All In The Family

In poverty and other misfortunes of life, true friends are a sure refuge. The young they keep out of mischief; to the old they are a comfort and aid in their weakness, and those in the prime of life they incite to noble deeds.
Aristotle (BC 384-322, Greek philosopher)

1 John 3:14-16
We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brethren. He who does not love abides in death. Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer; and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him. We know love by this, that He laid down His life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. NASU

There are friends, and then there are friends. We have acquaintances, and then we have those that are very close to us, even as though they were family. Well, guess what, they are family. We, as God’s creation, have the same Father, and it is God Himself, our eternal Dad. We have some members of this family that are closer to us than others but, nevertheless, we are all related.

God purposed this from the beginning. He purposed that we would interact with each other, and in that interaction, we would learn some great things about who we are ourselves. After all, Jesus, Himself said this about the second commandment in Matt 22:39 "The second is like it, "YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.”

So, we can really drop all of these other names that we have for each other and begin to embrace the fact that we are all, “One Family.” We can begin to take our eyes off of ourselves, and pursuits of our goals, and embrace the goals of others around us as well. Today is a great day for the world to see who we really are, or we can cocoon with our own, and miss the greatest blessing of all…God Bless.
Pastor William