Family The Family Cycle

Family

The Family Cycle 

Beware of the spin offs and broken models of the family cycle

In the beginning God set the universe in order

God established day and night a cycle 

 

No matter how many lights we turn on

at night it does not change the cycle.

The family cycle has had many spin offs.

The family cycle has also become broken. 

When we use the word family we could

be talking about many different things.

When a gay couple decides they want

to have a family that is a spin off.

No matter how much sex they have biologically

 it is impossible to conceive a child. 

When a man and a woman have a child outside

of marriage or fail to take parental responsibility…

The family cycle is broken.

My point is not to pick a fight.

  

My point is God has kept the universe in

order with the cycle of day and night.

No matter how many lights we turn on or

how dark we make the box we live in…

Nothing changes with God’s order.

So when it comes to order in my

life and family I want His cycle.

One that will keep rolling for generations.

All six phases of the family cycle have one

thing that holds the family together…

Sacrificial love.

The model is this…

“God so loved the world”.

Nice people say “I love you” all

the time but what does that mean?

When God said He loved the world He also said,

“Then He gave His only begotten Son”.

But God demonstrates His own love for us in this

while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

This love makes Christ the groom and the church

His bride and together we can be born

again and become the family of God.

The point is simply this…

 The God who set the universe in order

with the cycle of day and night is also

the one who set the family cycle in order.

Let’s be careful of spin offs and broken models.

Let us not try to recreate the day and night.

Let’s live in the fullness of it.

There are 6 cycles for a family to navigate.

 

“Cycles of family life”

The marriage

Bearing children

Raising children

The empty nest / launching new family

The declining years

Death in the marriage

Family cycles should be a great

experience for the whole family.

Scripture Reading

Genesis 1:27-28 NIV

So God created man in his own image,

in the image of God he created him;

male and female he created them.

28 God blessed them and said to them,

"Be fruitful and increase in number;

fill the earth and subdue it.

John 3:16 NIV

 "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

Romans 5:8 NIV

God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Ephesians 5:25-33 NIV

 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her 26 to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, 27 and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. 28 In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. 29 After all, no one ever hated his own body, but he feeds and cares for it, just as Christ does the church— 30 for we are members of his body. 31 "For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh."  32 This is a profound mystery — but I am talking about Christ and the church. 33 However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.