All About GOD - Growing Relationships with Jesus and Others

The struggle is real

The struggle is real.

podcast: http://www.pastorwoman.com/podcasts/2ac4fad9-871d-4cbc-a4e8-f60aa61...

Family troubles . . .

Standing on their shoulders - was this guy a hero??

Twins are something else. Identical twins are some kind of miracle--consider Lincoln and Logan, my almost eight-month old grandsons.

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When twins are born these days, there's an assumption they are a result of some kind of intervention . . . these babies were not,

nor were the first recorded twins.

Can you imagine having a set of twins and favoring one over the other from the time they were born? Awkward. Sad, too. One of these boys came in with a healthy, lusty cry and the other struggled to survive. As the pair grew, one was drawn to the wild and became a hunter highly esteemed by his father

as a real man's man, while the other seemed attached to his mother's apron strings. It set up a fierce competition for the two brothers born so long ago, Jacob and Esau.

Their father was Isaac, beloved son of Abraham, and mama was Rebekah. From the start, Jacob knew that his father clearly favored Esau, but not to worry, mother Rebekah, favored the homebody, Jacob, and kinda made a mama's boy out of him.

Turns out this jockeying for position started when the twins were in her womb - a fascinating story in Genesis chapter 25. Rebekah asked God about what this meant, and he explained, "Two nations are in your womb, and two peoples from within you will be separated; one people will be stronger than the other, and the older will serve the younger." Genesis 25.23

The struggle is real. Dysfunctional families oft turn out broken children, who figure out ways to get along in the world that aren't always healthy or honest or certainly, heroic. Such was the case with Jacob and Esau. Rebekah was a rather controlling wife and mother to Isaac's passive nature it seems. Rebekah hovered over Jacob, taught him to cook, and ultimately helped him trick his brother out of the birthright and blessing due him as firstborn son. This was a big deal and of course, set the course of history. Jacob became a manipulator schooled by his mother to be so.

Wait . . . this is craziness. Yes, it is.

Crazy dysfunction is as old as the world - at least as old as the world . . . with sin. And one of the things that absolutely makes the Bible credible is that it includes the good, the bad, the ugly. Unlike the air-brushed family pictures we see today, the cropped cute pics for Instagram and clever Snapchats, the Bible described individuals as they were, warts and all - and some of these very messy people, God used mightily for his purposes.

Numerous times in Scripture God refers to himself as the God of Abraham, Isaac and who? This rapscallion Jacob, the twin less loved by his dad.

No matter our mistakes, sins, failings, and stupid choices, we are not disqualified.

That's because~

God heals the sins of the fathers passed on to children,

God breaks down strongholds.

God makes all things new,

God redeems and restores...

Even this twin.

And definitely you,

but you gotta ask.

Christine

PastorWoman.com