Christians Caring and Sharing

"Black Sheep Of The Family"

"Of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named." Ephesians 3:15

I heard the most amusing thing this evening- actually, it would have been funny if it hadn't been so sad. We were talking about genealogies and tracing your family history. Apparently, there are those who say that if you have someone in your family who is a "black sheep", it's all right to just leave them out. For example, if Uncle Joe was an alcoholic, it would been all right to exclude him from the family tree- just cut him out of the family in other words.

One of the ladies in Bible study said that there was someone in her family that had a certain reputation, so the family didn't acknowledge this individual as part of their family- they were an outcast. Then she said that one day she heard someone preaching on Jesus' family tree. Did you know that Jesus had four "bad girls" in His genealogy? There was Tamar (she pretended to be a prostitute and slept with her father-in-law). Then there was Ruth (she was a Moabite- she had her roots in an incestuous relationship between Lot and one of his daughters). There was also Rahab (she was a harlot in Jericho). Lastly, there was Bethsheeba (the wife of Uriah who slept with King David and got pregnant by him). With reputations like these, you might be tempted to just consider them part of the family. But it's like my friend said, "If Jesus wasn't ashamed of these that were in His family, and did not leave them out of His family tree, then why should we?"

I'm sure there are those in each of our families that we aren't proud of or disapprove of the things they are doing. But it's pride that causes us to be ashamed of them and not let anyone know that they are family. We should always treat people the way that Jesus would treat them and if He's not ashamed to say that He knows them, then we shouldn't be either. And beside, maybe if we would treat them with the love of Jesus, they might stop being the "black sheep".

Have a great day. Jesus isn't ashamed to consider you part of His family, and you used to be a "black sheep" before He changed your life.

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Coffee Break is a morning devotional written by Lorraine Ezell
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