Jesus said,
“My mother and my brothers
are those who hear the
Word of God and do it.”
Luke 8:21
I was counseling a group of people just the other night. We were talking about things we put in front of God. Family was, by far, the most common thing.
Family is great thing! It is a gift from God! But I reminded them of the deal I made with Mary Louise when we got married. (If you’re married, I’ll bet you made this same deal with your spouse too.) Here was the deal we talked about while surrounded by bright flowers and excited friends: One of us would die first.
Isn’t that a horrible thing to talk about on such a joyful occasion?! But isn’t that exactly what “til death do us part” means?
Unless we go simultaneously in, say, a car accident, one of us will indeed go first. ALL earthly relationships WILL end.
Fortunately, God gave us a way to make relationship permanent. In the church, we generally use the word “eternal” in place of “permanent.” Indeed, those who believe are eternal. And in today’s lesson, Jesus invites us to reexamine our relationships.
In light of the Gospel, there are only two classes of people …
- As soon as someone believes, their eternal status has changed. So has their relational status. They are now your brothers and sisters. And this relationship is permanent! It will stretch into heaven and across the millennia!
- The other category of people are temporary beings. Their life in the kingdom will end with the expiration of their life on earth. The good news about these temporary being: They have the potential of being eternal brothers and sisters too.
This second category elicits two critical questions for the way you live your life …
- Why would you entrust important issues in your life – issues that inevitably have eternal implications – to temporary people who are choosing not to value what heaven values.
- Second, and more importantly, do you love these temporary people enough to make them permanent?!!
In Christ’s Love,
your eternal brother, Ed
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