Good morning, Five Minute Families! How is your family handling this new school year? Please share with us your challenges or triumphs on Clear View Retreat’s facebook page, or head over to clearviewretreat.org for more information about us.

Five Minute Families are to devote time to each other, intentionally and abundantly, and we know that having a strong support system means investing time and energy into the support system as well. So, now, we want to look at disconnection within family time in order to build a better biblical community.

We are not saying that you spend all your time with others; we are suggesting balance of personal time, family time, and biblical community time. Here’s a simple analogy. Think of your Five Minute Family as a house with doors and locks. There are times when we lock those doors, holding out anything and everything. We also have the ability to open the doors and invite others in or go out and engage with others where they are. We should not let any one time grouping dominate to the detriment of the others.

Again, our guiding verse here – just as last week’s discussion about humility – is Philippians 2:3-4, which says, “Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.”

You know your own interests, and you may have already struggled with those leading to selfish behaviors. If you look at 1 Timothy 4:7, it says, “But have nothing to do with pointless and silly myths. Rather, train yourself in godliness.” The world advertises to your selfish side. Have you seen that Dr. Pepper ad which says, “Sweet reward – you deserve this!”? Does that ad, and many others, help you focus on others or yourself?

We do not deserve the grace of God and yet He freely gives it, and our sweet reward is our fellowship with Him, our families, and our biblical community. So, we train. We work and we gain. Knowing that with God and others we can be successful.

Balance of self, family, and community. The better yourself, the better your family, and the better your community. This includes responsibility – a membership. A membership not to the country club that serves your every desire, but membership in biblical community that reflects Christ’s nature of service to others.  You will find that when you serve and get served in community real needs are met, hearts are encouraged, and souls are refreshed.

Authentic loving community is our biblical privilege. It is found in the plethora of one-another verses mentioned throughout God’s Word. It is our unity. It is our love. It is our humility. It is where we serve one another, forgive one another, admonish one another, be hospitable for one another, and be good stewards of the manifold grace of God.

Five Minute Families, how does this play out? Proverbs 27:5 says, “Better an open reprimand than concealed love” That verse has a lot of depth and could be used as a loaded weapon if our desire is to simply correct others out of our flesh or even hit people with hard truths, but when that verse is taken by God’s intention in light of Ephesians 4:15, “speaking the truth in love, let us grow in every way into him who is the head – Christ,” we can grow deeper together.

Take five minutes today to think about one of these thought-points:

1. Think of a time you felt God calling you to do something uncomfortable.
2. What is one gift you have that you love use to build the Kingdom of God?
3. What is one risk you think God might be calling you to take in this season?
4. What is one area of your life that you’re still working with God to find healing in?
5. What is one thing your family loves to do together that can be in service to another family?

Remember, Isaiah 41:6 says, “Each one helps the other, and says to another, “take courage!” Your story and your gifts can and will impact others. What sort of impact do you want to have?

Thank you for joining us for this time.  We pray that you are able to share the love of Christ as He loved – to yourself, to your family, and to your biblical community. God bless!

~Originally aired on WECO 95.5 fm/940 am Tues, August 18, 2020~