Today you should read: Ephesians 2:11-22
Family can be messy.
There’s SEPERATION from divorce that causes kids to split time between parents. There’s ALIENATION when a parent abandons their spouse & kids for another person in an affair. Sometimes family member feel like STRANGERS to each other from family conflict. Many kids feel HOPELESS that their family situations will never change or HOPELESS that they can reverse some of those same things from happening to their own future families. Many people become HOSTILE toward God and others from the anger and hurt they feel because of the above situations.
This is the stuff I hear when counseling families in crisis.
When the very people that’s supposed to love you, protect you, provide for you, sacrifice for you, show grace to you and discipline you out of love ends up hurting you in such ways the above capitalized words is the result.
This is also what Scripture describes of us when we are not in relationship with our loving, heavenly father & adopted into His Heavenly family.
In Ephesians 2:11-22, the words “Separated, Alienated, Strangers, Hopeless & Hostility” describes what it’s like when we are not Christians and adopted into God’s family. There’s a reason why our family dysfunction is so similar to our spiritual dysfunction outside of a relationship with God. There are similar consequences & feelings because FAMILY doesn’t just illustrate God’s Family but it’s an actual REPRESENTATION of God’s Family & the Gospel.
This is why the Gospel is important and keeping Christ at center of our marriages and parenting is important. The Gospel not only reconciles us with God but it’s the life source for the dysfunction in our family situations.
Ephesians 2:11-22 also shares that the good news of the Gospel is God making a covenant/promise with you by bringing you near to Him by the blood of Christ, giving us peace, making us ONE in His body, reconciling us back to God through the cross and makes those who were far off now near. However covenants being honored, peace at home and reconciliation between a Father and children is not just what we need in salvation but the same themes is what we need in our homes. Today show your family that there’s a reason why the our personal spiritual state without God is so similar to our family lives without Him and make the necessary changes to bring the Gospel back into your home.
Posted by: Erik Koliser
JumpstartCPC.com 
I needed to be reminded of this today. Thanks for the post. To you and the entire staff, keep up the good work…it makes a difference.