First things first.
How can we celebrate the Family today?
By returning to God's command for the family
It is to honor your father and mother (Eph 6:1-3)
Commandments 1-4 deal with the area between the relationship of man & God.
Commandments 5-10 deals with the relationship between man to man.
Commandment 5, God wanted deal with relationship between Parents and children. It is interesting how God put relationship between Parents and children above all other relationship with man. Moreover its a commandment that comes in with a Promise. Indeed a key to Successful living.
When you say Family- What comes to your mind? Wife. Husband. Children. One house. Problems. Happiness. Pain. Joy. Parents. What?
The 1st thing that should come is the way we honor our Father and Mother.
How do we Honor our Father and Mother?
By respecting them
Honor means To treat with respect. Its about giving them a place of preferance or honor. A place where we can serve them. Its indeed a Challenging command. But God indended to encourage us with that promise. A promise of Long life.
A commandment when you obey, it will be a blessing. In business man term- A contract with return on investment! Its not easy but its a testimony of those who have honored their parents, healing and forgiveness flowed in. Why? It is because they returned to the Lord. When we obey, God blesses.
This Promise is conditional if only you obey. But also Look at Exodus21:17 & Proverbs30:17. There's a word of warning and a word of caution!
By inculding them
Honor is also to recognise the worth/ value. Its to recognise their worth and their value and to inculde them as part of the family. But in this society, cutting off parents is becoming a norm. World says Family is two thier. The parents and children. But for God family is three Thier. Grandparents, Parents, Children. It is because our God is a God of 3 generations. Therefore its all about inculding them.
Story of about a Girl's family.
During dinner, Seow mei's grandma eat until very messy. Everything was everywhere. So her father came up with an idea to put granny a table separate from them. That solved everything.
So one day, seow mei was playing and daddy came back. And asked her what she was doing? She was playing with lego stuff. And she said 'oh i'm making a separate table for mum and you. So that once you grow old, you can eat there. It was funny how the truth came. But that dinner, granny was inculded.
By receiving God's love for the Family
Turning to Eph1:4-6. Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself. It speaks about we are chosen to be His children. It was because of His grace, that we are chosen. Grace is receiving a blessing we dont deserve. We cant depend on our earthly relationships with our parents to point us to a relationship with God. For our relationships with our parents shape us in our relationship to others. And if we go along the flow of letting our relationship with our parents to point us to God, then a Degeneration of generations will begin. It will be like a downward spiral. But to stop this spiral: lets go to John1:12-13 But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even that believe on his name. To stop the downward spiral, the only hope is to be born again. The intervention is to prevent the degeneration of generations. Act16:31 And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house. For this is the only hope, when God comes into the family.
Some say i honor my parents by not becoming a christian. Hear what you are saying! Let them go to hell then i become a christian.
In the past chinese worship one God. Interesting as it sounds doesnt it. Alot of cultures mimic the bible. There's alot of bibilcal truths behind certain of these cultures.
Lets Look at this word FU. To welcome wealth, Chinese people also love to have the word "fu"(福) (prosperity) everywhere. The Chinese translate prosperity as wealth.
The character "fu" is prophetic. Let us look at it . On the right side is yi kou(Above the window look word) (one family) and under it, the character tian(Looks like a window) (land). Having a family and land is fu, earthly fu. However, what is on the right side of the family and land?
The character is shen, meaning God. Chinese people know that they need God to watch over the family and land, if not they would not be able to hang on to their blessing.
And as turn it upside down the recognition the prosperity comes from God.
Prosperity its talking about montary wealth. Of course wealth is fu on earth, but it is more important to have fu in heaven, eternal fu. Wealth comes in many forms - wisdom, health and strong families. For Christians, we pursue eternal wealth that "moth and rust do not destroy and thieves cannot steal" (Matt 6:20).. We should heed the wisdom of real fu. Hang on to real prosperity. But for prosperity to come, God must be the builder of the house. Psalms127:1.
How can God come in? We need to acknowledge the heavenly father. Matthew18:2-5 And in vrs3 UNLESS YOU CHANGE like little children (strong words) going along with you will never. Its quite obvious God is calling to be like little children.
By REV Eugene Seow.
