mean when we say that the people who love the scripture have “swaddled the compass”?

How is a marriage relationship in Christ a covenantal marriage relationship between one woman and one man in Christ a glory but also involves “burning the bridges” when you get married in the Lord?