Family Love

Friday evening and Saturday morning I had the privilege of teaching about healthy families to around 35 leaders at the Vineyard Community Church Northwest http://vcnw.org/

Pastor Van and Laurie Cochrane are good friends who attended our seven week course for pastors and leaders on the same topic last year and they wanted to offer the same opportunity to people who minister among them. The people were lively, excited and warm in their participation. If you are looking for a new fellowship, check them out.

One of our exercises was to look at the lives of biblical heroes and see how they managed their families. We focused on Isaac and his wife Rebecca and did a Family Map of their parents and children. As a kid I often heard sermons extolling the "Great men of faith in the Old Testament that God chose because of their greatness" but a close read shows they were "ordinary people with an extraordinary God."

Take a look at Genesis 25 and following to see how they responded to God's promises. They were often overcome by temptations and fears just as we are. But God won the battles anyway.