House2HouseMD

Restore the Brother or Sister How long is enough for the “dog house”? It is jokingly spoken about when a family member is kept out of the family house and to be punished by sleeping outside in the dog house. It may sound like a joke but sometimes it looks like we intentionally and unintentionally keep those who have offended us in a permanent “dog house”. Dog house is for repentance and after that there should be reconciliation and restoration. I have been in the dog house before and I know how it feels. You too may have been there or are there right now. Apostle Paul tells the Corinthians, “It is time to forgive and comfort him. Otherwise he may be overcome by discouragement” (2 Corinthians 2: 7). Yes, it is time we forgive that one who has sinned against us individually and as a body. There are consequences if we do not as Apostle Paul will tell the Corinthians. The devil loves it when we refuse to forgive and restore a brother or sister. We should not be ignorant of the devil’s

Family Feuds and Communication The hardest pains we often experience are the ones we inflict on one another in the family. Granted that family relationship is like contact sport, we are bound to clash at one time or the other. There is no perfect family but He is perfecting us. We all at one time or the other have said something to a family member that is not true and it hurts them deeply. It is even worse within the marriage relationship but it extends to the rest of our family units - the immediate family, the extended family and the Church family. I have heard such words as “I will never come back to this family again because of what so and so said to me”. I (you probably do too) know some who have acted on those words and have never been back to their family. Why do we do that to each other? Can’t we do better than that and treat each other with love and understanding? Can’t we choose our words carefully and ask if what I am about to say is true and how can I say it in love? And

Despaired Even of Life Why do bad things happen to God’s people? This is the age old question everyone asks and there are no easy answers. The simplest answer is that bad things happen for a reason. Apostle Paul opens his heart in the beginning of this second letter to the Corinthians and to the rest of the body of Christ (regions of Achaia and beyond). We look and we see scores of hardship in our own lives and the lives of people around us. We see the family whom both wife and husband have lost their jobs and they have five children. We also see those even with good jobs and having money to spend meet their doom even in prosperity. This week we have been saturated with the news of the Costa Concordia cruise ship that hit the rocks in an Island off of Italy. Many in the ship who survived can relate to what Paul is talking about, “the sentence of death”, the profound feeling that there is no hope, “despaired even of life”. Listen to one survivor named Michelle, “the lifeboat was awful