Dysfunctional disallowed

I can’t help it; I grew up in a dysfunctional family!” Hopefully you’ve never said it, but a lot of people have – people who feel that there is no sense trying because their father was an alcoholic, or their mother was a prostitute or they grew up in poverty without the benefit of education, good connections, lacking a sense of self-worth.

A dysfunctional family is a term we use to describe a family that doesn’t function, and often those psychological terms are rationales we use to push responsibility aside, making our beds as comfortable as possible with excuses of one kind or another.

Paul put it so powerfully when he said, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, behold, the new has come!” (2 Corinthians 5:17). And to whom were these words directed? In his first letter he described the moral character of those who were now called saints. They included the sexually immoral, idolaters, adulterers, male prostitutes, homosexuals, thieves, greedy, alcoholics, slanderers and swindlers. “That is what some of you were,” he says, quickly adding, “But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of God.”

Have you ever noticed some of the individuals who were in the lineage of Jesus Christ? A prostitute, a murderer, adulterers and liars – yes, they are all there.

Many people live with skeletons in the closet that can destroy them or simply make them realize that in every heart there is the potential for going either way. It is like you come to the crossroads and no matter how many of your forebears took the wrong road, you have chosen to take the right one. Following in Jesus’ footsteps is the narrow path that ultimately takes you to heaven’s gate.

Used with permission from Guidelines International Ministries. To learn more about Guidelines and the ministry, send an e-mail to [email protected]. You may also visit www.guidelines.org.